Benjsh
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
I was 11 when I first did in 1996. My favourite attraction of the whole Florida trip. People were genuinely terrified.
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2023: The Curse at Alton Manor
- Thread starter Craig
- Start date
I was 11 when I first did in 1996. My favourite attraction of the whole Florida trip. People were genuinely terrified.
Connor98
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Hyperion
I may have missed it but there hasn’t been any official confirmation of who composed the soundtrack? I’ve heard people say they think it’s IMASCORE but originally I thought it sounded like Simon Allen. But thinking about it would they enlist Simon Allen when the ride has so many different uses of audio throughout the ride.
ChristmasPud
TS Member
I wouldnt mind if it was somebody new who's been given the opportunity without the price tag of IMAscore and I think it's a great soundtrack.
What really is the worst that’s going to happen though?
Assuming the child doesn’t have any medical reason why they’re likely to be traumatised by this kind of stuff?
I went on Snow White and Space Mountain at Disney when I was about 7, both scared me to death in different ways, the end result being that I love theme parks and was acclimatised early on.
Will obviously be different for different people but I think people are worrying a bit more than necessary about kids getting scared on a ghost train, probably far less scary than those fair ground rides where they have actors in the actual ride jumping out at the cars.
Connor98
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Hyperion
Exactly my thoughts, but again you could say that with Simon Allen as he tends to post snippets of his work online too. Maybe it’s someone completely different. Only reason I have an inclination that it may be IMAScore is that it was mentioned by Shawn from TPW, but take that with a pinch of salt obviously.
Will obviously be different for different people...yes, exactly.
Some people like scare attractions, some don't, but nobody should be forced to ride, whatever their age...it takes the fun away when the choice is removed.
Earthwürm
TS Member
My three year old has been on Curse, wasn't at all bothered by it, nor any ride she's been on.
My older kids didn't even entertain the idea of going on and that's fine too, no pressure.
Point being, it's entirely subjective and every child is different and because of that, I think plastering a recommended age over it only serves to encourage parents to switch their brain off and assume their kid will be fine.
It's okay to expect people to do their own research and come to their own conclusions based on their own personal circumstances.
My older kids didn't even entertain the idea of going on and that's fine too, no pressure.
Point being, it's entirely subjective and every child is different and because of that, I think plastering a recommended age over it only serves to encourage parents to switch their brain off and assume their kid will be fine.
It's okay to expect people to do their own research and come to their own conclusions based on their own personal circumstances.
Batzy
TS Member
I understand parents don't like seeing their children frightened and upset, but I don't think it's a valid reason to get angry at Towers. The ride isn't deceitful at all, it makes it clear right from the beginning that it is going to be scary. If a child is feeling uncertain, I think it's best to show them the pre-show and see how they feel from there.
Inevitably, there will always be cases of kids thinking they can handle rides then it turns out scarier than they expected, but what's so wrong with that? I came off Hex crying and clinging to my mum when I was 9, and now it's one of my absolute favourites. A bit of fear is healthy for children to experience.
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Inevitably, there will always be cases of kids thinking they can handle rides then it turns out scarier than they expected, but what's so wrong with that? I came off Hex crying and clinging to my mum when I was 9, and now it's one of my absolute favourites. A bit of fear is healthy for children to experience.
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Crazy to think the amount of investment put in at Towers compared to Thorpe. Since Swarm opened I can only think of some mediocre things like Darren brown, Black mirror, Walking dead. Whereas at towers since then we've had both Smiler and wicker man, Air retheme, duel retheme, Gangsta granny and walliams world. I know Exodus is on its way but Thorpe really need to up their game
The Big Mack
TS Member
Like Alton Towers , Thorpe are revamping DBGT into 'Ghost Train'. Lots of F&B improvements with new additions including a well themed 'Last Call Cafe' and 'Camden Junction Bar', a Colossus retrack, new infrastructure, repaints and a redesign of the lower dome. Plus, the hyper coaster next year. They are clearly investing.
So it's rather unfair to bash Thorpe when they have been bothering to sort out the park.
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Over 10 years since the last coaster though. Towers had 2 within 5 years and project horizon will be 7 years after Wicker man despite the pandemic.
QTXAdsy
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Black Hole
Slightly off topic but with Alton Manor now up and running and being reverted back to being a traditional dark ride...just realised that the park has now a diverse bunch of dark rides in its collection as not including AM, you have Hex being a Madhouse attraction, GG being it's own 360 spinning dark ride and even if Sub Terra is back, a drop tower in the dark and that is not including the boat ride in the Dungeons building if they ever reuse it again. Having a blaster ride is, whatever your thoughts might be on it, the missing link to complete the dark ride gang at Towers so I'm certain any future dark ride is going to be blasters based unless the Dungeons building comes first...Merlin would no doubt will want to have an interactive dark ride in the short to medium term no doubt.
Honestly, if they were to reopen Sub Terra and do something with the Dungeons building then the park's dark ride collection could be considered more than satisfactory compared to the flat ride problem but that has been documented many times already. So yeah, if Alton Manor is anything to go by raising the bar for Merlin's dark ride collection - which honestly wasn't that hard to do - then I would be cautiously hopefully on the matter.
Honestly, if they were to reopen Sub Terra and do something with the Dungeons building then the park's dark ride collection could be considered more than satisfactory compared to the flat ride problem but that has been documented many times already. So yeah, if Alton Manor is anything to go by raising the bar for Merlin's dark ride collection - which honestly wasn't that hard to do - then I would be cautiously hopefully on the matter.
siralgenon
TS Member
Sorry this is jumping back a few pages when people were talking about what physical effects the ride has such as air blasts etc.
Am I right in thinking that the old ghost corridor (after electric bill) used to have a wind machine at the end? I always seem to remember there used to be quite a gust going down that section?
Am I right in thinking that the old ghost corridor (after electric bill) used to have a wind machine at the end? I always seem to remember there used to be quite a gust going down that section?
The Big Mack
TS Member
Parks are not all just about coasters. Alty Mans and the likely return of Terry is testament to that. If anything the parks need more dark rides, walkthroughs and shows than coasters right now. Alty Mans is very much a sign that the parks are finally headed in the right direction in terms of the above.
TomW
TS Member
There will be children who don’t like this ride, just as there will be adults who dislike the coasters. I think the majority of children tall enough to ride will enjoy it. It’s no darker in tone than phantom manor or hex, there definitely is a departure from the laugh in the dark style of the original but I think that’s more a sign of the times than anything else.
Towers need new flats not dark rides. I like the retheme of Duel but to me flats should've been top priority. Thorpe have decent flats, have ghost train retheme on the way so they do need that new coaster now. Been a long time since Swarm and people won't keep visiting if its just the same
Trooper Looper
TS Member
A lot of this is true. If its only a few kids not liking it, I don't see a problem, same goes to pretty much most rides, but I still personally think the laugh in the dark style could still work for a modern audience, a much more recent Ghost train in the UK utilised it pretty well, albeit in a darker way. I'm talking about Shrieksville at Pleasure Island (R.I.P), which opened in 2010, but if you were told in opened in the 90s, you'd believe it. It was a really highly regarded Ghost train, often considered as the best in the country before its closure along with the rest of the park in 2016. The humour mostly involved over-exaggerated screams, a butler offering you a skull on a silver platter, an ugly maniac laughing at you, etc, you get the gist.