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2023: The Curse at Alton Manor

I do feel that queue times are an unreliable metric with which to assess the popularity of any ride, let alone one like Curse. There are far, far too many factors that affect queue times to come to a judgement about popularity based on the queue times alone.

With that being said, I will offer a further suggestion about why Curse’s queues are reasonably short. Could the return of the 6th seat possibly have had an impact? It probably hasn’t, as the cars are rarely filled anyway, but 6 is a marginally nicer number than 5 (as it’s an even number), and the 6-seater cars might be more conducive to accommodating large groups, or putting, say, a 4 and a 2 together.
 
There are so many variables with queue times, it’s a pointless argument to make.

It’s fair enough if you do not like the new theme/story, and I can see why people miss the blasters, but stretching to use individual queuing experiences to suggest Alty Manor is a failure is bizarre.
 
RIPCorky said:
They don't no.
I personally think it could and should have been a lot better. It's just my opinion, I feel the same about Thirteen
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people who are just disappointed don’t normally always point out when a queues not very long to prove that “everyone hates the ride, actually”
 
RIPCorky said:
People seem to be ignoring the fact that Duel had been in the park for 20 years, whilst this ride is brand new.
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Not really.

Duel was LED’s and some zombies added to the Haunted House. Although I don’t agree with the opinion I can understand why someone might say original haunted house was better as it was a fully developed ride experience.

I have no idea why anyone thinks LED the ride was anything other then meh.
 
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Matt N said:
It does, but the throughput is very low. The Curse’s throughput is somewhere on the ballpark of 1,800pph, whereas I’d be absolutely stunned if Gangsta Granny’s was above 500pph. That queue is short in physical length, but moves incredibly slowly…
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It was a genuine question, never been on it and don't intend to
 
The throughput of Gangsta Granny is in the ballpark of 400pph, whereas Curse's is around 1800 pph. You can't really properly judge the popularity of both rides due to the queue times.
 
RIPCorky said:
It was a genuine question, never been on it and don't intend to
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I was never criticising that question, and I sincerely apologise if that’s what you construed.

I was simply stating the fact that Gangsta Granny’s throughput is typically a lot lower than Curse’s, so the queues will naturally be longer.

In general, I think non-coasters at Alton Towers, with a few exceptions, don’t pull long queues like some of the headline coasters do, particularly dark rides. Hex rarely has a queue either, and when it operated, I don’t ever remember Charlie having a big queue. I think Curse simply falls into that group, along with having by far the highest throughput of the park’s crew of dark rides (and quite possibly the highest throughput overall).

Although as has been said multiple times, queue times are a very unreliable metric with which to assess popularity.
 
The Curse's main job is also to be a great staple family ride filling up the line up at Alton Towers. We're far too used to individual rides being hyped instead of investments that build the park's appeal long term. So it doesnt especially matter if the Curse doesnt have the huge queues, hype and attention that comes with say a new coaster opening (which always dies down anyway).

The Curse means more people will leave Alton Towers feeling like they've enjoyed their day out, way more than Duel in its derelict state was contributing
 
So today I went on the manor again for the first times since opening week and I definitely thought the experience had improved. (I liked it in the first place anyway).

The hide and seek scene works a lot better now with the sounds being louder and the added effect of Emily in the coffin in the garden scene gives something else to look at. A few problems I noticed with the ride today;

- The new flying heads appear to be too heavy for the mechanisms and struggle to reset in time.
- On that note the majority of effects don't seem to be able to reset in time for the next carriage. I don't think it's a case of the effects aren't working at all, they just seem to miss every other car. Whether this could be rectified by spacing the cars out more or not I don't know. The heads, mirror corridor and dolls house seem to all struggle with this point.

If I'm being really picky there's a few areas I'd like to see improved for the future;

- A fog screen as you enter the Tromwell fireplace to actually make it look like a fire / slightly hide the Tromwell until you're in it.

- I'm not sure what the broken window in the Grand Hall actually adds to the experience, it doesn't really create a scare or add the story so if like something else to happen here. I think the moving bust was more effective. If something was behind the window I think it would make more sense.

- And again which has been mentioned before. The hide and seek section seems to slow down the pace of the ride and could do with the added effects which I *think* are in the pipeline. Just to keep up the pace.
 
siralgenon said:
- A fog screen as you enter the Tromwell fireplace to actually make it look like a fire / slightly hide the Tromwell until you're in it.
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Funnily enough, I’m led to believe that something along these lines was actually planned originally, but it was shelved (at least temporarily) because the effect made the Trommel shut down.

I’m led to believe that the park decided that a working Trommel Tunnel would be preferable over having the smokescreen effect in place (which I definitely think was the right call, personally!), so they switched the smokescreen effect off.

It would be cool if they could eventually get this effect to work!
 
siralgenon said:
- The new flying heads appear to be too heavy for the mechanisms and struggle to reset in time.
- On that note the majority of effects don't seem to be able to reset in time for the next carriage. I don't think it's a case of the effects aren't working at all, they just seem to miss every other car. Whether this could be rectified by spacing the cars out more or not I don't know. The heads, mirror corridor and dolls house seem to all struggle with this point.
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I did the ride quite a few times on a quiet day and never saw these problems

The old screaming bust thing was a terrible way to start the ride! Glad to see it gone
 
Really enjoyed getting back on Alton Manor on Saturday, along with Wicker Man it is the saving grace of the park right now.

Some nice subtle changes since opening day, the best being improvement in audio. You can now hear Emily much more clearly which make a difference. I know there are still effects in the ride that I have not noticed, which is great as it does make it so re-rideable.
 
Great to hear! Were all the effects working as far as you could see @Rob? In particular, was the mirror effect playing ball?
 
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