• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

2023: The Curse at Alton Manor

Adding something new right at the start of the summer season seems like a bit of a silly thing to do - they'll have had however many months to make adjustments. I'm sure they'd want their big new ride to be as available as possible over the holidays.
 
I was at the park yesterday and the ride effects had been fixed since I last went two weeks previous. The effects were a little out of time but the doll jump scares were back working well.

There was a MMM van behind the show building and the ride went down at around 4 yesterday and didn’t re-open.

They have added some absolutely god awful white strip lights inside the “pre-show” area which totally ruins it. You can see some of the UV writing now and the whole area is too bright. Needs removing or changing to red or blue or something.

In regards to the ride itself, still doesn’t do much for me. I’ve ridden it probably in excess of 20-30 times purely because it is walk on.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
They have added some absolutely god awful white strip lights inside the “pre-show” area which totally ruins it. You can see some of the UV writing now and the whole area is too bright. Needs removing or changing to red or blue or something.
Click to expand...
Oh dear. The writing is a very good effect. It is a real shame that they seem to have neutered it.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
I was at the park yesterday and the ride effects had been fixed since I last went two weeks previous. The effects were a little out of time but the doll jump scares were back working well.

There was a MMM van behind the show building and the ride went down at around 4 yesterday and didn’t re-open.

They have added some absolutely god awful white strip lights inside the “pre-show” area which totally ruins it. You can see some of the UV writing now and the whole area is too bright. Needs removing or changing to red or blue or something.

In regards to the ride itself, still doesn’t do much for me. I’ve ridden it probably in excess of 20-30 times purely because it is walk on.
Click to expand...
Just.. why? I don’t understand? Why would they do that? It was fine the way they left it!?
 
zeock said:
Oh dear. The writing is a very good effect. It is a real shame that they seem to have neutered it.
Click to expand...
It’s along the bannisters and floor as you walk around. Cheap kitchen LED strips.

If it is to exist, the brightness needs to turn down or change it from bright white. That walk through has been ok for 30 years. I don’t understand the need to change this even for safety.
 
Had a good run myself on Saturday, all effects working, audio good, lighting could still maybe do with a bit of work and stop some of the house lights/outside leaking through. But overall I do find it a huge improvement on the previous iteration! Duel had its time but it was very tired and outdated, this whole revamp has really brought that area of the park back again.
 
I also did it yesterday afternoon, everything was working well, even some effects not working last weekend were working.

We got off and had an ice cream and then it broke down so we couldn’t go on it again. I assume it must have reopened but by the time we had been and done sub Terra and looked at nemesis and then back to curse it had broke again, but still had people in the queue. After a few mins they cleared the queue and I don’t think it opened again.

Also I agree about the awful bright lights in the pre show. I was actually gonna get a pic on my second ride for TS but as it closed I never had chance.
 
TroySmith1 said:
Think your the minority here. Everyone I know thinks it’s an amazing uk dark ride, which other dark rides are you comparing this to in the uk?

I actually can’t think of other dark rides in the uk that use good peppers ghost affects, projection mapping, mirror illusions, giant props, detailed sets etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
It's had very mixed reviews, the fact that they're already considering changes and constantly asking for feedback regarding the ride experience tells me they aren't happy with it themselves.
 
djtruefitt said:
I also did it yesterday afternoon, everything was working well, even some effects not working last weekend were working.

We got off and had an ice cream and then it broke down so we couldn’t go on it again. I assume it must have reopened but by the time we had been and done sub Terra and looked at nemesis and then back to curse it had broke again, but still had people in the queue. After a few mins they cleared the queue and I don’t think it opened again.

Also I agree about the awful bright lights in the pre show. I was actually gonna get a pic on my second ride for TS but as it closed I never had chance.
Click to expand...

That’s a shame to do that on a dark ride it’s not necessary at all, they already scrapped the wonky floor for safety reasons. I mean it’s pretty self explanatory where to go no?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
RIPCorky said:
It's had very mixed reviews, the fact that they're already considering changes and constantly asking for feedback regarding the ride experience tells me they aren't happy with it themselves.
Click to expand...

Happens a lot, sometimes ideas don't translate well from page to reality, sometimes things break and they need to consider alternatives, sometimes things aren't implemented well.

Putting things in such black and white terms of "well they're thinking of changing things so the park thinks it's crap" is the sort of often toxic discourse that inhabits way too much of social media nowadays.
 
TroySmith1 said:
That’s a shame to do that on a dark ride it’s not necessary at all, they already scrapped the wonky floor for safety reasons. I mean it’s pretty self explanatory where to go no?
Click to expand...
You say that, but if your vision isn’t the best, it is quite a dark room to navigate and quite a complicated path to get around.

When we took my 70-year-old grandad to the park for his first ever visit in March, he was fine on all the rides and with all the walking and everything, but one thing that stuck out as something he struggled with was the low lighting of some of the park’s indoor queues, particularly Curse’s. With age, he’s grown to have quite poor low light vision (he doesn’t drive at night anymore, for instance), and in Curse’s indoor queue, one of us had to hold his hand and guide him through to stop him from bumping into things.

I accept that our case may not be typical, but some visitors may struggle with the lower light levels and layout of the path in there.
 
If they have such a big problem with people not being able to see the floor, instead of adding horrible LEDs to it, why not just do this instead?
20230621_153513.jpg
I managed to capture this when taking a photo of the room right before the UV lights came on. Its just Bright enough to see where you're going, that and it looks better than LED lights on the floor, whilst not looking out of place.
 
Trooper Looper said:
If they have such a big problem with people not being able to see the floor, instead of adding horrible LEDs to it, why not just do this instead?
20230621_153513.jpg
I managed to capture this when taking a photo of the room right before the UV lights came on. Its just Bright enough to see where you're going, that and it looks better than LED lights on the floor, whilst not looking out of place.
Click to expand...
I’m not on board with this either. Maybe have LEDs that ARENT poor quality? Think the lights on a plane walkway. Low light, so you can see, but not intrusive.
I can’t imagine this is permanent, taking into account all the rumours and stirrings, it’s probably a quick fix
 
Trooper Looper said:
If they have such a big problem with people not being able to see the floor, instead of adding horrible LEDs to it, why not just do this instead?
20230621_153513.jpg
I managed to capture this when taking a photo of the room right before the UV lights came on. Its just Bright enough to see where you're going, that and it looks better than LED lights on the floor, whilst not looking out of place.
Click to expand...
No thanks, that looks horrendous!! It shows up the office-style tiled false ceiling for a start!

Maybe they just need handrails like in The Smiler's queue on the stairs - integrated LED lights shining to the floor (I've not seen these new ones yet so can't say whether The Smiler's ones are dimmer).

Or maybe just decking style pin-head lights placed every ½ a metre or something in the walkway walls at floor level that then just shine across the floor? You can get blue ones quite cheaply from B&Q et al and they would be in keeping with the lighting in the room while lighting the walkway.

£25 sorted!!

1690988553447.png
 
Last edited:
Agreed, it needs cats eyes or runway strips something subtle. As it is as bad as it can be with those kitchen lights I can only think it’s a temporary change until they can think of a better way of doing it (or at least I hope so).

I would rather they put those things in the hide and seek corridor so we at least have something more to look at.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top