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2023: The Curse at Alton Manor

chall272 said:
Visited Alton Towers for the first time in a few years with my partners niece and nephew 15 & 11 who had never been before.
Told them about Duel and they seamed to look forward to the idea of a bit of competitive fun in the day (not knowing it had been replaced)
We arrived at the que to a load of weird actors walking around with spades.
Once in the attraction I began to get that sinking feeling that the ride had in fact been changed and indeed it had. We sat down in the carriages and almost fell asleep on the way round. I can honestly say I've never been so bored on a ride in my life. They felt the same and were very disappointed. I really don't understand how Towers even thought this replacement for an enjoyable ride for all would even be a good idea!? Safe to say we were all very much let down by the experience and all said we wouldn't waste our time going on that ever again.
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Understandable opinion on Curse.

I was standing in Oblivion’s queue last week and they were discussing the possibility of going on the “shooting dark ride” I didn’t have the heart to tell them it’s gone. Not sure how the marketing has missed a few they ploughed a fair budget into it.
 
It would be good to see an interactive ride in the park to fill the gap. Maybe something over in Walliams World (whatever happens when/after Horizon opens). I wonder if when the time comes for Gangasta Granny to be rethemed, that could be retrofitted with an interactive element, maybe something like Ninjago at Legoland?
 
I love Curse so it’s interesting to see a different take on it.

I do think an interactive shooting ride would be good for Alton. In fact, I would like to see Alton to continue to invest in dark rides. In an ideal world for me, Project Horizon, reopen Hex, repurpose the Dungeon boat ride, a new interactive shooter, even a Flying Theatre!
 
chall272 said:
Visited Alton Towers for the first time in a few years with my partners niece and nephew 15 & 11 who had never been before.
Told them about Duel and they seamed to look forward to the idea of a bit of competitive fun in the day (not knowing it had been replaced)
We arrived at the que to a load of weird actors walking around with spades.
Once in the attraction I began to get that sinking feeling that the ride had in fact been changed and indeed it had. We sat down in the carriages and almost fell asleep on the way round. I can honestly say I've never been so bored on a ride in my life. They felt the same and were very disappointed. I really don't understand how Towers even thought this replacement for an enjoyable ride for all would even be a good idea!? Safe to say we were all very much let down by the experience and all said we wouldn't waste our time going on that ever again.
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Literally the opposite for me. The only reason I come to the park is for this ride . I went on duel once and hated it
 
Haha!? Your joking? So you visit Alton Towers theme Park to sit in a little carriage and go around a dark room with nothing tjats any where near scary? OK 👌

TroySmith1 said:
With those exceptionally low standards you could always recommend Tomb Blaster to your kids?


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Well Troy with your exceptionally bad reading skills you'll also want to read my comment again before trying to be funny.

They weren't my kids they were my partners niece and nephew.

As I said in my original comment it was seen to be something as a bit of fun for all as a competition between the group.
Got in there and couldn't wait to get out because of how bad it was.
TroySmith1 said:
With those exceptionally low standards you could always recommend Tomb Blaster to your kids?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

John said:
As a fan of the ride (particularly compared with the awful mess that was Duel), I'm taking this topic as the personal attack it was clearly intended
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Never intended as a personal attack. It is however a personal opinion that Towers have dropped the ball here.
Duel was a fun bit of competitiveness to break up the walk between areas of the park. Now its just a quick nap stop
 
chall272 said:
Well Troy with your exceptionally bad reading skills you'll also want to read my comment again before trying to be funny.

They weren't my kids they were my partners niece and nephew.

As I said in my original comment it was seen to be something as a bit of fun for all as a competition between the group.
Got in there and couldn't wait to get out because of how bad it was.



Never intended as a personal attack. It is however a personal opinion that Towers have dropped the ball here.
Duel was a fun bit of competitiveness to break up the walk between areas of the park. Now its just a quick nap stop
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You do realize that Duel was originally the 'Haunted House', which was a classic horror themed dark ride with a lot of the same theming, but without the unnecessary blasters and targets? I appreciate that you personally may have liked it as Duel, but that certainly didn't make it a particularly good attraction for the majority of people, especially since it wasn't originally designed to be a blaster attraction to begin with. Tacking on blaster technology detracted from a themed experience, it was never designed to be a bit of 'fun competition' to begin with.

It's slightly mindboggling that you weren't aware of all the marketing and advertising for The Curse, it's pretty hard to miss posters advertising the ride on Towers Street.
 
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I get the appeal, I used to like the interactive element in Duel when I was younger, there are just way better examples of that kind of ride since and even before Duel opened. I'd even go as far as saying the interactivity was better implemented in Golden Nugget Shootout at Drayton Manor, at least the targets are on props that animate once hit rather than mostly LED lights on walls. Duel was just more impressive because of all the old Haunted House stuff that came before, by themselves the additions were pretty naff in my opinion.
 
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Duel (and similar rides ofits ilk) are the worst kind of mind numbing 'interactivity' on dark rides. Just shoot the same targets, ignore the random scenery as you're focused on shooting at the next target rather than the ride itself.

Unfortunately it's the easiest method of these interactive dark rides. So often very little effort gets put into them.

Best thing that came out of Duel was the music.
 
Interactive dark rides like Duel are totally pointless to me. There was zero incentive to actually shoot the targets, unless you were being competitive with the group you ride with.

However, had the park added targets that caused things to actually trigger inside of the attraction, that would have made Duel a hell of a lot more enjoyable. I found myself constantly getting RSI in my hand from the constant trigger pulling, and there was very little payoff as a result!

That combined with the horrendously garish theming pieces and cheesy sound effects, my mind boggles that anybody could think Duel was scarier than Alton Manor too.
 
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