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2023: The Curse at Alton Manor

George W said:
Most people on here are in favour of wicker mans preshow because it enhances the experience especially for first timers even though that can decrease capacity and can even make running 3 trains pointless at times
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Wickerman's struggles with the distinct lack of space post show. See the difference in the queueline length of Rock n Rollercoaster for example.

Poorly designed pre-shows cause more problems than good. See also Zufari's original one, though that was all sorts of terrible.

Dave said:
There is nothing wrong with a reasonable queue. 20min in the right thematic queue can add to the experience rather than distract.
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Does the thematic queue stretch to the RAP one? As likely wouldn't be in the regular queue on my usual visits.


Pre‐shows are fine, but have to be implemented correctly in order to add to the experience properly. You couldn't feasibly force a big enough group of people to see the dollhouse in current status without having to rejig the entire room. And that work would feel unnecessary in my opinion.
 
I don't understand the obsession with non-optional pre-shows tbh. Sure, I think they work brilliantly on other rides, specifically Madhouses (Haunting, Hex, Villa Volta, etc) mostly because those rides are designed to have pre-shows included, and their throughput per hour clearly shows that.

They CAN work on rides with great throughput, such as Piraten in Batavia for example. That has a preshow, but no one complains about people missing the story in that, yet people still thoroughly enjoy the ride without much knowledge of the narrative, I don't understand German, but I still thoroughly enjoy the ride from POVs, I think it does a good job by visually telling the tale, we see the same main pirate character in every scene, encountering other pirates from around the world, we see him in the jungles battling another pirate, then he's in a temple, then we finally see him claiming the magical artifacts. I understand there's an English version of the pre-show that does play, but I saw glimpses of the queue the main ride online was before seeing the English dubbed preshow.

Are we really this obsessed about a rides story that we're willing to slow the throughput just so people can understand a story they'll probably forget halfway through the ride?

Back into Alton Manor. The pre-show/story should've stayed as optional like its counterparts as show of this length simply doesn't work with the rides amazing throughput for a room you'll be in 4-3 minutes tops if there's a queue.

Here's an idea, how about they add more hints about what happened in the story and put it in the queue, like more plaques and little hints? That could work.
 
To be honest I think the preshow is fine, would be nice if there was a bit more room to stand and watch it because people seem to stand behind me and wait for me to move a lot whenever I've watched it so makes it awkward but besides that I'm happy with it being optional so it doesn't slow down the queue and result in empty cars.

However for me I still think they should remove enough cars to make it so they're more spaced out on the tracks, gives effects more time to reset, means you don't see or hear as much effects trigger in front of you and would improve the trommel tunnel.

When I was referring to wickerman's preshow it's not that I think the curse should be the same I think a rolling preshow is the best thing for the curse.
I mean that it doesn't matter if the incredibly high throughput would be slightly lowered to add to the experience of the ride, it's similar to wickerman because WM is still one of the throughput kings of the park, which is why I think the curse could get away with lowering the amount of cars.
 
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I think whether a pre-show works depends on the context of the ride, personally.

For instance, I’d say that the ones on a ride like Hex work really well to set the scene. And in numerous cases, I’d argue that they can work on dark rides.

However, I don’t think just putting a compulsory pre-show on everything is necessarily needed in all cases. Perhaps controversially, I don’t think Wicker Man necessarily needs a pre-show; the ride isn’t particularly story-driven outside of it, and I feel that the pre-show feels like an added extra rather than a part of the experience at large. As much as I’ll admit that it’s a cool show in isolation, I don’t think it’s essential for enjoyment of the ride, as Wicker Man is not overly story-driven outside of it. On a ride like Wicker Man, which isn’t particularly story-driven, I think it could possibly do without a compulsory pre-show.

In terms of Curse; I get the justification for adding a forced pre-show from a ride experience standpoint, but I don’t think it would work with the way that the room is designed. Unless you drastically changed the internal design of the room, I think it would lower throughput quite drastically, possibly to under 1,000pph.
 
I like the way the preshow works at the moment. It allows people to understand the plot of the ride, but it also allows a high throughput to be attained.
 
Trooper Looper said:
They CAN work on rides with great throughput, such as Piraten in Batavia for example. That has a preshow, but no one complains about people missing the story in that, yet people still thoroughly enjoy the ride without much knowledge of the narrative, I don't understand German, but I still thoroughly enjoy the ride from POVs, I think it does a good job by visually telling the tale, we see the same main pirate character in every scene, encountering other pirates from around the world, we see him in the jungles battling another pirate, then he's in a temple, then we finally see him claiming the magical artifacts. I understand there's an English version of the pre-show that does play, but I saw glimpses of the queue the main ride online was before seeing the English dubbed preshow.
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There's no pre-show for Piraten in Batavia, just a loose setup of the story in the (very brisk) queue.
 
I don't think it's as simple as that. On my first go on Alty Mans we wanted to watch the preshow so we did wait, a group of people came up behind us and thought there was something wrong so we just said "Oh go on ahead we are just watching the full thing", this prompted them to stay and watch too and one of them even reacted with "Oh wait look, that's Emily! That's cool."

I'm not saying that everyone would have the same positive experience but just from that scenario I think there are people who storm past these moments and don't take them in (even something as glaringly obvious as Emily being in the old doll's house at all), despite the fact that they would enjoy it and add to their experience. Sure holding guests up in the room will affect throughputs but I don't see an issue when it's a well themed and immersive queue line. It's not an interactive shooter anymore, why the rush to get onto the ride?
 
You did wait...once...before your first go...fine...your choice...and first go!
There are people who "storm past" those moments...possibly because they have seen them several times before???
Holding guests up will affect throughput...correct.
If I don't want to watch it (again), why force people?
No need, no point, no reason for a compulsory preshow.
It would delay and detract from the experience for many...simple.
 
rob666 said:
possibly because they have seen them several times before???
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My point is the fact that they didn't even realise it was Emily, implying they had almost definitely never seen it before.

I already clarified that it's not the same for everyone, my case is for the people who end up missing these things when they would probably would've like to have seen it before riding. First impressions are the most important!
 
Maybe a screen with a counter counting down to the start of the next show would help? Stick it on the wall near the dolls house or on the wall as you walk through the doorway into the room. Guests could then decide if they wanted to hang around or not.
 
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If someone wants to stop and look at the pre show and let others go past them, there there is nothing stopping them.

I wouldn’t want to be forced to stay in a pre show every time I go on the ride. I get bored with Hex and Wickerman now!
 
There’s a lot of people approaching this form the lens of an enthusiast, not the GP

We all stopped to watch the pre show for our first experience because we had prior knowledge and knew it would enhance the experience, and better our understanding and enjoyment of the ride

A one time visitor wouldn’t know this, and this gets a poorer ride experience

I would really like in the closed season if they could rejig the furniture and add a wider platform facing the dolls house, so there’s more space for viewing the show
 
AstroDan said:
Alton Towers is a theme park, just to remind folk.

God forbid anybody riding Escape from Gringotts.
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Although that is also a great example of having plenty of queue space after the shows to allow for loading.

Whereas Forbidden Journey is another where as the pre-show is in the queue it is possible to miss it entirely and therefore the ride doesn't make as much sense. That really should have been set up with defined pre-show rooms too.
 
As cool as a proper preshow in Alton Manor would be it wouldn't work with the one there now. the layout and positioning of everything makes it so that a crowd in the room really wouldn't be able to see much given there's really only that one bend you can see into the dollhouse. If you wanted a preshow for this ride the whole section would need a complete restructuring/ building to allow more visitors to be able to see the Doll's house. In a perfect world there would be two identical rooms that play the preshow in a staggered fashion. I would however advocate for something like Duel Live during scarefest where they add to the story and play the preshow in a traditional manner. Something like this would only come on in the evenings and maybe have it be a little bit of an actor lead experience too.
 
I think the problem is the narration as chances are you aren't going to go through at the start of it so is pretty redundant. The focus should just be on the dolls house effect, show don't tell.
 
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