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2023: The Curse at Alton Manor

Matt N said:
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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It's still very intermittent. I saw it on my first ride (Rob was in the car in front and didn't I think), second ride it hadn't reset in time and then third ride it worked. Still very hit and miss, but at least it's partially working and not just off completely I guess.
 
It’s a shame that that effect is so hit and miss; it worked for me, and I honestly thought it was one of the cleverest new effects in the ride!

On a separate note, I have to say that with the ride having been open for a month now, I have to admit that I think I was wrong about Duel before.

Before this project happened, I was always very keen on the idea of gutting the whole thing and putting a new trackless dark ride or something in there. However, now that The Curse at Alton Manor has opened, I have to admit that I’m quite glad they didn’t, in hindsight.

I have to say that the retheme has produced an excellent result, in my view, and it seems to have been very successful indeed based on the overall positive reviews. Some parts of what was already there were clearly a lot more solid than I previously gave them credit for, and they’ve utilised these solid existing components and enhanced them further while also removing the stuff that didn’t work and adding plenty of awesome new stuff too. The team have done brilliantly, in my view, and to be honest, I’m not entirely convinced that the end result would have been a whole lot better had they gone with a new ride system and a totally new, ground-up ride. I certainly don’t think it would have been enough of an improvement to warrant the significant extra spend that something like a trackless dark ride would have commanded.

The way I see it, it’s a win-win situation. The park has a really solid haunted house ride again, but they also didn’t need to spend an SW-level budget on building such a ride, so we also get a new major investment as well!
 
Almost like it was impossible to judge whether it was a good idea before we saw what the changes were … could have saved hundreds of posts if only someone had pointed that out months ago ….
 
I honestly don't think the effects are necessarily hit and miss, I think it's a case of they can't reset quick enough between carriages which is something that needs to be looked into. I don't think it would be too hard a job to take a few cars off and space them out a bit which would hopefully help the effects out.
 
One issue I found with Alton Manor is the bunching in the attic scene, so that the spider would be visible for the car it was meant to, and also for the car behind, ruining the effect of the spider appearing right in front of your car.
 
On the subject of the spider room, (coming from someone with a fear of spiders) I think it could do with being a bit scarier. The box spiders don't really make a noise when they pop up and for some reason the big spider now has disco eyes (it has a kind of mask covering its original face)

Being picky I know but I think it takes the edge off the scene a bit.
 
siralgenon said:
On the subject of the spider room, (coming from someone with a fear of spiders) I think it could do with being a bit scarier. The box spiders don't really make a noise when they pop up and for some reason the big spider now has disco eyes (it has a kind of mask covering its original face)

Being picky I know but I think it takes the edge off the scene a bit.
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Yeah, I was a bit surprised they didn't keep that hissing sound when you go underneath that giant one. I haven't got a huge fear of spiders outside of the 'big' ones, but that one when it was Duel surprisingly scared me a bit when I first went on from the sheer size of it, and those dead looking eyes...

Does new giant spider even have a sound effect anymore? I can't recall if it does or doesn't.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Yeah, I was a bit surprised they didn't keep that hissing sound when you go underneath that giant one. I haven't got a huge fear of spiders outside of the 'big' ones, but that one when it was Duel surprisingly scared me a bit when I first went on from the sheer size of it, and those dead looking eyes...

Does new giant spider even have a sound effect anymore? I can't recall if it does or doesn't.
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It has a musical cue and makes some "spidery" sounds and Emily sings incy wincy spider
 
Had been avoiding this thread until riding The Curse so just catching up with everyone’s thoughts.

When it came to Duel I had expressed my views on many occasions that it was in a brand damaging state and in my view shouldn’t have been opened to guests in it’s final year or so as it was so bad for the supposed ‘best’ UK theme park.

Anywho having ridden The Curse twice this week I was very pleasantly surprised with what they have achieved, it has gone from being an attraction the park should have been embarrassed of, to one they should be proud of.

I am very much looking forward to many more rides in the future as I am sure there was plenty of things I haven’t spotted yet. Great to see the trommel back, you forget just how great an effect it is. :)
 
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So many details of this ride I keep noticing! I love how after emily shouts "Boo!" during the mirror scene and laughs her laugh slowly transitions into being a deeper demonic laughter before you enter the flying head scene where the demon inside Emily fully reveals itself It's such a good transition!
 
Mirror effect now working and it’s quite cool to be fair. We had four rides today and one part was dark where it shouldn’t have been (scene before the garden). I think they have also taken some cars off the track as they seem a bit more spaced out. Noticed “black hole boot polish” Easter egg as well.

Not sure whether it’s been changed but there is now some movement and noise on the photo part of the ride which wasn’t working or there on my last visit. Helped the photos as people look less bored now as a large floor falls to the right and air cannons (or something activates) to scare people and it seems to be working for some.
 
The dropping floor seemed to be there when I went at the start of the month, but it's very subtle and falls just before the lights illuminate it - so it's quite easy to miss.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
Not sure whether it’s been changed but there is now some movement and noise on the photo part of the ride which wasn’t working or there on my last visit. Helped the photos as people look less bored now as a large floor falls to the right and air cannons (or something activates) to scare people and it seems to be working for some.
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That was there from the get go, as far as I can tell. Stuff certainly activated there when I rode it on 26th March.

Did the differences make you warm to it at all? Or are you still not a fan?

It does sound as though the ride’s problem is that effects don’t reset quickly enough to match the ride’s throughput. Maybe fewer cars would help it.

It does also sound as though that Screaming Heads scene could use something extra, as well. Plenty of people have thought that to be a dark scene like the hide and seek one when it isn’t; I do think it perhaps lacks a bit of impact compared to before.
 
It is one of those where I think the throughput could be sacrificed a bit to make the ride experience better.
For example going through the trommel tunnel without a car in front would be a lot cooler although it's still great as it is.

would also help spacing the cars out with letting the effects reset and also slowing the speed of the cars down especially in some scenes there's so much to see but you can miss so much with a blink.
 
The Curse was not quite running properly recently, apparently some new issues with cars causing scenes not syncing, so this may be why the flying heads didn't always appear for you.

Is it me or does Emily now say something in every scene, it starts to get repetitive. Maybe it's just clearer now, but felt better with mainly music and sound effects to me. Only a small thing.
 
Matt N said:
That was there from the get go, as far as I can tell. Stuff certainly activated there when I rode it on 26th March.

Did the differences make you warm to it at all? Or are you still not a fan?

It does sound as though the ride’s problem is that effects don’t reset quickly enough to match the ride’s throughput. Maybe fewer cars would help it.

It does also sound as though that Screaming Heads scene could use something extra, as well. Plenty of people have thought that to be a dark scene like the hide and seek one when it isn’t; I do think it perhaps lacks a bit of impact compared to before.
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Yes and no, I still feel it’s very much work in progress still. It’s good to see more reliability with the effects but there is still more work to be done on the darker scenes.

It’s a bit worryingly quiet when I have been on it this season. Was it worth the budget and effort to attempt a refit? I would have been just as happy riding Duel in all honesty but I’ve been ruined in terms of dark rides by visiting Disney Paris in the last 6 months.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
Yes and no, I still feel it’s very much work in progress still. It’s good to see more reliability with the effects but there is still more work to be done on the darker scenes.

It’s a bit worryingly quiet when I have been on it this season. Was it worth the budget and effort to attempt a refit? I would have been just as happy riding Duel in all honesty but I’ve been ruined in terms of dark rides by visiting Disney Paris in the last 6 months.
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I think the crap weather we've had this year hasn't helped the park at all. We've put off going three times now.
 
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