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Duel: The Haunted House Actually Strikes Back - Refurb Incoming

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QTXAdsy said:
the staff on the park know about what we say online and just like to screw around with many. :p I do wonder if there are other ride staff on park who can pull of the same amount of trolling guests like the Duel team?
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I can only speak for myself, but when I worked at AT I was absolutely a lurker on here and it was always interesting to see what everyone thought was going on :)
 
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Trooper Looper said:
Speaking of the cingey queue Line video with Richard O' Connor. A while ago I found a video of it. It's definitely the highest quality one out there when compared to the others.
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Filmed in Gloomy Wood but before the alterations for '03 had taken place - most notable sign of that being the tiny graveyard where the Haunted House's tombstone lay, before it was replaced by the crypt with the zombie and the Duel crucifix
 
The interesting thing is, I actually think Duel as a concept had quite a lot of potential.

A ride where you’re sent to this spooky house in a Ghostbusters-type role and have to catch ghosts and zombies popping out the walls at you? Sounds awesome!

And in fairness, I don’t think Duel was executed badly at all. The ghost train-type style of The Haunted House, with its jumpscares, arguably suited the interactive ride style better than if it had been, say, a Haunted Mansion-style ride, and I do think some scenes of the HH worked quite well within Duel.

However, I think that the architect of Duel’s lukewarm reception was ultimately how much it leant upon its predecessor. That’s not to say that there was anything wrong with the HH scenes per se, but the issue was more to do with what Duel was trying to be and what the Haunted House is/was being two very different things.

As much as I said above about how some scenes from the HH worked surprisingly well within Duel, I think an interactive ride of the ilk that Duel was trying to be ultimately needs constant kinetic energy coming from every angle at all times, and I simply don’t think the HH was designed to be that type of energetic ride experience. While I do feel that some of the original ride’s more fast paced scenes worked well (such as the scene that was home to The Giant, with ghouls popping out of the windows at quick intervals), some others felt a bit out of their depth within Duel, in my opinion. For instance, The Sinister Garden seemed to be designed as a slower paced, more ambient scene, which appeared to work well within the Haunted House, but just felt a little bit out of place on Duel, in my opinion.

Perhaps controversially, I actually think that one of the scenes that worked best within Duel was actually the new finale that was added in 2003. That scene, with lots of zombies popping out of various crevices and out from every angle, has the sort of kinetic energy that a fast-paced interactive ride needs, in my opinion, and I think the ride would have suited interactivity better if Tussauds had had the time and resources to do more scenes like that one in the place of some of the former HH scenes.
 
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Matt N said:
I simply don’t think the HH was designed to be that type of energetic ride experience.
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Thats exactly the type of ride experience it was designed to be, before they removed all the "kinetic energy" from it over time and the aged animations needed refurbishing. Compare the original finale in the swamp with huge animations and features every few seconds to the static dummies and flat walls now.
 
BritishThemeParkArchive said:
Thats exactly the type of ride experience it was designed to be, before they removed all the "kinetic energy" from it over time and the aged animations needed refurbishing. Compare the original finale in the swamp with huge animations and features every few seconds to the static dummies and flat walls now.
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Energetic could have been the wrong word on my part.

I more meant that the HH appeared to have been designed to be a very ambient ride, with a subtly spooky atmosphere underpinning it, whereas an interactive dark ride by very nature has to be very bombastic and in your face at all times, and I don’t think the HH was designed to be particularly bombastic in the same vein as your typical interactive dark ride is. The HH and your typical interactive dark ride are seemingly very different types of dark ride in terms of atmosphere and pace, and I do think that is an issue that plagued Duel.
 
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Out of interest, what did it mean in the original Duel announcements when it said “some zombies are armed and they may shoot back”?

Did the park intend for there to be greater response to guests’ shooting originally?
Trooper Looper said:
If they haven't made it a big deal, maybe the refurb isn't a big as everyone here thinks.
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I think it’s more to do with the fact that Towers hasn’t traditionally had form for announcing ride closures in advance. I think the only two rides where guests ever got an event and significant advance warning were Corkscrew and Black Hole.

If I’m remembering correctly, I seem to remember reading that even things like Toyland Tours’ closure before they turned it into Charlie were only known via enthusiast hearsay rather than by any official park announcement.

Personally, I think the fact that the ride is closing in September rather than November, and that it has seemingly started in subtle little ways already (for instance, a number of cars being taken off the track prior to closure) is a telling sign of how big this refurb could be.

If it wasn’t a big refurb, surely they could have done it in its entirety over closed season, like Duel was?

For some idea, this is getting roughly the same amount of time dedicated to it as the Bubbleworks to Gruffalo conversion did, and look how much changed during that refurbishment.
EDIT - This is how the community learned about Toyland Tours’ closure, for some idea:
TowersTimes News on 2nd June 2005 said:
TowersTimes have received confirmation that Toyland Tours will close on Sunday 5th June 2005.
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Source: https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/news/2005/06/02/toyland-tours-to-leave-the-park/

TT had it confirmed to them privately, but this doesn’t suggest that the park ever really announced it officially or made a big deal out of it.
 
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Matt N said:
Out of interest, what did it mean in the original Duel announcements when it said “some zombies are armed and they may shoot back”?

Did the park intend for there to be greater response to guests’ shooting originally?
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I think the intention was for the 'armed' zombies at the end to animate (or at least their weapons shoot) based on a nearby target being hit. As far as I can remember it never happened, and their weapon laser beams were always permanently lit.
 
Announcing the closure of another ride on top of an already closed Enterprise, Hex and Funk n Fly isn't really what you want to be doing when your ride availability has already been patchy at best. If everything else was working great, then perhaps you'd make a bigger deal of it, but right now - not so much.

Not saying I agree with the decision, but from a business POV during what is already a relatively quiet period, it's probably not wise to shout about another attraction being down, even if it is for improvements to be made.
 
Danscott22 said:
But it clearly is - it’s not going to be Duel as we know it I think that’s obvious, it should’ve been announced IMO
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Well I definitely know Duel will be history soon, but quite a few people are saying there will be a new rise system, all the pld scenes gone, and a new indoor queue. All I'm expecting is a MAJOR TLC on everything with new additions to coexist.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Well I definitely know Duel will be history soon, but quite a few people are saying there will be a new rise system, all the pld scenes gone, and a new indoor queue. All I'm expecting is a MAJOR TLC on everything with new additions to coexist.
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I personally doubt there will be a new ride system (I’d be expecting a far longer construction period if any new ride system was added).

However, I do think the existing scenes could receive some quite significant change.
 
WillPS said:
Why?

I agree, there's no need to change it so long as what they have can be made serviceable again, but installing a new one would be pretty trivial as these things go.
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I say this because to rip out the old ride system, you’d need to remove or at least majorly rejig the scenes completely, then rip out the old ride system, then build the new one, then either rebuild the scenes completely or build new ones.

With a retheme, it’s only really the theming that you need to worry about, and less deconstruction needs to be done.

Under an hour of blasting left, folks… the ride is only on a 5 minute queue!
 
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