Ride Profile
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A haunting impression Park World braves the cursed corridors of Alton Manor T
he launch of Alton Towers’ new dark ride, The Curse at Alton Manor, was much anticipated. Alton Manor finally opened its doors to daring visitors in spring this year, unleashing the spirit of Emily Alton. So, what is it like to step inside this unearthly abode? First, some background on the new ride. The attraction first opened in 1992 as the Haunted House. It then became Duel: The Haunted House Strikes Back - the largest ghost train in Europe. Having closed in September last year, the attraction now features an entirely new storyline. Fisher explained that Merlin's creative team, Merlin Magic Making, had visited
Alton Towers in December 2022 to work on new plans for the updated dark ride. Merlin Entertainments’ former chief development officer, Mark Fisher, explained that the ride has been designed to “be more like the original Haunted House, with a completely new story. Some of the old Victorian techniques – the use of mirrors, for example – are still so good… A lot of people fondly remember the old Haunted House and we think this is going to be huge.” Visitors are invited to enter the abandoned Alton Manor - which has been repossessed under mysterious circumstances - with a warning to ensure they have their wits about them as they venture deep into this haunted house and uncover the story of Emily - the daughter of a high society Victorian couple who preferred partying to parenting, until one night when they and all their guests disappeared into thin air. With Emily remaining unaccounted for, it’s said that she still haunts Alton Manor to this day looking for the one thing she never experienced in life – play.
The exterior queue line for the ride takes guests on a winding path through a woodland graveyard. Whilst making their way through the queue line, guests can spot a mixture of existing headstones (which have been given a refresh) as well as new gravestones, with these each serving as a nod to past theme park attractions including Corkscrew, Black Hole, Air and (of course) Duel. New additions to the
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queue line are a series of plaques which tell Emily’s backstory and start to set the scene for the ride.
The queue eventually leads guests along the front of the building, where a sign reading ‘open house today’ is displayed in one of the windows. The premise is that guests are undertaking viewings of Alton Manor which has been put up for sale, with the property having remained empty since the fateful night. Other changes to the façade include a darker paint, while the window above the doorway, where Emily’s silhouette can be seen, now appears to be shattered. It is just before entering the building where the main queue merges with the Ride Access Pass (RAP) queue and newly created Fastrack queue. Upon entry to Alton Manor itself, guests first arrive into the foyer area which existed in the attraction’s previous iterations. However, many of the paintings and artefacts have been covered with sheets to prepare the property for sale, and signage is on display with information about Alton Manor. Whilst there is a modern-looking sign from Burton & Ward, there is another dating back to 1893, suggesting it has perhaps been a struggle to find a willing buyer over the last 130 years…
Moving deeper into the manor, guests walk past signs which collate the entire backstory presented to guests via the queue line plaques. The next room is again as it was previously, with the queue line following the same reworked route around the outskirts of the room as in Duel’s final years of operation. This room contains the ride’s pre-show, centring on the doll’s house which is on display. After a voiceover tells another variant of the ride’s backstory, which culminates in the events of New Year’s Eve 1891, the ghostly whispers of a little girl can be heard saying “let me show you what happened”. It is at this point that the Alton family appear inside one of the rooms of the doll’s house, utilising a small scale version of the Pepper’s Ghost effect. After being banished to her room by her father, Emily becomes overcome with purple energy, beginning to levitate as the
MAY 2023
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