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@Trooper Looper I think you are on to something. Earlier this year John Warldey was sighted on numerous occasions in and around Duel. On each occasion John had a folder containing concept art of his unused Duel scenes. In addition, this folder included concept art of scenes that were featured in the original Haunted House. Too add further clarity to your thoughts Merlin Magic Making were also seen in and around Duel. When seen MMM also had the book that John was seen with. I am intrigued to know what plans were not used in the original l Haunted House. As long as the Zombie animatronics and Mad Professor's Lab are replaced, I'll be happy. Finally, I will be annoyed if an IP (Sponsorship) is used. I guess we'll find out more about Duels refurbishment in the near future. With all the excitement that is building Alton Towers will almost certainly release teasers within the next couple of months. I wouldn't be shocked if by Christmas we get an official announcement of Duels new theme, and confirmation of what theming will remain, and which is being removed. Personally, I expect some of the removed theming will be relocated to Haunted Hollow. For instance, the theming in the queline for The Invitation could be repurposed for Haunted Hollow. If not reused in Haunted Hollow the theming could travel down south to Chessington. I know the tombstones that were in memory of lost Chessington rides are in storage. Apparently, they will return next year. If Chessington are bringing the tombstones back the Duel theming could complement them. It would be devastating if this impressive, immersive and classic theming was lost forever.

@coasterverse John Wardley maybe removing some the 90's theming to replace it with scenes based around Emily Alton and Snowy. I genuinely believe most of the original Haunted House Theming will remain.

Spookslot isn't the first classic attraction Efteling have removed. Bob probably quite similar if the claims of the building being unsafe are true (can't source it and not heard that before) but that's a way to approach nostalgia sometimes. You just gotta remember the past but embrace the future. The involvement of Wardley was too late to make serious changes to Wickerman (which is why we have boring corner). But if they're so focused on the "next-gen" designers why not continue on that front? Maybe the response of John being left to the sidelines on a project he wanted for years made them fearful of Duel. Duel & Tomb Blaster both ruined their original attractions aims. The 2000s were a dreadful time for investments (apart from Thorpe). Modern technology allows new solutions and approaches. The animatronics throughout the ride were incredibly basic (due to the necessary reset times). Duel then simplified that by non-moving ones. Using Bla Taget at Grona Lund is a great example of an old school ghost train embracing modern technology, but they either need to gut out all the old stuff otherwise it sticks out like a sore thumb or redo everything to the same modern standard. 3 rides are closing this year (not that Enterprise actually opened at all). Ride reliability has been so bad probably didn't want to big up another removal. One might also wonder if the sudden closure was the result of something else (such as a safety concern, perhaps the Trommel was buggered). End of the day I feel the sadness is misplaced and this weird obsession of returning the original Haunted House when the chance to start anew for an aging attraction (or the whole Emily Alton will be the main character) just confuses me. It's like when people claimed Terror Tomb or Bubbleworks were coming back in original forms. Obsession with nostalgia means you rarely move forward and then you end up with rides that if you touch the goons grab their torches and pitchforks regardless of the changes planned.

I'll be making my television debut and appearing on classic quiz show Countdown! My debut is this Friday (Oct 28th), airing at 2.10pm on Channel 4, and of course available on catch up after. There'll also be a bit of geeky chatter and roller coaster puns, because of course they run with me being a roller coaster enthusiast and turned it into my entire personality (not far wrong tbf). Would be lovely if anyone gave my episodes a watch!

Parkitect 2022-10-28 19-27-04_Trim.mp4

Weird, I visited today too and having lots of 30/45 minute queues (although obviously not as busy as the summer days - I only ever tend to visit mid-week and typically most rides are only ever 5-10 minute queue times at most... maybe I just get lucky), I would definitely not say the park was 'quiet' by any means 😂 I saw lots of schoolkids running about, but the last hour of the park was extremely quiet and was nice to get a few re-rides in before heading home. DBGT seemed to be operating inconsistently throughout the day (I managed to get two rides on it... I hate how that ride gets worse and worse with every re-ride. I'll write a more thorough review on that in the topic shortly). The way they were batching people at SAW was interesting to say the least. Bit of a free-for-all in the queueline (nobody on the actual door batching people into the building) and only directed up the fast-pass stairs. No doubt about it being reduced capacity, it was ridiculously tedious. TWD had no actors in, but then again that's totally to be expected on a mid-week day in the very off-peak season. The SAW audio was very, very nice. They seem to have gotten rid of the constant, blaring SAW theme playing 24/7 and only playing the snippet on dispatch. Means that the Billy pre-show can be heard pretty much perfectly, which is an absolute bonus. Detonator was operating very, very well today to be fair. The operator seemed to absolutely love his job, and was holding people at the top for multiple minutes at a time! Definitely agree that the park needs quite a bit of TLC over closed season, lots of areas of the park are in dire need of a bit of loving.