I'm really disappointed with The Curse at Alton Manor (I can already hear the horde chasing after me), let me explain myself. Is it a bad quality experience? Good lord no, the area and the queue is fantastic, and the characters that walk around are hilarious!! It has good lighting and some nice effects. I just think it's tone is very unnecessarily dark and grim, especially for being marketed as a family attraction.
Personally I can only see people aged 12 and above really enjoying this ride and most below that age being more scared than actually having fun. They removed most of my favourite elements from duel/HH for either screens or dolls on sticks, which was a bad move Personally and removes a lot of the rides character. Most of the praise so far has came from mostly die hard UK enthusiats and nearly no reviews from the GP so far as it's only been open for one weekend, which is pretty ideal for most families to visit the park.
Let the hype die down and see if the attraction can still stand on its own legs in terms of what it's target audience thinks of it, and ignoring the Easter eggs, since most of the praise so far has came from nods to past attractions in the ride. Sure the ride can be scary, but I think it needs some good humour to go with it (but good lord is the story way too dark and serious, and that's coming from me, a ghost train lover.) The park already has enough gritty themes and wacky cuddly themes, I think this could've been the chance to refurb this ride as a nice balance of both, offering something for everyone of all ages.