Paultons Park Open Spooky NEW Ride!
Paultons Park have opened a spooky new ride this weekend (Saturday 17th May). Ghostly Manor is the highly acclaimed family theme park’s latest new ride to open following the introduction of Splash Lagoon in 2024.
Ghostly Manor features a UK first ride system and spooktacular theme immersing families into the heart of Dr Kinley’s haunted home as they attempt to recapture his pesky escaped spirits.
Paultons Park’s newest addition opened officially to guests on Saturday 17th May following soft openings the previous day on Friday 16th (aka. dress rehearsals).
What Can You Expect From Ghostly Manor?
Ghostly Manor is a MACK Rides Gameplay Theatre and features fully interactive elements throughout allowing guests to board and go head to head with other family members or friends as they aim to score the highest possible score.
The ride system is also the second of it’s kind to be installed at any theme park worldwide with the first being installed at Europa-Park in Germany and opening as Grand Prix EDventure this year.
Guests board their car which can seat up to FOUR riders per car and rotate and spin through a variety of different interactive scenes shooting at spooktacular moving targets in a circular motion.
The ride features a mixture of physical sets, props and screens combining them all with immersive lighting, special effects and animatronics to deliver a truly captivating experience.
Those waiting to board will also navigate their way through a heavily themed queue line too which spans both indoor and outdoor sections, each as impressive as the next.
Who Can Ride Ghostly Manor?
Due to the nature of the ride’s theme and the visuals used within, Ghostly Manor does operate a STRICT no under 5’s policy for those riding.
This is mainly due to certain elements of the ride experience those under that age might find disturbing or upsetting.
In reality though Paultons Park’s spooky new ride is ACTUALLY very family friendly and the graphics used are both cartoon and wacky in nature.
Those riding will also be far too preoccupied with trying to score the highest score to notice a lot of details too meaning re-rides on Ghostly Manor are an absolute necessity!
It’s also worth noting that the ride’s ‘game play’ element is also very fast paced and loud in nature too meaning some riding could find it a tad over stimulating or sensor overload.
Is There Anything We’d Change About Ghostly Manor?
So, is there anything we’d change or improve upon? Well, in short…. yes. Although Ghostly Manor is a very well themed, unique dark ride it does still boast room for improvement.
This is due to the technology being used and the way it interacts with the various different elements throughout the ride.
During our ride on opening day, aiming felt off and the phasers unresponsive with some shooting being both intermittent and irregular.
This could (in our opinion) however be down to the early nature of the technology being used as currently there are only two rides of this kind and the overall ride system is still very young.
This aside though, Ghostly Manor delivered an impressive, immersive experience from beginning to end with the overall ride experience being unlike anything we’d ever experienced both here in the UK and beyond.
The fluid movement of the gondolas mixed with the continued story telling and immersion make Paultons Park’s newest ride one of the most impressive family dark rides to open in the UK in quite some time.
Paultons Park’s attention to detail didn’t go unnoticed either with so many different, tiny little details being included both throughout the queue line and ride experience itself.
Should You Ride Paultons Park’s Spooky New Ride?
Of course, Ghostly Manor at Paultons Park delivers a family friendly spooky experience from beginning to end with the whole ride feeling very reminiscent of something straight out of Scooby Doo (and Ghostbusters, but we won’t go there haha).
The story telling mixed with the bright colourful, spectral sets and easy to operate phantom phasers mean you’ll more than likely find yourself riding Ghostly Manor over and over as you attempt to beat both your own high score and that of others.
Unlike many expectations, Paultons Park’s spooky new ride doesn’t feel remotely reminiscent of DUEL at Alton Towers either due to the target elements being both physical and digital meaning there is much more variety to see when ‘playing the game’.
Overall, Ghostly Manor is the perfect new ride to compliment Paultons Park’s current ride line up and delivers something truly unique for both the UK and Europe as a whole!
Check out our opening day vlog below and share your opinions of Ghostly Manor with us in the comments below too.