Ghostly Manor at Paultons Park - Review
In a year where small independent theme parks are closing, and large corporate parks are struggling, there is one park that seems to be on a stratospheric rise in quality and line up. That is, of course, Paultons Park in Hampshire.
Now we have visited this park many times before, but it is not one that would usually bother ScareTOUR, as the line up and entertainment is definitely aimed at a much more family friendly audience, and even their Halloween events are good harmless spooky fun (more on that later!) But as the park grows and expands its offering, they have started to offer more for the slightly more thrill seeking audience, and 2026 and beyond will see some major new attractions coming to the park.
For this year, it's all about Ghostly Manor, a brand new experience which mixes some spooky fun, with an exciting new ride system from Mack Rides.
First impressions when approaching the attraction, is that the team have absolutely excelled themselves when it comes to theming. The Manor looks like it has always been there, with a beautifully landscaped garden with a few spooky touches along the way. The fact they have even themed the show building beyond the facade, alongside other buildings that are in eye line, shows the attention to detail that went into this attraction. Once inside, the theming continues with some atmospheric effects throughout the queue-line, including some animated ghosts captured in bottles on display, and of course a full introduction video from Dr Kinley as to the nature of the task ahead of us.
Once seated in our "car", we were invited to remove our blasters, and within what seemed like seconds, we were spun out of the loading area and into our first scene. From here the ride would make multiple stops in different rooms - some packed with animatronics, and some with large wrap around screens filled with ghosts.
The attention to detail in the animatronic scenes was amazing, with artefacts around the manor reacting to being shot with appropriate sound effects and lighting cues. It was slightly jarring going from an animatronic filled scene straight to a screen, but knowing the size of the building, and the nature of the ride mechanism, you can see how this is the best use of the space. Even so - the screen sections are very responsive to the blasters and it's quite exciting to see the points rack up as you capture the ghosts and they disappear off the screen. The trick is to finding which ghosts or objects reward the most points! And the whole experience is vert re-rideable.
All in - although not scary to us, a few of the scenes could be a little spooky for young children, but this ride really is a lot of fun. It is actually surprisingly fast with the rotations between scenes giving an extra thrill to everyone riding. Paultons really have made a great new addition to their line up and we look forward to riding this each time we visit.
And finally - at a park management Q&A session at the end of the night, we asked a sneaky question about whether the move to more thrill based rides in the future, could mean a scare attraction or something more adult for their Halloween event. But they responded with a qualifying no, and that they wouldn't want to alienate their young family demographic. Which is a shame as there really is scarcity of scare attractions along the South Coast!
Now we have visited this park many times before, but it is not one that would usually bother ScareTOUR, as the line up and entertainment is definitely aimed at a much more family friendly audience, and even their Halloween events are good harmless spooky fun (more on that later!) But as the park grows and expands its offering, they have started to offer more for the slightly more thrill seeking audience, and 2026 and beyond will see some major new attractions coming to the park.
For this year, it's all about Ghostly Manor, a brand new experience which mixes some spooky fun, with an exciting new ride system from Mack Rides.
First impressions when approaching the attraction, is that the team have absolutely excelled themselves when it comes to theming. The Manor looks like it has always been there, with a beautifully landscaped garden with a few spooky touches along the way. The fact they have even themed the show building beyond the facade, alongside other buildings that are in eye line, shows the attention to detail that went into this attraction. Once inside, the theming continues with some atmospheric effects throughout the queue-line, including some animated ghosts captured in bottles on display, and of course a full introduction video from Dr Kinley as to the nature of the task ahead of us.
Once seated in our "car", we were invited to remove our blasters, and within what seemed like seconds, we were spun out of the loading area and into our first scene. From here the ride would make multiple stops in different rooms - some packed with animatronics, and some with large wrap around screens filled with ghosts.
The attention to detail in the animatronic scenes was amazing, with artefacts around the manor reacting to being shot with appropriate sound effects and lighting cues. It was slightly jarring going from an animatronic filled scene straight to a screen, but knowing the size of the building, and the nature of the ride mechanism, you can see how this is the best use of the space. Even so - the screen sections are very responsive to the blasters and it's quite exciting to see the points rack up as you capture the ghosts and they disappear off the screen. The trick is to finding which ghosts or objects reward the most points! And the whole experience is vert re-rideable.
All in - although not scary to us, a few of the scenes could be a little spooky for young children, but this ride really is a lot of fun. It is actually surprisingly fast with the rotations between scenes giving an extra thrill to everyone riding. Paultons really have made a great new addition to their line up and we look forward to riding this each time we visit.
And finally - at a park management Q&A session at the end of the night, we asked a sneaky question about whether the move to more thrill based rides in the future, could mean a scare attraction or something more adult for their Halloween event. But they responded with a qualifying no, and that they wouldn't want to alienate their young family demographic. Which is a shame as there really is scarcity of scare attractions along the South Coast!
Links:
Paultons Park website
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