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Big Ben It doesn’t take much to create a bad free fall tower ride, but it must take a special skill to create a complete stinker. Zamperla have demonstrated that they possess
this skill. First, a bit of background.
Intamin created the first free fall tower, and S&S created the first
launched tower. Of course, it is the purpose of each of these respected
rides to have the rider’s underside off the seat for as much time as
possible, it is just that the S&S Space Shot gets down to the
nitty-gritty straight away by launching you from a standing start, and
the Intamin Giant Drop teases you by ambling up the tower. Since the successes of these
rides, it has been the aim of manufacturers to offer affordable and
entertaining alternatives to the originals, even occasionally
incorporating both sensations, as Zamperla have done. By the time Zamperla decided to
do this ride, it was hardly ground breaking so there should have been no
reason why the idea wasn’t developed to compete with their rival
manufacturers. Unfortunately, whilst they jumped on this bandwagon with
the explicit intention of showing up the Huss model (as James Mellor,
owner of Big Ben was quoted as saying), they failed like nobody has
before failed. Every manufacturer seems to want a part of this freefall mania, but to be honest, if the newer versions can't compete with the originals with regards to the quality of ride given, why even bother? Zamperla have probably wasted their time on the worst single tower I have ever ridden. It is short, it provides no powerful forces, either on launch or dropping, and to be blunt, has absolutely nothing working in it's favour. The tower is a deep and golden
yellow latticework structure, topped a rendition of the famous spire in which Big
Ben is housed finishes off the tower. The clock-face unfortunately
doesn’t tell the time, nor does it spin around in an archaic manner
like you would expect it to, so in that respect not only does it look
quite naff, but also seems pointless to have a clock that doesn’t tell
the time. The pay kiosk is yellow and pink
and, contradicting the sparse theming has a sky diver having far more
fun than we’re about to have. There are 16 seats on Big Ben in
four lots of four, square around the tower. The seats are moulded
plastic and are bright red, whilst restraints are released individually
per side, which slows loading. Zamperla have hardly gone to town
with the restraints. They're thin, and have about a foot between each
click. Seatbelts are no more reassuring than an elastic band with a
cheap buckle fastening to the restraint. Once the restraints are ratcheted
into place, the ride is launched without warning. Of course, it was the lack of
warning that surprised me – I was somehow expecting three dongs from
Big Ben or something, or at least a count down. The speed of this launch honestly
made me wonder whether it was actually supposed to be a launch or not.
You’d think we’d got all the time in the world at the speed we
travel up the tower. To relate it to an invalid
carriage would be doing it a justice, and at mid-way up the tower, a
bump is felt through your back as you pass adjoining sections of the
tower structure. The gondola bounces rather
trivially to a halt at the top of the tower before you wait for the
second half of the ride. This wait is as slow as the
launch. Somewhere below, tanks are filling up with compressed air and
the only excitement offered at this time is by the tower swaying in the
wind. Although people are hardly
bursting blood vessels with enjoyment, the few muted words of panic from
other riders fade after about fifteen seconds with us sitting stranded
up the top of this low capacity observation tower. The wait takes in
excess of a minute, and again, without warning, you drop. As much as you try, no sensation
of speed is felt, no feeling of negative-Gs – nothing. Again, you
bounce slowly to a halt, this time at the bottom where an operator kicks
the foot pedal for the restraints to raise out of the way and for you to
leave. From the moment you sit down, it is clear this ride should have never left the drawing board. The launch lacks any form of power. It doesn't have the suspense of Intamin's slow climb, nor the forces of S&S's launch. The
pause at the top bores everyone – everyone expects the remainder to be as bad as everything
that has gone before it - so quiet is everyone that you could almost hear
tumbleweed below. Of course, when the inevitable finally happens and
you’re casually lowered down the tower, the silence continues. It is strange to see everyone leave the ride with sterile and absent expressions. Everyone leaves in complete silence with no emotion hastily making a beeline for the exit. Big Ben is almost un-ratable. Although we don't award a no star rating, we are being wholeheartedly generous in giving this 'attraction' a single star. Briefly... Here is our bullet point review of this attraction, highlighting everything that is great about it, and everything that is sadly bad. Good points:
Bad points:
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