The best experience of my life:
So far, I have skied down double blacks, parascened, downhill biked-rided, rock climbed, free
falled, abseiled, caved, ballooned, fan descended, ridden Oblivion 10 times in a row, (no exaduration, there was no
queue all day) and nothing compares with the sheer thrill of this. I would, any day, ride this rather than Mystery Castle, which is almost twice as high, has fantastic
theming and lasts longer.
I don't understand why people think it is too short? How would you make it longer without ruining that incredible aided drop! The
theming does let it down, as it would be great if the ride base could be sunken into an exploded pit or in an old rusty shack, but even still, the sheer stomach tickling, speed more than compensates this drawback.
I only wish that they could put one of these in the black hole pit at Alton
Towers and get the seats to rotate 360 or something, so that one of the drops could be upside down.
Matt
100ft? Sounds easy doesn't it? Guess
again.
The 1/2 hour queue along with the music, falls
and faces of numerous people numerous times can seem quite funny. The
expressions are amazingly hilarious each time someone falls.
You reach your turn. You climb into your seat
and pull the bars down. the ride operator plugs the seatbelt in. Before
you know it, your travelling at 3mph straight up a 100ft tower, watching
as everyone below you gets smaller and smaller.
You wonder if you're near the top, so you try to
look and find your about half way there. you try to calm your nerves.
You hit the top. The booming voice below counts you down before your
plummet straight down.
You fall. The speed increases and time stops for
a fraction of a second, leaving you weightlessness. it takes too long to
hit the bottom. The ride slows, and you see you are a couple of feet
from the floor. you let out a sigh of relief and thank God you survived.
Detonator may be very short, but it is much
better compared to Apocalypse at Drayton Manor.
Detonator reaches a speed of 55mph while
dropping, releasing a massive -5g's on your body (you feel 5 times
lighter than what you are when standing still). One of the true terrors
of today. Forget thinking about it. ride it!
James Collins
Detonator.
Wow. What can I say? Well, I have annual pass to the park and had just
ridden Stealth, a smaller version of Kingda Ka. I loved every minute of
it. A freefall half the size? This is easy, I thought. When nearer to
the front of the queue line I was a bit trembley. The man coming off of
the ride had just screamed "THAT WAS BAD!!" As we boarded,
music was ringing in our ears. Then we had finally risen to the top. 5,
4, 3, 2, 1!! We plunged down screaming our heads off, and we came off
shocked! Detonator was just as good as Stealth! When I was coming off,
all I could mouth was one word "WHOA!!"
Naomi Haister
Detonator! What a ride!
Cant ask for any more from this style of ride! Just pure excitement! It
may be a bit smaller than expected but BOY do you get a punch out of it!
Ross Flight
A wolf in sheep's clothing
sums up this ride - it may be 60 foot shorter than the tallest tower in
the UK - but boy does it pack a punch, absolutely trounces the countries
S&S towers for sheer intensity.
Harvey North
The drop on Detonator is
like a wolf in sheep's clothing. I rate this higher than Apocalypse,
just because of the force of the drop
Mary Pierce
It doesn’t look all that high from the bottom but
when you get up there you get a very good view and it is extremely high. The drop
is brilliant and I was shaking like a leaf when I came off it.
Christopher Denny
Detonator rules! The force of the drop is unreal
when I went on I queued for 30 minutes but I still went on it 2 more times. I went
very early in the morning
Thomas Dunlop
I thought this ride was
absolutely superb! When you look at it, it does not seem tall at all. In
fact, it looks shorter than Tidal Wave when you enter the park. If you
sit on the side facing Tidal Wave, you realise that only 15ft taller
makes a lot of difference! I also loved the force of the drop and the
G's you pulled at the bottom. Only bad point was that it was over too
quickly.
Matt Raymond-Barker
A very good ride - it
gives you a shock as it falls.
Iskander Javed
No other Megadrop I have
been on beats Detonator. Despite being only 100ft high it has a powerful
punch that many others can't match.
Ben Hodson
Whooosshhhhhh...
This is my favourite ride at Thorpe. Do
you ever get the feeling your spines going to snap before your stomach
pops out your mouth. You will after Detonator!
No name supplied
This is by far the most terrifying
tower ride in England putting it ahead of rides such as apocalypse and
Big Ben. After about two minutes of waiting, the music can really start
to get on your nerves but when at the top, the count down makes the
experience twice as good.
Stephan Olivers
A great ride giving big
thrills. Because of small capacity lines can be long. Use the single
riders line.
Andrew Jack
I thought that it would be
really low down and boring but when I got up there I felt very scared.
When we went down it felt like we were going to hit the floor but the
ride suddenly slowed down. (I rate detonator 5/5 because of the speed of
the drop
Ben Moran
This is a great ride. While there are many
similar free-fall towers around, this one really packs a good punch -
short, sweet and straight to the point. While queuing, you are taken
around the tower itself - and receive a good view of the ride in action.
Speakers are dotted around the queue line, playing atmospheric music and
a dramatic countdown before the riders are catapulted towards the
ground.
When it's finally your turn, you cant help but
feel nervous after seeing many riders before you plunge to the ground.
You are first securely strapped in, then raised
at a fairly fast speed to the top. A jolt and a clunk secures you in
place, left suspended in the air with great views of the other rides at
the park. Now for the countdown again - only this time it applies to
you! It really is nerve wracking waiting for the plunge, and when it
finally comes, it takes your breath away. Hurtling towards the ground,
you worry whether the brakes will work at all... until finally at the
last moment they kick in, slamming you to a halt at the bottom of the
tower.
This really leaves you shook up, and when I
stepped down from the ride, my feet hurt as i touched the ground. A
fantastic ride, the sense of relief you feel when you walk away
unscathed definitely makes it worthwhile...that plus a real sense of
pride that you plucked up the courage to face the mighty detonator!
A. Roberts
This ride is the scariest thing I've
ridden in a while. The falling sensation is horrible (for me at least).
Queues were short when we visited so we
rode a couple of times - my girlfriend loved it but it really shook me
up.
Dan A
The makers of this fantastic ride are
rather hit-and-miss when making rides. While their Booster is one of the
best rides of its type, their Top Spin is easily the most horrid version
yet. When they began production of their version of a Drop Ride people
groaned at the prospect of another "Big Ben"-type freefall.
Amazingly, what they produced was a smash hit, and sold quite a lot.
I first rode this version at the 2003
California State Fair. I queued up for it, not really knowing what to
expect. I pulled down the restraints, and we whisked up the tower and
stopped with a pleasing "CLUNK!" We waited for about one
minute, and then suddenly were propelled downwards without any warning
at a rather shocking pace. The car came to an incredibly fast stop (the
sign on top of the paybox came into view before the brakes took effect).
The restraints came open, and everybody silently walked off. Several
people were on the verge of tears, two people were shaking so much they
had to stop at the railing and steady themselves. I myself was in a
rather strange mood, a mix of anger and pain. I stood at the exit and
watched the next load of unfortunate passengers plunge, and listened
hard. It wasn't a happy scream, nor a frightened scream. It sounded more
like "OWWWWWWWWWWW!" coupled with a few swear words. Several
people were in a state of shock, three were in angry tea!
Now I'm rambling, so I'll give a review
of Detonator.
The whole thing looks
"to-the-point", and decievingly short. The catchy music,
though a tad repetative, was great, and I liked the countdown (5 (dah
dah) 4 (dah dah) 3 (dah dah) 2 (dah dah) 1 (dahhhsqueeee clunk) AIEEEEEE!
From the queue-up it looked incredibly imposing. People were coming off
smiling, so I was a bit reassured after my horrible experience. It
clambered to the top, the catchy music getting softer and softer. The
countdown began. At one, we dropped. This time it was absolutely
fantastic. I didn't scream, I laughed. The ride came to a halt, and I
nearly skipped with glee to the exit.
Pros:
-Countdown (you don't realize how great
it is until you experience the silent version...ugh)
-Music
-Fantastic drop
-Great views
Cons:
-Music gets a tad repetitive
So, all in all, it's a strong ride,
whose aim isn't to try to shock you to a heart-attack, and with a catchy
theme song.
Cosmo Jenkins
This ride is real class. I mean,
despite being easily the shortest proper drop tower in the UK, it packs
a punch far bigger than others. This is due to the designers using
pneumatics to physically push you down the drop, meaning your backside
comes out of the seat! It is so re-ridable, because every time is such a
rush.
The tune is very good, maybe a tad repetitive,
but none the less very good. And the countdown really helps the ride
now, because it used to be predictable when you would drop, which was
scary enough, but now its rarely in time-I once saw it drop at 3! The
riders were already at the bottom and getting off by the time it said 1!
Ollie Cook
Great drop but countdown
spoils the element of surprise. Not as good as the bounce at Oakwood leisure
park.
Michael Joyce
A really fast drop with lots of
speed all the way down a good ride with good views of the park but the
line to get on is boring.
Andy
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