Mäch Tower

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Manufacturer
Moser's Rides

Model
Gravity Tower

Hamlet
Oktoberfest (Germany)

Opening Date
August 18th, 2011

Closing Date
January 8th, 2023

Attraction Height
240ft

Duration
About 90 Seconds

Riders Per Cycle
30

Height Requirement
48in



Mäch Tower was a Moser's Rides Gravity Tower located in the Oktoberfest section of Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

Originally planned to debut in the spring alongside Beste Brezeln und Bier and numerous other alterations to the Oktoberfest hamlet, Mäch Tower faced months of delays throughout the first half of 2011. Ultimately, the attraction did not open to the public until August 18th, 2011.

Mach Tower was typically converted into an observation tower named Nächt Tower for the park's annual holiday event, Christmas Town.

On December 16, 2022 it was announced by the park that Mäch Tower would close on January 8th, 2023. The ride did not operate in it's typical Nächt Tower mode in 2022, in order to have final sendoffs in the normal drop tower mode.

When it debuted, Mäch Tower featured an onboard audio system which would play music throughout the ride's ascent and a seat vibration effect that would trigger immediately before the drop. A POV featuring the on-ride audio can be found below.

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Direct Link to Embedded Media Source


Sources:
  1. Mäch Tower Announcement Press Release
  2. Official Statement Regarding Opening Delays
  3. "Waiting for the Mach Tower to Drop" via The Virginian-Pilot
  4. "Busch Gardens opens towering drop ride after 3-month delay" via The Virginian-Pilot
  5. First Ride Video & Opening Day Photos via BGWFans
  6. Early Mäch Tower Ride Impressions via Theme Park Insider
 
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I will say I don’t hate Mach Tower but I don’t love it either. There are drop towers I’ve been on that are worse* and there are drop towers I’ve been on that are better**.
It’s a decent drop tower but it could definitely be better.

*Falcon’s Fury
**Drop Zone KD, Larson drop towers
 
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Mushroom said:
Genuinely curious: is there anyone here that actually likes Mäch Tower? The reason I ask it seems like every controversial ride has at least a few defenders on here — Battle for Eire, Roman Rapids, Anaconda, Grizzly, etc. But I can’t recall ever encountering someone who would bat an eye if Mäch Tower were removed tomorrow.

So, Mäch Tower fans, are you out there? Speak now or forever hold your peace!
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It seems I am 1 of the few that like it. Ithink it is a fun ride and have no problem riding multiple times a day
I wish they would bring back the effects
 
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Mushroom said:
Genuinely curious: is there anyone here that actually likes Mäch Tower? The reason I ask it seems like every controversial ride has at least a few defenders on here — Battle for Eire, Roman Rapids, Anaconda, Grizzly, etc. But I can’t recall ever encountering someone who would bat an eye if Mäch Tower were removed tomorrow.

So, Mäch Tower fans, are you out there? Speak now or forever hold your peace!
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I like drop towers, so I am glad they have this one, even though its not a very good one.

If they replace it with a better one I won't shed a tear for it. I would be disappointed though if they just take it down with no replacement
 
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I am not entirely sold that it needs a replacement. The space it takes up isn't a super great area for anything and it is in a high traffic area already with three different directions coming together with those directions being the pretzel shop, Verbolten/Oktoberfest, and Festa bridge. Aka, lots of traffic here always. And for some reason, a lot of people just standing around in this area. Adding another new ride here no matter what it is will only congest this bottleneck more, considering how crowded it gets with nobody even trying to go on Mach Tower.

Now if they were to expand the space back, this is a different story. I think it is worth considering a path connection back to Kinder Karussel to help mitigate the traffic flow issue with the addition of something that attracts people. I don't know the flat market right now so I don't know what would be a good replacement, but I am sure there is something.

The general philosophy of "for every ride the park removes it MUST be replaced" I think is over-applied. Just because a ride is taken down doesn't mean a new ride needs to go exactly in its physical place. I think there are benefits to opening this area up for alternative use and putting a ride somewhere else where the foot traffic isn't so annoying on busy days.
 
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Ice said:
I am not entirely sold that it needs a replacement. The space it takes up isn't a super great area for anything and it is in a high traffic area already with three different directions coming together with those directions being the pretzel shop, Verbolten/Oktoberfest, and Festa bridge. Aka, lots of traffic here always. And for some reason, a lot of people just standing around in this area. Adding another new ride here no matter what it is will only congest this bottleneck more, considering how crowded it gets with nobody even trying to go on Mach Tower.

Now if they were to expand the space back, this is a different story. I think it is worth considering a path connection back to Kinder Karussel to help mitigate the traffic flow issue with the addition of something that attracts people. I don't know the flat market right now so I don't know what would be a good replacement, but I am sure there is something.

The general philosophy of "for every ride the park removes it MUST be replaced" I think is over-applied. Just because a ride is taken down doesn't mean a new ride needs to go exactly in its physical place. I think there are benefits to opening this area up for alternative use and putting a ride somewhere else where the foot traffic isn't so annoying on busy days.
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Just the fact of having to remove trees to put a path in leads me to believe that will probably never happen
 
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I was about to write the same basic thing - there used to be a historical marker sign back by Kinder Karoussel with a picture.

I think I remember hearing the main reason it was removed was that it bypassed several snack shop/games/merch profit centers.

But with the pretzel shop at one end of the bridge, and whatever shops are left at the other end, maybe it'd be possible to put it back assuming it's not incredibly expensive (though the RPA buffer comes to mind as a roadblock).
 
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I think with the amount back near Festhaus to draw people in that direction, it wouldn't be viewed as a bypass. With Darkoaster and Drachen Spire set to lure people through that route combined with Festhaus, Brauhaus, and the pretel shop, more than enough reason to circle through.

With the sheer volumetric demand for dining as well, Festhaus will always be slammed. Another route could honestly help funnel people out of the corner to make room for more, I feel like it is about to get overcrowded with people and it would be best to leave room for more people who want to spend money as opposed to those just trying to get through.
 
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I was more thinking people coming off the bridge from San Marco wanting to get over to Alpengeist could have a shortcut away from the profit centers. Yeah, maybe a food stand or two plus the nutcracker/Christmas shop, but not the massive moneymakers they'd be subjected to with the current routing.
 
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My thing is how many people would realistically be walking from Italy to New France through Germany with the sole purpose of riding Alpie? If you want to ride coasters you will pass not just 1 family coaster as it has been in the past, but 2 family coasters and a large thrill coaster on the way there with the pathing as is. Safe to assume if you are by that portion of the park and your goal is to ride the coasters you'd go back and ride the three you'd otherwise be skipping by taking the new path to get to Alpie. Staying on this one example, if someone is really such a snob to hob directly from Italy to Alpie, taking the train would be the far more rational route.

My point is the only people that the new path would benefit are those simply trying to get through because they don't want to ride any of the rides or go to any of the destinations back there, they are simply passing through to get to a show or a different meal or maybe from Italy over to the new Speakeasy or whatever you wanna do over there. Hell, it is an amazing shortcut from dinner at Italy to RPT. The path that cuts through the shop would accomplish a similar task if they highlighted it more as a through way shortcut around all the nonsense, but it is not very intuitive as a path and many people probably don't realize it is there.
 
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With the noise Falcon's Fury makes coming up in another thread, I think it's worth mentioning that there is no way a ride that loud would go into the park without a lot of noise coming from Kingsmill. In fact I'm not even sure they could put it in the front of the park without concerns.
 
Fur Dozy said:
With the noise Falcon's Fury makes coming up in another thread, I think it's worth mentioning that there is no way a ride that loud would go into the park without a lot of noise coming from Kingsmill. In fact I'm not even sure they could put it in the front of the park without concerns.
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The KD drop tower is virtually silent
And it’s an Intamin. If Mach gets the axe maybe bgw would buy an Intamin tower? We know how much they like Intamin now.
 
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I think I am in the camp with those saying it doesn't really need anything there. If they put in a medium flat, it will just be added to an area with a handful of flats where it won't really stand out that much unless it's something super rare for the area. If anything, I would say put in an incline cable car down to the Rhine so mobility impared guests can access the boats. Otherwise, expand the eating area, maybe reroute the path a bit for extending Verboltens queue on busy days without backing up on the bridge.
 
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