Mäch Tower

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The first entry in this thread is a WikiPost. As such, it can be edited by anyone with the appropriate permissions.

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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RollyCoaster said:
It has one of the worst drops of a drop tower and the restraints suck ass
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Adding to the Mach Tower hate: The music and vibration effects have been broken for years now and, frankly, you're lucky if the dropping part even functions at all. Horrific downtime, painfully long load times due to the horrible restraints and sensors, laughably bad ridership... the list goes on and on. Please put this thing out of its misery and end our suffering BGW.
 
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My last season at the park was spent in Oktoberfest. I openly told the MT team that if the ride were to catch fire, they should just clock out and let it burn. Hated that ride! Most useful thing one could do with it would be to knock it over and widen the bridge to Italy!
 
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Zachary said:
Adding to the Mach Tower hate: The music and vibration effects have been broken for years now and, frankly, you're lucky if the dropping part even functions at all. Horrific downtime, painfully long load times due to the horrible restraints and sensors, laughably bad ridership... the list goes on and on. Please put this thing out of its misery and end our suffering BGW.
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WAIT! There was music and it was supposed to vibrate!
 
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Travis... said:
WAIT! There was music and it was supposed to vibrate!
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Yep. It opened with music and vibration. As you neared the top, the music would start to glitch and cut out. You’d get to the top, the carriage would rumble violently, and then it would drop. The effects vanished years back. People would care a lot if it were literally any ride other than Mäch Tower I’m sure.
 
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Zachary said:
Yep. It opened with music and vibration. As you neared the top, the music would start to glitch and cut out. You’d get to the top, the carriage would rumble violently, and then it would drop. The effects vanished years back. People would care a lot if it were literally any ride other than Mäch Tower I’m sure.
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Woah
 
Never rode it until the music & vibration were already gone, but I can't imagine that would've made it that much better IMO. It's a very dull ride. There was some concept I think I read about a while back on here or perhaps elsewhere of a drop tower ride that went partially underground. That sounds way more interesting than MT IMO.
 
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Zachary said:
Yep. It opened with music and vibration. As you neared the top, the music would start to glitch and cut out. You’d get to the top, the carriage would rumble violently, and then it would drop. The effects vanished years back. People would care a lot if it were literally any ride other than Mäch Tower I’m sure.
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They probably turned the vibration off because people were afraid the ride was falling apart. As for the music, I do remember the glitchy music. Shame they can't fix that, it can't be complicated tech
 
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Random thought here but if they replaced MT would it require a new height waiver even at the same height?

FWIW if this ever did die I would want to see an S&S triple shot replace it with 3 towers like Hershey.

FWIW as a township planner I did make a church replacing the bell tower at the same height resubmit their height waiver being pre-approved so we had record of new sight lines with the tree and town skyline changes.
 
I’d love to see MT replaced with a Universal Studios Tower Of Terror style ride inside Dar ... erm ... NewKastle if that building were tall enough for such a thing. Tower of Terror’s production value is amazing. I doubt the numbers would work for a similar ride at a regional park though.
 
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I remember them hyping it up at the passholder meeting in 2010, that there were going to be surprises at the top. Was quite a let down (pun intended) when we got up there and it was only sound effects and a large phone vibrating in your pocket...
 
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I remember the vibration was neutered very quickly after the ride opened. I was there on opening day and remember on my first couple of rides actually mistaking the vibrating effect for a fake-out drop, as it was so powerful at times that it felt like the carriage was falling a few feet before the actual drop. The snippet of music from The Nutcracker complemented the park and the surrounding historical triangle area beautifully as the carriage rose to the top. As other members have mentioned, this effect too was removed, however, it will still sometimes screechingly project its audio out of the speakers, but by the time it reaches the top it usually cuts out. Employees would frequently do a countdown at the top as a result of this, but without the effects, the already painfully boring Mach Tower somehow manages to be even more boring.

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Also, just listen to what Shawn from Theme Park Worldwide has to say about Mach Tower in this vlog from 50:26-51:07. This may be one of the most universally disliked drop towers in the world, at least that's a marketable feature, right?
 
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I keep forgetting that the ride opened almost a decade ago and there's people that never knew about MT's original "features". The vibrating seats were cool imo. It was loud from the ground so it sounded sketchy but it really stood out compared to most other drop towers at the time. With that being said the drop on Intamin gyro drops is way better.
 
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