Croc Drop (ride) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Croc Drop |
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| Manufacturer | SBF Visa Group | ||||||||||
| Designer | Firefly Creations | ||||||||||
| Model | Drop'n Twist Tower | ||||||||||
| Theme | Koda Creative | ||||||||||
| Height | 25.6 m (84 ft) | ||||||||||
| Height restriction | 120 cm (3 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||
 Fastrack available |
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Croc Drop is an SBF Visa drop tower flat ride, which opened in Spring 2021 at Chessington World of Adventures Resort in southwest London, England, forming part of the Forbidden Kingdom section of the park. The ride's slogan is, 'Brave the drop, Release the curse'.
History
Following the closure of Rameses Revenge at the end of 2019, plans were soon spotted for a multi-million pound replacement drop tower. Two years on, it opened alongside the Blue Barnacle for the 2021 season in Forbidden Kingdom. The ride is manufactured by the SBF Visa Group and is the second model of its type in Britain, after Magma at Paultons Park. Croc Drop is the first significant new ride hardware at Chessington since Zufari and Kobra and follows the most recent investment at the park which was the re-theme of Dragon Falls to Tiger Rock in 2018.
In 2020, the ride's name was opposed by the American footwear manufacturer Crocs. The opposition was not upheld by the UK Intellectual Property Office and the ride's name was retained.
Description
As with all rides of its type, a gondola with 16 seats is lifted to the top of a large vertical structure, then released to free-fall down the tower. Brakes slow the gondola as it approaches the bottom of the ride. This design expands on this concept with features including rotating gondolas and several bounces before coming to rest. The total weight of the ride is around 26,000kgs and it rotates at 6 rpm.
The ride's soundtrack has been composed by Nick Hutson.
Set to ‘drop’ in spring, those daring will plunge 25m into the giant jaws of a crocodile, Sobek, the ancient Egyptian Crocodile God and protector of the Nile, who has been possessed by evil spirits, transforming him into a cruel deity. With the once fertile Nile laying stagnant, riders must take part in a ceremony to banish the evil spirits from Sobek, plunging into the crocodile's soul and freeing the waters back into the Nile. Chessington ran a teaser campaign throughout 2020 for the new attraction, with mysterious clues posted on their social media channels for people to solve.
Those between 1.2m and 1.3m must be accompanied by an adult over the age of 16, while those a minimum height of 1.3m can ‘drop’ alone.
Gallery
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Croc Drop completed ride in motion.
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Croc Drop significantly changes Chessington’s skyline.
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Croc Drop’s batching area and doors opening with smoke.
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Ride during early construction.
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Croc Drop promotional image.
