Pandemonium
As with writing any text the hardest challenge with theme park reviews is the first few sentences in which you try to captivate the reader with something dramatic, original, which doesn’t involve going right off round the houses (in other words the exact opposite of what I have just written). So here is my statement to intrigue: One idea I have come up with to describe the development of amusement rides (i.e. Pandemonium to avoid going completely off topic) is Darwinism and evolution. In other words when a manufacturer plans a new ride type they analyse which ones on the market have already proven themselves to be successful and then add their own twist (or in the case of the Chinese break copy write laws and create carbon copies). In few places is this more evident than in the development of the Fabbri Cataclysm, the ride type of no other than Pandemonium, which this review aims to ‘examine’ (see, it only took me one good paragraph to get there!).

Initially the roots of the Cataclysm were laid in the humble Pirate Ship, however it would only be a matter of time before various manufactures evolved this basic pendulum motion into full 360-degree revolutions creating a classic thrill ride from a classic family ride. From there we can use the classic branch analogy. Chance rides allowed the gondola to move independent of the main shaft; the evolution places a spinning disc arrangement at the end of the pendulum and finally Fabbri created a floorless variant.

Prelude over; Pandemonium replaces the then aging Sky Flyer and like many of Drayton Manor’s projects the new arrival had a remarkable resemblance to its older relative, save for a few differences such as the addition of a floorless gondola.

Pandemonium may not tone in with the rest of Aerial Park, but then again no ride does really and let’s faces it, Aerial Park has become the land we love to hate theming wise. It does, however, look far smarter than the Sky Flyer in its nice purple and turquoise livery with the neat cogwheels around the shafts pivot adding an element of style.

Like most modern white-knuckle rides it features the classic OSTR restraint (horse collar) but with an additional metal clasp that comes down, which according to Fabbri is an additional safety feature few rides include. Being no mechanic myself I am not qualified to try and explain why most manufactures would be satisfied with just the horse collar, whereas the Fabbri engineers require extra precautions, but there you go. What I will say is that the clumsy restraint system is one of greatest criticism we can throw at Pandemonium.

By applying reverse psychology astute readers may already take the hints that I am fairly impressed with Pandemonium, as although not ideal there are worse faults to by found with rides than having a little too restrictive restraints. I won’t go into a blow-by-blow account of everything this ride does because the pictures are fairly self-explanatory and speak a thousand words (although using 10,000 times the memory!). This ride may not be that disorientating, but there is a good mix of airtime (on the swings) and hang time when the gondolas stop upside down. Combine this with the dizzy feeling of being hurled 20 metres into the sky, which inevitably culminates in a decent speed and you have a great addition to the park.

Enthusiasts may be disappointed that unlike the Sky Flyer it is not manually controlled by a ride operator, and since one of the most common reasons for quitting a job is boredom the staff may also be a little disappointed. This is a bit of shame as it seems a win/win situation allowing the ride to be manually controlled, and provided the right staff are assigned to the job it has other pros such as being able to alter the ride length according to queue length. Nevertheless I’m splitting hairs. What we are talking about is a very high capacity ride with one fairly good setting, all put together in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

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