daboywunda

Also, in case you were wondering (and I forgot to put it above):Maximum queue that I saw advertised for Swarm was 15 mins, max I experienced was 5 (not accounting for the additional front-row queue times).. Throughput is actually impressive. I can only imagine what the queue will be on Saturday though! Arrrgh!Down-time.. Had a few patches of downtime. As far as I know, they didn't evacuate, but did close the queue line and allowed people to continue queuing outside. Although, I overheard the guy who used to work on Stealth (hello!) say "Only Thorpe can break a B&M"... Made me chuckle. Teething problems are expected and it was no-where near what we experienced with Saw.Yes, those of you that were there today DID see 2... um... "ladies" dressed in bikini's running around with their jublies on display for the world to see - not leaving much to the imagination!EDIT:I totally forgot too!! And this is probably bigger than the Swam opening today!!!! There's a new fence being put up around Miss Fungles Safari that will extend around the back of Nemesis Inferno. 2013 maybe?

There's not really a lot I can add to this topic that hasn't already been said. I managed to get on it 7 times today: Outer front seats on both sides, outer back seats on both sides and strangely row 3 on both sides (plus a random placing which was row 4 right side).It's really a fantastic ride. It's like nothing you're ever going to ride (unless you've been on Baco or any of the other Wingriders that happen to be out there of course )... It offers a completely different ride experience in every seat. (sides mentioned are as you look head on at the control booth from the station) - The Left side offers what the right doesn't and vice versa. The left offers all of the views - The lower end of the plane wing, the water near miss, the over-the-top of the track elements and of course the 2 near misses with the wall as you head around to the inline twist. However, the right side offers all of the forces that you associate with the likes of nemesis (and the other water near miss). It's nothing short of a punch in the face (or so I thought any-way).... Both sides offer them "is-it-about-to-stall" moments and when on the back the drag is immense, the toughest being on the right. The station is just beautiful and the actors around the site plus the news reports make it all a little TOO real. It was actually quite unsettling The news reports are just perfect. A woman mocked up to look like the the BBC News 24 woman, in a studio mocked up to look like it with graphics and music that are similar too. It was just amazingly well done. The actors were also fantastic. However, the woman at the start of the day that came right up in my face and told me to move on, left, right, left, right was quite intimidating in all the right ways!A few gripes over the whole day however.... Swarm toilet block wasn't ready, no fire effects (but plenty of steam/smoke. (Rush wasn't open - Non Swarm I know) and the Swarm front row queue system needs a little rethink as currently you queue separately when you get to the front of the main queue, collect a ticket from the queue-line dispatcher then rejoin the main queue and get allocated to row 1 upon second dispatcher. However, they were allocating 8 - 12 tickets per row a time, giving a backlog of these back in the station main queue line. It DOES however, look like there is the infrastructure in place on the left hand side to support an independent front row queue, but not on the right. In all, it is £20 million well spent. The ride is short enough to make you want to ride again.. Many times, but long enough to leave you satisfied with your experience. As it is at the moment, the look and feel of the area is perfect and the actors complete it. However, this is likely to change when the budget for entertainment gets cut AND the news reports are aimed at opening day as it talks about "2 weeks ago", so whether these will be updated will remain to be seen.

Are there any indications as to how fast the through-put is / queue moves yet?This just looks absolutely epic and I'm so glad that I've decided to go on Thursday instead of waiting! I am so excited I can taste sick in my mouth

Any ideas what the predicted numbers are for opening day (15th March)?

I had this e-mail from Merlin's January Update:"This year we have some very exciting new features at our attractions including: THE SWARM at THORPE PARK Nemesis Sub-Terra at Alton Towers Resort Ice Age 4D at Alton Towers Resort LEGO® Star Wars™ Miniland Experienceat LEGOLAND Windsor Resort And there's more to be revealed, including details of the Passholder Preview Days! We'll provide more information in the coming weeks, in the meantime you can enjoy the fantastic events below.The Merlin Annual Pass TeamMake of that what you will...

Thanks Jack!! I did think it was a little suspicious when I read it.. Typical Sun reporting it like it's real!Although, I have been a member for quite a while, just tend to read rather than interact..

Sorry, thought I would comment here in case it's true and they need to re-construct some bits..

Did any-one else see in The Sun today that they are having to make "emergency alterations" as when tested with dummies with their arms up, the front rows it the scenery and lost their arms...Now, THAT'S that awkward moment when your new £multi-million rollercoaster is nothing more than an animated bit of scenery because they tried to cut it a little TOO fine...Oops moment.

I'm using Chrome and the mini site worked in seconds for me.. I think it depends on your broadband speed, the connection to Google to get your location and the traffic in your area. I live in the middle of no-where so not many people competing with it!Also, regarding the trim break.. That's the most likely expectation given that track section.. But by trim.. it doesn't mean Th13teen, Stealth or Saw trim.. It's just a break put there as a block section designed to stop the train in an emergency. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Oblivion have one at the bottom of the drop too?

lol, yeh, that's my point. Do you think that has any relevance in the theme before we talk about sci-fi and aliens.... A little 28 days later-esque...

Errrm... Having a look at the marketing material to date (which I must say is very much on a par with Oblivion's pre-building marketing)... Do you think it's relevant that they have used the universal sign for "virus" in their campaign?I'm a dance music producer and was looking through some new software and sound banks & found this... Look familiar?Original Source Credit: http://www.camelaudio.com/ViralOutbreak-Sound-Sample-Library.phpJust a thoughtEDIT: Lol, I've just realised just how apt this pack-shot is!

Hiya Dan... Thanks for the reply.. I can assure you that Nemesis was only on one train Weds 29th until mid morning as I headed straight over there from ERT to find a 15min Q with one train running - And I thought "oh, 1 train operation, must be expecting a quiet day then" (especially given that Spinball was running 5 cars and Oblivion on 4)- Granted, the 2nd train was introduced later that morning and stayed that way for the majority of the day, so its possible that a technical fault was responsible. The Q boards were saying Nemesis Q @ 35 mins (and was also updated a few times with 40 mins on Ride Hopper too - until the 2nd train came on)Rita also did start the day with one train I believe, but as I was whoring myself out on Th13teen at the time there is every possibility I may be wrong (it was definitely on 2 trains when we got bored of 13 at about 10:45, but seemed to only be launching one at the very start of the day)But, putting this all into context, I do have to say that Alton seem to have more control and grasp of their throughputs and seem to know exactly when to increase their capacity to allow for a quicker queue munching period - but to be fair to both parks, I tend to find that when operating full capacity both parks are really good... Its just the knowing when to increase capacity that seems to be the problem.But again, back to the original point of both parks being a business not a charity.

cool, thanks rickydoodle. I wasn't sure when I heard it as it seemed a bit steep based on the number of launches it would do in a day at full capacity! But the principle is the same whatever the cost per launch is...(I think I got the figure from the rent-out price of Stealth. there was a brochure some-where that advertised hiring Stealth out for £250 a launch)

To pick up on an earlier point (on page one) - I was at Alton Towers a week ago and the park was dead. Most of the rides were in fact running on reduced capacity with Oblivion on 4 trains, Nemesis on 1, Air on 2 (1 station), Rita on 1 and Th13teen on 2 (having started the day on 3 and being reduced) - Nemesis' AND Rita's 2nd train were introduced only when one train operation had a queue of 30 mins+ that lasted for a minimum of an hour and was reduced again once the queues were under control.Also, I'm not sure if it's true, but I'm sure that I heard some-where that Stealth costs the park £250 every time it launches? So, assuming that's true; if the park isn't busy enough to fill the trains fully but can half their costs by halving their capacity, then doesn't that make sense? I'm sure you would if it was your business surely? Judging on the original post, a 10 minute queue wouldn't be a dire thing on 1 train operation, when the park is dead any-way, giving ample opportunity for re-rides and short queues.. its not like the queue was an hour on 1 train and thorpe refused to add the 2nd train (like they HAVE done on Colossus a few years back)In my opinion, the only rides that would ever need to be run at full capacity regardless of park attendance would be the current new attraction that needs to impress people (Saw and Th13teen currently for example) with the addition of the rides that are still popular and consistently get massive queues (Nemesis & Air) when these are required. It's just business sense!