Coaster

A turret or something pointing up towards the drop with a smoke cannon that fires as the train accelerates downwards, to create the illusion that it has been hit. Yes please.

Not sure if there'd be any point in a Leviathan-style nameboard/set-piece because The Swarm's logo has it's own bridge to itself already. Jack's hit the nail on the head though - the pipe looks more like an internal support for a stood structure, which is to be bolted into the ground as well, so that means it's heavy. My best guess is it's going to be a smashed car that's been picked up and dropped by The Swarm and smashed an enormous whole in the ground.
If this is a sign of things to come (first Krake receives more themeing, now The Swarm) then I take my hat off to Merlin. Now if only they took their sights down to the more finite details of a coaster like, oh, I dunno, the paintwork or existing themeing pieces/devices.
OH, HEY INFERNO.

If we get something like Leviathans statue but more suited to The Swarm I'll be a happy bunny.

Imagine The Swarm creature all lit up at night like the one from Leviathan does. Unfortunately, it will most likely be a fastrack unit because this is Merlin we are talking about.

^^^ This is so true - the second half of Inferno is dull
Where as the thirlling points of Colossus are the drop, loop, bunny hop (beginning) and then the heartline rolls (end) - I think starting and finishing on the most thrilling elements is a winning formula that Inferno lacks

Yup, also visited the park today and was looking forward to showing off The Swarm to a family member. As much as I love the ride itself, today was indeed a very poor performance for Thorpe.
Things looked fairly bright first thing at opening, despite there being a 'Swarm will be operating on reduced capacity today' sign outside the entrance it started off on 2 trains and managed to get on within 10mins. Annoyingly the front row queuing system seems to have been given up on and even after politely requesting the front seat the ride host denied us (it would only have meant getting on 1 train after). So front row now seems to be purely pot luck, great
On the ride, really disappointed with the complete lack of helicopter water fountains and the late timing of the fire engine fountain splash. The helicopter blades were also not turning...
Returning later, found the ride broken and not being allowed anywhere near the island.
Later still, Swarm has gone down to 1 train. Wait in the slowest moving queue ever. Think we must have moved about 5 meters every 10mins. Finally get to the batch area and realise why. Ride host is letting fast-trackers in time after time after time. Basically ignoring the normal queue. Could not believe it, ridiculous. No way should they sell so many fast track tickets for a ride on reduced capacity . Finally think we are about to get on and guess what... break down time!! Gets fixed after 20mins and there is no apology whatsoever from any member of staff. Thanks. Resume slow operations. Total queue time = 90mins
Third time we went to ride was right at the end of the day. Still on 1 train. Still a real slow moving queue. Get to the station and find staff not really focused on the job in hand. Few things I saw: staff *kicking* the dispatch/advance button; messing around on their (in-ear) radios which were loud enough for guests to hear; no batching; standing in a huddle in the middle of the station having a gossip; climbing up on the track in the center of the station. Poor show. Total queue time = 50mins
As I said earlier, thank goodness the ride itself is decent...
P.S. One final thing - would it hurt for Merlin staff to say 'please and thank you'?? It's something that is really starting to bug me (and is also lacking at Chessington), it's really simple, and for every job I've ever had it's the No1 thing for customer service...
P.P.S. Still have never seen the fire effect work

Hopefully they paint magic dust to stop it self destructing.

The Swarm was a poor show today.
- No water shooting on the helicopter turnaround
- Very bad timing of the water jets on the fire engine area
- No LED's on the trains
- 1 train operation for most of the day plus lots of fasttracks causing a very slow moving queue
- Breakdown causing everyone to evacuate the area
- Not as many jets of water shooting out of the fire engine or helicopter
With that said, I did manage to get 3 rides in on it meaning that I have reached 50 in total!

Sub Terra continues to see subtle improvements. I have been on park a couple of times in the past few weeks, and the ride consistently has a 45 minute + queue all day - with exception to the last hour of park opening, when it dips right down to about 10 minutes by ride close.
There is now more use of water spray in the bottom "nest" area, and there is also increased use of the wind effect just before you leave your seats to evacuate. The actors in the maze section are also spreading themselves a little better, generally an actor tries to go really near the end - so that it's not just in the first corridor.
Overall, it's still doing really well, and the maintenence of effects seems to be great too. All in all, a good job all round. The theming and immersion inside really is some of the best in the country.

Magma looks like the drop tower they have at Flambards that spins.

I always think that metalic alien noise is out of sync then the train rises from the fire engine through the tower, needs to come a couple of seconds earlier tbh

Happy 25th Anniversary to Chessington. Which also means.. Happy 25th Birthday to Safari Skyway, Dragon Falls, Runaway Train and the Flying Jumbos which are the only original rides left at the park.
(Unless you want to count Tomb Blaster but it isn't really the same in the slightest these days)

Look at the mist go!

I've just read elsewhere about this Zoo Days business - have Chessington made some sort of announcement that they are over? Comment on a different forum is that it was a planning permission condition for Wanyama that it was to be made available to the public all year round - so would they be in infringement of that rule?
We tend to go about 3 times a month during the close period / Zoo Days, and it's always a nice trip out.

So our resident trolley dolley linked this rather awesome, drool-worthy video in chat and it had to be shared!


Look at how red the blood is on Nemesis! And how colourful Corky looks!
Enjoy

One thing I noticed is how great Nemesis looks back then with its raw rocks and no pretty overgrown trees! It looks menacing and not like an garden centre
I fear that in a couple of years The Swarm will have these overgrown plants and The Swarm will be tearing past nice beautiful plants and trees! Not very post-apocalyptic now is it!
Its already happening to Saw where collection of trees are started to pop up near the warehouse and looks very non industrial, and Merlin don't seem to be bothered to cut them down

Fortunately, not every Gerstlauer is like Saw...
Dunno what the difference between having this and the Black Hole tent makes really aside from the movement aspect... Either way, the area is still designed with Oblivion in mind and will still be the major thing to be seen as you enter the area... On the top of the drop I'm sure many people who aren't enthusiasts will still be solely focused on the massive drop and tiny hole at the bottom...
Indeed, I doubt many guests will care much that there is a new coaster apparently 'ruining' the area... The parks cannot win can they?

I am 100% behind this. I think it's just people nit picking, to be honest.

Stupid fastrack.

I can see what people are saying, but I actually feel as though SW7 has been designed in such a way to not impact the visual importance of Oblivion- especially when walking into X Sector- Oblivion will still very much be the main spectacle and it's not until you actually walk a little into the area will you see the majority of the track for the new ride.
Maybe it's just me, but when I'm on Oblivion, hanging on the edge of that drop, the last thing I'm worried about is the surrounding attractions, I'm thinking, "how the hell is this shuttle supposed to fit into that hole?!", I'm cacking myself. You could also say similar things about the hospitality tent near to Swarm.... this is nit picking a little too much.

With all these reversals, you do have to wonder that if SW7 is poorly received, if Alton would close it after a week and decide to build a different coaster instead...

Valhalla certainly is amazing! Best theming I've ever seen, awesome effects, and lots of fun! I think there's three drops, one of which is backwards, and another is quite forceful. I think anyway, or maybe I'm getting confused/imagining it. But I think I'm right :)And you get WET! Like worse than Tidal Wave! Gah I wanna go to Blackpool so much now!!

I agree that had it only been a handful of smaller rides, then there wouldn't really have been any issue. I do take issue with Duel, though - because it's directly on the way to/from Fordbidden Valley and with the Skyride closed until 11am, lots of people will be walking through Gloomy Wood.

Duel and Skyride I sort of get, but Air and Thirteen?!

Just found this on youtube:
http://youtu.be/CGdYzlqGg-4
I think you might be interested