Coaster

Apart from the fact that the queues at Thorpe Park move so slowly, due to fastrack sales!
I agree that Inferno's queueline has got a cool ambience about it.

I think it's a shame that Thorpe Park have finally gone the way of Alton Towers and have introduced a charge for the new maze. Unless you book in advance, I can indeed see it being £5 on the day. What is worse also, is that this paid experience replaces a free one. As much as I am sure it'll be better, it's just a pity.

See the similarity?

Not to mention The Swarm will only be two years old by then. Colossus in that pic is at least seven. Comparison irrelevant.

Advertisements have taken over the swarm TV's already.... Disgusting

Ranger County Asylum I'm pretty excited for FN now!

So, on Saturday 8th September I, finally, went to the Nation’s Thrill Capital, Thorpe Park!

Because I've been looking forward for so long and want to talk about a lot of things I'm going to do this trip report in five parts, so please bear with…
An early morning start...

After traveling across the country; after waiting so long to get finally to Thorpe Park, seeing the UK's fastest, tallest, and scariest rides took my breath away within seconds. From that point on I knew today was going to be amazing.

The entrance area to Thorpe is admittedly quite small and having to nearly jump over people in a squabble to get in wasn't pleasant. I can see how people say it’s very tight but of course, it wasn't built to handle such crowds. It didn't help that today was going to be very busy! But nevertheless, I got my ticket and jumped straight in! I met up with the group (who already spent an hour there before me) on the entrance bridge; I was just astonished at the height of some of the coasters there! But without having time to take it in we shot off to our first ride of the day.
First ride of the day - The new mighty B&M wing rider

The Swarm

The Swarm Island is the best area of Thorpe Park - it is themed from top to bottom and really feels like a disaster zone. Having the entrance to the area right under the drop/top of the lift hill was genius; it certainly put things into perspective for me, being that close up – it’s actually enormous! The queue for The Swarm was already 90 mins so we grabbed some fastrack and joined the queue…

The queue and station are both really well themed: the attention to detail was really something else! Having an open roof station was different and good one at that in my opinion (the excellent weather may have played a part in that though) and station loop music was great as well! Loading was quick and efficient I thought, though myself and Luke had to let someone go in front of us because we wouldn't have got on the same train as the rest of the group otherwise – typical theme park faffing about! But once in our seats we were ready to ride The Swarm!

The Ride

My first experience being abducted by The Swarm was on the right hand side, middle row, outside seat and it certainly had my heart rushing. Once dispatched, it was a speedy lift hill to the top (something you don't normally get at Towers) and once at the top then I started to panic!

The Swarm's drop is one of the best things ever: so bizarre and surprising being chucked upside down and thrown 127ft to the ground! Certainly had me screaming, the drop was SO good – one of the best drops I have ever experienced and certainly one to challenge Oblivion's drop in the intensity stakes.

Once under the plane we got chucked through the Zero-G and then down into my favourite part of The Swarm, the inclined loop! Once out of that I didn't really notice the water effects on either helicopter or fire engine side - unsure if they were even on! (the fire certainly was as it caught me off guard in the queue!) Through the corkscrew...

Then the scariest (I think) On & Offride part of the ride! The inline twist. While in the station the inline twist scared me, but being actually on it was even scarier. Hearing the roar of B&M then the screams of riders above your head whilst waiting in the station certainly sets your heart racing while onride being chucked upside down was just breathtaking. Then we hit the brakes! A nice lovely drop into the finally breaks and that was it.


Pro's -
The Swarm Island is just amazing, so much detail you can't take it all in at once. That first drop. Though the vest was tight, the seats are really comfy. Con's -
Both the tower & jet engine swarm noise was turned off but I didn't mind greatly. Didn't notice the water sprays/wasn't turned on. Something that annoyed me was the fact we missed our onride photo because of the baggage/unloading, this certainly needs to be fixed as Merlin are missing out on people buying photos! Overall Review:

The Swarm - it doesn't feel short to me, it lives up to expectations; that first drop is phenomenal – definitely one of the highlights of the ride and it left me speechless.

10/10

Part 2/5: Rumba Rapids, the lost shoe on Tidal Wave & the mighty Stealth.

Phobias? Phobias?!
Please no moths... please no moths.

Curse has never really made sense to me, I understand the storyline but it just seems to be a series of dark corridoors with the occassional actor jumping out behind a door
and then shutting it as quickly as possible.

For sure there is potential! But lets get 2012 fright nights over and done with first!!

Really frustrating day at Chessington yesterday. There is still lots that make it a really charming park to visit, improvements are being made in places (e.g. Tomb Blaster lighting looking good) and I have a ton of fond childhood memories of the place.
It's interesting to see the other thread pop up regarding whether Chessington needs another major ride. We all know the answer (and have done for many years now) - of course it does! Vampire & Dragons Fury just simply don't have enough capacity to fulfil demand. If one goes down, everything really does go to pot. The park still don't have a grip on the selling of fast tracks. Over-selling to the extreme this week it seems.
Arrived at 9.45 yesterday, got on Dragons Fury by 10ish, by the time we got to Vampire after going to the loo, member of staff basically stood blocking the queue entrance stating it already had an hour+ queue! The mind boggles... Staff stood in front of it all day giving the bad news of how long the queue is, when we went back in the afternoon they estimated a mind-blowing 2 hours. Honestly was a bit doubtful and thought, no way, that can't be right, so gave it a go. Stood in the same spot in the queue for 15mins, all while trains going overhead. Then moved (no joke) 2 meters. Stood in that place for another 5mins. Gave up as they were indeed right, it would have taken 2 hours at that pace...
Speaking to member of staff at entrance who said they (like me) had also been to Disney recently where things are operated so much better, and admitted fast tracks had been over-sold, but they had just stopped...
I know it's perhaps a little harsh to compare against Disney but if Merlin are aiming to be one of the best in the world I think it's fair: Seriously, Disneyland can keep the queue for Big Thunder Mountain down below 70mins all day standby in the peak week of the year and they have what 3x(?) the visitors a day that Chessie gets? Even Crush's coaster at the Studios managed to stay at 70mins and they must of had twice Chessie's visitors when we were there last week - compared to 75mins for Fury all day yesterday.
You know when crowds seemingly thin out in the last hour of most days? Wake up Chessington - this does not happen in the summer or at weekends! You need to extend opening to 7pm like Thorpe. Fury queue dipped down to 50mins on its entry sign at about 5.45pm and we were going to join for a 2nd ride of the day. Guess what - break down! Cars stopped all over the course, good way for the ride to end the day . Mooched off to Vampire for 5.55pm where staff still outside trying to warn people away and saying queue is still over an hour. Waited it out and ended up moving a bit faster than our attempt earlier in the day - theory: staff wanted to get home! Took an hour. Ended up on very back of the train which is rare nowadays due to exit riders, was good!
I'll also say this - it's not nice for guests to not only have to wait hour+ in queues for staff to roll their eyes or moan about how there are still loads of people in the Vampire station/queue and they can't leave yet.
Goodness knows what happened to the poor people who waited in the Fury queue in case they managed to get it open again, all other rides would have shut their queue lines at 6pm - Fury cars were still stuck on the MCBRs when we left the park at 7.
Final moan for today, and backed up by the number of similar feelings on the facebook page: How they have the nerve to charge £2 to park in that grass/gravel car park I'll never know. They've just said they inspect and make repairs to it each day. They must be having a laugh. The craters in the surface only get worse on each of our visits to the extent off being car-damaging; and it took us 45mins to get out of the car park!
I thought that Disneyland would be a ton more stressful during the peak of summer and having to cope with all those people, rather than familiar old Chessington. I was wrong - compare:
*Disney: 8am-11pm openings, 2 theme parks, free fast passes meaning you can plan your day with no queueing, 6 parades a day, night time spectacular display, and I didn't even get bothered by a single wasp during a week!
*Chessington: 10am-6pm openings; 1 park with annoying upsellers, 'sideshow-basketball-annoying-people'; fast tracks which cost £5 a pop and cause the standby queue to feel 2nd-rate citizens and not move anywhere, 3 Madagascar shows a day, wasps attacks, and you have to pay to leave the park and still have to add an hour to your day getting out of the damaging car park...
Sort it out.

Well this is a shame. Thorpe Blast (better name) was the best day on park last season for me. Hopefully this means Fright Nights gets a bigger budget for some themeing outside of mazes.

The Swarm was very poor today.
- Until around 12 noon it was running a one train service with a 90 minute queue.
- The fire effect stopped working today at around 11, meaning that I didn't get a ride with it on.
- There were no water skims operating at all today despite the hot weather.
- The sound effects were out of time
- The dispatch times were quite lousy.
- On some rows the LED's were not working.
Sort it out Thorpe park!

I do really like the ride by just thinking about it, I really do think a mistake was made when they named called it Nemesis Inferno. Giving it the Nemesis name set the ride up for a nearly impossible challenge of beating or at least matching the original and I think they would have been far better off just calling it Inferno. That isn't to say that comparisons still wouldn't be drawn, enthusiasts everywhere would still compare the two rides being the same ride type but still; less comparisons would be drawn by the GP.

Glad they have sorted that out.
I am just upset and irritated that the coaster has only been around a few months and it has already been the victim of vandals (Mainly the church building)
It just feels upsetting and disrespectful that Thorpe have actually made a effort for The Swarm, then it is ruined by inconsiderate..."people" who just come and mess it up. It really ruins the atmosphere, seeing rude/dumb and pointless comments scribbled over the walls.
Still I guess it is inevitable really. No point trying to fight it.

Just found the directors cut of The Swarm advert!

Anyone else think if they didn't know this was a rollercoaster and saw just this version on the Tv they would think its a movie trailer?

Yeah and people have chucked pennies all over the scenery causing it to look kinda wierd.

Is this some kind of joke now? Lost count on the amount of times these decisions have been reversed, pretty poor management if you ask me...

Gaah, the classic 'I know a secret but I'm not telling' I place my bets on The Curse going to Mutiny Bay.

I went to Chessington yesterday.
Park was quite busy, and it closed too early - 5pm closing when the park is still full of people is not good enough.

^ it looks so much nicer and cleaner in that photo

They need to demoilish this heap junk

When they start doing that to rides like Oblivion and Vampire, without painting queue lines garish colours or awful sponsorship deals then yes Merlin will have turned some kind of corner.

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.