Dodge2002

I heard they put a fence under the launch? If that's the case then does it block of access to the garden?!

To be honest I like the music they've played the last few years. It's mostly been from the Saw movies. Queuing up for stealth with this blaring ,a constant haze of smoke, perfect ambient lighting. It makes the Stealth plaza one of the best places on the park during FNs. Then walking out of the park during 2011, having this playing across the bridge, again just wow. Seeing all the advertising for THE SWARM, incuding the looming lift hill being built, I left the park with chills, it just left such a great impression.

Looks like a lame prank, the old carrying a bolt around to freak people out that they probably accidentally dropped. If there was any downtime it was probably because thanks to some idiot they had to double check each bolt to make sure it didn't come from the ride.

If they have all effects/lights/smoke/fire working by fright nights, THE SWARM island is going to look EPIC when the sun goes down.

They could actually make it look pretty cool by fencing it off with loads of police line tape and "temporary" police fencing.

I'm holding out for an ambitious event at both parks this year. At Thorpe, we've seen a massive investment into the entertainments division this year, despite a shaky start with Saw Alive. The countless music festivals that have taken place throughout the season show a lot of ambition to make the park more rounded in regards to entertainments. They've also pumped a lot into other events like Sun scream and all the stunts shows again. Then at Alton, we've seen minimal in regards to entertainments, but the willingness to spend to promote with the £1000 giveaway. Hopefully the reason we've only seen a few sparse lackluster events is because they're banking it all on Scarefest. Perhaps that is a wise move, come October the olympics will be well over, and the buzz are THE SWARM will have died off somewhat. As for moving, what about Hellgate? It would fit in perfectly as a second maze within the towers, and had some fairly decent theming that would fit right in at the towers. I just don't see where they'd fit another pop-up tent + room for a queuline in the park, unless of course they move it off park.

Was just having a look to see if there were any other models with this layout in the world, but by the looks of it this is the only one of its type. Looks like all their water rides are plagued with hideous scaffolding too, in fact its only from the distinctive scaffolding that I was sure I was looking at the same type of ride, because all of the ones on their site are waterpark models and no such dry versions seem to be on display, despite being advertised http://www.whitewaterwest.com/family_rafting.html

As cool as it is, it begs the question, why would they just randomly plonk a piece of theming in halfway through the season? And why wasn't it in the planning documents? Especially when, the way I see it, the ride isn't even 100% fully complete yet. No fire, no consistent webcam/LED's, faulty jets etc. I'm certainly not complaining, but I just think its odd...

They set that VERY quickly, two days ago it was literally just a pile of rubble...

Was closed all day yesterday, if that's what happened to the belt then I dunno if that's because they have to do more extensive maintenance on the ride, or maybe a health and safety evaluation or something, since that could have essentially led to a fatal accident if their fortunes weren't great.

Yesterday when I went the jets were out of action, but everything else was working. I'm starting to notice the small things are no longer working though, for example the lights on the helicopter and fire engine no longer flashed, and the truck outside the island had no smoke or lighting anymore. After the first hour it ran all day on 2 trains and completely gobbled up the queues. Also noticed 2 things, at the entrance theres a smallish sized circle fenced off, there were loads of bricks there and a plastic sheet covering something up. Not sure what this is for, whether its just relaying some dodgy bricks or perhaps putting in another stall or something. Secondly, I noticed a few guys wondering around with TG Cruise Groundworks coats on. They had one of those distance measuring wheels. I know these guys are working on SW7 at AT, not sure if they're responsible for THE SWARM too or not, though, but looks like some kind of development should happen soon.

Perhaps the out of sync effects are linked to the fact its only running on the one train? I can only assume after a certain amount of time the jets go into standby mode, and it takes them a few minutes to start running water through again when a train passes after so long. That's just my random theory though...

If its causing so many problems, dare I say, why not open it on selected dates/reduced hours. It's a good job Thorpe aren't a all year round park, I'd dread to think what downtime it'd have without its winter maintenance...

Said it before and I'll say it again. 2012 will be a fluke for visiting figures. When was the last time we had 3 massive international events in the space of three months, let alone in the same year. With just the Olympics left to go, it'll either boost figures massively, or hit them horrifically. Foreign Tourists, who probably make up about 30-40% of their visiting figures have just got other things on their mind right now...

Gutted...I love the Slammer and that message is far too ominous. If this IS the end then my hats go off to Thorpe for investing the time and effort that they did during its whole unreliable lifetime, but enough is enough. I hope they write a strongly worded letter to S&S! Haha

I'd assume the idea behind it is that they get better learning experience if there are actually people on the park whilst they do it. It'll be a real life situation with real life reactions and gives them a good chance to practice crowd control and sectioning off an area of the park while the rest of the rides remain open.

It was probably just looser than what he was used to on a ride. If you pushed it up, they'd probably go a fair distance before hitting the next ratchet. The bars are pretty obsolete anyway, I don't see why he'd have to hold on to anything while the train ascends, its really not THAT steep.

I'd recommend just playing chicken with the parking attendant, they usually give in and let you out for free if you make enough commotion looking for your "lost ticket".

Love the fact they had the old Swarm fencing up by the main arena entrance. Heard at least 2 people saying "oh look another new coaster! UK's first...what?"

Took my second visit of the season today (first being opening day) and was pleased to see the whole area was pretty much exactly how it was when it first opened. Was pleasantly surprised to see all the effects and audio triggers working and up to scratch. I know its only been a few months, but realistically I wasn't expecting the chopper to be leaking anymore, or the plane wing to be smoking etc. And yet they were. Still no sign of Fire, LED's and On-Board video. But it definitely doesn't take anything away from the experience. And my only other problem was that it ran with one train all day, so the queue was unnecessarily 20 minutes at times, despite the park being absolutely dead. If there's problems with the other train at times, as others have suggested, this could become a big problem during peak times...

Wait does that say 3,421 MILES? That can't be anywhere near accurate, surely?

If they did, which I don't think is actually likely, it will definitely be Mon-Thu. Thorpe see Friday to Sunday as their peak days and would definitely chose a statistically weaker day for less disruption. So yeah, I wouldn't worry too much.

It would be interesting to see what any Swarm related maze would involve. Its not likely we'll see people dressed up in alien costumes terrorizing guests. Also do you think it'd be viable to do a scarezone past depth charge onto to THE SWARM island? Of course that would mean it'd be the only way through which I guess wouldn't be allowed. I hope they try something interesting again this year like they did with Experiment 10. I think Se7en will probably leave this year too. Its falling apart, quite literally, we got evacuated last year because a piece of wood with a nail in it fell off the roof in the room in front. They could probably quite easily take a few set pieces out and create a new maze using them though I reckon. The asylum probably wont change for a few years yet, and the curse is in a pretty good condition to be honest. As for Ex10, its a given it will return I'm sure.

When I went on a Sunday a few weeks back they had no photo op, was pretty much a walk on too. Was kinda gutted because its the only real opportunity you get to have a proper group photo without having to hunt down a picsolve guy. Anyone able to confirm the fate of the mazes actors yet by the way? Were there any of them walking around THE SWARM island today, or are they all absent? Do you think they were offered various jobs around the park instead?

I back Merlin 100% in their decision to scrap the maze. Its not penny pinching, its damn logistical common sense. They were blowing around £1000+ a day to keep something that probably rarely peaked 2000 guests a day. The frequently small queues meant it did a very poor job at being a filler attraction, and it was one of the very few attractions with no upsell opportunity whatsoever once the photo got scrapped. No queueline shop, no fastrack due to short queues, no photo, no interactive games (like water squirters) and required more disposable effect replenishment than most of the other rides in the park. Naturally fright nights is better, because there's no way one director could possibly direct all of those mazes. Whoever is in charge of Saw Alive should have been fired or demoted a long time ago. They probably haven't even seen a Saw movie in their life. The maze had a ridiculous amount of potential to let you be dragged into the Saw world - people being picked out to sit in traps, multiple pathways based on your decision, more encounters with billy etc. The maze itself if you took out all the actors is actually pretty damn impressive, with a really great attention to detail. But the GCSE drama students running about inside just ruin the atmosphere.