The Swarm

[Mark9]

People keep saying about how it's different in different seats, considerable. But - can you pick your rown or are you batched into a row? I know it was quiet today, but I worry that I will be forced into some average, middle seat.Quite a number of people I have read reviews of, are saying this is better than the original Nemesis at Alton - the coaster which is 18 years old and keeps being put in the top 10 in coaster polls worldwide.Is it really up there? I guess I'll find out on Saturday.

Unlike Raptor, you get no choice where you are put. You don't even get a choice of which side of the train you can be put in. In this respect, Raptor is superior. I don't think it will challenge Nemesis to be honest. It's good but it isn't that good.

[Deleted Users]

No offence, but, when you look at the towering recreation of hogwarts just to the right, I hardly think this is on the same scale as a great white tent with well kept lawn directly across the path from a scene of sheer devestation by a creation on a mission to destroy everything.... How nice of the Swarm to leave thaqt conference centre. It is a nice little creature isn't it....And also, I'd put money on that picture being pretty much out of public sight, not just off the main path into the area (I cannot say, I haven't been to Florida since the constructionof hogwarts).

Ok fine. Personally I didn't even it was there except for walking into and out of the area. Chances are it will be gone when the hotel is built anyway.The picture isn't out of sight.

[Benin]

^^ Baco WIPES THE FLOOR with this, in terms of themeing, near misses, speed, everything! Have you ridden front row?(and for those who think I'm wrong because this is not a shared opinion, venture off the Thorpe Park fansite, and you'll find it's a lot more shared).

The only majority shared opinion I know of Baco is how dire it is...

[Drawin]

I personally feel that RobD is was being a bit picky when he posted that. However, I have yet to ride it, so I'm just going to have to wait till I get a personal opinion for myself.

[RobD]

^^ Because you're one of these people who think if a ride is rough in certain seats it's therefore terrible whereever you sit? I know this is the case because I've read your other posts Benin. That's fair enough, but as I say, roughness is down to wheel flats, so The Swarm could (and I believe is in the early stages of) experience similar roughness, depending on maintenence routine.As for themeing, again, I'm refering to atmosphere created in the queueline. A cattle pen can be very well themed. Just like a festival for example, it's a muddy field, but there is atmosphere. The same applies. (may well be a bad example, I'll see what people make of it). Besides which, The Swarms queueline is terribly cattle-pen esque, you cannot deny that.Anyway, I'll leave it there. I feel it was pretty average, if I change my mind I'll let you know but at the end of the day, I'm reflecting on what I experienced, and the only chance of my opinion changing is to go back and see what I make of it next time.

[Ryan]

woooooo

[Benin]

^^ Because you're one of these people who think if a ride is rough in certain seats it's therefore terrible whereever you sit? I know this is the case because I've read your other posts Benin. That's fair enough, but as I say, roughness is down to wheel flats, so The Swarm could (and I believe is in the early stages of) experience similar roughness, depending on maintenence routine.

No, I believe that a ride is good if you can sit on any seat and have a good ride... If you have to select a specific seat to have a good and/or enjoyable ride, then the ride just cannot be justified as being good...I've not been on Baco or Swarm, but I can't imagine that Raptor is much different from Swarm, and that was beautifully smooth... Considering the hate Baco gets for being awful in general, I'll lean with the people who say that over saying it's good...

[Stokesyboy]

What an awesome ride! Rode it 8 times today! Loved the atompshere and everything about it!Undecided about which side is best but think it might be the left! I did front left and right, back left and right, and then where ever for the last rides!Wasn't too keen on the band's as it meant you couldn't hear the stuff going around the queueline!Also loved that it was empty and the actors! Specially the Vicar and the army general staring you out as you walk past!10/10!!!

[Dodge]

* I do just wish to clarify... I think Swarm is mearly nipping at Nemie's heels. In places. And when sitting in the correct seat...And regarding the "jerky" / "rough" feeling, when ridinig I did find it hard to get used to on my first ride at the front. It was strange sensation, it didn't really feel like a normal coaster, almost unnatural. It's lucky Thorpe splashed out for a Wingrider, eh? This sensation is what a Wingrider is for in my opinion, a sensation that cannot be achieved sitting above or below the tracks. Utilising the "up/down" motion found on the tip of the wings, as well as the forward direction of the train gives a new ride (likened to Slammer, which I agree with). And as said, B&M have tweaked an existing ride, and well, made a B&M version; smooth as ever.I'll take the front seat for ya! :)Regards,Dodge

[Glitch]

I understand that it's your own opinion, but FB is the roughest peice of crap with bog standard 'silver rails' cattle pen that I have ever ridden (and WHAT near misses? It's on a rough grassless patch of land).It's clear that B&M have perfected the wing rider coaster and that's painfully (excuse the pun) obvious with Intamin's sales Vs the sales of B&M's more comfy take on it.AstroDan, you are sent to the right or left (although you can probably sneak one way or the next), it's not as intense as Nemesis yet, but already I grey out on it and that's early doors!

I remeber being stuck in the most boring 3 hour que for that...

[StevenVig]

Swarm Plaza is definately my second favourite plaza in the park. I love everything about it!The Ride is absolutely insane at the back left OR right, best seats imo.

[daboywunda]

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.

[Sphinxy]

Where do I start? Was really hyped to ride this today and it did not dissapoint even though I had inital fears that the ride looked slow on video.Managed 8 rides today and can easily say the front right and back rows and the most intense.The feeling you get as your going through the twist at the top and then the drop is really quite intense and exciting, feels like your freefalling for a moment, even now I can still feel that inital topple when you turn into the drop..the zero g takes your breath away as does the rest of the ride and it feels much faster than it looks!Themeing is great, probably the best in the park, the whole area is consistent and the music/news reports from the queue add excitement.Slightly short but for me this is the best ride at Thorpe now, loved it! It's reinforced my love for B&M...completley smooth, such a joy to ride.

[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?

[Dodge2002]

Was lucky enough to grab a couple of goes on THE SWARM today. In terms of ride experience, its really not something you can compare to Nemesis or the likes. It's its own experience. It's just weird, in a good way. The length is a complete non-issue when you're on the ride, and has some perfect pacing. I agree that different seats yield different experiences,As for the atmosphere, I'll be forward. I found the actors to be absolutely crap, to put it bluntly. Quantity doesn't lead to Quality. To elaborate; The entrance was just a mess, blink and you'd miss the soldiers quietly yelping "move along" One of the guys wasn't really even in character, just sort of saying "Go on through the barrier". We also decided one soldier woman in particular was just dreadful. We spotted her 4 times throughout the day just stood there doing nothing. Then at one point after meekly shouting "move along" at a group of people, she decided to stand and have a chat with one of the games stall guys. Why the hell are they allowed to do this and get paid £70 a day for it? The group of soldiers as a whole were just bad. Shouting Move every 5 minutes was just tedious and annoying.And the rest of the "loonies" showed once again how clueless whoever directs these actors is.The acting was marginally better as they didn't just stand around, and kept up the "acting" all day. However, they were inconsistent and ruined any continuity in the story. One minute the swarm was a disease, the next it was an alien, the next they were doing a Seance(Seriously what the hell has this got to do with aliens?) Oh and apparently the swarm took control of the plane and crashed it, obviously. When you looked at how professional the queuline videos were, then look at these guys, it was like looking at a bunch of GCSE drama students doing a school play. So sorry to vent. but yes I believe the actors actually got on my nerves so much that I felt the area will be even better once they've gone back to their crappy maze. This just really irks me, I'm willing to let a lot of quality issues to slip with their staff and park, but actors should be giving nothing but 100% with the amount they're paid and what I'd assume is quite a hard to obtain position.Other than that, again the bands kind of cluttered up the area, but I felt that once the park is normally operated it'll be a lot better. It was almost a pleasure to walk through the queuline and actually a bad thing that we didn't get the chance to queue a bit longer (which is just crazy really). Things seemed a bit hit and miss with the left and ride side being forced upon us. Sometimes we got told where to go, others we could choose. It really probably wouldn't be hard to sneak to whichever side you want though. The station looks excellent, and it's actually kind of a nice change to board a train at ground level, as weird as that sounds. Other than that there's not much else to fault the ride on though. It's a beast and Thorpe Park have outdone themselves.

[Andy Wright]

Quick question for anyone who's been today. On Nemesis/Oblivion, I need to use the big seats, as I have a big chest and shoulders. What do you think my odds of fitting on The Swarm are? It's a long drive from Stoke to not get a ride!

[StevenVig]

The seats are very roomy on The Swarm, but I would definitely recommend the Back Right seats. You will be fine though.

[AJ]

Some good reviews on here (And some picky ones...) but I now can't wait to be taken by the Swarm tomorrow now.However it has just occured to me I don't know about anyone else but when you hear the Swarm Cry I think it sounds a bit like the 'monster' from the TV series Lost. Anyone else agree? Or is it just me?

[Mer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viRmfJXChtQ&feature=youtu.be

Actors were on top form today, one giving me a piece of tin foil to protect myself from The Swarm!

Watching these videos has got me really hyped for The Swarm I had a "Omg it's not long until it's me walking through that queueline!" moment :DGah!!

[Tom]

Quick question for anyone who's been today. On Nemesis/Oblivion, I need to use the big seats, as I have a big chest and shoulders. What do you think my odds of fitting on The Swarm are? It's a long drive from Stoke to not get a ride!

I think someone on here said if you can fit on Air then you can fit on The Swarm. Hope this helps! But maybe check the website for a width restriction?

[Stokesyboy]

I'm hearing they are only running 1 train today leading to substantial queues for it!I'm definatly glad I went yesterday!

[Ryan]

Just a very small negative about Swam, some of the restraints are fairly uncomfortable. Not all of them were like this though, just on a few of the seats.

[Benin]

Is it the vest portion becoming tight mid-ride? Cos that might be a thing they haven't fixed off Raptor yet...

[RobD]

Just reviewed the ride again on a different forum, I'll re-post it here because it's more in depth, and possibly less 'picky', atleast maybe some people will be able to see where I'm coming from, anyway, please feel free to disect, offer your opinions on the differences you noticed, but please bear in mind the comparisons I'm making, and please, no one start the 'if Baco doesn't ride well everywhere, it's rubbish anywhere debate', just base this on front row experience.So, my review. I rode yesterday, 3 times, front left, middle right, rear right.Before I start, I want to point out I am comparing this ride, in the most part, to Baco (front row, yes, I know it's pedantic but that ride does offer very different experiences throughout), Dragon Kahn, and Nemesis.So...ThemeingI'll start by saying an effort has been made with themeing. That's the credit I will give. Unfortunately, the atmosphere created is more reminiscent of a scrap yard with a church in the middle. From all the hype that was given about the themeing, I was expecting Nemesis mk.2, something where Merlin had really up-ed their game but it simply is not that. The themeing creates no substantial atmosphere and the actors do no add to it. To me, the ride is trying to show you a destroyed town, attacked by The Swarm that will gradually take the rest of the world. It really does not. It shows a church and a nice assortment of trashed vehicles. What’s more, a massive detraction is as you enter the area, you have a towering coaster to the left, and a tent/gazebo with a very well kept lawn to the right. It's not even subtle, it's clearly there and simple takes any feel or atmosphere away. You walk into the area and it's JUST like SAW plaza, lots of metal containers, and a building. Unfortunately, SAW has an advantage, it has 7 movies about it so the majority of guests naturally associate the area with the notions of the film, The Swarm has no movie, so the area needs to tell the tale. It doesn't, in fact, I couldn't follow any sort of story at all, I will admit I did not watch the TV's, but, that shouldn't make a huge difference. I also highly dislike the fact that there are no buildings. It's so so open, you can see across to the rest of the park and there is no feel at all to the place, lost city and SAW create a better atmosphere, unfortunately.So, in terms of items of 'themeing', yes, they have tried, but in terms of any atmosphere or story being created thanks to this themeing; it's weak, and lacks any real consistency.The RideReally, really, nothing special. Yes, it has wing rider seating, which I can imagine, that in itself must be a real novelty for anyone who has never ridden one before, but, looking at the ride itself, it really is just very very average. The drop was not very good at all, in fact, I'd have preferred a normal one with a bit of lovely floater air time at the top. The zero G was very very nice in the centre of the train, but unfortunately it rode horrifically at the front and back. This followed for the rest of the ride; the train is so heavy that elements you expect a B&M coaster to ride beautifully through, it simply feels wrong. For example, the front rows slow very very noticeably as you go through the zero G, to the extent it feels like a soft set of brakes. The rear is dragged through too forcefully and doesn't give anything like 'zero' G, the incline loop rides very similarly; it's slow and fast in all the wrong places, in a way that makes the ride un-enjoyable (in my opinion anyway). The ride itself is lack-luster, the near misses are there but not really anything special, and I just think it did very little to take my breath away. The trains also suffer very much the same issues as Furius Baco; certain rows already ride differently; the problem is as a result of wheel flats; when a wheel is not a perfect circle, and these will naturally develop. Baco amplifies the issue through speed, The Swarm is nowhere near as bad, but still suffers. It also has the same issues of forwards-backwards jerkiness, again, nowhere near as much as Baco does but still to the extent I noticed them and it detracted from the ride. It is also horribly painful, the flying vests are too tight and really cut into your shoulders, although it is fair to say the degree to which they do this will vary from person to person, based on height and how well built you are.Overall, I'd say it's very similar to air. Nothing to write home about, but a different experience. It's just like Inferno, smooth and re-ride-able, but that's about it. It simply didn't take my breath away, it didn't achieve what Baco does so well; an amazing feeling of speed, fast pacing, and good near misses (in the through, the 'tunnel', the inline just over the ground). Baco also has more atmospheric themeing (well, of course it will, it's in a much better park ), it creates a story and takes you into it, a fine example of how I don't understand the words, but do understand perfectly what's going on. While people will complain 'oh but it has cattle pens', well, that really makes no difference, it's cattle pens, in a building, surrounded by storyline and actually creating quite an atmosphere, while The Swarm still has cattle pens, just ones that cut back and forth and confuse you.I think, 'like air' is the best summary I could give. The concept has so much potential, but The Swarm really does not take advantage of it. It's enjoyable, but when the thing I enjoyed the most about it was trying to touch the water on the swoopy turns, it doesn't say much for the rest of the ride.Sorry Fanboys and girls, and people who think 'it's UK B&M, therefore must be awesome', it isn't, thoroughly average and deserves a 6/10, maybe 6.5 at a push. It really doesn't 'do' anything special, it's average, just, with fancy seats.

[Coaster]

I am going to the park tomorrow so I will be writing a review either later that day or on Sunday, please feel free to prompt me if I forget!