May 29, 201213 yr comment_137742 Swarm is absolutely beautiful - I just loved how I went with practically the non-geekiest people ever, and all they were going on about was how amazing the turn from the lift was, and how smooth and gorgeous the thing is. It's like air, but a million times better.. . I adore the swarm.
May 29, 201213 yr comment_137745 Double post. Unsurprisingly, the photos I took yesterday don't show the LEDs. Can't wait to see them when it's not sunny; will look so much more effective. Also, love how the water jets have been increased in power, especially on the helicopter turn around. I knew they'd been turned up a bit, so thought that I'd get a little splash, especially being at the back. I'd have LOVED to seen my face when I realised just how high they were, would have been priceless. I was just shocked till the last inversion from it. Cements the chopper turn as the favourite part of the ride for me, and back-eight as my favourite seat. They add alot to the ride, they really are a shock when you aren't expecting them Even in the front seats when you see it coming up as you pass
May 29, 201213 yr comment_137766 Out of interest, how has The Swarms reliability been so far? Not very good today. Went to Thorpe Park today to ride The Swarm for the first time and didn't get a ride. Queued the first time and we were next to get on, and then there was a 'technical delay', so were given priority passes to come back later. They got the ride working again so we came back about 45 minutes before the park closed and used our passes, everything was fine until we nearly got on again there was another technical delay and the ride didn't open again for the rest of the day and we were told we had to leave the queue. I came from the other side of the country especially to ride The Swarm, and didn't get a ride. Unlikely to come back anytime soon, really disappointed.
May 30, 201213 yr comment_137769 Should have used your passes a bit earlier then! But seems you got pretty unlucky with it, last couple of times it's been fine, I know on Saturday it had a little bit of downtime but nothing major.
May 30, 201213 yr comment_137777 Well today it tested on 2 trains I believe. Only opened on 1 at 11. They finally added a 2nd train at 12 when the queue hit 60 minutes. Interesting to note that whilst watching them testing the second train that all the effects are out of sync only when trains are loaded. Looks like they are programmed to empty trains as they run noticeably faster when loaded as you'd expect.
June 1, 201213 yr comment_137811 An awesome new video of THE SWARM has been posted by Thorpe Park. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1rctdp8WKA&feature=player_detailpage
June 1, 201213 yr Author comment_137813 Yet another brilliant viral from Thorpe! Great to see the park putting the ride back in the limelight just before half term, what with the Swarm bit in The Sun yesterday as well. Can they do no wrong with this?!?
June 1, 201213 yr comment_137821 Now that is cool. Well done for the dudes who made that. No dodgy marketing, not misleading, just a good atmospheric video. Great work right there!
June 2, 201213 yr comment_137828 I cant wait to ride this thing when I go in septemeber, it looks so smooth almost gliding around
June 2, 201213 yr comment_137831 I rode it first the time today so I can finally give my personal, honest (and late) opinion of what I think of the ride. First of all the ride itself was just great fun. Not to intense but crazy enough for me to swear repetitively (in my head of course ¬¬) as the train was going up the lift hill. It was really quite smooth and the inversions were great. I just wished the ride was a bit longer. Now in terms of theming, woah. Now I have been looking at pictures of the ride and its area for months now and though I have never said it here, I could not help but think that the ride is somewhat lacking and even a bit ugly (yes I know its apocalyptic) but what put me off from the pictures was the complete lack of obvious trees, vegetation, poor brick laid paths as well as those ugly chain fences that surround the area. Upon visiting the area today however, I was completely taken aback. Everything looked so realistic and I can honestly say that I am now in love with this area. The animated helicopter had to be my favourite feature but I was also very keen on the crumbling chapel which actually was alot more complex and realistic than I first though. I am not even angry that they did not include a roof as it looks fantastic the way it is now. Anyway to finish this off, I came to Thorpe today expecting to see a relatively expensive but average coaster that was in some crappy looking area but after seeing it for myself, I came off the island feeling both satisfied and happy with the work they have put into this ride. A few things they could do to improve the area maybe would be adding some sort of debris/rock around the footers like Inferno has or adding another flat eide or building so the ride interacts with its surroundings a little bit more. 4 stars. (late review over)
June 6, 201213 yr comment_137862 Interesting little look into the making of the full advert, thought it may be of interest.
June 21, 201213 yr comment_138333 Interesting little look into the making of the full advert, thought it may be of interest. Seems like a LOT of effort went in to perfecting such tiny details in the beautiful CGI bits, seems like a shame that more of it wasn't shown- although I do really like the overall edit. From the voiceover the guy sounds a little aggrieved that 'they' (I.e. TP) insisted on featuring so heavily the footage of the ride itself after the company had spent so much effort creating this little CGI masterpiece that wouldn't look out of place in some movies
June 24, 201213 yr comment_138440 I got stuck on The Swarm today! After the ride we were in the station for 20 minutes because the bars wouldn't release. They then sent us up the chainlift where it got stuck again for another 10 minutes!!! Me and my friend were laughing but there was a VERY angry man in the seat in front of us! At least we got to go round twice once they fixed it
June 28, 201213 yr comment_138550 I was in the park on Tuesday and finally got around to riding the Swarm and was really surprised at the G's it manages to pull; genuinely thought it was going to be far more mundane but those bends are very deceiving. Unfortunately, a series of effects weren't working; both water skims, the fire and the first two rows of one train's LEDs (on that note, I was pleasantly surprised how clearly you can see the LEDs in daylight, especially when doing the final roll over the station). They appeared to be having problems with specific sets of seats on both trains all day; about 3 sets on one train and maybe 1 or 2 on the other.
June 29, 201213 yr comment_138573 Yeah, I was there on Wednesday... They had problems with Row 4 on 1 train and 6 on the other train (on the right hand side). Didn't notice any LED problems, but the effects were either off or out of sync all day..
June 29, 201213 yr comment_138576 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
July 5, 201213 yr comment_138689 We had an email from Thorpe (To Thrill Nation) and they said that they hoped it would be up as soon as possible
July 5, 201213 yr comment_138698 I went to Thorpe park on a school trip today. We had an hour talk with a member of staff (which was very good and interesting) and he told us a rather surprising bit of news. He told us that The Swarm was a mistake because it was based on something that guests didn't really understand or know about (whereas with Saw everyone knew what it was.) He also told us that they were down on 200,000 guest figures this year. Not good
July 5, 201213 yr comment_138703 He told us that The Swarm was a mistake because it was based on something that guests didn't really understand or know about (whereas with Saw everyone knew what it was.) That sounds more like personal opinion rather actual fact...
July 5, 201213 yr comment_138705 He told us that The Swarm was a mistake because it was based on something that guests didn't really understand or know about (whereas with Saw everyone knew what it was. So... Basically the vast majority of rides in the world are... Mistakes? Definitely agree with Benin here.
July 5, 201213 yr Author comment_138706 He told us that The Swarm was a mistake because it was based on something that guests didn't really understand or know about (whereas with Saw everyone knew what it was.) The Swarm is based on an alien invasion / devastation scene. Very easy to understand in my opinion when you look at the ride area. Okay, some people may get confused by why there's a church there, but hey ho, really can't see making it overly complicated. As for not knowing about it, it's one of the most common themes about these days (devastation, end of the world, etc.) in not only theme parks, but films, TV shows - everything. Really, there's not a lot to know for it. Then there's even the queue line TVs, which explain exactly what's happening. Could be some negative reactions from the public being conveyed there, but almost definitely opinion, and not fact. The ride theme had been decided to be an alien invasion / urban devastation from early on, so they'd have done research to ensure something as trivial as 'not getting it' did not occur...
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