March 23, 20196 yr comment_263727 With this and the dome I'm guessing they had some sort of bulk deal on skip hire and thought it best they fill em up? That is just laughable. What and how? It's a fairly new attraction, it shouldn't be falling apart, and if it is it should be fixed properly.
March 24, 20196 yr comment_263748 22 hours ago, pluk said: With this and the dome I'm guessing they had some sort of bulk deal on skip hire and thought it best they fill em up? That is just laughable. What and how? It's a fairly new attraction, it shouldn't be falling apart, and if it is it should be fixed properly. All of the wood in the station needs sorting out. The fake wood panelling on the walls is totally warped, and the top of the balcony on the left hand side of the station is likely to give quite a few people splinters this season. It's in its seventh season now so not that new any more, and Merlin aren't exactly known for choosing the right materials for the job. Also noticed quite a few fence posts and panels in the queue line marked with yellow paint, presumably earmarked for replacement. I'm baffled as to why the station speakers have been replaced with inferior ones as I don't recall the old ones having issues last season. None of the TVs were working on Saturday and the whole area felt pretty dead.
March 24, 20196 yr comment_263750 I believe the cladding/theming didn't last as long as expected being exposed to the lovely British weather all year so they decided to remove it. You can see how battered and worn the wooden side walls are so I can only imagine the state of the wood cladding at height, exposed to gusts of wind. If only they'd put a roof on that station eh? Remember last year the lack of TVs completely working so that's rather upsetting to hear they appear to not have been fixed. The ones facing the plaza were particularly burnt out/discoloured, I remember.
March 25, 20196 yr comment_263768 If it wasn't durable to last then should have been replaced, but I doubt they got granted the money to do that. The Swarm, now that your PR value has gone, welcome to the list of rides Merlin no longer consider worth maintaining!
April 3, 20196 yr comment_263930 4 hours ago, Ivsetti said: . At this point, might not be a bad idea to do this to the entire park and just start again ?
April 23, 20196 yr comment_264197 On 4/3/2019 at 11:37 AM, Ivsetti said: The first link in this comment above also has numerous other really insightful things regarding the park's marketing strategy to meet that massive 110K target (in fairness, to be operating as many rides as AT and TP do they need the visitor numbers behind them or they'd be operating at a massive loss). Do you mean to suggest Thorpe Park made a loss by not meeting that visitor target? I dont know how well they did that year but I'm sure the additional annual cost of operating The Swarm was relatively small Parks make most their profit from in-park expenditure on food and retail rather than tickets. Thorpe built new coasters in quick succession in the 2000s to increase the capacity of the park and increase the draw, to bring numbers way up, but eventually you reach a plateau. I think Merlin found that they'd already reached that point when Swarm didn't reach much higher. However it probably wouldn't have meant the Swarm was not financially viable, it just meant it didn't increase attendance to the heights they (ambitiously) wanted. I would argue they spent too much focus on endless big new rides without thinking about the park on the whole. It wasnt sustainable and you end up with today's poor value for money putting off returning guests. They have actually increased park attendance without increasing the space much, ending up with overcrowding and long queues.
May 16, 20196 yr Author comment_264566 Yeah, that's nice and all, but it's like cutting your toenails when you need a leg amputation. Good to do, put pointless in the big picture.
June 6, 20196 yr comment_264902 Random but I can barely ride Swarm these days which is naff as it is my second fave coaster there - I literally have to breath at certain points because other parts of the ride I actually can’t breath on (sounds weird I know) - I don’t think the vest restraints help the situation. I’ve also greyed out a couple of times which I’d rather have happen than stop breathing ? - if I do ride it I have to go left hand side and near to the front but even then it’s not a pleasant experience. I get the same thing happen (but to a lesser extent) on both Nemesis and Nemesis Inferno but have found that keeping my legs completely out straight weirdly helps with the breathing. Samurai can affect my breathing if it spins quite a bit - it’s literally rides where my legs hang - am absolutely fine on everything else so I know it isn’t anxiety related as my GP suggested. It’s kind of frustrating as it has only been an issue for the past 2 or so years
June 15, 20196 yr comment_264962 Good to see the Helicopter water skim finally working again - noticed over the past few weeks it’s been worked on slowly, the pool at the fire truck has also been cleaned out so hopefully that will be back up and running soon. Just be good to get the tower sound effect working again now and the TV’s!
June 15, 20196 yr comment_264963 It's great seeing this working again as well as a couple of other effects like Tidal queueline and Stealth smoke. Adds to the atmosphere a lot!
June 16, 20196 yr Author comment_264972 Nice to see it back (wasn't working Friday so obviously very recently fixed!). On a different note, has anyone else experienced a juddery ride on Swarm this year? I've had 4 rides this year (both in inside and outside seats), and have noticed a judder / bounce every time; usually after the billboard and up to the final inversion. Made the ride significantly less enjoyable every time!
July 7, 20196 yr comment_265192 Both water skims are back working now which is great although the fire engine one seems quite delayed hopefully easily fixed - the mist going strong from the plane wing too.
July 15, 20205 yr comment_270741 When did the news-crew TV screens last work in the queue lines? Or is this more theming to make the area look run down and destroyed? Can't remember when they last worked... Was cool queuing over the lift hill on Monday, that provided a different view. Sadly we missed the traditonal 5 minute queue at 4pm - however, that feat seems to have occured both today and yesterday - whilst Saw, Colossus and Inferno have 60-120 minute queue, Swarm is normally non existant.
July 15, 20205 yr comment_270742 2 hours ago, MattyMoo said: When did the news-crew TV screens last work in the queue lines? Or is this more theming to make the area look run down and destroyed? Can't remember when they last worked... I don't know when they last worked but they seem to have actively turned them off currently as the audio in the queue doesn't play the news clips, just the area ambience.
July 15, 20205 yr comment_270743 The TVs sort of worked last year - the news audio track played but very few TVs worked - think the ones over in the extended queue did but that was all.
July 22, 20205 yr comment_270820 I rode swarm four times on Monday. The water jets and the fire engine flames were working all day. The tv screens were on in the afternoon. had a fantastic time - no bad vibes at all. In fact swarm had the shortest queues all day, 25-45 mins tops.
July 22, 20205 yr comment_270822 13 minutes ago, Ali G said: I rode swarm four times on Monday. The water jets and the fire engine flames were working all day. The tv screens were on in the afternoon. had a fantastic time - no bad vibes at all. In fact swarm had the shortest queues all day, 25-45 mins tops. Crazy how much it can change within a day, I went on Tuesday and there was no water jets, no fire and no TV screens on Great operations though its always noticeable how quick Swarms queue moves compared to others
July 22, 20205 yr comment_270825 Yes - very good ops on Monday. Super organised and some real characters on the last ride of the day couldn’t get on saw all day. It was 110 mins from 11am onwards. probably didn’t help that Colossus didn’t open until about 1pm
July 22, 20205 yr comment_270826 59 minutes ago, ThorpeAddict said: Crazy how much it can change within a day, I went on Tuesday and there was no water jets, no fire and no TV screens on Great operations though its always noticeable how quick Swarms queue moves compared to others Nothing at the weekend either. Very odd!!
July 22, 20205 yr comment_270827 None of the effects were working today either. Um this might sound a bit odd but I had a weird moment on swarm where I momentarily went floppy for a few seconds halfway through the ride - anyone else had that happen? I’ve had a couple of occasions where I’ve for a split second lost my vision but I’ve never just flopped about 🤨
July 23, 20205 yr comment_270835 I guess we got lucky! I didn’t even realise the TVs were on until my mate pointed them out. I was wearing polarised sunglasses LOL
June 20, 20214 yr Author comment_273857 I know @ChessingtonSam mentioned it in the 2021 topic, but Swarm has received new audio, from Nick Hutson: I believe he did the Swarm Invasion audio loop for Fright Nights last year. I quite liked that, so hopefully it's just an extension to that. As Sam pointed out, the telephone box features a snippet of Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe before cutting to a phone ringing. An attempt at humour no doubt, but misses the mark for me... I will be the grumpy git that points out if you want an area / attraction to feature "immersive storytelling", that is something that has to be incorporated from the offset and designed with a lot of care. It's not something that can be retrospectively slapped onto something willy nilly.
June 20, 20214 yr comment_273860 Sorry, but I feel it detracts from the immersive ambience having a song with lyrics blasting out, and the telephone touch doesn't make much sense to me. TBF haven't heard the full thing, but it seems from what I have heard that it isn't fitting.
June 20, 20214 yr comment_273861 6 hours ago, JoshC. said: I will be the grumpy git that points out if you want an area / attraction to feature "immersive storytelling", that is something that has to be incorporated from the offset and designed with a lot of care. It's not something that can be retrospectively slapped onto something willy nilly. Exactly, I dont think it's being a grumpy git to think that. It seems to be Thorpe's thing at the moment, thinking theyre creative geniuses for tacking on added explanations and backstory (see DBGT as well) Swarm's audio needed improving only because it was boring and miserable feeling. Will this improve it? Let's see
June 20, 20214 yr comment_273862 Yes was saying to Josh - I'm a huge pop and specifically Carly Rae (Bae) Jepsen fan but this just feels tacky to me. Like I pointed out on twitter, surely a better way of making the area more "immersive" would be to fix the TVs showing rolling news and audio in the queue line? How long has it been since they worked?! Far more integral to the "immersion" than audio from a phone box it you ask me.
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