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The Swarm


JoshC.

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Looks pretty cool. Now lets just hope they stick to what they said they were going to do and reinstate the tidal wave effect. I think that would shock people the most as the effect has been off for years now and would really catch people unexpectedly.

They never actually said that :P I cant see it happening personally.

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Oh sorry about that. ;) I was sure that it had been semi confirmed regarding its return in 2013, though it was so long ago since I heard the news I may have misunderstood it. My bad.

Even so I still think it would be a nice touch to reinstate the effect and I personally would not be surprised if it made a return sometime in the future so long as it is a viable proposition, but hey, that is just my opinion. ^_^

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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!

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^ You forgot to mention the endless breakdowns.... Oh so many breakdowns :closedeyes:

Nearly every time I've been this year they've only added the second train half way through the day. Are they trying to build up the queue to sell more Fastracks?? I can't see any other reason for it!

It seems that when the ride is finally up and running as it should be by about 2:00ish, the throughput is amazing. It's a shame they cant get it right in the mornings!

Well that's what I've found in my experience anyway :)

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I got on twice today. The first time, no effects whatsoever; the sound was really off too. That was about quarter to 12.

I went on in the afternoon as well and the fire effect was temperamental. Sometimes it went off, sometimes you could hear it but it didn't work (or produce a little flame rather late) and after a while it was just packed in. Obviously having some troubles getting to work consistently. However, when it does go, phwoar, it's great. Could feel the heat of it from the queue line sometimes! :o

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Went to Thorpe today and none of the effects (fire and water) in the Swarm area were working. Was a shame as I wanted to see the new fire effect from the fire engine - maybe next time :) But I did manage to get 7 rides on the Swarm today - with the help of the Ultimate Fastrack ;)

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The fire is bloody good (when it catches, otherwise it gives the entire area an evil gassy smell)... It surprises a LOT of people in the area and even scares children...

The ambulance is also well received, now hopefully they can fix the water jets...

A big problem with Swarm however is the bag drop... First of all, there seems to be only one staff member in these things atm on most of the rides, which is the first problem... Then the whole thing in general is an overall faff and really needs improving...

For example, people queuing for the bag drop means no one queuing for the ride in the station, as many guests seem to favour the left side (for some reason), leaving the right side empty... This is something the batcher needs to look at trying to improve...

Then the collection is an absolute horrid mess... Seriously so, due to a lack of staff, and reasonably good throughput on this thing, it just results in a queue of people waiting for their bags AFTER the ride... And this queue often stretches back to the right side of the station because those exiting there aren't clear on why there is a queue suddenly appearing, therefore causing more faff and blocking the entire exit paths on both sides...

I think really, they should've just had the more traditional bag drops in the station platform, indeed, if the staff slightly slowed down the loading process (which already is a bit of a cluster, as a mass of people are trying to move around), and placed boxes in the spaces between rows, there would be a minimal result to the throughput, as people in the bays could drop their bags in whilst waiting, and then you wait a bit longer to open the gates to let unloading guests to quickly collect stuff (which with shoes happens anyway right now), it would remove the bag drop issue on both ends of the scale...

Some people never get to see their picture off the ride because of this fact, therefore it's actually potentially losing Thorpe money, so a consideration into the system needs to be improved (whether it be boxes, or more staff, as it's the only ride it has excessive problems on)...

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^^ Questions To Thorpe Park thread? :P

I've only seen 2 staff members in there on my visits, I'd like to think as its summer hols they'd have 2 :o

I always panic a little about seeing my ORP when there's bag faff (without seriously thinking I'd actually miss it) :blush: But the fact that people are actually not getting to see their photos is really bad!

Inbetween batching, the batcher could do things to help, such as ask people to get their bags ready to be put straight into the bag room, making sure all loose items are secured, etc. I dunno, might help speed things up if only a little :P

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Baggage is quite badly placed in Swarm. Most of that area is quite badly positioned, which you could probably only have noticed once it's opened.

I, for one, adore the front row queue. What a pointless waste of space that was. Noone uses it, noone understands it, there was no need for it. Imagine it'll never be open eventually.

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Should've kept it as a single rider queue...

It's amazing how much better organised Raptor is... Simply because it doesn't have a bag drop or a front row queue (not that Thorpe or even the guests use it, like on my first visit this year where we ended up starting the queue for it, proper madness)

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