July 24, 201312 yr comment_164001 Woop woop! Fun at Thorpe! But can you buy a fastrack for the back rows? yes, if I remember correctly it's £5 for normal fast track, and £6 for backwards...
July 24, 201312 yr comment_164004 The queue seems to fluctuate wildly for the back rows for some reason, if it is not a crazy busy day you can probably hit it at about the 15min mark if you keep an eye on the timings. The fastrack queue is often linger than that.
August 2, 201312 yr comment_164619 Gosh, went yesterday. They really need to sort out the baggage drop. It got so confusing and crowded around there, with about 15 people all swarming (excuse the pun) around the window. I have to say though, backwards sure is fun. It got very confusing. You do loose most of the near misses, except the lake, but it is a very intense ride. It is great fun though, and I think it is a good move.
August 2, 201312 yr comment_164620 The Swarm is intense... gave me my first greyout last month and since then it's happened on all of my last five rides, the main intense spot being the helicopter turnaround and going into the corkscrew. Only ride so far to do so!
August 2, 201312 yr Author comment_164622 Agreed about the helicopter turnaround into the corkscrew. My absolute favourite moment of the ride; so intense, yet graceful, and I find the chopper does give a nice subtle near miss too. I remember when it first opened and people were saying it was tame and not forceful. Couple more years and I think there'll be a couple of really nice, intense moments.
August 2, 201312 yr comment_164629 Water effects havent been working recently They haven't worked every time I have ridden the swarm!
August 4, 201312 yr comment_164783 not sure if this is just me, I do enjoy it, but every time I go on it, when I come off, 1.I miss my on-ride photo because of the baggage area being so slow. 2. My legs feel really tight, and hurt for a few seconds within getting off the ride. my favourite parts of the ride- the billboard, the corkscrew going above the church and as many have mentioned the chopper corkscrew. I always feel like I'm about to Sh*t my self on the way up on the first hill(as soon as you get dispatched), although I love the drop.
August 5, 201312 yr comment_164803 ^ I agree with your comments about the baggage hold - it does need looking at.
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164894 The baggage hold, is rather interesting. Mostly due to the fact, It's the batcher's fault. They have slipped into the 'lazy' staff member trait and gone for the 'Don't stop anyone from the main queue so there is always a constant influx of guests making the bagroom work harder than everyone'. When they can be 'bothered' they actually do stop the main queue to let Fastrack & Backwards queue through. I don't think it's a case of looking at the operation of the baggage hold, I think its more the entire Swarm team need a slap with a kipper and retrained on how to professionally and fairly use a batching/merge point.
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164897 It's the baggage return on exit that seems the most screwed up / incapable of coping I always think. That is as much due to poor design as poor staffing though.
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164899 I always think they have understaffed swarms baggage - two just doesn't seem enough. Three is fine then, with at least one concentrating on the exit. I understand the "lazy" attitude, as generally baggage takes too long so they need a constant moving main queue otherwise the station completely empties out. Smiler and Thirteen have constantly moving main queues because of this (unless letting in single riders). As Pluk says, the design is awful too. Far too close to station and causes a bottleneck also.
August 6, 201312 yr Author comment_164903 It's a shame that they can't adopt the system that was adopted on the first Summer Nights - just leave the bags in the station (as there weren't enough staff to open the baggage hold!). No fuss whatsoever and it was easy to deal with. I appreciate that would add to congestion between offload and onload, and it's not as practical as it is with the likes of Colossus and Inferno, but I almost feel anything would be better than the current system..
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164914 The queue around the baggage drop was a bit of a mess today! I used to remember there was a member of staff letting a certain amount of people in at a time from the main queue but instead there was only someone doing fastrack and backwards queues. This did lead to massive queues at the bag drop and despite them having three people working the the booth there was still a massive queue to drop and collect your bags. Would like to point out, all the effects were off today aswell(the fire, water efffects and the tvs in the queueline).
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164927 Would like to point out, all the effects were off today aswell(the fire, water efffects and the tvs in the queueline). This ride is a year old! To have all their effects broken already is very poor. Speaks volumes about Thorpe's upkeep on effects. (Although I won't lie, I hope the TV screens are off tomorrow, they are very annoying and I'm sure most people in the queue would rather they did away with them). As for the other effects, fix them!
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164928 This ride is a year old! To have all their effects broken already is very poor. Speaks volumes about Thorpe's upkeep on effects. (Although I won't lie, I hope the TV screens are off tomorrow, they are very annoying and I'm sure most people in the queue would rather they did away with them). As for the other effects, fix them! It was quite annoying as the report was playing but you could hear it and not see it! I would rather they just had it on or off not half on!
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164929 It was quite annoying as the report was playing but you could hear it and not see it! I would rather they just had it on or off not half on! Oh. That's even worse than with the screens then! Seriously though, they should rethink having that playing around the entire queue. Maybe just a section of it would be better (or just at the ride entrance) as it really does make 30 minutes feel much longer than it should. Generally I like queueline videos but The Swarm's one is so bland and annoying. Plus most other rides don't play the videos throughout the whole queue. On another note, it's a shame as well that the sound effect of The Swarm going through the church is off, as that was very effective when you were in the queue. Oh Thorpe...
August 6, 201312 yr comment_164943 On my last trip all effects were working (including the church sound effect which has recently been fixed) Only one not on was the 2nd water skim, I guess this messes up the fire / new on ride pics?
August 7, 201312 yr comment_164945 The effects work alongside the ride so if an effect goes down then they need to reset the whole ride. That wouldn't be ideal during the day will it? It's probs just a case of the effects stopped working so rather than disrupt the day and reset the whole ride they will just leave it. It's the way it was built.
August 7, 201312 yr comment_164961 when I went, all water effects were working, I purposely let my friend go on the outside where you get more wet, he never been on, and I practically tricked him onto every ride. we went on 2 times on a day where it closed at noon, and only reopened at 4.
August 7, 201312 yr comment_165018 Dispatch times had improved today, but the baggage hold area was still a mess! (As in no order of people using it etc)
August 13, 201312 yr comment_165233 I was thinking, because the Swarm queue is so awful (especially in the station) with the front and back row mess ups, but would it be better that instead of having the two separate queues they just make forwards and backwards one queue and when it reaches the baggage area, a staff member asks if you want to go forwards or backwards and then allocates you to the designated choice. Just an idea.
August 13, 201312 yr comment_165236 Couldn't agree more Matt! Having a separate queue is just a mess and both queues move so slowly now! It would be better just to all queue together then decide in the station where you want to sit, much like front row systems. I also think they should just do away with the bag room (I know they won't but still). At Summer Nights it worked so well just plonking your bag down next to the air gate in the station. If they were to put two of those coffin style boxes they have on Rush, Slammer and so on by each air gate it would be so easy. And there'd be no delay getting your bag like on Colossus as it'd only be 2 people going to each box. Then you could leave the station and maybe get to view your on ride photo and spend more money. Simple.
August 13, 201312 yr comment_165240 The only issue with that is that the bags would be completely out in the open for people to nick. On Colossus and Inferno they only open one cage at a time, meaning the bags available to take belong those who are on the train in the station. If you are on the ride, your bag is behind bars and can't be easily taken. The whole Swarm situation is madness though, because having a baggage counter should make things easier! I hope they give it a complete overhaul next season because they can't go on like this.
August 13, 201312 yr comment_165241 Personally I do agree with the scrapping of the seperate back row queue, it don't seem to work very well atall. What I would do is simply allow guests to queue up as normal, and then simply allow guests to queue for backwards if they wish to do so on the station, as they do on Inferno / Colossus front rows. As for the bag room its a tough one really, the problem being compared to Stealth / Saw the Ride is there are much more people all at the same time collecting their bags at the end of the ride so whilst 2 people in Stealths bag room is fine, 2 in The Swarms can cause a bottle neck. I Wonder how possible it would be for them to have small storage boxes with doors and just fold them over, or better still some automatic system which folds over when the trains dispatched... it must be possible!
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