April 12, 201510 yr comment_207055 So glad to see all the effects working on the swarm again.. The water by the helicopter is my favourite bit for some reason
April 12, 201510 yr comment_207059 Okay- unpopular opinion alert- but I actually prefer Swarm backwards... forwards is forceful enough I guess but since the seats that are now backwards provided the best forwards experience, it's just not as good imo. Backwards actually scares me a little tbh and no other ride has or does so that's a bonus- I always get serious head rush at the bottom of the drop and spend the rest of the ride dizzy and in hysterical laughter, so much fun Great ride either way tbh
April 12, 201510 yr comment_207062 The Swarm backwards makes me feel more sick than Mr Monkey's Banana Boat (which turned my face green after 7 goes in a row). It's just a gimmick that they've tacked onto a perfectly good ride, hopefully they'll revert it back to normal in a couple of seasons.
April 12, 201510 yr comment_207064 ^^ and you probably share the opinion of 99.9% of this site tbh. In fairness I miss being able to ride forwards on row 7, it was fab.
April 12, 201510 yr comment_207066 Really enjoyed the Swarm today, seemed much more forceful. Best operations I've seen on the swarm today "You have 15 seconds to board this train or its leaving without you.) They were going for the throughput record (which is 47 trains in an hour) and they ended up getting 2 trains off. Good to see, wish they did it more often, especially when it's busy.
April 12, 201510 yr comment_207067 Really enjoyed the Swarm today, seemed much more forceful. Best operations I've seen on the swarm today "You have 15 seconds to board this train or its leaving without you.) They were going for the throughput record (which is 47 trains in an hour) and they ended up getting 2 trains off. Good to see, wish they did it more often, especially when it's busy. They did this Friday too, hilar seeing everyone scrambling into their seats in genuine fear it would leave haha :')
April 12, 201510 yr comment_207068 Really enjoyed the Swarm today, seemed much more forceful. Best operations I've seen on the swarm today "You have 15 seconds to board this train or its leaving without you.) They were going for the throughput record (which is 47 trains in an hour) and they ended up getting 2 trains off. Good to see, wish they did it more often, especially when it's busy. That works out as 80 seconds between trains on average, so my guess was spot on
April 12, 201510 yr comment_207083 Yup throughput was amazing today on swarm, we only had two goes but it was walk on both times when we got to Thorpe about 4.30. (even for the rear seats). I managed to convince Jr to sit on the outside seats (he prefers the inside ones) and he thoroughly enjoyed it, even asking to go again after the second go lol. Either I view things differently, or the majority of Thorpes clientele is thicker than my loft insulation, 30 min wait on Inferno, nearly an hour for Colossus (we didn't even bother with that one this time), and 5 minutes for Stealth, walk on too after 5.30, I'm not complaining cos it's good for us, but why? just why? Can these people not read signs? Go walk over the other side of the park and you can ride every flaming seat on Swarm in the time you're spending queueing for Colossus..... actually no no, please do as you are.... we'll do the multi rides. Another example, on the way out, people were queuing for a single turnstyle.... (we just walked over to one of the unused ones and walkd right out), and the number of people who drove up to the car park exit gate without a ticket to get out.... it was truly a 'slow' day at the park today.
April 12, 201510 yr comment_207086 The thing with the car park is a very regular occurrence. Also towards the end of the day swarm and stealth are almost always walk on (or a very short queue) as people do those rides first. People who visit less often go with the mind set of get everything done regardless the wait time. This often means saw and Colossus have lengthy queues towards the end of the day as they are towards the back of the park. Also its important to remember that the queuetimes from about 4pm onwards are nearly always a lie. Time and time again ive seen swarm say 40 minutes with someone selling fastrack at the entrance when its been walk on. I'm not saying they are lying on purpose but it does seem that they forget to update the times.
April 12, 201510 yr comment_207087 Yeah last time we were there it was saying 40 mins for Swarm but it was walk on.
April 13, 201510 yr comment_207136 I don't know whether this has been discussed before, but the clip played on the Tv's in the queue has been shortened and is playing over...and over. I've heard about ten times in the past five minutes (I'm in the queue), and heck, is it annoying! Once the news woman mentions 'Thorpe Park' it freezes and starts the news jingle agin!
April 13, 201510 yr comment_207141 It was only a matter of time before those Swarm Aliens hacked into the the media outlets and started manipulating the output... Shouldn't you be at school though? Or did the aliens attack that too?
April 13, 201510 yr comment_207146 It was only a matter of time before those Swarm Aliens hacked into the the media outlets and started manipulating the output... Shouldn't you be at school though? Or did the aliens attack that too? I have an inset day. I'd love the Swarm to attack my school. They're free to do it whenever they want.
April 13, 201510 yr comment_207148 Haha thought you might be on an inset, my sons was the Friday before, so we went then too. I really wish I'd thought to check the easter holidays schedule properly though cos we could have had the first week at Alton instead of being sat in queues at Thorpe,
April 13, 201510 yr comment_207176 The whole advertising the ride as 40 / 50 / 60 etc mins and being a walk on really grinds my gears.. Who up in Thorpe Towers has told some-one that this is acceptable? This is at least the second season it's happened? Are they looking to over-sell the ride? Avoid having people go to it? Sell more fast-track? I just don't get it..
April 13, 201510 yr comment_207178 You'd think they'd realise that it's easier to see the length of the queue in the bagging area than it is the queue time display at the entrance from where the fire engine is (infact I used my phones camera to look at the queue length from Amity Cove yesterday). Or perhaps that is the route issue, maybe if there was a queue time display on the little entrance bridge they'd update it more often. You won't find me at customer services complaining though since it's great for us regulars who like the ride
April 13, 201510 yr comment_207180 The whole advertising the ride as 40 / 50 / 60 etc mins and being a walk on really grinds my gears.. Who up in Thorpe Towers has told some-one that this is acceptable? This is at least the second season it's happened? Are they looking to over-sell the ride? Avoid having people go to it? Sell more fast-track? I just don't get it.. Better than when they advertise something as 40 mins and you end up queuing for over an hour (for example)
April 13, 201510 yr comment_207183 The whole advertising the ride as 40 / 50 / 60 etc mins and being a walk on really grinds my gears.. Who up in Thorpe Towers has told some-one that this is acceptable? This is at least the second season it's happened? Are they looking to over-sell the ride? Avoid having people go to it? Sell more fast-track? I just don't get it.. It's a re-curring issue at all of the Merlin parks, they tend to update the queue times as they get longer however once they drop again, they don't bother to change the boards. In the last few hours, most of the queue times are 30-60minutes off the real queue length which can be really annoying especially when deciding what attraction to ride next in the last few hours on the park.It's potentially for several reasons: -To increase fastrack sales. -To stop people going to the attraction as the queue is too "long" which means the staff can relax and slow down on operations. -The ride operator simply can't be bothered to update the queuetime if it gets shorter. It doesn't bother me too much as I tend to look at queue length rather than the board and mainly judge from there however it certainly puts you off going to a ride like Swarm where you have to walk ages to get there and then risk the queue being longer than you think it is due to them not updating the boards. Of course at the end of the day though it's better as it being advertised as longer than it really is rather than shorter than it really is. Ideally, they could just bother to update the queue boards so there is an accurate representation of actual queue times across the park.
April 22, 201510 yr comment_207803 So there was a guy who looked external working on the effects today and when he'd finished the water spray by the fire engine was working for the part between the path and fire engine. The one on the turnaround was also working.
April 22, 201510 yr comment_207858 So there was a guy who looked external working on the effects today and when he'd finished the water spray by the fire engine was working for the part between the path and fire engine. The one on the turnaround was also working. That's great to hear! Hopefully they'll keep them working this time.
May 4, 201510 yr Author comment_208573 From TPM's Facebook: One of Swarm's water effects is back working again.
May 4, 201510 yr comment_208574 The one by the fire engine was working yesterday as well. The bit between the fire engine and path.
May 4, 201510 yr comment_208577 Yeah we got splashed by it yesterday lol. The fire engine was sporadically spiting out flames too, but it only seem to be every second train and only when the train was at the top of the drop, timing wasn't quiet right on it.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.