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Thoughts on Swarm

Only 5 rides for me today (Left front middle and back, Right front and middle). Only one of the trains was running so the queue time was usually around an hour. Getting on early and soon after it was back in operation after some downtime made the 5 possible.

Using the criteria used so far:

Theming - Excellent work on the vehicles and buildings, just not 100% sure why there's a lake in the middle of a town, but I know that's what they had to work with and the news reports do mention Thorpe Park so will let them away with it. I wasn't expecting so many vehicles, and the use of them in near misses was very good. Even the shop and photo booth tied in very nicely.

Ride - Again excellent, very Air-esque in feel I thought, but with quite a few nice features thrown in (the inversion before the drop in particular). It did feel a little short but I think it packs quite a bit in. As I said I managed a ride in all but the back right and I think all had their plus points. When talking to one of the ride attendants he said he found the back a bit rough, but I didn't feel that. Overall I thought it was very smooth.

Overall, as others have said, I can't definitely say anything in the UK I've been on is better than it apart from Nemesis, and I'd maybe go as far as saying it's pretty close!
 
It's fab... Best ride at Thorpe by a mile, decent atmosphere, quick moving queue (when on two trains), and just sheer fun...

Back left was over-rated I felt, prefer the right side tbh cos of the flip over, but both sides are good...

Causes a head rush after multiple rides though...
 
Finally got on this today and managed three rides, front far left, front far right and back far right.

I was very impressed with Swarm, just to say I don't get the constant comparisons with Nemesis in this topic though, the coasters are completely different, its like comparing the grand national with Stealth, wing riders are completely different to inverts, let alone a unique invert like Nemesis.

Anyway as for Swarm I thought it was a great coaster overall with some stand out points of awesomeness.

Personally I preferred the right hand side, I LOVED the first drop, one of the best starts to coaster I have ever experienced, being flung over the track hanging over the water at that height and dropping was just awesome.

The Zero-G was excellent. Only thing I didn't like about it was the weird decelerating feeling which you got at the front after exiting it. Strange feeling which I don't think I have felt before, feels like you are kind of waiting for the rest of the train to come though the Zero-G and push you into the inclined loop. I was surprised no one else had mentioned it.

The inverted loop I was pleasantly surprised how forceful it was as I wasn't expecting much from it at all but it's actually a really nice element with quite a bit of force to it, strangely the deceleration at the front after the Zero-G I thought made this element better as you accelerate into it which feels quite forceful.

Then the helix over the water around the helicopter was brilliant on the right side on the outside seat, really enjoyed that part and is probably the fastest point of the coaster and was strangely one of the highlights for me.

Then into the corkscrew which I thought was a nice element to go into after the helix, flowed really well then into the inline with a few near misses over the station which I thought was a really good finale.

I thought it was a really good solid coaster which is more re-rideable then any other coaster at Thorpe and a top addition, definately the best addition to Thorpe since Stealth. I would give it a harsh 8/10, almost a 9.

I will add though I think if you go on it expecting a B&M sit down or invert experience you would be disappointed as its no where near as forceful as a sit down/ invert, but the experience which this offers means that it is a lot more re-rideable which is what Thorpe needed.
 
Here is a video put up on Thorpe Park Official for the timelapse film for building of Swarmie.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w05F8ONOZzw&list=UUKgMp8AuO4hqYOtiXlCwawQ&index=1&feature=plcp[/youtube]
 
Well, it looks like I get to be the negative one for once. When compared with its Italian sibling and the hype associated with the ride, I found it to be something of a let down. It's not a terrible ride by any stretch of the imagination, but in my mind it falls short of what it should have been.

First I'll put in the inevitable disclaimer: I wasn't in the best of moods when I first rode Swarm. The ride was closed when I first arrived on park. It was wet. I was visting the park on my own. When the ride opened after an hour or so, it was only running one train, and had a 90 minute queue. Even with Fastrack (which I used), it took a fair amount of time to get on the train. The park did eventually put the second train on after a couple of hours, and then there was the inevitable breakdown.

As the day went on, the queues died down, and by the end of the day the queues were minimal. I did make sure I had plenty of re-rides over the course of the day (around 8 I think) to see if my opinion of the ride changed at all. It didn't, at least not significantly.

The approach to The Swarm area is integral part of the ride experience, so I'll cover that first. I actually like the entrance to The Swarm area, with the crashed fire engine and then the first drop and crashed aircraft. The toilet block looks quite good as well... from the front. As soon as you get past the facade and into the queue area, it becomes blatantly obvious that it's just a modern building, complete with side windows, tiled roof and skylights. It's little details like this that break the suspension of disbelief and spoil the experience. They've tried to do a good job with most of the theming, succeeded in most respects, but fallen at the last hurdle.

Joey commented on the "splash zone" near the second fire engine, and how when he visited the water wasn't coming anywhere near the path. When I visited, the water jets were coming through the fence, but only by a couple of meters. Whether the park has adjusted the water jets or whether that was down to something as simple as the wind direction I have no idea.

Unfortunately, as you get towards the ride queue entrance, everything goes badly pair shaped. Here, to the left of the entrance we have a stage hosting rock karaoke on and off from around 12pm onwards. Not only does this tend to draw attention away from the helicopter (which I didn't notice at all until around my 3rd ride, and even then I only noticed it whilst sat on the brake run), it means that during the afternoon, you've got cover versions of Katy Perry, Alanis Morisette, Bon Jovi, Guns n Roses etc. blasting through across the entire area, and audible throughout the entire queue line and station. They've gone to all this effort to create a post apocalyptic atmosphere, and then ruin it because some moron decided that adding an extremely loud show to the area was a good idea.

I should also add that whilst I love the idea of having the police major incident unit (yes, they do exist) as the ride control booth, the way Thorpe have done it looks utterly ****. Firstly, vehicles such as this are not made from lots of little metal sheets stuck together to form side panels - the real things look a lot more solid. Secondly, the way in which it's placed dead square on the bridge just looks ridiculous. If they'd been able to place it at a bit of an angle so that it looked more natural then it could have worked really well. Failing that, they could just have made the bridge into an organ loft or something, moved the control booth to a corner or something and made it look a lot more natural. As it is, it just looks forced and therefore ridiculous. It's just so blatantly a part of the station structure and they've just made no attempt to hide it.

OK, enough rambling now - how was the ride itself? Again, the story of this entire ride - not bad, but lacking in crucial areas. The inline twist drop is really good, and most of the rest of the layout is pretty good and has some interesting forces. Personally I prefer more forceful B&Ms such as Nemesis or Katun, but that's not a deal breaker. It's a bit short, but we were all expecting that.

What lets the ride down for me is the fact that it was incredibly bumpy - far worse than Raptor ever was. In fact, (with the possible exception of the vile creation that is Hydra), it's probably the most unpleasant B&M I've ever been on. It's not the increased speed that's the problem either - it's as bouncy going through the top of the elements at slow speed as it is at the fastest points on the ride. Maybe it was just having a bad day, I don't know. All I know is that after around 3 or 4 rides it was really messing with my head. For me, it has limited re-ride value for precisely that reason.
 
It's interesting you said about it being bumpy. At the live I noticed this but when I went again I did not.

Now the live was a wet day the following time it was sunny. Just wondering if that would cause this problem or not.
 
It may well be. Maybe if I get to ride again on a warmer, drier day I'll have a better experience. As it was, I'd have two or three rides before going "that's enough of that". It's a shame, as it really lets the ride down.
 
On the live I could not ride in the outside seats due to it but found the inside ones fine.

On the Tuesday it was fine anywhere.

It was strange as no one else found it bumpy like I did.
 
I found it bumpy and actively avoided the outside seats for that very reason. I think I had two or three runs on outside seats then gave them up. Inside seats I found it to be unnoticeable, or at least I didn't notice it enough to ruin the ride experience.

I think I did say in my thoughts, I do disagree with a coaster that has a "you must be in this seat at this time" kind of thing. Maybe The Swarm is like that and like people who have experience with Baco, they just naturally happen to avoid the nasty seats?
 
I suspect it does vary from day to day. It definitely varies from seat to seat.

The outside seats were definitely worse than the inside, although not significantly so. The bumpiness was definitely noticeable on the inside seats, and it didn't seem to matter where I was sat - front, back, middle - I still got bounced up and down in the seat pretty much all the way from the zero G to the final roll past the station. Considering how much smoother Raptor was, that really came as a surprise.

Then again, we did ride Raptor in blazing sunshine, which might have had something to do with it.

I suppose it's also possible that people don't notice the roughness as much if they're not re-riding all the time. I rode quite a few times in quick succession. I suppose if you're only doing one or two rides with long wait times between them, you'd probably not notice as much even if Swarm's having an off day.
 
I rode The Swarm 5 times on Sunday. I really like the ride. Didn't have any problems with it being bumpy, I thought it was really smooth. I rode in a few different places, and I think my favourite was the back right.

It's definitely a step forward for Thorpe in terms of themeing and such, although I kinda wish they didn't have the 'rock karaoke' going on for the entire day. It ruined the atmosphere a bit. But its a good, re-rideable coaster.
 
^
lol I too rode it 5 time on Sunday. Bumpiness wasn't an issue, I found it incredibly smooth no matter where I sat, whether it was because it was my first coaster in 6 months I don`t know, but after riding it a few times I found the other rides very uncomfortable.
Yes, the theming is top notch, I love the station building, using the police vehicle as the console is a nice touch. Yeah that karaoke tent was a bit crap, as was the weather. But they don`t matter. This is an all round good ride.
 
Glad to hear the jets seem to have been improved?

As for it being bumpy. It is a little. I didn't think it detracted from the ride experience enough to take any notice of, though. And it's only the outer seats towards the back.

It's funny cuz I felt that Nitro's rattle was so bad it made my chest uncomfortable inside... Like it was rumbling my heart? And it ruined the ride completely. Yet everyone, including those sat next to me on the ride, had no idea what I was going on about. I can't imagine how something like this could be so subjective?

I would think rattling varies from seat to seat, ride to ride, hour to hour, day to day... But yeah, It's one of those weird subjective things.

As for Raptor's smoothness, not ridden it... But I'm wiling to bet that Swarm's size and speed has an effect, on top of weather differences.
 
I went on it twice yesterday, and here are my thoughts...

Theming:
The attempt at theming is not that good to be honest. There are a few random scattered vehicles, but they are well incorporated into the ride experience to be fair, especially the aeroplane wing of course. The station having no roof is interesting and was nice for a change from most rides (except when it was hailing :wink: ). They could have made some more effort with the ground though, it looks like being in the middle of a building site in my opinion.

Ride:
First ride was middle left outside (I think row 4) and second ride was back right inside (6 or 7, whichever is one row from the back). I found the second ride much more enjoyable, but that might be influenced by the fact I was wearing my glasses that time :--D . The first drop is brilliant, hanging for the short time is a brilliant experience. The zero-g was as you would expect from a B&M cool) , a bit slow but you can't complain. The incline loop was forceful, especially the turn coming out of it, and this was where being on the right side really paid off, flying past so close to the water was great. The corkscrew was another slow but enjoyable inversion, nice and smooth unlike some rides. The final inline twist gave lots of hangtime, always a plus.
Overall, I'd say that it was an enjoyable ride experience. I definitely wouldn't queue the 120 minutes the ride wait time was all day, because it is so short, but in shorter queues I wouldn't hesitate. The ride is much faster than it looks and is beautifully smooth, meaning I can wear my glasses which is :mrgreen: :mrgreen: . If it were more intense I would find it more enjoyable, but at Thorpe a gentle ride can be a relief sometimes :eek: . I would put this up with Inferno as the best two rides in the park.
 
^I sort of agree with you about the themeing. From what I have seen, it is a few amazing pieces of scenery scattered in a very plain and boring area. They could have done something with plane seats or piles of rubble. It was a very good effort, and beats most of the scenery at TP at the moment, but it is not the best I have ever seen.
 
dominoes said:
^I sort of agree with you about the themeing. From what I have seen, it is a few amazing pieces of scenery scattered in a very plain and boring area. They could have done something with plane seats or piles of rubble. It was a very good effort, and beats most of the scenery at TP at the moment, but it is not the best I have ever seen.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say it beats most of the theming at Thorpe, although to be honest the 'theming' of the Lost City (or whatever the place is called) is just to cram in loads of bamboo to make it look 'lost'. Amity Cove is Thorpe's best attempt at theming, which isn't saying much :lol: .
 
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