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Swarm Backwards?

P

Patrik3

Roller Poster
Sorry if there's a topic on this already.

I just saw an advert for The Swarm on TV, it said some phrase about 'Now, in Reverse!' or something. I don't know what to make of it but my guess is that they have turned the trains backwards on it? Can someone confirm/deny?

I guess it would make sense, seeing as Swarm wasn't so popular with the public when it first opened, but they already have one backwards coaster...

Partly because I'm skint at the moment, and partly because I have just gotten tired of waiting in theme park queues, I've not been to any park since before Swarm opened - so I've not even rode it forwards, yet...
 
Nemesis of oblivion

Nemesis of oblivion

Strata Poster
The last two rows on both sides have been turned backwards. The rest of the train is forward. I also believe it was down to lack of popularity.
 
DelPiero

DelPiero

Strata Poster
I haven't been thorpe this season yet and am looking forward to trying it backwards, I'm guessing the head choppers disappear but the sensation will be different at least. In my option it was already a solid coaster and now you have an option if you prefer one way.

X: No Way Out is now just "X" and goes forward by the way, still has the block stops though.
 
M

Mike

Giga Poster
Yep, the back couple of rows have been reversed:
The%20Swarm.jpg


It's an odd sensation and I prefer it forwards, but each to their own.
 
P

Patrik3

Roller Poster
Mike said:
Yep, the back couple of rows have been reversed:
The%20Swarm.jpg
Click to expand...

Oh... whoa that looks a bit weird. Definitely wanna try it out now, though! Off topic, but can anyone give me a quick tip for beating theme park queues at Thorpe/Alton? I often try to go in term time, but even then it usually just means that there's a million coaches outside the park instead...
 
Hutch

Hutch

Strata Poster
Just a quick question: is this permanent? I would assume so because it's only two rows and how everyone saying how it wasn't too popular in opening season.
 
M

Mike

Giga Poster
Patrik3 said:
Oh... whoa that looks a bit weird. Definitely wanna try it out now, though! Off topic, but can anyone give me a quick tip for beating theme park queues at Thorpe/Alton? I often try to go in term time, but even then it usually just means that there's a million coaches outside the park instead...
Click to expand...

It looks weird because it's a crap lopsided picture that was the first thing to appear upon a Google search. ;)

School trips usually happen in their final term (all of June and a bit of July), although the parks usually get their busiest on bank holiday weekends, during the school holidays and at Halloween.

Any other time during the week will see walk-on rides for most things, but even normal weekends don't usually get too bad.

If you really are desperate to get on a ride quickly and the park is packed, then the Merlin parks do a Fast Track option, but this can get very costly (£3+ for the larger rides).
 
SaiyanHajime

SaiyanHajime

CF Legend
Moved this into Q&A.

Also, school trips season has been going on for a few weeks now, and will continue till July when summer takes over. You can't really guarantee avoiding crowds in the UK anymore.
 
P

Patrik3

Roller Poster
Joey said:
Moved this into Q&A.
Click to expand...

Oh, okay - although I thought actual changes to a rollercoaster would be News - or did I derail the topic to much with "How to avoid queues?" - Is it possible to alter the topic title, also, since this post will be almost exclusively about queues instead of Swarm?


Mike said:
School trips usually happen in their final term (all of June and a bit of July), although the parks usually get their busiest on bank holiday weekends, during the school holidays and at Halloween.
Click to expand...

So, if I go sometime that's not in June/July (or August either for the holidays), and not October, and now at Easter, then I should be okay?

..That can't cover much, but it's more information than I'd previously figured out - I almost went on Swarm last year. Got to the park with a friend, only to find that it was swarming ('scuse the pun) with people, so even though we had one of the half price vouchers we decided just to turn back.

Fast track is a possible option for me, although they are super-expensive and I'm super-skint. I'd love one day to buy the ultimate fastrack (90 quid or so)... but unless I ever get a 6 figure salary job, I don't think I'll ever do that...

SRQ's, especially at Alton, used to be amazing - I remember once a few years back, I went to Alton w/ family on a fright night, and although the park was packed, I got walk-on rides on all the big coasters (aside from Rita) all day. Managed to get on each of Air/Oblivion/Nemesis about 8x each, IIRC. Unfortunately, I went back there more recently and the GP seem to have wised-up to SRQ's, and I hardly got on many rides at all...

What parks should have, is some kind of pre-ride ride - some high-capacity, low-cost car ride or cinema room halfway through the queue-time which just breaks up the queue monotony by giving guests a sit-down and something interesting to look at for 10mins or so... Bonus points if the pre-ride ride splits the guests into groups of 7x4 or so, so that they're already sorted for the coaster before they've even gotten to the station...
 
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