I too fou d the Swarm backwards was excellent, I dont know the track well enough to predict where the ride will go next like I could with some at Alton, so I found it quite unprecitable. I also found because it was not spacially limited like X:/ No Way Out there was no real need for sudden twists and turns, so it still remained quite graceful
I do like the theming around the ride, however I do think that Saw beatsthe pants off of any themed rollercoaster in Britain, so on that front it doesnt win
I originally was disappointed by the Swarm when it first came out, although nowadays I do quite like it
If Reserve and Ride is active when you are there for the love of god use it. The idea is on an app you have a list of the 5 (4 without saw) coasters. Each ride has a virtual wait time which you can select what one to go on. The app counts down the time and when that time is up you go to the ride. When you get there someone will scan your phone and then you can enter the RnR queue which should be walk straight on. Then you select a different ride to virtually wait for and the same happens again.
Sounds great in theory. Unfortunately what has happened all of the previous times is everyone on the park can now queue for a coaster and another ride at the same time. So the virtual waits become 2-5 hours long with all the other rides getting longer queues than normal.
But the problems don't end there, it is still possible to queue for the other roller coasters normally. However these normal queues are horrific because they hardly move and only a few hundred people in them can create a queue longer than 2 hours.
But wait there is even more wrong with this system. The app works out the time you wait virtually by the throughput of the ride being worked out before hand but the throughput of a ride changes depending on staff ect. so you can end up waiting 5 hours virtually to get to the ride to find you now have to wait 1 and a half hours physically.
Then of course there is the problem of if you miss the 15 minute time period you have to get to the ride when the countdown is over. This is when the person will tell you to go to guest services because you have missed your time slot which of course guest services is full of people with the exact same problem. So now guest services has queues in excess of an hour long.
You may think im exaggerating all these points but I'm not. The last time they tried RnR exactly everything I said happened. So I wish you the best of luck with your day at Thorpe with RnR, if you are lucky people will not know how to use the system so your day will be quite good because no one will be using it. The problems being when everyone at the park does know how to use it.
This has just been posted on the Thorpe Park Resort website stating the dates and times...
"Soak up the summer vibes and enjoy exclusive after-hours coaster action at THORPE PARK Resort’s Summer Nights.
On Friday and Saturday nights over the summer, enjoy minimal queues on our top rollercoasters, and chill out with a relaxed party vibe across the Resort.
Plus:
• Selected other rides available
• Live music from breakthrough artists daily
• Party vibes and games on the beach
Oh right. This sounds awful! Was looking today whilst on my break and the rnr queues were at 0 minutes or maybe 10. It maybe because I wasn't on site but If this is true then I will be using rnr to work. Thanks for clearing it up
Deadjack5 wrote:Oh right. This sounds awful! Was looking today whilst on my break and the rnr queues were at 0 minutes or maybe 10. It maybe because I wasn't on site but If this is true then I will be using rnr to work. Thanks for clearing it up
If you get a day when there are not many people then you will have a really good day. Like today, the waits being 10 minutes would really benefit your day. Not many people mean not many people know its in use and so you can use the really short queues while everyone else is stuck in the slow moving ones. Its when more people are on site and more people know how to use when the problems start occurring.
If its available use it regardless, the RnR waits will always be shorter than the main queue.
I dont understand why RNR doesnt work. Cant they just be strict about getting there at you allotted time. If your late, you miss your turn and have to effectively queue again. The only down side to RNR I can see is that smaler rides would have bigger queues as there would be less people stuck in a two hour queue line.
stealthsmiler wrote:I dont understand why RNR doesnt work. Cant they just be strict about getting there at you allotted time. If your late, you miss your turn and have to effectively queue again. The only down side to RNR I can see is that smaler rides would have bigger queues as there would be less people stuck in a two hour queue line.
The problem is it distributes what was once 5000 people in 5 hours worth of queue for coasters into 5000 people into 10 hours worth of queue for flat rides plus whatever queue was already there.
The RnR queue for the swarm currently uses the old backwards queue line and merges with the main queue at the baggage room. The backwards queue hasn't been used all year and to go backwards you just choose that bay when you get to the station.
That would probably be because it's a quiet 'school' day so it's not overly busy there. Wish I could go on a school day but being a teacher it's not really possible.
