Swarm

Swarm is a great winged coaster. The drop is feels steeper than it looks. It is 128 ft high and 55 mph. It was my first ride at the park and got my blood pumping. The 5 inversions are all smooth because they are manufactured by B&M. The head choppers were really go and scared me. The first one were you went under the plane was really god. We rode on the right side and wanted to go back and do it on the left side. Keep your hands up to make the drop feel even steeper. The harness was very comfortable and made the ride more fun. Very smooth and a good overall ride.

Swarm was opened in 2012 and is the UK’s first winged coaster. The train runs on a central rail with prongs sticking out of both sides. The seats are attached to these prongs, allowing the riders’ feet to dangle free. Sadly, the seats don’t rotate on the prong in the style of X2 at Magic Mountain
Swarm is located in a new area of the park close to Stealth but you can’t access it directly from Stealth — you have to go on the other side of Tidal Wave to reach it. They have created a lovely new area with disaster theming — there is a blown up helicopter and fire engine but beware that the fire engine’s water cannon still has enough life in it to soak unwary guests passing by!
Basically, these vehicles have been damaged by an attack by aliens — the ride is built to resemble alien spacecraft. You get a good view of the ride from the queue line but also from all over the park
The queue line is mazy as usual and be aware that a portion of it does go round the back of the ride where you can’t see it. So, it may be longer than you realise — I found the queue line time estimate at the ride entrance to be accurate the 2 times I went on the ride.
When you get to the front of the queue, you have a larger area where riders with bags etc can hand them in to be looked after. Riders who want front row seats get a special pass to take with them. Then, it’s onto the main ride queue area which is hidden away. A nice touch is that the despatch booth is an upside down police criticial incident control truck. You are directed onto both sides of the loading gates by a park attendant
The ride is 4 abreast with 2 seats on each side, which helps the ride capacity. Like most of the big rides at Thorpe Park, the restraints are over the shoulder with a belt clipping it onto the seat.
On leaving the station, you’re immediately onto the lift hill, which flips you 180 degrees at the top into the first drop. My favourite element of the ride is the second drop — if you sit at the back on the right, there’s a great pop of air time as the whole train seems to pivot around that seat. It’s definitely better to sit on the right as you also catch some water spray at the bottom of one of the drops, which was missing when I rode of the left hand side of the train. The ride is very smooth with 5 inversions
It’s a good addition to the park and it’s nice to see Merlin continue to invest in new rides at this park — with a launch coaster and the only winged coaster in the UK, Thorpe Park in starting to rival Alton Tower’s lineup of coasters though it can’t ever hope to match Alton Towers on beauty and space
Stealth is still my favourite but Swarm may be vying for my 2^nd spot with Saw

10 minute queue time today so this is the big new ride at Thorpe Park for 2012. Looked forward to the chance of jumping on this from the day it was announced. Not convinced this lived up to the hype style over substance. The scene is stylishly set and the first drop is impressive all a bit smooth and slick after that there are better rides to catch here saw, stealth and colossus all hit the spot. Worth experiencing but not if the queue is longer than half an hour