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PortAventura: General Discussion

James said:
It kind of makes sense given how 'generic' it was (is? - I haven't seen the hotel for years) and the distance it is from the rest of the resort. I always felt it was a bit out of the way, when the other hotels pretty much have direct theme park access.
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It's still very generic compared to the others and it has always been the cheapest and odd one out. Hopefully when it reopens in 2022 they will have addressed the flaws and brought the themeing upto scratch. They've done a brilliant job with the Hotel PortAventura and Hotel El Paso rooms so hopefully they can work their magic here, I've never wanted to stay there with how it is now. I just hope they can address the operational problems because the reviews are horrendous.
 
Getting an external company to build and operate a Hotel, only to later have the park take it over seems to be a common industry trend. Off the top of my head both Disney and Chessington have done this, I'm sure there are many more examples.

Normally it happens because:
1 - The park wants a Hotel but can't fund it (The original Disneyland Hotel)
2 - The park doesn't have experience running a hotel and for a small hotel it's not profitable for them to run it themselves.
3 - Having a well known external chain can encourage people to stay who wouldn't have otherwise.
4 - local authority's require competition to prevent a monopoly forming.

I have no idea what the reason is in this case. Potentially it's number 1; they had the budget for a Waterpark or 3rd Hotel but wanted both.
 
Tim said:
Getting an external company to build and operate a Hotel, only to later have the park take it over seems to be a common industry trend. Off the top of my head both Disney and Chessington have done this, I'm sure there are many more examples.

Normally it happens because:
1 - The park wants a Hotel but can't fund it (The original Disneyland Hotel)
2 - The park doesn't have experience running a hotel and for a small hotel it's not profitable for them to run it themselves.
3 - Having a well known external chain can encourage people to stay who wouldn't have otherwise.
4 - local authority's require competition to prevent a monopoly forming.

I have no idea what the reason is in this case. Potentially it's number 1; they had the budget for a Waterpark or 3rd Hotel but wanted both.
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I would say if anything it would be number 4 if any (obviously I don't know), but at the time PortAventura was Universal Studios so I doubt it would have been a money issue, they were ploughing money in at the time as does the company at the moment so I don't think it would have been that.

These days the hotels just outside of the Resort are official partner hotels (Hotel Salauris Palace, Hotel VilLaRomana and Hotel Sol Costa Dorada) but only include Park Hopper Tickets as opposed to other perks.
 
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AstroDan said:
Europa-Park wanted companies to do this before they built El Andaluz to reduce the risk. But no company would.

Who's laughing now?
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Didn't I read that are EP meant to have having some partner hotels as part of the Waterpark area expansion at some point?
 
siralgenon said:
Didn't I read that are EP meant to have having some partner hotels as part of the Waterpark area expansion at some point?
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I haven't read that, but Rust Municipality have approved some brand hotels in the village for the first time - so maybe that is what you are referencing. Moxy Hotels are opening near Bell Rock - unsure if 2021 or 2022 opening, but they are a big brand backed by Marriott. Think Hotel Indigo.

Paris. London. New York. Rust.
 
One of the resort's new songs 'El Sueno Gigante' The Giant Dream has dropped today on Facebook by PortAventura's Entertainments Director Gianfranco. It's not the finished version and is missing a bit of the start and finish but you get the drift. :p

 
Gardaland, Europa-Park and PortAventura. I love how you all persist with this cheesy musical claptrap.

Never stop.
 
AstroDan said:
Gardaland, Europa-Park and PortAventura. I love how you all persist with this cheesy musical claptrap.

Never stop.
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I bloody (can you say that on here? Probably not) love PortAventura's songs. They're like the ABBA of the theme park world. I'd never want it to replace the normal background music of the areas but for shows, events etc I think they're brill. ¡HOLA HOLA!
 
Talk to me about food options at the Parks and Hotels people !

We found an excellent deal for a week full board staying at Gold River in October , and I’m wondering whether there’s any must do restaurants or food options . We have tickets for PA all week and a day at Ferrari Land. I was also wondering what the opening times are usually like in October as it will hopefully be their Halloween season
 
tayspru said:
Talk to me about food options at the Parks and Hotels people !

We found an excellent deal for a week full board staying at Gold River in October , and I’m wondering whether there’s any must do restaurants or food options . We have tickets for PA all week and a day at Ferrari Land. I was also wondering what the opening times are usually like in October as it will hopefully be their Halloween season
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So as part of your package you'll have a Dine Around Meal Plan which means you can eat in any of the restaurants in the PortAventura Parks and Hotels. The buffet restaurants are included or you can swap this for a voucher to use in the a'la'carte restaurants. I'd recommend Grand Opera (Hotel Gold River), Restaurant Port Regata (Hotel PortAventura), Restaurant Raco De Mar (Mediterrania) and The Iron Horse (Far West). Ristorante Cavallino is also meant to be good in Ferrari Land but I've not tried there yet.

There are many quick and self service restaurants around the parks which is usually go for at lunch, particularly The Old Steak House, Dagana and Sichuan, Pit Lane is also very good in Ferrari Land.

Café Saula at Hotel PortAventura is a great place to have a coffee / frappe and snacks in the day evening too situated in the main plaza.

Park hours are normally till about 9/10pm at Halloween but hours may be reduced again this year due to Covid which could be 7/8pm. Also some restaurants and attractions may be unavailable due to the pandemic.
 
Food is not a strong point of PortAventura.

It is one of the weaker major resorts for food quality and consistency.

If anything, it's better in the park than at the hotels - but even then, it's a very mixed bag.

Grand Opera at Gold River is solid, although it sounds better on the menu than what you end up with. The buffet at Gold River is awful - avoid.

PA are the experts at making restaurants look good and menus read well. But the food and service in these outlets rarely, if ever, has lived up to the hope. And that's from three separate visits to Salou. TripAdvisor agrees.

As the famous line does say:

"Is closed. Is buffet"
 
I agree with Dan, the buffets at Hotel Gold River aren't very good, not what you'd expect anyway, it's a very limited range. The new restaurants at Hotel PortAventura have a much better buffet.
 
Thanks for all the quick replies ! The difference between room only and full board was only about 70 euro per person for the full week so seemed like a no brainer . Do restaurants need to be booked ahead usually ?
 
tayspru said:
Thanks for all the quick replies ! The difference between room only and full board was only about 70 euro per person for the full week so seemed like a no brainer . Do restaurants need to be booked ahead usually ?
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I'm not 100% sure as things might have changed due to Covid but normally if you're eating in your hotels buffet restaurant then you can just turn up and there may be a short wait, to eat in another hotel in the evening or in an a'la'carte restaurant in the parks you'll need to book at your hotels guest relations desk.
 
tayspru said:
The difference between room only and full board was only about 70 euro per person for the full week so seemed like a no brainer
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I had no idea it was so cheap! Is it always like this or a special offer on at the minute?
 
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