RicketyCricket
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Taron
Just back from a quick visit to Salou, first time back to Port Aventura in 6 years and first ever time at Ferrari Land.
I used to love this park as a kid and had been a fairly regular visitor way back before Shambhala or even Furious Baco had opened. Overall I've been lucky enough to have avoided the crowded days and never really had a bad day there.
The great thing about Port Aventura is that it's always do-able on the cheap. The flights were £24 return from Stansted and the apartment was only £60 for 3 nights. Park tickets were £60 for 2 days, so that's £144 all in.
Day 1: Landed in Reus at 6pm and got a cab straight into Salou to catch the Chelsea game on TV. Turns out the World Rally Championship was on here over the weekend so Salou was absolutely rammed which made for a good party atmosphere. Attacked a seafood loaded paella and had a few pints with a sea view before heading to the apartment.
Day 2: After a 20 minute stroll from central Salou we arrived at the park entrance, which was heaving. It was a Halloween event day and it also seemed that thousands of the rally car nerds had assembled at the resort.
We headed straight for Shambhala which had a huge queue spilling out of the entrance, but we were on in just 40 minutes. It turned out the ride was running 3 (three!) trains. Two trains were regularly stacking on the brake run because Port Aventura operations but it was great to see. As for the ride itself, it's still a world class coaster. Possibly the best in the world at delivering consistently smooth and floaty airtime. For me personally though the restraints are an issue, for some reason they require an extra click that no other B&M Hyper needs, and as someone with big thighs it made for an uncomfortable, fully stapled in ride with absolutely zero wiggle room. Saw a lot of 'normal' sized people who couldn't fit on at all. Overall I love Shambhala, the layout is pretty much perfect and the ending is a lot stronger than I had remembered.
At this point every decent ride had a queue of at least 45 - 90 minutes. I'd rather be waterboarded than wait more than 20 minutes for any ride at Port Aventura due to the slow operations, queue jumpers and labyrinths of cattle pens. We had a quick go on what must be the fastest rapids in the northern hemisphere and spent the next couple of hours walking around, watching the scare actors do their thing, as well as consuming hot dogs and cold Estrella's. Port Aventura is a beautiful park.
We then decided to join the 20 minute queue for a brand new attraction for me, Sesame Street: Street Mission. Turned out to be a brilliant dark ride, it's good fun and the cookie zapping sticks worked very well. Anything with cookie smell pods is a welcome addition to any park. If I were to nitpick though, it's a wasted use of the trackless system and could have easily been an omnimover type ride. On Ratatouille and Symbolica the vehicles zigzag and dance across each other but on here it's just a straight line with no interaction with other cars.
Had a quick spin on Angkor, Europe's most wasted Splash Battle. The theming is incredible and it's a great way to cool down but convinced 75% of visitors have no idea it exists. By this point Shambhala was advertised as 50 minutes but we had a quick look and could see it was no more than 15 minutes. Got very lucky with a front row wing seat ride.
Dragon Khan and Hurakan Condor were over an hour waits so we had a quick go on Stampida. Was quite looking forward to getting on this as it's an old favourite but wow it was horrendous. Just a complete waste of space. It's so painful with rough transitions and a constant aggressive vibration without having the excuse of being 100 years old. It's a bit cliche but RMC need to get on the next £12 Ryanair flight to Reus and sort this out. There's plenty there to work with.
We weren't too bothered about the Halloween stuff but decided to give two of the mazes a go. Horror In Texas and .Rec had been around for years so we went for the two new and bigger budget looking ones. First up was Apocolypse which was a Mayan themed jobby in the Templo Del Fuego queue and ride area. Really good value at €5 as it goes on forever and there are lots of actors. The park was only open til 8pm which meant no possibility of experiencing this in the dark which would have been a lot better. The maze also made use of the main showpiece scene of Templo Del Fuego with fire effects which was cool.
Can't remember the name of the second maze but it was a Mexican day of the dead type theme done to near perfection. Plenty of colourful themeing externally and inside the attraction. It was a lot shorter than Apocolypse, with less actors and minimal jump scares but still very well done.
Decided to call it a day at this point, nipping on Furious Baco as we headed for the exit. I was unfortunate enough to be on a wing seat which matched Stampedia in terms of rattliness but with the added joy of over the shoulder restraint head bashing. At least the launch is good though.
Walked back down to Salou and ended the evening again with a beachfront Paella, this time with added fried Octopi and a jug of Sangria.
Day 3: Woke up still in a semi food coma and headed for Ferrari Land. We joined the 20 or so others patiently waiting for rope drop and could tell already today was going to be completely dead. Opted not to join the several fully grown men in a sprint race for Red Force but got in the queue and was sat on the back row on the third train of the day.
Having been spited by Top Thrill Dragster it was great to get on one of these monsters with just a lap restraint which really does make a difference and you really feel the airtime over the top hat. The launch was good but noticeably less forceful than the likes of Kingda Ka, Stealth or maybe even Furious Baco. This coaster gets slated a fair bit because of the slight rattle but it doesn't take anything away from the ride. What's not to love about a 350ft 100+ mph coaster?
We then joined the slow moving queue for Flying Dreams but we're on the ride in 25 mins or so. I'm a big fan of these flying theatres and this was no exception, a superb attraction. Love the alpine forest scents.
It was approaching midday and we headed back over to Port Aventura. Started off with Stampida this time opting for the blue train but it was equally as bad as the previous day. Never again. We then had a couple of goes on Hurakan Condor which we'd missed the previous day due to the crowds and it's still one of the best drop towers out there. Feels like your falling forever and the views over the Mediterranean Sea are incredible.
By this point nearly every single ride was on a 0 minute wait, including Shambhala which we lapped a few times. Well worth the stapling induced leg pain.
Dragon Khan was another one we had to skip on the first day and it was a pleasant surprise. It's aged terribly with a bit of a vibration but I forgot how good the layout is, it's a long coaster with a lot of variety and forces. Can't help but feel it's only got a few years left though.
Got back on Baco, this time on an inside seat which was much better. The difference was quite remarkable considering the utter torture you're submitted to just when a few inches away on the wing.
Ferrari Land was due to close at 4pm so we mooched back over there for the last hour and got several queue-less rides on Red Force, including a front row ride. As expected this was by far the best way to experience this coaster with the wind twatting you in the face throughout. Got on the drop towers too which were pretty good.
Back to Port Aventura for some more walk on Shambhala action and that was us done for the day.
Topped off the evening with yet another Paella, completing the seafood + rice treble. This time opted for a black, squid ink Paella - a catalunyan speciality.
Day 4: Rented a pedalo with a slide for an hour in the morning to take advantage of the heat. Dodged some jellyfish in the sea and got a cab back to the airport for the 3pm flight home.
Overall my opinions of the park haven't changed much. It's a beautiful resort and recent investments look to have been done to a consistently high standard. Too many of the rides are crap/old/painful so it's not somewhere I'd visit regularly anymore but it's a great option for an easily accessible quick coaster fix. The operations can be frustratingly slow even when the park is deserted they seem to make everything a faff and I can imagine it being a hellish experience on the really busy days.
I used to love this park as a kid and had been a fairly regular visitor way back before Shambhala or even Furious Baco had opened. Overall I've been lucky enough to have avoided the crowded days and never really had a bad day there.
The great thing about Port Aventura is that it's always do-able on the cheap. The flights were £24 return from Stansted and the apartment was only £60 for 3 nights. Park tickets were £60 for 2 days, so that's £144 all in.
Day 1: Landed in Reus at 6pm and got a cab straight into Salou to catch the Chelsea game on TV. Turns out the World Rally Championship was on here over the weekend so Salou was absolutely rammed which made for a good party atmosphere. Attacked a seafood loaded paella and had a few pints with a sea view before heading to the apartment.
Day 2: After a 20 minute stroll from central Salou we arrived at the park entrance, which was heaving. It was a Halloween event day and it also seemed that thousands of the rally car nerds had assembled at the resort.
We headed straight for Shambhala which had a huge queue spilling out of the entrance, but we were on in just 40 minutes. It turned out the ride was running 3 (three!) trains. Two trains were regularly stacking on the brake run because Port Aventura operations but it was great to see. As for the ride itself, it's still a world class coaster. Possibly the best in the world at delivering consistently smooth and floaty airtime. For me personally though the restraints are an issue, for some reason they require an extra click that no other B&M Hyper needs, and as someone with big thighs it made for an uncomfortable, fully stapled in ride with absolutely zero wiggle room. Saw a lot of 'normal' sized people who couldn't fit on at all. Overall I love Shambhala, the layout is pretty much perfect and the ending is a lot stronger than I had remembered.
At this point every decent ride had a queue of at least 45 - 90 minutes. I'd rather be waterboarded than wait more than 20 minutes for any ride at Port Aventura due to the slow operations, queue jumpers and labyrinths of cattle pens. We had a quick go on what must be the fastest rapids in the northern hemisphere and spent the next couple of hours walking around, watching the scare actors do their thing, as well as consuming hot dogs and cold Estrella's. Port Aventura is a beautiful park.
We then decided to join the 20 minute queue for a brand new attraction for me, Sesame Street: Street Mission. Turned out to be a brilliant dark ride, it's good fun and the cookie zapping sticks worked very well. Anything with cookie smell pods is a welcome addition to any park. If I were to nitpick though, it's a wasted use of the trackless system and could have easily been an omnimover type ride. On Ratatouille and Symbolica the vehicles zigzag and dance across each other but on here it's just a straight line with no interaction with other cars.
Had a quick spin on Angkor, Europe's most wasted Splash Battle. The theming is incredible and it's a great way to cool down but convinced 75% of visitors have no idea it exists. By this point Shambhala was advertised as 50 minutes but we had a quick look and could see it was no more than 15 minutes. Got very lucky with a front row wing seat ride.
Dragon Khan and Hurakan Condor were over an hour waits so we had a quick go on Stampida. Was quite looking forward to getting on this as it's an old favourite but wow it was horrendous. Just a complete waste of space. It's so painful with rough transitions and a constant aggressive vibration without having the excuse of being 100 years old. It's a bit cliche but RMC need to get on the next £12 Ryanair flight to Reus and sort this out. There's plenty there to work with.
We weren't too bothered about the Halloween stuff but decided to give two of the mazes a go. Horror In Texas and .Rec had been around for years so we went for the two new and bigger budget looking ones. First up was Apocolypse which was a Mayan themed jobby in the Templo Del Fuego queue and ride area. Really good value at €5 as it goes on forever and there are lots of actors. The park was only open til 8pm which meant no possibility of experiencing this in the dark which would have been a lot better. The maze also made use of the main showpiece scene of Templo Del Fuego with fire effects which was cool.
Can't remember the name of the second maze but it was a Mexican day of the dead type theme done to near perfection. Plenty of colourful themeing externally and inside the attraction. It was a lot shorter than Apocolypse, with less actors and minimal jump scares but still very well done.
Decided to call it a day at this point, nipping on Furious Baco as we headed for the exit. I was unfortunate enough to be on a wing seat which matched Stampedia in terms of rattliness but with the added joy of over the shoulder restraint head bashing. At least the launch is good though.
Walked back down to Salou and ended the evening again with a beachfront Paella, this time with added fried Octopi and a jug of Sangria.
Day 3: Woke up still in a semi food coma and headed for Ferrari Land. We joined the 20 or so others patiently waiting for rope drop and could tell already today was going to be completely dead. Opted not to join the several fully grown men in a sprint race for Red Force but got in the queue and was sat on the back row on the third train of the day.
Having been spited by Top Thrill Dragster it was great to get on one of these monsters with just a lap restraint which really does make a difference and you really feel the airtime over the top hat. The launch was good but noticeably less forceful than the likes of Kingda Ka, Stealth or maybe even Furious Baco. This coaster gets slated a fair bit because of the slight rattle but it doesn't take anything away from the ride. What's not to love about a 350ft 100+ mph coaster?
We then joined the slow moving queue for Flying Dreams but we're on the ride in 25 mins or so. I'm a big fan of these flying theatres and this was no exception, a superb attraction. Love the alpine forest scents.
It was approaching midday and we headed back over to Port Aventura. Started off with Stampida this time opting for the blue train but it was equally as bad as the previous day. Never again. We then had a couple of goes on Hurakan Condor which we'd missed the previous day due to the crowds and it's still one of the best drop towers out there. Feels like your falling forever and the views over the Mediterranean Sea are incredible.
By this point nearly every single ride was on a 0 minute wait, including Shambhala which we lapped a few times. Well worth the stapling induced leg pain.
Dragon Khan was another one we had to skip on the first day and it was a pleasant surprise. It's aged terribly with a bit of a vibration but I forgot how good the layout is, it's a long coaster with a lot of variety and forces. Can't help but feel it's only got a few years left though.
Got back on Baco, this time on an inside seat which was much better. The difference was quite remarkable considering the utter torture you're submitted to just when a few inches away on the wing.
Ferrari Land was due to close at 4pm so we mooched back over there for the last hour and got several queue-less rides on Red Force, including a front row ride. As expected this was by far the best way to experience this coaster with the wind twatting you in the face throughout. Got on the drop towers too which were pretty good.
Back to Port Aventura for some more walk on Shambhala action and that was us done for the day.
Topped off the evening with yet another Paella, completing the seafood + rice treble. This time opted for a black, squid ink Paella - a catalunyan speciality.
Day 4: Rented a pedalo with a slide for an hour in the morning to take advantage of the heat. Dodged some jellyfish in the sea and got a cab back to the airport for the 3pm flight home.
Overall my opinions of the park haven't changed much. It's a beautiful resort and recent investments look to have been done to a consistently high standard. Too many of the rides are crap/old/painful so it's not somewhere I'd visit regularly anymore but it's a great option for an easily accessible quick coaster fix. The operations can be frustratingly slow even when the park is deserted they seem to make everything a faff and I can imagine it being a hellish experience on the really busy days.
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