Sazzle
TS Administrator
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Summary of my five day trip just gone, with Russell, Rob, Dave L, Dave W & Lottie.
I last visited PA in August 2009 and found it to be unbearable - graffiti everywhere, abhorrent cattlepen queuelines, rough rides and a general feeling that the park was run down. I'd not had any plans to return quite so soon, but a cheap deal and the lure of Shambhala proved too much to resist!
Ryanair did a fairly cheap flight from Stansted to Reus, and we chose Hotel Roulette for our accommodation (basically you book without knowing which Resort Hotel you are staying in until a day or two before departure). WE STRUCK GOLD - literally! We were so very lucky to get Hotel Gold River for our stay, and couldn't really find fault with it. The pool area was beautiful, the rooms were spacious and well equipped, the breakfast was fabulous and the general atmosphere was top notch.
It's worth bearing in mind that the park doesn't seem to fully open until about 12pm, with staggered opening of rides and attractions between 10am - 1pm. Our first ride was the log flume, and we waited in what we thought was going to be a fairly short queue... wrong. The cattlepen was hideously hot and loud, and the ride broke down a number of times (including with us on it!). I advised the guys that the rest of the park is very similar in queue style and that we should expect the same experience throughout the holiday.
No one was keen on this.
We purchased Express Pass Gold wristbands which were very very reasonably priced for Hotel guests - 49E for unlimited Express access to all major rides including Baco, Shambhala and Khan for the entire duration of your stay, and for us this was equivalent to about 10E per day (£8.50?). I actually think I'd have died without this!!! The queue for Shambhala was consistently upwards of an hour (often hitting and staying at 1h30), Khan 1h+ and Baco 1h+ every day - all in diabolical cattlepens. The park was RAMMED with school children on trips! The only major ride not to be included was Hurakan Condor, but presumably this is due to hideous throughputs as there is no Express access at all.
To cut a long story short, we whizzed around the park over the 5 days without any problems at all, save for a few breakdowns (Baco is hilariously poor for reliability). With the extra time we saved, there was opportunity for the two Daves to head to Barcelona, Russell and Rob to try the waterpark, and Lottie and I to laze by the pool at Gold River with a few alcoholic beverages (gotta love European free-pour) - a PROPER holiday!
I'm happy to report we managed to ride Shambhala at least 15 times each, in various different seats. It is an absolutely FANTASTIC creation and I strongly urge anyone in a position to go.. GO! There is an incredible amount of floaty airtime with a few pops of ejector, and I came off laughing and smiling every single time because it's just *so* much fun! I won't babble on about it too much, but I really hope the UK manages to bag one of these amazing machines.
The park is generally in a much better condition and I was very pleased to see the marked efforts with upkeep - the majority of park-wide graffiti had been removed, painting and spruce-ups had clearly taken place on all attractions and buildings, and there was just a general buzz about the place that had previously been lacking. My only irritation was the still present Chewing Gum Tunnel on Tutuki Splash which was disgusting back in 2009 and is still disgusting in 2013. Urgh!
Dragon Khan felt more pleasant than in 2009 and although I had an intensity headache from the second half (post-MCBR), I genuinely enjoyed the ride. Stampida was still epic fail for me in terms of ABSOLUTE PAIN on both the red and blue sides, but everyone else thought it was 'fine' - pfft. Furius Baco was still Furius Back Pain, and I'm afraid my conclusion is still that of it needing to be torn down. Hideous contraption.
ANYWAY. Fairly short 'n' sweet from me! When I do return to PA in the future, there's no doubt in my mind that I will be staying in Gold River and purchasing the Express Pass Gold to make my holiday that little bit more awesome .
I last visited PA in August 2009 and found it to be unbearable - graffiti everywhere, abhorrent cattlepen queuelines, rough rides and a general feeling that the park was run down. I'd not had any plans to return quite so soon, but a cheap deal and the lure of Shambhala proved too much to resist!
Ryanair did a fairly cheap flight from Stansted to Reus, and we chose Hotel Roulette for our accommodation (basically you book without knowing which Resort Hotel you are staying in until a day or two before departure). WE STRUCK GOLD - literally! We were so very lucky to get Hotel Gold River for our stay, and couldn't really find fault with it. The pool area was beautiful, the rooms were spacious and well equipped, the breakfast was fabulous and the general atmosphere was top notch.
It's worth bearing in mind that the park doesn't seem to fully open until about 12pm, with staggered opening of rides and attractions between 10am - 1pm. Our first ride was the log flume, and we waited in what we thought was going to be a fairly short queue... wrong. The cattlepen was hideously hot and loud, and the ride broke down a number of times (including with us on it!). I advised the guys that the rest of the park is very similar in queue style and that we should expect the same experience throughout the holiday.
No one was keen on this.
We purchased Express Pass Gold wristbands which were very very reasonably priced for Hotel guests - 49E for unlimited Express access to all major rides including Baco, Shambhala and Khan for the entire duration of your stay, and for us this was equivalent to about 10E per day (£8.50?). I actually think I'd have died without this!!! The queue for Shambhala was consistently upwards of an hour (often hitting and staying at 1h30), Khan 1h+ and Baco 1h+ every day - all in diabolical cattlepens. The park was RAMMED with school children on trips! The only major ride not to be included was Hurakan Condor, but presumably this is due to hideous throughputs as there is no Express access at all.
To cut a long story short, we whizzed around the park over the 5 days without any problems at all, save for a few breakdowns (Baco is hilariously poor for reliability). With the extra time we saved, there was opportunity for the two Daves to head to Barcelona, Russell and Rob to try the waterpark, and Lottie and I to laze by the pool at Gold River with a few alcoholic beverages (gotta love European free-pour) - a PROPER holiday!
I'm happy to report we managed to ride Shambhala at least 15 times each, in various different seats. It is an absolutely FANTASTIC creation and I strongly urge anyone in a position to go.. GO! There is an incredible amount of floaty airtime with a few pops of ejector, and I came off laughing and smiling every single time because it's just *so* much fun! I won't babble on about it too much, but I really hope the UK manages to bag one of these amazing machines.
The park is generally in a much better condition and I was very pleased to see the marked efforts with upkeep - the majority of park-wide graffiti had been removed, painting and spruce-ups had clearly taken place on all attractions and buildings, and there was just a general buzz about the place that had previously been lacking. My only irritation was the still present Chewing Gum Tunnel on Tutuki Splash which was disgusting back in 2009 and is still disgusting in 2013. Urgh!
Dragon Khan felt more pleasant than in 2009 and although I had an intensity headache from the second half (post-MCBR), I genuinely enjoyed the ride. Stampida was still epic fail for me in terms of ABSOLUTE PAIN on both the red and blue sides, but everyone else thought it was 'fine' - pfft. Furius Baco was still Furius Back Pain, and I'm afraid my conclusion is still that of it needing to be torn down. Hideous contraption.
ANYWAY. Fairly short 'n' sweet from me! When I do return to PA in the future, there's no doubt in my mind that I will be staying in Gold River and purchasing the Express Pass Gold to make my holiday that little bit more awesome .