PortAventura 10/06 - 14/06 TR

[Ollie]

To be honest, all of the PortAventura attractions since Universal have themes, but those themes are not fully realised which is the issue. Sea Odyssey, as Laura said, was truly a great dark ride when I visited in 2007 and included the only animatronic figure in the whole park. It had a story, an original character (Sami) and provided an immersive environment. Now the park still use old videos that relate to the original ride and really make little sense nowadays. I would love to see what the resort would look like if Universal hadn't sold it off.

It is also a shame also that the hotels are not what they used to be. There is no longer the free Beach Club access, transportation to PortAventura Golf (now 'Lumine'), kids club, complimentary Express, unlimited Express after 9pm with your room key, free access to Costa Caribe etc. Especially as they have now chosen to promote themselves as a 'European Destination Resort', I find it incredibly ironic that they actually are less of a resort than they were five years ago.

I am going back for the fourth time since 2007 this summer, but the main draw is Shambhala and the waterpark expansion. I am staying for six nights and combining it with a break in Barcelona, but if PortAventura was still a true resort, I would not hesitate to stay for two weeks as we did a few years ago.

 

[Rollercoasters4Life]

Great report

How much did it cost? I'm looking at doing a holiday abroad next year, and would be quite into do Porta Ventura

See below... this might hurt MiserableMonkey a little

Nice report, and glad you had a good time!

Myself and a group of friends have booked 7 days at PortAventura, staying in the Gold River hotel for around £600 each - so it better be a good week!

We're definitely considering the Gold Express Pass for 49E, as I have no desire to stand in boiling hot queues for hours on end. However, I have discovered since booking that the park is open 10am - midnight every day we're there, so that's a bonus!

Also, it's my first time at PortAventura so I have no idea what to expect. I shall find out this Friday though!

Glad to hear you've booked Gold River - it is a beautiful hotel and well worth your money! I would absolutely recommend the Express pass for 49E as it saves you a lot of hassle and discomfort in the massive queues! As I said just remember the park is staggered opening and so there's no real rush to get into the park... though try breakfast for 9.15am as we did, which missed the huge queues at the buffet restaurant.

I hate to tell you that by doing Hotel Roulette, we booked 2 rooms for 3 people each, and only paid 198E for five days and four nights !!

I was there at the same time as you guys (9th-16th June), think I saw you guys on the Tuesday on the bridge going to Far West with one of you taking pictures of Baco - wasn't sure though.

Got on Shamby 6 times during my 3 visits to PA - including 3 back-row outer seats, 1 middle train inner seat and one front row inner seat. The front row is spectacular, whereas the back is best for all the airtime. The floater airtime you get from the hill that precedes the water splash is amazing. The operations on Baco were appalling, even going to the point of me saying I think it is the worst operations of a ride I have ever seen. I don't remember seeing the operations on it being so bad back in 2012, 2009 or 2007. On the upside, the operations on Shambhala were amazing the three days I was there.

What is this Hotel Roulette you talk of? Is it something booked through PA themselves or another company? Also did you get a taxi from the airport to your hotel, and how much did it cost you? I would imagine something like 35/40 euros?

 

[Sazzle]

What is this Hotel Roulette you talk of? Is it something booked through PA themselves or another company? Also did you get a taxi from the airport to your hotel, and how much did it cost you? I would imagine something like 35/40 euros?

Hotel Roulette is a booking option through the official website when you book far enough in advance. For example I just went to www.portaventura.co.uk and put in a 3 night stay for 2 adults from 19/09, and the first option is Hotel Roulette for 390E total (bed, breakfast & park entry). The two other options are Hotel Caribe for 396E and PortAventura for 416E. Gold River is clearly closed at this point, but we got a BARGAIN by doing this, though the savings aren't so big in this example!

I also booked our shuttle through the official website it worked out at 17.50E each return (6 sharing a private shuttle), with a driver waiting for us at the airport (WITH MY NAME ON A BOARD, I'M SPESHUL!!) and a personal collection from Gold River with confirmation via fax delivered to our hotel room the day before: http://www.portaventura.co.uk/reservations/traslados

Hope that helps

 

[Dave]

So my thoughts on PortAventura (finally)

The Park

I mostly found the park to be a pleasure to walk around, the area theming is really good, the only slightly drab area bizarrely is the plaza outside Dragon Khan. The themes are often stock theme park fare but done really very well. There is also a refreshingly nice presentation on some of the tacky standard theme park fare like the gaming units. Parks that have impressed me before just omitted gaming units mostly (EP/ Disney) but PA shows you can keep these in a park but not have them ruin the atmosphere as happens in Merlin parks by hanging the whole stock off the side of the building.

Queue Lines

Mostly horrid cattlepens, if you think Smiler is bad then these are horrid, even Shambala their latest ride is evil. I do get the fact they want to cover the queues due to the sun and a cattlepen is the best option for this but at least make the fences a little higher and provide some entertainment. Lots of graffiti too.

Ride themes

I found most ride themes excluding the queue reasonable. Dragon Khan is a little lacklustre but Baco is well themed as is Hurrucan Condor. The relatively new Sesame Street land is great too. Obviously the best of the bunch was probably Temple Del Fuego and Hurruncan Condor.

Hotel

Hotel Gold River is really good, for rooms and small details it isn't as good as EP and the bars are a bit pants but for scale and external theming GR is one of the best theme park hotels i have stayed in. The hotel feels like a proper town with a City Hall, various out buildings, a mansion for the high quality rooms. It even has a train station with a steam engine and a cemetery! The pools where lovely too and many a happy hour was spent lazing beside them

Had a wander around hotel PA, the outside seemed pleasant enough but it looks like it needs some TLC. It does have a lovely entrance into the park though.

Shambhala

Their latest roller coaster and by-eck is it a good one. The ride area is well themed and plays on its open environment on top of a hill going for the theme of a mountain temple complex. The external theming in the queue building and the station is really pleasant and the area very well done.

The ride itself is absolutely fantastic, the first drop is amazing and the tunnel at the bottom provides a head-chopper that had the whole train ducking down. The ride offers standard B&M floaty air-time and some great track interaction. I really like the seat layout, I was worried the back 2 seats would feel a bit lonely but the configuration actually allows for a really social ride experience as the whole row can see each other.

Over-all its better than Silver Star for air-time and pace, though its not massively better and it would have benefited from some of the twisty style track that you get at the end of the Silver Star.

Dragon Khan

Now I really liked the look of this ride, a proper old-fashioned B&M thrill machine from before the time they decided to go all smooth and boring. Unfortunatly what I got was severe headache every time I rode it.

You can tell that when it opened this beast would have been a fantastic ride as the elements are fast and intense and the way you get thrown around should be fun. Unfortunately its got so rough that my head was just repeatedly bashed into the OSTR’s. Although not as rough as Furious Baco I got a worse head-ache on DK. This is the first B&M I have ever come off in pain, it was truly horrid.

Shame as with some new trains it probably would be amazing.

Furious Baco

Good theme, nice pre-launch show, great launch then the most painful, boring piece of roller coaster rubbish ever forced upon the riding public. It really after the launch has no redeeming features, its dull and painful!

Stampida

I have had a few good conversations with John Wardley but these all occurred before my visit to PA, if I am ever fortunate enough to meet him again I may just have to ask if he had suffered a head-injury before designing Stampida and forgot about the concept of “banking”
To be fair the red side (which apparently has had some work done) wasn’t too bad, its no worse than Zues for roughness and it has some Grand National style ejector airtime on the double hills. But I am no woody fan and would guess it doesn't rate highly in woody geeks ratings.

Blue side was pure hell

As a side note Tomahawk is a cool kiddy wooden coaster.

El Diablo

So bad it became good by default

Temple Del Fuego

Absolutely amazing, this dark walk-through is very theatrical with a live actor and some amazing effects. The whole product just feels well-made and a true spectacle combining some very simple effects with amazing pyro.

Just never take Alton Towers Health and Safety Team to ride it, I don’t think they would survive the shock!

Rapids and Splash ride

The rapids at PA are mad, they are not so much rapids as Sonic Spinball on water! With a full boat you fly down the trough like a mad thing. Great fun and pleasantly damp in the warm weather.

The splash ride thing…. Looks old and drab and you get drenched

Conclusion

PA is a great park to visit with really good area theming but some areas that are a little tired. It does however feel like it needs at least one more good coaster, a dark ride and a few more good quality flats though

Definitely recommend a visit though, especially as easily added to a summer getaway to Catalonia.

 

[josht]

After reading these reviews, I'm pretty sure I will be visiting next year at some point. So would like to thank those who've took the time to write the reviews

 

[Dylan]

Decent reviews here, I have one question though....
Was the Happiness Station open? Was there Happiness?

 

[DiogoJ42]

I don't get the obsession with those. I found it very disapointing when I went a couple of months ago. But then, I'm not a big ice cream fan any way. I actually prefered the generic Mr Whippy style ice cream sold on park.

 

[Dylan]

I don't get the obsession with those. I found it very disapointing when I went a couple of months ago. But then, I'm not a big ice cream fan any way. I actually prefered the generic Mr Whippy style ice cream sold on park.

I was being a bit ironic, as we went mid August and there was no happiness! Happiness was closed!

 

[DiogoJ42]

I think when we went it was open two out of three days. For a small portion of the afternoon.

 

[AstroDan]

Happiness Stations <3

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Maelstrom]

I am at port aventura at the moment and the happeness station has been open every day we have been there, opens about lunch time and seems to be open until around 9pm (park shuts at midnight now until early sept). They are nice, but really just a nicer version of a mcflurry with More topping options. Also not cheap at over €4.

Although we moan about alton towers pricing on products I have found all the parks I have been to outside the uk (inc the Orlando parks) seem to charge more for food and drink than our uk parks do.

 

[Rollercoasters4Life]

Happiness Station <3

Me and the missus had it 4 times each while we visited Port Aventura (3 PA visits, 1 waterpark) and loved them. Yeah it costs us €4.50 per one so I spent €36 on ice cream while there - I wouldn't of done it in this country but because I was on holiday I did...oops! Saying that to get a decent meal in PA costs about €10+ each. And we moan about AT pricing...