Visited the park Wed 20th 10am-2pm and 5pm-8pm, Thurs 21st 5pm-8pm, Friday 22nd 3.30om-11.30pm, Sat 23rd 11.30am-3.30pm (while waiting for buss to airport) - The busiest days were Wed and Thurs (the busiest and from what heard the busiest day this year so far) friday and sat where alot quieter with ride queues alot shorter (shambhala was only about an 1hr on fri and sat). Also the park was alot quieter in the evenings and friday was the parks first midnight close and rides were for the most part walk on or very short queues. The reason the wed and thurs where so busy was to massive amounts of school trips much like the uk parks get in late June and July.
Overall Impressions: Overall i was very impressed by the park, i had read a number of fairly negative reports before we visited but i thought the park was fantastic overall and had a great time. The park reminded me of a Busch gardens style park and Islands of adventure (helped by them playing IOA theme tune at the entrance!) The park is massive and the landscaping is great especially for a purpose built park. Also i had read lots about poor maintance etc but apart from the chewing gum in the tunnel on tutuki splash and graffiti on stampedia it wasn’t that bad and in most areas better than you see at the UK merlin parks currently. As for queue jumping i have heard alot about this but although we were using express i did not see very much of it even when queuing normally, witnessed it on Hurakan Condor twice and that was about it.
Theming-The area theming in the park is fantastic especially in the far west area of the park which looks fantastic.
Express: I normally don’t do express tickets and certainly wouldn’t in a uk park but did at Port Aventura and had decided to before knew how busy it was. If you stay on property they do fantastic deals for express tickets (i know they used to be free a few years back) but its 12 euro for 1 express per ride or the option we went for 49 euro (£42) for unlimited express rides for your entire stay (upto 7 days) you get a wrist band) there are 10 rides available for express, Shambhala, Dragon Khan, Diablo, Silver river Flume, Grand Canyon Rapids, Stampida, Tami-Tami, Tutuki Splash, Furius Baco & Templo del Fuego. Being able to walk staright onto shambhala with a 2hr queue was fantastic (although ddo feal a bit guilty but i think we are well passed the times of parks operating with no fast past solution now and not many major parks left that dont). Also i did read in the other trip report about the park filling up nearly an entire train with express queue quests, we didnt really witness this as most of the rides on Shambhala there were only every a few people waiting and they normally filled up a couple of rows. The same with Baco even though that most of the time had fairly large express queue (15 min wait) they only every let around 8 people in per ride).
Water Park- Having been to Siam park in Tenerife and the Orlando water parks was overly impressed, was nice enough but could do with being bigger with more attractions as like altons water park hasnt been updated since it opened. Also like Alton Towers they have dropped the orginal name (Caribe water park) and know known as Port Aventura aquatic park). However i have heard a major expansion is coming in 2013/14, there were plans for a huge volcano theme ride structure with worlds highest water slide (pics on the net if you google them) for 1999 but were delayed due to park being sold) land was already cleared behind the water park which you can see on google earth).
Opening Hours- Fantastic the park was open until 8pm on the wed and thurs and then starting on Friday 22nd until end of August the park is open until midnight with a night time show at 11.15pm top keep guests in the park. Plus to celebrate the summer season for the first time every on 30th June the park is open until 4am (cheap tickets if come after 10pm, 15 Euro's) However the park stager the opening of rides which causes big queues, the only major rides open at 10am are Baco, Grand canyon Rapids and Dragon Khan. Shambhala opens at 11am with others opening between 11 and 12pm. I would imagine this leads to more express sales as people see the queues for Baco. With the heat my advice would be to not visit until later in the day anyway as we did after the first day.
Shows- Fantastic amount of shows with as of friday they have 15 shows, plus loads of street style entertainment, mainly for kids going on in many of the theme areas. Shows visited were
Bang Bang West, a wild west stunt show which was ok a bit cheesy but a decent show.
FiestAventura- Night time spectacular 11.15pm which on the entrance lagoon and is a mix of fountains, floats, lights, fire and lots of Fireworks. Very good show especially for a non disney park and the fact it is on every night for over 2 months.
Templo Del Fuego- A Universal studios style effects show based on an indianna jones style adventure. Although in Spanish was easy to understand what was happening, after a preshow go into a big room which is the inside of a temple, everything goes wrong and there is a lot of fire. This is a great experience style attraction that i think would work well at Alton Towers, however due to running costs cant see this happening anytime soon.
Sea Odyssey 4d- A imax mation based ride. This was poor originally when it opened i understand it had a specific ride film which all the theming relates to however in 2010 it was converted into a 4d show. Now it shows a 2 standard 4d ride films (1 in each of the two theatres) with the ride bases moving to what’s happening on the screen and the only other 4d effect water spray.
The rides-
Shambhala- Amazing, this was my first B&M mega coaster and loved it. It is now my favourite coaster along with Nemesis. I know it might not be everyone’s fav ride but it is so much fun, the new style B&M trains are fantastic and give you a very open feeling, the first drop is awsome and feels like you are vertical and similar feeling to a dive machine. I have never been on a ride with so much Air time, spent more time out of the seat than you do sat down, every hill has amazing airtime including the first drop, there are some great forces at the bottom of each drop as well. Guests seemed to love it with a full round of applause most times when the train arrived back into the station. Was luckily to ride both in the front once and in the back a couple of times and also a nigh time ride. The back is great as you get the feeling of people pulled over the top of the hills , this is especially great at the top of the lift hill. The area theming is also really well done and fits into teh China area fantastic, with a new pathway leading around the back of Khan and a tunnel under Kahn first loop, themed walls stretch all the way through this area.
Dragon Khan- Loved this very similar ride experience to Kumba, again was lucky to ride in the front a few times and in the back, loved the front row, Poor station though.
Furius Baco-Heard lots of things about how rough it was, overall though i enjoyed the ride however this was only when sat on an inside seat, the outside seats are just too rough to be able to enjoy the ride. While the inside seats are still rough you can still enjoy the ride, the launch is amazing and i love the inline twist. Not sure what can be done to improve the ride roughness though.
Stampeda- The ride is too rough which is a shame as would be a great ride otherwise, the trains they added a few years back need to go and they should get CGI in to sort the ride out. Rode a few times but just jumps about on the track.
Hurakan Condor- Not alot to say but a bigger version of apocalypse- there were capacity issues with a couple of the shuttles out of action which lead to a long queues, didn’t get to experience any tilting seats either as they seemed to be the ones down. Also i could only see standard sitting cars and floorless strand up. Did this ever have normal stand up cars at one point? the reason i ask is that one of the standards seated cars was different to the others and was slightly higher up and had a wooden block to enable you to get into the seats?
El Diable- a Poor arrow Mine train, as it has been reported before the track is short and un-eventfull between the lift hills with the only decent bits before the first lift hill and after the final lift hill. It serves its purpose of a family coaster but still poor.
Overall the 3 water rides where great, the logfume although little theming after the station was good and a decent length and good sized final drop and the rapids had good theming. Tutuki splash was operating although i wonder if they have removed a boat or two as boats were well passed the area the incident happened a few weeks ago before another boat was coming off the lift hill. Also what seemed like the ride sensors seems to be further back in the splash down area.
The parks also has loads of family flat rides with a Huss pirate ship, Flipper, Break Dance, a Mexican hats style ride and a few others, all well themed.
The major negatives about the park are
-some of the queue lines which are just big cattle pens which are awful but i wonder of this is to save costs as they need to cover most of the queues due to the heat and its cheaper to do in one big room, however they need to look at this going forward.
-Park Operations, this wasnt as bad as expected and in most cases dragon Khan and shamabala were operated very well especially on 3 train operation with great dispatch times. But the teams on Stampedia, Baco and condor werent the quickest.
-Food and Drink Prices- A with most theme parks these were expensive and more than uk Merlin parks, especially drinks and ice cream. I have found that although we moan about prices at merlin parks food and drink is more expensive at the Orlando and european parks i have visited.
Overall i had a good time and is great park and much better than most of the parks we have in the UK and certainly will go back. In terms of what i think they should add next, i would like to see a B&M inverted coaster as their next coaster, plus i think a Mack spash battle would be very popular and a Mack water coaster would be a very big hit if added.
Overall Impressions: Overall i was very impressed by the park, i had read a number of fairly negative reports before we visited but i thought the park was fantastic overall and had a great time. The park reminded me of a Busch gardens style park and Islands of adventure (helped by them playing IOA theme tune at the entrance!) The park is massive and the landscaping is great especially for a purpose built park. Also i had read lots about poor maintance etc but apart from the chewing gum in the tunnel on tutuki splash and graffiti on stampedia it wasn’t that bad and in most areas better than you see at the UK merlin parks currently. As for queue jumping i have heard alot about this but although we were using express i did not see very much of it even when queuing normally, witnessed it on Hurakan Condor twice and that was about it.
Theming-The area theming in the park is fantastic especially in the far west area of the park which looks fantastic.
Express: I normally don’t do express tickets and certainly wouldn’t in a uk park but did at Port Aventura and had decided to before knew how busy it was. If you stay on property they do fantastic deals for express tickets (i know they used to be free a few years back) but its 12 euro for 1 express per ride or the option we went for 49 euro (£42) for unlimited express rides for your entire stay (upto 7 days) you get a wrist band) there are 10 rides available for express, Shambhala, Dragon Khan, Diablo, Silver river Flume, Grand Canyon Rapids, Stampida, Tami-Tami, Tutuki Splash, Furius Baco & Templo del Fuego. Being able to walk staright onto shambhala with a 2hr queue was fantastic (although ddo feal a bit guilty but i think we are well passed the times of parks operating with no fast past solution now and not many major parks left that dont). Also i did read in the other trip report about the park filling up nearly an entire train with express queue quests, we didnt really witness this as most of the rides on Shambhala there were only every a few people waiting and they normally filled up a couple of rows. The same with Baco even though that most of the time had fairly large express queue (15 min wait) they only every let around 8 people in per ride).
Water Park- Having been to Siam park in Tenerife and the Orlando water parks was overly impressed, was nice enough but could do with being bigger with more attractions as like altons water park hasnt been updated since it opened. Also like Alton Towers they have dropped the orginal name (Caribe water park) and know known as Port Aventura aquatic park). However i have heard a major expansion is coming in 2013/14, there were plans for a huge volcano theme ride structure with worlds highest water slide (pics on the net if you google them) for 1999 but were delayed due to park being sold) land was already cleared behind the water park which you can see on google earth).
Opening Hours- Fantastic the park was open until 8pm on the wed and thurs and then starting on Friday 22nd until end of August the park is open until midnight with a night time show at 11.15pm top keep guests in the park. Plus to celebrate the summer season for the first time every on 30th June the park is open until 4am (cheap tickets if come after 10pm, 15 Euro's) However the park stager the opening of rides which causes big queues, the only major rides open at 10am are Baco, Grand canyon Rapids and Dragon Khan. Shambhala opens at 11am with others opening between 11 and 12pm. I would imagine this leads to more express sales as people see the queues for Baco. With the heat my advice would be to not visit until later in the day anyway as we did after the first day.
Shows- Fantastic amount of shows with as of friday they have 15 shows, plus loads of street style entertainment, mainly for kids going on in many of the theme areas. Shows visited were
Bang Bang West, a wild west stunt show which was ok a bit cheesy but a decent show.
FiestAventura- Night time spectacular 11.15pm which on the entrance lagoon and is a mix of fountains, floats, lights, fire and lots of Fireworks. Very good show especially for a non disney park and the fact it is on every night for over 2 months.
Templo Del Fuego- A Universal studios style effects show based on an indianna jones style adventure. Although in Spanish was easy to understand what was happening, after a preshow go into a big room which is the inside of a temple, everything goes wrong and there is a lot of fire. This is a great experience style attraction that i think would work well at Alton Towers, however due to running costs cant see this happening anytime soon.
Sea Odyssey 4d- A imax mation based ride. This was poor originally when it opened i understand it had a specific ride film which all the theming relates to however in 2010 it was converted into a 4d show. Now it shows a 2 standard 4d ride films (1 in each of the two theatres) with the ride bases moving to what’s happening on the screen and the only other 4d effect water spray.
The rides-
Shambhala- Amazing, this was my first B&M mega coaster and loved it. It is now my favourite coaster along with Nemesis. I know it might not be everyone’s fav ride but it is so much fun, the new style B&M trains are fantastic and give you a very open feeling, the first drop is awsome and feels like you are vertical and similar feeling to a dive machine. I have never been on a ride with so much Air time, spent more time out of the seat than you do sat down, every hill has amazing airtime including the first drop, there are some great forces at the bottom of each drop as well. Guests seemed to love it with a full round of applause most times when the train arrived back into the station. Was luckily to ride both in the front once and in the back a couple of times and also a nigh time ride. The back is great as you get the feeling of people pulled over the top of the hills , this is especially great at the top of the lift hill. The area theming is also really well done and fits into teh China area fantastic, with a new pathway leading around the back of Khan and a tunnel under Kahn first loop, themed walls stretch all the way through this area.
Dragon Khan- Loved this very similar ride experience to Kumba, again was lucky to ride in the front a few times and in the back, loved the front row, Poor station though.
Furius Baco-Heard lots of things about how rough it was, overall though i enjoyed the ride however this was only when sat on an inside seat, the outside seats are just too rough to be able to enjoy the ride. While the inside seats are still rough you can still enjoy the ride, the launch is amazing and i love the inline twist. Not sure what can be done to improve the ride roughness though.
Stampeda- The ride is too rough which is a shame as would be a great ride otherwise, the trains they added a few years back need to go and they should get CGI in to sort the ride out. Rode a few times but just jumps about on the track.
Hurakan Condor- Not alot to say but a bigger version of apocalypse- there were capacity issues with a couple of the shuttles out of action which lead to a long queues, didn’t get to experience any tilting seats either as they seemed to be the ones down. Also i could only see standard sitting cars and floorless strand up. Did this ever have normal stand up cars at one point? the reason i ask is that one of the standards seated cars was different to the others and was slightly higher up and had a wooden block to enable you to get into the seats?
El Diable- a Poor arrow Mine train, as it has been reported before the track is short and un-eventfull between the lift hills with the only decent bits before the first lift hill and after the final lift hill. It serves its purpose of a family coaster but still poor.
Overall the 3 water rides where great, the logfume although little theming after the station was good and a decent length and good sized final drop and the rapids had good theming. Tutuki splash was operating although i wonder if they have removed a boat or two as boats were well passed the area the incident happened a few weeks ago before another boat was coming off the lift hill. Also what seemed like the ride sensors seems to be further back in the splash down area.
The parks also has loads of family flat rides with a Huss pirate ship, Flipper, Break Dance, a Mexican hats style ride and a few others, all well themed.
The major negatives about the park are
-some of the queue lines which are just big cattle pens which are awful but i wonder of this is to save costs as they need to cover most of the queues due to the heat and its cheaper to do in one big room, however they need to look at this going forward.
-Park Operations, this wasnt as bad as expected and in most cases dragon Khan and shamabala were operated very well especially on 3 train operation with great dispatch times. But the teams on Stampedia, Baco and condor werent the quickest.
-Food and Drink Prices- A with most theme parks these were expensive and more than uk Merlin parks, especially drinks and ice cream. I have found that although we moan about prices at merlin parks food and drink is more expensive at the Orlando and european parks i have visited.
Overall i had a good time and is great park and much better than most of the parks we have in the UK and certainly will go back. In terms of what i think they should add next, i would like to see a B&M inverted coaster as their next coaster, plus i think a Mack spash battle would be very popular and a Mack water coaster would be a very big hit if added.