Just back from a couple of days at PortAventura, as a return visitor (third time) here are a few thoughts.
Hotel Gold River
We opted to stay at Hotel Gold River as on my last visit in 2008 it hadn't opened.
The hotel is stunning, it has top class theming that easily competes with its European competitors. The grounds are massive, with hotel rooms spread across the many buildings.
The main building lobby area does bear some resemblance to El Andaluz in its layout, and has a buffet restaurant and bar. To the rear, there is a town square featuring two a la carte restaurants and a larger secondary bar, as well as another bar by the swimming pools.
Strangely, one a la carte restaurant and the large saloon bar were closed. I'm guessing this is due to the fact that the park is open until 12am, therefore the hotels tend to be fairly quiet of an evening. So quiet in fact, that on one night we had pretty much had a whole restaurant to ourselves!
My one criticism was that they also seemed to have low staff levels, creating some large queues at reception (no check out desk open), something which annoyed me as I had to visit the main reception desk numerous times in one day.
Overall though, very impressed.
Portaventura Park
As per my last visits, I think the park is absolutely stunning. It's one of my favourite parks, and aside from some of the graffiti in the queue lines the park was pretty much spotless with cleaners constantly working to keep it so.
Being mid August, the park was very busy (especially on the second day), but we had discounted hotel express passes at 12 Euro's for one go on the ten main rides (exc. Hurakan Condor due to capacity).
The park has a strange ride opening schedule. Park opens at 10am, with only Furius Baco, Dragon Khan and the rapids open, creating large queues for Baco being at the entrance and the rapids also being fairly close by. The rest of the major rides open at either 11 or 12pm. It seemed quite odd, especially with the amount of people flocking through the gates at opening time and heading straight to Furius Baco.....which brings me onto the rides.
Furius Baco
My earlier experiences of this ride were fine. A bit shaky, but generally enjoyable. As luck would have it, we were given back row and I opted for an outside seat so I could gauge for myself what all the fuss was about. I can honestly say I have never in my life experienced such an unpleasant ride experience and for those who know my thoughts on The Ultimate, this is a bold statement. Truly horrific.
Hurakan Condor
I feel I have lost my fear of large scale drop towers, as I know they lack the intensity of their smaller counterparts but the views from this ride and great and it is still thrilling!
Dragon Khan
Love this ride, rode front row and middle. Front row I can safely say is a better ride experience than Kumba which I rode last year and found quite rough. Middle of the train had a little more character but still was fairly smooth considering some comments I have heard over the last few years. The ride looks stunning with the new paint job too. So bright.
Stampida
We rode both sides. Yep it's rough, but not unbearably so. Probably the roughest modern wooden coaster I have been on though.
Shambhala
Save the best until last. Shambhala is a work of art. It's visually stunning and rides amazingly well. My best B&M Hyper to date.
The ride area is gorgeous and very well themed, it's designed perfectly to show off the best of the ride to spectators and has opened up a nice pathway through to Sesamo Aventura, giving some stunning new viewpoints of Dragon Khan.
The area theming and music has a very Animal Kingdom feel to it in my opinion. Attention to detail is great and the splashdown looks gorgeous, especially at night with the fountains lighting up as the train enters the lake.
Seating configuration is interesting although the two outside seats leave you feeling a little isolated from your fellow riders. Back row has plenty of airtime, with some ejector (staff didn't really check restraints too much so you could leave a click or two
), but for me riding towards the front was better. It's. So. Floaty. I felt I was barely on the seat the whole way around the circuit, and it's a good long circuit. Very impressed!
Overall, a wonderful visit. On reflection, having not visited for a few years and filled those years with Europa Park, I do think PortAventura is my preferred park. I feel relaxed there, it feels like a holiday destination. Maybe it's because there is less to do, and that creates more down time and less pressure to cram everything in.
I wouldn't visit again in mid August though, due to the crowds. Our express passes came in very handy, but they are massively over sold and created slow moving queues for the major coasters.
Hotel Gold River
We opted to stay at Hotel Gold River as on my last visit in 2008 it hadn't opened.
The hotel is stunning, it has top class theming that easily competes with its European competitors. The grounds are massive, with hotel rooms spread across the many buildings.
The main building lobby area does bear some resemblance to El Andaluz in its layout, and has a buffet restaurant and bar. To the rear, there is a town square featuring two a la carte restaurants and a larger secondary bar, as well as another bar by the swimming pools.
Strangely, one a la carte restaurant and the large saloon bar were closed. I'm guessing this is due to the fact that the park is open until 12am, therefore the hotels tend to be fairly quiet of an evening. So quiet in fact, that on one night we had pretty much had a whole restaurant to ourselves!
My one criticism was that they also seemed to have low staff levels, creating some large queues at reception (no check out desk open), something which annoyed me as I had to visit the main reception desk numerous times in one day.
Overall though, very impressed.
Portaventura Park
As per my last visits, I think the park is absolutely stunning. It's one of my favourite parks, and aside from some of the graffiti in the queue lines the park was pretty much spotless with cleaners constantly working to keep it so.
Being mid August, the park was very busy (especially on the second day), but we had discounted hotel express passes at 12 Euro's for one go on the ten main rides (exc. Hurakan Condor due to capacity).
The park has a strange ride opening schedule. Park opens at 10am, with only Furius Baco, Dragon Khan and the rapids open, creating large queues for Baco being at the entrance and the rapids also being fairly close by. The rest of the major rides open at either 11 or 12pm. It seemed quite odd, especially with the amount of people flocking through the gates at opening time and heading straight to Furius Baco.....which brings me onto the rides.
Furius Baco
My earlier experiences of this ride were fine. A bit shaky, but generally enjoyable. As luck would have it, we were given back row and I opted for an outside seat so I could gauge for myself what all the fuss was about. I can honestly say I have never in my life experienced such an unpleasant ride experience and for those who know my thoughts on The Ultimate, this is a bold statement. Truly horrific.
Hurakan Condor
I feel I have lost my fear of large scale drop towers, as I know they lack the intensity of their smaller counterparts but the views from this ride and great and it is still thrilling!
Dragon Khan
Love this ride, rode front row and middle. Front row I can safely say is a better ride experience than Kumba which I rode last year and found quite rough. Middle of the train had a little more character but still was fairly smooth considering some comments I have heard over the last few years. The ride looks stunning with the new paint job too. So bright.
Stampida
We rode both sides. Yep it's rough, but not unbearably so. Probably the roughest modern wooden coaster I have been on though.
Shambhala
Save the best until last. Shambhala is a work of art. It's visually stunning and rides amazingly well. My best B&M Hyper to date.
The ride area is gorgeous and very well themed, it's designed perfectly to show off the best of the ride to spectators and has opened up a nice pathway through to Sesamo Aventura, giving some stunning new viewpoints of Dragon Khan.
The area theming and music has a very Animal Kingdom feel to it in my opinion. Attention to detail is great and the splashdown looks gorgeous, especially at night with the fountains lighting up as the train enters the lake.
Seating configuration is interesting although the two outside seats leave you feeling a little isolated from your fellow riders. Back row has plenty of airtime, with some ejector (staff didn't really check restraints too much so you could leave a click or two
), but for me riding towards the front was better. It's. So. Floaty. I felt I was barely on the seat the whole way around the circuit, and it's a good long circuit. Very impressed!Overall, a wonderful visit. On reflection, having not visited for a few years and filled those years with Europa Park, I do think PortAventura is my preferred park. I feel relaxed there, it feels like a holiday destination. Maybe it's because there is less to do, and that creates more down time and less pressure to cram everything in.
I wouldn't visit again in mid August though, due to the crowds. Our express passes came in very handy, but they are massively over sold and created slow moving queues for the major coasters.