Manchester1894
TS Member
This is my first trip report on this forum - sorry if it’s a bit long and over-detailed. Hope it helps any families(or anyone else) thinking about a trip to the “infamous” Portaventura! We travelled in a 4; made up of 2 Adults, a 13 yo (counts as adult for PA), and 1 child (10yo & over 1.4m). We booked an EasyJet package holiday. It included a stay at the Hotel Gold River & access to PortAventura Land over the 3 days with a 1 day access to FerrariLand (which was open 4-10pm). The aquatic park was closed for our stay. Half Board (Breakfast/Dinner) was included and we added a private taxi transfer to and from the hotel. The upfront cost of this package was £1,688
Pre-conceptions based on a lot of research:
I thought we’d get very little done on day 1 and assumed we would see the park queues swell massively at the start of the Easter fortnight, forcing us to crumble to an express pass for Day 2. I set aside £200 extra in the budget for this possibility. For day 3, I would resist ANY attempt to spend another £200 on Express Passes. Worst case scenario, we’d make a list of what we want to re-ride before going into Ferrari Land at 6pm after some tea and end the holiday at 10pm. I think from this preconception you can tell we had a more negative than positive view of the park based on reviews. We are seasoned Alton Tower visitors and have a high threshold for queues and failures so we were ready for hell in pursuit of trying out new coasters.
Day 1:
Travel and Pre-park:
Flying Manchester to Reus on Sat 12th Apr 2025, a lovely 02:30 alarm set us up for this one. A 05:55 boarding and take off at 06:15 landed us in Reus at 09:30. When on the tarmac walking from the plane to the terminal, I saw Shambhala, Hurakan Condor and Red Force standing tall from 7.5 miles away! That gets the excitement levels up immediately doesn’t it?!
After a smooth passport control and swift luggage pick up - an Easyjet rep at arrivals showed us to the excellent Giovanni Bus Travel desk, who provided the transfer to the hotel. A short 15 mins drive and we were at the Gold River Hotel entrance for around 10:10. (we tipped 5 Euro each way). At the Hotel Gold river barrier, the car in front of us was a member of the public and they had their tickets checked (standard I know) and the boot of their car inspected too! Our driver told us he has a dedicated security clearance with the park so they waved him through without any of the stress of that
If you book with Easyjet, the options to check in for the flight and hotel appear on the website. However only the flight option is enabled for check in. The hotel told me that Jet2 customers get hotel check in options but Easyjet customers have to check in on arrival. If I had been able to check-in a few days before arrival, all I would have needed to do is check in on a touch screen, collect my cards from the machine and enter the park.
After checking in via the desk we paid the tourist tax of 7 Euros in total.
The room wasn’t ready and I’d receive a text when it was ready later that day - I expected that as it was early morning, so the staff directed me to a locker room a 1 min walk away and told me I’m good to enter the park after that. I was expecting a staffed locker room like DLP. But it was like the unmanned locker areas you’d find downstairs at Thorpe Park. Unfortunately, I quickly realised I’d have to pay for this privilege. Another 5 euros for this facility. You choose locker size, create a code, and pick a memorable image so you can unlock it later. Having one big suitcase we went for the largest locker available. When the system allocated a locker (you can’t pick a number), it saddled me with a locker that was 1m off the ground, so I got to experience some weightlifting to lift it in.
A 5 min stroll through the Gold River Hotel area led us to the hotel entrance into the Far West section of the park in the nice sunshine. We’re immediately impressed with the look of the park. The hotel grounds blew us away. It put some hotel areas at DLP to shame. Temps were in the early 20s and perfect for us. When we arrived at the turnstyle it was dead on 1030 and swiped through the gate with no bag checks either.
On-park 1030-2000:
The fun bit.. Getting on rides with some luck. Optimism was in the air as we were already 90 mins ahead of our schedule thanks to the airport/taxi/reception being super fast. We had 9.5 hours to do some damage with no Express Pass and also to find our bearings. We found an itinerary online that fit our exact situation (hotel/thrill seeking level) so I’ll add a link at the bottom for Parque Tematico. It covers EVERYTHING about the park. Have a read!
So having missed the early access to Uncharted by about 20 mins we followed the rest of the guide. walking from the Far West, through Mexico to China quickly gave us a flavour of how good the park looks. Stampida and Hurakan Condor wet the appetite along the way. First up was Dragon Khan, but we went to the toilets first and also used the free water taps for a bottle fill. All the toilets were very clean and nicely designed, however the ‘wave for water/soap/dryer system’ is (and always has been) terrible anywhere you go and you enter a lottery for either soap or dryers working, if the dryer works it’s so tame it won’t dry within 10 mins anyway. You wave for water in fear of whether the taps come out normal or gush out spraying your lower half. You’ll dry off in the Spanish sun at least for the latter. Wish I had brought a travel sanitiser.
1045 Dragon Khan - we joined a 20 min advertised queue. A few technical stops meant it was near 40 mins - I did think at this point this might set the tone for the day but we stood in the lovely sun checking out the app and layout of the park and the time flew by. I had a top ride. Yes it’s not smooth, but I enjoyed it probably more than most (my family said it's too rough) as Nemesis ‘94 was my favourite ride for 2 decades and I love B&M even if this was a sit down iteration of our dear “Nemmy”, love that roar.
The Shambhala queue ramped up quickly during this time to nearly 2 hours (again fears were creeping in about need for Express Pass). We swerved it and walked back to the Mexico area where we timed it nicely for Hurakan Condor’s late planned opening.
1130. Hurakan Condor. I do have a fear of heights but on rides I don’t always have it. Only notable indicators in the past have been Detonator at Thorpe made my cheeks clench and I couldn’t breathe on decent lol. Hyperia and the Big One made my palms sweat uncontrollably halfway up the lift hill when I looked over the sides. This one had my palms sweating profusely from the queue line (around 35-40 min wait) and I might as well have had a hose connected to my hands as I slowly ascended to 285ft. Lift #4 I think I was in… it stopped 2/3rds of the way when I thought I was already high enough and then my lad said we’re not at the top and it moved up even more and my hands were slipping on the grip bars at this point - and then the tilt… good lord. I’m ashamed to say my kids heard me swear on more than one occasion as we dropped to our peril. What a ride though - all of us were nervous and excited at the same time and the dopamine hit after that is unrivalled. The ride photo angle is absolutely amazing for this one.
1220: El Diablo Tren De La Mina - 30 min wait. Nice filler but no killer. Just a fun little mine train really - enjoyed the views, but the seats were cramped and it was a struggle to get out.
1315-1330: We stopped off Palma Real for lunch after that. We had a quick sit down on a bench. I went for a plant based version of Chicken Nuggets and chips. It was a bit underwhelming but my family said their beef burgers meals were quite nice too. Price wise, it was 14.95 euros for a meal deal. Bear that in mind if on a budget. Portions are fine btw, just pricey as all major parks are.
1355:Tomahawk - Short queue of around 20 mins, so bobbed on this one. Short but sweet ride. Nice the way it runs past Stampida’s track. Another small carriage and I’m not even that big!
1420 Silver River Flume - walk on. Love a ‘flume and this didn’t disappoint and we got very wet. Result. Sun was out - dried off in no time.
1435 Grand Canyon Rapids - 5 min wait for this one, and it’s quick - over too soon. Didn’t get a drop of water on me either.
1500 Furius baco - Think this was advertised as 90 mins and turned into 1hr 50m . The first big queue we’ve encountered so far. Outside the queue entrance is Heladeria Carte D’or - we grabbed an ice cream (one of the best ice creams I’ve had) and joined the queue.
The queue-line is pretty miserable for a lot of it. The outside is nice with vineyards and sunshine, but inside is a bit bleak and boring - just cattle pens really. But past half way they have a TV with QR code where people can battle in a Pokemon style game via an app called DuelIns. Couldn’t get my son off it. Then our first ever ride on ‘baco was front row. NOTHING, not even POV videos on Youtube prepared me for that launch. Just wow. I swore yet again along with a load of “Jeyyyyyysus” “f*cks” and “what the hell!”’s thrown in for good measure. Another dopamine hit after that one. I expected a headache but got one hell of a first ride on this! The footage at the kiosk had us laughing too. The long wait was rewarded for us there.
1730- Stampida (Blue). Queued for the best part of an hour… being a City fan and thinking Spain has red in the flag… red was surely the busier. Watching on from the queue it looked like 75% of people were going red, so blue was a good choice. Blue was running a lot slower but it did have four seats out of action at the front (red had four out of action at the back).
Really good ride on this. Love that first drop and it’s pacey throughout. Just need to get the red one done now!
1900 Shambhala - We couldn’t put it off any longer and this one has always intrigued me. It’s big, smooth, nice looking etc… people have it high on coaster lists. It’s a very simple design too and dare I say it doesn’t look fast either but my god it’s huge and has impressive length (THATSWHATSHESAID). Once I pulled down the restraint I was locked in nice and tightly. By the time I hit the lift hill my backside went back into that bucket seat and suddenly a bit of space appeared around the thighs that wasn't there before (perfectly safe, just I’d lost my comfort blanket of no movement). Then the height hit me… the palm sweats were back… I couldn’t even look over the sides now - it was head back/looking directly at the sky. Then the drop… more swearing… some nice forces pushing me into my seat. Lovely secure feeling. Then the first hill… no words.. I was transported to when I was a skinny child around 7 or 8 years old and my mum let me ride the Texas Tornado at Morecambe. Holding on meant nothing. It’s not airtime.. It’s being thrown from your seat without permission. The elements on this are so simple but it creates a world of chaos for me. As we get to the end and the shock is over - that dopamine hit is well and truly back and boy was that great. “My new favourite” one son says immediately. I don’t do #1’s in general but it’s elite and definitely one of the very best I’ve ridden. I’ve never done a better standalone coaster that doesn’t go upside down. It’s a beautiful ride and a solid 10/10.
1945 - Serpiente Emplumada. My wife hates spinning rides. I, and our sons, know this and therefore try at any attempt to persuade her to do as many as possible. However she won’t budge, but had in recent times agreed to do just 1 per day in a theme park. To quote Silo… “today is that day”... this farty looking ride has a 5-10 min queue so on we go for our final ride of the day. The ride starts, it spins. The carriage design has an orange light around the middle spinning opposite to me. I can’t focus on it anymore as it’s making me dizzy. So I look up… some fella holding snakes is doing the same. I look down.. Nope, that's not good. This thing goes on forever. I leave the ride feeling the most sick I’ve felt in a theme park. If I’d had a fuller stomach there’s a good chance I’d be seeing those plant based nuggets from earlier. *Makes note NOT to do this one again*
Ride Count 10 rides in 9.5 hours. By the standards we hold for an Alton Trip, that’s not too shabby for a day in a theme park during a busy weekend. We decide to veto any Express Pass plans for Sunday.
On the way to the evening buffet I realised I didn’t have a text about the room and no email either which was strange. I had a missed call though but they definitely said it would be a text. Went to the reception and a room was allocated already so all was good. Showed my card at the restaurant, ordered some drinks and tucked in to a well earned meal - all food was fine. Hate buffets where they don’t cook things and happy to say Spain is solid in every aspect. Water is free, but all other drinks are chargeable. You can pay on the way out or have it added to your room bill. We paid on the way out.
The room was in the main hotel on the 4th floor. We got two double beds. And everything worked ok. Aircon was ok once we got the knack of it.
Day 2 1030-1900 park hours.
Breakfast - Again, decent buffet with good coffee too.
Left the hotel at 0940 to join the hotel entry queue at 0945. Quite a few were already in the queue as it stretched back to the wooden bridge. At the time we thought it was all the way to the turnstyle but it turns out a wooden gate is just around the corner so not as long as you think.
Gates opened 1010 and we walked 20 yards into the Uncharted entrance straight away.
1050 Uncharted - after a slight delay with opening we got on within the first 20 mins of park opening saving so much time. My family loved it. I enjoyed it but not as much. Love the launches and the helicopter bit where you go backwards, but the whole ride experience wasn’t elite, just a fun little ride. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend more than 40 mins queuing for it.
1130: Shambhala 30 min queue. Good thing about being in a group of 4 is you get a chance to choose sides. Having a centre seat yesterday, I went for a wing seat today. Think I do prefer the centre. But still what a ride.. Was going to go hands free… however as we were near the back we got yanked over the drop and I was like “not today”.
1215 Street Mission - Heard good things about the ride. Had a 40 min displayed queue. Ended up being near 55 mins in a really stuffy indoor cattle pen. The ride itself is wonderful. Great visuals, great tech and the shaky bit is really good.
1330 Kontiki - 10 min wait for a pirate ship. Set in a lovely scenic lagoon with blue waters and it helped the sun was out too I suppose.
1350 Tutuki Splash - As it was warming up, time to cool off on what I thought was a copy and paste of Tidal Wave at Thorpe but was pleased to see it had more than one drop.Totally missed the chewing gum bit as I was faffing about dodging water in the bottom of the boat I think. Definitely got wet on this and my sons’ poncho next to me had water run off his towards my backside for a double whammy.
1420 Sat down for some food at La Cocina de Epi in the Sesame Street area. Nice bit of fish and chips for me and my family enjoyed chicken burgers meals too. They don’t look great on images but get past that and you’ll get a good feed. Overheard a lot of people say hotdogs are poor so we never went near them in the park at all.
1450 Flying Fish - Our boys went on this whilst I dried out in the sun and laughed at the entertainers hopping round on stilts dressed as an Easter Bunny. The area is superb for smaller kids and looks amazing.
1515 ‘Baco re-ride: prepared for another long wait by nabbing more Carte D’or ice creams. (sons had a waffle and rated it better than Altons bubble waffles). Sitting further back this time and after the launch wasn’t nice at all. I get why people don’t go back to it. Launch is elite, rest of it is damage limitation.
1700 Tami Tami - can’t resist a coaster cred.
1810 ‘Condor re-ride - only had a 15 min queue! We were landed with the stand up one for this ride. Again the palms were wetter than Manchester and was sure it wouldn’t tilt in this position. It tilted and a few bad words came out again. Swore more in this park than I have all year
1830 El Secreto De Los Mayas - Love a mirror maze. Our family got split up soon after entering and this provided a real laugh as my wife, lost, looked me in the eye from 6 reflections away not having a clue where I was. Even the exit provided a funny moment but I won’t spoil it.
1845 Stampida (Red). Not going to call this a re-ride. It’s a different coaster/track.
Nice way to end day 2. The trains were full this time and this was a better ride than our first. Could be the track and/or that the coaster was warmed up after nearly 8 hours of operation.
Park close:- ride/attraction count 11 in 8.5 hours. The decision to not do Express paid off and also saved us a lot of money. Ticked off some new ones and even managed to get 2 re-rides in. We’re going into our last day with the same approach.
We went to the buffet, just had water with a meal, then went across to the Saloon bar. Bad decision as there was a mini-disco and we couldn’t hear each other whilst we discussed what everyone wanted to do tomorrow.
Day 3 1030-1900 park opening in PA Land - Our Ferrari Land access is 4.30pm to 9pm so there is a crossover here.
Our plan was PA till around 1745 and prioritise re-rides and maybe do a show or small filler rides like the spinning barrels.. We took advantage of a hotel option to swap our half board dinner for an on-park restaurant - you get a QR code for roughly 22/11 euro for adult/child and if you go over you just pay difference., We booked Ristorante Cavallo for 1900-1930. Gave us time to do some FL stuff before the meal, and afterwards we could do little rides before ending the trip with Red Force.
Breakfast out the way, and we got to the hotel guest entry gate a bit earlier at 0930. This got us within 10 people of the gate ready for opening. I’d say 60-70 ish people were in front of us yesterday.
1020 Uncharted - re-ride. Door opened early to queue indoors. Done by 1050. When you exit and see a queue snaking still you feel for the people in it. A quick check on the app usually throws up 2.5 hrs wait. I don’t know why anyone would wait that long for this. Good ride but not 2.5 hr good.
1100 Dragon Khan re-ride. Only a 25 min queue. Enjoying this again, the family still think it’s rough. Spoilt by modern lap-bar coasters imo.
1130 Shambhala re-ride. The queue times across the park were swelling quickly. 2 hrs for “Shammy B” (we can use that now as we’re well acquainted ). It’s our last day and we decided SRQ was necessary and as the park is so safe no issues our 10 yo doing this in a foreign land. We just make sure kids go on in between mum and dad. SRQ still took an hour.
1245 ‘Diablo re-ride. The queues were getting bad again. So we picked the best one, a 30/40 min queue here. Just good to enjoy any views I missed the first time round.
1337 ‘Condor re-ride - 30 min queue was a relief and we had another seat that tilted. So, so good this ride and enjoyed my last sweaty palm experience so much. Reminds me of the buzz of Tower of Terror in some ways.
1420 Tea Cups - 5 min wait and these span a bit quicker than Altons once we got going. My wife looked pale after it.
1450 Baco - This was one of my sons favourites and his choice of any re-ride today. Queue was horrible (2 hrs ish) so opted for another SRQ. And again it took an hour. Same experience for me. Launch great. Rest of it… urgh..
It was around 4ish. I wanted to go in the main shop for merch and get an ice lolly - so we’d cut our planned PA exit of 1745 short at 1630 due to queues and decided to make the most of FL. Today felt like the type of day, where had we had this level of busy on Day 1, we’d have baulked to an Express Pass. Just on the topic of Merch, You can buy at the shop and have it sent to the hotel, but beware ours went to the hotel shop, not our room or reception. The assistant did mention you can only do it before 3, but as it was 4.30 she backtracked on that, this could be why? I don't know. Monday seemed to be the day it really became heavy on the app queue times. We planned well, made good decisions, and maybe rode our luck across the 3 days to not buy a pass.
Ride count: 7 rides in 6 hours in PA.
1645 Enter FL.
1650 Red Force - The board said no mins. App said 20 - tons of people were going into the queue.. So I expected at least 90 mins. Reality was a 2hr 20 queue that was hell after a long weekend. Sitting on the railings is one of PA’s underrated feet saving hacks. Think I spend the whole queue line shuffling along them. The coaster seemed to be running well but the queue line was dire. More and more fast passes converged with every passing minute. It hurt us badly for time and nearly made us late for our restaurant booking. Once one though… front row ride with goggles. The launch is possibly the best I’ve ever had. More swearing. The vertical bit was so smooth and the top hat section provided a great view of Salou. The descent was rapid as was the rest of it. Great ride and at time of print the tallest active coaster in the world.
1920 *Breaking for sit down meal at Ristorante Cavallo* - A lager, a lovely Focaccia Bread, an average pizza and a forgotten order meant we stayed longer than anticipated here. The waiter did give our boys a PA plastic cup as a free gift when we were seated though. Nice little touch.
2020 Flying Dreams - never done this type of attraction before. Loved it. So relaxing and immersive. Pre-shows were boring mind. Feel like you're in a sales showroom.
2134 Junior Red Force (night ride)- again another coaster cred. The fact a type pump is used on the tyres to release the lap bars was worth riding this alone for that little detail.
2140 Red Force re-ride (night ride) - as park closure/end of our trip neared, one final ride on this seemed perfect and the queue was clearly less (30-40 mins). In the queue I took photos using long exposure and even basic attempts looked great. It’s a really beautiful ride at night. Once off, we went through the bandstand for a few more photos and then left.
4 rides in 5.15 hours at FL. (stopping 1 hr for lunch made it 4 in 4.15)
So at 2230 we left FL, no shops were open of course, and I forgot to get a fridge magnet so I was annoyed with myself. We had a 15-20 min slow walk round the outside car-parks to our Gold River hotel and we were done-in.
Day 4, Tue 15th Apr 2025
It wasn’t clear how we checked out so we went to reception to ask and they said “nothing to do”. Result.
0645 taxi for a 09:45 departure. The excellent Giovanni Travel ready and waiting. Highly recommend and we tipped 5 euros again.
The PortAventura trip was done. We rated it highly, but were cautious this could have been a different story had we been here any later in Easter. Park capacity was 78% on Sat, 86% Sun and 97% on Monday. When I looked at the day after we left, Tuesday was 98%, Wednesday the same and Thursday was 99%! You might need 2 Express Pass days at least if you’d booked over those 3 days.
I’d love to come back if things changed, but with so many parks in the world we feel it’s better to do new ones rather than come back and do the same things. Ride wise, it’s such a fun line up and the adrenaline of those first rides on Shambhala, Furius Baco, Hurakan Condor and Red Force will live long in the memory. The park behaviour was also better than I expected. A really nice everyone is on holiday, loads of sports/college trips clapping and singing along. Families just having fun etc.
I did say this might be detailed so you were warned.
Links
Park guide to everything:
https://www.parquetematico.net/portaventura/orden-atracciones/ switch Google Translate on and it’s a gem.
Quick resource to work out what rides looked like and what could be sacrificed, the very funny ScrewyLoops:
From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxsATVF24mY
Of course the usual TPWW/Coaster Dad YT-er were good initial introductions to the park too.
Pre-conceptions based on a lot of research:
I thought we’d get very little done on day 1 and assumed we would see the park queues swell massively at the start of the Easter fortnight, forcing us to crumble to an express pass for Day 2. I set aside £200 extra in the budget for this possibility. For day 3, I would resist ANY attempt to spend another £200 on Express Passes. Worst case scenario, we’d make a list of what we want to re-ride before going into Ferrari Land at 6pm after some tea and end the holiday at 10pm. I think from this preconception you can tell we had a more negative than positive view of the park based on reviews. We are seasoned Alton Tower visitors and have a high threshold for queues and failures so we were ready for hell in pursuit of trying out new coasters.
Day 1:
Travel and Pre-park:
Flying Manchester to Reus on Sat 12th Apr 2025, a lovely 02:30 alarm set us up for this one. A 05:55 boarding and take off at 06:15 landed us in Reus at 09:30. When on the tarmac walking from the plane to the terminal, I saw Shambhala, Hurakan Condor and Red Force standing tall from 7.5 miles away! That gets the excitement levels up immediately doesn’t it?!
After a smooth passport control and swift luggage pick up - an Easyjet rep at arrivals showed us to the excellent Giovanni Bus Travel desk, who provided the transfer to the hotel. A short 15 mins drive and we were at the Gold River Hotel entrance for around 10:10. (we tipped 5 Euro each way). At the Hotel Gold river barrier, the car in front of us was a member of the public and they had their tickets checked (standard I know) and the boot of their car inspected too! Our driver told us he has a dedicated security clearance with the park so they waved him through without any of the stress of that
If you book with Easyjet, the options to check in for the flight and hotel appear on the website. However only the flight option is enabled for check in. The hotel told me that Jet2 customers get hotel check in options but Easyjet customers have to check in on arrival. If I had been able to check-in a few days before arrival, all I would have needed to do is check in on a touch screen, collect my cards from the machine and enter the park.
After checking in via the desk we paid the tourist tax of 7 Euros in total.
The room wasn’t ready and I’d receive a text when it was ready later that day - I expected that as it was early morning, so the staff directed me to a locker room a 1 min walk away and told me I’m good to enter the park after that. I was expecting a staffed locker room like DLP. But it was like the unmanned locker areas you’d find downstairs at Thorpe Park. Unfortunately, I quickly realised I’d have to pay for this privilege. Another 5 euros for this facility. You choose locker size, create a code, and pick a memorable image so you can unlock it later. Having one big suitcase we went for the largest locker available. When the system allocated a locker (you can’t pick a number), it saddled me with a locker that was 1m off the ground, so I got to experience some weightlifting to lift it in.
A 5 min stroll through the Gold River Hotel area led us to the hotel entrance into the Far West section of the park in the nice sunshine. We’re immediately impressed with the look of the park. The hotel grounds blew us away. It put some hotel areas at DLP to shame. Temps were in the early 20s and perfect for us. When we arrived at the turnstyle it was dead on 1030 and swiped through the gate with no bag checks either.
On-park 1030-2000:
The fun bit.. Getting on rides with some luck. Optimism was in the air as we were already 90 mins ahead of our schedule thanks to the airport/taxi/reception being super fast. We had 9.5 hours to do some damage with no Express Pass and also to find our bearings. We found an itinerary online that fit our exact situation (hotel/thrill seeking level) so I’ll add a link at the bottom for Parque Tematico. It covers EVERYTHING about the park. Have a read!
So having missed the early access to Uncharted by about 20 mins we followed the rest of the guide. walking from the Far West, through Mexico to China quickly gave us a flavour of how good the park looks. Stampida and Hurakan Condor wet the appetite along the way. First up was Dragon Khan, but we went to the toilets first and also used the free water taps for a bottle fill. All the toilets were very clean and nicely designed, however the ‘wave for water/soap/dryer system’ is (and always has been) terrible anywhere you go and you enter a lottery for either soap or dryers working, if the dryer works it’s so tame it won’t dry within 10 mins anyway. You wave for water in fear of whether the taps come out normal or gush out spraying your lower half. You’ll dry off in the Spanish sun at least for the latter. Wish I had brought a travel sanitiser.
1045 Dragon Khan - we joined a 20 min advertised queue. A few technical stops meant it was near 40 mins - I did think at this point this might set the tone for the day but we stood in the lovely sun checking out the app and layout of the park and the time flew by. I had a top ride. Yes it’s not smooth, but I enjoyed it probably more than most (my family said it's too rough) as Nemesis ‘94 was my favourite ride for 2 decades and I love B&M even if this was a sit down iteration of our dear “Nemmy”, love that roar.
The Shambhala queue ramped up quickly during this time to nearly 2 hours (again fears were creeping in about need for Express Pass). We swerved it and walked back to the Mexico area where we timed it nicely for Hurakan Condor’s late planned opening.
1130. Hurakan Condor. I do have a fear of heights but on rides I don’t always have it. Only notable indicators in the past have been Detonator at Thorpe made my cheeks clench and I couldn’t breathe on decent lol. Hyperia and the Big One made my palms sweat uncontrollably halfway up the lift hill when I looked over the sides. This one had my palms sweating profusely from the queue line (around 35-40 min wait) and I might as well have had a hose connected to my hands as I slowly ascended to 285ft. Lift #4 I think I was in… it stopped 2/3rds of the way when I thought I was already high enough and then my lad said we’re not at the top and it moved up even more and my hands were slipping on the grip bars at this point - and then the tilt… good lord. I’m ashamed to say my kids heard me swear on more than one occasion as we dropped to our peril. What a ride though - all of us were nervous and excited at the same time and the dopamine hit after that is unrivalled. The ride photo angle is absolutely amazing for this one.
1220: El Diablo Tren De La Mina - 30 min wait. Nice filler but no killer. Just a fun little mine train really - enjoyed the views, but the seats were cramped and it was a struggle to get out.
1315-1330: We stopped off Palma Real for lunch after that. We had a quick sit down on a bench. I went for a plant based version of Chicken Nuggets and chips. It was a bit underwhelming but my family said their beef burgers meals were quite nice too. Price wise, it was 14.95 euros for a meal deal. Bear that in mind if on a budget. Portions are fine btw, just pricey as all major parks are.
1355:Tomahawk - Short queue of around 20 mins, so bobbed on this one. Short but sweet ride. Nice the way it runs past Stampida’s track. Another small carriage and I’m not even that big!
1420 Silver River Flume - walk on. Love a ‘flume and this didn’t disappoint and we got very wet. Result. Sun was out - dried off in no time.
1435 Grand Canyon Rapids - 5 min wait for this one, and it’s quick - over too soon. Didn’t get a drop of water on me either.
1500 Furius baco - Think this was advertised as 90 mins and turned into 1hr 50m . The first big queue we’ve encountered so far. Outside the queue entrance is Heladeria Carte D’or - we grabbed an ice cream (one of the best ice creams I’ve had) and joined the queue.
The queue-line is pretty miserable for a lot of it. The outside is nice with vineyards and sunshine, but inside is a bit bleak and boring - just cattle pens really. But past half way they have a TV with QR code where people can battle in a Pokemon style game via an app called DuelIns. Couldn’t get my son off it. Then our first ever ride on ‘baco was front row. NOTHING, not even POV videos on Youtube prepared me for that launch. Just wow. I swore yet again along with a load of “Jeyyyyyysus” “f*cks” and “what the hell!”’s thrown in for good measure. Another dopamine hit after that one. I expected a headache but got one hell of a first ride on this! The footage at the kiosk had us laughing too. The long wait was rewarded for us there.
1730- Stampida (Blue). Queued for the best part of an hour… being a City fan and thinking Spain has red in the flag… red was surely the busier. Watching on from the queue it looked like 75% of people were going red, so blue was a good choice. Blue was running a lot slower but it did have four seats out of action at the front (red had four out of action at the back).
Really good ride on this. Love that first drop and it’s pacey throughout. Just need to get the red one done now!
1900 Shambhala - We couldn’t put it off any longer and this one has always intrigued me. It’s big, smooth, nice looking etc… people have it high on coaster lists. It’s a very simple design too and dare I say it doesn’t look fast either but my god it’s huge and has impressive length (THATSWHATSHESAID). Once I pulled down the restraint I was locked in nice and tightly. By the time I hit the lift hill my backside went back into that bucket seat and suddenly a bit of space appeared around the thighs that wasn't there before (perfectly safe, just I’d lost my comfort blanket of no movement). Then the height hit me… the palm sweats were back… I couldn’t even look over the sides now - it was head back/looking directly at the sky. Then the drop… more swearing… some nice forces pushing me into my seat. Lovely secure feeling. Then the first hill… no words.. I was transported to when I was a skinny child around 7 or 8 years old and my mum let me ride the Texas Tornado at Morecambe. Holding on meant nothing. It’s not airtime.. It’s being thrown from your seat without permission. The elements on this are so simple but it creates a world of chaos for me. As we get to the end and the shock is over - that dopamine hit is well and truly back and boy was that great. “My new favourite” one son says immediately. I don’t do #1’s in general but it’s elite and definitely one of the very best I’ve ridden. I’ve never done a better standalone coaster that doesn’t go upside down. It’s a beautiful ride and a solid 10/10.
1945 - Serpiente Emplumada. My wife hates spinning rides. I, and our sons, know this and therefore try at any attempt to persuade her to do as many as possible. However she won’t budge, but had in recent times agreed to do just 1 per day in a theme park. To quote Silo… “today is that day”... this farty looking ride has a 5-10 min queue so on we go for our final ride of the day. The ride starts, it spins. The carriage design has an orange light around the middle spinning opposite to me. I can’t focus on it anymore as it’s making me dizzy. So I look up… some fella holding snakes is doing the same. I look down.. Nope, that's not good. This thing goes on forever. I leave the ride feeling the most sick I’ve felt in a theme park. If I’d had a fuller stomach there’s a good chance I’d be seeing those plant based nuggets from earlier. *Makes note NOT to do this one again*
Ride Count 10 rides in 9.5 hours. By the standards we hold for an Alton Trip, that’s not too shabby for a day in a theme park during a busy weekend. We decide to veto any Express Pass plans for Sunday.
On the way to the evening buffet I realised I didn’t have a text about the room and no email either which was strange. I had a missed call though but they definitely said it would be a text. Went to the reception and a room was allocated already so all was good. Showed my card at the restaurant, ordered some drinks and tucked in to a well earned meal - all food was fine. Hate buffets where they don’t cook things and happy to say Spain is solid in every aspect. Water is free, but all other drinks are chargeable. You can pay on the way out or have it added to your room bill. We paid on the way out.
The room was in the main hotel on the 4th floor. We got two double beds. And everything worked ok. Aircon was ok once we got the knack of it.
Day 2 1030-1900 park hours.
Breakfast - Again, decent buffet with good coffee too.
Left the hotel at 0940 to join the hotel entry queue at 0945. Quite a few were already in the queue as it stretched back to the wooden bridge. At the time we thought it was all the way to the turnstyle but it turns out a wooden gate is just around the corner so not as long as you think.
Gates opened 1010 and we walked 20 yards into the Uncharted entrance straight away.
1050 Uncharted - after a slight delay with opening we got on within the first 20 mins of park opening saving so much time. My family loved it. I enjoyed it but not as much. Love the launches and the helicopter bit where you go backwards, but the whole ride experience wasn’t elite, just a fun little ride. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend more than 40 mins queuing for it.
1130: Shambhala 30 min queue. Good thing about being in a group of 4 is you get a chance to choose sides. Having a centre seat yesterday, I went for a wing seat today. Think I do prefer the centre. But still what a ride.. Was going to go hands free… however as we were near the back we got yanked over the drop and I was like “not today”.
1215 Street Mission - Heard good things about the ride. Had a 40 min displayed queue. Ended up being near 55 mins in a really stuffy indoor cattle pen. The ride itself is wonderful. Great visuals, great tech and the shaky bit is really good.
1330 Kontiki - 10 min wait for a pirate ship. Set in a lovely scenic lagoon with blue waters and it helped the sun was out too I suppose.
1350 Tutuki Splash - As it was warming up, time to cool off on what I thought was a copy and paste of Tidal Wave at Thorpe but was pleased to see it had more than one drop.Totally missed the chewing gum bit as I was faffing about dodging water in the bottom of the boat I think. Definitely got wet on this and my sons’ poncho next to me had water run off his towards my backside for a double whammy.
1420 Sat down for some food at La Cocina de Epi in the Sesame Street area. Nice bit of fish and chips for me and my family enjoyed chicken burgers meals too. They don’t look great on images but get past that and you’ll get a good feed. Overheard a lot of people say hotdogs are poor so we never went near them in the park at all.
1450 Flying Fish - Our boys went on this whilst I dried out in the sun and laughed at the entertainers hopping round on stilts dressed as an Easter Bunny. The area is superb for smaller kids and looks amazing.
1515 ‘Baco re-ride: prepared for another long wait by nabbing more Carte D’or ice creams. (sons had a waffle and rated it better than Altons bubble waffles). Sitting further back this time and after the launch wasn’t nice at all. I get why people don’t go back to it. Launch is elite, rest of it is damage limitation.
1700 Tami Tami - can’t resist a coaster cred.
1810 ‘Condor re-ride - only had a 15 min queue! We were landed with the stand up one for this ride. Again the palms were wetter than Manchester and was sure it wouldn’t tilt in this position. It tilted and a few bad words came out again. Swore more in this park than I have all year
1830 El Secreto De Los Mayas - Love a mirror maze. Our family got split up soon after entering and this provided a real laugh as my wife, lost, looked me in the eye from 6 reflections away not having a clue where I was. Even the exit provided a funny moment but I won’t spoil it.
1845 Stampida (Red). Not going to call this a re-ride. It’s a different coaster/track.
Nice way to end day 2. The trains were full this time and this was a better ride than our first. Could be the track and/or that the coaster was warmed up after nearly 8 hours of operation.
Park close:- ride/attraction count 11 in 8.5 hours. The decision to not do Express paid off and also saved us a lot of money. Ticked off some new ones and even managed to get 2 re-rides in. We’re going into our last day with the same approach.
We went to the buffet, just had water with a meal, then went across to the Saloon bar. Bad decision as there was a mini-disco and we couldn’t hear each other whilst we discussed what everyone wanted to do tomorrow.
Day 3 1030-1900 park opening in PA Land - Our Ferrari Land access is 4.30pm to 9pm so there is a crossover here.
Our plan was PA till around 1745 and prioritise re-rides and maybe do a show or small filler rides like the spinning barrels.. We took advantage of a hotel option to swap our half board dinner for an on-park restaurant - you get a QR code for roughly 22/11 euro for adult/child and if you go over you just pay difference., We booked Ristorante Cavallo for 1900-1930. Gave us time to do some FL stuff before the meal, and afterwards we could do little rides before ending the trip with Red Force.
Breakfast out the way, and we got to the hotel guest entry gate a bit earlier at 0930. This got us within 10 people of the gate ready for opening. I’d say 60-70 ish people were in front of us yesterday.
1020 Uncharted - re-ride. Door opened early to queue indoors. Done by 1050. When you exit and see a queue snaking still you feel for the people in it. A quick check on the app usually throws up 2.5 hrs wait. I don’t know why anyone would wait that long for this. Good ride but not 2.5 hr good.
1100 Dragon Khan re-ride. Only a 25 min queue. Enjoying this again, the family still think it’s rough. Spoilt by modern lap-bar coasters imo.
1130 Shambhala re-ride. The queue times across the park were swelling quickly. 2 hrs for “Shammy B” (we can use that now as we’re well acquainted
). It’s our last day and we decided SRQ was necessary and as the park is so safe no issues our 10 yo doing this in a foreign land. We just make sure kids go on in between mum and dad. SRQ still took an hour.1245 ‘Diablo re-ride. The queues were getting bad again. So we picked the best one, a 30/40 min queue here. Just good to enjoy any views I missed the first time round.
1337 ‘Condor re-ride - 30 min queue was a relief and we had another seat that tilted. So, so good this ride and enjoyed my last sweaty palm experience so much. Reminds me of the buzz of Tower of Terror in some ways.
1420 Tea Cups - 5 min wait and these span a bit quicker than Altons once we got going. My wife looked pale after it.
1450 Baco - This was one of my sons favourites and his choice of any re-ride today. Queue was horrible (2 hrs ish) so opted for another SRQ. And again it took an hour. Same experience for me. Launch great. Rest of it… urgh..
It was around 4ish. I wanted to go in the main shop for merch and get an ice lolly - so we’d cut our planned PA exit of 1745 short at 1630 due to queues and decided to make the most of FL. Today felt like the type of day, where had we had this level of busy on Day 1, we’d have baulked to an Express Pass. Just on the topic of Merch, You can buy at the shop and have it sent to the hotel, but beware ours went to the hotel shop, not our room or reception. The assistant did mention you can only do it before 3, but as it was 4.30 she backtracked on that, this could be why? I don't know. Monday seemed to be the day it really became heavy on the app queue times. We planned well, made good decisions, and maybe rode our luck across the 3 days to not buy a pass.
Ride count: 7 rides in 6 hours in PA.
1645 Enter FL.
1650 Red Force - The board said no mins. App said 20 - tons of people were going into the queue.. So I expected at least 90 mins. Reality was a 2hr 20 queue that was hell after a long weekend. Sitting on the railings is one of PA’s underrated feet saving hacks. Think I spend the whole queue line shuffling along them. The coaster seemed to be running well but the queue line was dire. More and more fast passes converged with every passing minute. It hurt us badly for time and nearly made us late for our restaurant booking. Once one though… front row ride with goggles. The launch is possibly the best I’ve ever had. More swearing. The vertical bit was so smooth and the top hat section provided a great view of Salou. The descent was rapid as was the rest of it. Great ride and at time of print the tallest active coaster in the world.
1920 *Breaking for sit down meal at Ristorante Cavallo* - A lager, a lovely Focaccia Bread, an average pizza and a forgotten order meant we stayed longer than anticipated here. The waiter did give our boys a PA plastic cup as a free gift when we were seated though. Nice little touch.
2020 Flying Dreams - never done this type of attraction before. Loved it. So relaxing and immersive. Pre-shows were boring mind. Feel like you're in a sales showroom.
2134 Junior Red Force (night ride)- again another coaster cred. The fact a type pump is used on the tyres to release the lap bars was worth riding this alone for that little detail.
2140 Red Force re-ride (night ride) - as park closure/end of our trip neared, one final ride on this seemed perfect and the queue was clearly less (30-40 mins). In the queue I took photos using long exposure and even basic attempts looked great. It’s a really beautiful ride at night. Once off, we went through the bandstand for a few more photos and then left.
4 rides in 5.15 hours at FL. (stopping 1 hr for lunch made it 4 in 4.15)
So at 2230 we left FL, no shops were open of course, and I forgot to get a fridge magnet so I was annoyed with myself. We had a 15-20 min slow walk round the outside car-parks to our Gold River hotel and we were done-in.
Day 4, Tue 15th Apr 2025
It wasn’t clear how we checked out so we went to reception to ask and they said “nothing to do”. Result.
0645 taxi for a 09:45 departure. The excellent Giovanni Travel ready and waiting. Highly recommend and we tipped 5 euros again.
The PortAventura trip was done. We rated it highly, but were cautious this could have been a different story had we been here any later in Easter. Park capacity was 78% on Sat, 86% Sun and 97% on Monday. When I looked at the day after we left, Tuesday was 98%, Wednesday the same and Thursday was 99%! You might need 2 Express Pass days at least if you’d booked over those 3 days.
I’d love to come back if things changed, but with so many parks in the world we feel it’s better to do new ones rather than come back and do the same things. Ride wise, it’s such a fun line up and the adrenaline of those first rides on Shambhala, Furius Baco, Hurakan Condor and Red Force will live long in the memory. The park behaviour was also better than I expected. A really nice everyone is on holiday, loads of sports/college trips clapping and singing along. Families just having fun etc.
I did say this might be detailed so you were warned.
Links
Park guide to everything:
https://www.parquetematico.net/portaventura/orden-atracciones/ switch Google Translate on and it’s a gem.
Quick resource to work out what rides looked like and what could be sacrificed, the very funny ScrewyLoops:
From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxsATVF24mY
Of course the usual TPWW/Coaster Dad YT-er were good initial introductions to the park too.
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