PortAventura: General Discussion

I'm off to PortAventura with the missus in September, never been before.

Looking forward to riding Shambhala.

Any one been? Thoughts please

 

Re: Port Aventura

I went in 2010, and fell in love with place. ;D

The theming and atmosphere around the park is great, the atmosphere even better at night. Obviously when I went Shambhala wasn't open but Dragon Kahn is an amazing coaster, one of the best I've been on. Furios Baco and Stampida are fun coasters, although they are a bit rough. Even though it looks terrifying, Hurakon Condor is amazing and you need to get yourself on it regardless of how scared you are. (I was bricking it when it started to go up) The food at the park is nice as well, one of the better parks I've been to for food.

The place is a bit notorious for queue jumpers, although when I went I didn't find this to be too much of a problem really. Suppose it's down to when you go I suppose.

 

Re: Port Aventura

Having stayed for both 7 nights and 14 nights in 2008 and 2010 in their Hotel PortAventura resort, I can say I fell in love with the place! The evening atmosphere is unbeatable and the warm sun is perfect! It is a shame that as a hotel guest, there is no longer access to the Beach Club and also no more free waterpark or express passes though - this has stopped me from returning really, however I do plan on going on a short break next year or this October. It is so easy to fly into Reus and just grab a quick taxi!

The only negatives with the park in my opinion are the graffiti and chewing gum - there is a whole wall and cave full on Tutuki Splasjh that is disgraceful! Especially as the park is closed from January to March I would think they would at least clean it up.

 

Re: Port Aventura

On another note, Tutuki Splash had a minor derailment (or whatever you call it) recently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiQwcRb56Gw

Shows what loading the boat wrong can lead to! :-\

(Good evacuation routine as well! )

 

Re: Port Aventura

Family holiday! Spent most of the time at the Beach Club and Waterpark and went into the park in the evenings. Obviously we had a few day trips out to Tarragona and Barcelona as well though.

 

Re: Port Aventura

That video is both horrific and hilarious in equal measure.

 

Re: Port Aventura

Looking at the video, it seems there is some sort of IR sensor (or similar) on the guide channels roughly where the first boat has come to a stop. This then raises the possibility that the boat stopped just before reaching the sensor and that the collision was caused by the guests in the first boat breaking the beam themselves when they got out.

 

Re: Port Aventura

Would have thought an alert operator MIGHT have noticed though and hit the e-stop... There was plenty of time to do so before the other boat reached the top of the lift...

 

Re: Port Aventura

Always thought those rides look pretty basic. Wouldn't be surprised if it has no blocking or collision detection systems at all. They probably just dispatch the boats and then just wait for them to come back (or not in this case).

 

Re: Port Aventura

WOW

I'd have thought PortAventura would have better safety procedures than that.

 

Re: Port Aventura

Now that Shambhala is open there are lots of rumours about whats coming to the park in the next few years. Back in 2010 when the new owners of the park took over they said they planned to invest 80m euro's over the next 4 years. They spent between 10-15m on Sesamo Aventura and 25m on Shambhala. Thats leaves another 40m for the next couple of years. Current rumours suggest the long awaited expansion of the water park in 2013. Weather this includes the once planned volcano theme dtower with the worlds highest freefall slide or as some rumours suggest the exapnsion will double the size of the water park (there is a large space of land behind the water park that would allow this which is cleared ready) you can see this area on google earth.

Also a recebt rumour was the park where looking at adding some kind of dark ride most likly using a high capacity boat system like POTC at disney, something that the park currently lacks.

Sesamo advenrura was a huge success for the park and looks like Shambhala is having a massive impact, so looks like they plan on continuing to spend big to continue to grow the park.

 

Re: Port Aventura

^Yes it is great to see the park are doing well - they are starting to build back up their visitor numbers they lost in the early 2000's thanks to a number of successful additions. Some of their decisions just frustrate me, especially on the resort side - no more free Express tickets, Beach Club & Golf sold, and also WHY are only the Rapids, Khan and Baco opening at 10?!

 

Re: Port Aventura

Thankfully, this does seem to be on the cards. The Spanish speaking forums are discussing a heavily rumoured dark boat ride for Mediterranea. I know this is very cliche, but am I the only one that wants to see a Shoot 'em up dark ride in the Far West?

 

Re: Port Aventura

It seems from photos of the queue for Shambhala (yes I know it's a new ride, but it's very high capacity) that they still have a chronic lack of major rides. The ten year gap between Stampida and Furious Backache can be blamed for this, but it still needs fixing.

As well as this dark ride, they should be aiming to install another two major high-capacity coasters in the next few years. Because at the moment, it looks like this park is getting way too many thrill-seeking guests for its capacity.

 

Re: Port Aventura

Sam are they the pictures that are floating around from last thursday? if they are i was at the park that day, well late afternoon anyway and yes it was busy but the queue by time i was there was just in the big building and i walked straight on with express pass and most other queues were just like a very busy day at Alton Towers. The reason it was so busy was School trips last wednesday and thurs there were 1000's of school kids all in big groups, much like Alton get in July. However the park was very different on Fri and Sat while still lots of people queues where no where near the legth on the wed and thurs in fact on sat the Khan and shambala started on 3 train op but by lunch time were down to two with not very long queues at all.

I would like to see them add a B&M inverter as there next coaster maybe 2015 for their 20th birthday, but not sure we will get another coaster that soon. I also think a Mack weater coaster would be a good fit as their water rides are as popular as the coasters due to the weather.

Although they have the strange opening of rides in the morning they opening hours are amazing the fact the earlest they shut is 7pm in spring then its midnight from 22nd june until end of Aug. My advice for anyone visiting is not to bother going until after 3pm as the by the evening the rides queues are very short and the heat has died down.