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PortAventura: General Discussion

Also worth noting the water park is completely closed currently, I believe due to a fire earlier in the week (I wasn’t going anyway but in case it helps people such as @Matt N to have some warning)

Anything else I should report on while I’m here?
 
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golgactic said:
Also worth noting the water park is completely closed currently, I believe due to a fire earlier in the week (I wasn’t going anyway but in case it helps people such as @Matt N to have some warning)

Anything else I should report on while I’m here?
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Are the ops still hilariously bad on everything?
 
I don’t think we had tickets to the waterpark anyway, so it doesn’t really affect us.

But that is a shame for people who like waterparks, however; I hope it’s able to reopen soon.
 
Poisson said:
Are the ops still hilariously bad on everything?
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Quite. Not on Red Force at least but everything else is a shambles. One of the many reasons I have shelled out for express passes for the main park (other reasons - cattle pens, smoking in queues, the Spanish national sport of queue jumping).

They seemingly have destroyed Dragon Khan in the 16 year gap, that used to be smooth but was jackhammering all over the place. Stampeda is also rough as always but pretty bearable - red running a lot smoother than blue. As was surprisingly Furius Baco back row inner seat - though I employed the technique I use on Smiler and Saw.

Unchartered I thought had a single rider queue at some point but that appears to have been removed sadly. Probably has for a while, sorry out of the loop.

Shambhala at night in the back is awesome. It’s good at the front but elite at the back. Just trying Red Force as it’s down to 10 mins.

https://www.looopings.nl/weblog/266...rk-PortAventura-tot-nader-order-gesloten.html

As for the fire, this is where I saw it
 
Hearing some reviews makes me excited for next week! I’m looking forward to getting on flagship rides like Shambhala and Red Force for the first time (those are the resort’s two main coasters that I’m most excited for; as someone whose current #1 is a B&M Hyper, Shambhala is particularly exciting to me!), and I’m just generally excited to see another major European park for the first time!

I’m also morbidly intrigued to see what Furius Baco is like… that one really seems to strongly divide opinion! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a middle-of-the-road opinion on Baco; most people seem to either absolutely love it or hate it with a burning passion! I’ve often heard it’s quite rough even from people who like it, so as someone who doesn’t have a very high roughness tolerance, I’m going in with pretty low expectations. But it could be like Rita, which some people say is rough but I don’t personally find overly rough.
 
My first ride on Baco was an inside seat in the middle and I loved it, really intense and it does move you around a lot but I really liked it.

Second ride was on an outside seat at the back and it was horrendously painful, had a headache for the rest of the day
 
Matt N said:
Hearing some reviews makes me excited for next week! I’m looking forward to getting on flagship rides like Shambhala and Red Force for the first time (those are the resort’s two main coasters that I’m most excited for; as someone whose current #1 is a B&M Hyper, Shambhala is particularly exciting to me!), and I’m just generally excited to see another major European park for the first time!

I’m also morbidly intrigued to see what Furius Baco is like… that one really seems to strongly divide opinion! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a middle-of-the-road opinion on Baco; most people seem to either absolutely love it or hate it with a burning passion! I’ve often heard it’s quite rough even from people who like it, so as someone who doesn’t have a very high roughness tolerance, I’m going in with pretty low expectations. But it could be like Rita, which some people say is rough but I don’t personally find overly rough.
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Have a great time! Shambhala is god tier, and considering your #1 is mako, it’s right up your street!

My experience with baco was that it didn’t ‘hurt’. Instead I just felt the most intense vibrations and shaking ever which honestly makes the ride so funny to me like it just doesn’t feel right or real, but kinda in a good way. It’s definitely MUCH much ‘rougher’ than Rita, but for the reasons I stated above, rather than conventional headbanging

I went in 2015 and dragon khan was kinda rough then, especially the zero g which was the most whippy element I’ve ever experienced and jerked my neck a bit - so make sure to brace yourself for that moment!

Also I’ve heard Stampeda Red side is much smoother than the blue side - again I did both in 2015 and didn’t notice a difference in roughness between them but obviously that was basically a decade ago.
 
Both sides of Stampida were utterly horrendous a couple of years ago. Burn it or RMC it.
 
Matt N said:
…so as someone who doesn’t have a very high roughness tolerance, I’m going in with pretty low expectations.
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You might find that both Baco and Dragon Khan and one-and-done rides for you then. Baco is well worth experiencing for the explosiveness of its launch but Khan just rattles you around so much it’s not pleasant. It’s a pity that so many of their coasters feel rough as certainly Dragon Khan and Stampida both have great layouts (at least the blue side isn’t as bad).
 
Home and sadly I don’t think I’ll be back in a hurry. Wish I could be more positive.

My on-site room (El Paso, roulette allocation) became overran with bugs including in bedding requiring a 2am room change and that ruined my on-park experience yesterday.
Breakfast was fine, but the food quality on park I found to be very poor, worse than Aramark, and one of the self-service restaurants actually made me ill. Might have ended up picking the wrong places but that was my experience.
Shambhala and Red Force were the only thrill rides I wanted to re-ride.

I will say it’s a excellent park for families with younger children and it’s still stunningly beautiful. Street Mission really surprised me as well for a shooting dark ride.
 
golgactic said:
Home and sadly I don’t think I’ll be back in a hurry. Wish I could be more positive.

My on-site room (El Paso, roulette allocation) became overran with bugs including in bedding requiring a 2am room change and that ruined my on-park experience yesterday.
Breakfast was fine, but the food quality on park I found to be very poor, worse than Aramark, and one of the self-service restaurants actually made me ill. Might have ended up picking the wrong places but that was my experience.
Shambhala and Red Force were the only thrill rides I wanted to re-ride.

I will say it’s a excellent park for families with younger children and it’s still stunningly beautiful. Street Mission really surprised me as well for a shooting dark ride.
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Sorry to hear that you had some aspects of your visit that weren't great for you. Glad that the breakfast was ok for you though, I stayed in hotel El Paso as well earlier this year and thought that the breakfast was absolutely glorious. Spanish hotels generally really know how to put on a feast for breakfast and this was no exception. There's nothing like stuffing yourself at breakfast time with coffee, pancakes, churros, and Nutella straight from a giant vat of the stuff and cream before a long day of riding coasters.
 
Poisson said:
The place near DK is good.

When it is open. A PA theme.
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Good to know. I try to find positives if I can and I know my thoughts are impacted by my (unusually bad) hotel experience bar breakfast (which was lovely as described above).

I went to the one in Mexico as I’d just finished Temple del Fuego and it had the highest rating on google in the park. Mistake.

Plus the ‘pizza’ I got served in Cafe Saula was, instead of the advertised and displayed version, a focaccia slice with tomato ketchup, some kind of slightly melted cheese and rather than prosciutto (which is what I paid for) cheap supermarket ham squares thrown on top. Didn’t go anywhere near a grill or oven by the looks of it. Took one bite and threw it in the bin. Wish I went for one of the sandwiches instead which looked great.
 
I sound like a nutter saying this, but I swear to God; while outlet opening hours have always been inconsistent, even illogical, the food at PortAventura was above-average fifteen or twenty years ago.
 
I stayed the other week and didn't have a problem with food anywhere. I ate at Cafe Saula, The Iron Horse, Raco de Mar, Blacksmith, Chicken Stampida, The Surfer and Creek View and the food was lovely everywhere. Definitely wouldn't compare it to aramark in the slightest. Of course you can have a bad meal anywhere at the best of places but aramark is on another level.
 
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