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PortAventura: General Discussion

I found food wasn't the best at PA. Poor selection and not the highest of quality. But nowhere near Aramark levels of crap. I'd take PA anyday over Towers for food.

You know what else I'd take over Towers? Operations! Yes watching the station staff is like watching paint dry. Yes the cattle pens are absolutely horrid, and I've never seen widespread queue jumping quite like it. Yes there's staggered openings and overselling of Express. Operations are very poor there. But at least most of the rides open within an hour of park open most days. And breakdowns are sorted quicker. And there are other things to do when the coasters have intolerable queues. Less bad than I've experienced at Towers these past 2 seasons, or less bad than I've experienced at Chessington...well..... ever.

I'm a Baco fan @Matt N, but you will absolutely hate it my son! Very violent vibrations and it's kind of hard to avoid a head smashing. Dragon Kahn I found intolerably jolty, the viscous type that's also hard to avoid. And I say this as a Saw and Grand National fan!
 
I was lucky enough to go to a private party in the area of the park with Furious Baco, which was operating for a few hours just for the attendees. I spent those hours alternating between walking on to Baco and hitting the open bar, and over those several rides I really didn't notice the pain everyone mentions. It's certainly a very intense ride but I thought that added to the fun rather than detracted from it. My only real complaints were that it's far too short and that the weird video before the launch makes me slightly uncomfortable for reasons I can't quite pinpoint.

I agree about Dragon Kahn though, jolty and uncomfortable to the point that I only went on it once.
 
Could Dragon Khan be the world’s roughest B&M?

I don’t find Baco or Stampida too rough at all really. I think a lot of what people say about these coasters is exaggerated. Dragon Khan on the other hand is really uncomfortable. It seems so odd to be saying that about a B&M and to find it less comfortable than a coaster which is thought by many to be one of the roughest in the world.
 
The roughest B&M I’ve ridden before heading to PortAventura is probably the new Hulk at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. It’s not terribly rough, but for a B&M only retracked in 2016, it certainly isn’t very smooth and has a fair bit of headbanging here and there… I’ll be interested to see how Dragon Khan compares.

I’m now sat in Bristol Airport awaiting our departure to Barcelona, so I haven’t got too much longer to wait… my mum and dad have been copiously browsing TripAdvisor, so we’re prepared for anything that may come our way!
 
Matt N said:
The roughest B&M I’ve ridden before heading to PortAventura is probably the new Hulk at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. It’s not terribly rough, but for a B&M only retracked in 2016, it certainly isn’t very smooth and has a fair bit of headbanging here and there… I’ll be interested to see how Dragon Khan compares.

I’m now sat in Bristol Airport awaiting our departure to Barcelona, so I haven’t got too much longer to wait… my mum and dad have been copiously browsing TripAdvisor, so we’re prepared for anything that may come our way!
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Have a good trip Matt, looking forward to reading your report afterwards! 😊
 
Matt N said:
I’ll be interested to see how Dragon Khan compares.
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We’re not going to lie to you Matt, it’s going to be absolutely brutal. Imagine if Grand National and Infusion had a baby and then put that baby in a three wheeled pram and chucked it down a flight of stairs and 8 inversions at 4g. It’s not going to be a smooth experience for you.
 
Maybe I'm less sensitive to rough rides than I thought, but I rode Dragon Khan multiple times and absolutely didn't feel it was horrendously rough -- I thought it was incredibly intense but neither me nor the friend I went with had any complaints about roughness, just how relentlessly fast it takes every element
 
The problem with Dragon Kahn is that the thick B&M over the shoulders, which are perfectly comfortable and well designed for most smooth B&M purposes, are so big on either side of your head that there's no escape from your head being banged on them. It's that one ride that I tried my best to ride over and over, because the layout is great and it's really intense, but I just couldn't memorise where all the jolts were.

Baco is shorter so can be learnt easier however. But the consequences are more severe. One smash of your ear into the sharpest edge of those really hard and pointless Intamin Accelerator restraints, and you feel that instantly. The rumbles and jolts of Stampeda, and violent vibrations at the end of the Red Force launch track didn't bother me because you have lap bars. The retarints and seats on Red Force are particularly very comfortable. Get a loose restraint and you'll be out of your seat practically stood up all the way down from the summit of the top hat. That's why I prefer it to Stealth, the airtime is brilliant.
 
Matt.GC said:
The retarints and seats on Red Force are particularly very comfortable. Get a loose restraint and you'll be out of your seat practically stood up all the way down from the summit of the top hat. That's why I prefer it to Stealth, the airtime is brilliant.
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I love Red Force, for me after I'd ridden it I just found that Stealth felt really small in comparision and much less of an event whereas with Red Force you just keep going along picking up speed and then you go up and up. I found it really funny how when waiting at the station you can really get to see people's reactions as they are about to go on. Some look very intimidated by it while they are sat there waiting for it to roll forwards and I've seen some panicking and desperately asking if they can go anywhere else when they are assigned the front row as it feels very exposed there (and I'm in the SRQ desperately hoping that I might get assigned to the front!). It's a great ride and I think it's actually a little underrated amongst enthusiasts.
 
saltedpeanuts09 said:
So if PA sorted their operations out and added a world class dark ride do you think that's enough to be a top 5 park in Europe or is a lot more needed
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They probably already got a world class dark ride in Sesame Street: Street Mission to be fair!

But yes, another dark ride wouldn't go amiss, especially if it were a queue muncher, but in some ways Uncharted: The Enigma Of Pentience fufills the role somewhat of an extra dark ride, it's just a pity that it's throughput is so bad. You could certainly imagine a haunted wild west or Mexico dark ride working well.

One of the problems with the park is that as mentioned they have a lot of coasters that are rough to some degree and some of the rides like the mine train can feel a bit dated. The potential is there for it to be a top park, I think if they ever sorted out Stampida with either a track makeover and new trains, or gave it an RMC conversion (or built a ground up RMC elsewhere) as well as continuing to improve their operations then it could be a very special park, it just needs a couple of new headline attractions to move it up to the next level. A new thrill flat wouldn't go amiss.
 
I have to say, first impressions of PortAventura on the resort side of things are absolutely wonderful!

With how mixed the reviews are and how people often moan about PortAventura, part of me was almost expecting something more along the lines of the Alton Towers hotels than, say, Europa Park, but Hotel Gold River is absolutely gorgeous! It’s gorgeously themed with so many details, it looks pristine, the room is lovely (albeit we did upgrade slightly to a Superior Callaghan Room)… first impressions are incredibly positive! I’m getting strong Europa Park VIBES from the hotel, which is very encouraging given how excellent those hotels were!

We admittedly haven’t eaten yet, but thus far, I have excellent first impressions, and my impression of the hotel is making me thoroughly look forward to setting foot in the park tomorrow!

My mum and dad were also very pleased at how cheap the drinks are… 2 large Estrellas and a Diet Coke only cost €13.30!
 
Hope you have a great time. It's hard not to love PA. I think it gets a hard time as it could be amazing with the right improvements. Some things get better some things get worse year on year.

As you are coming in the back entrance it is worth queuing early one morning to get on Uncharted with minimal queue. Need to be before the bridge to ensure a small wait. If the queue is back towards city hall forget it.

Hope it isn't too busy but as always with PA budget for express passes. It's worth unlimited express to re ride Shambhala all day at least once. You'll learn which ops staple you and which ones leave the restraint loose. Back row rides with inches of room are insane.
 
Matt N said:
I have to say, first impressions of PortAventura on the resort side of things are absolutely wonderful!
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we’re staying at hotel gold river for five nights from next Monday. Seriously looking forward to it!

Could you explain how the Ferrari world tickets work that are included as to my understanding you get park entry to PA for every night but only one Ferrari world visit per stay? Also, what would be the best time to head in there as I’ve heard it’s a stampid(a) to red force once PA closes?!
 
RustyRider said:
we’re staying at hotel gold river for five nights from next Monday. Seriously looking forward to it!

Could you explain how the Ferrari world tickets work that are included as to my understanding you get park entry to PA for every night but only one Ferrari world visit per stay? Also, what would be the best time to head in there as I’ve heard it’s a stampid(a) to red force once PA closes?!
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You get a card that acts as your room card and your entry card to the parks. It's just activated for whatever is relevant according to the number of days you're staying, and you just scan it to enter
 
RustyRider said:
we’re staying at hotel gold river for five nights from next Monday. Seriously looking forward to it!

Could you explain how the Ferrari world tickets work that are included as to my understanding you get park entry to PA for every night but only one Ferrari world visit per stay? Also, what would be the best time to head in there as I’ve heard it’s a stampid(a) to red force once PA closes?!
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You’re bang on with how Ferrari Land entry works; you can only visit once per stay.

I can’t answer the second question, as I haven’t been yet, but we’re aiming to be there for opening time.
 
Out of interest, why is it that PortAventura don’t seem to send empty trains around before they open things?

I noticed it this morning on Shambhala; the ride didn’t seem to send any test trains before it opened, while I was in the area at least. I didn’t notice any on Khan, either.

I’m also noticing it now with Red Force; it hasn’t yet opened half an hour into the day, and I haven’t seen a single train go around.
 
Matt N said:
Out of interest, why is it that PortAventura don’t seem to send empty trains around before they open things?

I noticed it this morning on Shambhala; the ride didn’t seem to send any test trains before it opened, while I was in the area at least.

I’m also noticing it now with Red Force; it hasn’t yet opened half an hour into the day, and I haven’t seen a single train go around.
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I don't think anyone is truly going to know the answer to this, but different parks and operators have different procedures.

It could be that they send empty trains round at the very start of the day before any guests are in the park, hence why you didn't see.
 
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