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PortAventura: General Discussion

It appears that looking on the latest Resort Map on the app, Cirque Du Soleil will be making a permanent residence at PortAventura from 2019. Cirque Du Soleil has taken seasonal residence at PortAventura on a temporary five year trial contract since 2015, with the Big Top being erected on one of the overflow carparks each summer. However this year the new map shows the Big Top to be in a more permanent looking location as part of the Far West Resort Area, which would suggest that after the five year trial, Cirque Du Soleil will be staying at PortAventura for the foreseeable future. If so this will be a great addition to the Resorts ever increasing line-up!

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Today fan site PASpace have revealed a first look at the 2019 resort map, showing the first finished images of Hotel Colorado Creek and the Sesame Street dark ride.
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2019 resort map

It shows Hotel Colorado Creek to be spread across 3 floors surrounding a rustic lake, with a separate building for the restaurant similar to Hotel 'The Callaghan's'. In the description it states that the hotel will not have it's own pool during the 2019 season, as it will be built as part of a second phase of the hotel presumably next year. In the mean time guests are invited to use the pools at the near-by Hotel Gold River.
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Hotel Colorado Creek

Over in Sesamo Aventura the new ride will be located in a new plaza on the opposite side of the train tracks to Sesamo Aventura which will be accessible from the SesamoAventura Station crossing and from China. The new area appears to be a replica of Place de Remy at Walt Disney Studios at Disneyland Paris with a Sesame Street twist, with a central plaza complete with fountain, and the trackless rides show building hidden behind a facade of Sesame Street. :tearsofjoy:
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SesamoAventura expansion
 
So glad that P.A are opening up a ‘proper’ dark ride, as it was the thing I found the park lacked (aside from the flying theatre and simulators in Ferrari Land). I presume the Dinosaur simulator thing is being spited to makeway?

The new hotel looks stunning enough and good to see them update the rooms in the others. I did think El Paso’s rooms felt a bit outdated when I visited two years back.

I think a RMC (that doesn’t involve changing Stampida) is what the park should do next, beside improving the dreadful food and customer service.
 
I’d be happy to see Sea Odyssey return in some form. It was a pretty decent ride with an interesting theme. An update to the film would be a massive improvement over what’s there now, which is an abomination.

As for Stampida and RMC, I can’t see it happening because of the recent investment in the retrack. The trains are what now ruin the ride and a change to something like the Millennium Flyers which Tomahawk received would make a huge difference for relatively little effort.

I look forward to the dark tide, but can’t help feel the ride is a little disjointed from the rest of Sesamo Aventura as an area.
 
So glad that P.A are opening up a ‘proper’ dark ride, as it was the thing I found the park lacked (aside from the flying theatre and simulators in Ferrari Land). I presume the Dinosaur simulator thing is being spited to makeway?

The new dark ride is on the opposite side of the Sesame Street area to the Jurassic Park rip off. If the dinos go (which they should, the whole thing is dire) then the closure is unrelated to the new dark ride.
 
I’d be happy to see Sea Odyssey return in some form. It was a pretty decent ride with an interesting theme. An update to the film would be a massive improvement over what’s there now, which is an abomination.

Sea Odyssey was a brilliant attraction in its original form, but unfortunately as it was created by Universal when they owned the park, the film also belonged to them, so had to be removed when the resort changed hands. For a number of years after this the park added other nautical themed films to the building but none lived up to the original, which is when Ice Age and then Dino Escape came in, which again didn't live up to the original. Hopefully in the coming years a completely new attraction will replace it and once again become one of the parks headliners.
 
The whole Sea Odyssey complex is impressive and I can imagine that it would have been a very good ride when it first opened. However now it can only be desribed as woeful. A dinosaur theme overlayed on top of an Ice Age theme which is overlayed on top of the original Sea Odyssey theme; a big old mess.

The ride system is also now very dated and not slick enough to keep up with the movements required in a modern 4D film.

They really need to gut the building and start afresh with a new major dark ride.
 
I just struggle to get excited about *anything* PA develop. Until they sort out their dreadful operations and poor food, I will give them short shrift.

That said, a dark ride is welcome.

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PortAventura is in desperate need of a substantial dark ride more than any other attraction. A trackless ride could be good there, PA do have solid theming, though personally I would prefer this sort of investment to be aimed at the whole family rather than Grover enthusiasts,

It’s unlikely I’ll return to PA in a while but I’m still glad they’re getting something new. They just need to scrap the dinosaur 4D ride, improve their food dramatically and have better throughputs.
 
A dark ride is needed but the park also desperately needs another thrill coaster.

4 out and out thrill coasters across the... 'resort' is a fair number I'd say, at a push you could even include Stampida in that category...

There's a lot more stuff they need before another coaster...
 
Something about the place just doesn't feel complete, I've always felt it could do with a few thrill flats.
 
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They may have lots of thrill coasters but they are at best mostly average. Exceptions are furius baco, shambhala and stampida blue.
 
So you’ve pretty much named them all except Khan!

I honestly think that PA, at the moment, is crying out for other new additions ahead of thrill coasters. I’m not saying there should never be any in the future but right now it needs dark rides more than anything and a few family filler rides, as there’s currently plenty for young kids but not that much for older families.
 
Agree with the sentiments of what’s needed at PA. It’s a park that needs and deserves the quality of additions which Universal made in the early years - see Stampida, Sea Odyssey, Templo del Fuego etc. These all seamlessly slotted into the park without you even knowing they were new rides.

Since that time, more recent additions have not been as subtle - see Baco, Sesamo Aventura and Woody’s Casa. There is something about the additions being made which just feel a little cheaper or less authentic than the area that they are in. Everything feels a little cartoony, rather than rich in detail.

I’d love to see a return to the style of the earlier additions, both in appearance (richer detail) and substance (more interesting additions than ‘just’ a new coaster).

I can’t see it happening, because all recent additions are anything but. Fingers crossed though...
 
I think Baco fits nicely, as awful as it is it at least looks stunning. I won't go back until there's at least one major new coaster added (Ferrari land doesn't count) but I agree it's not top of their priority list either. It's an odd one because I've only ever spent one day there and despite spending it feeling like I needed a lot longer there, there's no real reason to apart from it being part of a resort.
 
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