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PortAventura: General Discussion

Matt N said:
I have an interesting point possibly worth considering; could this €40m football “attraction” (for lack of a better term; I’m not really sure what to call it) possibly be (or include, if it is a park) the new “thrill attraction” that was referred to not too long ago?

Interestingly, it would seem that some form of 4th theme park will be part of the development eventually (budget is cited as €100m, so likely not huge; possibly Ferrari Land size?), but not for the initial phase opening in 2021/2022. The dark ride/whatever the €40m initial attraction ends up being will also apparently be within PortAventura Park.

I think this is certainly an interesting decision, and not what I was expecting PA’s future to hold, especially when COVID-19 has seemingly hit them very hard. I’m not sure if this is what I would personally have chosen for PortAventura to do, but I’m sure it’ll end up being great, and I hope it works out well for them!
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I don't think COVID has hit PortAventura hard to be honest. Don't get me wrong, it's affected nearly every company in the world unless they make sanitiser, but definitely from a Theme Park perspective they've done pretty well.

Their handling of COVID regulations has received a lot of praise and they've opened more hotels as the year has progressed where as other resorts have closed theirs and halloween season is returning as many other parks have cancelled their events.

On the subject of new attractions, as many parks have cancelled some future attractions or postponed them, PortAventura have announced many new projects with the expansion of Hotel Colorado Creek, a new thill ride, the new additions above and now a planned fourth park for the future. I think out of all the parks I've read about it's one of the only one's ploughing though with a few minor set backs.

PortAventura is lucky to be a park which not only attracts visitors from many countries, but also many visitors from Spain, which has meant it hasn't seen a massive loss in guest numbers such as Disneyland.

Yes, Caribe Aquatic Park hasn't opened this year although I think that was mostly due to the fact it couldn't open until late July and it would close again in September anyway and opening hours have been reduced but it's still open longer than any other park in Europe so I think they've done pretty well on the whole.

@Matt N that wasn't a direct ramble at you, I wanted to say most of it anyway. :D
 
Here's a great little video from PASpace on Halloween '20, showing PortAventura Park in it's Birthday and Halloween best, shows with social distancing precautions with guests being shown to seats, scare mazes with Covid precautions and a peek at some Halloween sweet treats!

 
Italian Nights - Ferrari Land
From 7th November until 19th December, Italian Nights return every Friday from 6pm-11pm in Ferrari Land. Guests can expect Italian food, entertainment and rides in the dark including Europe's tallest and fastest rollercoaster. Free entry for guests of the PortAventura Hotels or an evening ticket for day visitors.

Another leap forward for PortAventura this year after late openings were reduced to 8pm due to Covid. It's a sign that we could see late openings return for 2021.
 
Digging through some old photos from PA - took them on actual film! I think they must be from several different visits as I am not sure all the old rides in them overlapped. When did Sea Odyssey close? The Wave Swinger? Tifon? Presume their Rainbow went after the Liseberg accident like a number of others.
 
Rick said:
Digging through some old photos from PA - took them on actual film! I think they must be from several different visits as I am not sure all the old rides in them overlapped. When did Sea Odyssey close? The Wave Swinger? Tifon? Presume their Rainbow went after the Liseberg accident like a number of others.
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The wave swinger closed I think in 2011, it was removed to make way for the enterance path to shambhala , it was in the area where the enterance arch and path lead to Shambhala. Surprised they didn’t relocate the ride.

Tifon didn’t last long and closed in 1997 so only lasted 3 years it was replaced by tami-tami, it was very problamic, hence its quick removal.
 
Joking aside, it probably would be closed a lot of the time if they hadn't removed it - along with the rest of the family flat rides towards the back of the park
 
siralgenon said:
Because it's pretty hard to walk through an active ride to get to the other side. ;)
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Forgive me, what ride is blocking off where the Waveswinger was? I was certain it was just in the corner of the plaza in the Chinese area? My memory is limited, but can't think of anything blocking it. Unless the ride was far further back than I recall?
 
AstroDan said:
Forgive me, what ride is blocking off where the Waveswinger was? I was certain it was just in the corner of the plaza in the Chinese area? My memory is limited, but can't think of anything blocking it. Unless the ride was far further back than I recall?
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The entrance to Shambhala is where Fumanchu used to be, and there wasn't room for the ride, lockers and queue line plus the entrance to Shambhala to fit in the space. If you type PortAventura into Google Maps you can see the area.

Enter Valhalla said:
Have you been to Phantasialand, where the wave swinger is essentially in the middle of a pathway?

If you can’t walk through, walk round. Easy.
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Not so easy when there isn't enough room. :tearsofjoy: If there was enough room the ride would have stayed put, but as above, the area isn't big enough.
 
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Rick said:
Digging through some old photos from PA - took them on actual film! I think they must be from several different visits as I am not sure all the old rides in them overlapped. When did Sea Odyssey close? The Wave Swinger? Tifon? Presume their Rainbow went after the Liseberg accident like a number of others.
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- The original Sea Odyssey retired in 2010 when the film rights from Universal expired, the attraction then continued as Sea Odyssey 4D with a new film, before changing to Ice Age and then now Dinosaur Escape.
- Fumanchu closed in 2011 to make way for the new Shambhala area opening in 2012.
- The rainbow attraction (Trono de Pacal) was removed to make way for Hurakan Condor in 2005.
 
Thank you. I had totally forgotten where the old Waveswinger was in relation to what is there now.

That said, PA have loads of room... couldn't they have moved it!? Seems odd to just remove a solid family ride like that.
 
Sorry siralgenon, I have to disagree with you on this occasion.

All that’s replaced the wave swinger is the Shambhala archway. That could have been built in front of the wave swinger where there was room or they could have just not built that archway at all.

I was a PA regular up until a few years ago and remember the area around the wave swinger well. There was plenty of room. The reason I used the Phantasialand example is because this is a park very short of space but they have a wave swinger at the end of Berlin street which blocks off a pathway, but which people walk around.

PA could have kept their wave swinger, they just chose not to. And that’s fine. I never saw much of a queue for it and they seem to be managing fine without it.
 
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Enter Valhalla said:
Sorry siralgenon, I have to disagree with you on this occasion.

All that’s replaced the wave swinger is the Shambhala archway. That could have been built in front of the wave swinger where there was room or they could have just not built that archway at all.

I was a PA regular up until a few years ago and remember the area around the wave swinger well. There was plenty of room. The reason I used the Phantasialand example is because this is a park very short of space but they have a wave swinger at the end of Berlin street which blocks off a pathway, but which people walk around.

PA could have kept their wave swinger, they just chose not to. And that’s fine. I never saw much of a queue for it and they seem to be managing fine without it.
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If you look on Google Maps you'll see there's not enough room to have access to Shambhala and have the waveswinger and queue line there as well. I'd post the image on here if I knew how to.

And @AstroDan, it could have been moved, I did think the same when it was removed, I can only presume it was coming to the end of its life for whatever reason as PortAventura have been known to move attractions in the past. They'd never leave it to die like the one at Towers, it would be removed while it still looked decent.
 
siralgenon said:
If you look on Google Maps you'll see there's not enough room to have access to Shambhala and have the waveswinger and queue line there as well. I'd post the image on here if I knew how to.

And @AstroDan, it could have been moved, I did think the same when it was removed, I can only presume it was coming to the end of its life for whatever reason as PortAventura have been known to move attractions in the past. They'd never leave it to die like the one at Towers, it would be removed while it still looked decent.
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As I’ve said, they probably had good reasons for removing it. But Shambhala’s entrance was not the reason. I’ve looked on Google Maps, as you suggested and there would have easily been room to keep the wave swinger if the pathway had been extended slightly into the scrubby bits of land either side, which are currently unoccupied both sides.

I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. I know you often defend PA and their decisions, and as I’ve said there probably were good reasons for the decision to remove the wave swinger, but they could easily have fitted Shambhala’s entrance around it. And in any case there’s another entrance to Shambhala’s area the other side. There must have been another reason for the ride’s removal. Most probably nearing the end of its lifespan as you suggested. Or, as I pointed out, it rarely got long queues so perhaps it’s lack of popularity didn’t justify the cost of maintenance. Either way, I’m certain it wasn’t lack of space.
 
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