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PortAventura: General Discussion

Enter Valhalla said:
But they aren’t closing at 7/8pm as you say. They’re closing at 6pm on every day except Saturday, as well as opening the park in the morning half an hour later than usual at 10:30am, not to mention all the staggered openings, which are listed on their website.

If they’re doing well, then why are their weekday and Sunday hours, and their Ferrari Land opening hours around 2 hours less than what they’d normally be at this time of year? I’ve been visiting PA for years and never known them to close any earlier than 7pm, even at the quietest times of year. Either they aren’t busy, or the opening hours are not sufficient.

Good on them for opening rides which they said would be closed though, long may that continue.

Edit: @siralgenon I assume you watched the whole of that video you linked? The long queue at lunch time is clearly due to how many other F&B units elsewhere in the park were closed that day. Skim through that vlog and you’ll see closed shutters in almost every frame.
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I did watch the whole video yes, like I said, the park is on 30% capacity, they're not going to have every food and beverage unit open or the park open late when they're only allowed a quarter of their guest capacity in the park, I wouldn't expect any park to do that. When the capacity is upped fair enough I would expect everything open but not now.

As for staggered openings again, it's not unusual for this time of year. Unfortunately the park is never 100% open until the peak season begins late June, so there's always one or two water rides and a few flat rides closed. It's no different pre-pandemic. I agree Ferrari Land's hours should be longer but other than that it's nothing out of the ordinary.
 
But, as I keep saying (and you keep ignoring), opening hours of 10:30-6:00 are not normal at this time of year or indeed any time of year.

I’ve been a PA regular for years, due to having friends living nearby, and I have never know them close earlier than 7pm even at the quietest of times. This certainly isn’t something they’d do when the park is busy, as you are suggesting.

And if you had watched the whole video, you’d have seen that the pathways were deserted.

I’m not sure why you’re jumping on the defensive, I wasn’t complaining about those F&B units being closed. The park is quiet, so they’re closed. I have no issue with that, I was merely responding to your suggestion that the park was busy, and your only evidence being that there was a long queue at the food unit at lunch time. I counteracted that by pointing out that the reason for the long queue is likely to be, as we saw throughout the vlog, due to numerous other food units being closed, not because the park was busy, as you suggested.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
But, as I keep saying (and you keep ignoring), opening hours of 10:30-6:00 are not normal at this time of year or indeed any time of year.

I’ve been a PA regular for years, due to having friends living nearby, and I have never know them close earlier than 7pm even at the quietest of times. This certainly isn’t something they’d do when the park is busy, as you are suggesting.

And if you had watched the whole video, you’d have seen that the pathways were deserted.

I’m not sure why you’re jumping on the defensive, I wasn’t complaining about those F&B units being closed. The park is quiet, so they’re closed. I have no issue with that, I was merely responding to your suggestion that the park was busy, and your only evidence being that there was a long queue at the food unit at lunch time. I counteracted that by pointing out that the reason for the long queue is likely to be, as we saw throughout the vlog, due to numerous other food units being closed, not because the park was busy, as you suggested.
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I'm not on the defensive, it's closing an hour earlier than normal in the middle of a pandemic. If this were happening in July I'd be worried but it literally opened two days ago.

And the park isn't deserted at all. It's at capacity which is roughly about 9,000 guests according to the news. It's not heaving but it's definitely not deserted.

I'd be the first to moan if they were doing something bad as it's one of my favourite parks, but I don't see the issue with the times at the moment.
 
When did I ever say that the park are doing anything bad? It is literally my favourite theme park (and believe me, I’ve had to battle off a load of abuse in the past for saying it’s my favourite park), because of how much of my youth I spent there, due to having friends and family locally, I hold PA in a high regard based on nostalgia more than anything.

My point is that, like DLP, it would seem that the lack of tourism is affecting their performance. Closed hotels (more than normal for the time of year), opening hours significantly reduced (it isn’t just by 1 hour as you stated) less live entertainment, staggered openings still in place despite the shorter hours, the opening hours being quickly reduced last summer, the list goes on.

Much of it may well have been planned but it seems concerning that a park which relies so heavily on tourism is currently in a state of operating without international tourists.

My hope for the coming months is that international borders will open up across Europe, PA will be in a position where opening hours and general offerings can be extended and this will benefit the park and lead to future investment as well as further investments to infrastructure such as the improved food offerings which you earlier posted.

This is the last you will hear from me on this matter. And what I hope more than anything in relation to PA is that I’ll be in a position where, as a U.K. resident, I can get back to the park and get my Stampida and Baco fix, as well as soaking up the PA summer atmosphere which I consider (perhaps due to nostalgia) to be second to none. :)
 
According to PA fans from the 24th May PortAventura Park's opening hours will increase from 6pm closes to 8pm closes and the remaining closed attractions and play areas will open with the exception of Angkor which will open on the 31st May.

*EDIT* Due to increased bookings Hotel Caribe will now open on 23rd June after previously being planned to remain closed for 2021!
 
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Anyone aware of any vegan options for food around the park and resort?

Seems a bit of an uphill battle to find any, considering Madrid and Barcelona are very good for vegan choice.
 
@D4n It was hard enough being a vegetarian last time I was there, let alone a vegan !

Many chips were eaten !
 
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Rick said:
@D4n It was hard enough being a vegetarian last time I was there, let alone a vegan !

Many chips were eaten !
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I suspected this might be the case.

I think we've got a buffet breakfast included in our hotel stay so a few dry slices of toast to get me through the day :tearsofjoy:

Fortunately we're only there three nights before moving on to Barcelona where options are plentiful. I'll survive if there's nothing.
 
D4n said:
Anyone aware of any vegan options for food around the park and resort?

Seems a bit of an uphill battle to find any, considering Madrid and Barcelona are very good for vegan choice.
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The menus for atleast the a'la'carte restaurants are on the website, however I'm not sure about buffet / self service etc.
 
Last time I went was with a friend with a peanut allergy, PA’s hotel meal offering was a burger patty (no bun) and salad….

They are not particularly elaborate in their dietary options
 
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So sad to hear. This is yet another example of where PortAventura just don’t help themselves. A few extra dietary options for people with allergies (which these days is pretty common) would be a very easy fix, yet for whatever reason, they just don’t bother.
 
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PortAventura; Rich in Bunly Goodness, since 1995.
 
Ferrari Land is a shambles. What a horrible, horrible place. Every ride is on an advertised 2 hour queue and everything except Red Force is rubbish.

Queued over 2.5 hours for Red Force so far. Not even halfway. It's operating with a throughput below 200pph. More than that are going down the express lane.

PortAventura itself not doing much better during the day, but saved by the fact that some of the rides remain open until 11pm. A pleasant evening can be had there.

Vegan options surprisingly ok, albeit the usual fare of burger, hot dog or pizza.
 
D4n said:
Ferrari Land is a shambles. What a horrible, horrible place. Every ride is on an advertised 2 hour queue and everything except Red Force is rubbish.

Queued over 2.5 hours for Red Force so far. Not even halfway. It's operating with a throughput below 200pph. More than that are going down the express lane.

PortAventura itself not doing much better during the day, but saved by the fact that some of the rides remain open until 11pm. A pleasant evening can be had there.

Vegan options surprisingly ok, albeit the usual fare of burger, hot dog or pizza.
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PA is an overrated, badly run resort. I've said it for years.

I'm sorry you had such a dreadful FL experience.

Meanwhile Silver Star has a 35 minute queue to the entrance, no fastrack and pulling 1700ppph.

Crazy.

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The wait time for Red Force ended up being 4 hours and 10 minutes. The longest I have ever queued for a coaster. I didn't think it was great, a bit rattley and to be honest I prefer Stealth. Maybe the queue tainted my opinion.

The only reason it was that "short" was because the park closed towards the end of our wait, so at least the main queue was getting a full allocation of seats.

I loved PortAventura the first time I visited. But I won't be back for a very, very long time now. Not until something fundamental changes.

Alton Towers is much better. Makes you appreciate what we have.
 
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Four hours + for a coaster is absolutely obscene. Glad you got some vegan grub!

I'd take PA over Alton but if I lived in Barcelona, I imagine my view would be the opposite.
 
I love the scenery at PA and they do trade off of a few great rides, but I do worry they are more and more reliant on the fantastic original design and infrastructure of the park.

The two most obvious examples of the spiral downwards are the operations and the charmless design of Ferrariland.
 
Ferrari Land at this point really does need another big coaster. I visited opening year and there just really wasn't enough to do and even the additional rides they added the following year wasn't enough.
 
I don't think this park has ever been good at operations. Going back to some of my earliest visits in early 00's it was dreadful back then too. Such a shame too as the park looks great in some places and of course has some great rides.

Towers is a much better park for me. People only slate it because it's close to home and we've been loads of times. As someone said above you'd think the same of PA if you lived close by.
 
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