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PortAventura: General Discussion

Sam said:
In light of the upcoming naval war against Spain, has there been any word about whether PortAventura will fall directly under the control of the British authorities, and if so what tangible effect this will have on operations?
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To make matters worse, I understand Spain are already operating a Chinese cell in Salou. Fortunately, they have long since abandoned their project to engineer hyper-intelligent talking dolphins. Still, worrying times ahead for both humankind, and our licensed Woodpecker friends.
 
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In a naval war, it's win-win for us: We have Trident. If they try and take Gibralta from us, we'll nuke Baco.

... And the world will thank us.
 
So now PortAventura Park and Ferrari Land Park are open for the 2017 season, the full list of 'New for 2017' attractions, shows and refurbishments has been released, and it's quite a lengthy one!

Cirque Du Soliel
  • NEW Varekai: Tales of the Forest – Under the Grand Chapitau // Adjacent to Hotel Gold River / Hotel The Callaghan’s / Hotel Mansion De Lucy
PortAventura Park
Attractions
  • NEW DINOSAUR: Escape! – Polynesia
  • NEW VERSION Horror in Texas – Boot Hill // Far West
Shows
  • NEW I Love Can Can – Long Branch Saloon // Far West
  • NEW VERSION Bang Bang West - Western Stunt Show Arena // Far West
  • NEW VERSION 'The Dolly Dolly Sisters' Line Dance - The Old Steak House // Far West
  • NEW VERSION Country Music - The Old Steak House // Far West
  • NEW VERSION Dancing with Woody West - Penitence Station // Far West
  • NEW VERSION Sing with Woody & Winnie - Penitence Station // Far West / Plaza Yucatan // Mexico
  • NEW VERSION ¡Viva Mexico! - La Cantina // Mexico
  • NEW Dance Revolution - Gran Teatre Imperial // China
  • NEW VERSION Bubblebou - Temple Magic Jing Chou // China
  • NEW SesamoAventura: The Time Machine - TeatroAventura // SesamoAventura
  • NEW VERSION Sing & Dance with Sesamo - ChikkiTienda // SesamoAventura
  • NEW VERSION Aloha Tahiti - Anfiteatro de Polynesia // Polynesia
Restaurants & Shops
  • NEW Dolcos i Mes – Placa Major // Mediterrania
  • NEW La Botigueta – Placa Major // Mediterrania
Ferrari Land Park
Attractions
  • NEW Red Force - Champions Arena
  • NEW Bounce-Back Tower - Via Maranello
  • NEW Free-Fall Tower - Via Maranello
  • NEW Grand Race to Maranello - Via Maranello
  • NEW Flying Dreams - Ferrari Experience
  • NEW Racing Legends - Ferrari Experience
  • NEW Ferrari Land Gallery - Ferrari Experience
  • NEW Pole Position Challenge - Piazza Maranello
  • NEW Junior Championship - Via Italia
  • NEW Kids Podium - Piazza Maranello
  • NEW Pit Stop Record - Via Florano
Shows
  • NEW 'RED' Acrobatic Show - Champions Arena
  • NEW Folklore Italiano Parade - Piazza Italia
  • NEW Dancing in Ferrari Land - Piazza Maranello
Restaurants & Shops
  • NEW Pit Lane - Piazza Maranello
  • NEW Ristorante Cavallino Trattoria Italiana - Piazza Italia
  • NEW Stop & Go - Via Maranello
  • NEW Ferrari Land Store - Piazza Maranello
  • NEW Junior Championship Store - Via Italia
  • NEW Photo Gallery - Via Maranello
  • NEW PhotoRide Red Force - Piaza Italia
  • NEW PhotoRide Pole Position Challenge - Via Italia
  • NEW Photo Auto Maranello Grand Race - Via Maranello
  • NEW Photo Pit Stop Record - Via Florano
  • NEW Paddock - Via Florano
  • NEW Fast Lap - Champions Arena
  • NEW Happiness Station - Via Florano
  • NEW Finish Line - Champions Arena
A lot of work has been taking place in Mediterrania over the closed season, Furius Baco has seen a full refurbishment of the on-board pre-show bringing all of the effects back in to working order along with a new themed roll-down door to hide the launch from the station. Placa Major has seen a complete re-paint with new colours, theming and stores, presumably as the area now includes a direct entrance to Ferrari Land Park with the added turnstiles and all ticket boards on the entrance kiosks have been replaced by screens. Photos can be seen below.

17799272_773602276136112_838810188215261377_n.jpg

Placa Major - New Ferrari Land Entrance direct from PortAventura Park (Photo PAFamily)
17833986_1268870416482826_6947110169503636046_o.jpg

Placa Major - New Store Dolcos i Mes (Photo PAWave)
17807450_1306783389411440_3348500380850512950_o.jpg

Placa Major (Photo PASpace)
 
Why have 'NEW' next to everything for Ferrari Land, when the entire blooming area is new for this year, we know everything there is new! Typical PortAventura.

Glad Cirque Du Soleil is back again, they've done really well in PA in each summer.

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A short video detailing this years shows has been released by Gianfranco Bollini, PortAventura's artistic director, it seems to include the summer shows as well, footage is from last years performances.

 
Shows = epic


Rides = verymutchsubepic.


Reminds me of the classic Not the 9 O'Clock News song,
 
Due to extended opening hours for Ferrari Land Park, from 29th April to the 31st May, the Mediterrania and Far West areas of PortAventura Park will remain open until 11:00pm to allow guests of Hotel PortAventura, Hotel Gold River, Hotel 'The Callaghan's' and Hotel Mansion De Lucy to walk back to their hotels through the Park. Attractions, restaurants and stores in these two areas will remain open until 11:00pm with the rest of the Park continuing to close at 8:00pm. Hotel Shuttles will still be available for guests from the new coach station adjacent to Plaza Aventura. A great move from PortAventura, hopefully we'll see these changes continue throughout the season.

Attractions open until 11:00pm:
  • Furius Baco
  • Grand Canyon Rapids
  • 24 Crazy Barrels
  • Buffalo Rodeo
  • Wild Buffalos
  • Silver River Flume
  • Carousel
  • Stampida
  • Tomahawk
  • Horror in Texas
  • Laberinto Blacksmith
  • Penitence Rodeo
  • VolPaiute
Restaurants open until 11:00pm:
  • Raco De Mar
  • Vinosfera Tapes i Vins
  • The Iron Horse
  • Long Branch Saloon
  • The Old Steak House
  • + Fast food kiosks, stores and snack kiosks
 
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Last week went out to Barcelona and Salou, got to experience Portaventura for the first time, here are a few little opinions (some are pretty standard!)

  • Baco is very rough and that was sitting front row!
  • Lots of queue jumping going on with cattle pens that almost seem to promote it, funny thing we saw some queue jumpers get confronted by a big group of Irish boys which was pretty great to see, they even got out an Irish flag and waved it in their faces!
  • Tuki's tunnel with the gum is gross! What the hell!?!
  • There are lots of bits of graffti all over the place, even saw some in Red Force's queue :O
  • Ferrari Land exceeded my expectations, although I still don't agree it should be a second gate, it is a nicely put together area, a tad on the small side.
  • Stampida didn't feel all that rough with quite a fun first half, however the second half seemed to just mirander around.
  • Of the shows we saw they were very good
  • Very large themed areas, very clear where one areas ends and another starts.
  • Terrible operations, very slow, only one train on Red Force??
  • The Spannish seem to cheer other anything when queuing, a train goes up the lift hill CHEER! the ride breaks down CHEER! A new member of staff turns up onto the ride CHEER!
  • The fast track (express) seemed way out of control with three different types of express, on stamida the staff had given up competely meaning the express holders were just flooding into the station without any of the normal queue being aloud in. There express problem was the worst I have seen.
  • The food was pretty tasty, also was able to have one of their small yards of beer which was very nice.
  • The best roller coaster collection I have ridden in Europe (in terms of thrills).
All in all a nice park with some superb elements and some glaring holes, next time I would definantly try to visit when the spannish are in school as they were off for easter and we saw queues reaching 1.30 - 2 hours at worst, although they died down later in the day.
 
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Marcus said:
Last week went out to Barcelona and Salou, got to experience Portaventura for the first time, here are a few little opinions (some are pretty standard!)

  • Baco is very rough and that was sitting front row!
  • Lots of queue jumping going on with cattle pens that almost seem to promote it, funny thing we saw some queue jumpers get confronted by a big group of Irish boys which was pretty great to see, they even got out an Irish flag and waved it in their faces!
  • Tuki's tunnel with the gum is gross! What the hell!?!
  • There are lots of bits of graffti all over the place, even saw some in Red Force's queue :O
  • Ferrari Land exceeded my expectations, although I still don't agree it should be a second gate, it is a nicely put together area, a tad on the small side.
  • Stampida didn't feel all that rough with quite a fun first half, however the second half seemed to just mirander around.
  • Of the shows we saw they were very good
  • Very large themed areas, very clear where one areas ends and another starts.
  • Terrible operations, very slow, only one train on Red Force??
  • The Spannish seem to cheer other anything when queuing, a train goes up the lift hill CHEER! the ride breaks down CHEER! A new member of staff turns up onto the ride CHEER!
  • The fast track (express) seemed way out of control with three different types of express, on stamida the staff had given up competely meaning the express holders were just flooding into the station without any of the normal queue being aloud in. There express problem was the worst I have seen.
  • The food was pretty tasty, also was able to have one of their small yards of beer which was very nice.
  • The best roller coaster collection I have ridden in Europe (in terms of thrills).
All in all a nice park with some superb elements and some glaring holes, next time I would definantly try to visit when the spannish are in school as they were off for easter and we saw queues reaching 1.30 - 2 hours at worst, although they died down later in the day.
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I'd say that sums up PortAventura pretty well :tearsofjoy: Graffiti (which I've only seen in queue lines) seems to be a major problem at PA, I think the only way to resolve it would be to undergo bag checks at the entrance and remove any pens etc from people's possession, why would you need a Sharpie at a theme park?

Express has always been a pain in the arse, it's not so much how many they sell but how they manage it, which is simple fact that they don't what so ever.

The Park has it's floors but IMO are outweighed by its perks. They'd cleaned Tutuki Splash's tunnels last year, nice to see they've been decorated once again! Minty ;)
 
siralgenon said:
I'd say that sums up PortAventura pretty well :tearsofjoy: Graffiti (which I've only seen in queue lines) seems to be a major problem at PA, I think the only way to resolve it would be to undergo bag checks at the entrance and remove any pens etc from people's possession, why would you need a Sharpie at a theme park?
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It must be a Spanish thing, I noticed the same at the two Madrid parks last week!

You really have summed up PA perfectly though Marcus. Laughable to think that they're big new coaster was on just one train mind - how busy was it at the time?

:)
 
Do they?

Can't say i have found Disney, Asterix or Nigloland problematic on that front.

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Disney probably guillotine anyone caught graffiting the place, that said BTM's queue was always quite popular for it...

It's certainly found more on the continent though... Then again it's still not as annoying as the constant singing of "seven nation army" on every lifthill...
 
Errr, @AstroDan, please dig out that picture you took in Starbucks in Ney Vilage... ;)

Don't get me wrong, Porta is very bad. But From what I've seen on my limited travels, France is worse. Walygator and Disney being the worst of them all, Nigloland probably being the best.
 
Rob said:
It must be a Spanish thing, I noticed the same at the two Madrid parks last week!

You really have summed up PA perfectly though Marcus. Laughable to think that they're big new coaster was on just one train mind - how busy was it at the time?

:)
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Ferrari Land as a whole was quite quiet, with nothing else being over 30 minutes the entire time we were in the park. We were waiting in the mass as ferrari land opened, we had said we wouldn't bother running but it we either that or get trampled so we kinda had to, which ment we were nearer the front of the queue for Red Force, however the operations ment they didn't open the queueline (or even appear to test the ride) for another 20 minutes, although they did have a member of staff work in front of the queue which seemed sensible overwise it would of been a free for all. In terms of real queueing we probably only queued 15 minutes, but once off the ride the boards were showing 2 hours.

We did come back later in the day probably roughly 4.45 to see if the queue was alot less, however it was still showing 50 minutes, we didn't see a train dispatched the entire time we had been approaching the area and the queue did look legitaly long so we decided to queue for Baco instead as we hadn't done it yet and it had a similar length queue but was the last large coaster we hadn't been on (we saved the best to last ;) ) . We did see some engies having a fiddle around with one of the trains as we pulled into the station, but judging by what we saw, or didn't see the ride was still only running one train the rest of the day.

Funny thing with the shot and drop tower was the fact it had a shared queueline, with most people not being so fussed about the drop one and letting people behind them in the queue go ahead and take there place only to then realise they are on the tower they didn't want to go on, but to be fair they were both enjoyable and higher once on them than I realised (probably helped by Red Force dwarfing them), still not a great choice of flat for the park, made worse by them not both being shot towers. Having three seats per side is also a bad choice, empty seats were a given with the poor operation giving no effort to fill them and no single rider queue. I know not everyones cup of tea but I would of prefered something like a Gerstlauer sky roller instead. Still alot of what I have said seems negative, I really enjoyed my time there and for thrill seakers it is a must do, and there themed areas are very impressive especially considering each areas size! :)
 
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I still can't get over the fact they installed two S&S towers, given that there's already a fantastic, gigantic drop tower just next door.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Errr, @AstroDan, please dig out that picture you took in Starbucks in Ney Vilage... ;)

Don't get me wrong, Porta is very bad. But From what I've seen on my limited travels, France is worse. Walygator and Disney being the worst of them all, Nigloland probably being the best.
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Starbucks is an independent retail outlet not in the parks - also it's been fully refurbished recently.

In the parks, though, can't think of anything as bad as, say, Tutuki Splash or Srampida.

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