ScottPBE
TS Member
PortAventura - Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th January 2014
After visiting PA 11 times in 2013, I was delighted to be able to get in two visits at the end of their season, the only downside for me was missing out on the actual last day of the season due to flight arrangements and being back in work early on the 6th January. They open back up again on 11th April with their new ride likely to be open not so long after that either. I was expecting the park to be dead, with the coasters run on low capacity but I was proven wrong, the park wasn't dead and while it wasn't full capacity on the coasters, Stampida ran on four, Baco two, Khan two and Shambhala two with queues reaching a maximum of ten minutes on both days. El Diablo wasn't run to capacity and as a result got ignored throughout the trip.
PA finished the season with their christmas theme which was impressive, but not as impressive as their main season and Halloween for me but certainly enjoyable, if a little weird considering Christmas had been and gone.
The weather was pretty grim to be honest, but not cold thankfully.
First ride of 2014 just had to be Furius Baco, which opened at 9:45am which was a surprise in itself.
The most popular attraction with everyone else during the visit was the snowtubing by Khan, it looked out of place to be honest but families loved it;
Next stop, Dragon Khan and it was very intense but very enjoyable on every day, it hardly had a queue for the whole time we were there.
Two trains.
Shambhala may be the newest attraction but it couldn't hold a queue during the day, no complaints though.
I have no idea why but with a 0 minute queue, the Rapids looked rather tempting, I got soaked!
The walkways and shows picked up on both days around dinner time, yet the rides never got busy which can only be because of the capacity on the coasters being at an acceptable standard, having read that out of peak they can be a bugger with their ride operations I was pleasantly surprised by the capacity on each coaster (except El Diablo).
Baco stayed on two trains and as a result, stayed very quiet;
The ride count was well into double figures with plenty done on Shambhala, Khan and Baco, the Christmas shows were impressive and enjoyable, I don't normally like magic shows but the one that was on in the Saloon was very impressive, some of the tricks were new to me and had a lot of us watching it wondering how it was being done, I did film some of it and it's featured in the video I've linked at the bottom of my post.
The park closed at 7pm on both days with the usual parade just before closing time followed by the lake show, as ever both were impressive with very catchy music.
The start of day two and it was once again all quiet to begin with.
Rocking around the Christmas tree.
The rides stayed quiet throughout the day but it was a different story for the shows once again, luckily the queue for the Saloon show was reasonable at the time of joining it but after seeing the show, the queue for the next one which wasn't due to start for another 30 minutes was already very long;
Condor looks very impressive at night;
These photos are from the show called Christmas Dreams located in the Far West Saloon, which was fitted with Christmas decorations;
I was pleased to see the return of the combo deal which was on last summer, it's not a bad deal if you're not looking for a huge meal and there's two of you willing to go halves on it;
The show began with two male characters running into each other and falling onto the tables, they are fantastic at getting the crowd on side from the beginning and I have been very impressed with the way they've performed in the three different Far West Saloon shows at PortAventura dating back to last August.
After a bit of Spanish conversation to begin with, the first act kicks into gear and is fast paced from start to the end.
It was a highly entertaining, on the stage one minute, down the walkways the next;
This is supposed to be a romantic scene played out, until the bloke tells her the present only cost one euro;
Song time!
As expected in a Christmas themed show, the man in red made an appearance;
Note: Actors behind the curtain, male actor obviously acting oblivious which makes for a funny scene;
As always with the Far West Saloon, the audience isn't safe from being dragged on stage and five members of the audience were taken up to play jingle bells, it took a fair while to do it right with the bloke in the Santa costume getting more and more riled with them for getting it wrong, while the other male actor was encouraging the audience members to mess about
And onto the final scene;
The end of that show;
Compared to the other Saloon shows that I've seen, El Saloon de Roxy and Love for Vampires, I'd say the Christmas one was the weakest of the lot, the scene with the audience on stage probably dragged on for too long but can't really fault the show overall, it was impressive.
Bang Bang West wasn't on this time, it had been replaced with an ice show, but the cast were still around the park;
Stampida from high above the ground, my camera was securely fastened for this photo;
Back to the Saloon for the evening show, Christmas is Magic, the same cast plus a Spanish magician who was very good, most of the time with magic shows it's the same old thing but I felt PA would do something decent and wasn't disappointed;
There was the odd sing song between the magic;
Christmas is Magic was fantastic, it followed the usual routine for one of the Far West Saloon shows apart from nobody from the audience went up on stage, it was really impressive and attracting very long queues before each performance, but I can see why it did.
My video from the trip can be found online here;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_5zdwcrnaE#ws
Thanks for reading.
After visiting PA 11 times in 2013, I was delighted to be able to get in two visits at the end of their season, the only downside for me was missing out on the actual last day of the season due to flight arrangements and being back in work early on the 6th January. They open back up again on 11th April with their new ride likely to be open not so long after that either. I was expecting the park to be dead, with the coasters run on low capacity but I was proven wrong, the park wasn't dead and while it wasn't full capacity on the coasters, Stampida ran on four, Baco two, Khan two and Shambhala two with queues reaching a maximum of ten minutes on both days. El Diablo wasn't run to capacity and as a result got ignored throughout the trip.
PA finished the season with their christmas theme which was impressive, but not as impressive as their main season and Halloween for me but certainly enjoyable, if a little weird considering Christmas had been and gone.
The weather was pretty grim to be honest, but not cold thankfully.
First ride of 2014 just had to be Furius Baco, which opened at 9:45am which was a surprise in itself.
The most popular attraction with everyone else during the visit was the snowtubing by Khan, it looked out of place to be honest but families loved it;
Next stop, Dragon Khan and it was very intense but very enjoyable on every day, it hardly had a queue for the whole time we were there.
Two trains.
Shambhala may be the newest attraction but it couldn't hold a queue during the day, no complaints though.
I have no idea why but with a 0 minute queue, the Rapids looked rather tempting, I got soaked!
The walkways and shows picked up on both days around dinner time, yet the rides never got busy which can only be because of the capacity on the coasters being at an acceptable standard, having read that out of peak they can be a bugger with their ride operations I was pleasantly surprised by the capacity on each coaster (except El Diablo).
Baco stayed on two trains and as a result, stayed very quiet;
The ride count was well into double figures with plenty done on Shambhala, Khan and Baco, the Christmas shows were impressive and enjoyable, I don't normally like magic shows but the one that was on in the Saloon was very impressive, some of the tricks were new to me and had a lot of us watching it wondering how it was being done, I did film some of it and it's featured in the video I've linked at the bottom of my post.
The park closed at 7pm on both days with the usual parade just before closing time followed by the lake show, as ever both were impressive with very catchy music.
The start of day two and it was once again all quiet to begin with.
Rocking around the Christmas tree.
The rides stayed quiet throughout the day but it was a different story for the shows once again, luckily the queue for the Saloon show was reasonable at the time of joining it but after seeing the show, the queue for the next one which wasn't due to start for another 30 minutes was already very long;
Condor looks very impressive at night;
These photos are from the show called Christmas Dreams located in the Far West Saloon, which was fitted with Christmas decorations;
I was pleased to see the return of the combo deal which was on last summer, it's not a bad deal if you're not looking for a huge meal and there's two of you willing to go halves on it;
The show began with two male characters running into each other and falling onto the tables, they are fantastic at getting the crowd on side from the beginning and I have been very impressed with the way they've performed in the three different Far West Saloon shows at PortAventura dating back to last August.
After a bit of Spanish conversation to begin with, the first act kicks into gear and is fast paced from start to the end.
It was a highly entertaining, on the stage one minute, down the walkways the next;
This is supposed to be a romantic scene played out, until the bloke tells her the present only cost one euro;
Song time!
As expected in a Christmas themed show, the man in red made an appearance;
Note: Actors behind the curtain, male actor obviously acting oblivious which makes for a funny scene;
As always with the Far West Saloon, the audience isn't safe from being dragged on stage and five members of the audience were taken up to play jingle bells, it took a fair while to do it right with the bloke in the Santa costume getting more and more riled with them for getting it wrong, while the other male actor was encouraging the audience members to mess about
And onto the final scene;
The end of that show;
Compared to the other Saloon shows that I've seen, El Saloon de Roxy and Love for Vampires, I'd say the Christmas one was the weakest of the lot, the scene with the audience on stage probably dragged on for too long but can't really fault the show overall, it was impressive.
Bang Bang West wasn't on this time, it had been replaced with an ice show, but the cast were still around the park;
Stampida from high above the ground, my camera was securely fastened for this photo;
Back to the Saloon for the evening show, Christmas is Magic, the same cast plus a Spanish magician who was very good, most of the time with magic shows it's the same old thing but I felt PA would do something decent and wasn't disappointed;
There was the odd sing song between the magic;
Christmas is Magic was fantastic, it followed the usual routine for one of the Far West Saloon shows apart from nobody from the audience went up on stage, it was really impressive and attracting very long queues before each performance, but I can see why it did.
My video from the trip can be found online here;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_5zdwcrnaE#ws
Thanks for reading.
