AstroDan
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point
PortAventura: 27-30 October 2013
It had been 4 years since I visited PortAventura, and with Shambhala having opened in 2012 to rave reviews, I felt it was time to give it another chance. My previous visit, whilst enjoyable, was somewhat offputting as I simply did not rate any rides in the park other than Dragon Khan, and found queuelines to be long and boring. However, with many other parks now under my belt, a second chance for what remains Europe's 4th most popular theme park was on the cards. We booked to stay for 3 nights at Hotel PortAventura, for a very cheap £135 per person, which included bed, breakfast and park entry.
It should be noted that PortAventura close some of their hotels during part of the season. This appears to be due to the current dire straits of the Spanish economy, with 50% youth unemployment - much of their target market in Spain simply cannot afford to stay. So, for our visit, Hotel Gold River and Hotel PortAventura were available, although for our group size, only Hotel PortAventura showed - so we booked.
We arrived by shuttle transfer from Barcelona Airport at around 3pm, and headed to check in. The hotel was typical Meditteranean in appearance outside, and fairly bland inside. It was light and airy, but not particularly heavily themed. The corridors however, were awful. They were long, boring, themeless and much of the carpets had white stains on. That said, the room was fresh and there was loads of space. The bathroom was excellent. For the price, it was fine.
We headed into the park around 4pm, and had been advised to do the two main halloween mazes (REC and Salva del Meido) on Sunday, because they didn't open on weekdays. We headed first to meet another, and instead did the Grand Canyon Rapids. I recalled these being great last time, and they remained so. They are very fast and spinny. That said, they weren't very wet at all and the ride was short - but much fun was had. We then headed to REC, which was a €5 upcharge scare maze. Sadly, the queue was 90 minutes. We simply didn't want to wait that long. So we didn't. We instead headed up to Dragon Khan. Khan remains a high quality, intense B&M coaster. Back in 2009, I recall it left me with a bit of a headache, so was concerned it might have got worse - but it was no worse. In fact, this time, I didn't get a headache much at all. The final 1/3 of the ride is really, really quick and the sort of punchy layout that B&M simply don't do any more. A top notch coaster. Operations on DK were very poor however. The ride, on the whole of Monday and Tuesday, was on 1 train - even though the queue was between 30 and 60 minutes all day. Standing in the cattle pen queue for such long periods, with a lot of fastrack ticket holders made for a miserable experience...
Shambhala is next door. This ride was much anticipated. I have been on 3 other B&M Mega Coasters - Silver Star (which is good, if not astounding), Nitro (which is good, if not astounding) and Apollo's Chariot (which was very average). I am pleased to report that Shambhala is better than all three, although I must admit it wasn't quite the mouthwatering feast I had expected, although that could be down to the range of other airtime coasters I have been on (EGF, Bizarro, Skyrush etc.). However, the first drop is excellent (far, far better than any of the other 3 Mega's), as is the speed hill (which, for me, was the best part of the ride). The turnaround is fun as is the splashdown. The airtime, whilst not ejector by any stretch of the imagination, is sustained floater - on the first 2/3 of the ride. Sadly, the end of the ride is rubbish. Quite literally, I have no idea what they were thinking putting a MCBR almost at the end, and then frankly not much more after it. Why they couldn't have ended with 2 or 3 decent airtime hills like Nitro and/or Silver Star, or added a ski slalom bend like Silver Star I have no idea. It really does peter out. However, as I said, it was the best B&M Mega Coaster I had done, and very much enjoyable. However, for me - and I admit this is controversial, I preferred Dragon Khan within the park. That said, Shambhala is an essential coaster for the park, and finally offers another ride that is genuinely high quality. However, operations were again quite poor. It often ran one train, even with a 45 minute queue. Bah! SRQ however, was useful. At points, the entire train was being used for fastrack...
La Salva del Meido was a scare attraction open until 10pm, even though the park closed at 8pm. It had a long 2 hour queue at around 8pm, so we went to eat at the hotel (satisfactory meal) and rejoined at 9:50pm when the queue was 40 minutes. It is located in the Polynesian area, and was AMAZING. It went on for the best part of 15 minutes. There must have been 40 or more actors. Imagine a really intense, long scare zone. It was absolutely great. No conga lines here, just a rip roaring hoot through the Polynesian jungle. Chainsaws, mad axemen, gory scenes of murder and suffering... it was classic halloween action and I loved it. Well recommended - 10/10. It is up there with EP's The Crypt and DEAD Inside as the best Scare attraction of the year. Part of it went through REC, too.
Now, a major criticism. PortAventura opens at 10am. But very, very little in terms of rides and attractions does. In fact, only Furius Baco, the rapids and a carousel appeared to open with the park. Shambhala? 11am. Stampida? 11.30am. El Diablo? Midday! In fact, it wasn't until 1pm that all the attractions were actually open. This is terrible in a park laid out like PA, in a circle. Because you end up having to walk around all over the place to actually ride things. Some rides also close early - such as the rapids (5:30pm!). Such significant staggered openings simply do not happen at most major parks in Europe. I don't mean Phantasialand opening Winjas an hour late, or Alton Towers opening the rapids and flume an hour late - we're talking 80% of the park opening late! And not only that - 7 attractions didn't open AT ALL! One of Europe's great indoor experiences, Templo del Fuego - yet again, closed! I didn't do it in 2009 and I haven't done it now either. What is the point? Many, many carousel rides - closed. Yucatan (music express), shut. It was crazy. Plus, around 1/3 of the shops and restaurants were closed. It just felt like the park couldn't be bothered unless it was really busy. Many shows simply did not run on weekdays. Halloween attractions, closed entirely. It just isn't serious play for what is ostensibly one of Europe's biggest resorts. I have been to dozens of other parks and never seen cuts of this magnitude. Really, really poor. If such major cuts happened in England, we'd be up in arms and the queue for guest services would be out of the door.
El Diablo remains rubbish. It did run 2 trains however, so queues weren't too bad. I just find the ride really poorly themed apart from the queue/station and the layout is terrible. Boring. Boring. Boring.
Huracan Condor I did in 2009, so didn't feel the need to repeat the experience this time around, as I find towers of that scale quite gruelling. However, you still cannot select which ride type you want, and the queue for the ride was often 30+ minutes - one of the longest in the park, even though it was quiet.
Flat rides Volpaiute (a Huss Flipper) and the Breakdance are run so slowly, that there's quite literally no point.
Tomahawk remains awesome for a kids woodie. Some quick drops and turns. In fact, it's better than Stampida, which is the worst CCI that I have been on. It almost stalls at points, it is so slow, plus it's probably the roughest post 1995 wooden coaster I have been on. With Tonnerre de Zeus, Boulder Dash, El Toro, Lightning Racer, Troy, Megafobia, Grand National, Wodan, Joris en de Draak in my life - there is quite literally no room for this rubbish. Operations were also poor, with 1 train on each side, and quite often many rows out of use.
The log flume, Silver River Flume remained good, although the theming on the ride is poor - there is none. We also got evacuated off the ride as it broke down at one stage. That was fun!
Tutuki Splash, or Chewing Gum - the ride, was OK. But the gum is vile. Urgh.
This takes us to Furius Baco. It was dire in 2009. And it's dire now. The layout is boring. The vibration of the seats is horrendous, particularly on the outside seats. Remove it and replace it, I say. With Intamin Blitz coasters around, there is literally no point to this ride. It's the worst Intamin Accelerator I have been on (behind Rita, Desert Race, Stealth, Storm Runner, Kingda Ka and Top Thrill Dragster). Who designed this crap!?
It should be noted that the parks theme areas remain beautiful. Really - some of them are up there with the best parks in the world. It's just a shame that queue lines and on ride theming remains quite poor for the most part, and that the indoor attractions are often closed, so themed immersion isn't always possible. They need a dark ride. Pronto.
We saw an excellent show, Rock Mystery. Loads going on, puts entertainment here to shame. The theatre was enormous! Almost as big as Animagique in Paris!
Food prices in the park are quite expensive (around €10--12 for a fast food meal), similar to Disneyland Paris, but some of the food is quite nice (good Chinese).
Overall. however, PortAventura remains a pleasant park that is good value for a stay, but with a complete lack of regard for guests, operations or good rides. Sadly, with only Dragon Khan and Shambhala genuinely worth going on, and a limited assortment of other rides, I won't be returning anytime soon. Operations are poor, staggered openings are restrictive, most rollercoasters are either painful or totally pointless, there are no dark rides per se, plus half the entertainmnet was off during my visit because they obviously don't care about off peak guests. Even though there were 1 hour queues at points. Yeah, right.
The best park in Spain? Parque Warner. By a bloody mile.
It had been 4 years since I visited PortAventura, and with Shambhala having opened in 2012 to rave reviews, I felt it was time to give it another chance. My previous visit, whilst enjoyable, was somewhat offputting as I simply did not rate any rides in the park other than Dragon Khan, and found queuelines to be long and boring. However, with many other parks now under my belt, a second chance for what remains Europe's 4th most popular theme park was on the cards. We booked to stay for 3 nights at Hotel PortAventura, for a very cheap £135 per person, which included bed, breakfast and park entry.
It should be noted that PortAventura close some of their hotels during part of the season. This appears to be due to the current dire straits of the Spanish economy, with 50% youth unemployment - much of their target market in Spain simply cannot afford to stay. So, for our visit, Hotel Gold River and Hotel PortAventura were available, although for our group size, only Hotel PortAventura showed - so we booked.
We arrived by shuttle transfer from Barcelona Airport at around 3pm, and headed to check in. The hotel was typical Meditteranean in appearance outside, and fairly bland inside. It was light and airy, but not particularly heavily themed. The corridors however, were awful. They were long, boring, themeless and much of the carpets had white stains on. That said, the room was fresh and there was loads of space. The bathroom was excellent. For the price, it was fine.
We headed into the park around 4pm, and had been advised to do the two main halloween mazes (REC and Salva del Meido) on Sunday, because they didn't open on weekdays. We headed first to meet another, and instead did the Grand Canyon Rapids. I recalled these being great last time, and they remained so. They are very fast and spinny. That said, they weren't very wet at all and the ride was short - but much fun was had. We then headed to REC, which was a €5 upcharge scare maze. Sadly, the queue was 90 minutes. We simply didn't want to wait that long. So we didn't. We instead headed up to Dragon Khan. Khan remains a high quality, intense B&M coaster. Back in 2009, I recall it left me with a bit of a headache, so was concerned it might have got worse - but it was no worse. In fact, this time, I didn't get a headache much at all. The final 1/3 of the ride is really, really quick and the sort of punchy layout that B&M simply don't do any more. A top notch coaster. Operations on DK were very poor however. The ride, on the whole of Monday and Tuesday, was on 1 train - even though the queue was between 30 and 60 minutes all day. Standing in the cattle pen queue for such long periods, with a lot of fastrack ticket holders made for a miserable experience...
Shambhala is next door. This ride was much anticipated. I have been on 3 other B&M Mega Coasters - Silver Star (which is good, if not astounding), Nitro (which is good, if not astounding) and Apollo's Chariot (which was very average). I am pleased to report that Shambhala is better than all three, although I must admit it wasn't quite the mouthwatering feast I had expected, although that could be down to the range of other airtime coasters I have been on (EGF, Bizarro, Skyrush etc.). However, the first drop is excellent (far, far better than any of the other 3 Mega's), as is the speed hill (which, for me, was the best part of the ride). The turnaround is fun as is the splashdown. The airtime, whilst not ejector by any stretch of the imagination, is sustained floater - on the first 2/3 of the ride. Sadly, the end of the ride is rubbish. Quite literally, I have no idea what they were thinking putting a MCBR almost at the end, and then frankly not much more after it. Why they couldn't have ended with 2 or 3 decent airtime hills like Nitro and/or Silver Star, or added a ski slalom bend like Silver Star I have no idea. It really does peter out. However, as I said, it was the best B&M Mega Coaster I had done, and very much enjoyable. However, for me - and I admit this is controversial, I preferred Dragon Khan within the park. That said, Shambhala is an essential coaster for the park, and finally offers another ride that is genuinely high quality. However, operations were again quite poor. It often ran one train, even with a 45 minute queue. Bah! SRQ however, was useful. At points, the entire train was being used for fastrack...
La Salva del Meido was a scare attraction open until 10pm, even though the park closed at 8pm. It had a long 2 hour queue at around 8pm, so we went to eat at the hotel (satisfactory meal) and rejoined at 9:50pm when the queue was 40 minutes. It is located in the Polynesian area, and was AMAZING. It went on for the best part of 15 minutes. There must have been 40 or more actors. Imagine a really intense, long scare zone. It was absolutely great. No conga lines here, just a rip roaring hoot through the Polynesian jungle. Chainsaws, mad axemen, gory scenes of murder and suffering... it was classic halloween action and I loved it. Well recommended - 10/10. It is up there with EP's The Crypt and DEAD Inside as the best Scare attraction of the year. Part of it went through REC, too.
Now, a major criticism. PortAventura opens at 10am. But very, very little in terms of rides and attractions does. In fact, only Furius Baco, the rapids and a carousel appeared to open with the park. Shambhala? 11am. Stampida? 11.30am. El Diablo? Midday! In fact, it wasn't until 1pm that all the attractions were actually open. This is terrible in a park laid out like PA, in a circle. Because you end up having to walk around all over the place to actually ride things. Some rides also close early - such as the rapids (5:30pm!). Such significant staggered openings simply do not happen at most major parks in Europe. I don't mean Phantasialand opening Winjas an hour late, or Alton Towers opening the rapids and flume an hour late - we're talking 80% of the park opening late! And not only that - 7 attractions didn't open AT ALL! One of Europe's great indoor experiences, Templo del Fuego - yet again, closed! I didn't do it in 2009 and I haven't done it now either. What is the point? Many, many carousel rides - closed. Yucatan (music express), shut. It was crazy. Plus, around 1/3 of the shops and restaurants were closed. It just felt like the park couldn't be bothered unless it was really busy. Many shows simply did not run on weekdays. Halloween attractions, closed entirely. It just isn't serious play for what is ostensibly one of Europe's biggest resorts. I have been to dozens of other parks and never seen cuts of this magnitude. Really, really poor. If such major cuts happened in England, we'd be up in arms and the queue for guest services would be out of the door.
El Diablo remains rubbish. It did run 2 trains however, so queues weren't too bad. I just find the ride really poorly themed apart from the queue/station and the layout is terrible. Boring. Boring. Boring.
Huracan Condor I did in 2009, so didn't feel the need to repeat the experience this time around, as I find towers of that scale quite gruelling. However, you still cannot select which ride type you want, and the queue for the ride was often 30+ minutes - one of the longest in the park, even though it was quiet.
Flat rides Volpaiute (a Huss Flipper) and the Breakdance are run so slowly, that there's quite literally no point.
Tomahawk remains awesome for a kids woodie. Some quick drops and turns. In fact, it's better than Stampida, which is the worst CCI that I have been on. It almost stalls at points, it is so slow, plus it's probably the roughest post 1995 wooden coaster I have been on. With Tonnerre de Zeus, Boulder Dash, El Toro, Lightning Racer, Troy, Megafobia, Grand National, Wodan, Joris en de Draak in my life - there is quite literally no room for this rubbish. Operations were also poor, with 1 train on each side, and quite often many rows out of use.
The log flume, Silver River Flume remained good, although the theming on the ride is poor - there is none. We also got evacuated off the ride as it broke down at one stage. That was fun!
Tutuki Splash, or Chewing Gum - the ride, was OK. But the gum is vile. Urgh.
This takes us to Furius Baco. It was dire in 2009. And it's dire now. The layout is boring. The vibration of the seats is horrendous, particularly on the outside seats. Remove it and replace it, I say. With Intamin Blitz coasters around, there is literally no point to this ride. It's the worst Intamin Accelerator I have been on (behind Rita, Desert Race, Stealth, Storm Runner, Kingda Ka and Top Thrill Dragster). Who designed this crap!?
It should be noted that the parks theme areas remain beautiful. Really - some of them are up there with the best parks in the world. It's just a shame that queue lines and on ride theming remains quite poor for the most part, and that the indoor attractions are often closed, so themed immersion isn't always possible. They need a dark ride. Pronto.
We saw an excellent show, Rock Mystery. Loads going on, puts entertainment here to shame. The theatre was enormous! Almost as big as Animagique in Paris!
Food prices in the park are quite expensive (around €10--12 for a fast food meal), similar to Disneyland Paris, but some of the food is quite nice (good Chinese).
Overall. however, PortAventura remains a pleasant park that is good value for a stay, but with a complete lack of regard for guests, operations or good rides. Sadly, with only Dragon Khan and Shambhala genuinely worth going on, and a limited assortment of other rides, I won't be returning anytime soon. Operations are poor, staggered openings are restrictive, most rollercoasters are either painful or totally pointless, there are no dark rides per se, plus half the entertainmnet was off during my visit because they obviously don't care about off peak guests. Even though there were 1 hour queues at points. Yeah, right.
The best park in Spain? Parque Warner. By a bloody mile.