Theme Park Discussion / PortAventura Trip Report

So I just got back from a week away in sunny Salou, home of PortAventura. I was in the park for at least an hour or two every day bar one, so I won't give a usual 'report', but just a review type thing.

 

First off, PortAventura is amazingly themed. Seriously, each area is almost at Disney level, and I really wonder why we settle for Merlin standards in the UK when we have parks like this and Europa Park just a couple of hours away. Each area has a separate identity and a clear difference between the style of theming, not just the theming with even foliage being different in each area, something that doesn't really happen in the UK. 

 

The areas are slightly odd in that they seem to have 2 sections for each area apart from the entrance area. The Wild West area has two very different styles on each side of the bridge by the log flume, with one side having a small outpost/ranch kinda feel, and the other side having a full blown Western town. The Mexican area seems to have a sort of semi-Spanish influenced area stretching from next to Tomahawk across the front of the area to El Diablo, and then has an Aztec area in the middle of it. The Oriental area has a very open section with very minimal theming around Dragon Khan and the theatre/Great Wall, with Shambhala sort of attached to the back of this randomly, and then at the other end of the Great Wall there's a small Oriental town which looks incredibly similar to Lijiang. Angkor is also stuck at the back of Shambhala and it sorta is quite obvious that Shambhala and Angkor were added much later than the rest of this area, nevertheless it all looks fantastic. The final area in the loop is the Polynesian area, which seems to have literally been split in two with the introduction of the Sesame Street area. It still seems to hold a loose Polynesian theme but obviously a lot more colourful and with a lot more architecture.

 

So I guess the best way to do this is to review each area in order going round the park clockwise. There are a few rides I didn't go on at all during my visit, either because they were closed or because I don't like spinny rides, but here are the ones I did go on and the areas they're in:

 

Mediterranea

 

 

 

 

This area is definitely one of the best entrances in the world. The architecture here and feel of the area is second to none, and the way it opens up across the lake with the big B&Ms looming in the background is just fantastic. The restaurants and cafes in this area are all extremely cute and actually have the best food/drink in the park in my opinion, especially the little cafe which does the best Pain au Chocolat I have ever tasted, and the wine shop/bar at the exit of Furius Baco is also very cool.

 

Rides

 

Furius Baco ;-

This is possibly the most attractive coaster I've ever seen. Honestly, the blue track compliments the area around it so well and it just seems to effortlessly glide around the turnaround over the water, looking amazing. The station is also fantastic, complimenting the area perfectly. Sadly the ride itself does not bode the same way. The pre-launch show was pretty crappy as a lot of the animatronics didn't seem to work and I don't really understand why the monkeys had buckets for heads, but ah well. The launch then is possibly the best launch I've ever been on, and the little pop of airtime at the end of the launch track is very nice as well. What the fuck happens after this I don't have a clue as the ride beats you up so badly that my girlfriend refused to ride this any more than once for the whole trip. We knew it would be rough, we had read the reviews and braced ourselves, but seriously nothing prepares you for this. I literally don't remember anything after the launch until the break run because I was instead concentrating on trying to stop my ears from bleeding. It's really sad; the launch is fantastic, the theming is great but the track is just painful beyond belief.

 

 

5/10 simply because of how pretty it looks.

 

 

Boat Ride ;-

The boat ride is one of two transportation methods in the park, both of which have stations in the entrance area. It was only open for two days of our whole stay, but I'm glad that we got on it because the views it offers of the Polynesian and Chinese area are so good. The operations of it were a little weird, but I'll get onto that after the reviews. The other station is in the Oriental area.

 

 

 

BoatRide/10 because boats

 

 

Train ;-

We loved the train simply due to the fact that it offered views that you couldn't get anywhere else and that it saved so much walking. I think this was our most frequented ride during the visit because the park is just so big with no shortcuts to the back seconds of the park that even having to wait 5 - 10 minutes for the train to turn up seemed like a better idea than walking the whole way round every time. Again, the operations were weird but this will become a recurring theme. The other stations are in SesamoAventura and the Wild West.

 

 

 

 

Wild West

 

 

 

 

So as I previously mentioned, there seems to be two areas in one here, I hope it's evident from the pictures above. The first two are from the Western town side and the last one is from the outpost side. Either way, the theming here is amazing again, easily the best Western area I've ever seen. The food here started to go downhill however, as you come to the first of the 'self service' restaurants. I really don't understand the point of these self service restaurants as the food they offer is pretty vile, normally cold and seems very expensive. I was all inclusive so I got it for free, but at 17 Euros for a meal which seemed to be a typical fast food meal, I would have been pretty outraged had I had to pay. The real restaurant in this area is very nice though, and seems to be the main one in the park as billboards outside the park even advertise it. The ironic thing is that it was roughly the same price as the self service ones. This area also seemed to be the only area that had games stalls. There were a few dotted around the rest of the park, but the main bulk of them were definitely in the corner of this section by Stampida. Stampida and Tomahawk look very nice nestled in the corner here, and the fact that this area has now extended with the new hotel means that this is by far the biggest area in the park.

 

Rides

 

El Rio Grande Rapids ;-

It's something like that anyway. The rapids was one of the better I've been on. It's extremely fast and the canyon theming around it is done well. The rapids are violent in areas but don't get you too wet and the guns looking over the rapids spray you rather than shoot a jet at you. Very fun and definitely worth going on if there's not much of a queue/fastrack.

 

7/10 for a good, fun and quick rapids ride.

 

 

Buffalo Dodgems ;-

These were insane. There was no order or direction you had to drive in so the middle section of the floor was always in gridlock and then there were a few stragglers on either side basically doing doughnuts and avoiding each other. I was in the latter section.

 

Moo/10.

 

 

Stampida ;-

Now, this is a ride I'd read a lot about before going. I've heard it was a good ride but then the trains got replaced. I've heard one side is better than the other. I've heard that at certain sections it literally leaps off the track. These were all true. However, it is an amazing looking ride. The mass of wood in this area is literally insane and the views you can get of it from the taller coasters/water slides around PortAventura are amazing. Sadly I didn't get any pictures of these views, but trust me, it looks so nice. The queueline is also really cool, especially at the section where you have to choose your trains; you choose your side by walking through either a red or a blue wagon. A very cool idea that worked very nicely and was just a detail I really loved. The trains definitely have some sort of negative effect on the ride though. They don't flex as they should on a wooden coaster, and it's evident that the wheels aren't completely secured to the track at all times as when you go up the lift hill and look at the opposing train, usually a good 3 or 4 of them are not touching the track at all, making for a very bouncy and rough ride. The red side is much smoother than the blue side, which is just brutal. It's a shame because this would have probably been my favourite ride if it was slightly less rough. The dueling elements are good though, and it's very difficult to predict where the track is going next so it feels quite out of control.

 

 

 

7/10 for red side, 5/10 for blue.

 

 

Tomahawk ;-

 

Wtf is this. For a supposed kiddies ride, this thing is mental, but I loved it. It throws you from one side of the train to the other so viciously it's insane. Completely unpredicted, but so amazing. It's not rough like Stampida, and if Stampida had similar trains to this to start with, I can see why people preferred it previously.

 

7/10 for the vicious kiddy cred.

 

Rides I didn't do in this area:

 

Silver River Log Flume

Crazy Barrels

Other weird flat ride next to Tomahawk that didn't open once during my visit.

 

 

Mexico

 

 

 

 

 

Definitely the weirdest area of the park, the Mexico area doesn't really offer a lot. There's Hurican Condor, a mine train, a couple of shows and a couple of flats. Neither of the shows opened while I was there, and only one of the flats did. The other flat looked gross and far too spinny for me so I stayed clear. The theming in the area is weird as well. It has Spanish influenced architecture at either side of a deep jungle/Aztec area and seemed to almost conflict its self. The areas separate would look very nice, but as they're all supposed to represent Mexico, it just seemed like too many styles in one area. The foliage in the Aztec area was lush and green, while the mine train and Spanish architecture bits seemed to be in areas with not much foliage at all. The food here was the self service style again, and offered rice instead of burgers, but that was pretty much the only difference. Can't comment on what it tasted like as we didn't eat here, but considering half the menu was the same, I'm guessing it wasn't too great. The area was just very weird with having no prominent rides until you get to Hurican Condor which literally towers over everything else in the park and kind of takes away from the deep thick theming in the area.

 

Rides

 

Hurican Condor ;-

Obviously the biggest ride in this area, the queue for this was always at least 45 minutes long (Compared to the rest of the queues being a maximum of 25 minutes during the week), and had no fastrack queue, meaning I only went on once. The theming is nice around the base, but the theming at the top of the tower seems very lopsided and looks pretty odd. As a drop tower, it's pretty bad in all honestly. I'd expect much more from the height, but it offers an initial pop of airtime and then seems to just float back down to the ground. I've ridden more intense drop towers that are 1/3rd of the height, so pretty disappointing overall.

 

 

6/10 for the least intense drop tower I've been on for a while.

 

 

Los Potrillos ;-

This is the first horse ride I've ever seen and it was amazing. Obviously it's a kiddies ride, but the theming around it is just really pleasant and it offers lovely views of the mine train ride. Not sure why we liked it so much, but it became one of our favourites of the trip.

 

10/10 for bouncing ponies.

 

 

El Diablo ;-

I'm really torn on this ride. The theming around it is amazing, although it doesn't really fit in the Mexico area. The first 'third' of the ride is nice, as is the last third, but the middle bit is just pointless. Lift hill the ride to the point that the second lift hill basically seemed to be for the On-Ride photo, there were only two real drops on the ride, one of which did offer a nice pop of airtime. Thankfully, the theming really did save this ride. The station is gorgeous, the way it goes through tunnels is amazing and the interaction with the train ride and the log flume are top notch. A fun ride that was ridden a fair few times over the week.

 

 

 

 

8/10.

 

 

Rides that spited me in this area:

Dragon spinny thing

Speedway spinny thing

Templo De Fuego

Los Armadillos

 

 

Oriental

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is obviously the area that people know of most in the park as their main rides are here. Dragon Khan and Shambhala loom over the area and look absolutely beautiful, especially Dragon Khan. The theming in half of the area is minimal, and in the other half is simply stunning. This area is another huge one, and it has so many different food outlets it'd be impossible to eat at them all. It was definitely a lot more noodle'y than the rest of it, but on the whole seemed reasonably similar as the rest of the park. One thing we did find in this area was a really cute little panda teddy that you could only get here or in the entrance shop. The rides in this area are obviously the most intense, but it also has a fair few kiddy rides and even seems to have the 'old' kiddy area. 

 

Rides

 

Shambhala ;-

Obviously the new big guy on the block, Shambhala looks amazing from a distance. As you get closer, it really doesn't look as imposing as you'd think, and I'd even say Dragon Khan steals the show with it's bright red track. The station is very nice but does look a bit more plastic-like than the rest of the park. Still a much higher standard than most parks though, but the way it's literally walled off from the rest of the Oriental section, especially as the rest of the area is very open, seems a little off. There are some nice little touches in the area, such as the fallen Buddha and the tunnel at the bottom of the first drop, and of course the splashdown looks very nice. Sadly, as you walk out of the area going the opposite way, the theming drops off and it looks like something from Chessington Zufari in the way it's just a walkway with a tall wall/fence next to it, minimal theming. Thankfully it has a saving grace in that this path offers some amazing views of both coasters.

 

The coaster itself definitely went to my #1 spot. The lifthill is weirdly steep when you're on it, but the view it gives over Salou and the Mediterranean is very picturesque. The first drop and gradient into the tunnel is exhilarating, offering some strong ejector into some surprisingly strong positive G's before climbing the second hill. The rest of the camelbacks offer some nice floater, and a very nice sensation of speed, but the standout section in the ride is definitely the ampersand and the speed hill that follows it. The ampersand is very much a wtf kinda moment - it feels like you should be going upside down and then subjects riders to positive G's that seem akin to that of Nemesis' infamous helix, before going into the speed hill with some pretty strong ejector air. It does have a trim brake on this hill, but it doesn't seem to slow the train down a lot, if at all. The splashdown is nice but doesn't really affect the ride experience too much. 

 

Overall, my thoughts on Shambhala are very positive. It's full of floater airtime and has some surprisingly intense moments, but the best thing about it is it's very re-rideable. It isn't intense to the point that you feel ill afterwards and the sensation of floating down every drop is something that no man would ever tire of. My only issue is that I feel a couple more moments of ejector air would be of great benefit, but it's only a minor complaint.

 

 

 

 

9/10 for Europe's tallest.

 

 

Dragon Khan ;-

My first B&M sit down and it didn't disappoint. It wasn't the smoothest ride ever, but compared to the Intamin alternative, I'd take this every time. Each element flowed into the next and none of them seemed forced. Couple this with a striking red and blue colour scheme and you're onto a winner. We really liked this, but it's just too intense to ride multiple times so this suffered a little bit of that. It's also a lot better in the front row than anywhere else in the train, much smoother and just a better ride experience. How this is at #50 in Mitch Hawker I'll never know, I'd still say this is a top 30 ride worldwide, looking at other rides around that ranking.

 

 

 

 

8/10 for the big red beast.

 

 

Angkor ;-

Easily the best themed splash battle in the world, Angkor is so immersive and impressively themed that it seems to has it's own area in the corner of the park. As a splash battle, it's pretty average - there's a few sections where you can battle with other boats and people on land, but there's very few targets to interact with apart from this and it feels almost as if you're supposed to appreciate it like you would do a dark ride or a car ride or something, which is fine by me. I really liked this, but I just wish that there was a bit more around it, perhaps future additions?

 

 

 

 

7/10 for the theming alone.

 

 

Other rides in the area:

Balloon Ride

Panda Driving School

Teacups

Another Spinny Dragon

 

 

SesamoAventura

 

 

 

 

Definitely the most child-friendly area, the SesamoAventura literally looks like an explosion of colour everywhere, and it's amazing because of it. It feels very surreal but very happy. The rides here are all really well themed and the food is kiddy-fied a bit. The area is also home to the most amazing show simply because it has the Cookie Monster in it, and who doesn't love the Cookie Monster. 

 

Rides

 

Tami Tami ;-

The real kiddy coaster of the park, Tami Tami is just a bog standard Vekoma roller skater that looks beautiful. It rides as a standard kiddy coaster, but it's a little weird as you only get one circuit, even when there's no queue. I feel that it'd benefit from two circuits as it wouldn't be over in 30 seconds that way. Either way, it's only a kiddy coaster but very pleasant and definitely one of the most attractive in the world.

 

 

 

6/10 for the real kiddy coaster

 

Magic Fish ;-

This is surprisingly fun. A simple ride that I've seen at Legoland before and looked over because it looks like a pretty boring ride, it can actually offer some nice forces if you swing it out from the middle. The idea of the ride is that you control a fish and you control how close to the centre platform you want to be. If you hug the middle, then swing as far out as you can as quick as you can, it's actually quite nice. This is another small surprising ride that became one of our favourites.

 

8/10 for fishies.

 

The other rides in this area are your typical children rides and so I won't review them. I'll just tell you that they're all really nicely themed.

 

 

Polynesia

 

 

I didn't take many pictures of this area because we didn't spend much time here. It's really nicely themed and very unique. It feels very tropical and the foliage is very thick and green. There isn't much architecture or anything, and the rides are even sparser, being the only area to have no coasters. The rides in the area are very heavily themed though, as in every other area of the park, and although we only rode one of the rides in the area, we did spend some time watching the others. The food here is the same as the rest of the park, only having a self service restaurant that has literally the same food as the Wild West, just with slightly more pineapple. Overall this area is definitely the most underwhelming and even just seems to be a filler area. I really hope they put some more love into this area because it's so unique and could be very nice. 

 

Rides

 

Sea Odyssey ;- 

A 3D simulator but with a much more impressive queueline than it should have for the ride that follows. The queueline is absolutely beautiful with waterfalls everywhere and a submarine that wouldn't look out of place at Disneysea, but the ride itself leaves a lot to be desired. The screen and seats aren't even synced, and the story is pretty boring. I have heard that the movie we saw was new for this year, so perhaps they're working out the bugs with it before the high season, but either way it just wasn't all that great.

 

5/10 for fishies that try to eat you alive through the screen.

 

 

Other rides that we didn't go on:

Tutuki Splash because it looked far too wet

Swinging Ship because they're everywhere

Canoe ride because it was a log flume for kids

 

 

 

Okay to finish off the review I have a few complaints that I've heard before concerning the park but wanted to outline myself because I don't think the reviews I've read previously highlights them to the point it should. First off, the park operations are absolute crap. Literally the worst I've seen from any park, big or small. Rides open at any time between 10am and 12:30pm, a 2 and a half hour gap, and even then the rides would only open with minimum capacity or 1 train until another hour or two later. Sure, the queues weren't huge (I had the unlimited fastrack anyway, 54 Euros for the whole stay) but the queues were still big enough to warrant a second train at opening, especially as the coasters seemed to open one at a time meaning that people would ride one then go straight to the next and wait for it to open. On top of this, the transportation rides had an actual timetable that they stuck to. The train ride would wait at each station for a good 10 minutes before setting off to the next meaning it took almost an hour for the whole circuit. The boat ride had something similar. Also, almost all of the flat rides were closed for the entire duration I was there, apart from the Saturday meaning that they evidently only open these rides during peak times. Very shitty for a major European attraction.

 

The self service food outlets were another case of bad park operations. The food was always cold and what is supposed to be a 'fast food outlet' ends up having queues of a similar time to the major coasters in the park because they only have one person serving and one cashier for the whole queue. We ended up being so disgruntled with the food and the service that we just left the park at lunchtimes and headed to the hotel for the all inclusive buffet (The park food was also all inclusive so it was free either way). 

 

 

Secondly, Spanish people are so incredibly rude that it literally detracts from the visit. Sorry not Spanish people, Spanish children/teenagers. I thought that the youth of England was bad enough, but in Spain it's literally ridiculous. They're all so bloody loud, screaming over the top of each other to try and be the main focus of their group. If you walk behind them, you can literally see them tussling with each other to be walking in the centre of the group before they get pushed out to the edge and then fight to get back to the middle. They're also very willing to just push in front of you in a queueline, to the point that I actually sprawled my body out across a queueline for the train in a star kinda shape, and a kid climbed through my legs! I was so in shock I didn't know what to do. It really detracted from the trip because most of the people in the park seemed to be these little shits, every single day. The staff seemed to suffer from it as well, as they started off quite cheery in the first couple of days but as the week went on they became very moody and distant - I think we must have visited in the week of school visits, but that's still no excuse for how they behave. Maybe it's just excitement because they were at the park, but either way I've never experienced rudeness on that level before.

 

 

So PortAventura. It's an absolutely beautiful park with some very nice rides but some rides that don't quite reach their potential. The theming is world class and really does make the park. Operations let the park down a huge amount though, and in a lot of cases it seems like they're budget cutting just a little bit too far to the point where it just appears lazy more so than saving money. I'd still say that PortAventura is worth visiting if you're in Europe, but the lack of rides with a real re-rideability factor means that a lot of time is spent just wandering around admiring the theming rather than riding. Shambhala is world class, as is Dragon Khan, but the rest of the rides are definitely not world beaters, even if they have the potential to be.

 

 

Phew, that was long. I'll add some more photos to here in a bit in hopes of inspiring some beautiful Rct work, because the park truly is that stunning. 

Wow, looks really awesome. I didn't know the park was that big and well themed. Inspirational screenshots for sure...

Port aventura is a stunning park but its such a shame it no longer meets its potential. Its a shadow of it's former self when owned and operate by Tussaud's and universal.

The original park was amazing. Shows, restaurants and world class rides. Over the years they seem to have strayed from the original concept with poorly thought out additions and cuts that have let the park down.

Quite an interesting history with the park too. Dragon Kahn was originally to be an arrow multilooper until Tussaud's got involved and wouldn't allow it. Arrow were originally contracted to supply a number of the ride systems in the park and Tussaud's even wanted to stop el diablo being built as it is but contracts on that ride had already been signed.

John wardley had quite a lot of involvement in the park which imagine is why its as stunning as it is.

Went to the park yesterday. Had a bit of a different experience as all the flats and shows were open. Agree with most points though. The themeing is up there with some of the best in the world.

Self service food was crap
Red side of stampedia was ok but blue hurts
Shambhala is great but could do with say 2 more hills.

I actually really enjoyed baco. Ok I only rode it once and that was front row inside but I was seriously impressed by how it keeps up it's speed. It was a little rough but I've been on worse. However I do hear outside seats are much worse.

They could really do with more single rider queues. Especially on dk and baco. It works so well on shambhala it's amazing they haven't rolled it out to the other big rides.

I took the train from barcelona which was super easy as the park has it's own mainline station about 10mins walk from the entrance.

I was a bit saddened by the amount the Spanish like to graffiti things

Overall a great park and had a good day there.