PortAventura

13 August 2018

Although our trip was centred around German fun parks, we could not resist the lure of PortAventura World in Spain. So after a quick trip to Cologne, we boarded a plane bound for Barcelona. We had been so lucky with the weather, and Spain was no different! We arrived in glorious sunshine, as we jumped on board a pre-booked shuttle bus to Salou.

This was the only time during the whole trip we splurged for on-site accommodation, as the hotels all seemed to be really far away from the park. The price of the hotel also included unlimited entry into PortAventura, and a one-day pass to Ferrari Land. We had paid minimum price for a game of Hotel Roulette, which meant we didn’t know which of the 5 or so hotel resorts we would be staying in until we arrived. We could get bumped up to fancy digs, or we could end up with the cheaper rooms. The Caribe Hotel was the winner in the end, and we were allocated a room in the Jamaica building which was pretty basic accommodation but suited our needs perfectly.

The resort was massive and felt like a little city of its own, with shuttle trains connecting each of the hotels to the fun parks. We had some lunch and a dip in the pool while waiting for check in at 3pm. This also allowed us some time to work out whether we would go to Ferrari Land or PortAventura first, as there were 2 parks in the resort area. We decided on PortAventura first, as it did not close until 11pm, whereas Ferrari Land closed at 8pm. We would settle for Ferrari Land the following morning, before returning to PortAventura on the second afternoon.

I was really excited about this park. The reviews had been excellent, and we saw various no-smoking signs which was brilliant! We saved our fast passes for the second visit, instead sampling the park to work out what to return to the following day. Upon entering, we went straight for Furius Baco in the Mediterranean section of the park.

This gorgeous little fast launch rollercoaster was themed around wine, so it couldn’t really go wrong! The train sat on top of some wine barrels, and right before the fast launch, you were treated to a fun little animation about wine making gone wrong. One little explosion later and you were rocketing around the track, which was fairly bumpy and tough on your head (much like wine I guess.) What an excellent start!

After walking around the beautiful artificial lake, we were getting pretty hot and decided to line up for TuTuki Splash in the Polynesia area. It was very unlike us to get side-tracked by a water ride, but there you have it!

We did however speed walk past the Sesame Street area as the big rides at the back of the park came into view.

Once again we were suckered in by the lure of cool water, and headed to Angkor in the China area to cool off. This was one of the longest waits of the day, and Terror was unimpressed that my stubbornness had lead to waiting for a pretty crappy ride! On the plus side, we did get to shoot water pistols at children who were aiming for us from the sidelines.

 

To make amends, we excitedly wandered to Shambhala next, which turned out to be my favourite ride of the whole park. This coaster was epic, with numerous airtime hills and a brilliant first drop. It was a relief to find a coaster that could still provide a decent thrill and laugh after some pretty lack lustre ones over the previous week. The other bonus feature, was that you could buy a video recording of the ride in addition to a photograph, or photographs printed on merchandise. We retuned late in the evening to do a night time recording.

Dragon Khan was the third coaster of the day (also in the China area), and it too was a great addition to the park. We laughed through the multiple loops and barrel rolls, and were grateful for the relatively fast load system. We did find that people were slow to get off the ride though. There was so much excited chatter and laughter going on, that we had to use our derby skills to get through the crowds. Didn’t they know we had more rides to experience and had deadlines??!

 

The park’s drop tower, Hurakan Condor, was pretty traditional. I think Terror was missing my nervous energy and fear on these rides, as her ribbing was not nearly as fun or effective when I was actually starting to enjoy them!

Also in the Mexico area, was a little mine ride called El Diablo Tren de la mina. The line was horrific, so we assumed it must be good. This was a good reminder that a long line also indicates that a ride is suitable for people of all ages, and as such, every man and their dog wanted to go on it. We were fairly sunburnt after waiting in the open for ages, and the coaster was pretty standard and dull.

As we wanted to get out of the sun, we next visited Templo del Fuego for an indoor show. My Spanish is even worse than my German, so Terror and I stood there completely confused, as we had no idea what was going on! We also caught the Dance Revolution 2 show which was a bit of fun.

Continuing the anti clockwise loop, we ended up in the Far West, home of two decent wooden coasters. We first rode Tomahawk, and then had two turns on Stampida so that we got to ride both of the two racing carriages. We lost both rounds. Fairly sure my increased consumption of theme park food and subsequent weight gain, did not help our chances.

It was getting really late as we were completing our first circuit of the park. We raced back up to the top section for more turns on Shambhala, before heading back down to watch the last part of the closing fireworks/light/sound show.

I was really content at this point after a brilliant evening, but the bones in my legs were so sore from trying to cover such a massive area. Although we had experienced all of the big rides, there was also a huge amount of smaller carnival style rides. You would need at least two days if you wanted to go on everything, and actually I would love to stay for 3-4 days and just repeat the fun over and over again, in addition to visiting the water park.

When we returned the following afternoon with fast passes in hand, we revisted all our old favourites, and tried out a couple of the other experiences like the Dino 4D escape, and the Silver River Flume. I was genuinely sad to be leaving PortAventura so soon!