What's new

Coaster Red Force | PORTAVENTURA and FERRARI LAND | 30th Nov - 1st Dec 2019

Status
Not open for further replies.

Serena

Miss CoasterForce 2016
Staff member
Social Media Team
The final CF Live of 2019 will see us visiting Spain for some big coaster action! Shambhala! Dragon Khan! Red Force! ...*whispers* Furios Baco...

Saturday 30th November: start at Ferrari Land (doing this park on the Saturday as I hear it's usually quiet)
Ferrari Land closes at 5pm, meaning we can then pop over to PortAvetura for some night rides (PA stays open til 7pm. And I think we should deffo be done with Ferrari Land by 5!)

Sunday 1st December: PortAventura

So. Who's coming? What flights are you looking at? Where shall we stay? There's some pretty good PA resort hotel deals that include park entry, which would make the whole thing nice and easy.

Let's get planning!
 
I'll be flying from manchester to Barcelona and there's quite a few options, I probaly would be flying in on the friday and back on the monday, although there is a flight on saturday that gets in at 9.55am which could maybe work, although it would mean getting to PA a bit late. I'll probably rent a car and am up for sharing hotels/driving with others.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
I’m not sharing a ‘room’ with anybody... Poor Benny ???

For the record he ‘insists’ he wouldn’t have slept either way!

Edited to add: Ferrari Land MUCH quieter in the late afternoon evening. Everybody races to ride red force early and then... Well there’s not much else to do, so they head into PA. Planned right several rerides on Red Force can be had without queuing late on.
 

MouseAT

Hyper Poster
I'll be flying from manchester to Barcelona and there's quite a few options, I probaly would be flying in on the friday and back on the monday
I'd consider flying from Manchester, seeing as it's only a couple of hours from home. I've got the Friday and Monday off work as well, so that's feasible. If you let me know when you have something concrete in mind, I'd be up for splitting cars and hotels.
 

Satanspropaganda

Mega Poster
For the record he ‘insists’ he wouldn’t have slept either way!

I stand by this! I sleep on the floor of a lot of airports, snoring isn't an issue for me :D

I am looking at this one, especially if the room rates work out as cheap as that deal found in the other thread, flights coming up super cheap from Manchester :)

EDIT -
So if I can find company for this, with park and hotel it's £80 for the two days. Then a travelodge in the city is £30 each for the Friday and Sunday, flights £60 return
So in total £170 per person!
 
Last edited:

witchfinder

Hyper Poster
I'm in for this trip and have already booked on to the Ryanair flight from Birmingham to Barcelona, departing Friday 13:20 and returning Monday 11:25. There is bizarrely also a Vueling flight that departs at almost exactly the same times each way so if you can't/dont want to get the Ryanair one there's another option that is budget friendly and will tie in with my arrival times if ou want to share a car.

Which brings me to: I will be hiring a car and am happy to drive others to Salou and back if their flight times align fairly closely. I'm expecting @Howie to take one spot in the car but if anyone else wants one let me know - I haven't booked anything yet so can go for a bigger car depending on demand. Obviously I'll be expecting a contribution towards the costs :)

Accommodation wise, I know that the on-site hotels have some deals for Saturday night but they don't appear to be open on Friday or Sunday so I've been looking at cheap options nearby and they are plentiful. There are some apartment complexes offering rooms for 3-6 people for not much more than £10pp a night. Some examples below.



I guess one way of sorting this out would be to see who needs rooms for what nights and then work out the most appropriate accommodation options?

I don't see Ferrari land being an all day thing so hopefully we can get in there early and get the creds, but maybe return later if it's quiet? I assume you can come and go between the two parks when you've got a ticket that covers both for the day?
 
Last edited:

davidm

Strata Poster
^ Most people stayed at that Ibersol place when we did the similar trip 2 years ago - it was fine ; apartments were pretty large/several bedrooms (it appeared to be a condo complex really, just one that lots of units were rented out - reception wasn't 24hr if you arrive late/depart early tho). Was a few mins walk from the park - I'd be OK to go back there again if I were going again (I'm not tho') (and I'm a bit of a hotel snob ;) )
 

witchfinder

Hyper Poster
^ Most people stayed at that Ibersol place when we did the similar trip 2 years ago - it was fine ;
Yeah that's the one I'm leaning towards personally as it has an on-site reception whereas with some of the others you have to get your keys from another location. Booking direct through their site it looks like we could get one of the rooms that holds 7 people (but actually 5 unless we have any couples going) for about £120 for 3 nights :)
 
I think staying at the park makes sense, The pass you get lets you go in and out of Ferrari land as you please (at least it did last year), whereas the 2 days 2 parks tickets look like they only let you in on one of the days.

It’s €288 to stay on the Saturday night based on 4 people sharing, which works out at €72 per person, including your entry to the parks both days.

Flight wise from Manchester, there’s options to arrive at 0940, 0950, 2000 or 2255, I’d be happy to get any off them, although the late flight could make hotel check in trickier. I’m happy to drive to or share a car , and car hire at Barcelona is pretty cheap.

If getting an earlier flight, Ferrari land is open from 18-2300 on the Friday with entry costing only €15 (on Saturday and Sunday the parks close at 17/1900 so this would be the only opportunity for any night rides). I think €15 to whore Europe’s tallest and fastest coaster for an evening seems like a good idea.



So my general idea would be:

Friday – arrive BCN 09:50, pick up rental car, drive to salou, check in to hotel there, get something to eat then spend the evening at Ferrari Land

Saturday – check in to PA hotel in the morning, full day at parks, staying on site

Sunday – 2nd day at park, stay near airport, fly back Monday morning



Actually I’ve just discovered another option – it’s only €188.60 (€47.40pp) to stay on the Friday night on site – this would include Ferrari land on the Friday night until 2300 and both parks on the Saturday, leaving Sunday for Tibidabo if we wanted to go cred whoring!

thoughts?
 

Howie

Donkey in a hat
Actually I’ve just discovered another option – it’s only €188.60 (€47.40pp) to stay on the Friday night on site – this would include Ferrari land on the Friday night until 2300 and both parks on the Saturday, leaving Sunday for Tibidabo if we wanted to go cred whoring!

thoughts?

This sounds brilliant to me. Friday on site, Saturday n Sunday at that Ibersol place that Davidm mentioned. Probably up for Tibidibiwhatsisname too if that's the general consensus.
Yes please @witchfinder , bagsie one of those car spaces. :)
 

witchfinder

Hyper Poster
on Saturday and Sunday the parks close at 17/1900 so this would be the only opportunity for any night rides
Don't forget the sun will set around 5:30pm in December so night rides should be possible in the main park :) But yeah, that Friday night opening for Ferrari Land sounds great - I'm definitely up for that. However I do have a few concerns with the on-site hotel deals based on what I can see on the PA website...

- It looks like the rooms for 4 adults have two double beds in them, or else they are family rooms with one double and two singles. Either way, actually accommodating 4 adults in one room seems dubious unless we're having some kind of goon swingers party as well! ? So if it's actually only a maximum of 3 adults in a 4-bed family room then the prices per person will change quite significantly. So somebody needs to check on that.

- If I try to reserve a 4-bed room for Friday and Saturday in one go, the Friday night price shoots up to the same price as Saturday, so it looks like we would have to book the two nights separately to get the better price, which means theoretically they might make us check out and then check back in to another room! Also if you book both together then you do only get access to Ferrari Land for 1 day according to the site, though that would obviously be circumvented by booking the two nights separately.

Everyone can make their own choices of course, but personally I still see the off-site accommodation as the cheapest and least faffiest option. By rough calculations it would be under £100 per person for 3 nights in the Ibersol along with park entry, whereas if we go with the on-site option it will add £30ish to the total costs even though park entry is included, and even more if they don't have rooms with 4 single beds.

I'm not particularly fussed about going to Tibidabo again as I think I'd get more from a second day at PA, but again, we can all make our own decisions there and if a splinter group want to head into Barcelona on Sunday then so be it.
 

Satanspropaganda

Mega Poster
Everyone can make their own choices of course, but personally I still see the off-site accommodation as the cheapest and least faffiest option. By rough calculations it would be under £100 per person for 3 nights in the Ibersol along with park entry, whereas if we go with the on-site option it will add £30ish to the total costs even though park entry is included, and even more if they don't have rooms with 4 single beds.

That seems extremely reasonable, flights are around £60 right now from Manchester, so then 8 euro bus there, 8 euro bus back, super cheap overall
 
Theres a mini Ryanair sale on, so I've just booked my flights from manchester for £ 43.82 return.

arriving 09:40 BARCELONA on th 29th and departing 10:15 on the 2nd. Who wants to share car hire driving to Pa?
 

Thekingin64

Strata Poster
Put me down as a maybe for this, have a friend who might tag along as well. Will likely be staying onsite and tacking on Tibidabo and Barcelona culture as well, about to start looking at flights.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top