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Port Aventura - June 2012

Rachel

Coaster MILF
Better late than never......

So back in June I visited Spain and Port Aventura. It was my first time at a theme park outside of the UK, so my expectations were pretty high. Upon arriving in Spain, we discovered we had a hotel room which had a clear view of the park, so being able to sit on the balcony and watch Shambhala just added to the excitement. So onto the park…..

I’ll start with saying that the park was absolutely packed. Turns out the Spanish school kids break up for summer a lot earlier than we do here in the UK. The week we went was the last week of school which meant school trip week. On our first day at the park we braved the queues, which were averaging at about 1 hour, on our 2nd day we arrived a little later in the day and the queues for the coasters were around 2 hours so we grabbed fast passes (they were 25 Euros each which let you skip the queue once for 10 rides).

The school kids were the WORST for queue jumping and the awful queue lines do not help this. 1 person would literally let in about 30 of their mates who had jumped over the fences and no one would say anything, it was incredibly frustrating. Add to this that the queue lines are incredibly dull and the heat, and you become extremely annoyed and irritated and this sort of ruined the first day for us. With the fast passes you literally walk straight to the front of the line, no waiting whatsoever, which gave us more time to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere and themeing of the park. So onto the rides….

Furius Baco
So much better than what I expected after reading a lot of negative stuff about this. The launch is amazing, the seating arrangement adds to the thrill and I love how the speed is maintained throughout the ride. I honestly did not find it rough (I was on the inside seat both times, my boyfriend on the outside seat did complain of some neck chopping). 8/10

Hurakan Condor
First of all the operations on this were terrible. The queue time said 15 minutes, im pretty sure we waited at least an hour. It felt like we were standing in the same spot for about 10 minutes at a time. On getting to the station we discovered that the loading/unloading process was ridiculously slow. I can’t even explain why, it just seemed to take ages to get people on and off. Anyway the ride was okay, we got the floorless standing seats which I found uncomfortable, and for some reason I came off with an achy neck. So not that great for me really. 5/10

Dragon Khan
I love how when approaching the China area, Khan looks dwarfed by Shambhala, but when your actually on it, it feels so much higher. I found it okay, pretty intense but I got quite a bit of head banging and come off with a headache. It seemed to last a lot longer that I thought it would and the breaks at the end were pretty painful, but a decent ride. 7/10

Shambhala
Absolutely amazing, now one of my favourites rides. The atmosphere in the station was really adding to the excitement, especially when people on the train before come in clapping and cheering. The restraints made me feel so exposed, going up the lift hill and over into the first drop I was holding on for dear life! The ride really speeds down into the tunnel and up again into the first airtime hill. The ampersound made me feel disorientated, not quite knowing which part I was on as I was on it. Then the rest of the ride is spent going over various airtime hills and it never gets boring, just a completely enjoyable ride. I even joined in on the clapping and cheering at the end as I genuinely felt it deserved it. 10/10

El Diablo
Too many lift hills which means what could potentially be a decent little ride, never quite gets going, and is just boring. 3/10

Templo del Fuego
Wasn’t really sure what to expect for this. Didn’t really understand what was going on as it is all obviously in Spanish. However the bit when you all go into the main temple and it starts “burning down” was actually really good. We stood at the front and it pretty much felt like my face was on fire, and due to it being full to capacity actually made it quite a suffocating and realistic experience. So a nice, unexpected surprise. 8/10

Rapids
Some of the most boring rapids ive ever been on, I don’t think I got in the slightest bit wet. We did end up being seated with a nice English family, with a young girl who kept asking me and my boyfriend why we weren’t married, which was the most interesting part of the ride. 4/10

Log Flume
I sat at the front of this and got drenched, which was amazing in the heat <3. However the actual ride is quite dull with no theming and too many hills so it becomes a bit repetitive. 4/10

We also went on a flat ride which I can’t remember the name of. It was these little pods that rocked and the whole thing went round in a circle. Anyway the queue looked small, so we thought we’d try it, ended up waiting for half an hour and coming off thinking “Why the hell did we just waste our time.”

For anyone who cares we also went to the Port Aventura Water Park. It was okay. There isn’t really a lot there, about 3 big slides, a couple of small ones, a decent lazy river and a wave pool. The queues were small so we didn’t spend long there. Worst part was getting stuck behind a school group when going to get lunch and waiting 45 minutes!!! Overall I’d give the place a 6/10.

I have quite a few pictures so i'll upload some of them a bit later, just got to try and work out how.

Thanks for reading.
 

Rachel

Coaster MILF
We were in Spain from the 12th to the 22nd (which was a Tuesday to the following Friday) and I think we did the park on the 1st Thursday, and 2nd Tuesday.
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Firstly, great review :)

The thing is, when the park is busy, it's not stupidly busy. Yeah, it has a lot of people, but it's easily bearable, as me and Ben keep saying, it's no different to any parks over here. I've been 5 times now and all at different times, last time was in July, during a White Night event, which was PACKED< but nothing had a queue more than 90 minutes (Shambhala). Put it this way, at 2am, me and Oriol rode Khan twice in a row, it was near enough a walk on, on one of their BUSIEST events of the year.
 

Rachel

Coaster MILF
Pictures as promised......

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This was the view from our hotel. Can see Shambhala on the right side.

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Zoomed in.

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The area by the entrance.

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I loved this whole area!

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Some nicely themed dodgems. I passionately HATE dodgems so left these to my boyfriend...

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Some weird singing bird.

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My one and only picture of Stampida.

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This path gives the most amazing views leading up to the China area.

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Views from the boat coming out onto the lake at the entrance.

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On the bus to and from Terragonna, gave us a different angle to the park.

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