PTR - Madrid parks (day 4 up)

[Martyn B]

So, this is the first part of my rather large photo trip report from our 5 days in Madrid!

I wont say too much, and we'll just get on with the photo's!

Our room at the Holiday Inn at Luton Airport. It overlooked the runway <3

Relaxing, getting ready for a 3am alarm!

My word the airport was busy for such a stupid time!

Our mode of transport for the following 5 days. Wasn't the easiest car to drive if I'm being honest.

Before getting to the hotel, we stopped off at the Plenilunio shopping centre.

Driving was.....interesting.

I was ok in the car, after I got used to my positioning on the road

The only issue for me were the roads themselves. Junction after junction after junction. With roads splitting, and junctions on either side, you needed to be well prepared for what lane you had to be in.

Considering all that I think I done quite well, I only made a wrong turn twice. One of them was because I had to keep left 150 yards after I had to keep right, whilst on a motorway with everyone travelling at around 60mph

Our hotel, 20 mins from the airport. Holiday Inn No.2 of the trip

View outside our first room. We were moved after one night as we were in a smelly smoking room.

After a quick stop at the hotel, we were soon back on the road. 15 mins later...

If you buy your tickets anywhere but the park, you get a second day at the park free!

It is a beautiful park. But Stunf Fall was spiting, I was prepared for it though.

It was one of them parks that you could enjoy by just being there. The rides were like a bonus to what was such a lovely place.

It was on par with anything I had experienced at Disney.

And it has two amazing B&M's

Its a shame that cant really see much, or anything of the two B&M's, unless you're on them.

Batman la Fuga was just so intense.

Coaster Express looks stunning, but its very painful, and weirdly bouncy. I dont know why, or how, but when it wasn't going very fast, the train would just bounce all over the place.

Its not that bad a ride really. If you take away the pain, and the bouncing, it has some good steep drops and a few decent hills.

Next up was Rio Bravo, which was an awsome log flume type ride, with a few decent surprises - backwards drop, coaster section, and a 'rapids' section.

Much wetness is needed when it is SO hot.

This coaster is probably the only negative I have on the park. Not the ride itself, just the theming for it, its a little sub-par compared to the rest of the park which is visually stunning.

Was alright for a family coaster I guess. I think its a clone of Pegasus at Europa... it was a pain in the arse to find though.

A few shots from the awsome Superman la Atraccion de Acero - my first floorless coaster, and what a coaster it is. The back was my favourite mainly for the first drop, which was amazing, then all the inversions that follow were forcefull, and the two hills had a decent amount of air.

I thought before riding that it was a bit too long, and it would get boring come the corkscerws, but I was wrong. The corkscrews and helixes at the end were very forcefull and was by far the most intense part of the coaster.

Could do with a lick of paint though...

The 300ft 'La Venganza del Enigma' became my tallest ride. It was on 'shot and drop' which was good.

The 'jolt' at the top made for a pretty hairy moment! Especially when I was holding me camera!

Now then, the Batman la Fuga queueline... I'm not even a Batman fan, but I was just so impressed with the queueline. So many little 'jumpy' moments with sound effects going off, dark corridors etc. It was like being in a horror maze but without the actors, and with an awsome coaster at the end

I got some pictures, but genuinely, they dont do it justice. It was amazing.

So funny watching people **** themselves in there.

For me the ride is too much, its just too intense. 3 rides was enough for me.

Some brilliant artwork in the station!

And even the exit is pretty fab!

**** kid ruining my picture. More from Parque Warner tomorrow!

The park has its own train station, so it should be easy enough to get to on public transport.

Personally, I thought the place was brilliant, one of the best parks I've been too. And its such a shame to see it so empty.

Later that night we had a Telepizza feast! NOM! Its basically like a Spanish Dominos but they do a lot more, like pasta and burgers etc. Menu's are left in the rooms, and the receptionists will order for you! What more can you want?!

Thats it for day 1. Time to tuck into my Papa Johns, next update will probably be tomorrow.

 

[caffeine_demon]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks

"Personally, I thought the place was brilliant, one of the best parks I've been too. And its such a shame to see it so empty."

those were my thoughts too - I think it's a far better park than PA, and can't understand why it's not more popular!

 

[andrus]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks

^Hmm, the reason why I haven't visited this park yet is due to lack of variation of the coasters.. They got three good rides, but all of them are intense loopers. Heck, two of them are even inverts! Why didn't they go for another type of ride like a hyper or launcher? Or when they ordered two coasters from B&M they could've at least ordered something different like a flyer or DM.

Enough of the complaining now! Great trip report Martyn! You've really regained my interest for this park, it looks stunning :--D And if it's better than PA like caffein_demon wrote (which is my current favourite park) it has to be damn good!

 

[Martyn B]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks

A Vekoma GIB, B&M Floorless, B&M Invert and a Woodie.... I'd say thats a good variation tbh.

Anyway, day 2...

View from the new room.

Back to Parque Warner.... I could have spent all week here...

First up was Cine Tour, just a kids car ride really. Theming wasn't that great tbh.

Yogi Bear themed Splash Battle. More amazing attention to detail on this.

Spited again....

Upon closer inspection I could see that its missing its train, so I guess its going to down for quite some time...

How ironic that the two park Top Spin's in the UK get you soaked through, but the two in the Madrid parks, not a fountain in sight....

Chloe wasn't looking foward to Enigma...... which they only ran on shot mode that day, boo!

It really is too intense for multiple re-rides.

The loops were fine....

... but the zero-g and flatspins were insane!

One of my favourite coasters It just doesn't let up from start to finish.

Generic splash ride in the Wild West area

All the water rides actually had decent clean water!

Just like the rest of the park, the Wild West area is themed exceptionally well...

Front row on Coaster Express! Lets hope its better than the back row....its not. There's a massive jolt at the bottom of the first drop, and it hurts a LOT. Apart from that though, its ok really.

Why are there Intamin trains on this?

They clearly dont fit the track very well. Either that or the wheels just aren't round!

Water rides are definitely needed in this heat!!

The ACME Rapids were FAB <3

Both the Rapids in Madrid start with the lift hill.

Neither of us were prepared for just how WET we were going to get...

There is water squirted at you from every direction, every couple of feet. There is no avoiding get soaked through on these Rapids!

Weirdly, even though it was 33'c, there were a lot of people wearing ponchos...

Theming in the Batman area was just out of this world, so much attention to detail!

They have a neat ordering system in some of the restaurants, where you order and pay at a machine, where you can choose your language. Then like Argos, you get a print out with a number, and you wait for your number to appear on the screen. It was very efficient. (same system can also be found at the Zoo and PdA)

<3<3<3

Whilst the Superman theming was good, it obviously wouldn't be as spectacular as Batman.

This room was like Tower of Terror meets Art Attack

More beautiful-ness

The staff on this were superb! They really played thier roles to perfection! Shame its just a bloody madhouse really.

Unfortunately both attracyions you can see here were spiting

Gutted

I've always had a bit of soft spot for the likes of WDS, but this play **** all over the Walt Disney Studios when it comes to theming and atmosphere.

The Scooby Doo dark ride shooter was fun. Stuff actually happens when you shot things!

There's a few neat little water features like this dotted around the park, great way to cool off for a bit.

As you can see from the sign on the left, this park now has a upcharge walk through horror maze too, just like PdA. Didn't do it though, not bothered about them really.

I have to say, it really is visually stunning!

If you aint wearing a bra, you best cup 'em, cuz they're a poppin out all over the place!

She is crap at taking photos! Who can spot me?

Ugh, and just like the UK Topspins, this was on a CRAP setting. What is with that nowadays? These are really good rides if they're controlled properly, but all they **** do is rock back and forth.

So sad to leave the park, but we'll return.

They have a lot of good offers on to get people visiting, like the 2nd day free. Also an annual pass is only 6€ extra on top of the day rate.

And this is park is as good, it not better than DLP, so they should really be pushing for the UK market. And maybe get a hotel to become as proper resort as such? I dunno, but they need to do something, its so fab, and more people need to know that! They've clearly put a lot of effort into making this park, and they should be rewarded.

Driving back to the hotel...

Cant go wrong with a Holiday Inn!

Dont know if this a Spanish thing or not, but whats with the choice of lighting for the bathroom? :?

Massive advertising boards everywhere!! No wonder they drive like nutters.

I like to take my time with planning trips etc, so I know that everything will go smoothly, and I certainly did well with this hotel. I knew there was a shopping centre just over the motorway, but that shopping centre also has a 'Disney Village' style area on the side of it, with restaurants, bars, bowling alley and cinema. Oh, and a giant screen for the football! We'll definitely stay here again when we come back.

Although you cant see anything in this picture, but these shopping malls in Spain really do cater for kids, with play equipment and stuff for them to do around every corner, also there's loads of JUST kids shops. And the other shopping centre we went to even had a kiddie theme park, with cred!

We found a pet shop <3

The most adorable little bunnies I've ever seen!

And thats it for day 2. We shopped, we ate and stocked up on snacks from the supermarket. Everything was so much cheaper than here </3

 

[Martyn B]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 2 up)

Day 3... Parque de Atracciones

Now I had heard all about how this park operates, so we went along on the Friday with tickets for the parque and Zoo, just incase things lookd bad. And although there was a long 'closed', it didnta' appear to having anything major on it, so we went for it.

On the whole, its a nice park, but it lacks a 'quality' feel to it, if you get what I mean.

First up was Tarantula, and this was the longest this queue was all day. It was mainly walk on. Its fab <3

Even though they can safely test the cars empty, they 'needed' 3 people to send the car - this is a common theme in this park.

This was burdenous. Dead park + needing full train to run = long waits.

This was a ride I was looking forward to, a lot! But it wasn't as good as thought it would be really. It was good, just not anything amazing. The standard Sky Wheels must be really ****!

Weirdest layout I've seen for a park... all thrill rides in one area, all family rides in one area and all kids rides in one area....

Wasn't the biggest tower, but still packs a punch like most of them.

In places, its very pretty, in others, its pretty bland. Its such a odd park really.

Stupid ride op, waiting for every car to come back, then fill them all up, and then you have to wait about to be dispatched...?!

Another small Tidal Wave type ride

Oooo, new coaster!

It was quite fun really, but I dont see the need for the excessive TRIM. I agree with Orio though (going back a while here), I dont see why they bought it... they haven't even bothered putting it on the park map...

I knew from what other people had said that getting the kiddie creds would be hard, but if you dont ask, you dont get! Naturally, I was chuffed!

Quite a fun little ride really, and swinging can be quite violent!

Theming on this was nice enough really...

I rode my luck with this one, there was a queue, so asking was out of the question, but I spotted 2 little kids who joined the queue on their own, so I figured if I stood by them, I could get away with it, and I did <3

Onto my second StarFlyer. This one lasted an age, went up and down about 5 times, then stayed at the top for about 10 mins!

****, when the wind catches you on these, you know about it!!!!

Next was the very dated 'La Jungla' raft ride. It was relaxing enough, but everything looked so bloody old and broken.

Another atempt from Chloe to get a photo of me on a coaster. I suppose technically, she did, but still.

The restraints really ruin this ride, and the dip into the station was just..... wow, airtime had never been so painful!

My favourite spinner EVA! <3

That one was timed well

Its kinda built on a hill, and every drop seems to be just as fast as the previous drop, as it keeps making its way down the hill. So the first 4 or 5 drops were big and fast, but then it just kinds crawls to the end.

Such an ugly coaster </3

I was actually a bit disappointed at this being closed, as I like these when I was younger and you dont see them around much anymore.

A bit excessive, yeah?

Ugly, but not such a bad ride really.

The Rapids were one of the rides closed, but they did open in the afternoon. The Topspin stayed closed all day too, but to their credit they were working on it all day, same with the Condor (Rotor). But the Tarantula dark ride also stayed closed all day - no sign of anything happen either.

They were 'ok' really.

I think we done the parks in the wrong order maybe... its was nice, but, uh. Its hard to put my finger on it really. It lacked any real 'quality', and on paper the ride line up is good, but I just wasn't fussed about staying, or going back.

One last go on Abismo. Oh, and some kids Small world rip off dark ride thign stayed closed all day too. Yeah, there was a lot closed really, but then it was pretty dead.

Whats the hoses all about?

To my joy, the Condor did eventually open just before we were about to leave! Was chuffed to finally get back on one, but not AS good as I remembered, but still fun enough. Even though they did stop the ride at the top, making it a little....scary dare I say? Especially with it being closed all day, I wondered was going on!

And there we have it... I guess if you're going to go to Madrid, or Parque Warner, it would be rude not to visit.... sounds like I'm being really negative, but I did like the place, but.....grr its really hard to put my finger on whats wrong, I hope I'm not alone with this!

 

[Mike]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 3 up)

Wow, did you manage to get all the credits at PdA?! :shock:

The standard Sky Wheels must be really ****!

I actually really enjoyed Buzzsaw at Dreamworld, although that is a newer Maurer Söhne which has the sorted out restraints (i.e- Not G Force).

 

[Martyn B]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 3 up)

^ Yup, all 7!

I still like Abismo, but I just found it to be a little short, so with that in mind, the stand models just seem.....pointless (to me anyway).

 

[peep]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 3 up)

Interesting PTR Martyn. I'm gonna have to visit these two parks at some point, maybe next year. The WB park looks nice in some areas and really dull and boring in others. The actual coasters are so bland </3 Basically how you can say it's better than DLP is beyond me.

The Maurer Sohne skywheel coasters look really weird and a bit silly but I'm really intrigued about them. I always thought those Intamin spinner things looked dodge until I actually rode one and now I want more of them to happen.

Well done on getting all 7 creds too. You said that a shopping mall you went to had a cred, did you get that +1 too?

 

[caffeine_demon]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 3 up)

I had to do the dreaded walk of shame on abismo..

rather liked tornado though - did you do their passaje? that is AWESOME!!

 

[Jake]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 3 up)

Ugh you witch, we actually tried both kiddie coasters, argued for a while and they still spited </3.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 3 up)

The horror walk through thing was closed, amongst many other things.

And Peep, the DLP comment was mainly pointed towards WDS. And yes I got the cred at shopping mall, there's more pics to come yet.

 

[Scott88]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 3 up)

Stupid ride op, waiting for every car to come back, then fill them all up, and then you have to wait about to be dispatched...?!

I don't think it is the ride operator who is in the wrong with that, they were doing it a few weeks back when I went to PDA, I thought it was odd too.

The loading process with Tornado is quite frustrating, I see you had more patience than I did waiting for photos though lol, with an inpatient younger brother and the heat relentless, I didn't want to stand and wait for them to load the train for the sake of photos, especially with nobody in the area.

My thoughts on Abismo are pretty much the same as yours, it's ok but the restraints ruin it tbh.

Really liking the photos of Parque Warner too, after a collective cock up with my last planned trip there, I am heading back there in August and from looking at your photos, it has made me even more excited for the trip, it looks like a great place to go.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 3 up)

Yeah I was pretty patient with the photo's, but I was starting to feel like I needed a rest. No queue's and re-riding so much was starting to take its toll by then. I cant believe they stay open until midnight at the weekends, there's no where near enough to do to stay there for that long.

 

[Scott88]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 3 up)

Yeah I was pretty patient with the photo's, but I was starting to feel like I needed a rest. No queue's and re-riding so much was starting to take its toll by then. I cant believe they stay open until midnight at the weekends, there's no where near enough to do to stay there for that long.

Yeah, it was open until 10pm when we were there and it was just too much, by 5pm we'd had enough and headed back to our hotel.

I am back in Madrid in August, and Parque Warner is open as late as midnight then and we plan to do two days there, which might end up being too much.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 3 up)

Two days wasn't too much for me, and I still could have gone back. In fact, I could have happily spent all 5 days there. Its so big, and there's so much to do.

 

[Scott88]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 3 up)

Fair enough, I am looking forward to the two B&M's more than anything.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: PTR - Madrid parks (day 3 up)

So, day 4, Saturday. Time for the zoo & cred day.

The zoo was really big, and really well priced compared to our zoos. The grizzly bears and pandas were definitely the highlights!

In parts the zoo was really nice, in others, it was odd, like these stange concrete enclosures. They looked very dated.

I want one! <3

Baby G's <3

So cute!

The Dolphin show a bit... meh. I dunno, I just didn't really enjoy it, most of it seemed to be more about the people swimming with them, and not the actual dolphins.

<3 <3 <3

Loadsa pandas! They must have had around 6 or 7!

They literally sat here all day, as people were constantly throwing food for them.

Then unfortunately my battery died. I think I got pretty much everything anyway, but all the panda's came out for a little party, so I was pretty gutted then.

I think we ended up leaving around 4/5pm, went back to the hotel for a little rest, and then on to the cred shopping.

Parquesur is a really big shopping mall complex, in the middle of knowhere (seemed that way anyway). Big shopping area, kids theme park and loads of restaurants/bars and a cinema.

Same rules apply here as they did at PdA, no adults unless you're with a child. So, you just wait for kids to join the queue, then go stand near them, simple!

And that was that. Think it must have been around 9/10pm that we left and headed back to the hotel.

One thing I had learnt so far, was that the Spanish are a lot friendlier than the French. I always made the effort to speak Spanish, and they appeared to really appreciate that. Which was nice, it made for many friendly conversations.

 

[Gavin]

I actually hate you for getting to ride everything at PdA. I love Madrid anyway, so it's a good excuse to go back, but I'm still fuming about that **** ing place.

I'm glad you liked Parque Warner. I honestly think it's such an underrated park. I don't think it's as "nice" as Port Aventura (it's a bit too flat and lacking as much variation in theme/atmosphere I think), but it's still a great park. It sucks about Stunt Fall (it's really good!!!), but you've got to expect that to be down really.

If I had a choice to revisit Parque Warner or DLP, I'd take Warner to be honest.

They have a neat ordering system in some of the restaurants, where you order and pay at a machine, where you can choose your language. Then like Argos, you get a print out with a number, and you wait for your number to appear on the screen. It was very efficient.

That ordering system can **** right off. It seems great, until you realise that the vast majority of people trying to use automated ordering systems are complete **** ing morons! You get stuck behind a bunch of complete **** wits trying to order their food, desperately wanting to lean over their shoulders and do it for them (even though it's not in a language you understand; it's that **** ing EASY!), before you finally get to the machine and take 30 seconds to order your food. You THEN have to queue again to pick it up. What the ****'s that about?!

The park was DEAD and it took me over half an hour to get any food.

All this for a stodgy burger and a handful of cold fries. NEVER. AGAIN.

 

[Martyn B]

Yeah, I had my doubts with Stunt Fall, so I was prepared, but at the end of the day its not such a bad thing when you know you are likely to go back. I'd rather not be spited by such a rare coaster type, but at least it happened at a park that I really like, thats not that far away, so chances are we will go again, maybe even next year. If there's nothing new at PdA, I doubt I would return there tbh, not that it was horrible or anything like that, but I'd rather spend another day at PW than go to PdA.

And with the ordering system, I didn't time it very well as there was a massive school trip waiting for about 3,000 meals, so I was delayed, but that wasn't their fault really, other than that I thought it was quite good. Obviously it helps being able to order without actually having to speak to people that dont speak your language, and vice versa.

 

[Scott88]

Out of interest, is Stunt Fall likely to be shut for the rest of the season? I'll be going to Madrid again next week and will be at Parque Warner for two days, looking forward to it.

How is a fussy eater likely to get on at PW?