CoasterCrazy
Giga Poster
Since my last foreign cred was all the way back in 2014 (what a drought), my family and I decided to splash out a bit and visit a park which had been on my bucket list for a very long time - PortAventura! We also managed to slot in a cheeky New York Trip as well (spoilers). Safe to say, it was probably the best theme parking summer of my life!
Before we start, I didn't take many pictures as I focus more on filming videos for my Youtube Channel, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmX1V ... YDZOeGMAXA
The pictures you'll see below are predominantly stills from the videos!
Here's my favourite video from the trip:
Driving through Salou, which is where we based ourselves for the week, it was pretty obvious how much PA dominated it!
Love it or hate it, seeing any coaster from the beach is fantastic!
The view from our apartment wasn't half bad either...I may or may not have been timing the dispatches...
(Think I could get used to that)
Anyway, Salou's actually a really nice place to stay, although it has been a little tarnished by the mass tourism, in part coming for PA. Still, it's got a nice beach and Boardwalk, but let's be brutally honest here, none of us really care about that. I'll skip to the good part:
General thoughts and impressions of the park:
If you can't be bothered to read all of this (which is perfectly acceptable), here are a few, generic take-home points!
The good
- Shambhala
- Shambhala
- In Dragon Khan and Shambhala, I reckon PA probably have the best 1-2 coaster line-up in Europe. What's so fantastic about them is that they complement each other so well; on the one hand you've got the old-school intensity and insane positive Gs of a classic B&M looper and in the other, a graceful, elegant hyper coaster. Shammy offers a very different experience and type of intensity with its speed and relentless airtime, which virtually make it a stand-up.
- The park looks fantastic visually - all the areas are sufficiently different to provide variety, but also blend well into one another
- Did I say Shambhala?
- Excellent line up of water rides
- I'd been expecting 'siesta style' operations, but I was really pleasantly surprised by the staff. They were absolutely pumping out the trains on Shammy, consistently dispatching trains in less than a minute up until even 10.
- Queues weren't actually too bad. Whilst Baco did get up to 2 hours, the most I ever waited was about 50 mins for Shammy of course.
The bad:
- I did feel a little shortchanged by the fact all the attractions close an hour earlier than the advertised closing time of 11. I mean, the parade and fireworks are all great, but couldn't they just keep the rides running for another hour when the park is still pretty rammed? They have to close Baco, but nobody cares about that piece of **** anyway.
- For such a pretty park, the theming is actually surprisingly poor. In fact, aside from Angkor and possibly Baco, proper theming is generally nonexistent. Sure, the areas look realistic, but there aren't any coherent stories involved in anything and a lot of the rides feel like they miss the extra touch and instance that proper theming provides. China looks gorgeous, but at the end of the day, both of its coasters just have featureless cattlepens, no on ride theming or music. On Tutiki splash, they stopped with the rock work. Harsh I know, but do you see what I mean?
- Fastpass is a bit of a joke really. Yes, it's great for the consumer and to raise a bit of extra cash, but when the passes are sold in large numbers and are unlimited, whole trains of fast passers get sent out, which doubles the lengths of some of the queues, as the ratio of fast passers to normal guests is literally 1:1 on some rides. You really are made to feel a bit second-class.
- Hurakan Condor is the only proper flat there really. It's a shame as it could do with a bit of variety.
- Equally, it badly needs a dark ride, or any other indoor ride with an indoor, air conditioned queue line.
The ugly
- Furius Baco. Nuff said.
Onto attraction reviews then.
So after spending about 15 minutes getting our tickets processed (which isn't too bad considering they only cost €39 each for two full days), we opted for the ever-cliched 'head straight to the back of the park policy'
Of course, that meant it was time for Shambhala.
Now, I'd heard a hell of a lot of hype about this ride, with some people even calling it 'Spanish for orgasm', although that one probably goes a bit too far. First things first, the ride was beautiful - so if it ride as well as it looked, I was in for a treat.
Thankfully, it did. For my first ride, I was lucky enough to bag a back row 'wing' seat and boy was it worth it. As the front of the train crested the lift, there was a slight, but barely noticeable slowdown. But that was it and before I even had time to contemplate it, I was whipped over the top and flung out of my seat all the way down. Bliss.
What's great about the rest of the layout is its variety. I haven't ridden any other hypers (yet), but from what I've seen, some of their layouts seem quite monotonous - Shammy stands out as being quite different. The ampersand is strange, but fun and still reasonably forceful and the speed hill is a lovely touch. All the other hills give a substantial amount of air too, even as you enter the brake run. I was expecting airtime - but not this powerful; it can only be described as floater at the top, which suddenly turns into ejector at the bottom of each hill.
More B&M hypers should have these!
And it's consistent wherever you ride - even the front still has loads of airtime on the first drop, and I swear it runs even faster later in the day. The front row night ride I got was pretty **** crazy. It's also the complete package for the park being wonderful both to ride and operate - it even had beautiful lights on the trains at night and the comfortable but still very secure lap bars leading to rapid dispatches.
It's also smooth as butter, rerideable (but intense enough to leave you feeling a little giddy) and that single rider line is an absolute godsend - nobody ever uses it, and the ops do, making it almost a walk on, even with a 40 minute queue. Dad and I even managed to sit next to each other on one ride too.
That's enough.
Obviously then, 10/10
(x5)
It's just so majestic, I feel compelled to leave the offride here:
[youtube]
Next, onto Dragon Khan
Despite being overshadowed by its taller neighbour, this coaster still packs one hell of a punch and it would be criminal to overlook it. As I said earlier, it doesn't compete with Shambhala, only complements it. It has its job - and does it superbly.
What a lovely mess of track!
Yes, there's a hint of roughness, but if anything, it's too intense (I think I even grayed out on the entrance to the dive loop once). It boasts 8 inversions, but at the speed at which it takes them, there is little time to dangle or even get a rush of blood to the head. Even with the MCBR turned on, it still soars through the rest of the very long layout. There's also a fair bit of airtime on that drop!
Anyway 9.5/10 for being a rough round the edges, but still the best B&M sit down I've done! (Better than Hulk and Kumba then)
(x4)
El Diablo
Having heard mixed reviews of 'lift hill: the ride', I was somewhat sceptical about how this would one would ride. Despite now having over a hundred creds (woo), this was only actually my second Arrow after Vampire.
For a park that was purpose-designed, the location of the ride is definitely a bit bizarre. Obviously it interacts with the log flume - but it's a dead end, so there's no way of getting anywhere else, even to the Stampida complex, without going back through the entrance, which seems a bit counterintuitive. However, the entrance plaza is really nice, with even a splash of theming and it's nice to not stand in cattlepens, even if there are some exposed parts.
Ah well, onto the ride itself then. Waited about half an hour for it, despite it being advertised as a walk on. To describe it in one word, I'd say 'surprisingly pleasant'. Whilst it's true that there is a hell of a lot of lift hill on this ride (the section after the second lift is almost completely non-existent), the rest of the layout is actually fairly exciting - with even a bit of airtime on offer. The tunnel at the start (spoilers) is excellent and the drop and helix following the third lift is surprisingly large and forceful. It's a bit jerky in places, but it's not unpleasantly rough - in fact, it offers that slightly 'out of control' feeling that all good mine trains should have.
Overall - 8.5
(x1)
Then we stopped off at Tomahawk, the CCI kiddie woodie, sporting it's new mini millennium flyers. A real pleasant surprise actually - not too rough, some good laterals and even a bit of airtime to be had! Extra points for interaction with Stampida and being almost a walk on.
7/10 (as kiddie woodies go)
(x2)
Stampida
When planning the trip, one of my main concerns about PA was that after the big two in China, the quality its line-up would head very quickly south. Stampida was certainly one of those rides - however, with the recent retracking I was cautiously optimistic. Judging from the pre-lift and weird lift hill, I thought it was going be even worse than my only other adult woodie at the time - Gwazi in 2012 (ouch). But the retracking really helped - it had that classic woodie feeling, without being overly rough. The dueling was fun, with some good laterals and speed carried throughout the layout, but although it did tease airtime, it never really delivered anything substantial. So for the first 2/3rds of the ride, it was a solid, fun little woodie with a bit of airtime. Then I hit the older 1/3rd of the track. Thankfully, it was only brief, but in all honesty, it was so rough it was almost funny. But, I guess the rest of the ride made up for it, so we rode the other side as well, which was actually a bit more tolerable.
Currently - 5/10
With retracking (which I presume is happening next year) - solid 7/10
At this point, Baco was pulling a 2:30 queue, so we didn't do it until the day after. But either way, might as well mention it now whilst you're still reading this...
Furius Baco
Cheeky shot of the ride launching with the gates open!
Hmm. I really haven't quite decided yet whether I'd rather ride this, or a blender. Because honestly, I'm not really sure there's too much of a difference.
Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh - it's not any rougher than the last 1/3rd of Stampida and the launch is good. Usually, I can tolerate a bit of roughness if the rest of the layout makes up for it, but the problem is that Baco's track layout is that's just so...uninspired? Admittedly the first turn and inline are quite fun, but the rest is just a bunch of jerky, low-to-the-ground turns which are all just taken a bit too fast for their own good. Things probably tearing itself apart to be honest. The only thing the majority of the layout has going for it is the sensation of speed - but the roughness just takes that away. Even if it was butter smooth, it still wouldn't be that exciting. Just why.
2/10 (1 for the launch, 1 for the inline)
Statement: Thank god they only made one.
(x1) - definitely not riding that piece of **** again.
Rest of the creds:
Tami Tami is your run of the mill Vekoma Junior. Tiny, but always fun (in part because you feel so pathetic riding it), but also surprisingly forceful. Nice setting too.
Other rides:
Tutiki Splash:
This ride is blessed with a great layout, setting and it's generally not too wet. It's got so much potential, but it feels really bare, missing that extra touch of theming which would improve the experience dramatically. Aside from the rockwork and other aesthetic improvements, the only real 'theming' I noticed was the chewing gum on the ceiling of the tunnel...
Tutiki Splash...splashing?
7/10 (would be a 9 with theming)
Silver River Log Flume
Another excellent layout, with a fast flow and three fantastic drops of varying wetness. The last drop is surprisingly massive as it exploits the terrain very well, and also extremely fun. It's a real pity the ride is so hidden away so much, with only a tiny bit of generic western theming in the queueline. But, despite all that, it's definitely the best log flume I've ridden!
9/10
Grand Canyon Rapids
I mean, at the end of the day, rapids are rapids are rapids, but this one is particularly excellent. Again, fast flow, but this time, there's some good theming along the walls of the trough. Really enjoyed this one!
9/10
Templo Del Fuego
The sweaty half-hour queue may have had something to do with it, but I just came out of it feeling a bit...underwhelmed?
Then again, looking back on it, I'm not really sure where it could've been improved? I really don't know what to make of it actually. It's probably down to these few things:
- Probably the main reason was that it was mostly in Spanish, which I barely know a word of. Even though the effects were amazing, it was still a random Spanish explorer guy jumping around the stage?
- Maybe, I'm not a big fan of walkthroughs in general. I do struggle to enjoy rides which don't involve physical motion - they're more like plays I suppose?
- It wasn't all that long and seemed to end fairly abruptly.
So as an attraction, I'm not sure how I'd rate it, but as walkthroughs go, I'd probably give it a 9?
The first room was all a little weird (but then again, that's probably because I couldn't understand what was going on), but the effects in the main chamber were absolutely spot on, especially the fire, which immediately made everything better, and the small surprise at the end (SPOILER: The bit with the floor). Still, leagues above Sub-Terra.
Didn't ride:
Hurakan Condor - It looked amazing, but unfortunately, the queue was consistently over half an hour and only two of us were willing to ride it! Really regret not doing it, but then again, it just wasn't practical.
Angkor - Good theming, but it's a splash battle, so it looked a bit **** really.
Anyway, that's it from Salou! If anyone actually read this up to the end, I'll be impressed. Next up: Rare credding in France
Before we start, I didn't take many pictures as I focus more on filming videos for my Youtube Channel, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmX1V ... YDZOeGMAXA
The pictures you'll see below are predominantly stills from the videos!
Here's my favourite video from the trip:
Driving through Salou, which is where we based ourselves for the week, it was pretty obvious how much PA dominated it!
Love it or hate it, seeing any coaster from the beach is fantastic!
The view from our apartment wasn't half bad either...I may or may not have been timing the dispatches...
(Think I could get used to that)
Anyway, Salou's actually a really nice place to stay, although it has been a little tarnished by the mass tourism, in part coming for PA. Still, it's got a nice beach and Boardwalk, but let's be brutally honest here, none of us really care about that. I'll skip to the good part:
General thoughts and impressions of the park:
If you can't be bothered to read all of this (which is perfectly acceptable), here are a few, generic take-home points!
The good
- Shambhala
- Shambhala
- In Dragon Khan and Shambhala, I reckon PA probably have the best 1-2 coaster line-up in Europe. What's so fantastic about them is that they complement each other so well; on the one hand you've got the old-school intensity and insane positive Gs of a classic B&M looper and in the other, a graceful, elegant hyper coaster. Shammy offers a very different experience and type of intensity with its speed and relentless airtime, which virtually make it a stand-up.
- The park looks fantastic visually - all the areas are sufficiently different to provide variety, but also blend well into one another
- Did I say Shambhala?
- Excellent line up of water rides
- I'd been expecting 'siesta style' operations, but I was really pleasantly surprised by the staff. They were absolutely pumping out the trains on Shammy, consistently dispatching trains in less than a minute up until even 10.
- Queues weren't actually too bad. Whilst Baco did get up to 2 hours, the most I ever waited was about 50 mins for Shammy of course.
The bad:
- I did feel a little shortchanged by the fact all the attractions close an hour earlier than the advertised closing time of 11. I mean, the parade and fireworks are all great, but couldn't they just keep the rides running for another hour when the park is still pretty rammed? They have to close Baco, but nobody cares about that piece of **** anyway.
- For such a pretty park, the theming is actually surprisingly poor. In fact, aside from Angkor and possibly Baco, proper theming is generally nonexistent. Sure, the areas look realistic, but there aren't any coherent stories involved in anything and a lot of the rides feel like they miss the extra touch and instance that proper theming provides. China looks gorgeous, but at the end of the day, both of its coasters just have featureless cattlepens, no on ride theming or music. On Tutiki splash, they stopped with the rock work. Harsh I know, but do you see what I mean?
- Fastpass is a bit of a joke really. Yes, it's great for the consumer and to raise a bit of extra cash, but when the passes are sold in large numbers and are unlimited, whole trains of fast passers get sent out, which doubles the lengths of some of the queues, as the ratio of fast passers to normal guests is literally 1:1 on some rides. You really are made to feel a bit second-class.
- Hurakan Condor is the only proper flat there really. It's a shame as it could do with a bit of variety.
- Equally, it badly needs a dark ride, or any other indoor ride with an indoor, air conditioned queue line.
The ugly
- Furius Baco. Nuff said.
Onto attraction reviews then.
So after spending about 15 minutes getting our tickets processed (which isn't too bad considering they only cost €39 each for two full days), we opted for the ever-cliched 'head straight to the back of the park policy'
Of course, that meant it was time for Shambhala.
Now, I'd heard a hell of a lot of hype about this ride, with some people even calling it 'Spanish for orgasm', although that one probably goes a bit too far. First things first, the ride was beautiful - so if it ride as well as it looked, I was in for a treat.
Thankfully, it did. For my first ride, I was lucky enough to bag a back row 'wing' seat and boy was it worth it. As the front of the train crested the lift, there was a slight, but barely noticeable slowdown. But that was it and before I even had time to contemplate it, I was whipped over the top and flung out of my seat all the way down. Bliss.
What's great about the rest of the layout is its variety. I haven't ridden any other hypers (yet), but from what I've seen, some of their layouts seem quite monotonous - Shammy stands out as being quite different. The ampersand is strange, but fun and still reasonably forceful and the speed hill is a lovely touch. All the other hills give a substantial amount of air too, even as you enter the brake run. I was expecting airtime - but not this powerful; it can only be described as floater at the top, which suddenly turns into ejector at the bottom of each hill.
More B&M hypers should have these!
And it's consistent wherever you ride - even the front still has loads of airtime on the first drop, and I swear it runs even faster later in the day. The front row night ride I got was pretty **** crazy. It's also the complete package for the park being wonderful both to ride and operate - it even had beautiful lights on the trains at night and the comfortable but still very secure lap bars leading to rapid dispatches.
It's also smooth as butter, rerideable (but intense enough to leave you feeling a little giddy) and that single rider line is an absolute godsend - nobody ever uses it, and the ops do, making it almost a walk on, even with a 40 minute queue. Dad and I even managed to sit next to each other on one ride too.
That's enough.
Obviously then, 10/10
(x5)
It's just so majestic, I feel compelled to leave the offride here:
[youtube]
Next, onto Dragon Khan
Despite being overshadowed by its taller neighbour, this coaster still packs one hell of a punch and it would be criminal to overlook it. As I said earlier, it doesn't compete with Shambhala, only complements it. It has its job - and does it superbly.
What a lovely mess of track!
Yes, there's a hint of roughness, but if anything, it's too intense (I think I even grayed out on the entrance to the dive loop once). It boasts 8 inversions, but at the speed at which it takes them, there is little time to dangle or even get a rush of blood to the head. Even with the MCBR turned on, it still soars through the rest of the very long layout. There's also a fair bit of airtime on that drop!
Anyway 9.5/10 for being a rough round the edges, but still the best B&M sit down I've done! (Better than Hulk and Kumba then)
(x4)
El Diablo
Having heard mixed reviews of 'lift hill: the ride', I was somewhat sceptical about how this would one would ride. Despite now having over a hundred creds (woo), this was only actually my second Arrow after Vampire.
For a park that was purpose-designed, the location of the ride is definitely a bit bizarre. Obviously it interacts with the log flume - but it's a dead end, so there's no way of getting anywhere else, even to the Stampida complex, without going back through the entrance, which seems a bit counterintuitive. However, the entrance plaza is really nice, with even a splash of theming and it's nice to not stand in cattlepens, even if there are some exposed parts.
Ah well, onto the ride itself then. Waited about half an hour for it, despite it being advertised as a walk on. To describe it in one word, I'd say 'surprisingly pleasant'. Whilst it's true that there is a hell of a lot of lift hill on this ride (the section after the second lift is almost completely non-existent), the rest of the layout is actually fairly exciting - with even a bit of airtime on offer. The tunnel at the start (spoilers) is excellent and the drop and helix following the third lift is surprisingly large and forceful. It's a bit jerky in places, but it's not unpleasantly rough - in fact, it offers that slightly 'out of control' feeling that all good mine trains should have.
Overall - 8.5
(x1)
Then we stopped off at Tomahawk, the CCI kiddie woodie, sporting it's new mini millennium flyers. A real pleasant surprise actually - not too rough, some good laterals and even a bit of airtime to be had! Extra points for interaction with Stampida and being almost a walk on.
7/10 (as kiddie woodies go)
(x2)
Stampida
When planning the trip, one of my main concerns about PA was that after the big two in China, the quality its line-up would head very quickly south. Stampida was certainly one of those rides - however, with the recent retracking I was cautiously optimistic. Judging from the pre-lift and weird lift hill, I thought it was going be even worse than my only other adult woodie at the time - Gwazi in 2012 (ouch). But the retracking really helped - it had that classic woodie feeling, without being overly rough. The dueling was fun, with some good laterals and speed carried throughout the layout, but although it did tease airtime, it never really delivered anything substantial. So for the first 2/3rds of the ride, it was a solid, fun little woodie with a bit of airtime. Then I hit the older 1/3rd of the track. Thankfully, it was only brief, but in all honesty, it was so rough it was almost funny. But, I guess the rest of the ride made up for it, so we rode the other side as well, which was actually a bit more tolerable.
Currently - 5/10
With retracking (which I presume is happening next year) - solid 7/10
At this point, Baco was pulling a 2:30 queue, so we didn't do it until the day after. But either way, might as well mention it now whilst you're still reading this...
Furius Baco
Cheeky shot of the ride launching with the gates open!
Hmm. I really haven't quite decided yet whether I'd rather ride this, or a blender. Because honestly, I'm not really sure there's too much of a difference.
Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh - it's not any rougher than the last 1/3rd of Stampida and the launch is good. Usually, I can tolerate a bit of roughness if the rest of the layout makes up for it, but the problem is that Baco's track layout is that's just so...uninspired? Admittedly the first turn and inline are quite fun, but the rest is just a bunch of jerky, low-to-the-ground turns which are all just taken a bit too fast for their own good. Things probably tearing itself apart to be honest. The only thing the majority of the layout has going for it is the sensation of speed - but the roughness just takes that away. Even if it was butter smooth, it still wouldn't be that exciting. Just why.
2/10 (1 for the launch, 1 for the inline)
Statement: Thank god they only made one.
(x1) - definitely not riding that piece of **** again.
Rest of the creds:
Tami Tami is your run of the mill Vekoma Junior. Tiny, but always fun (in part because you feel so pathetic riding it), but also surprisingly forceful. Nice setting too.
Other rides:
Tutiki Splash:
This ride is blessed with a great layout, setting and it's generally not too wet. It's got so much potential, but it feels really bare, missing that extra touch of theming which would improve the experience dramatically. Aside from the rockwork and other aesthetic improvements, the only real 'theming' I noticed was the chewing gum on the ceiling of the tunnel...
Tutiki Splash...splashing?
7/10 (would be a 9 with theming)
Silver River Log Flume
Another excellent layout, with a fast flow and three fantastic drops of varying wetness. The last drop is surprisingly massive as it exploits the terrain very well, and also extremely fun. It's a real pity the ride is so hidden away so much, with only a tiny bit of generic western theming in the queueline. But, despite all that, it's definitely the best log flume I've ridden!
9/10
Grand Canyon Rapids
I mean, at the end of the day, rapids are rapids are rapids, but this one is particularly excellent. Again, fast flow, but this time, there's some good theming along the walls of the trough. Really enjoyed this one!
9/10
Templo Del Fuego
The sweaty half-hour queue may have had something to do with it, but I just came out of it feeling a bit...underwhelmed?
Then again, looking back on it, I'm not really sure where it could've been improved? I really don't know what to make of it actually. It's probably down to these few things:
- Probably the main reason was that it was mostly in Spanish, which I barely know a word of. Even though the effects were amazing, it was still a random Spanish explorer guy jumping around the stage?
- Maybe, I'm not a big fan of walkthroughs in general. I do struggle to enjoy rides which don't involve physical motion - they're more like plays I suppose?
- It wasn't all that long and seemed to end fairly abruptly.
So as an attraction, I'm not sure how I'd rate it, but as walkthroughs go, I'd probably give it a 9?
The first room was all a little weird (but then again, that's probably because I couldn't understand what was going on), but the effects in the main chamber were absolutely spot on, especially the fire, which immediately made everything better, and the small surprise at the end (SPOILER: The bit with the floor). Still, leagues above Sub-Terra.
Didn't ride:
Hurakan Condor - It looked amazing, but unfortunately, the queue was consistently over half an hour and only two of us were willing to ride it! Really regret not doing it, but then again, it just wasn't practical.
Angkor - Good theming, but it's a splash battle, so it looked a bit **** really.
Anyway, that's it from Salou! If anyone actually read this up to the end, I'll be impressed. Next up: Rare credding in France
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