Jump to content

Port Aventura


Con

Recommended Posts

Nothing wrong with Furius baco, Stampida or El Diablo, just because they're rough doesn't make them crap! If you don't like them don't ride them!

Not a sentence that makes much sense really (not that I've done Baco or new Stampida, though El Diablo was just crap)...

Rides being excessively rough do indeed cause a detrimental effect to the enjoyment of it... Not that Dan said they were rough, just tripe mind...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nothing wrong with Furius baco, Stampida or El Diablo, just because they're rough doesn't make them crap! If you don't like them don't ride them!

Baco - Officially my least favourite rollercoaster I have ever ridden. Intamin got it badly wrong. I'll take your advice on that one Stokesy, I'll never ride that piece of rubbish again.

Stampida - It's an alright woody although Grand National is far superior

El Diablo - It's not the roughness that makes this a crap rollercoaster. It is relatively unoffensive though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a shame that tripe like Furius Baco, El Diablo and Stampida together with very long, cattle pen queuelines let this place down. Otherwise, it's a cracking park - with particular highlights of good shows!

:)

Not really sure what's wrong with them, sure Furius Baco and Stampida are a little bit rough but nothing to take the enjoyment out of them. After all do we want smooth coasters with no soul throughout Europe, or something with a bit of a bite to them?

I find it very difficult to pick faults with PortAventura.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not really sure what's wrong with them, sure Furius Baco and Stampida are a little bit rough but nothing to take the enjoyment out of them. After all do we want smooth coasters with no soul throughout Europe, or something with a bit of a bite to them?

I find it very difficult to pick faults with PortAventura.

See you say that but with Khan, you walk the perfect line of a thrilling roller coaster that has a bite to it. Baco for all intents and purposes is practically unridable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Personally, the only things I like about Furius Baco are the theming, the music and the launch. The layout is just pants, as nearly 45% of the ride is taken up by one GIGANTIC turn! However, the theming is excellent (despite the storyline being a bit confusing) and the theme tune...I would queue for Baco for TWO HOURS to get a few earfulls of this PHENOMENAL piece of music! (the proof is in the link below) Furius Baco is one of my favourite rides, but it IS an Intamin coaster, so of course it's gonna be a bit rough!

Anyway, heres the link!: (I bet you guys have always wondered HOW THE HELL they did the preshow!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, the only things I like about Furius Baco are the theming, the music and the launch. The layout is just pants, as nearly 45% of the ride is taken up by one GIGANTIC turn! However, the theming is excellent (despite the storyline being a bit confusing) and the theme tune...I would queue for Baco for TWO HOURS to get a few earfulls of this PHENOMENAL piece of music! (the proof is in the link below) Furius Baco is one of my favourite rides, but it IS an Intamin coaster, so of course it's gonna be a bit rough!

Anyway, heres the link!: (I bet you guys have always wondered HOW THE HELL they did the preshow!)

The music is brilliant!

I've seen that video before and it looks great seeing how it was made!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Get there early and ride Baco, have a horrendous headache and go back to bed for the rest of the trip.

But seriously I would suggest starting by heading left and doing Stampida, followed by Hurakan Condor when that side of the park opens (11 when I went), ride Shambaaaaaaaalllllaaaa, Khan, then whatever. But this could be totally wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Flying here on Sunday for a week in El Paso...anyone got any good tips that I need to know?

If you're staying at one of the hotels, get the fastrack package. Queuing in Spain isn't really queuing, it's more like wondering when the queue-jumping school kids ends and the ride begins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

If your staying on resort just buy the Express pass for 50 euros, well worth it and you'll get plenty of rides in! Have a great time!

Yep! We bought those as the park was fairly busy, and definitely worth the 50 euros. Managed to get a good few goes on Shambhala and Dragon Khan! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

So, I went to PortAventura earlier this month, and had a really great time. It's a big, well themed, lush Park with some stellar attractions and shows. But it also has some absolute stinkers - I don't think there is any other Park I can think of which has such a contrast between its good stuff and its bad:

The Good:

Shambhala - this was an instant top-10 coaster for me, and on back row possibly top-5. A superb 250ft first drop into a tunnel and a relentlessly long, fun series of airtime hills to follow - it is really, really good. Shambhala alone is worth a visit to PortAventura. And it's supported by another excellent forceful B&M in Dragon Khan.

Aesthetics - PortAventura looks great, and the attention to detail on some of the themeing is excellent. From Furius Baco's final turn over the lake to the huge bridge up to the China area where Khan and Shambhala sit, the Park certainly has visual impact. Some of their themed areas were Disney-standard.

Shows - we only had time to see two shows - Templo del Fuego and Music Generation - but both were great fun and top-notch. Music Generation alone had a cast of 25+, so this stuff can't be cheap to put on, which makes it all the more impressive that PortAventura has so many shows (10+), that are so professionally staged.

Operations - not everyone says this following a visit to PA, but on the Friday in August that we visited, the Park Ops were spot on. Top queue times of 45 mins. Batching was fast enough (although no better than Thorpe or Alton) and we saw very little queue-jumping. And the Park stays open 'till midnight, as standard!

The Bad:

Furius Baco - amazing launch and lovely themeing can't make up for this failure of a ride. When (if) Intamin made a prototype of this ride, did they not think that smoothness might be important? Granted, I (unwisely) chose the outer back row seat, but the relentless vibration and joltiness from the coaster was so uncomfortable - I actually had to hold my head halfway round to keep it steady. An instant headache later, I can unhappily proclaim this Intamin's worst creation yet. Which is a shame, as it looks so pretty!

Stampida - nowhere near Baco's league, but Stampida had any enjoyment sucked out of it by the roughness of the whole experience. I spent most of my ride shouting "ow". Nearly the roughest wooden coaster I've ridden (but Parque Warner's Coaster Express takes Gold here...).

Queuelines - thankfully we didn't have to stand in them for too long, but considering the thought that has clearly gone into the rest of the Park, it is surprising that the queueline layouts are such an oversight. Hot, boring cattlepens are the order of the day almost everywhere, with headliners Shambhala, Baco and Khan being some of the worst offenders. Any queue over 90 minutes would have been grim.

Park Layout - never have I more appreciated Disney's hub-and-spoke approach to building Theme Parks. PortAventura is laid out in one massive circle, such that if you're standing in the East and want to ride something in the West, you have to walk right the way around the circle rather than cutting through the centre of the Park. Potentially frustrating!

All things considered, I'd say PortAventura is one of the best Theme Parks in Europe, and absolutely merits a cheap flight to Barcelona / Reus for a long weekend trip. Despite the bad bits, there's a lot of Theme Park quality to be had just a 2 hour flight away!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...