PTR: Port Aventura 12th September 2013

[mkingy]

Hey guys I just got back from a week long visit to Barcelona / Salou with the girlfriend and thought I'd share my experience of Port Aventura with you guys!

Getting there and where we stayed

We actually flew into El Prat and got the coach down to Barcelona. In hindsight this was a bit of a mistake - in future I'd definitely recommend getting a flight into Reus instead (I chose the ease of having a flight in and out of the same airport!) The coach was pretty expensive and I think you'd save by flying into to Reus and if you wanted to go to Barcelona after catch the train up there!

Also - there was no ticket machine at Port Aventura train station so either make sure you've got a ticket or go from Salou where there are some cheap places to eat / drink nearby whilst you wait for your train

We actually stayed at the Port Aventura resort - in Hotel Carribe. It was a short free shuttle train (see picture below) to the park. The Room was quite big for a hotel room and clean which is what I was most concerned about!


Shuttle Bus Train thing to the park


View from our hotel balcony


The Big Two

We headed immediately over to Shambhala and Dragon Khan at the far side of the park. We decided maybe everyopne would head for shambhala first and we could catch a lull in the queue as they shifted to Dragon Khan next so we decided to queue for Dragon Khan first.


Shambhala in the distance as we entered the par

Dragon Khan
+Front Row
+Back Row

Got extremely lucky and bagged a front seat ride (they weren't operating front seat queues on any ride today). The ride was really fun, inversions, good forces, tiny bit of floater airtime on the drop. It always amazes me how B'n'M rides navigate turns and transitions without being rough... whilst certain other manufactures struggle.

Back row ride was another matter. So many sustained forces made it incredibly intense ride which I really enjoyed (misses not so much). The ride literally never let up and you hit the brake run truly feeling like you'd been in a battle with the ride and its forces, whilst the ride was practically perfectly smooth!


Me infront of Dragon Khan


Dragon Khan going through the Cobra Roll

Shambhala
+Back Car - wing seats
+Back Car - middle seats
+2nd Back Car - wing seats
More good fortune got us a very very back seat on Shambhala shortly after they put on an extra train into operation. I really wanted to ride the back at least once during the day after Gouldy's glowing report of an insane first drop.

That first drop was f*cking beautiful. Pure solid unadulterated floater airtime which felt like it was never ending the dipping down into the tunnel. The turnaround was pretty sick in my opinion too, not especially forceful but certainly fun. Finihsed the ride with my vision going wavey (Never ridden an airtime machine with Goliath at SFMM and PMBO at blackpool the only big chainlift rides I've been on) and definitely can't quite chose between it and Nemesis (although Nemesis holds an absolute tonne of nostalgia being my first ever "big" rollerocaster)

Never got the chance to get on the ride at the front but I was perfectly happy sitting practically at the back for all three rides we managed on this.


The first drop


Water Splash

Other Highlights

Furios Baco - Front seat

Went on this ride with no real expectations - which really helped it! Launch felt much stronger than its advertised - which I can put down to it being slightly unexpected. Ride maintained some much pace all the way through but was insanely short!


[/i]Furious Baco In-line twist[/i]

Stampidia - Red Train - Back Seat

Nice little racing woodie - although the blue train wasn't loading its back 2 cars for some reason so always got a pasting. Was good fun without being anywhere near as good as Megaphobia. Ran out of ideas at the end and suffered through its pacing. The first hill (long lat hill) was cool as was the tunnel drop.


Stampida Double Up section - I think

Diablo - Front Seat

Well themed little romp through the rocks. Very good family coaster although I've never understood the need for so many breaks on these kind of rides. It kind of kills the pacing and it's less fun than it could be. Brakes were a bit sharp :<

Final Thoughts


Port Aventura! (also Barcelona is a great city)

Imgur link of my limited photos - http://imgur.com/a/94fhD#0

[gouldy]

Awesome PTR bro!

I knew you'd love that first drop in the back. I'd ridden Nitro before and the first drop on this still really took me by surprise at the back. And then every hill is just about as awesome after that, too.

I'm in the same boat as you with regards to not being able to decide between this and Nemesis. I think it's because they're so different, it's hard to make a fair comparison. Although... El Toro does trump them both IMO, because that ride was just stupid in the back seat.


Reading your little bit about Dragon Khan; did you not find it to be getting a little rough? (rough is the wrong word) I rode it about 6 years ago, and then again last year, and the difference to me was quite noticeable. Especially after the second vertical loop, there is one really quite large judder, that actually hurt my spine a little on one of the times we rode it. It's definitely not "rough", but what I would say is that I don't think it's aged as well as, for example, Nemesis. Having said all that, in fairness to DK, it has a very twisted layout.

[mkingy]

Yeah I can agree its probably not aged as well as Nemmie (having nothing to compare it to really). There were a couple of jolts (after the loop like you said and another patch) but personally they weren't painful and nothing as severe as SAW was.

I think because I was comparing it to that it was smooth in comparison but I guess saying it was practically smooth was maybe a bit of an overstatement (I think i was just happy to come off without a headache!).

EDIT: come to think of it we rode it after Furios Baco and Stampedia so I think maybe that's why it felt so smooth haha.

[Oscar]

I am the jelly