On our little holiday we spent a grand total of 5 days on Spanish soil, and 2 of those days were spent entirely in the main park, Portaventura World. Our first day consisted of our first ride on Uncharted as well as a good sweep of a the main attractions.
Day 1
We ended up buying Express Passes on the first day which entitled us to quicker access to 10 of the parks bigger attractions. These are:
- Shambhala
- Dragon Khan
- Furius Baco
- Stampida
- Templo Del Feugo
- El Diablo
- Tutuki Splash
- Silver River Log Flume
- Grand Canyon River Rapids
- Angkor
We started off on Uncharted, I’ll be writing a dedicated review for the ride as there’s a fair bit to cover, but in a nutshell, it had a very lengthy queue that lead into a very enjoyable ride afterwards.
Next up was Stampida, a Custom Coasters International wooden racing coaster. This one is a bit of a rough ride and in places is goes beyond comfortable but it doesn’t stay uncomfortable for too long leaving a very thrilling, unhinged woodie that’s definitely worth riding!
Our next stop was El Diablo, an Arrow Dynamics hybrid mine train. This is the first Arrow mine train coaster I’ve ever done and it was a good start! Not quite as unhinged as it could have been, but forceful where it needed to be, decently long and it interacted well with the log flume beside it. A great family fun coaster with something for everyone.
Onward to Dragon Khan and Shambhala next as they were the next closest attractions on our express passes. I’ll tackle Dragon Khan first as it’s the older of the two and one I knew little about before coming to Portaventura.
Dragon Khan is a Bolliger and Mabillard sit down steel coaster and a beast at that. It inverts 7 times, has great pacing and is very intense. It feels somewhat similar to Nemesis Inferno in a few ways but obviously not inverted. It makes a tremendous racket as well, as I assume the track spine isn’t filled with sand here!
Dragon Khan is also one of the rides that seems to get the best dispatch times as there was almost always a train on the circuit whenever we were looking at it. A long queue might not take as long as it looks as they really do fly through dispatches. We managed 2 rides during our visit, one was via express pass and the other was a regular wait and it didn’t feel very long at all.
The other coaster in the area is Shambhala and this coaster needs little introduction. Simply put, it doesn’t do much, if anything wrong really. It is incredibly smooth, not so intense that it makes it difficult to ride but not boring either. It truly is a brilliant coaster. The only small thing that could be improved is having restraints for larger people as Tracy couldn’t ride it unfortunately, and we did see a few stockier men having to get off too. Maybe a new car could be added with extra room for the larger folk so everyone can enjoy this immaculate ride!
Something that is also worth mentioning is that Shambhala, Furius Baco and Red Force all feature on board video recording, so you can watch your own run. We bought all 3 as they were a first for us and great fun too! It makes up for the fact I couldn’t record on the rides (I asked 2 different members of staff for permission).
As for the ride experience itself, it is very thrilling, offers some spectacular views over the park and surrounding area and it’s so smooth it feels like it’s skating on glass throughout the whole runtime. It’s a pure joy to ride and it has a bit of character to it, at least that’s what I felt anyway! The water splash is a nice element but it would have been nice if the coaster actually caused it rather than jets in the trough but that’s a very minor thing! I absolutely love Shambhala!
After I’d finished on Shambhala, we went back to the Mediterranean themed area for a ride on Furius Baco. Now I knew a fair bit about this one as it’s in the family of rides I really enjoy, the Intamin Accelerator coasters.
Furius Baco is somewhat similar to Rita at Alton Towers because it emphasizes speed and low twisting track over height. How it differs from Rita is the speed it launches at, around 80 miles an hour, and the single in line twist inversion towards the end of the ride. It’s probably also worth mentioning the fact that this is a wing coaster too.
It differs from the B&M wing coasters as you can cross the ride vehicle to get to the other side, allowing one side loading and unloading. Though this does come with quite a big caveat, the quality of the ride. If you’re in an outermost seat, the ride will be quite rough and ready, but those on the inner most seats won’t fair too much better!
Now I’ll be completely honest and say that I loved everything about this ride. I felt the launch was excellent, the layout was fun and thrilling, especially with the in line twist at the end. Even the roughness of the ride felt like it was designed to be part of the overall experience. It took us until our second ride to fully understand the story behind the ride and for it all to make sense.
The ride is called Furius Baco which translates to Furious Bacchus, where Bacchus is the Greek god of the vine. The story goes that the ride is a sort of experimental device for harvesting grapes and through some mishaps causes the mechanism to catapult riders out into the vineyards. If you like Rita and Stealth, you’ll probably like Baco too.
With all the big coasters done, we changed into wet shoes and put our stuff in a locker before having a go on the water rides, starting with Tutuki Splash.
Tutuki Splash is an Intamin Shoot the Chutes boat ride, in the same vein as Tidal Wave at Thorpe Park, but not quite as tall, but much longer. Where Tidal Wave has a shorter runtime and a huge splash, Tutuki has a longer runtime, 2 drops and a comparatively smaller splash. It’ll still get you quite wet, but not thoroughly! It’s worth mentioning that you’ll have to take any bags on with you too, so make sure valuables are in something water resistant!
The next ride we had a go on was Angkor, which is a somewhat hidden gem. Located at the very back of the park, underneath Shambhala’s hills is a nicely themed Splash Battle ride, Angkor. The ride does feature targets to shoot at but the best part about this ride is the soaking you’ll get from others in other boats. Naturally you’ll want to return the favour, and thus you’ll regularly be seeing two boats going hell for leather on each other as they get close. It’s fun to watch and even more fun to participate in! Short of the log flume, this is probably the wettest you’ll get.
This is assuming you don’t have a large and heavy boat load of people on Silver River Log Flume! We had a full boat and got very wet because of it. The ride has 3 drops of differing heights and is quite a lengthy ride. The station is themed around a lumber mill and has a large waterwheel that seems to rotate using water rather than a motor which is nice to see.
The final water ride we had a go on was Grand Canyon River Rapids and this is a bit tame and a little dull to be honest! It is well themed as it has a lot of nice rockwork around the layout and a couple of waterfalls, but there wasn’t much of a rapid feel to it. It felt very similar to the rides we have over here in the UK. Portaventura has done so well with everything else, I think it’ll be fair to let them off on this one ride! It’s not like it’s terrible or anything, just a bit dull.
After the rapids, we headed back to the hotel to get changed, have dinner and head back into the park for rerides on whatever we could get on. I got another ride on Shambhala as Tracy didn’t have to wait with me having the express pass and we finished off the day by watching the parade and FiestAventura show again.
The Second Day
We had a break after day 1 and did Port Caribe Water Park and Ferrari Land, which left our 3rd full day in Spain as another full day in the main park. The intention with this was to get on the flat rides and attractions that weren’t on the Express pass.
We started off at Serpiente Emplumada or The Feathered Serpent, which is a Schwartzkopf Polyp attraction. These usually have an Octopus theme or something similar but this seems to be themed around a Mayan wrestling with snakes. As for the ride itself, it is more intense than it looks! It gives some really good force but doesn’t disorientate you too much with all the spinning!
After Feathered Serpent, we head up to Hurakan Condor, which is Apocalypse’s bigger brother. That is literally what Condor is, a 5 tower, 350 ft+ drop tower. It even features cameras at the top so you can capture the moment the fear sets in!
There were only 2 towers working throughout our visit which is a bit of a shame as it does mean queue times are longer than they need to be, but we got there as it opened so only queued for about 15 minutes.
Once we’d finished on Condor, we had a go on The Secrets of the Maya, which is a mirror maze. I don’t feel it quite fits the Mexican/Mayan theme so well but it was still a bit of fun to go through, and we finished it quite quickly too. I think we were a bit lucky in the choices we made but we had a laugh doing it anyway!
Templo Del Feugo next and I’d heard mixed things here. Some were saying it was bad and that effects didn’t work all the time, very much like Valhalla actually, while others praised it.
We went in with an open mind, not really expecting much due to the comments I’d heard and it starts off a bit slow. You’re in a room with an archeologist who’s trying to open the temple, he interacts with the crowd and is quite funny, even in Spanish! The room goes dark and the roof lights up with an ominous face, but this doesn’t stop the archeologist from carrying on and taking us into the temple.
Inside the main room, you’ll see a grand set of a waterlogged temple and the archeologist starts jumping from rock to rock to make his way to the temple itself. Once on the main structure, his escape route is cut off, unbeknownst to him. He then opens up the treasure vaults and takes the single largest piece he can find, activating the temple and this is where the fun begins!
The room comes alive with fire effects, splashing water and animatronics moving around. All the time the archeologist is trying to escape but finds he can’t and ends up having to drop down back into the temple to try and put the treasure back when the room is pretty much entirely engulfed in flames. It is truly an awesome site seeing everything working and getting the full experience first time. To finish the show, while your distracted with the flame effects, the floor your standing on will drop ever so slightly and violently at that. This really adds to the immersion and excitement of the attraction. It is most definitely a hidden gem!
After we’d calmed down from all the excitement, we had a go on Yucatan, a Mack Rides Superbob. It is a nicely themed ride and has a decent runtime but doesn’t really do a whole lot, but it is very comfy!
Now we’d finished the Mexico section of the park, we headed around to China to take some photos of Shambhala and Dragon Khan, then moved into SésamoAventura, which is the parks Sesame Street area, primarily aimed at children of course! That didn’t stop us from having a great time here. We tried many of the rides that we felt we could go on such as Magic Fish, Coco Piloto, La Granja de Elmo and Street Mission.
Magic Fish is a similar ride to Hydras Challenge at Legoland, though only has 1 ride mechanism and no interaction with water jets. Coco Piloto is a monorail that travels around the area and gives great views over the park. La Granja de Elmo is a tractor ride but for some reason the on board audio plays Disney tracks? I’m not sure why, or even how they got away with that, but it sort of fits the attraction.
Then there’s Tami Tami, a Vekoma Sit-down coaster. I think the trains look identical to Thorpe Park’s Walking Dead, but the models are apparently different (Walking Dead is an Enigma, where Tami Tami is a Junior Coaster 207m). Maybe they use the same trains? I don’t know.
Anyway as for the ride, it’s a nice little kids coaster in a very nicely themed area. It was once part of the Polynesian area, but was closed for the construction of SésamoAventura where it now resides. It does feel like it should still be in the Polynesian area as it doesn’t really have any resemblance to Sesame Street. It’s a fun ride nonetheless!
Finally there’s Street Mission. The only thing I knew about this was that it has its own separate Express Pass so I expected a long queue for a good ride. We managed two rides during our stay and one was a walk on, the other was a 10 minute queue, so I do wonder why an Express pass is needed here. As for the ride itself, it’s wonderful!
It has a good mix of screens and physical props and sees you shooting cookies on the screens. The idea is that you’re trying to help Grover to find out what happened to the giant cookie that is needed for a street party (as it’s disappeared). There are plenty of scenes to see, and there is extensive use of smell pods in the ride which is the first thing I noticed to be fair!
Then there’s the room where the action happens, and I mean that literally. The car seems to race through Count Dracula’s castle and it feels energetic and fun, helped by the 3D glasses you’re wearing and the motion of the ride vehicle. This is most definitely one of those rides you have to try while here at Portaventura World as it’s one of the better interactive dark rides. It’s not quite as daft as Popcorn Revenge, or as serious as Challenge of Tutankhamun but as a kids ride, it’s perfect!
Our next stop was a ride on the train that takes you around the park, we did the whole trip and got off at SésamoAventura to finish off the area before we headed back around to the Mediterranean area. We were intending to have another ride on Furius Baco but we didn’t think we could get through the queue in time for our reservation at The Iron Horse.
I should explain a bit about eating at Portaventura World. If you stay on site and have a meal plan with the hotel, such as half board like us, then you can book different restaurants to eat at.
The hotel El Paso had a traditional restaurant and a buffet, the latter of which we ate at for most of our meals, because we missed out on booking the other places. You see, you can eat at the hotel or get a €19 spend in the parks restaurants but these need to be booked in advance and as we weren’t as organised with what we were doing and when we were doing it, we ended up only trying 1 park restaurant, The Iron Horse.
All booking is done through a web based app of sorts and is simple to use but does take a little understanding! There are a fair few options though and I hope we can try them out in future visits.
As for The Iron Horse, it was a nicely laid out and themed resting the Old West section of the park, so had a saloon feel to it. Even the staff uniforms were in-keeping with the feel of the place. The food was nice, if a little pricy, but we managed 2 burgers and 2 beers for our tea and only had to pay about €4 on top of our allowance. I don’t think I’d eat there if I was paying full price but with it mostly included in the meal plan, I’m not going to complain here!
One of the final things we ended up doing was watching the Bang Bang West stunt show which was excellent! It’s just around the corner from the Iron Horse and is about a band of outlaws trying to rob a bank.
The show is full of comedy and effects and it felt like we were watching a slapstick cartoon brought to life. Definitely a departure from the more serious tones of Raveleijn horse show (at Efteling, which was also excellent). I highly recommend taking some time out of the day to sit and watch this one, plus the seats are covered so you’re not in direct sunlight!
To round out the day we had a few rerides on Stampida and Tomahawk as well as a night ride on Shambhala making use of the single rider queue and we went off to watch the parade and FiestAventura once more (all in we ended up watching the show 3 times and each time is was just as good as before!)
Summary of Portaventura World
Portaventura World is a truly wonderful park. It has a great range of stellar attractions from Shambhala and Dragon Khan to Street Mission and Tutuki Splash. All the areas are themed wonderfully and even if you’re not a thrill seeker, you’ll be able to find something to do here, whether it’s the more gentle rides, the water rides or the shows (as there are so many shows!)
The park is incredibly pretty and sits in its own plot of land surrounded by mountains on one side and a bit of industry on the other which can spoil the view from the top of Shambhala a little bit, but look passed that and you’ll see the sea and the local towns.
Food is great, though a little pricy in places, the quality is good and it’s very tasty! We didn’t have anything that we thought was subpar, though I do wish we could have had longer to try more things!
The hotel was great if a little dated in places but the rooms were comfy and had plenty of storage, the bed was comfortable too and the shower was excellent, if a little too powerful when turned on to full! (It blew itself right off the wall when we first tried it).
The little web based app they have is good though I’d love to see that integrated into the Portaventura World mobile app, much like Efteling does so you can open your door with your phone and have all your photos and reservations in one place too.
I loved the digipass they offered as it was recently priced at €60 for the duration of our stay (€40 for a single day) and though if have liked to have gotten more photos, that’s not necessarily the parks fault there!
Overall, I was very impressed with Portaventura World, and I’m sure Tracy was too. I feel that we didn’t quite come across as enthusiastically on the accompanying vlog we did, but rest assured, we will be back to a phenomenal park! I can’t wait to see what they do next and I wish them the best of luck. Thanks for such a great time!
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