Port aventura - questions

[Karen Mouse]

Hi folks

Just looking at brochures and I have a few questions for any dibbers qho have been to Port Aventura.

1. Our ds will be 7 but isnt keen on big coasters etc - is there much for kids there? He enjoys things like the family raft type ride or buzz lightyear at Dsiney. Is it mainly big coasters or will there be plenty to keep him amused?

2. Do they do kiddie swap like at Disney? We love the coasters and doing them seperately is our only option.

3. Have you stayed onsite? - is it worth the extra? - priced up a 4* v Hotel Caribe on site and its £1000 more. Caribe is half board though and inc passes to Port Aventura so its not actually that bad.

4. We'll be going mid to end Aug - is it majorly busy?

5. Another advantage of being onsite - apparantly there is a guest fast pass or something similar to get you on the rides quicker - anyone done this? how does it work??

6. Is the water park good for kids or is it all big fast tube rides??

7. How many days do we need in the theme park to do most of it?

8. Anyone been to the new private beach club thats just for caribe and port guests? - if so - whats it like? Is it just more pools or do you actually get private access to the beach?

Sorry - so many questions - hope you can answer some of them:D

thanks in advance:thumbs-up

[Karen Mouse]

Anyone?....bump....

[Helen uk]

Karen,we went in august this year and it was busy.It was also hot:cool2:

We stayed in Salou(hated it,dirty place)but liked the park.

There are all kinds of things to do in the water park but you need to pay

2euros each for a rubber ring,locker and also the beds.

We spent 1 day here and it was long enough.

As for the theme park we enjoyed it ,there was a few big rides but not too

many,there is plenty for the younger ones to do.

We liked El diablo(sp) which was a old coaster ride which was good so much so

we rode it 3 times straight after each other(Great)and we dont like coasters

i get sick:cry:

The vouchers you get when staying onsite are like the Express plus passes

at universal which will be worth staying onsite for as we queued for ages

in the heat for some rides especially the water raft which is brilliant(you get

soaked)its better than river rapids and the one at universal.

They also have a firework display on an evening at 12midnight.

Mike and amanda done a trip report a few weeks ago and i think they

mentioned some things aswell it may be worth looking up and also Anglesey(i

think)is going in january.

Edited to say.Get your tickets beforehand as the lines at the ticket booths were massive.

We used ATD and got a Good price.

[joeyk83]

1. There is plenty of rides for kids, the water park is really good too.

2. Not sure

3. We have always stayed off site in Salou. We have found Salou itself to be really nice and not at all horrible and dirty as said above. We have always booked the flights ourselves and booked the hotel through alpha rooms, as we have found this the best way to do it. We saved 500 pounds doing this last year.

4. It will be quite busy and I imagine the queues will be quite long.

6. Really good for kids

7. I would say at least two days in the theme park are needed.

Hope this helps

Thanks

Joanne

[Karen Mouse]

Thank you both. Still undecided. Just looked on Holidays uncovered and Hotel Caribe has terrible reviews:confused2 whereas the Salou hotel we are looking at gets good reviews and is £1000 less. We prefer to eat out at different restaurants each evening so I think Salou is probably a better option, although we wouldnt get the fast pass thingy. I understand the restaurants in Salou are mostly "english" type food? Not usually our cup of tea as we like little greek tavernas but hey I'm up for a change.

I think we can visit Barcelona from there too:thumbs-up

[Helen uk]

Karen,Barcelona is about an hour away and a MUST!!!

Its a fantastic city with lots to see and do for everyone.

There is a massive Zoo,you have the olympic village and the stadium(Get the bus up though)

You also have the Noue camp which is worth going on the ground tour think

its about 10 euros but well worth it.

We stayed at the http://www.hotel-atriumpalace.com/ and it was right in the centre.

You could always book a couple of nights in Barcelona and you will be able to

see it by night.

There is a Hardrock hotel there and it is better than orlando(not as big)

Next time we go in the summer i want to stay at the Majestic as it has a roof top pool.

Love this city can you tell.:wavey:

[mobeckwith]

hi,karen we stayed onsite in october 2005 and had a brilliant time.we stayed at the hotel el paso and it was 5 min walk up to the park.i would definatly stay onsite again and will probably do so in the future.we were well impressed with the park but we havent been to disney yet so cant compare it.i would say there are only 3 major rides,dragon khan(8 loop coaster),stampida (racing wooden coaster) and hurrikan condor, massive drop thing.i would say there is a lot your 7 year old could go on.they are very strict on height restrictions (rightly so).we went to the park 6 days out of 7 and enjoyed every one,but we used to sunbathe by the pool untill 3 ish then go up to the park.never went to the water park because we went in october and only the inside was open.we were half board and the food was excellent,you could also go to guset sevices and if you wanted to eat in any of the restaurants in the other onsite hotels they booked this for you and gave you credits towards this ,i think maybe 15euros per adult and a bit less per child,this meant that you could eat somewhere different every night.we did this once and enjoyed it,but didnt feel the need to anymore often.dont think they do kiddie swap because i hadnt heard of it untill i came on the dibb.we went during halloween theming and it was fantastic.i think its well worth it to stay onsite because theme park admission is included,we could express on to the front of major rides unlimited access,but i beleive this is restricted in high season.the beach club was in the process of being built when we were there but you can see photos on www.portaventura.es the hotel el paso doesnt include free admission to the beach club which annoys me so i e mailed the hotel and asked why and they said in the future it may be.we had booked to go back to elpaso in oct2007 for 2 weeks,but i have since changed my booking for disney,my 10 year old son wasnt pleasd as he doesnt see how it could be better.the hotel caribe is the furthest away of the hotels i would guess 15min walk but they do provide a free minitrain.i hope you go and i hope you enjoy it.:wave: mo.

[Karen Mouse]

Thanks Helen and Mobeckwith:thumbs-up


Good to hear my ds will be able to go on most things.:spin: You can get a 14day pass for £53 each so its a good idea to split the day and do half day sunbathing and half day theme parking:spin:

Hubby has always wanted to go to Barcelona too so that should keep him sweet:d:

Just gotta wait til Tues to see if he can have the time off now:( . I hope so, its the only other 2 weeks his shift pattern lines up with ds' school holidays all year apart from Oct - disney and cruising:cool2: , so its either those 2 weeks or we're doomed to just a week:nonono:

fingers crossed:thumbs-up

[dawn20]

we stayed in salou it depends where you stay to how dirty the place is.

we loved it as it was a up market Blackpool with out the lights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My son is very small for a 8 year old and the water parks slides were fine for him and plenty of goes on the theme park


you should get there early for the water park

Watch out for the spanish students who queue jump and push you out the way. My son was knocked over a few times.

Dawn

[Karen Mouse]

we stayed in salou it depends where you stay to how dirty the place is.

Watch out for the spanish students who queue jump and push you out the way. My son was knocked over a few times.

Dawn

Thanks Dawn. The one hotel we are looking at is the Club Dorada Palace. Its 4* rated so hopefully it should be ok.

The Spanish sound just like the french at DLP then:nonono:

I have very sharp elbows when someone tried to get past me;) :pgig:

[RenB21]

We went to Port Aventura a few years ago, and we stayed onsite at the Port Aventura Hotel, it was fantastic. Easy to get straight into the park and it worked out quite cheap. Would definitely recommend staying on site if you can.

[laudan14]

We stopped at the Dorada Palace before and if its the same one its in walking distance of the theme park. We did not go to the park during the day but as we were half board had our evening meal, walked up and visited the park for a few hours then got a taxi down about 10 (except when we stopped for the fireworks) to watch the evening entertainment. We went up about 4 or 5 times, 1 night we just did the water rides, we did not mind getting soaked as we knew we were not stopping that long.
We went again this year but this time stopped in Cap Salou. We got the 14 day ticket again and also just visited on the night. (Had to get a bus or taxi this time) The ticket we had allowed 1 fast pass/express pass per ride for the duration of the ticket.

[Disneymania]

Hi We stayed in the Hotel El Paso last July and can highly reccommend it - hotel clean and staff were great. We were lucky enough to get a pool view room which was lovely. Only bit of Salou we saw was when we were going home and the bus went round all the different hotels. Can't say I was impressed with what I saw but to be fair we only saw the outside of the hotels. £1000 is a massive difference between staying on and offsite.
Susan