An Adults Only (Port)Adventure (July 2019) - Day 1

[HEMANCLOFTY]

An Adults Only (Port)Adventure
Day 1 – PortAventura – Tuesday 2nd July

The Index is here
Travel Day is here


We got up with the alarm at 7 am and got dressed and sun sprayed up (as it was already hot out on the balcony).

I could see Red Force from our corner balcony and, if I leaned out a little bit, Shambhala too..

We were down for breakfast by 7:35am, but the buffet didn’t open until 8am, so we sat for a while and then popped outside – I took some photos whilst Rich had a smoke…

Once the restaurant opened, we were first in. I sorted out some drinks. OJ for Rich and a coffee for me (yes, no tea – I’ve fully converted over the last 8 months and now drink coffee all day at work instead ☕).

I went for bacon, scrambled eggs and beans – I wasn’t keen on the eggs, so left them. I also had some tinned pears with natural yoghurt, some kiwi, grapefruit and a slice of watermelon and then some mini apple crepes. The coffee wasn’t very nice, so I reverted back to a pot of tea…

Rich had sausages, spanish tortilla and bread, and some pastries (sorry, no pic)

After breakfast, we walked down to the "Simply" convenience store to get some drinks and snacks – it had changed it’s fascia and name since wer were here last May, but was still the same inside…

We bought a bottle + 2 cans of Pepsi Max, 4 cans of Sprite and 6 bottles of water for €7-ish. Up to the Repsol Garage on the way back to get a couple of packets of cigarettes (€5.15 each) – it was really hot already and not even 9am yet! 🌡☀🌡

We got back to the room by 9am, sorted out our park bag and had a little chill, before leaving for PortAventura at 9:30am.

We’re used to the 20-minute walk up to the resort by now...

We were through the turnstiles and in the park by 9:50am...

Tom was texting us this morning, as his school trip was coming to the park today too. Their itinerary had them leaving Calella (which is about 30 mins the other side of Barcelona) at 8am, but they didn’t set off until 8:45am so they weren’t here yet.

There was a rope-drop by the entrance to the Polynesisa area – we were let in at 10am and walked up through here and Sesamo Aventura to China – there were about 10 people in front of us waiting for Shambhala to open...

The queue opened at 10:30am and we were on the first train of the day in row 2. It was a great ride to start off our trip – loads of floater-airtime, but not quite as good as last year on the back row.

We went straight around for a 2nd ride – it would have been about a 5-minute queue, but the train broke down right at the top of the lift hill...

We watched as the operators climbed up to the train, then decided to get out of the queue to get a better photo – just as we did, they sent the train.

We pondered getting back in line as it was still short, but guessed they’d be sending at least a few test trains so we decided to head to the new Sesame Street dark ride - Street Mission - before it got too busy (it was already showing a 50 minute wait).

The queue was really well themed with a mix of animatronics and screens - my pics don't do it justice...

The ride itself was excellent - really good fun. Up there with Disney / Universal quality and only about 30 minutes wait in the end - I won too, with 110,100 points Vs Rich’s 90,900... 😊

By the time we came out Tom had text to say that they had arrived and that he and his mates were going to buy some Express Passes (which I think were €34 - giving them 1 ride each on pretty much everything, except Street Mission).

We decided to head back to Shambhala – the queue boards were saying it was out of order, but we could see it was running and the queue was short. We text Tom to let him know and kept a look out for him as we were queuing.

We were on row 5 for our 2nd ride, and it was another good one. As we were coming out of the exit we saw Tom and his mates walking into the Express Pass queue, so we ran to catch them up and have a quick chat – they were all having a great time on their trip so far - they had spent the day before in Barcelona, including a tour of The Neucamp stadium.

This was Tom’s first go on Shambhala as he didn’t fancy it last year, so we decided to watch and try to get some photos. We were trying not to be the obvious embarrassing parents, but we heard “Tom’s Mom” calling out from the queue line and the girls in the group were are all waving at us. I pointed at my camera to indicate that I’d take some pics of them on the ride…

We had another quick chat with them as they come off – they all loved it. We told them about the earlier breakdown now that they'd all been on.

Quick hugs (for Tom) and Rich slipped him an extra €20 spending money.

They were heading to do Dragon Khan next, so we deliberately started walking the other way. I needed the loo though, so we gave them 5-minutes head start and then walked back that way. They were just coming out of the loos and getting in the Dragon Khan queue as we were walking up, but they didn’t see us.

We had a quick mooch at the China merchandise stand, then carried on around to Mexico. El Diablo – Tren de la Mina was a walk-on, so we did that, then sun sprayed up and had some drinks from the bag as it was sooooo hot.

We carried on mooching around to Far West, stopping in various shops along the way to cool off in the A/C.

I met one of the Sesame Street characters...

Silver Flume was showing as out of order but, like with Shambhala earlier, we could see it was running so we joined the queue. We waited about 20 minutes before it really did break down – after about 15 mins we saw them start to evacuate the boats stuck on the lift hills, and 10-minutes later they evacuated the queue line .

We both decided at this point that our plan to have a few cocktails at Kokos Beach Club probably wasn’t a good idea – neither of us fancied being hungover in heat like this!

We’d got through all of the drinks we'd brought with us, so we bought a bottle of Coke (€3.30) which was lovely and refreshing. We were heading for Tutuki Splash, but got waylaid as I was a bit peckish, so we ended up in Mediterrania instead.

We had a quick look around Records de Port Aventura, then I went into Cerveseria L’Estació to get some Fries and a Large Coke (€7.70) - sorry no pic, but it was only fries

We headed back to Far West in time for the 3pm showing of Bang Bang West. We spotted Tom buying an ice-cream from one of the stalls on the way, so we had a quick chat - he and his mates were having a great day and making the most of their Express Passes.

We bought another bottle of Coke (€3.30) and headed into the show venue...

The show was pretty much the same as last year, but it’s really well done and good fun and there were a few new jokes and visuals gags in there too 😊...

Next, we headed over to Stampida as it was only showing a 20-minute wait. Rich isn’t overly keen on this as he finds it rough, but it’s (usually) one of my top-3 woodies. Not today though, my lap bar was sooooo tight that I couldn’t breath and it just kept getting tighter and tighter – I was literally pinned into my seat and it was really painful. It did make for a hilarious ride photo though – so much so that I had to buy it (€9.95)…

I was laughing at myself for ages afterwards 😊.

We walked back up through Mexico to China, spotting Tom for the 4th and final time of the day (sat outside of Hurakan Condor) – we acknowledged each other but didn’t stop for a chat this time.

We were both starting to flag by now, so decided we were done for the day and walked all the way around through China and Polynesia back to Mediterrania.

We did stop for another look in Records de Port Aventura, as I’d decided to buy a black Dragon Khan bandeau top that I’d looked at a few times today – however when I tried it on, the Medium was too tight on my boobs and the large was too baggy at the bottom, so I left it .

We walked back to the hotel, arriving at about 5pm. Rich chilled in the room whilst I headed down to the pool for a quick cool off. It was the 2nd "quieter" pool (that our balcony overlooked), but it was still quite busy, so I just did 10 widths (I'm not a strong swimmer so this was an achievement for me), sat and drank a can of Sprite whilst I dried off and was back in the room by 5:30pm.

We were showered and dressed ready to go out for dinner at Road House by 7pm...

This is our favourite restaurant in Salou and a must-do every trip, so I’d rang last week to book our table for 7:30pm. We arrived a bit early, but our table was ready for us.

We still weren’t fancying anything alcoholic, so ordered Coke for Rich, Sprite for me and some water for the table – 2 bottles of water turned up, but the barman came over a few minutes later and said he’d realised he'd made a mistake and would only charge us for 1...

Rich went for the Rodeo Burger and I had the Notorious P.I.G. Burger (with pulled pork) – we also had some extra chips to share…

It was a fab meal, as usual and great value at €37.50 + €5 tip.

It was still quite early, so we walked down towards the beach front and slowly mooched along the beach – getting some nice pics and selfies along the way…

Rich had brought his i-pad out, so he took some photos too..

We headed back to the hotel via Carrer de Saragossa, which had been painted since last year...

We noticed quite a bit of police presence up here this visit, so no lucky-lucky men trying to sell us dodgy perfume and sunglasses .

We were back at the hotel by 9:30pm – both of us were shattered.
Not surprisingly, we were both asleep by 10pm.

.

I did wake a few times in the night, but went straight back to sleep each time.

We definitely felt the difference in the heat with this being a July trip (It hit 30°C today), plus we’d walked a massive 32,119 steps – a record day according to my phone. That’s 28.24km, 1448 calories burned and 282 minutes of walking!

Day 2 is here