A return to Salou with adult wristbands for all. Salou June/July 2022. Day 1. Portaventura

[roxie2001]

Wednesday 29th June
Index

We had planned to get to portaventura early but I didn’t set an alarm and woke later than expected.
We met the children at breakfast. Jess set up a WhatsApp group for photo sharing, she named it lads on tour 🤣 and this became our quiz name as well.

We use the buses or walk to the park, you can buy a T10 card and load up with journeys which works out half price. I have a card but forgot it. We decided to walk, this turned out to be a mistake. We had underestimated how hot it would be this early plus Matt took a different route (got lost) so we arrived about 11.45.

We are used to walk on/10 minute wait times in October but the rides were already at 40 minutes. We discussed fast passes but Jess said to wait and see how it went.
Dragon khan was showing the least wait so Matt speed matched us there.
It said 30 minutes and it was about that. We took photos in the queue.
Mine

And Jess’s

Jess used to hate these rides, now she’s a fully fledged coaster junkie.
I hated it, no so much the height but all the twists and turns, it made me feel ill. Finally it ended, I looked how I felt in the photo 🤣
We exited and went to buy some ice creams.
We opted for calippos, 2 strawberry and 2 lime but they didn’t have either so ended up with 4 cola.
Total €10.80 and worth every penny.
We started walking to tutiki splash, my favourite water ride.
Magic fish in Sesame Street land on the way, and didn’t have a queue so we jumped on. It’s in the kids area but it’s a really fun ride, we go on every year.

Tutiki splash was showing 40 minutes but it was only 20 and the line moved quickly. The girls in front took their tops off and wore swimming costumes, very organised but we were all boiling. Still as good as I remember and I came off soaking.
The next ride was the rapids, again posting 40 minutes but only 20. Love this ride as well.

Wild buffalos is next door, this was a walk on.
It’s basically dodgems without any rules and another fun ride.
Log flume was next but at 1hr 30 mins, no way that was happening.
Matt speed marching like he’s on holiday alone 🤣

Charlie brought new crocs for the holiday and he had blisters. Never happened to me with new ones. Him and Jess swapped shoes.

El Diablo, run away train was only posting 20 minutes, the shortest queue I’ve ever seen for that.
It’s a nice little coaster but the seats must have shrunk 😉 as it was a squeeze to get in.
Jess and charlie swapped shoes again but then Matt offered his flip flops, he hated the crocs and no photos allowed. 🤣
We walked to shambahla. Jess and Charlie got a hot dog meal to share, he had the hot dog and she had the chips for €11.90.
The first queue we went to was single rider by mistake, I said I wasn’t riding alone so we swapped to the regular line. It was about 30 minutes, we actually passed the guys behind us in the single rider line so it’s not always better to get in that.
I do enjoy this ride even though it also terrifies me.
We were themed parked out now so left about 4.30.
We took the bus back, it was €8.80 and I paid cash.
We asked for Salou but this one dropped us off along the seafront instead of the main road, it’s not really that much further but Charlie had his blister and Jess was now chafing so seemed like longer.
Back at the hotel the children went to their room to sort out their aliments and Matt and I had snacks and a couple of drinks in the still scorching sun.

I went up first to shower. Took these room photos before it got trashed.

They have done a lovely job upgrading plus the air con was perfect.
We met the children.

Jess discovers cocktails and Charlie had baileys and added an expresso.
Dinner was Chinese themed and the best night in the downstairs restaurant.

Six bowls of toppings were next to the whippy machine, one girl took a spoon of chocolate strands, licked the spoon and put it back! I told the children to take their own spoon if they wanted toppings.
Tonight’s entertainment was an outside company with a quiz called zapping.
The host split the area into 2 teams, red and blue. Had to be blue for us.
After last nights any drink available, a new bar tender was serving tonight and he kept saying we couldn’t have the premium drinks we wanted.
I don’t want to sound spoilt but we booked direct to have the premium, it makes no difference to Matt as he only drinks beer and an occasional cider but for the rest of us, it was nice having the named brands.
I didn’t want to make a fuss so we stuck to the local spirits.
The game was brilliant, the host picked out 2 players to press the zapper button when our team knew the answer.
It was so much fun with everyone getting involved. Matt is very competitive so was shouting at the poor guy to press the buzzer quicker. Luckily the table next to us were on the same wavelength.
The first round was guess the music from show and we had to put our hands up for the buzzer person. The other team were quicker so we lost that one.
The next round was flags, Charlie was well on this, he knew some really obscure flags.
The best round was guess the genre of music then 80% of the team had to dance in that style. We caught up here, we danced to rave music and the table next door put the chairs above their heads. I may or may not joined in. 🤣
Last round was guess the landmark as a map zoomed in closer. Points were being taken away now as well and it was so close. We just won in the end by 10 points.
We all laughed so much and headed to the apple bar at 11pm for more quizzes at 11.15pm. All inclusive had stopped so we brought cocktails and beers.
It was Kahoot! We love these, first one was about movies, right up my street and we won a cocktail. Jess was straight up to collect it 🤣

The next one was random, we did get on the podium but not as winners.
Matt and I left the children to finish the drinks and headed up.

[Melbatb]

Love how you are calling Jess and Charlie the children🤣

Sounds like a fab day all round👍🏻

[roxie2001]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

Love how you are calling Jess and Charlie the children🤣

Sounds like a fab day all round👍🏻

See more...

🤣
We were shattered but had a brilliant day