More (Port) Adventures in Salou - Day 1

[HEMANCLOFTY]

More (Port) Adventures in Salou
Day 1 – Tuesday 29th May 2018

The Index is here
Travel Day is here

I was awake for the alarm going off at 7:30am, so jumped in the shower and got dressed first, then Rich, then we nudged Tom and got him up and moving too. I took a few traditional first morning balcony pics...

The weather had been forecast for last night’s rain and thunder to continue through until about Wednesday, but it was looking good so far.

This was the view from the hotel stairs across to Ferrari Land...

We were down for breakfast by 8:15, getting our room card checked before finding a table. We were straight back into the routine from October of me grabbing my pot of tea, and Tom getting his water and Rich’s OJ, and then hitting the buffet.

I only managed to get pics of my breakfast today - the boys had already tucked in by the time I'd sorted my pot of tea - but I did get better on the rest of the mornings...

I went for bacon, scrambled egg, choritzo and beans, with a couple of apple-filled crepes, followed by 2 more crepes and a bowl of peaches with strawberry yoghurt (6/10 as the beans were quite bland)...

Rich went for mini frankfurter-style sausages with scrambled egg, then some ham and bread (5/10) and Tom had a plate of pancakes with chocolate syrup from the griddle counter, which we’d discovered on the last day of our October trip (6/10).

After breakfast (9am) we stopped by Reception to pay for our safe key (€20 + €10 deposit) then headed straight out to the Simply Supermarket around the corner to stock up on some bits for the room and to take to the parks – Big sharing bags of Jamon Ruffles and Doritos 3Ds, 6 cans of Sprite, 4 bottles of water, a 2lt bottle of Pepsi Max, Haribo and Chips Ahoy Mini Cookies came to €10.40 (I didn't get a pic, sorry).

On the way back we popped up to the Repsol garage so that I could nip in to get a packet of cigarettes for Rich from the vending machine (€5.15 for 20 Marlborough Gold).

We had a quick stop off in our room to sort out the safe, pack our park bag and sun cream up, and we were on our way to PortAventura by 9:35, with Tom leading the way...

We had gate ready e-tickets (which we’d bought from ATD - £107 each for 7 day passes which gave us 4 days at PortAventura, 1 day at Ferrari Land, with access to PA on the same day and 2 days at Caribe Aquatic Waterpark). I’d printed these off at work this time, so we could head straight for the turnstiles and we were walking into the Mediterranea area by 10am on the dot...

We decided that we’d get Furious Baco (aka Furious Backache) out of the way first before the queue got too long, and as Shambhala (Shammy B) and Dragon Khan didn’t open until half past...

We paid €1 for a locker and headed up through the vineyard into the queue line where we waited about 20 minutes.

We were towards the back of the train with Rich on the right hand side outside seat and Tom and I in the barrel-side seats. Like last year, it was a good but rough ride, and the more I tried to hold my head still against the seat the more it rattled about. I could feel a head / neck ache starting straight away so nipped it in the bud with some ibruprofen as soon as we got back to the locker.

Next we walked up through Polynesia and Sesamo Aventura to China - I love how amazing these two B&M coasters look together...

We grabbed another locker for €1 and popped to the loos before getting into the Dragon Khan queue, which was nice and quick at 10 mins. This was a first ride for all of us, as Tom hadn’t fancied it in October.

My restraint was a little bit loose so I got some amazing airtime on the first 3 inversions, before it clicked in another notch on the 4th inversion – I still had a bit of room for airtime though and it was a great ride which we all enjoyed

Tom was really pleased that he’d ridden Dragon Khan, but still didn’t fancy the 256 foot beauty that is Shambhala (or Shammy B as we call it since we started watching Theme Park Worldwide vlogs). Me and Rich were definitely up for it though, so we kept our locker and headed round to check out the queue time.

It was 30 minutes and we didn’t think it would be fair to leave Tom waiting on his own for that long so we decided to queue together and for Tom to just leave the queue at the end. Then we spotted what we thought was the single rider queue and decided to do that instead, so Tom went back outside the station to wait. But then we couldn’t quite work out if the single rider queue was open (as the cattle pen was a bit confusing), so we gave it up as a non-ride for this morning and headed back to find Tom. However, as the queue never went under 30 minutes for the rest of the day it would have to wait until later in the trip .

After we’d got our bags and glasses from the locker we headed round to Mexico to see what the queue time for Hurakan Condor was. As we were passing we could see that El Diablo Tren de la Mina was showing 0:00 so we headed on and literally walked straight onto the train. I was going to ride with Rich, but there was a child seat on our row so I had to move forward to sit with Tom. We all agreed that this isn’t the best Mine Train, as having 3 lift hills means that it never gets time to build up enough speed.

We arrived at Hurakan Condor at 11:20. At 330 foot, this was another ride that wouldn’t be for Tom on this trip. It was due to open at 11:30am and there were only about 20 people waiting so we joined them and Tom took the bags and grabbed a bench to wait for us. At 11:25 we saw a test drop, and then the queue line opened up and we were on the 2nd ride of the day on Tower 3 (facing out towards Reus), in the sitting down seats. It was a great view at the top, but we both agreed with Shawn on Theme Park Worldwide – the drop itself was quite disappointing, with not much force!

We were back with Tom by 11:30 and continued our mooch around Mexico. Just around the corner from Hurakan Condor we found a flat-ride that we’d missed last time – Serpiente Emplumada. None of us had any idea what this was going to be but as there was no queue we headed on. Rich clicked that it was going to be a spinny one as soon as he saw the overhead restraints – and it was quite fast. Me and Tom enjoyed it but spinny rides aren’t Rich’s cup of tea at all (pun intended) . I didn't get a pic of this today, but did get it as we walked past tomorrow, so here it is...

Tomahawk was next, with a 5-10 minute wait and we were on the front 2 rows. This is a good little family woody and I love how the track interacts with Stampida (the main woody). The two ladies behind us were very confused by it, saying how disappointed they were and wondering why not all the track was used – hopefully they found Stampida and had a more exciting ride afterwards .

We were all really thirsty by now and had gotten through all of our bottles of water, so we bought a large Coke to share (€4.20) and sat in a nice little shaded / picnic area behind the drinks stand...

It was at this point that my camera battery died. I’m not sure why and can only think that I'd left it switched on at some point yesterday, so I’d have to rely on my phone for the rest of the day.

We saw that there was a bit of kids play area / shack here and encouraged Tom to have a look – Rich went with him. This turned out to be a great little labyrinth sheriff’s office and Tom enjoyed climbing and Rich even got me to have a go...

I hadn’t checked the time for a while, but it must’ve been around 12:15 by now. We decided to leave Stampida for another day and got on the train as it was waiting at Penitence Station, stopping at these water buckets to cool off on the way (another pic from later in the week, as I missed it today)...

By the time we were on the train my left (lazy) eye had been stinging and watering for about an hour. It usually hurts for the first few days on holiday, but it was the worst it has ever been today – especially since I’d topped up my Suncream after our ride on Hurakan Condor. The combination of tears, cream and mascara wasn’t good. I kept my eye closed for most of the train ride and luckily my sunglasses hid the half make up look that I was now rocking .

It was a great train ride and we did a full loop, I took quite a few pics, but they came out just as blurry as my vision - these are the best of a bad lot...

It was really hot by now, so we all agreed it was time for some water rides and Tom and I changed into our flip flops and our trusty FootAsylum carrier bag came out to protect our bags.

Silver Flume was the closest so was our first choice. It was technically a walk on, but we followed some other guests the wrong way in the cattle pen and couldn’t figure out the right way to go. We ended up having to climb over a few barriers to get back on track. Loads of guests were riding either shirtless (boys) or in bikinis (girls).

We had a great ride and got a really good soaking – mostly from drop 2 for me and Tom and drop 3 for Rich who was right at the back. This is a great log flume!

Grand Canyon Rapids was a walk on too – there were just the 3 of us in our dinghy and we got a few little splashes. We fancied another go, so went straight back on (this time riding with a boy and girl who looked about Tom’s age). We had a few small splashes again – it’s a good rapids, but could do with a few more Bilge Barges style features so that you get a really good soaking...

We were nice and cooled down now and decided to do a couple of shows next. We were initially heading back to Mexico for the 2pm Dance Revolution 2 show, but there was a Bang Bang Wild West at 2 too, so as it was closer we decided on that. We grabbed 2 cokes, a bucket of popcorn and a bag of Jamon Ruffles on the way in (approx. €12, but I didn't get a receipt)...

We sat in the splash zone in the middle of the bleachers, but it looked like we’d just missed the splashy part of the pre-show. The pre-show guy was great fun and he reminded us a lot of the old pirate mime from the Clyde and Seymore show at SeaWorld. He was much more camp though and really hammed it up and had fun with the guests coming in

The show itself was really good too (probably the best of all the shows we ended up seeing during the trip). It was mostly in Spanish, but there are a few English phrases mixed in and the plot was easy to follow, and the stunts were funny / good too...

During the finale, we caught €4 of PortAventura money which were a nice little souvenir...

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After the show, we headed straight round to Mexico for the 3pm showing of Dance Revolution 2. This is in the Gran Teatro Maya but can also be accessed from China through the Gran Teatro Imperial entrance. We were surprised how big and professional looking it was inside this theatre. The seating was very comfortable and as we were 20 minutes early, I took the opportunity to rest my eye which was still watering off and on. Just sitting with my eyes closed for 20 minutes really helped.

The show itself was very cheesy but good, with a mix of different styles of music, dancing and acrobatics. The only downside was that the lip-syncing wasn’t the best, but the show was definitely worth seeing . Sorry, no pics, so here are a few from Google...

It was still really warm after the show (about 3:30) so we headed back to China to check out Ankghor, which is a splash battle that had been closed for maintenance during our October trip. We watched Shamhala for a few minutes on the way (the queue was still too long - 40 mins I think), and took a few more pics...

Anghkor was another walk on and we had a great time shooting water at our opponents and getting really wet. It was so good that we all headed straight back around for another go, this time choosing seats on the other side of our boat to see if it was any different. However Tom’s squirter didn't work so I let him have mine and moved round to join the family on the other side. It wasn't quite as fun for me being apart from the boys but they really enjoyed it and we were all soaked by the time we came off

Again I didn’t make a note of the time, but according to the photos it was 5:20 and we decided that now was a good time to start making our way out of the park.

Our final ride of the day was Tami Tami, the junior coaster in Sasamo Aventura, which was ok as far as junior coasters go.

We continued making our way out via Polynesia, and stopped off for a look around Records de Port Aventura in Mediterranea to check out the merchandise. I really liked this peach hoody that I’d already seen on one of the TPWW Vlogs, and in some of the other stores during the day, and I decided that I’d probably get it later in the trip...

Rich liked a few t-shirts and mugs but didn’t see a hoody that took his fancy. We all wanted hoodies for our 13 Theme Parks in 1 year challenge (see my other trippie for this) but Rich & Tom hadn't found any that they really wanted yet. They did like the Dragon Khan mugs though.

We walked back to the hotel and arrived just after 6pm. We were all really hungry so had a quick wash and change, tried ringing Mom (who was engaged) and were ready and on our way to Roadhouse (our favourite restaurant in Salou) by 6:45...

Roadhouse is just a 5 minute walk from the hotel, but when we got there we saw that it was closed today for some building work, and we could see the workmen doing some AC ducting welding outside.

We quickly decided to walk down to Goretti, which was the other restaurant on our must-do list, despite the not so great service last time, as their pizzas are lovely. It took us about 15 minutes to get there and we were starving by the time we arrived.

We got a table outside and ordered 2 cokes and a sprite, chips to share and a pizza each – Pepperoni for Tom, Ham with extra Mushrooms for me and a Cirilo (with bolognaise sauce, ham, bacon and chicken) for Rich.

The waiter brought us some mixed nuts / snacks with our drinks which we got through quickly, and luckily our chips came as a starter so we quickly demolished those (so quick that I didn’t get a photo).

We’d even tucked into our pizzas before I took the photos, so sorry about these...

We ordered an extra sprite for me and a coke for Tom, which Rich ended up sharing.

Just like our meal in October the food was really lovely – we each swapped a slice of pizza so we could try all 3. I struggled to finish mine, so gave Rich my last slice, but ended up picking at half of Tom’s last slice.

Also, just like last time, the service was a let-down . Our server was nowhere to be found after our 2nd drinks arrived and we had to ask one lady 3 times for the bill! It was starting to get a bit chilly in the shade and we were all itching to leave (it was almost 8:15), so when the bill finally came (€52.30) we left without adding a tip.

Tom had spotted a big Salou sign by the beach front, so we crossed over and I took the opportunity to put some plasters on my feet (as my new ballet pumps were rubbing a bit) whilst the boys waited for a turn to take some pics (I took this one)...

This ended up turning into a mini photo shoot, and we got some lovely pics of Tom looking very grown up here and during our walk back down the beach...

We enjoyed our slow stroll down the beach front, it was a lovely evening to be out walking...

We popped into the Tobacconist at the bottom of Carrier de Sarragossa to get some cigarettes for Rich (3 packs for €5 each), and also popped into one of the tat shops to get some sunglasses for Tom (€5 for fake aviator style “Prada”). There were quite a few lucky-lucky men around and one called Rich a “Batty Boy” as we walked past, so we spent the rest of the walk back joking about witty responses for next time .

We got back to the hotel by 9pm. By this time we’d decided that we’d pop into the restaurant to see what desserts the buffet had to offer (as we had evening meal included in our stay). I didn’t have our meal card with me so Tom and I popped up to the room to get it on the way.

By the time wed got back down into the restaurant and had a look at what was been on offer for dinner, we were a bit peckish again so Rich and I ended up having a few savoury bits too – I had some turkey breast and a small piece of cod with pasta and sauce (I'll spare you the half eaten pic of this), followed by a piece of flan (which wasn't very nice so I left it), a mini apple tarte (which was very nice) and some strawberries...

Rich had turkey, cod a few chips and something else that I can’t remember, followed by strawberry mouse and some other dessert that I didn't make a note of (or take any pics). Tom didn’t really fancy anything but tried a mini jelly and a yoghurt sized pot of ice cream from the kids buffet (sorry, another pics fail ).

Drinks weren't included in the evening buffet, but none of us fancied anything anyway, so we had no bill to pay tonight

We were sat outside on the pool terrace (at what would become our usual table) by 9:35, chilling for a few minutes whilst Rich had his final smoke of the day...

We were all tired and were in bed by 9:45. I spent half an hour writing up a few trip notes, but was drained so put an episode of HIMYM on and was quickly asleep .

I did wake up briefly at 4am to use the loo, dropping back off to HIMYM. At some other point I can remember hearing some rain but didn’t check the time.

PS: Our total Step Count for today was 28,979 (12.6 miles), beating our previous record of 24,675 at Animal Kingdom during last year's Floziday.

Day 2 is here

[Cazzius]

What a busy first day!

Tom is looking so grown up now compared to your earlier trippies.

Port Aventura looks really nicely themed, I like how the areas are based on different places.

A shame about the service at the pizzaplace. I think sometimes places in Europe think they are being nice by leaving you alone and letting you linger after dinner... but sometimes we just want to the bill and to get out of there! I find this in France a lot.