Jivo

Hahahaha this is a topic that has been talked about for a long time here in the Spanish forums! Initially the theming topic for Furius Baco is WINE, but the problem is when they start to add different ingredients such as monkeys, dummies all around, the scientist or his crazy experiments. Basically on a farmhouse (called "masia" in Catalan) in Catalunya the wife of a typical marriage goes to Africa, where he has a baby and come home with the baby and a monkey (¿?). When the child is 12 years decides to be an inventor and later the parents leave the "masia" and leave the boy-inventor and heir (hereu) with the condition that he maintains the tradition of making wine for the years. As an inventor comes up with a system to make the barrels of wine arriving before or more speed at their destination, so invents a rocket to propel them fast. When you reach the "masia" the dummy (that is you) have to prove the first trip of the machine that the inventor has put the name of Furius Baco. As confusing and weird as it sounds

Hi chokeslamcena, I'm that "Xavi" from Coaster Critic's FB comments (also known as Jivo or Bloggercoaster). And let me explain you my personal experience until today, to make clear my views on Shambhala. I tried it out on the third day of operation, when it's assumed that a problem like this should have been resolved but "oh god!" It turned out to be a little hell. I tried to ride on 3 occasions and in different rows and seats, being expelled from Shambhala in all this attempts. I saw too that in each cycle they expelled 3 or 4 people per train, so it was not an isolated case of me. After a few days I could talk to other park workers and ride-ops from Shambhala that indicated to me that the park received hundreds of complaints every day about it and that the ratio of expelled people was 16% (between 3 and 6 people in every cycle). Apparently the park made ​​changes in operations and adjusted the harnesses, so I decided to try again a couple of weeks later and yes, I fit and could tasted the speed and hills of Shambhala! Unfortunately that day it fell next to me a piece of metal (although in fact were two) and the park closed since then for a week Shambhala, apparently to change the lift chain and improve security of guests (there was some commotion on Twitter and Facebook, even Oriolat uploaded all the photos here, I think). Fortunately, Shambhala now works perfectly (and great!) and it seems that the park has changed the measures of the seats to make it more "fat-friendly", although of course they can't violate the safety standards and probably still have people who can not ride it. I only will give you two tips for your visit: 1) As fdelhomez says: don't pay a lot of attention to the test seat measures. The fact that makes you fit or not (if you are a little width of thighs) is really the effectiveness of the ride-op checking the harness, not really the sit measures. 2) The queue time in Shambhala is like a lottery. Maybe 10 minutes, maybe 3 hours. It depends on the number of trains (this is not Silverstar and they don't put on track the three trains from early in the day ), if the park is crowded or not on your visiting day (given that we are in summer season is more likely to be) and more random aspects such as weather or the cuts in operation (thing that is quite common in PortAventura). Anyway, I think I've said all I had to say, anyway this week i will do a big review in Bloggercoaster so if you want more info, you know where to find it Have a nice visit!!!

As my dear friend Oriolat says, I was taking some pictures from Shambhala's splash when this piece has fallen just 3 meters (10 feets) away from me with a very loud clang. I warned a park worker immediately and she alerts an operator that took the part out of the place. 10 minutes later, the ride was closed for all the day and a few operators and managers from park were reviewing the lift's structure and base. Then, apparently it fell a second piece similar but slightly curved. Here you have another photo taken by my mobile phone:

For me: Leap the Dips @ Lakemont Park (1902) Big Dipper @ Blackpool Pleasure Beach (1923) I think they are the oldest I've ever complete

It seems that Gerstlauers family coaster construction continues and theming works advance to good speed! Maybe it will be open on 1st of April, who knows! Source: http://www.channelparks.com/wordpress/2012/02/obra-de-la-novedad-2012-del-parque-de-atracciones-de-madrid/

^Maybe it will be a soft-openning or something for this pre-season and a huge theming work for the summer/halloween season... seems like this last Halloween at PAM was very successful, why not make a "demo" of one month without all the theming, close it, make a huge theming and then release the entire coaster+theming pack? It's not the most usual method but... maybe it works

^Diego Garcia, Parque de Atracciones de Madrid director's has posted this on his recently opened Twitter acount: It says: "Tomorrow Gerstlauer will start to assemble the track of the Parque new roller coaster. With some luck, it will be OK for SS" SS means "Saint Week", a religious holidays between 2nd and 8th of April. So here you have it: GERSTLAUER. It might look like a mix of a youngstar and a family coaster like Die Schlange von Midgard (Hansa Park). The water ride that you tell is "Fiordos", the water-splash ride. But if we take a look at the latest construction pictures, probably the new coaster will pass a few meters away from Fiordos track...

Very good news for a park that is becoming the most familiar and complet in all the country (with a collection of 7 credits!) The only unknown yet is what company is suposed to construct this one... because the tracks could belong to 3 types of different companies (Maurer, Gerstlauer or Mack Rides). My personal clue is the curve that you can see next to the drop (after the lift). It seems similar to the Mack youngstar 90º banked curve so that can be another youngstar project to Madrid (because Parque Warner have already one, Correcaminos Bip Bip). The works have already begun in the Park a month ago, just as I've been writted only a few messages I think I can't link anything yet. You just have to search the website posesionfriki.com , sorry!

My list of parks in this 2012: February: Jardin d'Aclimatation (Paris) < not sure, it depends of weather March: Europa Park < Wodan press event! April: Parque Warner & Parque de Atracciones de Madrid < special event with spanish theme parks enthusiasts May: PortAventura < season openning and (maybe) Shambhala's openning , Gröna Lund & Liseberg June: RollerCoaster Team Tour 2012 > Walibi World, Efteling, Bobbejaanland, Plopsa de Panne, Bagatelle, Parc Asterix, Holiday Park, Europa Park August: I'm trying to do a trip to Flamingoland (UK) or Drayton Manor, it depends of flying prices. September: Europa Park (maybe Tripsdrill too). October: EAS 2012 @ Berlin and Freizeitpark Plohn (what a shame that Berlin don't have a nearest themepark ) Of course, during the 2012 season I will visit too Tibidabo, PPS Park and, maybe, Europark & LunaPark (France), but for this parks I don't have a date yet...

I don't know if I see it in some website or forum but... it will be Fata Morgana closed on February? Because I'm planning to do a trip on final week of this month and with the construction of Aquanura don't know if it will be opened or closed... Anyone can confirm smoething about this? Thanks!

The elevator system between sections looks brilliant! Yeah first play, first win

I think that maybe the problem too is that the park, officially hasn't given much information (in fact, if you visit now the website, as you can see, only facilitates what was said in press conference months ago) and a replica at tourism congress at Madrid. So here, the enthusiasts, look to the project like something really new and big but, come on, it's only another B&M hyper, only a few meters taller... if the Park doesn't facilitate information, it gives us the feeling that we must be who provides it on the internet (forums, websites, blogs, etc.). Personally, I don't think that it is marginalizing this project, on the contrary, only we have the feeling that the strategy for the promotion and marketing of the Park, in all the world, not only in Spain, is very poor, and we think that we are responsible for show all to you. I also think that follow it section to section is excessive and boring, that's why I update the construction in Bloggercoaster every 2 or 3 weeks, not daily