Hi all - this is my first post here so will try and keep it short and to the point!!
I've just come back from Spain where I visited the Terra Mitica theme park near Benidorm.
It was my third visit to the park, so I know it pretty well by now. I remember going not long after they opened (around 2002 maybe?) It was that long ago that they didn't even have the Vekoma in the park. I recall it being quite busy, although nowhere near as busy as Portaventura, to which I've also been a few times.
Now I have started this topic because having looked through the posts from when you guys went to Spain in 2007, and a few other people's posts on here about the park, it looked like the owners and managers were going to put in lots of money into the park to run it better and to improve many of the areas. Someone mentioned that the Iberia zone would possibly be open with a new ride in 2012?
The park is, in my opinion, a pretty good park. The theming of the park is done very well! Not as good as Portaventua, but definately better than most of the parks here in the UK. It's clear that they had a lot of cash in the beginning to try and get the park up and running. The rides are ok, and in some cases pretty good. It could do with a few more rollercoasters and a few more "scary" rides, but it also has some decent rides - Skynope, Inferno, Titande and the drop tower are all decent. The Magnus Collosus is as painful now as it ever was, and in my opinion is one of the worst wooden rollercoasters I've been on (despite how visually stunning it looks on the mountainside). The park also has a good catalogue of waterrides, and has in the past few years opened up more swimming area for people to cool down from the Spanish sun!
But despite all this, the last two times I've been the park has been empty! I went on Wednesday this week - when the majority of English schools are still on their summer holidays (Benidorm is a massive English holiday resort). All of the rides were walk ons all day - most suprising for this was the Titande Vekoma SLC because they only had one train running anyway! The only two rides we queued on at all were the rapids (5 mins) and the Minotaur dark ride (10 mins). I also went last summer in mid-August, which was a little busier than this year, but still all of the rides were practically walk ons all day.
I spoke to a ride operator on one of the rides who said that weekends are particularly quiet, and that whilst this was the quietest week so far of the summer holidays, it hadn't been that much busier at all.
Now what I want to know is how can this park be running? It is clearly making a loss - we got 2 for 1 tickets from a flyer at the airport and so paid 19 euros each (the 5th in our party got a 10 euros off ticket price). We were offered wristbands to come back the following day for free. They are clearly trying to get people into the park just to spend some money in there! Do you think that Terra Mitica will still be around in a few years (and go bankrupt as it did 2004-06)? Someone mentioned the possibility of a new coaster and the reopening of Iberia in 2013 - will that really happen if they're not bringing people into the park?
It is a real shame because as I've said, the rides are pretty decent for GP (not amazing, but enjoyable), the shows are also very good (the pirate one in particular is world class!), and the prices of food and souvenirs is very reasonable - so why are people not going? I was there from 10am-6pm and went on everything so we left then - would be interesting to know if it's busier in the evenings because they have a big laser show at 11pm).
What is everyone's 2 cents on the matter? Would be interested to know.
P.S. Sorry the first post wasn't as short as I intended it to be! Kind of got carried away!
