Photo TR: Port Aventura Oktoberfest Sept 2015

[Purplepills]

So for the third year in a row, we had our week’s holiday in Salou, Spain, which by no coincidence is where Port Aventura is. We also just happened to be there on Oktoberfest weekend for the third year running, so after taking a bunch of pictures both during a day visit, and at the Oktoberfest evening we went to, I thought some of you might like to see them.

 

This year Oktoberfest was 2 consecutive Saturdays from 6pm to 1am, at 18 Euros (£13/$20) per adult. You can of course go to the park at 10am and stay until 1am if you choose for normal ticket price. The Oktoberfest opening times keep changing over the three years we’ve been. In 2014 it was 7pm to 2am (I think) Friday and Saturday for 2 consecutive weekends. In 2013 it was 7pm to 2/4am Friday, Saturday and Sunday but only one weekend. Not sure how long they have been doing it but it seems they’re still trying different things to see what works.

 

I love the park, its a really nice place to visit, very clean, well kept, theming is great, and very family friendly. I’m not that well travelled in terms of theme parks but this is one of the nicest I’ve been to. We had an excellent time as usual!

 

We did the Oktoberfest visit first from 8pm to 1am, then the daytime visit a few days later. The photos aren’t in the order they were taken but for some reason I feel the night photos should come last

View from our hotel balcony....makes me happy!

Ferrari Land construction area. They’ve dug up a lot of the old car park and built new ones elsewhere from what I could see.

Not much construction going on, just a few pipes...

...and some concrete blocks. Could those be footers for the new Intamin coaster?

I tried from the balcony with max zoom to get both trains in...nearly!

Its the 20th anniversary this year so Woody has some extra balloons!

All of the Mediterranean area is decorated with ribbons and balloons to celebrate the 20 years

And there’s a big anniversary logo and stage in front the Theater building.

The lake and Baco. I love one of these and hate the other.....

..and from the other side. Hint: I love the lake and Baco is horrible

Khan drop vs Shambhala drop

General Himalayan theming, fortunately the snow is fake and it was nice and hot!

Something about this photo makes me want to eat burger and fries...hmmmm

More theming, I don’t really know if it ties in with any story etc as I’m lazy and I’ve never bothered to find out

Generic splashdown shot!

Love this view! Such a a nice looking park with super tidy landscaping.

5-10 minute wait in the afternoon for Shambhala makes for happy riding!

Its not an ice cream stall its a happiness station! Only I’m unhappy as its closed

This was my daughters favourite ride

She must have done it about 12 times in all

Hurakan Condor....doesn’t really do anything for me so didn’t go on. Would’ve given it another go if it wasn’t a 20+ minute wait all day

Then we had a nice ride on the excellent train

Choo choo! etc

To Sesamo Aventura! This whole kids area is really nicely done, although some small areas could now use a little TLC

From big boats....

To nicely themed sun shades for eating under!

Aaaand not forgetting a magic tree in the middle

I took a few random pictures from Coco Piloto ride.

This I think is a pretty good view! I love it

Tami Tami kiddie coaster

NOW to the untrained eye it may look like I’ve borrowed a child to get a credit. I assure you she borrowed me as her mum had to stay with a baby and she was too short to go on alone!

I’d not seen one of these wonky maze type things before

My daughter thought it was fun!

Although I thought an adult version would make a good Horror maze

As dusk falls the park starts to get even nicer!

I’d never noticed these guys before hanging onto Baco

Ahhh darkness, the nemesis of anyone trying to take photos of fast moving objects

The Mediterranean area by the lake looks so nice when the lights come on

Heading to the Far west area of the park

Excellent Flume station

It was pretty busy really through the whole park in the evening

Lots of entertainment in the park for Oktoberfest evening, these drummers were pretty good

Love the theming in the Far west area

Bridge in the Far west area with 20th anniversary decorations. Cant remember if the flags etc were there last year or not!

‘So what family friendly shapes should we arrange the hay bales in for Oktoberfest?’ ‘How about a dick and balls?’ ‘Great idea!’

The carousel looks great at night

Presented by straw style Oktoberfest Woody!

As well as the larger groups dancing, there were ladies like these too

‘If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it!’ etc

I haven’t done one of these for YEARS. My daughter wanted a go though

Then she changed her mind but enjoyed watching me have a go instead. Pretty sure half of it didn't work though!

Random Far west shop

The entertainment moved around the different stages, and was more or less constant. Drummers at it again! There were also cheerleaders, and a band playing Offspring songs who I didnt get photos of.

Ahhh the disco vulture! Normally he just chats in Spanish but this time he had disco lights and was miming rock songs!

‘Let meeeeeeeeeee, entertain you!’

The coasters look great lit up at night.

One of the things I like the most if all the lighting at night isn’t overly bright or floodlit, just makes the whole place look great.

General gold thingy in the Shambhala area

Shambhala station

Got this rather nice ghostly splashdown image. Wasn’t really trying for it as I’m not good enough with a camera to do so!

Belly dancing in the Mexican area

Park was still quite busy at 12.30am as we headed for a beer (coke for me) by the lake

I waited a short while for these ladies to life up their skirts again like they did just as I got there...

...but they didn’t!

Last look over the lake before a beer on the boat!

Lots of people on their way out until...

The new (I hadn't seen them before at least) fountains came on! They were timed to some Europop music with different lights

Was quite a good display, set to 3 or 4 different songs!

The Port Aventura photo sign has had a makeover and is specially lit so you can have your photo there...thanks Port Aventura for a wonderful time!

[coaster1000]

Great TR! PortAventura is such a beautiful park, I just wish their operations were better.

[Midgetman82]

Looks like a wonderful time, and the park seems better than I had originally thought considering most reviews I read of it only focus on the coasters and not much else. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[Purplepills]

Looks like a wonderful time, and the park seems better than I had originally thought considering most reviews I read of it only focus on the coasters and not much else. Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

No problem, glad you liked it! It is a lovely park, I intentionally didn't take lots of photos of the coasters, more just random stuff as I wandered about.

 

Great TR! PortAventura is such a beautiful park, I just wish their operations were better.

 

Thanks!

 

I didn't really have too much trouble with the operations, only really the fact when the park opens at 10, Shambhala doesn't open until 10.30. Its only a minor thing for me really given it takes 10 minutes to walk there anyway. I think out of the 10 or so rides on the time board, two thirds of them didn't open until 10.30 or 11, but I would've expected Shambhala to be open at 10.

 

The ride ops were very good, and on Shambhala they were almost hitting to 60 second unloading/loading timer during the day just going a few seconds over. Now this does depend on the public too but normally when I've been they've been 20/30 seconds over it.

[Superbatboy]

Awesome pics!!

[vertigomkie]

Great TR report. Good to see the Far West section of the park still holding up, it's aged well. Didn't catch any pictures of Stampida. Did you get to ride and how's it holding up? Is it still moderately enjoyable?

[Purplepills]

Thanks guys glad you liked it.

 

Great TR report. Good to see the Far West section of the park still holding up, it's aged well. Didn't catch any pictures of Stampida. Did you get to ride and how's it holding up? Is it still moderately enjoyable?

 

No I didn't ride it. Whilst I find it okay, its just a bit too rough for my liking and there were other things I would rather do. I would ride it again if there was no wait, but when we went past it in the morning there was a 20 or 30 minute wait, and then at the end of the day there just wasn't time with the other things we wanted to squeeze in before closing!

 

We could probably use 2 days at the park in all honesty, given Oktoberfest was pretty busy we didn't actually do much riding in the evening compared to previous years. Problem is with only 7 nights holiday in Salou, we can't really spend more than a day there without sacrificing any of the other things we really wanted to do.