Four fly to Spain - Port Aventura here we come....

[PoppyAnna]

The Cast:
Me: Joanne, 37. Lover of any holiday.
DH: Richard, 40. Over worked, stressed IT consultant and lover of a good waterpark.
Eldest DD: Anna, 5. Dancing, food and fun loving girl.
Youngest DD: Poppy, (almost) 3. Cheeky, typical red haired Minxie.

Day One – The journey, splash time and sneak peek.
Our flight leaves Gatwick South at 0555! I have arranged our usual meet and greet car park service for 0330! So we get up 0200 get ready and wake the girls at the last minute. All washed and spruced, we leave home at 0245. After saying goodbye to our car we check-in, after which we head for the coffee bar for drinks and almond croissants! Yum!
We take off on time and as soon as we’re up, it feels like it’s time to land – an uneventful 1hr 45min flight it was and with spare seats we were able to spread out and little Poppy managed to get an hour sleep.

Touch down at Reus airport is around 9am after collecting our bags and making the short 15 minute trip to the hotel we arrive to check-in but our room isn’t ready so before we store our luggage, I unpack the cossies and towels then we hit the pool for a swim.

After lunch at the pool bar we go to our room to unpack and shower. We find funky Woody Woodpecker amenity packs for each of the girls which have a toothbrush, comb, hairbrush and a cup in, a nice touch. We find that the girls will be sleeping in bunk beds, we’re not big fans of bunk beds and the girls have never slept in them but we find that they adapt quickly (frankly, they’re too tired not to).

We booked this holiday as a package with Thomas Cook which means we’re staying half board on site at the El Paso hotel as it was the only option. I don’t think I’ve stayed half board at a hotel since I was a child and my Dad took me on holiday. So, it’s with trepidation that we head to the restaurant for dinner. Dinner turned out to be a very pleasant surprise there were good choices of salads, tapas, soups, meats, local fish and vegetables. The meat and fish is cooked on an open grill where it is served which was nice. The range of puddings and fruit was amazing and Anna’s eyes popped out of her head! (Breakfast was just as nice with cereals, fruit, pastries, continental meats, a pancake griddle and full English!)
After dinner we decide to walk the 100yards up the road to the Port Aventura Theme Park. First impressions are really good. We can tell straight away that the park is pretty big. It occurs to us that Woody Woodpecker is to Port Aventura what Mickey is to Walt Disney World, other main characters are the Muppet gang, Betty Boo (?) and Shrek(?).
One perk of staying on-site is we get fastpasses to certain rides. We only really nose around the Wild West area where DH and eldest use an “Express Pass” on Grand Canyon Rapids (like Kali) whilst Poppy and I get a drink.

After refreshment we head to the kiddie rides in the area and the girls go on the bumper cars and bump into Cowboy Woody!

The early start is catching up so we head home for bed.
In the early hours the loudest thunderstorm I have ever heard sounds like it is directly over head, the girls slept soundly in their bunks.

 

[CHEK]

So Joanne, the girls slept soundly in their bunks, But did you???, or did you have one eye open all night?
Your DD's look like they're having a wonderful time, great pics

 

[Pinky166]

Great start Joanne.

Your girls are sooo cute!

 

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

Aww looks fab.
Bet you kept your eye open mind with the girls in bunk bed...x
Great start..

 

[natalielongstaff]

Your girls are so cute ! love the character pics

 

[Snowy-girls]

Great start Joanne.Love the pics.x.

 

[PoppyAnna]

Day two – The Theme Park.
We wake up around 8am and get down to breakfast at 845am.
This is the view of the maze at the hotel from our balcony.

The park opens at 1000am at we make the walk up the gentle hill to the theme park. I have forgotten the express pass tickets so Richard pops back to the room whilst we wait. The park consists of five “lands” Mediterrania, Polynesia, China, Mexico and Far West. Proof of the previous owners remain.

There are thrill rides and gentle rides and attractions for all ages in every area.
We enter the park and after a character stop with Burt and Ernie we head straight to China via Mediterrania on the boat.

The feel of the park is lovely, as you enter the park and Mediterrania it has a lovely feel of a fishing village that could be almost anywhere on the Med.

The ride that runs over the lake is called “Furious Baco” the newest thrill ride in the park a fast side-by-side rollercoaster.

After riding the teacups in China, we head for a show called Bubble Bou, I read reviews before leaving that this was a good entertaining break from the sun especially for little ones, Poppy loves the show!

After a gentle hub and spoke ride we head for refreshments and then the girls have a run around in the themed playground. We ride two other young hub and spoke type rides which the girls love.

After lunch, we head further on through China to watch a show called China Town – we don’t know what to expect but the air conditioned theatre is a relief from the very hot day outside. The show is fantastic! With Chinese acrobatic stunts beyond belief. No flash photo graphs were allowed.
We walk straight down through Mexico and the girls need a powder their noses so we’re pushed through to the Far West area for this. So Mexico is missed out today although I eye this restaurant for lunch on our next visit.

Poppy is getting tired, we decided to come on holiday without a buggy and we’re starting to think maybe we should have rented a park one. Poppy and I go on the Wild West themed carousel whilst Richard and Anna go on the woody “Stampida” with express passes. Yet another drink stop is needed, this time an alcoholic one for the adults....

After some more time in the playgrounds with the girls we have a drink and a snack in the Saloon bar and watch the show which was very fun and Richard really liked the can-can part especially!

Anna and I ride the log flume ride “Silver River flume” with our express passes which are starting to come in very handy.
It’s 430pm and we decide to head back to the room for a Siesta!
After dinner we wander out to another on-site hotel for a drink and then return for an early night.

 

[PoppyAnna]

So Joanne, the girls slept soundly in their bunks, But did you???, or did you have one eye open all night?
Your DD's look like they're having a wonderful time, great pics

Aww looks fab.
Bet you kept your eye open mind with the girls in bunk bed...x
Great start..

I wasn't too worried about the eldest on top, we set the ground rules from the start - no climbing up there to play etc and Poppy was banned from going up there altogether!
I was more worried about little Poppy on the bottom, the wooden frame was quite a bit wider than the mattress and the floor was tiled - ouch! So we stored the suitcases under the bed and when she went to bed we pulled them out and covered them in all the spare blankets to form a sort of soft ledge! Richard slept on their side as he sleeps lighter than me.
She didn't fall out once, they were so tired.

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Great so far Joanne, I wouldn't mind going here one day, does it cater much to younger kids?

 

[Cyrano]

Great report.
SIL/BIL visited in the summer and have not really said much about it

 

[disneyangel]

Lovely photos and great trippie

Does univeral not own the park anymore ?

 

[Minniespal]

Lovely photos Joanne

 

[The Fetherstons]

Great photos Joanne, the place looks really good

 

[Tink2312]

Great TR so far!
I didn't even realise Port Aventura wasn't Universal-owned anymore Would love a trip there though

 

[Goofysmate]

Great picture of you DD with Bert & Earnie

 

[irongirlof12]

love the photo's - for some reason i did not expect it too look as nice as it does. (I think I was expecting alton towers crossed with butlins ) the picci of the beer looks like an 'ice cold in alex' shot!

 

[PoppyAnna]

Thank you for all your lovely comments.

love the photo's - for some reason i did not expect it too look as nice as it does. (I think I was expecting alton towers crossed with butlins ) the picci of the beer looks like an 'ice cold in alex' shot!

We were so pleasantly surprised by the resort and the parks. Thats the main reason for doing this trippie. I don't think many people know this great theme park exists, and that it's not very far from the UK at all.
I know it's not Disney but it was really good fun, and two things it has over DLRP for me is better weather and a waterpark!
I'm hoping to do day three tomorrow as to be honest, I'm feeling a bit poorly tonight so I'm off to bed.......

 

[gemmybear83]

Thanks for this I love Portaventura when I went here so this brings back a lot of happy memories!

 

[PoppyAnna]

Day Three – The Waterpark.

.......Let me take you back.....
You may recall on the first night we experienced an almighty thunderstorm overhead. It’s clear to us this morning that that very thunderstorm obviously put pay to what we experienced last night from our room – the Mini Disco and entertainment! These take part in the open air on a stage not too far from our room! Now that we know, it’s fine it was just a little shocking to settle down to an early night then be kept awake by a funk-ed up version of “I am the Music man.........”!
So we’re up a bit later than yesterday and after breakfast we head for the waterpark. The weather is slighty overcast which suits us fine for a waterpark day, as most of us are fair skinned.
The entrance Costa Caribe is directly next door to the theme park.

(You can see the Universal logo on the entrance sign)

Just like the theme park we swipe our rooms cards at the entrance and after a little wander around we settle on a quiet spot just a short stroll from the busier childrens area. Again the theming is impressive, being based on the carribean (although parts of it remind me of Center Parcs too as there is a large glass indoor part) it’s nice and colourful.

The childrens area is fantastic and can really teach Disney a lesson or two about their pre-school/younger areas of TL and BB – this whole water area has great slides and has a large barrel at the top which fills and overflows every minute or so to absolutely drench everything – like the Curious George area at US. It has bycycles that when peddled squirt water and loads of handles to turn to stop and start water. Water canons to fire at people – really good interactive fun for little ones. Some little tame slides for the youngest and some tubes for the older ones.

We go on the family raft ride which, is one of the best I have been on. Then I stay with Poppy whilst Richard and Anna go off to ride some single and double rides.
After a lunch of Jamaican style chicken and rice (quite nice, actually) we rest for a bit and let our meal go down before going into the main wave pool. The wave power is nothing like TL but great fun. I only manage a photo of the main pool on the way out.

After a little while in the wave pool we go around the lazy river. We wait quite a while for three tubes (I give up waiting and swim around with Anna) then we find out that you can also hire tubes on the way in, this obviously cuts down your waiting time but it would mean lugging four tubes around a waterpark for us and something else to look after......so we didn’t bother.

We spend a while in the indoor area on more tube slides and then decide after getting one last refill of our drinks we head back home for a lovely two and a half hour siesta and an evening of Mini-Disco and a chance to meet "Winnie" who is to Woody what Minnie is to Mickey!

Tomorrow - Barcelona.......

 

[Pinky166]

A great update Joanne, it looks lovely there.