Gavin went to Disneyland when he was a small child. I went to Disneyland Paris when I was 16. Every year we go to Playland in Vancouver, and sporadically both of us have been to Galaxy Land at the West Edmonton Mall. These experiences did not prepare us for Port Aventura.

Prior to the start of our journey  we knew we wanted to go to an amusement park we just didn’t know of any in Europe. Disneyland in Paris was not very good in my opinion and we wanted to go on world record breakers. We looked up the top 50 roller coasters in the world and 3 of them were in Spain at Port Aventura.

When the train slowly rolled up to Port Aventura and we saw the twisted metal that belonged to  two of the top the roller coasters in the world our hearts started pumping with anticipation. It was the day after a long weekend and there was not a cloud in sight, today was definitely the day to visit! We had decided to spend a night at the resort because we would get a better deal; one night stay included random suite with two day passes for each of us for €70 euros each. With a day pass going at €50 euros a piece and a stay anywhere else averaging €30 euros a piece, we were saving quite a bit.

Port Aventura was like no other amusement park we had been to. There was six separate sections, each themed after a different place: China, Mexico, Far West, Sesame Aventura, Polynesia, and Mediterrania. Each place was immaculately themed with buildings, music, restaurants and stores. All of the sections even had the local plants of the places they were imitating! China had the two biggest attractions Shambhala and Dragon Khan. You could walk along a miniature Great Wall of China to most of the attractions while Chinese music played all around you. The stores sold Chinese style gifts while the restaurants served Chinese styled foods. Mexico had El Diablo, a wooden roller coaster, Serpiente Emplumada, and the Hurakan Condor (the tallest drop tower in Europe). As with China, there was Mexican themed buildings, music and food. The Far West was western themed with American music and gold rush motifs. Strangely it made us think of home, probably because the buildings imitated the historic buildings from Fort Langley and Dawson City. The Far West was home to Stampida, the duelling wooden roller coaster and water rides the Grand Canyon Rapids and Silver River Flume . This section of the park served American food such as hot dogs, steak, ribs and hamburgers. The only music we heard was Bon Jovi’s ” Have a Nice Day” and CCR’s “Have You Ever Seen The Rain”. It was really interesting to see our culture (or a relatively similar one anyways) commodified and sold back to us. The next section, Sesame Aventura was the kids zone. We did not go there. All I can say is: Elmo, Cookie Monster, Woody Wood Pecker (who seemed to be the park mascot) Grover, Burt and Ernie walked around a lot. Polynesia was cool, it didn’t have many rides outside of Tutiki Splash but it held many shows like Birds of Paradise and the Sea Odyssey 4D Aquaride show. Lastly Mediterrania, this was the entrance to the park with shops, restaurants, and daily parades. Mediterrania featured Furios Baco, the fastest roller coaster in Europe!

After checking in we raced to the two coasters we were dying to try: Dragon Khan and Shambhala. The two roller coasters were located in China, the furthest section in the park. It took us almost thirty minutes to walk there from our hotel. We went in line for Shambhala first. Shambhala was the tallest roller coaster in Europe with downward slope speeds of 135km/h. We waited in line for an hour and watched people with express passes cut the line with jealousy. The ride was not working at full capacity due to harsh winds. Gavin and I didn’t care about wind we wanted to ride Shambhala. When we finally made it to the front of the line we sat down in the ride. The only support on our body was a plastic block that covered our legs like a seatbelt. Our upper bodies Were hanging free as we slowly climbed 80m into the sky. When you reach the top of the coaster there is a quick pause before the quick descent. Unfortunately we were hit by a strong gust of wind as well. The wind made the ride even more terrifying than it needed to be, I could understand why they wanted to shut the ride down. After riding Shambhala I was terrified and did not like the ride, Gavin loved it. I had tears on my face from being so terrified and Gavin screamed so much he lost his breath. When we finished the ride we went to a kiosk where we could see a video of our faces. You could see me pushing myself back against the seat trying to gain some more support, while Gavin looked like he was going to lose his mind from fear or excitement, we can’t be sure.

Immediately after the ride we ran to Dragon Khan. Dragon Khan was considered one of the best roller coasters in the world with 8 inversions (second most in the world). We waited in line for one and a half hours due to poor conditions (it was really windy). Finally we got to the front of the line and sat in our seats. The ride operators were reluctant to start the ride because the wind kept getting crazier. I refused to cut and run because we waited an hour and a half to ride Dragon Khan. Eventually the ride was shut down and I was in a foul mood.

We walked around the park until we saw a giant wooden roller coaster in the Mexico section. We rode El Diablo, unsatisfied that in Vancouver the wooden coaster was much better. We rode a couple small rides like the Chinese Tea Cups and Kontiki (a polynesian pirate ship) because the lines were short. Before long we were able to find out which hotel room we had gotten from the random draw. While at the front desk we discovered that because we were staying at the hotel we got a discount on the gold express passes for the park. Gavin and I had been thinking about the passes all morning but debated whether it was worth the price. But since we got a discount and the pass was good for our entire stay we jumped on it. We had waited almost 3 hours to ride two rides, but with the pass we could skip the lines and enjoy our short time in the park more efficiently.

We threw our luggage into our rooms and quickly ran back to the park to use our pass. Our first stop was Furios Baco. At 135km/h it was the fastest coaster in Europe. We skipped the 30+ minute wait and jumped into our seats. The Ride was so elaborately decorated. It took place above a real vineyard and there was a video about a scientist putting grapes under pressure, something goes wrong and the pressure sends us flying through the park. The force of the ride was so strong it sprained my shoulder. Not to be detoured I immediately wanted to ride more. We had heard that Dragon Khan was now operating so we ran to China. We skipped the line then rode Dragon Khan. It was my new favourite ride! Gavin loved it to but he was sure he preferred Shambhala. Rather than riding the same ride over and over ( we didn’t want the people waiting in line for an hour to notice and get mad because we got priority) we ran to Shambhala. For a while we ran back and forth between Shambhala and Dragon Khan before we went to ride Furios Baco one more time. Since we had the express pass we had time to enjoy the shows in the park so we went and watched the Birds of Paradise. The entire show was in Spanish and we could not understand anything or know where the birds were from  but it was interesting to watch.

We wandered over to the Far West and found another roller coaster, Stampida. We walked into the line up and saw a confusing sign, “Choose wisely” with the colours red and blue painted. We decided on the red path and saw that there were two coasters to the roller coaster: a red coaster and blue coaster. We loaded the coasters at the same time and were launched at the same time. We watched our coasters move in sync with each other, one occasionally going faster than the other. At one point the coasters went opposing ways before the blue coaster won. Gavin and I were shocked, that coaster was way more amazing than the one at home and it was so fun.

We ended our evening going on Serpiente Emplumada as well as every other ride mentioned countless times until the park closed at 8pm. At 7:30 there was a parade through the park that we had missed followed by a song and dance essentially kicking us out of the park. The park had a series of its own songs playing on the PA saying Buenos Noches see you later etc. We went to our hotel room excited to go to sleep in our own private room and wake up in Port Aventura.

The next morning we woke up and checked our luggage away after we checked out of our room. Today we had a plan on how we were going to do all of the rides, this started with Furios Baco, going to the Far West to ride the Stampida, Mexico to ride Hurukan Condor, China to ride Dragon Khan and Shambhala then back to Furios Baco. We would ride any small rides between if we felt like it but the focus was really on the Hurukan Condor because that was the only ride we had to wait in line for. We also planned to ride the water rides at about noon.

Starting off with Furios Baco was like a kick in the face. We were pretty tired and we didn’t realize we were no longer used to the speed. Furios Baco woke us up better than any cup of coffee could.

While riding the important rides we also rode bumper buffaloes; saw a creepy singing vulture; saw a 4D adventure; and went into the most amazing hall of mirrors I had ever been to. Gavin rode Shambhala a few times on his own, once even at the very front. By the end of the day we had rode every ride at least half a dozen times each and sat in the front of all of the major rides. Before we knew it we had to catch our train out of Port Aventura and go back to real life–I mean, Barcelona.