Well, well, well. Holidays are over. Weep.
It is hard to imagine when you're flinging everything in your suitcase, switching your out of office on and trying to get to sleep the night before you travel that you will ever be back to normality. Portaventura was a complete blast! We had four days with wonderful company, glorious sunshine, amazing food and as much wine as I could handle.
Food and drink
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| The water park |
I wasn't great at taking photos of the food we ate (sorry!) however I wanted to describe the set up for our holiday. We booked on an all-inclusive basis, meaning we could eat until we burst! The Merida restaurant at the hotel El Paso is where we had most of our meals. Our breakfast buffet in the hotel was superb - they had anything you could imagine for breakfast. Eggs all ways, Spanish tortillas, bacon, cold meats, breads, pastries, sausages, coffee, juice, the works. As we were going in to the parks each day, we didn't get to see what the lunch buffet was like - not that I could imagine needing it. Dinner buffet was themed three nights per week, and we were lucky enough to hit that up on the Monday night, Italian night. Every kind of pasta, pizza and pasta sauce you could imagine, and the cheesiest, most amazing risotto I have ever tasted. I really loved the food in this place!
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| Bert and Ernie |
We were also given vouchers for three course meals in the park each day we were staying at the hotel. This included certain restaurants in the parks, and was great as it meant that we didn't have to leave to come back to the hotel and get lunch, we could stay in the park. The voucher also happened to include a beverage, for which you could choose the local speciality lager - Estrella. I fell in love with Estrella on this trip! I will definitely be hunting some to keep in my fridge when I'm feeling like I need to close my eyes and be on holidays again...
Our final night we dined in the table service Mexican restaurant El Coyote. I had the vegetarian fajitas, which were sublime. The rest had chicken and beef fajitas, and a steak. All included. We also had wine and beer with our meal and at the end got up and walked away without paying for a thing. All inclusive was really hard to comprehend sometimes! (But we managed it.)
The Parks
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| Tutuki Splash - one of my favourites |
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| Tutuki Splash - splashing |
We ventured into the theme park all three days we were there, and had a ball. It was busier than we expected, and we sometimes had to queue for the major attractions, however I don't think we ever queued longer than about 30 mins. The park was in the process of being decorated for Halloween, and each day we would come in to find the park had been decorated a little bit more overnight! I love theme parks, I find them very romantic places - just pure, innocent fun and making happy memories with people you love. My husband and I have some very special memories from theme parks and even honeymooned in Disneyworld!
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| Shambala |
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| Lounging near the pirate ship - Polynesia |
Shambala is without a doubt the best rollercoaster I have ever been on. Dizzyingly high, yet smooth and so enjoyable. I would go back there for that alone. The 300ft drop attraction, Hurican Condor, was the one attraction we had to queue the longest for - and the reason was that the park wasn't running all the seats on it. If they had have done, the queues would have been much smaller. This was the ride my husband was looking forward to the most, as we had been on it before. Unfortunately we didn't get on as much as we would have liked, because of the queues, but once you're on it it's hard to remember being as scared on anything else in your life.
Overall
I had a blast celebrating my 30th birthday with my beloved husband and friends. I would definitely go back to PA in a few years - the new Ferrari World opens there next year. Until then, I think I want to focus on travelling to places I have never been, and I am happy to take a break from theme park holidays for a little spell. Our next trip is to Toronto over Christmas, where my parents live. They live right downtown, and I look forward to showing you around there. The countdown to Christmas...is on.
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| The pirate ship - one of my favourites |
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| Boo to you! |
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Wild, ,wild west
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Beware
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