PortAventura Resort - Includes PortAventura Park Tickets

Where do I start, I think it belongs here as I bought hotel plus park as a bundle. When I booked, I booked the bundle of hotel+parks and then flights just to go to the Portaventura Parks. I checked that Ferrari World would be open and it was....29th to 30th November, see screenshot. Unfortunately later this changed and Ferrari was closed. When I then got to the main park, it felt like half of the park was closed too. I expected some out of season closures, but not a single water ride was open, less shows. Many of the smaller rides, and Stampede. The new ride Unchartered had difficulties. Unfortunately the park app kept highlighting it as open so we went back only to be told its still closed. The next morning we went into park and unchartered was still closed, it said open on the app. Staff then said it might be closed for an hour, a few hours,the day week or even whole month. Within 5 minutes of entering on the second day we left and enjoyed the Spanish Countryside instead. Highly disappointing experience of a park I had been looking forward to visiting for a few years now

Unfortunately we did the online check-in like most of guests, which means we would be proccessed quicker if we went to the regular check-in, The cleanliness of our room fell short of our expectations. We discovered piles of hair in various spots within the bathroom, which was both off-putting and surprising for a hotel of this stature. Our adventures in the park further highlighted some concerns. While the park boasts some captivating attractions, the overall experience was marred by frustratingly long queues. Wait times often exceeded 2 hours for popular attractions, a situation that seemed to stem from an evident shortage of staff. Moreover, many staff members not only appeared uninterested and even rude, but also seemed inadequately trained and incompetent, which directly contributed to the inefficiencies and extended wait times. While there are commendable aspects of El Paso Hotel and PortAventura Park, there's a distinct need for improvements, particularly in room cleanliness and park management, to truly elevate the guest experience.

After reading recent reviews from July & August 2023 we were a bit worried about our stay. We had booked the roulette package on booking.com so didn't know which hotel we would get until the day before we arrived. This was our final hotel after travelling through france and northern spain and we had spent a lot on this hotel package a final 'treat' for kids before flying home. We got assigned El Paso hotel (2 x standard rooms with park tickets for each day). We booked 1/2 board so bfast & dinner included. On arrival we were impressed with the hotel. Arrived late (7pm) so no queue to check in. Pleasantly surprised that we were able to book in for dinner at 8pm - bonus. Rooms - big and spacious. Small balcony. Big double beds and powerful shower. Good air con. Cleaning was good enough but could have been better (see below). Dinner - lovely friendly greeting each night. Used portaventura app to book breakfast & dinner slots..used app to eat in park one night too instead of buffet at hotel. Found this really easy to use. Good wifi connection. Food good, lots of variety and nice to have salad and veg options. Kids thought it was amazing. Staff very friendly and worked hard. Price of drinks very reasonable. Pool - very big. Kids loved it. Good amount of sunbeds Location of hotel reasonable. Distance to park entrance (10/15 mins) and Salou (20mins) walking. On 3rd night there we were asked at dinner by a senior staff member if we could answer some questions about stay. We felt this was in response was to some of the negative reviews so were pleased that they were listening to these reviews.

Rooms - agree that these are looking a bit tired and need some maintainance / refresh. The handle on my taps fell off on first use so had to screw it back on. Bed linen was old and in desperate need of replacing. Same for bath towels - they were very thin and not very big - they need replacing. No fridge, bottles of water or tea / coffee making facilities. Could be very noisy as echo from corridor due to tiles on floor. Cleaning not always great. One day cleaner left a different card in room and spare pillow cases which they had clearly forgotten to pick up when leaving. Dinner - whilst we understood the timings for breakfast & dinner it did make it feel a bit rushed. Pool - lifeguards did seem a bit overly strict with the rules. The whole pool side area needs a good clean and the sand (which isn't great as gets everywhere) needs a good rake / clean - it felt dirty at times - with cigarette butts and leaves in it. Sunbeds are not comfy and need a clean.