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PortAventura
Spain
Park News - (12/15/16) A fire broke out in a theater on the site of PortAventura's new Ferrari Land sub-park. While the theater was damaged, it sounds like the damage to the new Ferrari Land may have been contained to that area only by the time the firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze. One photo in particular posted to Twitter made it look as if the giant new roller coaster had been set on fire, but so far the reports sent back claim the coaster was undamaged.
(11/4/16) For all the latest on what PortAventura is planning to offer at the park for the Christmas season, make the jump over to RollerCoasterRevolution who has posted a nice summary of the park’s holiday lineup from Nov. 19 to Jan. 8.
 2017- Ferrari Land / Ferrari Hotel - (5/31/17) A couple of fun pictures of the queue area for the Soarin' style flying theater attraction at Ferrari Land were sent in this month, confirming that it is indeed there and open as the Ferrari Experience.
(5/11/17) BlooLoop takes us on a tour of the Ferrari Land mini-park at PortAventura, which has now turned that resort into the first "three-park resort" in all of Europe. For those wondering, they also go into details about how entrance into the mini-park works, confirming that Ferrari Land is an entirely separate park from PortAventura with the entrance located just to the left of PortAventura's main gate. To get in guests must buy a combo-ticket to enter both parks, but they are not currently selling a Ferrari Land only ticket, so entering the mini-park is being treated more like an upgrade experience added onto the main park ticket.
Once longer hours start in the peak season, they expect to offer an evening only (after 6pm) lower cost ticket into Ferrari Land which is expected to stay open until 1am.
(4/11/17) A video showing off a quick walk-around the new Ferrari Land has been posted to YouTube and embedded below. Check it out.
(4/8/17) A new POV video of Red Force was sent in to us today, shot by the team at Parksmania.it. Red Force is the final name of the new Intamin Accelerator launched coaster at Ferrari Land / PortAventura. The coaster launches riders out at 111.9 MPH in 5 seconds and right up a 367.4ft tall top hat element before dropping back down to earth again. Below that is a second video shot by Coaster Touring showing off the ride experience from an off-ride view, giving you an interesting listen into what Red Force sounds like when it launches. Check them out below.
Oh... and one more thing...
Longtime coaster fans may recall a tale about how when the Apollo's Chariot coaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg first opened, the park put Fabio on the first ride with a train full of women in Roman period garb... onto to find out he was struck in the face by a large bird during the inaugural ride. Well... looks like it happened again... kinda... as one of the first riders on Red Force was also struck by a bird during the launch, only this time it was caught on video. The results? Well, see for yourself... but I love the look on his face when he realizes what he has in his hand. Fortunately he seemed uninjured and was able to finish the ride with his hand raised high... so my salute to him for finishing like a pro. As for the bird? I don't think it made it.
(1/27/17) More details about the Ferrari themed rides that will soon open at PortAvenutra's Ferrari Land have been posted by our friends at BlooLoop this week. The article goes over details about the new mini-park's 11 themed rides and attractions that will include F1 and GT racing simulators, a pit stop simulation, themed shows and more in addition to the big steel thrill rides like the 112 meter tall Vertical Accelerator coaster. Look for Ferrari Land to open on April 7th.
As I haven’t seen anything mentioned about a Flying Theater attraction (see the update below) I’m guessing that it was perhaps that attraction building that was involved with the park fire in December, and caused it to be removed from the list of opening day attractions. Hopefully it will still open as a Phase 2 addition.
(9/6/16) A new Flying Theater from Brogent Technologies will apparently be part of the Ferrari Land experience when it opens at the PortAventura resort next season. I don’t know much more about it, though I do believe there is a flying theater attraction in the original Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi as well, so this could be similar.
(8/17/16) A construction video showing off thenew Ferrari Land at PortAventura was posted on YouTube by one of our readers. Check it out below.
(7/26/16) According to this news article PortAventura has announced that their new Ferrari Land attraction area will officially open to the public on April 7th, 2017.
(5/13/16) New pictures from Ferrari Land at PortAventura can be seen by clicking here and several videos shot the same day from the construction site can also be seen here.
(3/15/16) Based on the latest photos posted to CoasterFriends.de, the new Ferrari Land Intamin launched coaster tower now appears to be mostly complete and the coaster cars are being added to the track.
(2/15/16) Another construction update from Ferrari Land has been posted by European Coaster Kings as the work crews are focused on putting up the large top hat tower.
(2/12/16) The EuropeanCoasterKings website has posted a construction update for the new Ferrari Land at the PortAventura resort this week.
(2/2/16) Amazing new pictures posted to Twitter by Coaster-Fans shows that construction on the Intamin Acelerator coaster for the new Ferrari Land at PortAventura is already well underway, with the station structure already up, as well as the return / brake-run track. The focus now seems to be finishing the large TopHat tower and installing the track onto it.
(1/22/16 - Part 2) I've got some updated information about Ferrari Land at PortAventura. According to my sources the land itself should be ready by the very end of 2016, but the grand opening will not be held until the Easter 2017 holiday season to get better exposure. Of course this means that soft-openings and previews of select attractions may be possible over the winter and early Spring, so if you are a regular visitor keep your eyes open.
I'm also told that the exact details of how to handle admission into Ferrari Land are being hammered out still, so it may not end up being an entirely separate gate. While the plan is to allow guests only interested in Ferrari Land to buy admission to just that area through a separate entrance, the land will also be accessible to PortAventura guests through a separate entrance within the main theme park. This is where things are more up in the air, as admission to Ferrari Land may be included to regular PortAventura guests, or they may offer it as a separate small upcharge item. I imagine that the park will be taking some guest surveys to judge public opinion on the matter over the 2016 season before making a final decision.
(1/22/16 - Part 1) PortAventura has announced that they have pushed back the opening date of their new Ferrari Land second gate, which will now open in 2017 instead of 2016. A new preview website has also been launched that outlines the area’s new attractions as well.
The Intamin launched coaster is being called Acelerador Vertical and will stand 112 meters tall (367.5ft) and launch from 0 to 180km/h (111.8mph) in 5 seconds. The latest animated video and artwork has also removed the Kingda Ka style airtime hill from the return trip and replaced it a smaller hill that appears to rise up into a magnetic brake run decline. The pair of S&S 55m tall (180ft) style Combo shot tower rides will be called Torres De Rebot. The large family car driving track (750 meters long) will be called Circuito. Inside one of the buildings there will also be a group of 8 Ferrari driving simulators (6 for adults, 2 for kids). There will also be a assortment of restaurants and places to shop for genuine Ferrari merchandise items.
(10/16/15) One of our readers visited PortAventura this week, and sent in three pictures showing off the construction site for the new Ferrari themed mini-park. Looks like they are working on the footers for the coaster so far.
(5/12/15) A new piece of concept art has been floating around the news media this week showing off Ferrari Land to be built next to PortAventura. If you compare this new aerial look at the land to the old you can see some minor changed to the race car ride on the right, a new circular plaza at the entrance, with the coaster layout changed to remove the airtime hill, making it look more like Top Thrill Dragster and less like Kingda Ka. The Drop of Doom style drop tower rides have also been removed from the coaster tower and have been redesigned as what looks like a pair of red S&S style Space Shot / Turbo Drop style towers in the back of the race track layout.
A new video from the construction kick off event has also been posted below.
(4/28/15) An email came my way from our European spy network regarding the coaster planned for the Ferrari Land second-gate park at PortAventura. The big coaster, which we've seen in the artwork, looked just like a clone of Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure, complete with a Drop of Doom style drop towers built in from day one. Previously they had kept the height and speed of this coaster clone a guarded secret, only saying that it would be the fastest coaster in all of Europe when it opens.
Now I'm told that the park is expected to announce the full details of the new coaster on May 7th during a cerimony that will lay the first stone of the project. It has been leaked to me that the coaster itself will be 140 meters tall, which would make it 459.3 feet in height, just a meter or so taller than Kingda Ka's 456 foot height. That said, that means this new coaster will surely have to go just a tiny bit faster than Kingda Ka's 128mph launch speed when it opens in 2016 as well.
(3/23/15) ThemeparX has posted a few pictures of the future Ferrari Land construction site being prepared for the new expansion, along with a news link reporting that construction will officially begin on May 7th.
(10/13/14) PortAventura has put up a sign promoting Ferrari Land to open in 2016. While the proposal for this seemed like a fun additional new land for PortAventura, it seems that Ferrari Land will actually operate as an entire separate theme park. A park with only a couple of attractions, and the one big coaster… at a cost of around $130 million I’m told. I’m not sure if that cost is just for the park itself, or if it includes the Ferrari themed hotel as well. Either way, I’m still baffled as to why they would try to run this as a separate theme park experience.
(4/7/14) A PortAventura fan has recreated the Ferrari themed hotel as well as the entire future Ferrari Land section of the park with NoLimits 2, including all the rumored attractions as seen in the concept art, from the car ride, coaster, freefall tower rides and more. Check out a video of their beautiful work below!
(3/14/14) PortAventura has announced that they will add Ferrari Land to the park for 2016. The new Ferrari branded land will feature a number of new attractions, as well as bring a new Ferrari branded 250-room 5-star resort hotel to the PortAventura Resort. The project is expected to cost over 100 million Euros when finished.
According to the concept artwork, in addition to the bright red hotel building, the Ferrari Land will feature a huge new coaster that appears to be semi-clone of Kingda Ka, along with drop tower tracks attached to the tower. No height or speed was given, but they say that this will be Europe’s fastest accelerator coaster when it opens, so it really only needs to be bigger and faster than Stealth at Thorpe Park to make that happen, but it could very well approach the size of Kingda Ka or Top Thrill Dragster. A second dueling race car themed ride is also seen crossing through the land.
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