Caribe Aquatic Park, July 2024

After a few days of blazing heat and rollercoasters, we decided to cash in our tickets to PortAventura World’s Caribe Aquatic Park.

Tickets for Cariba Aquatic Park aren’t included in your holiday package. We were staying on resort at Hotel Gold River which includes unlimited access to Port Aventura World and one day at Ferrari Land, but Caribe us an upcharged gate. It is cheaper as part of your package, so it if is a ‘to do’, make sure you add it to your booking.

Hotel Gold River is at the back of the PortAventura Park so the quickest way to get to Caribe was walking straight through the park to the front gate and out into the main hub area. I think that during our time at PortAventura this was the first time we’d been here, as we’d never experienced the morning crush at the main entrance to PortAventura Park, and Ferrari Land has an entrance inside the main park. We took some pictures of the fantastic water feature with the Woody Woodpecker fountain and the PortAventura World sign and joined the queue for Caribe Aquatic Park.

It was hot on this day. The hottest day of the holiday so far and not a comfortable heat for a waterpark either. Jo was suffering with several nasty Mozzy bites, I’d managed to get a bit of sunburn on my shoulders, we were all pretty tired and it was a super busy day. So not the best start.

We found a few sun loungers in a shady spot not far from the entrance and prepped ourselves as best we could for the day. The sun moved, as it does, so that spot wasn’t shady for long!

There’s only one set of lockers at Caribe Aquatic Park which are located near by the entrance, causing a bit of a queue, so pack light if you don’t want to bother with the hassle. Lockers were medium in size, and you could easily shove a decent size backpack in and a few other bits, so plenty of space. Might need 2 if you’re a party with larger numbers, but for 2 adults and 2 children it was fine. They cost €8 and you pay via a machine which spits out a receipt with your locker number and access code. I was taking my phone in a waterproof case, so I took a picture of the ticket in case the receipt got soggy.

Also, at the lockers, there’s not a lot of space to walk around them and people tend to hover around in front of them and get ready, blocking it for anyone who needs to get to their locker. If you are one of those people, just get ready elsewhere please. It’s pretty annoying.

So, with our prized possessions stashed in a locker, we went for a look around. FYI, do bring some sliders/crocs/flip-flops/pool shoes as the floor was like walking on hot coals. I’d made the mistake of leaving mine at the hotel so had to make dashes between pools and showers to stop myself getting blisters.

We came first to Woody’s Lagoon, a colourful children’s play area with small slides, fountains, tipping buckets and more to enjoy. Adults be warned, if you’re at the top with small children you’ll get told by the lifeguards you’re not allowed to go on the slides yourself. Bit disappointing, as the queues were short here! Elliott, who’s 6 and slightly under 1.2m, loved it here and was happy to run around and explore all the slides on his own while we watched from the sidelines. Evan not so much, his eyes were stinging due to the water and the heat was getting to him.

It was still early and quite quiet so we headed to the lazy river before it got too manic – which it did. We love a good lazy river and this one was pretty fun. El Rio Loco (or Crazy River) had entrance and exit points which weren’t very clear. We must’ve gone in at the exit as there was no one around and we didn’t see any signs that said so. We only noticed the queue system as we exited as there were a far few waiting. We checked back in later and it was absolute chaos. Bumper to bumper tubes!

We had lots of fun with water jets, fountains, low hanging trees to navigate in single and double rafts, passing under some of the flume slides and the entrance to the indoor area. If it wasn’t crazy busy we would have done another lap.

Our next port of call was the main pool area – The Bermuda Triangle. Its like one big pool area with one side for swimming and the other as a wave pool. It’s a walk in/zero entry pools so good for parents and toddlers at the front and 1.8m deep at the back for strong swimmers and taller people. We only had a quick go in the wave pool which was quite strong and Evan’s not the strongest of swimmers yet. There’s also a giant water cannon panning across and soaking anyone in its path. Don’t worry, you’re safe in the shallows… I think!

The swimming pool side was quieter. We had a great time in here, splashing around and taking some fun underwater pics and videos. We bought our waterproof phone cases from Amazon – 2 for £8 I think. They were selling them in the gift shop at the park, but they weren’t exactly cheap, so plan ahead!

Whilst Jo & Elliott went to some Elliott friendly areas, me and Evan went off to try some of the slides. We didn’t get on any of the raft slides, unfortunately. The queues were massive and as fun as they are, they’re not something we wanted to queue for. We did a few of the others and Evan wanted to try one of the kamikaze slides, which was a big thing for him.

We started at Rapids Race, which was a wavy race slide on one of those foam mats for about 8 people. The queue for this wasn’t that long but wasn’t the best set up. First you had to queue for a mat, which had a queue for Express Pass, and a queue for the rest of us mere mortals. But no one was checking if anyone in the Express Pass queue had Express Passes, so there where loads of people just joining the small queue and grabbing a raft while we were stuck waiting. Once you actually had a mat, it was a walk over to another queue for your turn. The queue was a bit slow here and there didn’t seem like much effort in getting people on and racing. We had our turn, which was fun. I won this time so I think that’s one-all after he beat me at Typhoon Lagoon when we went in November, so we need a decider!

We headed across the hot floor to the two massive slides at the back that we could see from our hotel room widow. Evan was wearing his brave pants as he’d never done one of these big, steep slides before but wanted to give it a go. We started on the smaller one – Tropical cyclone – the red one – which is still quite tall and has a 1.40m height requirement. 100m long, but isn’t a straight drop, it has a few bumps on it to make it a little more fun.

They could do with separating the staircase here as the steps lead to both slides and its not marked that people are waiting for the red slide, and you can just walk past and join the yellow slide queue. Once you know you can skip half the queue and move to the top, There were a few people up there who’d changed their minds or who’d become upset at the thought of such a massive, speedy drop, but I checked, and Evan still wanted to try. So, who am I to deprive a child of a fun, adrenaline fuelled experience, dropping 30 metres in 2 seconds, and a likely a massive wedgie.

He wasn’t sure about it afterwards but was glad he’d done it. I enjoyed it too. They’re fast and never exactly comfortable. And yes, wedgies were suffered.

We didn’t go on the main raft slides in the park, like El Torrente and Barracudas. The queues were massive, and we didn’t want to pay for an express pass. They did look great fun though,

Whilst we were away, Jo and Eliott were checking out some of the areas for the little ones, the indoor area, Sesame Beach and the Pirate Galleon.

The Pirate Galleon was a Sesame Street themed pirate ship with several slides, some for small kids and some for the bigger kids with 1.10/1.20m height requirements. Elliott loves a good waterslide, so had fun here.

Sesame Beach was a shallow pool area with lots of fun, colourful animal characters fountains to run between. We regrouped here and chilled out for a while with the cooling spray of the fountains.

Cayo Cookie was a fun little splash pad in the form of Cookie Monsters’ eyes and was always pretty busy. But it was hot, and the kids loved it, so why not.

The indoor area was a great spot to get in the shade. Inside was a kid’s pool with some little slides, water jets, ball pool and play area & more. There’s also an indoor side to The Surfer snack bar and a full-sized waterplane too! They didn’t get much exploring done in here as Elliott was a bit overwhelmed and indecisive so just ran from one thing to another until he couldn’t decide what to do, so didn’t really do anything!

There was plenty to choose from when it came to food at Caribe Aquatic Park, from pasta, chicken, fish & chips and more at Reggae Cafe, sandwiches from La Cabana, salads, pizzas and focaccias at Focacceria, plus fruit, ice cream and slushie stalls and The Beach Bar. Kids wanted simple, so we joined the massive queue at The Surfer for Hot Dogs and Burgers. They weren’t bad and prices we reasonable for park food. They had meal deals also which was good. We weren’t in the mood for chips with our food, so just Burgers, Dogs and Drinks were required, Estrella for me, Fizzy drinks for Jo and Evan, Water for Elliott. Burgers were a good quality, bit like a Burger King burger but not quite as nice and the kids enjoyed the hotdogs, so I’d call it a win.

The staff were pleasant here, but you could tell that the busy day and heat were getting to some of them.

We took a quick look around the gift shop. They do the usual bits you’d expect from a waterpark, swimming clothes, straps for glasses, waterproof phones cases, hats, t-shirts, souvenirs and they had a selection of PortAventura merchandise we hadn’t seen anywhere else. Usual bits by the checkout – suncreams, sprays, sweets and nick-nacks. Nothing special. Jo picked up a fancy bag, and we obviously had to get a magnet!

We were all either too hot, tired, sunburnt or mosquito bitten to enjoy the day fully, so we headed home a little early. We didn’t give it our fullest attention as it was just too busy and hot to enjoy properly and difficult to keep an eye on Elliott properly in the crowds. It looked amazing and everything we did was great fun though. We’d love to go back on a quieter day and try again.

The kids enjoyed themselves and got on everything that they could. Maybe an express pass would have helped. I’d definitely think about it if we ever go back, which I’m sure we will but I wouldn’t like another day like this as it was just too difficult to enjoy.

Overall though, a beautiful waterpark with plenty to see and do.