Alex: One of Europe’s most anticipated new rides this season opened its gates just this weekend at PortAventura! We were there to discover the first dark ride at the park.
– In the past, many of our images have been posted, featured, and shared on forums, social media platforms and websites around the web. We work hard to provide the coverage that we do, and we encourage our audience to share our content and use our images, BUT ONLY IF proper credit is given to thecoasterkings.com. Thank you! –
Sesame Street – Street Mission is the name of the big new attraction at the SesamoAventura, the kid’s area themed to Sesame Street. We were looking forward to this moment because it’s the first dark ride at the Spanish resort and it was so much awaited.
We headed to the back of the SesamoAventura area, the entrance plaza to the ride is located across the train tracks.
As you can see, a very Ratatouille-esque entrance with Grover (known in Spain as Coco) in his detective outfit.
The main building is cleverly hidden from the views with facades following the cartoonish style of the whole SesamoAventura area.
The queue is divided in two areas: a classic exterior one ( if you’re lucky and the wait time is short you won’t even see), and the indoor queue room.
The theming in this area is superb. It’s like we’re on the office of the Detective Grover. Easter eggs included!
Clues on the walls introduces us to the mission we’re going to join. And it involves cookies!
The coolest part of the queue is the pre-show featuring the Detective Grover in screens…
… as well as in real life! This was a pretty cool surprise as an animatronics always adds a fun factor to the ride and it’s a new way to interaction at this park. Grover walked all the way through the end of the corridor and then again to the inside of his office.
He explains in a bunch of languages the mystery. That’s great to the international visitors as they can soak into the story no matter where they’re from.
The room is completed with pictures of Sesame Street characters and the file archive of the detective, including some fun jokes inherent to the series.
We then enter the next room where our taxi vehicle awaits us.
Unfortunately, the load station can only handle one vehicle at a time, so the throughput of this ride could be a problem if the operators are not at their best. The day at the park was really quiet, with queues of 10 minutes on all major rides. Except Street Mission that was 1:30h during all day, according to the waiting time panels.
Sadly, it was forbidden to take photos of the inside, so I’ll leave here for you some footage by the park shared by Attractions Magazine.
What I have to say is that the ride has all the ingredients needed to be a success. Top level animatronics thanks to Sally Corporation of Bert, Ernie, Grover and Big Bird (as seen on the IAAPA), detailed physical sets though with a more realistic style in contrast of the cartoonish exterior.
A good interactive element, a point-and-shoot game in the style of Maus au Chocolat but also interacting with the physical sets. And as a big finale, huge immersive screens like Ratatouille (I really liked the Count Dracula segment, the immersion and movements were especially good there). Of course, as any ride of this kind, there’s a scoreboard at the end of the ride. I challenge you to beat me!
I personally enjoyed the ride system, it’s always pleasant to ride a trackless ride. Despite not interacting with other vehicles like Symbolica, it wanders around like magic and I appreciate the use of this kind of technology. So shoutout to ETF Ride Systems for their vehicles, Sally Corporation for their top-notch animatronics and Alterface for their interactive technology. They all created a solid experience for the European market to enjoy!
In conclusion, I’m pretty delighted by the work done by PortAventura on this ride. We’ve seen so many missed opportunities on the latest years that the hopes on this attraction were rather low. However, they teamed up with quality companies to build a concept new for the park. One that without a doubt was clearly needed: a new indoor ride able to be enjoyed during all the season, including the winter months and days of inclement weather. Even though it’s not a masterpiece, it is just a clever investment that I’m sure will please families and park fans alike.
We couldn’t miss the opportunity of having such short queues on the major rides, that’s why we enjoyed as many coasters as we could! Including Furius Baco…
…Stampida…
…Dragon Khan…
… and our beloved Shambhala!
We even had some time to check the “new” show at the main theatre.
And without surprise, it’s the same formula they’ve been using since 2012: trendy music, acrobatic acts and a catchy jingle. Oh, and lights. Hundreds. Thousands of lights!
Thank you for checking out this new PortAventura report! Make sure to check out some of our other great coverage: