PortAventura prepared Shambhala for the 2012 season after opening SésamoAventura, placing a Bolliger & Mabillard hyper coaster behind Dragon Khan in the China area. To the visitor approaching that quarter of the park, the familiar horizon was to be answered by a new mountain of steel. newsparcs.com

On May 12, 2012, Shambhala opened at PortAventura with regional officials, park leaders, and international press in attendance. The ceremony set the ride before the public as the park’s most important investment since its 1995 opening. s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com· newsparcs.com

The engineering gave the proud speeches their weight: seventy-six metres high, one hundred and thirty-four kilometres per hour, no inversions, and a project reported at about thirty-two million dollars. It was conceived not as a tangle of loops, but as a high, open passage above PortAventura’s paths and water. newsparcs.com· en.wikipedia.org

The applause continued after opening. PortAventura records Shambhala as the European Star Award winner for Best New European Attraction in 2012, and later as Best Steel Coaster in Europe in 2013, evidence of a Spanish resort taking its place in the continental conversation. portaventuraworld.com