Sin City

Time for another retrospective post. This time we’re off to Las Vegas. I’ve visited this desert city at least three times in the last 25 years. Growing up, I’d often see the bright lights of Vegas as an iconic backdrop for popular television shows and movies. This gambling mecca, with its themed hotels, glittering stage shows and dazzling lights, was considered Disneyland for adults.

I finally got to visit the infamous Sin City for the first time in 2000. At the time, I was on my way to Text 100's San Francisco office for a two-week General Manager’s secondment. I flew into LA on Friday, 28 July, passed through immigration and transferred mid-morning onto a flight to Las Vegas.

My travel agent booked me into the Circus Circus hotel at the northern end of Las Vegas Boulevard, more commonly known as the city’s famous Strip. At the time, this hotel and casino complex boasted almost 3700 rooms. True to its name, the circus theme could be seen everywhere. Clowns and jugglers roamed the resort’s public spaces, while clown shows and trapeze acts took place several times a day.

For guests not keen on making a wager, the hotel offered a massive video game arcade and carnival-type games. These amusements were in a central atrium called The Midway, which also featured a carousel operating as a bar. I can still recall watching trapeze artists swinging above patrons while sitting at the bar.

However, upon arrival in Las Vegas, I decided to set aside the hotel’s attraction in favour of one that had captured my imagination years earlier. I walked up the strip to Stratosphere, a classic skyline tower with a revolving restaurant and observation deck. The tower is more than 350 metres high, the tallest of its kind in the USA, and second only to Toronto's CN Tower in all of North America.  

The top of the tower contained two thrill rides, Big Shot, a free-fall drop, and High Roller, a spiralling rollercoaster that sits on top of the observation pod. I was keen to try a rollercoaster ride operating 277 metres above the ground.

Big Shot was a big mistake! This ride travels up and down the tower's needle, dropping riders from a high of 329 m to the top of the outdoor observation deck. Let’s just say, jet lag and an inner ear imbalance caused by 14 hours of juddering flight, played havoc on my nerves. The free-fall sensation was simply terrifying.

In contrast, High Roller proved to be a dud. The rollercoaster circles the pod on tracks with a relatively modest drop, at a rather sedate speed. It was more akin to an old-fashioned wooden roller coaster ride in terms of its adrenaline rush. The tracks were also set back from the very edge of the observation pod, and thus any sensation of flying through the air was relatively limited. Apparently, my underwhelming experience was shared by others. According to Wikipedia, it was never popular. As a result, the rollercoaster closed on December 30, 2005, and was dismantled. 

I consoled myself later with a ride on The Big Apple Coaster at New York New York. This rollercoaster travels at 67mph, features a 180-degree “heartline” twist and dive manoeuvre and a stomach-churning 44 metre high speed drop. A section of this coaster even passes through the hotel's atrium. Way more exciting than the High Roller, as you can see in the second image above.

I loved my time in Las Vegas. I walked the strip’s entire length, visiting every casino resort. I recall being delighted by the mini Eiffel Tower outside the Paris casino and the faux Italian canals surrounding the Venetian. I watched pirates at Treasure Island do battle in their a twice-daily show on an artificial lagoon outside the resort and marvelled at the tiered interior of the Luxor pyramid.

I also recall checking out the white tigers on display in a glass-walled enclosure inside the Mirage resort. They were part of Siegfried and Roy’s magic show for many years until a tiger mauled Roy Horn in 2003. I never did get to see the show before it closed.

While in Las Vegas, I booked a helicopter flight into the Grand Canyon. I made a return visit to the Grand Canyon when I visited Las Vegas a second time in 2002. You can read about these adventures here.

My return visit was a weekend side trip I’d tacked onto another business trip to the USA. I made the most of my return by visiting attractions I’d missed a few years earlier. This included a day tour to Hoover Dam. The tour included a visit to the turbine hall inside the dam (impressive!). Our guide also took us through corridors buried deep inside the dam, before taking a lift down to an outdoor deck above the penstock outlet. Here we could look up towards the crest of the dam. For a Civil Engineering geek like me, it was pure heaven.

On this second trip, I visited the Hilton Resort’s Star Trek Experience. This attraction included a simulated bridge of the Enterprise, plus an incredibly well-executed molecular transporter experience that took you into a 270° domed theatre with a four-degree-of-motion base platform where a dramatic Klingon battle took place. Again, for a sci-fi fan, this was another iconic once-in-a-lifetime moment. The attraction closed in 2008.

I also recall going to the movies one afternoon to see the recently released Star Wars prequel, Episode II – Attack of the Clones. However, if I’m totally honest, I saw it because I was bored. If you’re not into gambling, there are only so many things available to fill your time. The evenings are different. I’ve attended many spectacular stage shows over the years.

My Vegas show list includes O by Cirque du Soleil at the Bellagio, a rival water extravaganza called Le Rêve at the Wynn Resort, Mystère by Cirque du Soleil at Treasure Island and the Blue Man Group at the Luxor. However, I’ve never been in town while a major artist like Celine Dion was conducting a residency show.

Garry and I returned to Las Vegas for the first time together in August 2010. Highlights from this trip included the Titanic Exhibition at The Luxor. This was an impressive exhibit of artefacts and memorabilia from the ship, including a large section of the hull salvaged in 1998. This impressive structure weighs more than 14 tonnes and was retrieved from the ocean floor at a depth of 3,700 metres.

The Strip in 2000

The Strip in 2010