Las Vegas Coasters 1/30-31

Headquarters for this trip was the Imperial Palace, which is located in the middle of the strip across form Cesar’s Palace. While not certainly the nicest hotels on the strip it did have some advantages. The casino was user friendly, the drinks were good (cold and of course free :)), and the room and food ended up being free because of comps.

First up was Manhattan Express at New York New York on Thursday night. I thought the $12 fee was a tad steep but it just fits in with the New York Theme ;). Our assigned seat was 1-2 as we waited about 5 minutes for enough people to get into the station to allow boarding.

Now I wasn’t expecting much, and actually was preparing do deal with some pain because of my previous experience with TOGO rides. However I was blown away by ME (not windows ME that sucks). The first drops were very nice and the loop and dive element had some nice hang time. There was some nice subtle air on the bunny hops as well. Overall I thought ME was a nice well rounded coaster and 100 times better than the other Togo’s I have ridden.

The next day we visited the coasters on the other side of the strip. First up was Speed: The Ride. I didn’t know what really to expect with this ride because all I really saw before boarding was the loop out of the station.

After a quick surprising launch the train headed through the course and back with some nice floating at the top of the spike. The loop was pretty intense as well. What surprised me was the minimal head banging on the ride. While not as good as say the Chiller I can see why this ride gets slouch good revues.

Next up was the Stratosphere. The area surrounding the strip is a pretty old part of the strip and looks like it isn’t fairing to well. It’s too far away from the action on the main part of the strip. With all the great casinos down there there is almost no reason to go over towards this end of the strip except for the attractions. I could tell the sphere was struggling with some great odds on their games, just trying to bring people in.

To actually get to the top of the tower you first have to g through the casino all the way through a mall, which is extremely annoying. Even exiting you have to walk through an arcade. It’s easy to see why they wanted to do that, but its ay to extreme and part of the reason I probably won’t be going back. The view up top is pretty amazing, and that’s about the only saving grace of the place. The ride were just had a better view and were nothing out of the ordinary I felt. I’m not scared of heights at all so I guess that diminishes the thrill some people would get I guess.

Overall it was a good trip and I won some good money which I will probably be putting aside for Dragsters first ride auction J
*** This post was edited by Joe E. 2/3/2003 12:31:28 PM ***
*** This post was edited by Joe E. 2/3/2003 4:10:00 PM ***

Glad to hear someone else liked ME for what it is. Although I rode it 6 months after it opened and there was no roughness to it at all.

Still have to get back to ride Speed.

It's true the Strat is so far off the "strip" that people tend to avoid it. The odds on the games and slots are pretty good though.

Personally, I prefer staying downtown at the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street, and "visiting" the strip.

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

Yeah, we were only there for two full days so I have yet to get a chance to visit Freemont Street :(. Next time I will have to get down there. From on top of the sphere it almost looked like downtown was closer to it than the the main part of the strip. Another problem with the stratosphere is trying to get people to come back, which is probably why they were booking for the fishhook.

Speed was probably my favorite there, so I would recommend it highly. ME though is more re-ridable and if I go back and have more time I would get an all day pass for that. Being an Ohioan it felt great to be riding a coaster in January :).

The Fremont Street Experience is kinda neat. We simply prefer the closeness of the casinos, and the fact it's not nearly as much of a madhouse as the strip can be.

They generally have bands or some other kind of show going on during weekends. I took my mom to Vegas for Mother's Day a few years ago, and got to see Three Dog Night and Paul Revere and the Raiders (if you are a youngster you'll have no clue) on Friday and Saturday nights respectively.

I doubt I'd pay the $12 to ride ME again. It was half that when we rode it. But I will definitely hit Speed the next time we make it out.

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

Sadly (unless they have changed the policy) there was no re-ride discount price or all-day pass for Manhattan Express. If you have a car, then you may want to head to State Line (Primm) and hit Desperado. The Desperado ticket includes a half off coupon for Manhattan Express.

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SCREAM with me... in 2003!