Vegas/SoCal Trip! : Part 1- Vegas!!!
Associated parks:
None
This is my first trip report so don't expect a great writing job. Considering I just got back at 7am today and am still living on California time, I'm pretty tired also. I'll have 3 parts of this Las Vegas/ Southern California Trip. All in all I had a great time everywhere we went.
Well our trip started with a flight to Vegas at around 9:45am on the 10th. The flight was actually pretty kool because part of it was over the Grand Canyon and I had a window seat. Landing in Vegas was pretty kool too, landing right by the strip and then walking out into a mass amount of slots, awesome welcoming!
We stayed at the Excalibur the 4 days we were in Vegas. This town really suprised me in how fun it was because I can't gamble. After walking around Mandalay Bay and The Luxor a bit the first day. We headed over to Manhatten Express for our first ride of the trip.
Manhatten Express: 6/10
This coaster was a little better than I expected the first time around. It was still very bumpy like everyone said but I thought it was pretty enjoyable, not to mention the In-Line Dive Loop element was probably the best element I've been on. It's too bad B&M hasn't done one because this ride is almost too bumpy to be worthy of that element. The Second ride on this thing though was not as good. We rode towards the back the second time and it just didn't perform. I think I didn't like it as much the second time because we had ridden all the other strip before hand which made this one a little painful. Overall was good but pretty bumpy.
The next day was the big coaster day. We first went on a tour bus to the Hoover Dam and had a really funny bus driver. He would always put "Dam" in front of everything which really made the Dam fun. Later that day though, pretty much during the evening, we got off the "Dam" Bus at the Stratosphere. We got off here first to eat at the 50's diner at the bottom. We then headed off to Circus Circus for our next coaster.
Canyon Blaster: 7/10
This was by far the best and smoothest Arrow Looper I have ever been on. My bro and I rode in the front which probably made this ride a lot better as I have heard that people have this one to be bumpy. This ride was not bumpy At All compared to any other Arrow Looper, I don't know what some people think. Oh well, great suprise for me. All in all, I think this one topped out Lochness @Busch and Viper @Sfmm as my new favorite Arrow Looper.
After the AdventureDome we headed back toward the Stratosphere and stopped at The Sahara on the way back.
Speed: The Ride: 8/10
Awesome ride. Again no one else wanted to ride but my brother so we both went up and got 2 rides in the Middle of the coaster. I've heard this ride was the best and smoothest on the strip and they were right! This coaster was probably the best of the Vegas portion of the trip. Definately worth the $8 to ride...twice.
We then went back to the Stratosphere for a ride on the Big Shot. No High Roller for me, I'm not a track record whore and saw no point at all in riding High Roller at all. I wasn't going to waste my money on it. Notice how we went from the stratosphere to The AdventureDome then back down towards The Sahara and The Stratosphere. Well all I wanted was a night ride on the Big Shot and I got it.
Big Shot: 8/10
This Ride was awesome but I'll only be breif on it since this is a coaster site. Well, the view was amazing, we were facing the old Downtown. But the ride needs to be a little higher to thrill me more. Best Thrill Shot ride I've been on but Power Tower Up is a close second.
Well the next coaster we rode was 2 days later. This next one struck a litle controversy on our part just to get there. I'm talking about Primm and Desperado. Originally the plan was to get the free shuttle at our hotel to go there. That fell through though right before we left for the whole vacation because we found out we would have to stay there from 9am to 6pm, and this place is only worth about 1-3 hours. So I just figured I wouldn't get to ride it and wasn't really depressed because most people don't like this ride. Well we found out the next day that we could get our rental car about 5 hours early. So right away I mentioned Primm but my parents didnt seem to want to go. That was until we met up with my mom and dad's high school buddy who lives out in Vegas. The first thing Dave (high school friend) said when my parents told him about the car rental was that we had to ride the stateline coaster since we had it. He didn't even know I wanted to ride it the whole time too, he didn't even know I was an enthusiast. First thing out of his mouth was to ride the stateline coaster so my parents decided we'd go. Shows how friends can influence you, even when you're older. Thanks Dave.
Desperado: 8/10
One of the suprises of the trip. I was going into it thinking that this ride would'nt be that great. But it was a lot better than I expected. We waited just one train to get the front seat and I didn't want to sit anywhere else on this thing cause I heard it was really bumpy. Well, to me, this ride had some of the best headchoppers around. Goliath is pretty good at this too, but on this one, it almost feels unsafe. They even tell you Do Not Put Your Arms Up!! Well I survived and the headchoppers made this ride a lot better. Great Ride, loved the ejector air and the weird layout was pretty kool.
Overall in Vegas I'd say Speed: The Ride was the best Coaster followed closely by Desperado. But the other ones were actually a nice suprise for me. I thought they'd all be pretty bad, but it was the opposite. They were all pretty good.
This is just part 1 of 3 in my Vegas/SoCal Trips. I'll try to write out Part 2 tonight or tomorrow. Hope you guys like these. Give me some input on what I could do better in writing.
Part 2: Magic Mountain......Coming Soon
-----------------
Top 5:
5)Raptor 4) Goliath 3) Ghostrider 2) Apollo's Chariot 1) Millennium Force
-----------------
Sean
Speedy, I didn't want to break it to anyone until I got there but this trip didn't have any luck at all with the letter X.
I had been waiting so long just to ride X/Xcelerator but I pretty much knew X would be down. But Xcelerator down? I wouldn't believe it happening right when I went there but it did. It started testing right after I got off of Perilous Plunge at around 7pm and I got so excited we all just ran into a line that was forming outside of the gate. I waited there about an hour for it to open. About 10 tests went through within that hour. The employees didnt have any info at all and just said they dont know if it will open or not. So at about 9pm they closed it for the night. We went to guest relations to see what we could do and complain. There is a bright spot in the story but you guys will have to just wait and see in a day or 2 when I get to my Knotts section.
Honestly I'm not as broken up about it as I thought I would be if it did happen. Now that it has I realized I'll never want to travel for a prototype in it's first year. Hopefully Cedar Point gets that rumored Tallest and Fastest in the park Rocket Coaster. I have my fingers crossed.
One question about X real quick. Since I was gone, I was sort of sheilded by the coaster world. So.....What happened with the OHSA looking at X on the 19th? I went to Sfmm on the 21st and 22nd expecting them to atleast test it. Oh well......
-----------------
Top 5:
5)Raptor 4) Goliath 3) Ghostrider 2) Apollo's Chariot 1) Millennium Force
-----------------
Steel: 1)MF, 2)Goliath, 3)Magnum
Wood: 1)Villain, 2)Beast, 3)Roar(SFMW)
-----------------
Steel: 1)MF, 2)Goliath, 3)Magnum
Wood: 1)Villain, 2)Beast, 3)Roar(SFMW)
-----------------
Steel: 1)MF, 2)Goliath, 3)Magnum
Wood: 1)Villain, 2)Beast, 3)Roar(SFMW)
-----------------
Steel: 1)MF, 2)Goliath, 3)Magnum
Wood: 1)Villain, 2)Beast, 3)Roar(SFMW)
*** This post was edited by hunter11 on 7/25/2002. ***
*** This post was edited by hunter11 on 7/25/2002. ***
-----------------
Top 5:
5)Raptor 4) Goliath 3) Ghostrider 2) Apollo's Chariot 1) Millennium Force
Nice TR. Looking forward to the other two.
-----------------
I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead
-----------------
"Time it makes you old, experience makes you wise, and it's only a fool who judges life by what he sees in other people's eyes"- Jason Cruz, Strung Out
Yeah, Vegas was a great suprise for me. I hope the pictures I got turned out, especially the one from on top of the stratosphere. When I develop them you'll beable to find them at my site.
www.geocities.com/coastingohio
I'm going to try to update this site as much as I can but as of now I have other things to do before the site. I have work and time with friends before I have anytime with this site or my site. I'll put my Knotts and Sfmm Reviews on there, and I'll try to get everything up and the way I want it. Right now it's really sloppy and just put together at the last second.
Well I'll begin writing the second part of my trip which includes some info about the cruise we went on (Carnival: Elation) and Six Flags Magic Mountain. I'm going to my friends house though right now. Expect Part 2 to be on these boards either late tonight or during the afternoon tomorrow. Thanks for reading my Vegas portion.
Oh yeah, I forgot who it was, but one of you guys said I should get my Vegas T-Shirt at Freemont Street. Thanks so much whoever said that. I found an awesome Vegas T-shirt at the ABC store there for $7.99. My trip overall in spending was a huge success thanks to some of you (I'm sort of short on cash, lol.) Thanks again to whoever helped on that portion.
-----------------
Top 5:
5)Raptor 4) Goliath 3) Ghostrider 2) Apollo's Chariot 1) Millennium Force
The 23rd. We only had Knotts from 4pm to 10pm that day. It didn't show that Xcelerator was closed when we got in but once we journeyed our way back there, they said it had been closed since 3pm. So that's where we had our argument for the refunds. They didn't put the sign outside the gate when they had an hour to do so....that and we said we came all the way from Ohio just for it. Which we really didn't, but in the same way did. Oh well...*sigh*
-----------------
Top 5:
5)Raptor 4) Goliath 3) Ghostrider 2) Apollo's Chariot 1) Millennium Force
You must be logged in to post
