What's going on with Desperado and Stratosphere's Insanity?

I'm taking a trip to Vegas in the fall (for a U2 show) and I figured while I was in town I might as well check out some of the rides and coasters. Last time I was in Primm (2016), Desperado was closed and the web doesn't seem to know if it's running at all or when it runs. I also looked through the Stratosphere's web page and they have lots of mentions of Big Shot and X-Scream, but no way to buy tickets for Insanity. Is that still running regularly?

RCDB lists Desperado as SBNO since 2019, and apparently the hotel closed in 2020. Not sure if that's still the case.

Oh interesting. Wikipedia says it was closed from 12/20 - 12/22 and recently reopened.

I wouldn't hold out much hope for Desperado though.

(Struggling whether to follow with "or the Creedence" or "I hate the f-ing Eagles, man!") They both fit.

I guess I was lucky enough to get in some final rides in November 2019 during the month or so when it was re-opened. Took 3 rides, front, middle, back, and it was pretty awful. (Full disclosure, I think Magnum is awful too.) The entire property was a ghost town. I had to wait for a specific time window for the coaster to operate and even then I was one of very few people riding. Rode the log flume too where I was told that the shooting guns and targets no longer worked. Most or all of the other, smaller rides were already gone, including the drop tower.

I'm thinking the Primm resort just no longer aligns with the current vision/direction that Vegas is taking. Wouldn't be surprised to see Buffalo Bills demolished and it just become a regular fuel/snack stop.

As of February it had not reopened - this was the most recent article I found in my exhaustive 10 seconds of googling.

Last I heard Knoebels was going to save it.

Speaking of Knoebels, you should swing by on your way to Vegas.

Even in it's heyday, this place was always just a glorified truck stop.

For a park fan, though, it was always a stop worth making. The log flume was impressive, both for the sheer novelty of floating past slot machines and some legit quality theming. Desperado is an Arrow icon and a sad reminder that Arrow went bankrupt creatively long before it did financially.

What's the value of demolishing it? It's not like space is a premium in the middle of the desert. Like so many American development projects, it will be forgotten and left to rot.

ApolloAndy:

I'm taking a trip to Vegas in the fall (for a U2 show)

I just now caught this detail. I'm very jealous. When they first started teasing these shows, I said nothing would stop me from going. It coincides with our 25th anniversary and my wife isn't near as big of a U2 fan as I am and even less of a fan of Vegas (I don't care for it either). If the same show were in any other city, maybe. We traveled to NYC to see them at Madison Square Garden in 2015 as an early 40th present for me and it was an epic trip. Way better than either one of their stadium shows I've seen.

I’m headed out there for U2 as well. It’ll be my third time seeing them, and I’m excited to get some more Achtung Baby material. The two previous shows I saw from them only had sporadic set list entries from that album, so I’m really hoping they cover a good chunk of the ones I’ve not yet heard. I’m especially hoping for Zoo Station, which is my favorite song ever.

I’m also hoping for some Zooropa and Pop material to sneak in there as well.

Are they not playing the album straight through like they did on the Joshua Tree anniversary tour?

I'm going as well. I'm more interested in finding out what the best hotel is that feels fancy but doesn't cost extra fancy.

Based on what I’ve read in some interviews with members of the band, no, it doesn’t appear that way. Achtung Baby is the featured album, per se, but won’t likely be played all the way through like during the Joshua Tree. It seems like it’s possible every song could be featured over the course of their run there, if not in full during individual shows, but it doesn’t appear it will work the same way The Joshua Tree did.

This will be my 10th time seeing U2 (7th separate tour). There's a small but real chance I'll have an extra floor ticket for the 10/5 show (shopping it to other friends who have given me a variety of "maybes"). I'm staying at the Linq which is $85/night (+$40 resort fee) and is "good enough" for me. Rumor is that every song on Achtung Baby (my favorite album of all time) will be represented in some way. Sadly, Larry Mullen Jr. will not be playing with the band as he'll be recovering from surgery.

Is Linq where Imperial Palace used to be? The nice places are all asking crazy rates on show nights. Caesar's is under $400, and it was nice when I stayed there like 17 years ago. 😂 I wonder how it is these days.

I don't remember where I saw it but I recall a photograph showing that Desperado has been tagged with an official "do not operate/unsafe" from the state.

Desperado is one of the last Arrow coasters built and from what I've been able to ascertained was built on the cheap. Yes it had been red tagged by the state, and Recreation Engineering supervised a lot of welding done on it afterwards. Shortly thereafter the whole operation seems to have folded. It always appeared to me that someone blew a wad that they really couldn't afford, and it ultimately caught up with them.

I may have shared this before but here's my dad and I in the front row. It looks like everyone is having fun but us. Ha ha.

Jeff:

Is Linq where Imperial Palace used to be? The nice places are all asking crazy rates on show nights. Caesar's is under $400, and it was nice when I stayed there like 17 years ago. 😂 I wonder how it is these days.

Linq is the old Imperial Palace remodled. It was a complete gut job, but most of it is still the original building except some of the Casino fronts. The renovation was kind of cheap too IMO. A friend stayed there and said it was good if you are mainly looking for a place to crash on the middle of the strip (so basically what the Imperial palace was)

Caesars is still pretty great, and gets refreshes often. Pool is good and the mall / restaurants are still among the best on the strip.

Another option would be to stay on the south east side of the strip near a monorail station, and that would drop you off near the Venetian . Once I AirBnb'd a condo at the signature at MGM (3 Hotel/Condo mixed use buildings attached directly though walkways to the MGM near the mall and pool complex) and that was pretty high class but not an absurd amount of money. Cheaper than booking through the hotel. Check in was just like the hotel though, and the Monorail is a short walk inside MGM's mall there. It's set back from everything so a little more a a walk to the strip and casino amenities, but that makes it pretty quiet (Lobby is guest only).