Vegas Thrill Rides

I recently found a deal to Las Vegas on Spirit.  We paid $26.20 and 15,000 miles per ticket.  We arrived at 7:41 Saturday morning and left at 11:20 Sunday night giving us about 40 hours in Sin  City.  Using Marriott points, we stayed at the Marriott Grand Chateau for free.  After we booked our weekend getaway to Vegas, I went to Groupon to see what deals I could find on the thrill rides.

I found a Groupon for the Voodoo Zip-line at Rio which included four rides for $75.  Two people can ride at a time. That meant my son got to go twice: once with me and once with Freddy.  One sits in a chair and a safety belt is secured around the waist.  There is nothing in front to serve as a shield.  The only thing to hold on to is the seat.  The chair sits in anticipation for a few seconds then it is released from the platform and it drops a few feet then one is suddenly shuttled from one tower of the Rio to another.  Once at the second tower, the ride reverses and returns to the original tower.  The wait for the line was time intensive and there were not a lot of people ahead of us in the line.  The ride was a thrill that I’d say was worth it to do once.

We got up early the next morning to redeem our Groupons for the Stratosphere rides.  Be sure to book these in advance on Groupon since they cannot be purchased for immediate use (24 hours from purchase to redemption is required).  The rides open at 10:00 a.m. and we were the first ones there.  Our vouchers included two rides for $20 which included admission to the tower where we took a good number of pictures.

The rides available are Sky Jump (additional cost) where one jumps off the top of the stratosphere to a lower platform.  X-Scream is a 27ft. track that speeds off the tower and back four times. Insanity is a mechanical arm that takes riders on a spin 900 feet in the air.  Big Shot shoots passengers 160 feet in the air in a matter of seconds.  We opted for Insanity and Big Shot.

Another ride we took, definitely not a thrill ride, was the gondola in the Venetian.  The cost was $29 a person for a 12 minute gondola ride.  I felt it was sort of a rip off though.

The next time we go, we are planning to ride the roller coaster at New York, New York and the Slot Zilla zip line on Fremont Street. Another ride is the High Roller located in the Linq.  It’s kind of like the London Eye.

~Bella