Roller Coasters & Thrill Rides
Last Update: July 2018

Stratosphere Hotel & Casino
The Stratosphere hotel/casino towers over 1,000 feet high and features four rides on the very top, all of them terrifying.
Ride |
|
SkyJump |
10+ |
Insanity |
|
Big Shot |
|
X Scream |
|
Man, the rides on top of the Stratosphere just keep getting
scarier and scarier. First they put a roller coaster on top,
which was the highest roller coaster in the world. Then they
put up the Big Shot, which accelerates you straight up as the whole
world seems to disappear below you. Then they built a ride
that put you over the edge. Then they built another
ride which put you over the edge, but that one actually points you
towards the ground and dangles you. How were they gonna top
that?
Well, they did. The newest ride has you jumping off the
tower, "skydiving" 108 stories to the ground. God.
Damn! There's no parachute, you travel along zip lines which
have a braking system. The only downside is the price -- $100
per jump. (If that's out of your budget then Insanity (below)
will give you almost as good a scare for only $12.) SkyJump
has its
own website. I'll tip off parents with thrill-seeking kids
that the minimum age is 14, because typical of the Stratosphere,
their website does a pretty good job of making useful info like that
near-impossible to find.
The picture at right (which I took from a
YouTube video) shows how the launch works. You walk to
the edge of a short platform, hold the bar on each side of you, lean
forward, and then just let go. So you don't actually
"jump", but whatever, close enough.
Insanity.
This
is a spinning ride that dangles you over the edge. Actually,
it's worse than that, because as it spins your seat is lifted
backward so you're staring right down at the ground. It's
exactly as terrifying as it sounds. The first two times I went
to the top to try it I chickened out. I was able to do it only
on my third trip. You can hear the screams from ground level,
by the way. If all that doesn't give you pause, note that two
riders were stuck dangling
over the edge for an hour and a half when high winds caused
the ride to shut itself down. Anyway, if you want to be
scared, this is your ticket. I'll help parents with
adventurous tykes by noting that the minimum height for this ride is
52", since typically the Stratosphere doesn't bother to put that
info on their own website. This ride opened on March 10, 2005.
X
Scream. This one is a see-saw thingie that dangles
you over the edge. It doesn't go as far over the edge as Insanity,
and you definitely feel more enclosed and grounded, and it's not
nearly as terrifying, as long as you're not sitting up front.
One nice touch is that on one of the runs after your cars get to the
edge of the platform, the whole arm stutters and drops the angle
even more, making you think for a second that the thing broke and
you're about to hurtle towards your death, ha ha. Minimum height for
this ride is 52". It opened on Halloween 2003. In Nov. 2005
six Japanese tourists were stranded
on the ride for an hour and a half when the power went out. Photo
from Screamscape | Article
from Coaster-Net | Article
from Vegas.com
Big
Shot. This is the one that made the Stratosphere
famous. You're strapped into a chair with your legs dangling, and
then they shoot you straight up the tower's steeple, 160 feet in two
seconds, at four G's. Then they freefall you so you get
negative G's, then shoot you up again, etc. If this ride started at
ground level it would be scary, but add to that the fact that you're
a fifth of a mile from the ground and it's terrifying. As you're
going up you worry that the brakes will fail and you'll go straight
off the steeple and land down the strip at the Sahara. Minimum
height for this ride is 48". (Notice in the picture that you
can see Insanity on the right-hand side.)
High
Roller. The Stratosphere used to have
a red roller coaster called the High Roller that circled the bulb
at the top of the tower, but it was removed in 2006 to make
room for a new observation deck. (It's not to be confused with
the new ferris wheel at Linq which is also called the High
Roller.) I'm a bit nostalgic for the original High Roller
though. It was the very first ride built on top of the
Stratosphere, doing a few circles around the top of the tower, and
was surprisingly tame. It never went very fast, probably
because if it did the centrifugal force would have destablized the
whole tower. But it did give you an awesome view of the strip,
and all of Las Vegas actually, since you went all the way around the
tower a few times, and it was a good one to ride if you wanted to
ride something on top of the Stratosphere but the other
rides were too terrifying. Now, if you want to ride something
on top of the Strat, you have no choice but to have the holy living
mortal snot scared out of you. (article
about the demolition)
Linq: High Roller ferris wheel
This is a fairly recent addition, opening in 2014, and making a noticeable change in the Strip skyline. It's not scary as the other rides on this page, but it is a whopping 11 stories high, making it the tallest ferris wheel in the world. Ticket price varies from $9 to $47 depending on age, time of day (daytime is cheaper), and whether you ride in a one of the cabins that has an open bar. Don't expect an intimate, romantic ride, though: each cabin holds up to 40 passengers.
Rio: Voodoo Zipline
If you'd like to be scared crapless, try riding the zipline that goes between the two towers at the Rio, a breathtaking 50 stories in the air. Yeah, that's what I said. You get an amazing open-air view of the Strip to go along with your heart attack. The setup is two chairs side-by-side, so you can ride with a friend or by yourself. The ride lasts 70 seconds and reaches speeds of 33 miles an hour. Kids can ride as long as they're ≥48" tall, but must be 21+ to ride after 7:30pm. Tickets are a quite reasonable $28.
Downtown: Slotzilla zipline
The downtown zipline has you zooming right under the canopy of the
Fremont Street Experience, which is quite a thing. It's not as
scary (not as high up) as the Rio zipline, but it still starts at a
nerve-wracking 7 or 11 stories up, depending on which line you
choose. The trip is 800-feet at speeds up to 35mph. The
original opened in October 2010 but was replaced by a new one with a
new operator, at a reported cost of $12
million to build. Prices range from $20 to $49 (cheapest
is the lower line, before 6:00pm, and Sun-Thu). Buy
tickets here. If a picture's worth a thousand words then
a video's worth a million, so see the YouTube clip on this page.
Circus Circus
- Canyon Blaster
- Chaos
- Inverter
- Rim Runner
- Sling Shot
The Canyon Blaster is the only indoor double-loop, double-corkscrew roller coaster on the planet. It drops 90 feet and hits 55mph over a 2,000 foot long track, and lasts 1:45.
Chaos is a three-dimensional tilt-a-whirl, tilting, spinning, and flipping riders at the same time. No two rides are the same. (review at Vegas.com)
Inverter keeps you upside-down and staring at an upcoming wall of concrete for a full four seconds before turning you right-side up again. The ride is a generous two minutes during off-peak hours. (review at Vegas.com)
Rim Runner is the only indoor flume in the world, featuring a 60-foot drop which will soak you but good.
Sling Shot, the newest addition, is Circus Circus' answer to the Stratosphere's Big Shot, shooting you straight up a column at 4 G's.
As of September 2006, all rides are $7, but you can get an all-ride pass for $23. Here's the official page for the Adventuredome Theme Park, where the rides are located.New York New York: Manhattan Express
Casino Player magazine says: "At two minutes and 45 seconds, it's easily the longest-lasting ride in Las Vegas. Top speed is 67 mph and the biggest drop is 144 feet, but what keeps everyone coming back for more is the insane 540-degree spiral, not to mention the fact that it takes place over a pretty solid replica of New York Harbor. If this ride doesn't put you in a "New York State of Mind", nothing will."
I won't ride this one again because it whips your head back and forth into the projections on the headrest. I wonder how many people get mild brain damage from this thing. (more info)

Sahara: Speed
The casino closed in 2011, taking the venerable Speed roller coaster down with it. :( R.I.P.
Buffalo Bill's: Desperado & Turbo Drop
In Primm, Nevada (40 miles south of Las Vegas on I-15), 1-800-FUN-STOP
Desperado is a VERY tall coaster. You start off with a crazy 225-foot drop down a 55-degree hill, reaching speeds of up to 80 mph. Here's more info and video of the ride.
If that's not enough, you can try the Turbo Drop, which is similar to Stratosphere's Big Shot, except that it climbs slowly and then shoots you straight down instead of straight up.
Other roller coaster resources
- G-force of Vegas coasters. The Las Vegas Review-Journal tests and ranks the G-force of the popular Las Vegas roller coasters.
- Ultimate Roller Coaster Guide. The site for enthusiasts. Covers the whole world, not just Vegas.