The resort is home to a collection of off the shelf amusement rides, a simulator, a space shot, a kid's bouncer. Attractions that would be at home at any neighborhood amusement center. They also have a very nice, custom log flume ride that starts within the casino, proceeds outside into a man made mountain, loops around some dark caves before sending you down a good sized drop, before finally floating you through portions of the casino and food court. The ride flume is littered with digital targets that are meant to make the ride a shooting game as well. Targets are attached to various animatronic cowboys and animals, though when I rode, they were out of guns, so no shooting for me.
The real reason for my trip to the Primm Valley was Desperado, a 209 foot tall hyper-coaster that rises above and surrounds the hotel. When it opened in 1994, it was tied for the world's tallest drop (around 225 feet) and, with it's nice ride time of over two and a half minutes, it promised to be a ride well worth the trip.
Getting on Desperado has proven to be a challenging task, and has become a personal endeavor that I have yet to complete. Currently, Buffalo Bill's only operates it's rides three days a week for 7 hours and 45 minutes. It's only on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays that they power up their attractions for anyone to have a chance to ride. As someone who lives in Las Vegas and works on The Strip, around 30 minutes away from Primm Valley, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are generally the toughest day to get off from work. To add to the fun, everything is scheduled to close at 7:45pm. That means, in order to get on the coaster, I would have to leave work and be on the road no later than 6:30pm so I could get to the hotel and still have enough time to navigate the casino, buy a ticket, and get on the ride. Sounds simple enough.
Today the perfect opportunity presented itself. Work ended at 5:45, and I was on the highway to Primm by 6pm. I made excellent time and arrived at Buffalo Bill's around 6:30pm. As I approached the resort, I could see the towering track for Desperado in the distance, but became very concerned as I did not see any trains cycling through the circuit. Was the ride in fact open today? Had they decided to close early? Was my trip all for nothing? I put my doubts aside, parked my car, and ventured into the casino.
Portions of the coaster track weave in and out of the upper portions of the casino. I could not hear any trains cycling. I trekked onward to the attractions area, fingers crossed that the coaster was open. I arrived at the ticket boot, and low and behold, Desperado was open and operating, but for some reason, in order for them to send a train, it had to have 12 riders on it. Currently there was 1 other person waiting in the station to ride. I became number 2.
It was 7pm and no one else was coming to ride. I decided to kill some time and ride the log flume, which I had no problem riding alone. Empty seats did not seem to affect the ride at all, much like I'm sure would have been the case on Desperado. I can't tell you if that is true or not because I never got to ride Desperado.
Upon exiting the log flume, I went back to waiting for 10 more people to magically appear so they would send the train. It never happened. At 7:30, (15 minutes early, though it wouldn't have mattered) they powered down the coaster and drained the flume due to lack of riders.
My Desperado mission was a failure. I moved on to the casino, where they graciously compensated me with $260 from the slot machines for my troubles. I thought that was very nice of them.
Someday the stars will align and I will cruise the track of Desperado. The next time I am out of work on time on a weekend, here's hoping 11 other people have the same idea that I do, and we all meet at the same time near the roof of the Buffalo Bill's Casino for a ride on one of the tallest coasters in the world.
Until then, I have $200 to spend on things that are open.
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