Adventure Dome and El Loco Construction

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Hello nerds,

Today I took a little trip to the other side of town to check out the Circus, Circus Adventure Dome, and indoor amusement park on The Strip.  They are currently in the process of adding a new coaster, called "El Loco" in the former lagoon of their old tidal wave boat ride.  Let's take a look, shall we?

If you have never been to the Adventure Dome, the ceiling is made up of pink glass, so everything in the park has a bit of a pink tint to it.

You gotta love a construction sign! 

 This fence is outside the edge of the old lagoon for the old tidal wave ride.  It looks like this will eventually be the entrance for El Loco.

 A view from the bridge over old tidal wave lagoon.  As you can see, this portion of the flume has been removed and the lagoon has been cleared to make way for the coaster.

 There isn't really any signs of construction for the new coaster yet.

 Given how small and packed the dome is, this is actually a fairly large chunk of real estate being devoted to this little coaster.

 Looking up into the top of the canyons, you can see that portions of the boat flume are still present.  This was actually a pretty cool boat ride that took you through a few caves at the top of the dome before the big splash down.

 The removed waterfall from a different angle.

 The cleared site with the splashdown viewing bridge in the background.

 Onto a few shots from the rest of the park.  Here is the Canyon Blaster roller coaster in mid loop.  This is one of the opening day attractions.  A short, but good coaster.

 It travels through the center of the park, with two loops, two corkscrews, and a double helix before reentering the station.

The helix goes in and out of the caves above the laser tag arena and near the 3D theaters.

 Not sure how long this has been there, but they turned a few pathways in the park into a mini-golf course.  

 It was a very creative way to cram another attraction into a very small area.

 Here's their Inverter, a standard ride that is at many carnivals.

 Their Farris Wheel, with gondolas shaped like hot air balloons.

I actually liked Sponge Bob 4D more than I thought I would.  A cute show with excellent use of bubbles.

 Wanna see a move?  They gots movies!

Sea World isn't the only ones with a penguin ride!  The Happy Feet simulator is a very...interesting... concept.  I am not sure how someone decided to make a ride film out of CGI penguins, but it is fun.  I also like that this attraction reuses the motion theaters from the old Luxor ride.

 For everyone in Orlando, this is NOT like the Garden Grill in Epcot.  This one does not rotate and is not all you can eat, however, it is not infested with rodents trying to take pictures with your children.

That's it from Las Vegas for today.  As soon as El Loco starts to make some visible construction progress, I'll be sure to let you know.

Until then, Later Nerds!

--Mike

Theme Park Nerds, Episode 4

What's up Nerds,

If you haven't already checked it out, Theme Park Nerds Episode 4 is live and has us rambling about the Las Vegas retail expansions, Universal Studios Hollywood construction, and the new Iron Man exhibit at Innoventions in Disneyland.  Check it out and let us know what you think.

Theme Park Nerds Episode 4

Hope you like it,
--Mike and Parker

Las Vegas Retail Craziness

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Hello Nerds,

If there is one thing the Las Vegas Strip isn't lacking, aside from casinos, out of place city landmarks, and Cirque du Soleil show, it's opportunities to buy things.  During the construction boom of the 90's and 2000's, it seems every major hotel on the strip added some sort of retail shopping space to capitalize on the stream of visitors traveling to, from, and through the resorts.  While area is pretty well saturated with opportunities to buy whatever your heart desires, Caesar's Entertainment and MGM Resorts is hoping there is still room for more.

Two major retail projects are currently under construction on The Strip.  Over at The Quad (formerly the Imperial Palace) construction is well underway for The Linq, an outdoor mall that will squeeze between that hotel and The Flamingo and stretch back to the new observation wheel being built in the back, the High Roller.  Along with the renovations underway at The Quad, Caesar's is hoping to breath new life into some of the older areas of The Strip.

Here is a shot of the Linq under construction.  The Quad is on the left, the Flamingo is on the Right, and the High Roller is the white A frame in the background.

Meanwhile, across the street and a little south of The Linq project, MGM Resorts is beginning work on their new retail space that will span from New York, New York to City Center, taking up much of the current walkways in front of the resorts.  The facades of NYNY and Monte Carlo will be pushed out to the street allowing for additional retail space to be built on the highly visible and well trafficked Strip.   In addition, the former City Center offices, which sit empty between NYNY and Monte Carlo, will be demolished to make way for a pedestrian pathway connecting the strip to the announced 20,000 seat arena that will rise from the parking lots and corporate offices behind Monte Carlo.

In this shot of Monte Carlo from above, you can see some of the extra space between the street and the current casino entrance that will be enclosed to provide the extra retail space.  The white roofed building above Monte Carlo, just before NYNY, is the old City Center offices that will make way for the pedestrian walkway to the arena.

It's going to be an eventful year for Las Vegas with these new additions.  Be sure to check out more information on these, and other themed projects on the Theme Park Nerds Video Blog!

Theme Park Nerds Episode 4

Happy Shopping Nerds!

Mike

Desperate for Desperado

Hugging the state line between California and Nevada lies Buffalo Bill's Hotel and Casino, part of the Primm Valley resorts. Buffalo Bill's makes a valiant attempt to be a family casino resort, in the great tradition of Excalibur, Luxor, and Circus Circus. It has a relatively well done western theme that ties together the resort's hotel, restaurants, casino, and rides. That's right, there be rides here.

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.