Stratosphere Hotel & Casino's "Hi-Roller" |
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The Hi Roller coaster was opened in 1996. It was constructed by Werner Stengel of
Germany and Structures and Machines Construction of Italy. The roller coaster is
positioned 909 feet in the air, thus the name Stratosphere. It has a single
train, with 9 cars that can handle 36 people per ride and 700 passengers per hour.
One ride consists of six revolutions around the top of the Stratosphere structure.
As much as I hate to say it, the Hi-Roller is basically similar to a carousel, with
exception of the view. However, the absolute best ride experience I ever had sits
right smack in the center of the coaster. It is called the "Big Shot,"
which is pictured in the thumbnails below. That ride is simply incredible. Let me describe it to you. You sit down in any of 16 seats that are configured in rows of four around a square tower, and then lower your over-the-shoulder restraint. At this point, you're already sitting about 920 feet above the rest of Las Vegas, looking out across the city and the vast mountain ranges surrounding the city. The coaster is actually a level below the loading area for the Big Shot. When everyone is fastened in and ready to go, this big red air cylinder in the center of the tower starts making this dramatic whooshing noise, as it is pressuring up for the blast. The anticipation is un-nerving, but finally this sucker just lets loose, throwing you 160 feet in the air at speeds up to 45 miles an hour. As you're racing up this monstrous tower at perceived speeds much greater than actual speeds, all I can say is that it feels like you're getting blasted to outer space in a space shuttle, except without the space shuttle, if you get my point. The first time I went on, even with as many crazy rides as I have been on, I actually found myself praying that this thing would quickly find a way to slow us down before we cleared the top of the tower and continued into the air. Then...as if that isn't bad enough, when you finally do lose momentum, you find yourself drifting a few inches up off your seat, leaving a gap between you and the seat or harness for perhaps a second or two, and as far as I am concerned this is the best feeling I have ever experienced on a ride. Then, it starts yanking you downward again, at speeds close to when you were going up. When you get close to the bottom, you drift into a slow elastic bounce back to the top again a couple times until it loses all of its original thrust, at which point you get off and go buy another ticket for $6 and do it again. I'm not a real Las Vegas or gambling advocate, and I doubt I would have ever journeyed there had it not been for the coasters in the city, but so long as you don't go there to ride the coasters and end up gambling your money away and going home broke, I would highly recommend the Big Shot and at least one ride on each of the other coasters in the area. The other coasters are at "NewYork-NewYork" Casino, "Circus-Circus" Casino, and 30 minutes south of Las Vegas in Primm, NV at "Buffalo Bills Casino Resort". |
CLICK on the thumbnails to ENLARGE PHOTOS |
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Chris,
Eloy, Tim, Rusty, Phil, Travis, Greg (sup), and Bubba |
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