Thursday, December 09, 2010

Vegas: Shows, Fabulous Hotels and Incredibly Unappealing Rides

This last weekend I went to Vegas with my son and my mother. My first family-Vegas trip.  It was fun although I was forced to be much better behaved than I normally am in Vegas and as I posted on Facebook: Doing Vegas without cocktails is like driving into the setting sun without sunglasses, everything's a bit too bright and a little irritating. But then when you slip the shades on it's all fabulous.


But despite my inability to be sinful I did appreciate the Shark's Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay the zoo and Dolphin pond at the Mirage and Cirque Du Soleil's Ka was magnificent. You can see why this city is called the Disneyland for adults.  They even have rides.

Which brings me to another point. We went to the top of The Stratosphere, the highest observation deck West of the Mississippi, and there are lots of rides up there. Horrible, horrible rides.  There's a roller-coaster-like ride that is specifically designed to make you feel like you're going to go hurtling off the building.  The ramp lowers over the edge of the 108th floor roof and the car rockets down and stops just before you go off into oblivion. And then you're just hanging there, looking down. 1149 feet down.  And in case that's not enough for you, you can actually jump off the building being supported by nothing more than a cable and a hook.  

Maybe if I had consumed a few Vegas cocktails this would have made sense to me but sober I can't figure out why any non-suicidal person would want to jump off a perfectly good building.  It's not like the building was on fire. There was no structural problems with the building that I could see and the elevator was working just fine. And yet people just kept jumping off. My son suggested that perhaps they were just really bored but when I say I'm so bored I could jump off a building I'm joking.  I've never actually been that bored.
So apparently I'm missing the appeal. Do you see it? Would you sign a waiver then allow an hourly employee (who probably isn't paid too well) to attach a cable to the back of an old jumpsuit they suited you up in and then turn around and walk off a 108-story building just for kicks and giggles?

And if so, have you ever considered medication?

7 comments:

Christie Craig said...

Kyra,

Amen, sister. Don't get me wrong. I love a thrill, too. But no way, no how am I going to go play pretend suicide.

Call me a whimp. But I don't even do really scary roller coaster rides. Everytime I did in the past, I'd have to promise God, I'd give something up if he'd get me off of it alive. I don't have that many more things I can live without. LOL.

Thanks for the chuckle.

CC

Terri Osburn said...

I've never been to Vegas but really want to go. I don't drink, so I'll bring extra shades.

No way am I jumping off anything. Or riding that horrible sounding ride. LOL! I'll keep my feet firmly planted, thank you. Adrenaline is highly overrated in my book.

Angie Fox said...

Oh my. I love Vegas, but the most daredevil thing I want to do is see a show, order three drinks and then try to find my hotel key card in my overstuffed purse.

Glad you had so much fun!

kyradavis said...

See, we all agree on what kind adventures one should have in Vegas. Trying to find the hotel rental key while mildly intoxicated or staying sober but struggling to walk in insanely high-heeled shoes that you wouldn't dream of wearing outside of Vegas, these are good adventures. But that's it. Like Christie, I like a good NORMAL roller coaster but I'm skipping on the near death experiences. Feeling like you're going to die doesn't sound like a good time to me.

Robin Kaye said...

Kyra~ There's not enough money in all the vaults in Vegas to make me jump off a building. I don't have a fear of heights, just a fear of falling from them, although the last time I fell over my dog, that wasn't much fun either.

As for Vegas, I really don't have a great interest in going. I'd rather go to NY, eat deli, see a show and just soak up the energy there. No sunglasses necessary, although alcohol does make it more fun, especially on my pub crawl.

kyradavis said...

@Robin--funny, I was just having a conversation with my boy and he was saying that NY was definitely better. I can't say i disagree. Although again, the Cirque Du Soleil shows in Vegas are worth the trip. Seriously amazing and because their permanent shows the sets are more spectacular than you'll find in any of the other Cirque Du Soleil performances throughout the country. If you ever DO go to Vegas go see Cirque Du Soleil's KA at the MGM...and then go have a cocktail and laugh at the people foolish enough to jump off buildings.

Thefunneverends said...

I would so do this and this would be the only reason to go to veges. I saw Alei do this on her show and I had to Google it to see where it is. planning a trip now. and I also jump out of perfectly good planes too.