Adventuredome

The Circus Circus is one of the oldest hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. In addition to the only slot machines where you can still play with coins in Las Vegas, the hotel is particularly famous for its artistry shows – but apart from that, there isn’t necessarily much else to do here. When the MGM Grand then announced the MGM Grand Adventures theme park to establish Las Vegas as a family-friendly holiday destination, this was followed in 1993 by the opening of the Grand Slam Canyon – today’s Adventuredome.

Sling Shot, Inverter und Disk’o

As soon as you enter the amusement park, you find yourself in the centre of the action. The small Sling Shot freefall tower rises up in front of you – which has an incredible amount of power and first shoots you upwards at full speed before you experience a no less intense fall downwards – and to the left are the ticket office and the two flat rides Disk’o and Inverter.

Sand Pirates, Chaos und Nebulaz

In the centre of the park is a large artificial mountain – modelled on the Grand Canyon – on which the two main attractions run. If you follow the path clockwise, you will eventually come across the Sand Pirates boat swing, as well as the remains of the Chaos ride and a brand new NebulaZ ride from Zamperla.

Extreme Ride Theater & FX Theater 4D

In addition to a generously laid out and pretty cool-looking adventure golf course, the park also has the Extreme Ride Theatre – a very shallow moving simulator on which the Angry Birds 4D film is shown – and the FX Theatre 4D, which shows two pretty good 4D films (Ice Age 4-D: No Time for Nuts and Scooby Doo) alternately.

Canyon Blaster

Since the theme park opened in 1993, the Canyon Blaster has been the main attraction in the Adventuredome. The layout with its two loops and corkscrews is based on the Carolina Cyclone roller coaster at Carowinds theme park – in Europe, the same layout can be found at Efteling’s Python or Shaman at Gardaland, for example – with slight variations in the transitions towards the end of the ride. Where ten years earlier all records would have been broken, the Canyon Blaster doesn’t really offer anything special if it wasn’t for the way it is embedded within the park and the trains used. Basically, this roller coaster thrives on the fact that you come quite close to the roof of the hall at several points during the ride. In addition, after the two corkscrews, you enter a helix that leads partly through the artificial mountain massif. The modern trains, which can otherwise only be experienced on the Corkscrew in the Japanese theme park Benyland, are also extremely comfortable. All in all, a very decent roller coaster.

El Loco

The second rollercoaster in Adventureland is El Loco – the somewhat different El Loco from American manufacturer S&S. After the ride on the extremely fast lift, the ride immediately begins with the entry into a very tight turning curve. At full throttle, we then shoot over the far too narrow crest of the first drop. Without making contact with the seat, we approach the hall floor in the oversteeped drop, which we only just miss in a bend. Back at a lofty height, a block brake follows and the familiar interplay from the other El Loco roller coasters of an outwardly inclined curve and a slow lateral turn to a headstand before we hit a half loop and rush towards the ground. After a steep ascent, the track then leads us into a block brake. Just above the station, we lean briefly to the left and then to the right until we are upside down once again. The final part is a heavily braked half loop, after which we are already in the braking section of the ride and our crazy ride is slowly coming to an end.

Pictures Adventuredome

Conclusion Adventuredome

The Adventuredome is a really well-designed and extremely well-maintained theme park with some pretty cool attractions. Although the selection of attractions is clearly limited, the quality of these is quite high, which is why a visit here is really worthwhile – even if a visit to the Adventuredome should rather be seen as a supplement to the big hustle and bustle of the Las Vegas Strip.

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