honeymoon
October 2008 
Honeymoon Day 9 - Vegas Rides
Posted on May 2nd, 2007
by 
Joshua
Joshua
We started the day off with Ronald's Doughnuts, a nearly famous spot in Las Vegas for vegans, with two-thirds of their offerings being vegan. We couldn't gorge ourselves as I've read some accounts of people doing, and had a small, but sweet, breakfast before our first big day of exploring. We started off by going to the Stratosphere and buying passes to go up it's 900 foot tower to enjoy the three thrill rides on top.
The weather was perfect and the only line we had was for the security checkpoint at the bottom of the tower. The first was Big Shot, a launch tower right at the tip top. It was a very cool experience to blast up into the air and feel yourself falling weightless for a breif moment. After Big Shot, we went on X-Scream, a strange little car-on-a-moving-slide thingy where you sit down then slide off of the edge of the tower, stopping abruptly at the end of the slide rail. It's quite an intense experience, and the ride repeats that with little variations a few times before you end up secured back in the loading deck. Tracy & I don't usually have any problems with the heights of rides, but this thing gave us a heart twitter. Finally we boarded Insanity, a set of swings that rotate on an arm that swings the whole lot out over the edge of the tower. We felt much more secure on this one, but got quite dizzy from the spinning. The view couldn't be beat though, and it's the longest ride of the three.
After going down the tower we headed over to Sahara to take a trip on Speed: The Ride, a launch coaster that loops and twists right along The Strip. We were both impressed with how fast the ride was and how tight into the hotel structure and the street it seemed. It was over pretty quick though.
Tracy had a craving for lunch so we asked Miss Garmin where we could find some japanese food and she directed us to Sushi Factory. Not an especially vegetarian place, but it's usually a pretty safe bet to go with veggie sushi anywhere. The motto on the menu was "We serve fresh dead fish".... seriously. The food was fine and we headed back to Circus Circus to rest a bit before exploring the attached Adventuredome amusement center. I've been to it before when I was in Vegas with Adam. He'll be pleased to know that our favorite soccer shoot-out table-based paddle game is still there. Tracy and I played a couple of games. She picked it up quickly and our second game was a good match that I barely won.
After playing some games we headed off to get a taxi over to the Wynn resort where we were scheduled to see Monty Python's Spamalot, a popular musical we had heard good things about. After picking up out tickets we went over to the buffet to get some dinner. Now, a vegan at a Las Vegas buffet, as you can imagine, has about as much luck as a someone playing craps while drunk. But we both were able to find dishes that worked for us and we ended up quite full, if a bit lighter in the wallet than we should have been for what we ate.
The show itself was awesome. Our seats were cheap and not great, but the whole theater had good views and we really enjoyed the humor, music and production value. Tracy was cracking up at many points! Spamalot is well worth catching in Vegas, on Broadway or if the touring company comes nearby.
Tomorrow we're doing a little spa action in the morning, then going to ride the coaster at New York New York, and doing the Star Trek Experience *cough*geeks*cough* Then later in the evening we're seeing the Cirque du Soleil's KÀ at MGM Grand. Should be quite a night!
The weather was perfect and the only line we had was for the security checkpoint at the bottom of the tower. The first was Big Shot, a launch tower right at the tip top. It was a very cool experience to blast up into the air and feel yourself falling weightless for a breif moment. After Big Shot, we went on X-Scream, a strange little car-on-a-moving-slide thingy where you sit down then slide off of the edge of the tower, stopping abruptly at the end of the slide rail. It's quite an intense experience, and the ride repeats that with little variations a few times before you end up secured back in the loading deck. Tracy & I don't usually have any problems with the heights of rides, but this thing gave us a heart twitter. Finally we boarded Insanity, a set of swings that rotate on an arm that swings the whole lot out over the edge of the tower. We felt much more secure on this one, but got quite dizzy from the spinning. The view couldn't be beat though, and it's the longest ride of the three.
After going down the tower we headed over to Sahara to take a trip on Speed: The Ride, a launch coaster that loops and twists right along The Strip. We were both impressed with how fast the ride was and how tight into the hotel structure and the street it seemed. It was over pretty quick though.
Tracy had a craving for lunch so we asked Miss Garmin where we could find some japanese food and she directed us to Sushi Factory. Not an especially vegetarian place, but it's usually a pretty safe bet to go with veggie sushi anywhere. The motto on the menu was "We serve fresh dead fish".... seriously. The food was fine and we headed back to Circus Circus to rest a bit before exploring the attached Adventuredome amusement center. I've been to it before when I was in Vegas with Adam. He'll be pleased to know that our favorite soccer shoot-out table-based paddle game is still there. Tracy and I played a couple of games. She picked it up quickly and our second game was a good match that I barely won.
After playing some games we headed off to get a taxi over to the Wynn resort where we were scheduled to see Monty Python's Spamalot, a popular musical we had heard good things about. After picking up out tickets we went over to the buffet to get some dinner. Now, a vegan at a Las Vegas buffet, as you can imagine, has about as much luck as a someone playing craps while drunk. But we both were able to find dishes that worked for us and we ended up quite full, if a bit lighter in the wallet than we should have been for what we ate.
The show itself was awesome. Our seats were cheap and not great, but the whole theater had good views and we really enjoyed the humor, music and production value. Tracy was cracking up at many points! Spamalot is well worth catching in Vegas, on Broadway or if the touring company comes nearby.
Tomorrow we're doing a little spa action in the morning, then going to ride the coaster at New York New York, and doing the Star Trek Experience *cough*geeks*cough* Then later in the evening we're seeing the Cirque du Soleil's KÀ at MGM Grand. Should be quite a night!
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