We spent most of the first day of our Vegas trip at the Stratosphere Tower Hotel. Our day was planned as follows. Sky Jumps around 11 a.m., then up to the observation tower and the thrill rides there. After that, a little break in our hotel Aria, then back to the Top of the World restaurant for our Anniversary dinner.
The weather looked good from our hotel window in the morning. Dave and I decided to take a bus to the Stratosphere Tower right after breakfast.
A different view from the hallway windows next to our hotel room.
Aria is located close to the center of the Las Vegas Strip, so we took a quick walk to the bus stop near the Paris Hotel. We bought bus tickets for the whole day and hopped on the 2 story bus heading in the direction of the Stratosphere Hotel. The buses are nice and clean here, however they get busy during rush hours.
Stratosphere is located at the end of the Las Vegas Strip. We arrived a little early and headed to the registration desk. We were offered an earlier time for our sky jumps – we agreed. As soon as we arrived we could see some jumpers, but we didn’t get to take any pictures – it happened too quickly.
A view of the area near the Stratosphere Hotel. Casinos are everywhere, it is worse than Starbucks. 🙂
Here is the main entrance to the hotel and the tower.
Have you ever stood in the window of a massively tall building and looked down only to worry about the horrific fall if something were to go wrong? The Stratosphere Tower offers a Sky Jump, the longest controlled free fall in the world, which begins at the 108th floor. It is a thrilling 855 feet down, lasting only a matter of a few heart-stopping seconds. The blue box on the top of the tower is the jumping platform.
Before the jump, we were prepped and suited up in Stratosphere’s custom jump suits and given a safety lesson. After a short elevator trip to the top of the Stratosphere Tower, we needed to decide who was going to jump first. Since it was my first “falling” experience, Dave offered to go before me and take pictures from the landing platform.
We chose the option to attach a “wristcam” to the suit, allowing us to record our jumps.
Connected by a cable while wearing my snazzy jumpsuit and harnessed to the edge of the observation tower, I stepped from the edge on a count 3-2-1-Go! With a view like no other, I fell from the top of Vegas! 🙂
This is how I looked from the bottom of the tower. Dave took this picture after his jump.
After the Sky Jump we took an elevator back to the observation deck. By the way, admission to the observation deck is included in the Sky Jump ticket. The view of Vegas during the day is not that impressive, but the view at night is awesome!
Since we were at the top of the tower anyway, we had to try the thrill rides there: X-Scream, Big Shot and Insanity.
The first and the least exciting ride for us was X-Scream. Try not to scream as you teeter back and forth at unexpected speeds 900 feet above Las Vegas.
from bestofvegas.com
I really liked the Big Shot ride where thrill-seekers get shot up an additional 160 feet to the tip of the tower at gut-wrenching speeds. The world looks awfully small from 1,081 feet in the air.
The Insanity ride gave us the thrill of spinning at 3 G’s at an angle of 70 degrees, staring 90 degrees down at the ground with nothing but a mechanical green arm holding us in.
There were pictures available for a purchase after each ride. We bought this one. I know, it’s kinda lame.
After a couple hours at the Aria, Dave and I came back to the Stratosphere tower for our Anniversary diner. The Tower looked beautiful at night.
Las Vegas looked glamorous at night from the top of the tower. There is no comparison with the view during the day.
We had a reservation at the Top of the World restaurant, which offers an elegant atmosphere with breathtaking views of Las Vegas as the restaurant revolves 360 degrees every 80 minutes. Our dinner was relaxing and enjoyable. Food was just decent, but the view made up for it.
People were still on the rides. The Big Shot and Insanity at night.
After dinner we had some time to enjoy sparkly Vegas at night, but we had to hurry back to the Aria for the Cirque du Soleil “Viva Elvis” concert. The good thing is that the concert was performed in our hotel. Here is the entrance to the Elvis theater.
The tickets to the concert were part of a promotion for booking with the Aria Hotel, so the seats were kind of far away. Since it was the latest show (9:30 in the evening), the place wasn’t filled. An employee in the theater offered us better seats in the 5th row and we jumped on them.
The show was surprisingly good. At the end of the performance, some scarves were thrown into the audience (a la Elvis Presley style), Dave was able to catch one scarf as a souvenir.
