Thrill Rides at the Stratosphere Hotel Las Vegas
Insanity Ride at the
Stratosphere Not all the scariest rides are roller coasters, a fact that everyone who has been to the
top of the Space Needle like Stratosphere hotel in Vegas knows only too well.
Perched over the Strip, the most frightening of
the Stratosphere’s three rides is an electric-green-colored centrifuge called Insanity, which extends 64 feet over
the north edge of the tower. Spinning over 40 mph, riders are angled down by 70 degrees so all they see is the
street, 900 feet below. Opened in 2005, it is the second highest thrill ride in the world, and truly one of the
world’s most harrowing rides.
XScream Ride at the Stratosphere
If you chicken out on the Insanity Ride, try the Xscream. The appropriately titled X-Scream is only slightly less
frightening, propelling riders head first 27 feet over the edge of the building in a roller-coaster car, and
dangling them in a weightless state before retracting the car and then repeating the whole thing at a steeper
angle. Tip: the back seats are less scary, the front seats requires a change of underwear after the
ride.
Big Shot Ride at the
Stratosphere This is the one that made the Stratosphere famous. You're strapped into a chair with your
legs dangling, and then they shoot you straight up the tower's steeple, 160 feet in two seconds, at four G's. Then
they freefall you so you get negative G's, then shoot you up again! If this ride started at ground level it would
be scary, but add to that the fact that you're a thousand feet from the ground and it's terrifying. As you're going
up you worry that the brakes will fail and you'll go straight off the steeple and land down the strip at the
Sahara.
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