A.J. Hackett is an international bungy-jumping company. Its first operation was the world’s first year-round commercial public bungy site, which opened in Queenstown, New Zealand, in 1988.
Over the next five years, it expanded to France, Australia, U.K., and Florida. It expanded to Las Vegas in 1994, where it opened next to Circus Circus, where jumpers like you (and Anthony Curtis, reluctantly) flung themselves off a 170-foot tower; they could opt for a little dip in the Circus Circus pool at the bottom.
The bungy jump shut down at the end of July 2005. We heard that Hackett sold the land to a real-estate developer. Noises were made over the next year or two to reopen it, but it never did.
As for alternatives, luckily for you adrenaline junkies, Stratosphere debuted SkyJump Las Vegas on April 20. The world’s highest commercial decelerator, this is a monster bungy jump, an 855-foot plunge at speeds of up to 18 feet per second (40 miles an hour). Jumpers undergo a safety lesson before being suited up in a customized suit and connected to a patented high-speed "descender machine." They’re led to the edge of a small platform on a ledge off the 108th story. Guide wires, similar to vertical zip lines, keep riders from straying off course and help ensure safety. The jump costs $99, with six to ten jumps scheduled per hour.
Also at the top of Stratosphere is the ferocious Big Shot, which flings you up the needle to almost the top of the tower at 4 Gs of force, then drops you so hard and fast that you experience a moment of zero G. X Scream, which dangles you over the edge of the tower on a track, and Insanity, a Tilt-a-Whirl off the side of tower, are the other top-of-Stratosphere thrills.
As for roller coasters, the Canyon Blaster in the Adventuredome at Circus Circus is the largest indoor roller coaster in the world. The Roller Coaster at New York-New York (fomerly Manhattan Express) is the big ride that surrounds New York-New York; it has a cool barrel roll, like flipping in an airplane (check out the 2-for-1 offer in the Rides & Attractions section of the 2010 MRB). And Speed blasts out of the Sahara, going from zero to 60 in two seconds flat and looping the loop before it reaches the end of the line, where you're suspended vertically for a moment, prior to reliving the entire ride in reverse.
The biggest roller coaster in the area is Desperado, out at Buffalo Bill's at Primm, 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas on 1-15. Also in Primm are Turbo Drop (a 180-foot-high gravity ride, sort of an upside-down Big Shot) and Adventure Canyon (flume ride).
