Whether or not the Cloud Nine Balloon ride was walkable from the Strip is, unfortunately, currently a moot point now, since the balloon was destroyed in high winds on the night of March 18. Click here for some dramatic footage of the incident captured by a bystander.
For those of you who missed it, Cloud Nine was a tethered helium balloon that took passengers up 500 feet for stunning views of the Strip and Vegas valley. It launched October 7, 2009 and was located directly opposite Mandalay Bay at 3951 Las Vegas Blvd. S., which we'd say is walkable from MBay, although not something we'd want to try in the current temperatures.
At the time of the disaster, a pilot for the attraction said they had every plan to rebuild the balloon, and we were told by an informed source that it was heavily insured and, hence, the funding should have been there to reconstruct it. A forty-five-day time-frame was given for an announcement but we'd heard nothing more about it since, nor of the proposed exotic-animal petting zoo that was also planned as a separate attraction from the same company -- a project that seemed distinctly bizarre to us at the time, not least because it was allegedly to include "baby rhinos, zebras, giraffes, camels, and SO MUCH MORE!", with no indication of an expectation that said babies would grow into big rhinos, zebras, giraffes, and camels or what would become of them thereafter...)
However, your QoD inspired us to check out the Cloud Nine website, just to see if it even still existed, and, lo and behold!, we discovered a big red banner advertising that a "bigger and better" balloon is due to launch September 3, which is great news for everyone who didn't get a chance to use their LVA Member Rewards coupon yet (which includes us!)
