Desperado

The drag lift for Desperado literally goes through the roof of the hotel-casino resort, rises above the hotel (12 stories, or so) drops to ground level and, in fact, dips into a tunnel in a man-made hill. It then rises almost as high again (powered only by momentum), making a second and third drop before undulating round the parking area and returning through a fake mountain back into the casino building. All this in the desert.

I don't like wooden coasters because I feel unsafe on them. This is the first steel coaster I felt would fall apart before finishing the circuit. Of course it did not, and to this day, has not. We felt the train was running too quickly for the track, perhaps we should hand in our Roller Coaster Enthusiast cards and retire!

This competes with Blackpool Pleasure Beach's The Big One for being the tallest and/or fastest. The two were built at about the same time, this may (or may actually not) be shorter by a few feet but is faster and is definitely more thrilling.

The coaster makes a great landmark on the way from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. No coaster rider could drive past without stopping. It cost us $4 each to ride Desperado, in September 1995. The ride is more popular at night, when the temperature is nicer outside. We found the attendants were not very efficient at boarding the train, at midday they were running one train every 20 minutes, or so.

[Menu] [Nemesis] [ShockWave] [BigOne] [Ultimate] [Desperado] [Batman] [Kumba]