SlotZilla Zip Line

Information

At a Glance

What is it?

A zip line attraction that shoots riders out of a replica of a giant, 120-foot tall slot machine called SlotZilla. Seriously!

Where is it?

On the Fremont Street Experience in Downtown Las Vegas.

Is it worth the cost?

At only $20 for the regular lines and $45 for the high-speed lines, it is one of the best value thrills in town.

What else do I need to know?

Buy your tickets online ahead of time to avoid the lines.

What’s the bottom line?

Best. Idea. Ever.

Full Review

You gotta love Las Vegas. Where else are you going to find the “world’s tallest slot machine;” a zip line attraction that has spinning reels, giant neon showgirls on the side, and screaming people coming out of the coin tray?

SlotZilla replaces the Fremont Street Flightlinez, a set of zip lines that were meant to be temporary and felt like it. There you took an elevator to the top of a parking garage and then walked out on to what seemed like a rickety construction of scaffolds over the Fremont Street Experience. The new version is a 12-story concrete and metal structure (shaped like a giant slot machine) that feels much more substantial (and safer, at least in my mind).

You start in the office near the base of the tower, just across from Neonopolis to get your tickets. Depending on how busy it is, you may not get to buy and ride immediately but instead get an assigned time at which you can come back. After signing the “if you die it isn’t our fault” type of waivers, you get a wrist band and head over to tower.

A queue line on the first level requires that you get weighed (don’t worry, only the attendant can see how much it is) and then provides more warnings about all of the horrible things that can happen to you when doing this. Then you get strapped into your harnesses and a quick, shuddery elevator ride takes you up to one of the two launch platforms.

The zip lines launch from about midway up the tower, about 77 feet up, and put riders in the traditional seated style. There’s another queue line when you get up there and then the attendants attach the rigging to the lines, attach you to the rigging, and then open the safety gates. Several steps go down and you are supposed to walk down them until you can get into your seated position without touching the floor. As soon as you do this, you start to slide down the line but then are stopped by a big metal thing blocking forward progress. Anyone who is at all frightened of doing this in the first place will probably find this to be the scariest moment of the ride. I know I did.

The metal things open and away you go. The lines run about 850 feet down several blocks of Fremont Street, under the Viva Vision canopy, to a platform near Binion’s. It goes by really fast, especially if you are holding on for dear life completely convinced that you are going to die at any moment. At least that’s how it felt for me.

Having said that, it is kind of cool to be rushing along through one of the most historic areas of Vegas, with the giant neon signs surrounding you and crowds of people below point and laughing at how scared you look. Or maybe it was just me. Try to go at night for the fully lit up effect.

The biggest warning I can give you about this is that the ride ends very abruptly, with the rigging running into a stopping device without any benefit of slowing down first. It’s jarring, to say the least.

The upper “zoom” lines run from near the top of the tower, some 114 feet up, all the way down the length of the Fremont Street Experience to near The Golden Gate, about 1,700 feet away. These feature a totally different experience in that you don’t go sitting down, they strap you into a harness and you fly in a horizontal “Superman” position, face down. Yikes!

There are no age restrictions but there are height and weight ones. You have to weigh at least 60 pounds but not more than 300 and anyone over 6’8″ is not allowed on the lower zip line rides.

Adrenaline junkies will probably find the zip lines very tame but they can go upstairs to the zoom lines. On the other end of the scale, I am evidence that even people with paralyzing fears of heights can tolerate (if not necessarily enjoy) the ride as well.

But beyond how it is as a ride is the fact that it is a nearly perfect bit of Vegas kitsch – a giant slot machine in the middle of Fremont Street. How can you not give that an A?