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Tags: Attractions / Cloud 9 Balloon / Photo Ops / Family-Friendly Vegas / → All Tags

Cloud 9 Balloon Got Ripped in Vegas and Is Still Recovering

Remember that big white orb that was floating high over the Strip earlier this year? The Cloud Nine Balloon that had been “flying” tourists above Vegas via a tethered float was grounded in March after two severe wind incidents. We were disappointed we hadn’t gotten to ride it before its collapse.

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Tags: Attractions / Cloud 9 Balloon / Photo Ops / Family-Friendly Vegas / → All Tags

Get High in Vegas: Cloud 9 Balloon Rides to Launch Oct. 5

If you were across the street from Mandalay Bay last night around 9 p.m., you would have born witness to the dramatic appearance of a giant, glowing white orb. A refugee alien aircraft escaped from the infamous Area 51, perhaps? Not quite. What was really happening was the inaugural inflation of the new Cloud 9 Balloon, a two-ton, 75-foot diameter, helium-filled tethered balloon that will begin ferrying passengers 500 feet into the air on October 5.

The company, based in France, claims the balloon is the world’s largest, tethered, helium balloon ride. Its gondola can hold 25-30 passengers at a time for 10-minute rides that will offer a 360-degree vista of the Las Vegas valley.

Ticket prices are $17.50 for children 5-12 years old and $22.50 for adults from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The premium time to take in the Vegas skyline, of course, is nighttime, so prices rise to $22.50 for kids and $27.50 for adults from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m. Children under 4 are free, and the balloon is wheelchair accessible.

Tags: Attractions / Paris / Eiffel Tower / Family-Friendly Vegas / Long Lines / → All Tags

There Will Be a Wait But the Pictures Will be Worth it at Paris' Eiffel Tower

So, we always thought it was funny that Paris Las Vegas named one floor of its parking garage after the “Eiffel Tour.” “Tour,” you may know, is the Frenchified spelling of “tower,” but in France they actually call it the “Tour Eiffel.” Oh, well. Perhaps we’re just hanging on a bit too tightly to our junior high-level grasp of the French language.

Paris’ Eiffel Tower is actually a half-scale replica of the real thing, and features both an 11th-floor restaurant and a 460-foot-high observation deck reached by the “Eiffel Tower Ride.” Take this elevator trip to the top and enjoy a view of the Strip from one its most scenic, centrally located points – as well as the commentary provided by your elevator attendant.

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Tags: Attractions / Openings / CSI / MGM Grand / → All Tags

CSI: (Worth) The Experience?

For those of seeking out the Montecito Casino, Tangiers Resort or Grissom’s crime lab, the MGM Grand has an attraction just up your fictitious Vegas alley.

The former MGM Grand arcade has been transformed into CSI: The Experience, featuring three different crime scenes: a vehicle that has crashed into a house with a dead driver, a female found dead behind a fictitious motel and a skeleton found in a canyon (which looks a lot like Red Rock Canyon).

New CSI recruits are encouraged to observe the scene as much as possible and then proceed into the "crime lab." There they interact through 15 stations and narrow the list of 15 suspects down to the perpetrator.

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Tags: Attractions / Animals / Flamingo / → All Tags

Take a Walk on the Wild Side – at the Flamingo’s Wildlife Habitat

Granted, in our humble opinion, the Wildlife Habitat next to the Flamingo’s pool complex used to be even cooler. That’s because it used to have penguins. Yes, that’s right, penguins who lived in the open air in the desert. During feeding times, they’d run around in circles flapping their wings or, alternatively, snuggle up to the caretaker bearing the bucket of fish. They were charmers, that’s for sure.

But alas, the penguins moved along a couple of years ago. We hope it was to more appropriate climes.

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Tags: Did You Know / Active Vegas / Attractions / Family-Friendly Vegas / → All Tags

That Vegas Has a Wetlands Park You Can Visit?

Take Tropicana Avenue east from the Strip all the way to its ending point, and you’ll find Wetlands Park, which is shaping up to be Las Vegas’ most interesting civic undertakings.

Las Vegas isn’t all desert, after all, but features natural wetlands that are in the process of being reclaimed and restored to create this park. Here’s a cool sidenote reported in Saturday’s LVRJ: for every acre of “environmentally sensitive” land developers disturb in Clark County, they are required to purchase an acre of land in the Wetlands Park.

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Tags: Golf / Attractions / → All Tags

Callaway Golf Center :: Golfing on the Strip, at the Strip

There's plenty of golfing in Vegas, but much of it is (A) for pros, (B) located far out of town, or (C) if close, incredibly pricy and very, very luxe, as is the case with the golf course at the Wynn. There's one course in town, however, that's a little more obscure, and just as solid: the Callway Golf Center, the only golf course in Vegas where you can drive golf balls literally onto the Strip.

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Tags: Ethel M Chocolate Factory / Candy / Chocolate / Attractions / Kid-Friendly Vegas / → All Tags

When a Chocolate Fountain Just Won't Do, Take the Ethel M Factory Tour

The Entertainment Capital of the World is known – and rightly so – as a one-industry town. But that doesn’t we don’t have our own little enterprises going. Let’s see: there’s Ron Lee’s World of Clowns (freaky!), an Ocean Spray cranberry plant and the parent company of a rocket fuel producer (they moved the actual plant to Cedar City, Utah, after an explosion here in Vegas in 1988).

Anyway, our favorite boutique industry here in Vegas has to be Ethel M Chocolates. You may have noticed the Ethel M Chocolates shops at McCarran Airport, where they sell fancy truffles and various chocolate assortments gift-boxed in Vegas-themed or seasonal packaging. Perhaps you’ve even been compelled to purchase one as a last-minute gift for the folks back home.

But you can go beyond the chocolate shop by touring the Ethel M factory in Henderson, about 15 minutes away from the Strip. Best part? The free tours daily from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., during which visitors can watch the bonbons being made and enjoy what some would describe as “generous” free samples. C’mon. Everybody gets at least a little excited about free chocolate! It brings out the kid in us all and it beats staring at an (albeit elaborate) chocolate fountain.

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Tags: Valley of Fire / Attractions / Adventure / Active Vegas / → All Tags

Get a Dose of History with The Spectacular Scenery at Valley of Fire

An hour or so from Las Vegas is a spectacular example of why so many East Coasters and international travelers are enamored of the American Southwest. Valley of Fire State Park is located 55 miles northeast of Las Vegas on I-15 (60 miles on the slower, more scenic North Shore Road around Lake Mead).

You may have seen its flamboyant, red sandstone formations north of Lake Mead while flying into town. The landscape is a professional and amateur photographer’s dream, and its historical significance as a site for religious ceremonies, hunting and food gathering for ancient inhabitants of the region make it a winner, too.

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Tags: Openings / Attractions / MGM Grand / CSI / → All Tags

'The CSI Experience' is Coming to MGM Grand This Summer

Everyone knows that the television show CSI takes place in Las Vegas but when actually visiting Sin City, getting into the LVMPD's own homicide offices and forensics labs are nearly impossible, unless you happen to be a suspect yourself. (We sincerely hope that's not the case.)

But never fear dear Grissom fans, The CSI Experience is setting up shop in MGM Grand this summer.

Originally developed by the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History with a grant from The National Science Foundation (NSF) for a tour of U.S. science museums, CSI: The Experience gives guests the opportunity to play the role of a crime scene investigator, learning scientific principles and real investigative techniques as they try to solve one of three crime scene mysteries.

Two state-of-the-art crime labs will help guests piece together the evidence. With input from investigators from the television show, guests will formulate a hypothesis, validate their findings based on scientific evidence and try to crack the case.

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Tags: Hard Rock Cafe / Hard Rock / Restaurants / Attractions / Openings / → All Tags

The Hard Rock Is Finally Coming to The Strip

While we’re not sure now’s the best time to be in an expansion mode, we understand why the folks at Hardrock corporate headquarters wanted to build a new restaurant in Las Vegas. Even though the Hard Rock Hotel and Café does pretty well for itself, and is in the midst of a pretty awesome expansion, it doesn’t boast that all-important, coveted Strip address.

According to Hard Rock’s corporate Web site, a sprawling new Hard Rock Café is set to open sometime this summer next to the MGM Grand. However, that's not exactly true. The new Hard Rock Cafe is actually going up just to the north of the depressing Showcase Mall – home of that chocolate merchandising extravaganza M&M’s World - not "right next" to MGM.

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Tags: Adventure Vegas / Shark Reef / Attractions / Mandalay Bay / THEhotel / → All Tags

Come On In, The Water's Fine: Divers Can Now Go Inside The Shark Reef

Guests of Mandalay Bay or THEhotel now have the chance to have close encounters of the toothsome kind while diving at Shark Reef.

We’ve always liked Shark Reef, which truthfully makes other aquariums look rangy and dilapidated by comparison. We recall a visit to one Florida aquarium (it shall remain nameless), even, that we couldn’t help comparing to Shark Reef, which seemed not only more modern, but also cleaner and more well tended than the other.

The four-hour Dive with the Sharks experience starts at 3 p.m. with a guided tour of Shark Reef Aquarium, during which participants (only two permitted at a time) learn about the attraction’s various marine and amphibious inhabitants, with special emphasis on shark health and behavior. Following the tour, participants get an orientation before it’s time to peel on their wetsuits and begin the 45-minute, underwater adventure.

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