[olecapt]

Originally Posted by rightonbro

Any advice on getting down to the Strip tonight? It's my first NYE here and we want to go see what it looks like on the Strip, crazy as it may be.

I looked at the map and it looks like they are closing offramps, but not necessarily the overpass.

Am coming from the west valley, so it sounds like I can take any of the major streets - say, Spring Mountain - from the west, over the 15 overpass, and then enter Treasure Island from Spring Mountain, park and walk accordingly?

Thanks!

You can walk over. Nothing moves on wheels east of 15 when it gets going.

So park west of 15 and walk in. You will be glad when you are leaving.

Heightening the admission price increases the joy.

[aqualung8705]

Originally Posted by dr.gomonas

Good to know! For lack of any other plans, I think I'm going to check out Fremont. I wasn't planning to go until late, but now I'm rethinking that. Has anyone been before and who would have a recommendation for best time to get there?

I heard on The Point this morning that CAT will be running free buses from the CSN campuses down to Fremont St.

[Soundman123]

Hi guys,

I just got back from the Vegas strip and I have to say that I was really disappointed with the festivities. This is my first year living in Vegas and I expected so much more.

I was standing at Flamingo near the Bellagio & Caesar’s. At midnight, there were small fire works displays in the distance near the Mirage and at the far south end near Mandalay Bay.

There were no fireworks anywhere near what I felt was a central location on the strip! There were no live bands either which I thought would have livened things up a bit more.

There were also these horrible religious zealots yelling on megaphones and holding homophobic picket signs which I felt were totally inappropriate for a new years celebration.

What a bust! Did anyone else have a better time this evening?

[Golfinnova]

I stayed at home as I can't stand crowds. Obviously whoever made the decision to shoot the fireworks off from the ground versus the roofs of the hotels as in previous years should be looking for a new position. I've heard/seen from numerous sources that the fireworks were partially obstructed.

Did you see the motorcycle jump? You were in the area for that, and that was pretty cool to see. I thought for sure he was going to bounce into the stands jumping off the Arc de Triumphe, but he nailed it breaking his hand in the process.

[rightonbro]

Wow - thanks for the advice! We did park at the Rio and walk over to the Strip from there at about 7pm and I am super glad that we did that - the walk wasn't far, it was painless driving to/from, and it was an interesting view of things to walk over the I-15 in the middle of Flamingo Road. We tried parking at the Mirage first but they were limiting the self-park garage to hotel guests only. We ended up staying on the Strip until about 2:30 until the crowds subsided and we could walk back.

The crush of people was pretty incredible, especially right after the motorcycle jump (we went to see Robbie Knievel, not the other guy) and right at the countdown.

I didn't see much of the fireworks show but still had a great time! Not sure it's something I want to do on a regular basis but it was a fun first NYE here and fun to be part of the crowd.

[airics]

i was able to watch everything live via the internet... even the newsreporters were complaining that the views of the fireworks were poor and that they would have to rethink this for next year.... i also heard that robbie knieval did not jump over the volcano, just on the side of it. i saw the video and really cant determine that. i thought the paris jumper was much much better, except the news was reporting that he overcame turrets. i dont believe that you can overcome turrets and you could see the twitching...
hopefully next year, we are situated in vegas permanently, however new years is a bad time for me as my mom passed unexpectidly 4yrs ago on new years eve....

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by Golfinnova

I stayed at home as I can't stand crowds. Obviously whoever made the decision to shoot the fireworks off from the ground versus the roofs of the hotels as in previous years should be looking for a new position. I've heard/seen from numerous sources that the fireworks were partially obstructed.
.

It was the Clark County Fire Dept that did it in. After the Gold Coast fire everyone has gotten cold feet over the stuccoed styrofoam giimmickry on top of the buildings.

Bet they work it out for next year. Probably need isolated platforms to make sure nothing can catch fire.

[airics]

do you mean the Monte Carlo fire?

[aqualung8705]

The reason that they didn't shoot the fireworks off the roofs of the hotels was the risk of fire. A number of them have foam facades, and they didn't want a repeat performance of the fire that they had last year when a workman was using a blowtorch/welder. Unless LVFD had equipment in place, been nigh on impossible to get fire crews in. Their only recourse would have been to call in NV Forrestry fire crews, and have them use helicopters with water drop buckets to douse the fires. That too would be dangerous, with a number of helicopters flying in close proximity of each other. Borate bombers could have done the job as well, but that stuff is messy. The newer ones drop water, but that still would have doused the crowds.



Did anyone go the Fremont Street bash?

[AA702]

Las Vegas seemed like the better party compared to NY. I was thinking those people are nuts in that cold, windy night. I hear they don't even have a place to use the bathroom? Thats crazy.