Annual DZ.com Vegas Blitz

[skreamer 1]

Zennie and I are organizing the first annual DZ.com Vegas Blitz!
We will organize a group booking at a hotel and will try to get group discount wherever possible (inc. the nudie bars - Woo-hoo!). Activities will include bungi, indoor wind tunnel, lots of roller-coasters and maybe even a bit of skydiving. (plus of course we will print up some super cool T-shirts too!).
It will be sometime this summer. Who is keen and roughly what date would be best? We will organize it so you pay everything directly yourself, because it would mean less admin for Zennie and me and also, I am South African and not to be trusted.
Who is with us?
/s

[Pammi 0]

That's awesome! I've always wanted to see Vegas...what a way to do it! I, of course, want to try the wind tunnel and can you believe I've never bungee'd?? Keep us up-to-date...we're there!
Pammi

[OmriMon 0]

hey skreamer can u make a little detour to the middle east so that i can enjoy a a little of that boogie mayself?
u know, we do have some roller coasters here, a skycoaster, a wind tunnel and a dz!
and i'm here ofcourse Free Skies,
Omri

[Zennie 0]

I suppose one thing we should get squared away initially is whether our Head Honcho is cool with doing this under the auspices of Dropzone.com? If not, that's cool, we can still do it, but it'd be nice to have an "umbrella" sponsor.
I've been to Vegas a few times (including some serious time at FlyAway) so I can contact Flyaway & GZ as well as a few casinos and see what I get.
As far as casinos go, there are lots to choose from. They range from fairly inexpensive to, well, the Bellagio. For those of you familiar with the strip, FlyAway is right next to the Riviera. Circus Circus, which is where the bungy platform is, is right across the street.
So either the Riviera or Circus,Circus would be convenient location-wise, but the accomodations and facilities are nothing like a little further down the strip (i.e. the Mirage, Treasure Island, Venetian, Caesar's).
So I guess I'll throw this out for discussion. Would most people be on a budget? If so, the Riviera or Circus,Circus would probably be best because they're so close to everything. If you want something a little nicer, but a little further away, I can contact the Mirage, etc.
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Blue Skies!
Zennie

[skreamer 1]

No way Zennie - those two hotels are waaaaay too expensive.
On my last trip to Vegas we stayed in the Imperial Palace hotel. This hotel looked so good in the '70's that they decided not to change a thing (including the staff)... It is right on the strip, and has all the qualities we are lookig for : cheap, cheap and cheap
Here is a tentative date : the weekend of June the 9th until June the 12th (Saturday until Tuesday). This means those of you who can only make it out for the weekend, can still get in on the action. Then on the Tuesday night I intend driving to Skydance, because their American Boogie kicks off that Wednesday. Bear in mind that my flight ticket will be well in excess of $500 (ouch), so it would be great if we could combine these two activities. This way I might also be able to persuade some other European skydivers to join us (I already know who I have in mind).
I don't think Sangiro will have a problem with this (hell, hopefully he joins us), because it will be good publicity for his site and being the *umbrella sponsor* won't cost him a cent (apart from some dz.com T-shirts which we are still awaiting...).
Your thoughts please
/s
Viva Las Vegas Blitz!

[Dutchboy 0]

Quote

I suppose one thing we should get squared away initially is whether our Head Honcho is cool with doing this under the auspices of Dropzone.com? If not, that's
cool, we can still do it, but it'd be nice to have an "umbrella" sponsor.

Just call it the DZ.com Flyaway Boogie. I'm assuming that you're going to the Flyaway wind tunnel there. I didn't get any grief from the big guy about the Southeastern USA DZ.com Boogie that is next weekend (24-25) at Skydive Atlanta, BTW. You might want to invite him along, just to be safe though.

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[froggie 0]

Only 354 more days until im 21! whens this trip going down? :) geeze. i hate being so close to legal that i can taste it. It would be nice to get into the bar because im 21 not because im... nevermind. what i wear when i go out isnt important. ROFLMAO haha. But seriously, this trip sounds awesome. I would love to get together wiht a whole lot of dz.commers. keep us updated. Good idea skreamer and zennie!

[Zennie 0]

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You might want to invite him along, just to be safe though.

Of course! Everyone's invited!
As far as accomodations go, I'm cool with arranging whatever works for most people. I forget I'm a little spoiled when it comes to LV casinos. Is the Imperial Palace close to FlyAway? I can't place it.
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Blue Skies!
Zennie

[skybytch 259]

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the weekend of June the 9th until June the 12th (Saturday until Tuesday).

Make that Thursday through Sunday and I'll be there for the duration... unfortunately taking a Monday and Tuesday off work are not an option for me and I ain't making that drive for just a weekend! Or maybe Friday - Tuesday so those of us who are just there for the weekend can come in early?
Anyone else like craps?
pull and flare,
lisa

[Zennie 0]

FYI. I just did a Travelocity check on airline tix. Round trip per person between Houston & LV is $306 (Continental). That was for both June 7-10 (Thurs-Sun) and June 8-12 (Fri-Tues).
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Blue Skies!
Zennie

[skreamer 1]

Lisa that sounds good! If there is a bit of overlapping that will be fine.
Zennie the Palace is sort of between Circus Circus and New York New York on the Strip Strip
Here is the Palace (biiiit of a misleading name)
/s
Can anybody give me a guesstimate on the time it will take to drive from Vegas to Skydance (Davis)?
Just found a ticket on expedia.co.uk for $528 - not bad at all!

[Zennie 0]

Just took a look at their website and it looks like their rates are $75.00 per night. That is cheap.
If it's between Circus Circus & New York New York, then it's basically in the middle of the strip strip. Which I think is correct because, now that I see the picture, I think that place is right next to Bally's (or really close by).
That's a pretty long hoof to Flyaway & AJ Hackett. But we can all pile into taxis if we need to.
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Blue Skies!
Zennie

[skybytch 259]

for the excursions... assuming that I won't be drunk at the time we can pile into my station wagon (holds 5 regular people or 8 skydivers )...
I'll hafta pass on the bungee thing though, don't think my doc will think much of that one only six months after surgery. But I hereby volunteer to take pictures from the ground! skreamer figure on 10 hours driving time from Vegas to Davis.
pull and flare,
lisa

[Deleted 0]

Hooray for the person who thought of this one!! Sounds like fun.
Things to consider...
1) i have bungeed the "worlds mightiest" and the "worlds first" (both in NZ) and I would have to say that bungee-ing doesn't even compare to skydiving. The only thing they make money on is the "fear" factor of standing on a ledge that you "can" see the bottom of. Not like skydiving where you can see the ground, but have heaps of stuff to do between the door and it. So, for those of you questioning it...I would save my $$ for more jump tix.
2) The Imperial Palace has (without a doubt) the best dressed cocktail waitresses. Look for Lisa when you go. Once you find her, you will lose HEAPS of $$ at blackjack because you won't be able to take your eyes off of her.
3) Everything in Vegas is really close. So, even if you went downtown to some of the cheaper casinos (I know that the Fairmont and 4 Queens have really cheap rooms i.e,39-55$/night). Taxis wouldn't cost more than about 4$ per person, so groups would be encouraged to go everywhere together, save for the obvious (not leaving anyroom for you guys...I have been here too long4) Just as a safety net...lets make sure we get peoples permission before we start using their businesses names on our tour. I know Sangiro would be keen as mustard, but let's just wait until he gets back to make sure. And as far as Flyaway, well I know he would want to be aware of his sponsorship and what he would get out of it. (call this my inevitable business side coming through, ugly isn't it?!!)
5)Lets do this thing though. Sounds like fun and I love going to Vegas...as long as no one plans on robbing the casinos dressed as Elvis/skydivers/idiots, we should all have HEAPS of fun.
P.S. Someone should contact skydive Vegas and see if they would want to sponsor us as well. Might get some of the westies involved too!!
Well, I applaud skreamer for this one. Good job!Arohanui,
B
NZPF A-2584

[Tee 0]

Way to go Skreamer and Zennie, Vagas is an awesome idea! And hopefully it will allow us westerners to be able to afford it too. I agree that after skydiving, bungee is BORING. All I got was a headache from hanging upside down soooo long before they got me down.
Great idea again guys....hope to see everyone there!
Tee

[skreamer 1]

And let's not forget the T-shirts! Any of you any good at designing and artsy stuff?
/s
Man this will be a blast - partying in Vegas with a whole bunch of skydivers!!!

[Zennie 0]

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P.S. Someone should contact skydive Vegas and see if they would want to sponsor us as well. Might get some of the westies involved too!!

I've heard that Skydive Las Vegas is not friendly to the regular skydivers. Check rec.skydiving for discussion about their operations and form your own opinions, but I'm not too keen on them.
I like the FlyAway folks and the Gravity Zone is the DZ affiliated with them. I've heard very good things about the GZ.
As far as using organization's names without their consent, I agree that we need their permission first. That's why I mentioned Sangiro earlier. As far as any other organizations go, we would contact them before saying they were sponsoring anything. We just thought the wind tunnel made sense as far as an activity for us to engage in. If they can give us some sort of group discount, great!
I'll give fair warning that the weekend we're looking at may be bad for me. Turns out there's a family wedding in Wisconsin that there's no way I'm going to be able to get out of. As another thought, do we want to schedule this at a time of the year when people up north can't normaly skydive?
We're still in the idea-generating stage so this is just a thought.
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Blue Skies!
Zennie
Edited by Zennie on 3/15/01 04:45 PM.

[freaksister 0]

If you time it right, you can stay in the MGM Grand for $99 a night. That was about two years ago, though. Anyway, it was in May and that was probably still off-peak. Anybody flying from an area serviced by Southwest Airlines can buy tickets for $100 round trip to Vegas. They push Vegas BIG. All the regular casinos freaks from up here take Southwest only...because its so cheap. Screw the bungee jump, but I HAVE to ride the roller coaster on that tower thing. I forget what's called all of a sudden. I rode the one on New York New York but the other one was closed because of winds. The Stratosphere! That's what it is! BAM!!!!!

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[Zennie 0]

The roller coaster at the top of the Stratosphere is actually kinda boring. The fun thing there is the reverse-bungee thing (I think it's called the Sky Shot). You sit in this chair and it shoots you like 150 up in the air. Pretty weird feeling being up that high and suddenly seeing the ground going *away* from you. You feel like your going to shoot off the top. Lots of fun. My bro & I rode it over & over.
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Blue Skies!
Zennie

[Deleted 0]

>*The roller coaster at the top of the Stratosphere is actually kinda boring. The fun thing there is the reverse-bungee thing (I think it's called the Sky Shot). You sit in this chair and it shoots you like 150 up in the air. Pretty weird feeling being up that high and suddenly seeing the ground going *away* from you. You feel like your going to shoot off the top. Lots of fun. My bro & I rode it over & over.*
I found this out AFTER I did the skyshot and the roller coaster at the top...the company that USED to run it went BANKRUPT and couldn't afford to keep up its maintainance. So, they leased it out to a firm, who JUST operates it. I agree, the skyshot is quite a blast. Doing it a night was even more of a thrill, but after we got down and were informed of its' politics, you won't be finding me on that thing ever again. So, what I am trying to say is that (to my understanding) nobody is LIABLE for your injuries, but being in the US, I am sure someone will find someone liable for something.
My .02 on this particular matter.
P.S. How do you get those bars to appear on the side of things you copy from other people's posts...only thing I haven't figured out yet.
Arohanui,
B
NZPF A-2584

[Zennie 0]

The FAQ has instructions for using HTML. It's just text between a pair of quote brackets (you have to copy & paste what you're quoting).
[ quote ]Blah Blah Blah [ /quote ]
If you take the spaces out, the quote bars will work and you will see "Blah Blah Blah" between them.
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Blue Skies!
Zennie

[Shark 0]

Okay, ROAD TRIP! Looks like the Shark will make the swim to Sin City! Only problem is that I'd feel insecure leaving the Frankenrig in the room. (I'd just as well wear it around town.)

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[freaksister 0]

hey aren't there any buildings tall enough for us to BASE off of there? for example...that infamous stratosphere we were talking about earlier? this would give us a good excuse for wearing our rigs around town...frankenrig and freak's rig J.G. at least ours have names, huh shark?

[Albatross 0]

Lets get wild. I am totally up for a week(end) of Vegas, wind tunnels and skydiving. We need a few things for the others who don't jump. froggie can come, your a woman nobody will ask anything about your age. I want to meet everyone from all over that would be the perfect place.
Blue skys and Party
Albatross

[OmriMon 0]

not too perfect for me, damn skateboard!
Free Skies,
Omri