Las Vegas spent the 1990s trying to attract families by transforming into a kid-friendly
entertainment paradise. Words I have said for nearly every single attraction we have
taken a look at on this journey through Expedition Las Vegas. Today we are taking a journey back
to look at one that still exists today and how it began,
"Well driving along interstate 15 the reflective pink glass of Grand Slam Canyon almost makes
motorists forget what exit they are taking. A gigantic dome behind Circus Circus grabs
attention and stretches the imagination".
*Music*"Grand Slam Canyon."
"With each day Grand Slam Canyon gets even pinker. Grand Slam Canyon opens August 2nd.
It'll look like a ugh like a glowing pink bubble in the middle of Las Vegas."
"Grand Slam Canyon. Well thats right folks Circus Circus is renovated in a big way!"
*intro music*
In the early 90s, Vegas seemed like it was losing steam. Other ways to gamble were beginning
to become more popular and in 1992 the city’s gambling revenues declined sharply, by almost
half a billion dollars in one year alone.
The city would try something completely different to set itself apart from the imitation Sin
City sights popping up all over the United States, a brand new experience that would
make it not just a place to go to gamble, but one whole families could come for a spectacular
experience. Many hotels were demolished and completely reborn as these brand new experiences
with offerings including the wizard of Oz and a theme park, to a castle-themed hotel,
family-friendly fun was to be the highlight of the Vegas experience.
Existing hotels & Casinos would also adapt to this new outlook, including Circus Circus,
a place that had been trying to cater to that market for multiple years.
"And a big hello to our new viewers at Circus Circus hotel & Casino where we take your FUN
seriously!"
Circus Circus opened in 1968 and from its inception had what some would call a more
family-focused outlook. Well as much as possible in sin city. Costing 15 million dollars it
would be the world’s largest combined casino and amusement centre. Within the giant circus
big top that was 90-foot tall, guests could find gambling classics along with numerous
circus acts. The top floor of the Circus was filled with the highest tech shooting galleries,
skee balls, dart games and other interactive games. The bottom floor would be filled with
every type of gambling game that you could imagine. High above would be Trapeze artists
, showgirls would dance and sing through the casinos 14 bars and restaurants, there were
high dive acts, sideshows and much more, there would be thousands of dollars worth of entertainment
that would be on offer for those visiting. It was the only place in the area that children
would be welcomed on the second floor of the Circus, while they could come into the building,
they were not allowed onto the gambling floor. They even built a children's nursery room
that clowns would visit to entertain or as its a clown, terrify them. Circus Circus had
it all, except for one thing. A hotel.
The idea was dreamt up by Jay Sarno who also conceived Ceasars Palace three years earlier,
Sarno, President of the Resort stated they had built a project that would be suitable
for the entire family.
By this, it meant that the kids could roam this top floor and look down on their parent’s
gambling below. Family. Friendly. Fun. At least they could look up and enjoy the circus
performers above. Circus Circus would be the only casino that would allow youngsters into
the area, it was also the first casino to charge an admission fee just to come in.
"Honey when was the last time we visited the circus? Circus Circus proudly presents! The
flying palacios!"
the new concept was popular and something completely different for Vegas. What it didn’t
do was perform well financially. With no hotel, the Casino was struggling to attract high
rollers. Sarno believed that the Casino itself would be enough to attract visitors, it wasn’t
and now he was broke. Faced with the real possibility of Circus Circus shutting down
he would have to find a new way for it to continue.
To save the casino he would have to build this hotel, to get the money for it he would
go to the Kansas City Mafia to get his loan from the Teamsters Pension Fund. In 1971 the
414 room hotel opened adjacent to the casino.
While it did help, the mob began to take a tighter grip on Circus Circus, and they even
operated a gift shop within the resort. Faced with a failing casino and now an IRS criminal
indictment, Sarno had to sell the resort. The new owners would be Bill Bennet and Bill
Pennington, who would turn Circus Circus around and form the first property of what would
become Circus Circus Enterprises. This first foray into children friendly fun adding to
Vegas was a failure. For now.
By 1985 the strip was seeing more and more families flocking to it. With cheap hotels,
all you can eat buffets... "6.99 buffets!! yeah! 6.99 buffet woooweeeee!"
and most importantly a brand new 14 million dollar water park on the north end. In a joint
venture between Summa Corp, owner of multiple hotel properties and George Millay, Wet n
Wild Vegas exceeded attendance in its first months of operation, once again showing the
possibilities of catering to a more family-friendly audience.
"Wet N Wild beats the heat with acres and acres of rides, slides, chutes, floats and
flumes!"
After Bennett and Pennington bought Circus Circus they had turned it around, and had
greatly expanded its offerings to 1600 hotel rooms. Revenue was up to 274 million dollars
a year, they now wanted to continue the tradition of gambling and entertainment for kids under
one roof.
That family-focused ideal would become even more apparent in 1992 when Circus Circus would
announce that they would be adding a 75 million dollar family-friendly amusement park to Las
Vegas.
"One glance at Grand Slam Canyon and you know Circus Circus is behind the project, actually
the bright pink dome is behind Circus Circus in the parking lot. With each day Grand Slam
Canyon gets even pinker."
It was announced that immediate construction would begin on Grand Slam Canyon, a five-acre
entertainment attraction planned to open in July 1993, located at the west entrance of
the main building, 14 feet above the parking area. William Bennet announced it as America’s
most dramatic and inventive playground at the best price, Offering a year-round theme
park experience with the biggest and best thrill rides in the city. A feat that wasn’t
really too hard since there really wasn’t much competition in this field.
Designed by Architect Veldon Simpson, designer of the Excalibur Hotel with attractions provided
by Arrow Dynamics. The exterior would feature a huge climate-controlled insulated 150-foot
high dome, created entirely out of 8,615 pink-tinted glass panels, each pane weighing around 300
pounds.
"It's double discount days at Grand Slam Canyon Theme Park at Circus Circus. As a Nevadan
I got twice the discount. Just show your Nevada ID and get 4 dollars off, Im glad i'm from
Las Vegas, I saved twice as much at Grand Slam Canyon. With more to do, more to see,
more fun than you ever thought possible. Not only double the fun, but double the savings!
This month, locals save big at Grand Slam Canyon Theme Park at Circus Circus Las Vegas."
Opening to the public on August 23rd 1993, it would actually cost 90 million dollars
to create what would be America’s largest indoor theme park. Admission would cost 10
dollars per person and offer one ride per attraction. This was later changed to be free
to enter and everything was paid for individually.
Inside would be multiple peaks reaching as high as 15 stories, caves and canyons for
the rides to interact with. Circus Circus expected it would become normal that families
would pass by the casino and head straight to this year-round attraction. The Grand Canyon
was chosen as the theme as it seemed a natural fit for the south-west. Now visitors wouldn’t
even have to pass the state border into Arizona to get the Grand Canyon experience. Well..
That's what they said.
Inside visitors could find a themed dinosaur experience with eight large animatronics spread
throughout the park, featuring educational signs, a fossil wall was created by anthropologists
and archaeologists to ensure scientific accuracy and cascading waterfalls were all around,
with impressive rock work.
Who needs the Velocicoaster?
Attractions included The Rim Runner, a water flume ride that careens down a mountain and
through a tunnel into a splashdown ending. The Arrow Dynamics shoot the chutes was one
of the world’s longest and tallest indoor water flumes circulating 600,000 gallons of
water with a 60-foot drop. Hot Shots was a laser tag game and there was also a 379-foot
long raft slide named Twist and Shout.
The Centrepiece of the park however would be the worlds only indoor double-loop, double
corkscrew roller coaster - The Canyon Blaster. This just over 2400 foot long indoor roller
coaster featured 4 inversions, starting with a 74 foot and 72 foot vertical loop followed
by two corkscrews, it had a drop of 66 feet and would reach 41 miles per hour as it weaved
throughout the dome. The unique surroundings and theming elements made the ride much better
than it could have been, and something really impressive for 1993.
"Smoking. And get a little too big for their diapers. Get the baby!"
Canyon Blaster may not be the smoothest coaster today but it is still in operation and is
the oldest operating roller coaster in the state of Nevada followed by Desperado. You
know it had to be in it somewhere of course.
Grand Slam Canyon was an instant success and incredibly popular but troubled. Within the
first years of operation, they welcomed 1 million guests into the park. The issue was
guests wanted more to do. There were only 4 attractions within. While really nicely
themed guests needed more rides. To do this the whole park had to be closed to try and
meet these guest expectations. In April 1994 the park was closed for 45 days so these extra
attractions could be added. These included Sand Pirates, an authentic well as far as
Vegas goes reproduction of a Spanish ship that would swing back and forth, Drifter a
balloon Ferris wheel, Canyon Cars Bumper Cars ,BC Bus and Miner Mike along with a new children
play area that was added with new attractions for younger visitors. To make way for these
attractions the raft ride which had been in operation for only a few months, had to be
removed.
The new additions helped and in 1998 the attraction hit 10 million visitors. They would add and
remove attractions every couple of years and the dinosaurs and much of the original theming
was removed. It would also be home to many many 3D movies with moving seats over the
years one of the ways they would try to make new attractions in such a small space. Further
additions included the Chance Inverter, Chaos and Disk’o these were added to try and offer
something more exciting for those coming in the later years.
The majority of the park however would remain mostly the same becoming less and less desirable
over the years as the limited space meant very little could be added.
The family-friendly hotel push of the 90s had not been a success for Vegas. While other
attractions continued to close and be replaced with adult-oriented offerings, the 2000s would
see the area attempt to return to its roots, except for the Grand Slam Canyon, which had
been renamed to the adventure dome in 1998. Mayor Oscar Goodman said that they wanted
Vegas to be an adult play ground, not children. They wanted people to feel free and not have
any inhibitions while they were there. In one way the push for families had worked,
and visitors had more than doubled throughout the 90s. The negative was that Casino owners
found that the parents were spending way too much time with their kids and not enough on
spending money. After 10 years of trying the city finally realised Kids and Gambling don’t
really mix. Sin City was back pushing for adults to return.
The Adventure Dome however would remain basically the same throughout this transition back.
Circus Circus had been merging the two for decades and Vegas was changing again and while
it did remain the same, it became quite run down and would continue to lose popularity.
"*Scary Music* Hi Kids its Chuckles. Mwuahahah."
The highest attendance of the year began to be around Halloween when the attraction would
be transformed into the Fright Dome, with haunted houses, rides and sinister stage shows.
The highest yearly attendance for The Adventure dome came in 2005 when 4.5 million visitors
would head inside, making it the 11th highest visited theme park in the country as well
as now being the only theme park in Vegas. After this however It would continue to decline
year by year and would never reach those heights again. Many of the earlier attractions for
family Vegas would be no more. The Adventure Dome would be unique. It would carry on.
In 2005 Circus Circus was purchased by MGM Mirage who had plans to renovate and expand
the resort, these plans were later cancelled due to the 2008 recession.
It wouldn’t be until 2013 when the rim runner would be removed to make way for a new attraction
that Adventure Dome now, really needed. After years of being neglected guests finally had
a reason to head back inside and for vegas, it was finally going to get a somewhat good
roller coaster. El Loco opened in 2014 an S&S roller coaster that featured 2 inversions
and a 90 degree drop, a roller coaster that was actually a pretty good. A did bring thrillseekers
back to see the brand new offering.
"Folks, enjoy your stay here at Circus Circus and remember we take your fun.. seriously!"
To say the Adventures Dome and Circus Circus has been troubled over the years is an understatement,
just like the history of Family Friendly Las Vegas. It is however one of the few attractions
that has existed through the transition and still operates today with the city rediscovering
it’s identity all over again.
"I'm sure that ugh ones who designed it, new where they were going with it but every time
I see it, I'm amazed at how real it's going to look, how exciting the rides appear to
be."
When the Adventuredome opened the hotel’s owners were asked if they were concerned about
las vegas becoming over saturated with projects aimed at the family market. They said that
the city had barely tapped the surface in going after vacationing families. They were
going to make it hard for them to stay away and continue to try and attract these families
whose parents only saw Vegas as the place for gambling and naked showgirls. Las Vegas
never did become the family destination that it set out to be, with many of the additions
from that time now a thing of the past. The adventuredome and Circus Circus lives on,
decades after they began as the first family-friendly resort on the strip. The resort was once again
sold in 2019 to Phil Ruffin. As the new owner of the Adventuredome he said that they had
plans to upgrade it and hoped to bring people back soon.....
The same year the Adventuredome opened in 1993.
Circus Circus Enterprises were working on another family friend resort. A gigantic pyramid
was rising on the southern end of the strip, the 300 million dollars Luxor, opened just
a few months after the Adventure Dome. Inside would be multiple themed attractions....
"Wanted to create some place for you to go, some place to have an adventure, some place
that we've never seen before....."
To Be Continued.....
Thank you so much for watching this episode of Expedition Theme Park. If you enjoyed it
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We will see you next time.