Linq Las Vegas Ferris Wheel Gets Its Final Passenger Cabin

By Scott Roeben, on December 04 2013

3 min read 4 comments

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The High Roller observation wheel at The Linq on the Las Vegas Strip has hit yet another milestone. The wheel now has all of its 28 passenger cabins, and we have photos out the hoo-ha.

We’ve covered the assembly of the world’s tallest observation in great detail, so we were bloated with anticipation (or something along those lines, preferably more poetic) as the installation of the final passenger pod neared.

Probe our High Roller archives, if you know what we’re saying.

The final cabin was hoisted onto the High Roller in the early morning of Dec. 3, 2013, marking another chapter in the creation of what is sure to become a worldwide attraction, right in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip.

Here’s some shaky, poorly-focused video of the first few moments of the High Roller having all its pods.

Each of the passenger cabins is capable of holding 40 passengers, but it’s unlikely guests will be packed in that tightly on a typical ride. It will take about 30 minutes for the High Roller to make a full revolution.

The High Roller Ferris wheel is slated to open in early 2014. While the installation of the passenger pods has gone more quickly than anticipated, there is still a great deal of work to be done, including providing power to the pods.

There will also be a great deal of safety testing before the first rider takes to the skies over The Strip, a towering 550 feet up.

Seriously. The High Roller isn’t the only thing with extraordinarily large balls.

Bonus photography tip: The secret to getting great photos of the High Roller is to bring a really, really tall ladder.

Executives of Caesars Entertainment, the company building the High Roller as part of the $500 million, 1,200-foot-long Linq retail and entertainment district, insist between four and five million people will ride the High Roller during its first year of operation.

At which point we politely smile and nod, because we don’t want to be the one who rains on the High Roller’s parade. Caesars claims 20 million people walk by where the Linq entrance will be each year. That means one out of every four would have to ride the High Roller to hit that five million goal. Yeah, not so much. The London Eye does 3.5 million riders a year, though, so that’s probably a more realistic number.

Each of the High Roller wheel’s passenger cabins weigh 44,000 pounds and will use a sophisticated stabilization system to keep guests perpendicular to the ground as the wheel revolves. Otherwise, it would be like a scene from “Gravity.”

Here’s a little High Roller trivia you won’t see anywhere else: While the final passenger cabin to be affixed to the wheel was the 28th, it was actually number 24. Each of the cabins is numbered, and while they sit on the wheel in numerical order (counterclockwise, as you view the wheel facing west), cabin 24 was the last to fulfill its destiny on the High Roller. And, yes, we’re fully cognizant this Las Vegas blog may never get a date again.

Enjoy more photos of the fully accessorized High Roller Ferris Wheel! Las Vegas just got a little epic-er.