Review: Flyover attraction is better than Soarin’ Around the World, and new Chicago ride is a first
Flyover in Las Vegas is an attraction that will be very familiar to you if you’ve ridden Soarin’ at Disney parks. But this flying theater experience is better in a few different ways.
Flyover: The Ultimate Flying Ride in Las Vegas
Flyover, by Pursuit, invited me to their newest location in Las Vegas, Nev. to experience their four main ride experiences:
- Legendary Iceland: Landscapes & Lore
- Wonders Of The American West
- Windborne: Call Of The Canadian Rockies
- Believe Chicago
Each of these films is loosely related to Flyover’s four flying theater locations in Reykjavík, Iceland; Las Vegas; Vancouver, Canada; and Chicago, Ill.
Flyover is better than Disney’s Soarin’
If you haven’t ridden Soarin’ at Disney’s parks, here’s a quick description: You enter a large theater with a wrap-around curved screen. Your bench seats move into the screen and move and tilt with what you’re seeing on the screen, making you feel as if you’re flying through various settings and situations.
Just like Soarin’, Flyover in Las Vegas also features wind effects and some smells of the things you’re flying over, like a bed of lavender flowers. But unlike Soarin, Flyover also features mist effects. Its seats also have six degrees of motion. Flyover also doesn’t lift you up into the screen like Soarin’. You enter on the ground or second floor and your seats move out into the 52.5-foot-tall wrap-around screen.
Each experience at Flyover in Las Vegas lasts about 25 minutes. This includes about a 6-10 minute pre-show and the actual ride of about 8-9 minutes. Each pre-show is presented on two or three unique screens, and sets up a bit of a story about the location you’re about to fly over. I found them all enjoyable and interesting.
Each of the Flyover rides are on par with Soarin’ Over California, and actually better than Soarin’ Around the World, and here’s why: Almost everyone loves Soarin’ Over California. Back in 2016, we were excited to hear Disney was adding a new, updated version of the attraction. Soarin’ Over California was shot on film, and the new digital cameras would be better quality. And while that was true, many thought, myself included, Disney Imagineers took the technology a little too far when they added computer-generated (CGI) animals and other things. The new version also disposed of its predecessor’s more natural transitions from scene to scene, instead using objects flying at you to make the transitions.
Clever scene transitions, epic music
Flyover’s 8K films were shot on digital cameras, but they added very little to no CGI, and each transition is done in a more natural way. Sure, there are still some clouds you fly through to transition to the next area of each film, but most transitions are done with wipes matched up scene to scene. For example, you may be flying over a mountain on your right, and it switches to a scene with a building on the right in the same place the mountain peak was, creating a more seamless and less jarring transition.
Soarin’ Around the World also features the dreaded, and often made fun of, bent Eiffel Tower in Paris. You’ll see it if you’re not sitting directly in the center of the long seating areas. Flyover avoids this problem by having seating areas that aren’t as far away from the center of the screen, although I did notice a couple of slightly bent buildings.
A big part of both versions of Soarin’ is the music. Flyover in Las Vegas also uses some epic music, and each scene has accompanying score to fit it, whether it’s a relaxing fly over a beautifully still lake, or a more thrilling flight down a city street.
One reason Flyover is just as good as the original Soarin’ has to do with the fact that the creative director for Flyover is former Imagineer Rick Rothschild, who helped work on the original Soarin’ Over California.
Choose your Flyover thrill factor: relaxing or exciting
As a huge fan of Soarin’, I loved all four of the Flyover rides offered in Las Vegas. I found the Iceland and Canada ones to be very beautifully relaxing, the American West one (which features a bit of Las Vegas) to be a mix of relaxing and thrilling, and the Chicago one to be very thrilling. Believe Chicago is unlike any other flying theater ride I’ve experienced because it was shot on a drone, the future of flying attraction films.
I was only able to ride each of the rides once, so I’m sure my opinion will change when I ride again, but I enjoyed the Iceland one most for a relaxing ride, and Chicago for a thrilling flight like no other. Filming on a drone instead of a helicopter allows the camera crew to do so much more. There’s a scene where you fly to the top of a building and see a musician playing a trumpet. You fly right by him, which wouldn’t be possible with helicopter wind blowing everything near it.
About halfway through the ride is when some guests will realize it was filmed on a drone, as you fly right through buildings and other places a helicopter wouldn’t fit. There are also other moves that would be hard to accomplish in a helicopter, and they add to the thrill, such as scaling straight up a building and over it. This is the first flying theater ride that gave me a bit of vertigo and had me holding on tight, and I loved it. Believe Chicago is the only one of the four films that had riders screaming like they were on a roller coaster.
Tickets and planning your visit to Flyover in Las Vegas
There are other flying theater rides with various “fly” names, but they don’t all hold up to the quality Flyover in Las Vegas gives you. Some of the other theaters and screens are smaller, and many of the videos are mostly made from CGI. So if you’re in Las Vegas, or one of Pursuit’s other locations, I highly recommend doing at least two of the rides. (Not all locations have all four rides.) I don’t recommend doing all four in the same day. The experience of flying can get a little worn on you if you do one after another. If you’re available more than one day, spread them out. Save the Chicago ride for last if you can.
Prices vary location to location, and each has package deals for more than one ride. As an example, when we visited Las Vegas, you could do one ride for $40, and two for $56. The Vegas location also has a gift shop and The Lost Cactus Bar, which you can visit without a ticket. The bar features many cool-looking, and great tasting, drinks inspired by the locations you visit in the rides.
There is also a Flyover America ride at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn, but I haven’t experienced it. It was developed by the same team as Flyover, but has different owners. There’s also a fun flying theater ride at Legoland Florida, which has cartoon graphics, of course, and SeaWorld Orlando just announced a flying theater ride for 2025. I will no doubt be comparing it to Flyover’s Iceland ride.
Other Vegas sights
As part of our media trip, we were also hosted at a few restaurants and one Vegas show. I loved the Superfrico restaurant with roaming characters and cool acts. I hope they open a location in Orlando. It would do well. The MomoFuku Asian restaurant was also great and recommended with great views of the Strip. The Atomic Saloon Show was fun, and recommended if you’re not easily offended. You’ll see how adult it is from the very first song. It’s a comedy show with some amazing acts set in a brothel, which is visited by nuns and priests for some reason.
Guided tour and preview of all Flyover rides in Las Vegas
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