Full speed ahead
Foxwoods celebrates opening of new zipline
By car, it takes 1.2 miles to get from Fox Tower to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center. As the crow flies, it's about seven-tenths of a mile. But now the fastest way to get from Fox Tower to the museum is as the human flies.
With the new HighFlyer Zipline, a rider — one between 65 and 300 pounds, and under sixfeet-seven-inches — can get from the top of Fox Tower to the base of the museum in about two minutes, reaching speeds of up to 60 miles per hour on a 3,750-foot-long wire.
“I think everyone likes to fly,” said Brian Stewart, president of Redwood Parks Company, which operates the zipline. “I feel like if humans had wings they would be a happier species.”
Foxwoods Resort Casino debuted the zipline, with four lines that allow four riders to go down simultaneously, with a soft launch in mid-March. On Thursday, Foxwoods held a ribbon-cutting and media day for the project that has been a few years in the works.
Those interested in riding the zipline must sign a waiver and get weighed on the first floor of Fox Tower before being escorted to the 30th floor, to get harnesses and listen to a brief safety training.
Next is a series of steps to get onto the roof and up on the launch pad. The cost to ride is $69 for adults, and $59 for kids under 15 and active military. The museum is half-off with a zipline ticket.
To Stewart, partnering with Foxwoods presented a unique opportunity: He said this is the only zipline in North America running from the top of a hotel. With most skyscrapers situated in cities, there aren't many opportunities to take off from a tall building and immediately be over treetops.
But with a unique experience came unique obstacles.
“The building was never designed to have such a heavy load attached to it,” he said. Constructing the zipline meant bringing in the same architecture and engineering firms contracted for the original design of Fox Tower.
In June of 2016, Foxwoods President Felix Rappaport said the zipline was expected to debut that October. In June of 2017, Foxwoods announced the zipline would debut that summer.
The hours are currently noon to 6 p.m. but will be expanded in the summer. Stewart said the HighFlyer can run 80 people per hour and will have about 45 employees in the summer.
Fun fact: Three employees are currently able to pull themselves from the base of zipline to the top. One said he can do it in 37 minutes.
After the ribbon-cutting on Thursday, the first two down the zipline were Rappaport and Rodney Butler, chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council.
“I would do it every day of my life if I could,” Rappaport said afterward. “Unfortunately, my schedule is not that flexible.”
He commented that the ride is different each time a patron goes; weather conditions and seasonal changes alone can make this true.
Thursday was breezy with temperatures in the upper 40s. Standing on the launch pad and looking over the expanse of trees below, some visitors thought about how marvelous the view must be during peak fall foliage.
Rappaport said the zipline is part of the casino's efforts to expand from being a gaming-centric locale to a worldclass, full-service, integrated resort. He added that the land has always been sacred to the tribe, and so it was important to do something integrated into the environment.
“This is just the start,” said Jason Guyot, senior vice president of operations at Foxwoods. “This is just the beginning, so we're definitely focused on expanding ecotourism.”
He said there will be further announcements in the next 6-12 months.