The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Foxwoods stays edgy with new zipline
MASHANTUCKET — I went to bed one night recently thinking about jumping off the roof of a casino hotel tower the next day. And it had nothing to do with gambling.
The only bet you place in riding the new Foxwoods HighFlyer Zipline is on the personnel, the harness equipment and your connection to the zipline carrying you almost a mile away to a landing area next to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum.
There’s an old quip that says “I’m not afraid of falling; I’m afraid of hitting the ground.” Well, I’m not afraid of heights; I’m afraid of being on the edge of a great height without a sturdy guardrail or wall.
That goes back to staring down the little cliff at Fort Hale Park in New Haven as a kid. The thought of mountain climbing gives me agita. (I did enjoy the film “Man on a Ledge,” but that’s because I watched it while sitting on a wide couch.)
But here we were on the day of the official ribbon cutting for the latest “ecotourism” attraction at huge Foxwoods Resort, almost 350 feet up on a metal platform atop the Fox Tower, within a few feet of that edge to oblivion. There is music blaring and a welltrained crew awaiting the
ceremony in front of a quartet of three-step metal stairs at the release point (i.e. the edge). Good time for “Stairway to Heaven,” I thought.
The media group assembled is in a light mood but I’ve got that face on that I make when I’m up for a morning medical procedure and haven’t had my coffee in 24 hours. (My wife has to inform nurses that he’s not in a panic; he’s in withdrawal.) Also, I’m paying attention to safety stuff, but it’s really not that intricate.
The gonzo zipline was supposed to open last fall and run through the winter. But Chris O’Connell, vice president of hotel operations, told me it was delayed so the tower’s original engineers and outside builder/operator Redwood Parks Co. could work out the logistics (the building wasn’t built to have that kind of load attached). He gestures to the cables anchored behind us at a vertical wall of the roof.
At its 20th anniversary six years ago, Foxwoods announced plans for a new outlet mall despite the fact it had just endured four years of economic pain from too much expansion and debt, particularly opening the MGM Grand hotel (this very Fox Tower) in the teeth of the 2007-2008 global economic crisis.
Led by deal-making President and CEO Felix Rappaport, Foxwoods has picked up steam again, adding the Tanger Outlets, Guy Fieri’s Foxwoods Kitchen & Bar and the popular Sugar eatery, along with brand-new Caputo Trattoria coming in May from the group that runs David Burke Prime at Foxwoods. The Obama-era recovery and Trump tax cut haven’t hurt either.
Eco-tourism, says Senior VP of Resort Operations Jason Guyot, means taking advantage of the land the tribe owns around Foxwoods. To tha Thrill bets a neigh about ing.
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