Monster Jam World Finals XVII

Well planned, lots of entertainment, LOVED IT.
Well worth the trip to Vegas.

Yes, Black people like Monster Trucks too! Lmao
As a kid, my favorite truck was GRAVE DIGGER… so I specifically went to this Monster Jam 2016 event with my mind set on meeting Dennis Anderson and taking some pics next to the truck. & lucky me, I got a chance to go behind the scenes in the members only area for drivers! He showed me the inside the trailer, and all his trophies he’s won over the years. I must say the entire Grave Digger team is super awesome including his son Cole. I even climbed up inside the truck itself, and took a few selfies. What a great time I had. Definitely going again next year.

This was my first Monster Freestyle. It was madness. Unfortunately –my phone died, this clip is good but I could not believe my eyes. The crowd was remarkably sober and polite. Lots of families across the spectrum. I can’t wait for the next one. I’m now a huge fan. One side point, it went fast, was totally entertaining, and do not go into the middle of the night. 3 solid hours of non stop mind blowing action and excitement.

I am a (not so) closet monster truck fan. When you plan a vacation around monster trucks, then I guess you can’t really be…
I attended the racing and freestyle events at the Monster Jam World Finals last year. It runs in mid to late March each year. This is the big daddy of all monster truck events, so they pull out all the stops, back flips and all (even double back flips — YouTube Max-D’s encore from the world finals in 2013!). How can you not love huge trucks shaped like dogs, bulls, zombies and lobsters doing flips and destroying everything in sight?!?
Best seats are in the middle of the field. We sat in the cheap seats at the back, but could still see everything. The middle seats at the front are reserved for those with the Double Down packages. Transportation via shuttle from the Quad was easy, but there was a 45 or so minute wait right before the event started, so give yourself lots of time. Likewise, there was a big line for buses at the end of the night, but there are tons of shuttles and the line moved relatively quickly — we were on the bus in 20 mins or so.
Make sure to save time for the pit party — we attended during the day on Sunday, and got to see all the monster trucks close up, meet the drivers, plus lots of fun events for kids — fashion show, face painting, sign making. There was also a parade of monster trucks before things started too! It was great to see the devotion that the drivers have toward their fans!
1 star off because I was really looking forward to the freestyle… But the year that I went, the powers that be made the track unnecessarily complicated, causing too many trucks to crash and burn early :(Anyone there in 2014 knows what I’m talking about. Hope they don’t do it again.
And bring earplugs!

Pros, Cons, then summary
Went with my wife and 2 kids. This is our second year in a row going to the World Finals. We only went to the Friday night races and Saturday night freestyle event. There is an event on Thursday, the Young Guns event, that we did not attend.
PROS – Family fun! Exciting for kids. My kids are small, so they really get into it… although I enjoyed it as an adult. The trucks are loud and do all sorts of tricks. There isn’t too much lag time between races or between freestyle. Great driving skills, stunts, tricks, wheelies, airs, back flips, etc. These are not the trucks I grew up with (Bigfoot and USA 1) where they just jump on cars. These trucks are much more technologically advanced and light years away from the 1980s.
CONS – Tickets are a tad pricey. Also, as is typical with most arenas/​stadiums, the food and drinks are way overpriced. The parking sucks. It’s a giant dirt lot without any real flow after the show. All the cars cram into a few tight spaces, which is not well thought out. It could take 30 – 45 minutes just to exit the lot.
Would I go here again? Yes, in a heartbeat. I love monster trucks and so does my family.