The world's largest permanent circus
The Carnival Midway spreads across the center of Circus Circus — carnival games, the center stage, a casino of almost 124,000 square feet arranged in pockets around it, under a 90-foot pink-and-white big top. The property feature frames the whole complex as Dale McKenzie tours it: the Midway and its free circus, the 5-acre Adventuredome with its 26 rides, and the Strip's only RV park (about 10 acres, 170 spaces, as filmed). Two films are the acts themselves — trapeze and acrobatic artistry announced ringmaster-style from the center stage (2022) and an earlier acts film (2018) shot from the crowd — performance audio on both; the show is the content, and they load as watch entries.
The current schedule, stated plainly
Older films and older guides imply the free acts run all day, every day. They no longer do: the current pattern, verified in this wave's catalog notes, is free acts Friday through Monday, from 12:30 p.m. Plan a Midway visit around a long weekend and the stage will be working; turn up midweek expecting a show and you'll find the games without it. The games, of course, run regardless — including, as the 2026 return visit spots, the Zoltar machine from Big.
The Midway, judged by its visitors
The return visit (against a wall of negative reviews) loves it: the carousel bar at the Midway's center, still spinning — 'I heard it stopped spinning years ago' — busy, with the free acts and the Adventuredome making the walk. The 2026 check-in rematch is more guarded — the carnival floor walked in full, a casino 'just as challenging to navigate as ever,' the property given a fair second chance. The full stay (2025, the biggest room in the house) works the Midway as part of the complete Circus Circus and closes with parental directness: the property can be great, but 'I need safety, and so do you' — know what this end of the Strip is. And the mixed verdict names the Midway's essence: a lot of small children running around the floor — 'kind of trippy,' very much this property's deal; the family chaos is the point for some guests and the problem for others. Both readings are on this page, because both are true.
Sources: the seven videos on this page — two free-acts films, a full-property feature, and four visitor verdicts (a return, a 2026 rematch, a full stay, a mixed review) — summarized from their entries in our catalog.