jewelisms

jewel June 28th, 2008

To Star Trek: The Experience, while we were in Vegas. And it was fun. Ok, I admit, I’m a bit of a Trekker.

We had decided to stay an extra day in Vegas after TAM to do a couple Vegasy things. One of those things was spending most of Monday at the Las Vegas Hilton’s Star Trek: The Experience. We’ve been there before, but it’s been nearly 10 years and they’ve added quite a few things since then. Since our first trip, they’ve added a new ride - “Borg Invasion 4d” and a behind the scenes tour and several photo options. We went ahead and did all of it.

We got there around 11:30am and decided to have a drink and a snack at Quarks before getting any tickets and really deciding on what to do for the day. We had the Holy Rings of Betazed (onion rings) and a couple of their specialty drinks. Very refreshing. Then, after a short walk through the shopping promenade, we headed to buy our tickets. We chose a package deal that got us unlimited rides for the day as well as photos on the Enterprise Bridge, photos in a Borg set from either ST:TNG or First Contact (they told us, but I don’t remember) and the Behind the Scenes Tour. Sadly, because Paramount keeps a tight reign on their trademarked stuff, photos were not allowed on the tour, with exception to the “Captain’s Lounge” at the end, where wedding receptions are held. The Captain’s Lounge kind of reminded me of Ten-Forward.

Before the Behind the Scenes tour, we decided to go on both rides, so we could get a good ‘before and after’ feel, and get the photos done. We had plenty of time. The Klingon Encounter, which was the original attraction, was more fun than we remembered. The transporter effect, I must admit, is really cool. And, the Borg Invasion was also a lot of fun and very well detailed - plus a couple of the effects were a bit startling - one where you feel the borg nanotubes piercing your back. That effect made me jump even the second time when I knew it was coming.

After going on both rides and before the tour, we still had a bit of time so we headed back to Quarks for another frosty yummy beverage. I really like Quarks. It’s futuristic and fun and the drinks and food are really quite good. We also decided to do one of their alien photos and got assimilated into into the Borg collective. I guess resistance really is futile.

Now for the tour - it was about 90 minutes long and we got to see how they did the special effects for the transporter as well as many other things on the Klingon Encounter. We only went through a couple things regarding the Borg Invasion ride, but still very cool. Walking through the corridor of the Enterprise looks just like the ship on tv looked. The bridge was flawless. They even had the smallest of details down, like the little labels you see on the panels in the corridors actually had the little things that the set folks had put there. The first one I read said “Kilroy was here”. Someone else read the ingredients to a soft drink on the one they were near. And then there were the conduits labeled “GNDN…” - Goes Nowhere Does Nothing. And the button on the bridge panels were a lot of fun, too and had all the ‘hidden’ stuff that were on the real set. And they did the whole transporter effect with the lights on so we could see how it was done. I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say it was actually much simpler than I thought it would be. And seeing it didn’t at all ruin the experience the next time we went on the ride. They also took us to the ’shuttle craft’ that is part of the ride and showed us how they work.

If you like Star Trek at all and you find yourself in Vegas, you should check out the Behind the Scenes tour and the rides. They’re a lot of fun. And have lunch or dinner at Quarks. You might even get accosted by a Klingon, a Ferengi or an Andorian. Plus, did I mention the drinks are really good?

Gallery: Star Trek The Experience

Edited 05 Jun 2008: According to this press release, Star Trek: The Experience will be shutting down on September 1st of this year. That means we visited it in its first year and its last.

• fun , out & about , personal , travel , vacation
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