A New Star Trek Experience

I wrote in September about the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas and that it was shut down as of September 1.

I also shot a short video showing the closed Experience, which I uploaded to YouTube.

A YouTube user who watched my video about the closed Star Trek Experience at the Hilton Las Vegas, left a comment about a planned new Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas and also sent me a link to the article on the web site of inBusiness Las Vegas, where he got the information from. Quote from that article:

The Star Trek Experience will have five components and most elements could be completed next year, when a new Star Trek movie is scheduled for release. Just as the new movie will have some familiar characters in some unfamiliar roles, the Star Trek Experience will be similar but different from its predecessor and includes significant upgrades.

There will be a food and beverage component, which will include a restaurant and lounge and a retail area with merchandise from all incarnations of the Star Trek concept. Star Trek fans are incredibly loyal and if the latest movie sparks yet another generation of supporters, the retail element could be very successful.

A museum that explores the entire history of Star Trek is also planned.

There will also be a 4-D movie theater designed to be an interactive experience with high-tech seats that will stimulate the senses.

"They will recreate sights, sounds and smells and take your body traveling through space," Joshi said.

The final element will be simulators - rides that are two levels high in Neonopolis' center court.

I asked in a comment at my YouTube video and heard the news (before I had the link to the article): "Will it be the same thing? I wouldn't think so, since the Hilton hotel itself was part of the story and effects in the old rides".  The article at inBusiness LV seems to validate my statement.

I wonder what they mean with "significant upgrades" compared to the previous Experience at the Hilton.

When they "upgraded" the Experience in 2004 by adding the "Borg Invasion 4D" ride, I didn't think that this was much of an upgrade either. I still liked the "old" ride, the "Klingon Encounter", much more than the new one. The use of modern technology does not mean that it will be a better ride. There are many other, more important factors that make a ride a good ride (or bad), which have little or nothing to do with technology.

It will be interesting to see what they come up with and how it will be. I am a bit of a sceptic, but hope for the best. Time will tell eventually.

I also never heard of the "Neonopolis Center" project before, until I read the article. It's an 235,000 square feet Las Vegas downtown entertainment center that was opened on May 3, 2002 and cost $100 Million to build. I assume that it is part of the project of the downtown LV casinos to make that part of the city interesting and attracting for tourists again, after the were loosing more and more visitors to the Las Vegas Strip, which became the new "Center" of the city. The "Freemont Street Experience" is the best known example of those efforts.

It says in the article at inBusiness LV that the project manager said that funding of this new project is secured and also that the rights were acquired from CBS Pictures, who owns the legal property of the Star Trek franchise.

However, its still a risky project and an expensive one as well. Star Trek fans might be extremely loyal, but they are also extremely unforgiving. Keep that in mind.. those are the words coming out of the mouth of a Star Trek fan, me.

Last but not least information about the upcoming featured film "Star Trek XI", which will be released in 2009.

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