Star Trek: The Experience...Gone Two Years Now

[The Interpreter]

A retrospective:

http://www.subspacecomms.com/content/2010/09/01/two-years-ago-today-trek-community-lost-dear-friend-star-trek-experience

[Rustbucket]

I am still upset over this one. I visited that many times. The Klingon interactive ride was very, very good. The Borg one was ok but still interesting. I have not been to the Las Vegas Hilton since then.

[jzarley]

^ same here...I see absolutely no reason to trek (pun intended) all the way out to the Hilton anymore...even with the monorail!

ST:TE was a fantastic attraction...it really showed what Paramount Parks creative unit could do when given a non-seasonal park budget. The "Klingon Encounter" simulator was probably the best ride of that type in the country, and the "beam-up sequence" as you began the ride was amazing. It was the only thing (IMHO, anyway) that not only lived up to--but surpassed--PP's marketing hype!

I had always hoped that PP would introduce the simulator at some of the "standard" Par parks, but it never happened for some reason.

I can understand why it wasn't a good business model for CF to keep operating, but I really wished it could have worked out for ST:TE to continue on...either via a 3rd party (Blackstone, maybe?) or even by Viacom itself.

[DaveStroem]

I have stayed at the Hilton over a dozen times. I never had the urge to do this. The area of the hotel was always dead. It was a great place to go if you wanted to have a conversation because there was NOBODY there while the rest of the hotel/casino was always busy.

[KI-ORIG-EMP]

I visited it back in 2002 and I was amazed at how real it seemed! The interaction and special effects was so it seemed like you did indeed beam into all the action! I still cherrish having my picture taken as a Star Fleet officer with Worf, Deana, Capt. Picard, Riker, Dr. Crusher, Geordi and Data beside me.

[XGatorHead 8904]

Mrs. Gator and I went to ST:TE back in 2001. We both enjoyed ourselves there - even though Mrs. Gator's a non-trekkie. I agree with jzarley, the beam-up effect was amazing. There weren't very many people there at all when we went. We had a nice meal there too and Mrs. Gator had a fun conversation with a Klingon while we were eating. I don't remember what they talked about exactly, I just remember that we were both laughing quite a bit. I still wear my ST:TE polo shirt that I bought there to work about every other week.

Overall, it was a great attraction (and we went before the Borg ride was added). Too bad it had to close, but at the time I could see that it might be headed that way. Interest in the Star Trek franchise as a whole was on the decline. With the success of the J.J. Abrams Trek movie, it would have been interesting to see if it would have revived a little had it stayed open.

[XGatorHead 8904]

Just got a new Disney Insider email today, which this week had as the main story "Fun Family Jaunts to Beat the Heat". As I do every week, I clicked on the link to read the story, which included fun things to do in a number of cities across the country. The entry for Las Vegas caught my eye:

http://disney.go.com/disneyinsider/insider/article/20120710?cmp=dcom_EMC_ins_disney_insider_120710_MA-ReadMore__Extl

Need a kid-friendly alternative to Sin City casinos? Las Vegas welcomes visitors into the immersive world of the USS Enterprise at Star Trek: The Experience, an intergalactic extravaganza not to be missed.

My first thought was, did they reopen it as there had been talk of doing a few years ago? A quick Google search confirmed that no, that fell through, and the attraction has in fact been closed since 2008.

Really Disney? You couldn't take the time to do a little research before you send out an article recommending an attraction that's been closed for nearly four years?

I wonder how many of the other attractions in the article are still open... although I don't really care enough, or have the time, to do the research myself. But then I'm also not the one writing an article for an email that goes out to, and website accessible to, millions of people.

[MDMC01]

I was watching some of the Youtube video about ST:TE's last day of operation (on the link that The Interpreter posted) and I gotta say, Star Trek: The Experience looks pretty cool. I think it's really neat that the creators of the attraction put that much realistic detail into the costumes and scenery.