It is the first day of the New Year so so what could be better than a trip to the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton? Since I don’t gamble at all, and the Bunny Ranch would probably get me shot by my wife, I had to find something to do in Vegas. This was gonna be my third time at the exhibit. However it was my first time with the kids. Believe it or not, Ski and I came here a few years back as we were on a belated Honeymoon. She enjoyed it, which is odd because she usually hates anything having to do with Sci-fi.
As I said before, I don’t gamble. However I somehow still managed to spend waaaaay too much money. I don’t feel too bad because the kids had a blast. The Star Trek Experience has two really cool rides that are open to the public. The first one is the Borg Invasion 4D and the other is Klingon Encounter. The Borg Invasion while good, can be a little scary for younger kids. There are a couple of “assimilations” that can unnerve kids that are easily frightened. The Klingon ride was by far the best. This is because it places you in a fairly realistic battle with a couple of Klingon Birds of Prey. The ride involves a flight simulator that mimics what a space battle would feel like in a shuttlecraft.
Needless to say that after a couple of hours Ski and the kids got tired and wanted to head back to the hotel room. I decide to stay behind and take the back stage tour so I could see how all of the special effects were accomplished. I figured that understanding how the effects were done might be helpful to me in my future digital video productions. Plus I was just curious because some of the effects were amazing. If you are a Star Trek fan and you find yourself in Vegas, I highly recommend taking the tour. To be honest, the tour was the best part of the day me. Well, that and sitting in the Captain’s chair on the bridge of the Enterprise. Needless to say my kids think that I am a total nerd now.
I guess the day can be summed up as follows:
Tickets for me and the fam to the Star Trek Experience = $150 bucks
A behind the scenes tour of the special effects= $40 bucks
Dinner for me and the fam at the Star Trek Cafe = $80 bucks
The scream Fam let out when the dude in the Borg costume jumped out = PRICELESS.
