The Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas

I went on the Star Trek Experience ride at the Hilton while in Las Vegas on a business trip. I was working most of my time there, and this was the one thing I went out of my way to do in Las Vegas.

The Star Trek Experience opens with a Star Trek museum which features a time line of space travel and exploration starting with things that have really happened and moving into the Trek timeline. It documents major events from all four series and the movies and is a must for trivia buffs who want to know which Voyager characters were at the Academy at the same time as which TNG characters. Yes, it's that detailed.

Next to the timeline display are cases of Trek artifacts, including costumes from the shows. These displays show the evolution of phasers, starfleet uniforms and the like. Most spectacular though are the Klingon and Ferengei display cases. The workmanship on these costumes and props is truly stunning and would be of interest to anyone interested in costuming even if they didn't care at all about Star Trek.

The museum area eventually leads into a long hallway where you watch video clips while waiting to board the ride, which is generally a 10 minute wait.

I don't want to go into too much detail on the plot of the ride portion of the Star Trek Experience, because part of the coolness factor is the element of surprise. But there is a transporter effect that is one of the neatest things I have ever experienced, because it's both very well done and took me totally by surprise.

During the ride you get a tour of the Enterprise bridge and eventually board a shuttle craft for the bulk of the ride. This is a "motion base simulator" ride, which means you're in a thing that moves on a stationary base while watching a screen in front of you. This gives your body a sense of motion that isn't occurring in the way you perceive it. This part of the ride is pretty intense and scary. Both adults and kids in the simulator were rattled by it. I thought it was exhilarating and intense. That said, this is not for you if you are prone to motion sickness or a host of other medical issues. But don't worry, they give you lots and lots of warnings about it before you board it. If you can handle a roller coaster, you can handle this. If you can't handle a rollercoaster, you might be able to handle this (I'm anti-roller coaster but loved this).

When the ride ends, you get out into a replica of the DS9 promenade where you can shop or eat at Quark's. There are people in Klingon costume about who will try to startle you and stuff like that. They will really interact with you if it's clear that you're into that. They're also cool about staying away from you if you're not that muck of a geek.

The souvenir shop gets mixed reviews from me - there were things I wanted that they did not have or did not have high quality versions of (like Bajoran earrings), but they also had very cute stuff like a teddy bear that had been assimilated by the Borg.