Star Trek: The Experience Expected To Re-open In 2010 + Part 2 of ST:TE Documentary

Star Trek The Experience closed down at the Las Vegas Hilton last September, but since October we have been reporting that it may have new life at a new location in Vegas. According to the best info we can gather, it looks like a new STTE will be back in 2010 at Neonopolis in downtown Las Vegas. More details below plus a new entry Vernon Wilmer’s STTE Documentary.

 

A new Star Trek The Experience for 2010
In our previous reports on The Experience we have noted some of the statements from Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Neonopolis manager Rohit Joshi were somewhat optimistic, including the claim that they would open at least one phase by the first week of May in time for the new Star Trek movie. CBS will still barely acknowledge the project exists on the record and it appears they are trying to get Goodman and Joshi to reign in their optimistic estimates as well.

According to TrekMovie research and sources it looks like ST: The Experience will reopen sometime in 2010 and it may open in phases (this is still being discussed). If it does, the first phase would be a bar/restaurant and the Museum of the Future. Right now everything is still in the planning phase and there is no construction going on. It also looks like the new Experience will be significantly different than the one at the Hilton, with the inclusion of more elements from both The Original Series and the new Star Trek movie. It is also expected that the pricing will be lower than at the Experience at the Hilton. Those are both welcome changes.

When the main details get worked out, it is likely CBS will finally make an official announcement about the new Experience (something they have yet to do). Until then, as noted in previous reports, it is not wise to make any travel plans to Vegas and assume you will be able to see The Experience.

 

Part 2 of Vernon Wilmer’s ST: The Experience Documentary
In our last update we showed you a great behind the scenes documentary about Star Trek The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton, put together by former cast member Vernon Wilmer. Now he has released the second part focusing on the genesis of The Experience, check it out below.

 

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Good news! I’d like to go there but I’ll have to take the trip over the Atlantic first.

Interesting news indeed…

I never went to the first Experience, not even sure if I’d get to go to the second. Vegas is expensive and my parents would never be able to afford to go there…

Anthony, there have been multiple posts daily for so long that I just have to ask–

Do you EVER sleep?

I loved the original Experience. If and when the new one opens, I’ll certainly visit. I just hope they can recapture some of the magic of the original.

I have never been to America, but if this does open my travel plans are set

I think there is little time for sleep when operating a site like trek movie, with millions of impatient trek fans beating the doors down!

When is the spoiler filled review coming, with answers about the nacelle caps? :D

Anthony’s going to be doing some *serious* regeneration after this week….

;-)

so it’s not opening in time for the premiere?

Yay for the return with possibly more TOS, boo for possibly any Faux-TOS.

I NEVER got to go to STTE… Hope to one day get there!

I agree with 10. No trek11 stuff please, or at least stuffed away in a small corner.

I so want to go back

#10–Will, chill, (maybe on Delta Vega).

I can’t wait for the Experience to reopen. I was there for last year’s Las Vegas Convention, right before the Experience closed. I loved it. Can’t wait for the new one to open.

#6–I do hope that you get some sleep after the movie is out. And THANK YOU for doing TrekMovie.com it is ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL! Thanks, from all the Trekkies.

#12–Go follow Will to Delta Vega and chill out.

I was lucky enough to see the first one before it closed. Much fun, though it was obviously not being taken care of the way it should have been. It would be nice to see one getting the care and attention Trek deserves.

Besides- then when I retire I can be one of their tour guides and spend all day walking around in my Trek uniform because it’s my job and not just because I’m a freak.

I was never fortunate enough to visit The Experience, but I am hoping that once it is completely built and opened, then I will visit. I want to “experience” it all (pardon the pun) in completion.

Star Trek Experience was the only reason I agreed to go to Vegas with my girlfriend a few years back. We did other stuff too, but STE was definitely the highlight for me!

The 3-D rides were the COOLEST!!! I’ll always remember all the girls screaming with glee/surprise when they got sprayed in the face (with mist)!!! ;-)

Seeing all of the Trek artifacts was cool, hanging out in Quark’s Bar was fun, and I got my GF a furry little tribble.

GOOD TIMES!!!

Comedy Central is having Beam Me Up Sunday hosted by Simon Pegg right now!

ST-TE was awesome. I could ride the Klingon Shuttle dealie all day.
I have to give a shout out to the actors of The Experience. Dealing with tourists (and me nearly falling over drunk from a Warp Core Breach) is no easy task and these folks did an amazing job without ever broke character.

Good concept. Good people. I hope it lives on (though the gods only know what the new movie’s parallel universe will mean to something like this).

I will be there opening day, as I was for the previous ones!

19. cpelc: “Comedy Central is having Beam Me Up Sunday hosted by Simon Pegg right now!”

EXCELLENT!! He’s having two of my favorites: “Shaun of the Dead” & “Harold & Kumar”!! Now I just need a little spliff… X-)

Never been to ST-SE, but I will if it reopens. And for me, living in NYC, a week in Vegas would seem affordable. And I could go see Groom Lake, et al., so that would be cool.

BWT – I am SERIOUSLY psyched about the new film, and I bought tickets to the IMAX NYC preview night for 10:15 p.m. minutes after they were available. And my boyfriend (a guy, BTW) has even agreed to go, with reserved enthusiasm. (He’s also a film snob, and he’s been reading reviews of the film, so this might be a good thing.)

So, bottom line is that I am STOKED and look forward to many other kick-ass Star Trek opening nights, in all their glory.

Oh, I meant, I think, ST-TE, but I’m not sure. And of course my boyfriend is a guy, but so am I.

I think most TREK fans aren’t worried about this stuff. OK, I know it.

Anthony – why is it that at random times I not only get the notice of the new article on Trekmovie but I get attached the media file associated with it? It DOES NOT happen everytime so it must be a setting in WordPress when an article is published. This time the attached WMV for this article was 895MB!!!!! Do you have any idea how that clogs up a mail server??? Why can’t this be prevented????????

A recent report on Roddenberry.com said that there were no developements like construction or even slapping on some new paint at Neonopolis. The local contact did a search of the public records in Las Vegas for construction permits for any renovations for Neonopolis and none could be found. Other than talking about it, nothing official has actually happened.

I want the Experience back as much as anyone but I think I’ll believe it when I see it.

25 – Just get Google Reader easier and free

Would it be possible to post the documentary in a lower quality somewhere, like on YouTube or something? I’d love to watch it but at the current file size it’s going to take me hours and hours to download it.

I used to work at the Experience back in 2000-2001, a few years before they added the BORG 3-D part. I was also there opening day and the day it closed.

They were being run by Paramount Parks back then, and In my year and a half there, I saw prices go from $10 a person to $25. Shortly after I left, it went up to $40. Attendance would DECREASE every time prices increased.

I think Cedar Fare are the guys that own it now (at least a few years before it closed) and if they move it to Neonopolis here in Vegas, and lower prices, they may have a shot at making something profitable. But I doubt it. It was hard enough to run the place, though it did have a good 10 year run the first time.

I don’t honestly think it would work again. It relies on tourism, and the economy sucks right now. Plus, I don’t think trekkies can make it to vegas on a regular enough basis to keep it running. Certianly the trekkies that live here weren’t enough in the past.

But who knows. I think it’d be better as an ADDITION to an existing theme park than it’s own thing. Maybe like back in the day when Universal Studios had The Star Trek Adventure. Something like that. Otherwise, I don’t think it would last long if they redesigned it and reopened it here in Vegas.

My name is Paul Walker. Some of you may have seen my past comments here at Trekmovie about the Star Trek: Experience. Our club was very lucky to have been invited to participate in the official closing ceremonies when Star Trek: Experience closed back on September 1st, 2008. (Video clips can be found on Youtube,com) While that was indeed a very sad day for us here localy since our club met every month at Quark’s we were forced to find other locations to meet at. Nothing comes close to what we had at Quark’s. Ever since the annoucement about the re-opening of the Experience in downtown Las Vegas our club has been very hopeful that a phoenix will be rising from the ashes. We too were very hopeful about the well publicized May opening but being residents of SIN CITY at seeing first hand the new loaction we knew it would not happen on the schedule they had set.

I tried to set a meeting with Neonopolis manager Rohit Joshi and as of today I still have heard nothing back. I wanted to introduce our club to him and try to get in on the ground floor of his new “experience” (pardon the pun). In the past I have sent in many updates or ( news of no updates ) as it turned out to Anthony Pascale so he would/could update you the readers about what is going on here in Las Vegas. This update is long overdue in my opinion and I am happy to see he finally posted one. It is true that as of today Sunday May 2nd, there is NO sign of construction, No sign of improvements, no nothing. No coming soon signs. no windows covered up nothing, zilch nada,. I am not surprised that according to THX 1138 ” The local contact did a search of the public records in Las Vegas for construction permits for any renovations for Neonopolis and none could be found”

Our club will continue to monitor the development of the NEW Star Trek: Experience and I will continue to report in to Anthony Pascale any new updates or pictures of NEW construction or signs about the Experience begining it next phase.

If anyone would like to contact me directly about this or are planning a trip here to Las Vegas…Please email me at: captainwalker@usslasvegas.org or trekfan0001@yahoo.com

Vernon that was great!

Thank you for the article Anthony and to you as well Paul. My Imzadi and I look forward to traveling to Vegas this week anyway where we will join a great many like-minded friends for the opening of Star Trek – the Movie. No doubt we will encounter a great many beings both human and otherwise at the Space Quest Bar Thursday evening. Any good folk out there in the Vegas area, please come join in the unofficial celebration after the 7 pm screening. I remain most confident that this reboot of the franchise will succeed where no franchise has before.

I went several times with my wife, family, and friends. I drove my wife and kids there from Chicago last June for our 20th wedding anniversary. We were remarried on the Bridge. It was soooo cool.

If you didn’t go to STTE 1.0, you missed a very cool, well, experience. It got a little stagnent at the end so I’m hoping STTE 2.0 freshens things up a bit.

Can’t wait to go back.

LL&P

#10 – “Faux TOS” is the main reason the Experience is coming back in the first place. Without the injection of new fans who might be interested in seeing the series’ roots, it’d become an ever more niche attraction that couldn’t sustain itself long-term.

I’m sure plenty of TOS fans weren’t interested in the TNG stuff they had, and vice versa. But why begrudge those of us who can enjoy both/some/all of Trek?

Icky- I’m not installing a microsoft plugin. Can you please upload to Youtube so the rest of us can see the video?

This is excellent news! I’m hoping that The Experience will be much larger and inclusive of all of Star Trek but also never forgetting about the TNG era.

Yay!

And @ #6:
Anthony, thank you for everything you and the rest of the Trekmovie staff do here. Your work is top-notch, excellent, and much appreciated.

Re: #32

treknut…email me for details about a special Star Trek movie event I put together in association with Regal Entertainment Group perhaps you may want to check it out while you are here in Las Vegas.

Capt. Walker
USS Las Vegas
Star Trek Fan Club

Dang, that video was LOOOOOOOOONG. I didn’t expect to be sitting here all evening watching it. Kinda cool though. Makes me sad that the Experience is gone now. I always enjoyed going to the Hilton and eating at Quark’s when I was in Vegas. I’ll definitely come to the new one when it opens!

31 – Thank you.

25 – Sorry that happened to you.

28 & 36 – Youtube sucks. they have autofilters that reject most of my videos and their quality is bad. My 900mb wma uploads to blip.tv are the best compromise I can use to share these videos with the general public. Soon I will render smaller versions that can be accessed in the dropdown under each episode. But I have to sleep sometime…

Thanks for hanging in there Brad.

Does anyone know the status of the Star Trek tour? I haven’t heard anything lately. Just want to know when it’s coming to Minnesota?

Re: 41 & 42

Vernon: When you get all caught up on yoru sleep …..contact me.. when you can via email I supplied….

Capt. Walker
USS Las Vegas
Star Trek Fan Club

Hey Vernon love all your hard work and talented filmaking–how can we download part 1 and 2-I wanna add them to my psp experience pixs & videos-Ive been buying some from ebay-a few are gems but most of the rest ain`t half as good as your videos-also loved seeing April too man I sure miss all you guys–also I am pretty sure I met you when Sheri and I were visiting quarks and April a tuesday nite mid august last year-she introed you to us as the historian for the experience-now I know what she meant!

All good things…we know that there will never be anything like the original STTE. They can’t make an exact recreation of the wonderful time station where I spent 11 incredible years; but they can make something different, new and equally awesome at Neonopolis, and I’m excited to see what they come up with!

I am also looking forward to the new movie, a new incarnation of something I have loved for so many years. I don’t mind that the new STTE will also undoubtedly be different–it SHOULD be different! It’s exciting to think about what might happen, because that’s what the future is all about and that’s what makes the Star Trek universe so appealing. If more people are inspired by the new look of Trek, so much the better. More people who love Trek means more hope for a brighter future.

Thanks so much to Vernon Wilmer, who puts a voice to all of us who worked to make Star Trek real for millions of guests for over a decade. He is truly the Experience’s archivist, and I am eternally grateful for his dedication to this task. I’ve never been able to put into words exactly what my time at Star Trek:The Experience meant to me, but if you watch Vernon’s documentary, you might have a tiny glimpse of it.

It’s easy to download & save them – under the comments collumn, right-click on “download” and select “save target as”.

Where did you provide your e-mail address Paul?

that video made me cry because the experience left so soon
too bad i only went there for a day. wish i had more time to visit it

Sorry if this is considered spamming but I’m really excited that Brazil is finally starting to promote Star Trek that I couldn’t help myself and had to post in here to share the news with other Brazilian fans. SET has exclusive interviews with J.J.Abrams and the cast.
Scans are available here:
http://zach-quinto.net/wp/gallery/set-scans/