It's been done...Universal Studios Did it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISihtIMvRSc
Oh,
Star Trek: The Experience has so
not been done anywhere else and I'm really fearing for it. (It's not the thing in Universal california - where you see a mock episode put together toungue-in-cheek, you actually get to live this one).
Warning: somewhat spoiler (but hey, it may never see the light of day again): Without giving away too much, the muesum part is a trekker's dream - all sorts of memorbilia laid out on a huge Star Trek timeline. Ferengi and Klingons wander about, (and this is professional makeup - not just someone with a mask thrown on) joking in-character and taking photos.
The
original of the 2 experiences is the best. You are lead to believe you're going to be riding some run-of-the-mill simulator similar to a mock shuttlecraft (save for any rumors you've heard from friends). So at some moment in a dull point when you think "I paid for this?" you are covered in a woosh of air, the annual confinement beams come down over everyone, enveloping everybody in blue sparkleys, you hear the thrum of the matter/energy converters, and next thing you know you are staring at an ensign in front of the transporter control panel. You look all around - the door you just walked through - gone! The walls are now the circular cavity of the transporter pad. The ceiling - changed! And you chuckle and look down at your feet and jump nervously - "OMG! They
freaking changed the floor too!" "
I've been beamed up!"
From that point you get to see the Enterprise D bridge, fully staffed with operation displays. A ride in the turbolift and you get into a real shuttle in the shuttle bay, getting taken back to the Strip. Characters from the show are featured all along the way. Oh, and this shuttle simulator - despite being a decade old - is so surrounding in viewscreens - it blows away Body Wars / Star Tours simulators so bad, you'd think they were twice as old.
The newer ride (from what I've researched) has interactive phaser effects and you get to ride out a very close encounter with Borg invaders using more sets and an IMAX enabled room.
Top it off with a shopping on the Deep Space 9 Promenade (even play with some "working" replicators). Get a bite or dinner at Quark's Bar, with more characters wandering about. It's very immersive.
Not to say this would fit well at Disney, both for genre and contract issues, but
this rivals equally the kind of tech Disney has and I say that Disney has yet to do something quite so immersive, on such a scale, WDW-nut that I am.
It really needs a new home, and I'm very tempted to fly out for 1 day just to see the "new" Borg experience but it's just a little out of reach for time, work, and money. And just another lack of a reason on why I should return to the Strip too. :brick:
