7. The Star Trek Casino and Hotel could have been any Trekkie’s dream.
In 1992, a designer named Gary Goddard proposed building the life-sized replica of the spaceship from Star Trek, the U.S.S. Enterprise, to display in the middle of Las Vegas. Goddard helped design many of the attractions at Disneyland and Universal Studios in his 20’s. When he got older, he became the set designer on dozens of Hollywood films, and he has a design firm specializing in the entertainment industry, including Las Vegas. The idea of having this spaceship as an attraction evolved into the concept art of a full-blown resort. Science fiction fans everywhere would have loved to see the Star Trek Casino and Hotel become a reality, and nerds from around the world would have probably traveled just to be there.
However, this was just concept art, and there was never any real plan to make the Star Trek Casino come to life. A few years later, though, the Hilton Hotel had a temporary attraction called Star Trek: The Experience, which gave guests a very similar sort of experience to what Goddard had envisioned. Today, we know that the Star Wars franchise had a longer staying power, compared to Star Trek, and Disneyland is covering sci-fi themed accommodations and attractions.