Las Vegas Hilton

The husband and I have made regular visits to Las Vegas for a number of years now. We're not huge gamblers, though we do enjoy playing various of the slot machines. I only do slots and don't do table games at all. The husband enjoys craps, and he even knows how to play! We've also enjoyed looking at the architecture and decor of the various hotels/casinos as well as trying out different restaurants.

One place that we have made a point of visiting on each trip is the Las Vegas Hilton. We had originally gone to look around like everything else, but there was the added appeal of Star Trek: The Experience. They had a section that simulated the Promenade from the Star Trek television show "Deep Space Nine". They even had a restaurant named Quark's. There were a couple of stores, some with regular merchandise like t-shirts and plush, and some with the higher-end stuff. They also had an attraction where you were put into the story of a Star Trek happening. I really liked the Klingon version, but I hated the Borg version because at the end of that one, you get rescued by Voyager. Ugh, please, just let the Borg take me then.

We went on the attraction once, and it was fun (and the museum section was cool too), but for the experience and the price, it wasn't something we felt the need to do again. We did enjoy browsing around the shop, and we had dinner at Quark's once.

The other nice thing is that adjacent to the whole Star Trek area is the SpaceQuest casino, which was, to me, a little less stuffy than the main casino, and they had good music too. We always made it a point of visiting the Hilton once on each trip to wander around the Promenade and play in the casino.

Well, the Star Trek section closed in early September of this year. Our trip came about two weeks afterward, and the area was completely closed off, though nothing had been done to it yet. I'm not sure what their plans are for it. The SpaceQuest casino was still there, and the Star Wars slot machines were still there, but the Star Trek machines that the husband had found during our earlier March trip had been moved to the main casino. I actually spent some time looking around the SpaceQuest casino, but I literally did not find one machine that I wanted to play, so I ended up back in the main casino.

We had figured that with the closing of the Star Trek section, there really wasn't going to be any reason to go back to the Hilton anymore. However, since the husband found the Star Trek slots and really likes them, and for the moment, they don't seem to be anywhere else, we'll be going back so he can play them.

I played for a little bit on a machine that was new to me that was kind of fun but which fairly quickly put me in this mega-bonus round that just kept going and going and going like the Energizer bunny, and when all was said and done, I had won something like $60 on a penny machine, so I quit. And then I looked for something else to do.

I had seen signs posted in various places about something called Football Central. Well, we were there on a Sunday, and the second set of football games for the day would still be going, so I figured I'd go and see what it was like. Yes, I like watching NFL games. I followed the signs, figuring it would be some room with some big-screen TVs set up or something. And then I walked into an auditorium, with five huge giant screens. Not TVs, but more like the giant screens that are normally up in any Sports Book. Five of them, with five different games. They only had the sound from one of them on, and it wasn't the one I was most interested in, but that was ok, since I could still follow the action of the one I really wanted to watch, and the game with the sound on ended up being an amazing game. And I got to glance at the other games on the other screens as well.

As I mentioned, it was like an auditorium, not just some dinky little room. They had rows and rows of seats lined up, and it was crowded, but not packed, so finding a decent seat wasn't an issue at all. There were signs about inexpensive food and beer being sold from an adjacent room/restaurant, but I'd already had brunch so wasn't hungry.

I loved sitting in that room and watching the games, especially since I was around a lot of people who were really into it as well. The husband came into the room a bit later, and we watched the various games for a little while.

If I lived closer, I'd so be planting myself at the Hilton every Sunday during the NFL season. I guess that means it's a good thing I don't live nearby because then I really wouldn't get anything done on Sundays while professional football is on.

Here's a link to official information about Football Central, but I'm not understanding the "11 huge screens" thing. I didn't miscount - there were 5. Maybe they've changed it since that web page was first constructed. But no matter - it's still an awesome place.

So, while we thought we'd be leaving the Las Vegas Hilton behind, it looks like we'll still be making visits there, probably moreso during football season if we're in town.


This trip report from April 2002 has some information about a visit to the Promenade. Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

This trip report from March 2003 includes information from another visit to the Promenade as well as our dinner at Quark's. Scroll down to about half-way through the report.

And this little trip report is about my first ride on the Las Vegas monorail, which included a really cool feature on a particular monorail as it approached the Hilton.

Here's information about a really cute t-shirt that I'd found in the Promenade during our March trip.