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Was Las Vegas the best family destination of the 90’s? Well, they certainly tried.

Important note: as mentioned in an update from a couple months ago, anyone who wants access to my Nebula originals needs to re-subscribe at the Nebula tier. Go to memberships at the top of this page and subscribe to “Nebula”, it is the only option. If you don’t want access to Nebula originals, or you have a Nebula subscription independent from this Patreon page, then you don’t need to do anything.

Edit: okay so predictably there is some technical issue, I’m working on it to try to figure out what the problem is.

Edit: Okay, it should hopefully work now - reminder, you need to resubscribe at the new tier if you want access, you can’t change tiers or raise prices on Patreon. The tier and any money you subscribe only change if you change it.

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Comments

Francesca White

In my notification it only came up to "Family F" so i thought this was going to be "the life and death of Family Feud" 😭

Nicole Salazar-King

I literally just re-watched the episode on Jurassic Park yesterday and thought to myself "she's about due for the next video. I wonder when that will come out" and then today I wake up to this!! Perfect timing!!

Tyler Jennes

Hey I'm at the Nebula tier but still getting the "Your current tier is not eligible for this content" message. Anyone else?

Ed Picard

Same here, Tyler. "Not eligible" despite being at the Nebula tier.

Aniz Taylor

Also just upgraded my tier and cannot access this video on nebula. Can access all your other content though

Lindsay Ellis

So the nebula tier is getting access to older videos? Only this one that’s this issue?

Jillian

Working for me now!

da599

the tiers took a few minutes to update for me, but the video is loading now! have patience, guys 😌

Madelyn Moss

Dang it, Lindsay. Loved the video, and I would also love to hear more of your takes of the Disney Parks in the future as well!

Madi Stoller

I went to Vegas as a small child in 2003, and I’ve been looking for answers ever since. We stayed in the Excalibur and visited circus circus. My dad told me that people had tried to make Vegas family friendly in the past, but the arcades just didn’t hit. The weirdest arcade game was probably the simulated horse race gambling. You’d put money down on a fake mechanical horse, but only get tickets when it won. It was basically Gambling Lite. My most vivid memory of the trip was the way every time we walked down the street we’d be mobbed my med giving out cards with pictures of almost nude dancing girls to advertise shows. My dad would yell at them not to give me a card, the ground was covered in them.

XanderLeoarro

My ideal trip to vegas would be like. Fly in on a Friday, see LOVE on a Saturday, fly out Sunday morning. I have ZERO interest in gambling and if my family history and the amount I spent on Kingdom Hearts: Union Cross mean anything, I don’t think it would be the healthiest thing for me. That said, a recent video about the Razzies and me remembering the ancient ShowGirls video did get me to buy the 4K set so there’s that.

Greta P

The Star Trek Experience WAS pretty awesome. I'm sorry you missed it too. I have fuzzy memories from that trip to Vegas. I don't really remember why my family was there, probably for a high school swim meet (we lived near Reno), but I do remember staying at Circus Circus. It was.... weird. My brother ended up going to UNLV on a swim scholarship firmly in the middle of the "What happens here, stays here" ad campaign years. Most of his teammates worked at the resorts as pool lifeguards or dancers at night clubs. I would visit him on spring break and yes it did suck to try to do anything on the strip in those sucky 18-21 college years.

Lindsay Ellis

We were there this weekend and Angelina loved LOVE so much she saw it twice, so make sure to budget time for that possibility.

Mao

As a Vegas local of twenty plus years, this was a fun video. For anyone interested in this stuff, another family orientated attraction from the 90s that still operates to this day is M&Ms Las Vegas, a 4 story store devoted to the eponymous candy smack between MGM Grand and a Coca-Cola megastore (yes that's also a thing, go look up the giant glass bottle) The story of Fremont Street is also interesting in conjunction with this because it developed through the 90s as a counter to kid friendly Vegas and to this day it's considered the place to go if you want to party all night long with some truly, unique, buskers and offerings crawling all over it.

Genie Hossain

“I love a good Themed Implosion” 🤣 As someone who recently started working in Themed Entertainment, this was a very educational watch!

JFGlaser72

My parents also didn't have $$$ when we visited my grandma in Vegas in the late '90s. However, I do remember the Excalibur stuff, the pirate show, and they did spring for the Star Trek Experience, which was pretty awesome. I still have my Pet Tribble from that excursion. I also talked them into letting us go on the roller coaster at New York New York and the Stratosphere rides, but mostly we just hung out at Grandma's seedy trailer park while my dad did various repairs and watched the bums while getting dinner on the Fremont Street strip. 99 cent shrimp cocktail, anyone? That's Vegas to me, not some glitzy clubs full of rich young people.

JFGlaser72

YES Fremont Street! In the late '90s it was a very past its prime place with lots of older folks blowing their Social Security checks while smoking tons of cigarettes.

Brady Thomas

Another great video! I'd like to chime in with another perspective, which is that Vegas - at least the strip - is a weird destination city in that it's not particularly beloved by The Gays™, at least in my experience. I feel like there is a very heterosexual vibe to the city that doesn't really attract the gays as much as either major tourism hubs like LA/NYC, or smaller gay destinations like Palm Springs/Provincetown. Even Disney has the Disney Gays™, but Vegas just feels really hetero to me.

Lucy (sprints)

Has anyone else had the issue on their phone (android) where the video will start playing but the image freezes after about 5 secs even though the sound keeps going? It did it with the last video too, and nothing seemed to fix it, not even switching browser on my phone :/

Lindsay Ellis

android has been described to me as a "bag of hurt" if you're not using the app (since there's 10,000 devices running just as many OS's), which as I understand you can't use the app if you're coming from hereisa.video. I suggest you use desktop when you're able, or another device. Android + OS is just buggy af, unfortunately.

Lindsay Ellis

is it only for this video, or other videos on nebula?

John Fischer

Having you on the MusicalSplaining podcast followed by this has made my whole week. I can’t wait to watch it!

Sarah Jesness

I've never been interested in Vegas because I don't like to gamble, but you're kind of selling me on it. Though I'm sure it's too expensive for me, lol.

John Rovell

This was so fun! I really enjoyed the history.

Còiseam

(Was only happening on the new one, but it seems to have fixed itself now, idk)

Shawn

excellent!

Ava Newton

my sole criticism of this video is that I currently live about 20 minutes from the Foxwoods casino and it is categorically not "about an hour from new york city" (try three minimum). Aside from that it was great lol!

Dr. Chunk

Time for a new episode of Things I Didn't Know I Was Interested In

ilana nh

For me it still is "buffering" (I know it's not actually, but for lack of a better term...) – it seems to have to pause and catch up every couple seconds, despite having loaded enough that it should be able to play continuously. It's not my internet connection; I've tested other videos on Youtube, Nebula, and other streaming services and it's just this video. Anyone else, or just me?

Alexander

I still have a picture of me and my wife sitting on the bridge of the Enterprise-D! It was literally the only good thing about my trip to Vegas. Incidentally, Mike McCary (the fourth guy from Boyz II Men) quit in 2003 because he has MS.

Laura L

I couldn't view it on my Android phone, but was able to view it on my MacBook Air just fine

M

Funny enough I did see the sexy lady pirate show when my family visited Vegas in the 2000s, and I really enjoyed it as a 11-12 year old girl. To my pubescent eyes, it was captivating. I later came out as bisexual in my early 20s.

Deconstruction Interactive

This was great! I actually hadn't gone to Vegas until 2022, and it was fascinating thinking about all the things in your video and thinking back to my visit. It feels like this on-again, off-again relationship between Vegas and kids plays out in other parts of the US economy too, with businesses torn between trying to bring in more people and then being like, wait, was that a good idea?

Nina S

"Disney is actually weirdly hostile to young children" - I had this same thought when I was in Disney earlier this year. Are Disney parks actually catered towards kids?

Pablo

hi lindsay! loved that when you first mentioned the mafia, you posted a picture of tony soprano lol. are you still planning on reviewing sopranos?

Lindsay Ellis

only if they're old enough to understand brand loyalty

Skellington Rose

I went there as kid! We stayed at Circus Circus, saw that pirate show, the MGM place, Mac King's magic show, went on rides - had a blast! Then when I came back as an adult all that fun stuff was gone or run-down and it turns out gambling kinda sucks.

CassieWasRight

the goodbye yellow brick road easter egg at the 34-minute mark...such a good little editing detail

KSCHatch

Fascinating. Truly. I went to Las Vegas when I was 12 with a friend and her dad and his carer (he was a wheelchair user) and we stayed at the Stratosphere because it had RIDES for KIDS. Which we never got to go on because the two adults lost $700 and decided we needed to leave early before it got worse. My memories of Vegas were: Circus Circus was creepy, dank, and most of the arcade games were broken. Nevada was so hot I was constantly nauseated unless we were indoors where the air conditioning was so intense I was shivering because I only had shorts and t-shirts and every building seemed to be kept at refrigeration levels of coolness.

KSCHatch

Bwahahahahahahahaha! FACTS!

Sven

Is the "they got winners" just a misspelling and should read "they got whiners" maybe?

WarioTush

Unfortunately, even after changing my tier once again, the video won't play.

Sarah Muder

I'm glad I watched the Safiya video a number of times when it came out, I feel like it prepared me for this video because I knew shit about Vegas previously! Except maybe that scene in Con Air. haha

Olivia Smith

The subtitles at the beginning saying Looey Prima and Looey Armstrong, and the later reveal of King Looey... genius.

Olivia Smith

My only explanation for 'they got winners, we got winners' is that the child has won the tiny teddy bear at an arcade, and the implication is 'what a laughably mediocre prize, look how disappointed he is, at our proper adult casinos winners win actual money!'.

Mirage

My grandparents took me and my brother to the Excalibur when it was new. My grandma got a custom T-shirt at the Luxor that said "bitch" in hieroglyphs. Now I live in Vegas because California was too expensive. I'm sure there's a causal through line in there somewhere. Anyway, great video. I should probably see some of these Cirque shows before they turn into something else.

Project GS

that was my thoughts.

Project GS

I love the Vegas Disney parallels. Something I would have never thought about, but now I think deserve its own deep dive. It put a thought into my head. Treasure Island did the pirates way before pirates of the Caribbean, even had its own movie. I wonder if that influenced the Disney movie at all.

Chelsey Collins

I've lived in Vegas my whole life and this was such a walk down memory lane. Thanks Lindsay!

S.A. Cosby

Loved this perspective

Adventuress

My family was full "Vegas family" Vegas vacation, and my parents didn't even gamble that much (my mother stopped altogether when they started printing out the winnings versus the satisfying drop of five dollars in nickels). I remember Star Trek, King Tut's water ride, the pirate show - and I remember the nostalgic pang I felt when the Pirate show became a bad burlesque show and then became the Senor Frogs. If I want animatronics now, I go to the Vegas Natural History museum :) The hardest thing about this video is learning about the future end of the Mirage. The Mirage was *the* place to stay when I was younger and I have a weird soft spot for it. I don't want a giant glass guitar there! Anyway - Thanks for the walk down the yellow-bricked memory lane!

Ev G

As someone in the South Florida area, that Guitar Hotel in Fort Lauderdale is impressive, and when it was built I thought it seemed more like a Vegas thing, so really not surprised when they announced one was going up there. Sorry it is replacing an iconic spot though. The Seminoles do bring in insanely large acts to Fort Lauderdale for a room that is much smaller than they would normally play. I saw Metallica there when they had previously played the Miami Dolphin's Stadium. Other shows I missed were The Stones, Paul McCartney, Springsteen, The Who, Ed Sheeran, Elton John, and Billy Joel. In a room a fraction of the size they usually play.

Jack Claussen

This unearthed ancient memories from my family trip to Vegas in the early 1990s (I was only 4). I will forever have a dread for clowns due to the hanging clowns around the buffet at Circus Circus.

Anya Lienau

Didn't know what to expect with this one since I knew nothing about Vegas, really, but I loved this video!

Christine D

I got married in Vegas in 1998, so this was a trip! I'd almost forgotten about the Star Trek experience, but it was the main thing my dad remembered about visiting Vegas (as British people, it was especially a trip for my parents!). My soon-to-be-husband tried to record the whole Star Trek Experience on camcorder, but failed to cover up the little red light, so at one point a voice came over the intercom telling him they could see him and to stop recording, lol. I had no idea there were once plans for a whole Enterprise hotel!!

Xanavici

I lived and grew up in Vegas from 3rd grade all the way through high school so me during this entire video was just *leo pointing gif* You really captured how wild that place was/is and made me really nostalgic for it. I remember going to wet n' wild one time before it closed (which i remember the rumor going around was that someone died there and that's why it got shut down) and how mystere was the first show i went to when I was in 4th or 5th grade. Part of me wants to go back with friends and stay at one of the resorts, experience it as a true tourist, but also I know I would only be able to see the streets I drove around on at midnight with my sister and our 89c slushies so I think I'm happy to just remember those memories

Fernando

Hey, you used a Shrek joke! I saw it!

Mar MB

As someone who did not grow up in the US, it's a place that has always fascinated me because I couldn't really understand the appeal when I was there at age 15. So this video was an interesting insight. I'm still kind of hoping on a Showgirls retrospective someday after the few clips here and there 💛

DosVanya

So I am two years late here but there's an error I don't see anyone mentioning in the comments. Namely: there was never a plan to build the Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation in Los Vegas. To be pedantic (but it matters here), that's the Enterprise NCC-1701-D , which "canonically" is as stupidly big as your graphic shows. But looking at the concept art, the design is for the Enterprise from the Shatner movies (NCC-1701-A). The A is half the length and about 1/8th the volume of the D. It would, built at 1:1 'scale' be a smidge longer than the Titanic, but about only 2/3rds of the interior space (Whereas the D would be 13 times the volume of the Titanic.) So while the project is impressive, its not that's hubristic to build a themed hotel smaller than the Titanic.... unlike if they actually had been trying to build the D which, as your video notes, would have actually been ludicrous.

Paulie Paul

"'F*ck them kids' - The Tropicana Hotel & Casino" 😂 You got a lol out of me