Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Vegas enters new dimension of entertainment with Twilight Zone mini golf
InPark Magazine: Christina Vitagliano, founder of Monster Mini Golf®, wasn’t necessarily thinking Vegas when she and her husband Patrick started the company 12 years ago. The company concept was straightforward: franchise blacklight indoor mini-golf courses with a spooky monster theme. But an opportunity came up to develop a co-branded facility in Vegas themed to the rock band KISS. The golf course, now located at the Rio resort, has stood the test of time. So when Caesar’s approached Christina about an additional space available at their Vegas Bally’s location, she decided to pursue it.
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3 comments:
This reminds me of a mini golf place I saw once on a family holiday: Glow in the Dark Tasmanian Mini Golf. We didn't golf there (a tragedy), but instead at the pirate-themed mini golf place down the street, but the idea still intrigues me. Not only the Tasmanian themed aspect (because Tasmanian themed anything is intriguing) but because I've never played mini golf indoors before. The idea of indoor, glow in the dark mini golf also reminds me of dark rides- indoor amusement park rides that use lighting, media, and effects to transform a space into the theme and environments of the ride. This concept of mini golf seems like a less immersive version of a dark ride. I also think that the added challenge of the low ceilings introduces a problem unique to dark ride like environments because often in dark ride like environments a large space is made smaller by sets and special effects.
This is a brilliant idea. I happen to be a big fan of the Twilight Zone and a pretty competitive and enthusiastic mini golfer, so I would totally take the opportunity to play on this golf course if I was in Vegas. There is a glow in the dark mini golf place in my hometown and it did not really have any particular theme – it was just neon paint and black lights – which was enjoyable, but I think the whole theme takes it up a notch. I also think it is clever to have it be a mini golf attraction in such a tourist-y area. Like Vitagliano explains in the article, mini golf is a "non-gaming attraction", and in a world that is so media and screen based, it is nice to just go play a game of casual (or very intensive and competitive), face to face mini golf. I can see this attraction being a nice breath of fresh air in such a fast moving city.
Reading about and seeing themed entertainment like this is super cool. Over break I had dinner with my old TD who is now building escape rooms. This kind of golf course is the same type of stuff as the escape rooms that he is building. They are designed off site, and then brought to the site and loaded in, kind of like any other show would be. The Twilight Zone seems like the perfect setting for a glow in the dark golf course like this one is. Personally I think that this golf course seems much more visually interesting than a South Park themed one would have been. Often times when I am playing mini golf I don’t really feel like I’m being transported to another world, but I think that this particular course achieves that goal admirably. I’m very curious as to whether they have any tricks built into the course, like something where when your ball drops into one hole, another ball pops out of another one on the next section of track.
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