It happened again. This time, a prediction of planetary proportions in fictionally creating the next big thing for the Las Vegas Strip, years before it will occur. And I’m tickled pink, or lunar gray, as it turns out.
In this blog, I’ve previously written of the challenge of staying one step ahead of fiction becoming reality while drafting my present-day Other Worldly novels about aliens among us. And about how things I’ve conjured in the first of the series, Alienable Rights, uncannily came true, as protagonist Rowan Layne would say.
Recently I read of a moon-themed resort in the works, coming to Sin City in 2027, complete with an “active lunar colony” and a spaceship nightclub. It’s one of four such properties planned around the world, to include the Middle East, China, and Spain.
Canadian-based company Moon World Resorts Inc. envisions a resort featuring a replica of Earth’s moon. It will only be 1/75,000 the size of the moon, but that’s enough space for 4,000 hotel rooms and suites, a spa, and plenty of retail, restaurants, clubs, and lounges. Plus a theater, a planetarium, an event center, an arena, and it couldn’t be in Vegas without a casino.
In Alienable Rights, I first introduce the latest attraction constructed on the Strip, Planet Wynne, “Where winning is out of this world.” It’s the brainchild of Vegas mogul Octavius Wynne, aka O.W., who happens to be an alien known as a Red Orbiter.
Not to be outdone by this up-and-coming moon resort, Planet Wynne boasts a three-tiered building with a base like a ringed planet, a second level depicting a flying saucer, and the third and top level is…you guessed it, a replica of Earth’s moon. A giant sphere with external lights that change according to the lunar calendar.
Alienable Rights was published in February 2020, but the idea for Planet Wynne was conjured in 2019. It hosts not only a hotel and casino, but also a restaurant called Galaxy Table with a celebrity (albeit alien) chef cooking up otherworldly delights, and a bar called Galaxy Grog where Rowan first visits at the beginning of book two, Feeling Alienated.
In Galaxy Grog, one can sip a “space spritzer” made with extraterrestrial liqueur while enjoying an interior décor that resembles a planetarium, because it simulates what one might see looking up through the roof of a Red Orbiter craft that’s a flying red orb.
At this moon-themed resort coming in 2027, a planned nightclub will be positioned under a “spaceship” that will beam lights down on guests. But the main highlight is billed as an Active Lunar Colony, in which the upper half of the spherical structure will precisely simulate lunar colonies planned by NASA and the European Space Agency, allowing resort guests to virtually experience life on the moon.
Such lunar colonies, if brought to fruition, would likely be subject to parameters of the all-too-real Outer Space Treaty. But that’s a subject for book three, Aliens Abound, which involves an actual visit to Earth’s moon. Not at all what folks think it is, but I suppose a lunar colony of sorts.
The spherical structure appearing moon-like atop Planet Wynne may not have a simulated lunar colony, but it does boast a nine-hole golf course, a pet park, and a convention center. Wherein, in Feeling Alienated, the first Omnipresent Party Convention takes place prior to a presidential election, complete with otherworldly candidates who are members of the new US political party.
One similarity between this planned moon-themed resort and my otherworldly Planet Wynne is how guests access attractions—and levels. Those visiting the upcoming 2027 resort will reach the lunar colony by riding a rollercoaster-like “moon shuttle” that circles the exterior of the hotel suites on its way to the upper level.
Positively uncanny, as Rowan Layne would say. Because Planet Wynne has elevators traveling the circumference of all three of its levels, in a circular motion that would most definitely cause Rowan motion sickness. She won’t set foot in one, which is why she needs her Red Orbiter pals to carry her to the upper lunar level so she can participate in the Omni Convention and other events. But she certainly won’t be going there to play golf.
I look forward to checking out this fabulous moon-themed resort once it’s up and running in Vegas. Though you’ll never get me in that rollercoaster-ride of a moon shuttle on the building’s exterior. Because I can easily predict how my body would react.