Since the Enterprise-D Cat is out of the Spacedock Bag, and all the production crew are showing off pics of them on the bridge, here's the story of my own visit to the Enterprise Bridge. Although it wasn't the one you all saw on screen.
So, back in 2008, when I was moving to Seattle a friend and I took a side trip to the Star Trek Experience. Coincidentally the same time as the Las Vegas Sci Fi Convention so it wasn't just packed, it was packed with events. So we showed up, did both the experiences, and made reservations for tickets for the "Captain's Chair" photo op late that day.
So, towards the end of the day, we show up at our appointment time, and sit at the bench and wait. And wait. AND WAIT. After about a half hour, a hostess pops up and asks us why we're there. We show her the tickets for the Captain's Chair photo op, and out comes a walkie talkie and some stern words (I got the idea they weren't supposed to do a photo op at the time we got them, but we were already there). She puts it away, and in a customer service switch flip like I've never seen, she puts on her best hostess smile and escorts us to the Bridge. Fiancee sits in the Captain's chair, I'm standing behind at tactical and we get an amazing picture of us both ON THE FREAKIN' BRIDGE OF THE ENTERPRISE D.
Out comes the walkie talkie and they mention we're about to leave the bridge, but there's a bit more stern talking and everything. And we get told "So, the Borg Experience tour is running right now, and we can't let you out until they pass, so feel free to look around for the next ten minutes." We weren't allowed to take pics, but TEN MINUTES ON THE FREAKIN' BRIDGE OF THE ENTERPRISE D.
After about ten minutes they begin walking us through the backstage cooridoors to the lobby, and there's another walkie talkie squawk that the Borg tour is running late and we were about to cross at the same time as the Borg tour was crossing. So the hostess piled us into a closed Borg Alcove for about 2 minutes, while we waited for that tour to pass.
BEST DAY EVER.
I'm not a fan of pics of myself, and while I have the pic of me on the bridge, that's not getting shared around. But I do have pics from the trip to the Star Trek experience: https://dolari.net/pics/index.php?/category/Dolari-Grand-Tour-2008/Nevada
