In one of my first posts, I suggested a viking-themed Las Vegas resort. Having just been back to sin city for the winter solstice, I’m even more enthusiastic about this idea, especially after a suggestion from my uncle (the same uncle that inspired one of my architecture papers over a decade ago).
Being told of my viking hotel idea, his immediate response was “it could host viking funerals.”
Vegas is already a wedding destination. I bet there are enough people that would pay to have their remains burned in a wooden barge on the resort’s artificial lake. The lake would have to be set up with a horizon, perhaps a falls into a bit that explodes into a massive inferno when the ship falls in (this is Vegas, after all). There would be a big feast of course; it would be an all-inclusive funeral package.
I think it would start a new “destination funeral” trend. First in Las Vegas (think of how much the Luxor could make doing pharaonic embalmings and entombments), then elsewhere (maybe zombie funerals in Haiti).
It’s a great idea, in terms of the aesthetic. I don’t know that it would work all that often – people don’t do the sort of grand event funerals that they used to. Still, I think it would be an excellent way to send someone off.
Is there an Irish-themed hotel? A destination for a wake, complete with drinkin’ and vice, would be perfect.
There’s Fitzgerald’s. It’s low rent, but Irish themed.
Personally, I think that the only major party still celebrated but that has gone unused as a Vegas theme is Oktoberfest. I can imagine a huge interior atrium with beer garden tents. There could be gambling tables under it, or just tables to sit and drink beer.
German is the #1 ethnic group in the United States. I think that an Oktoberfest themed casino would do quite well.