As my plane to Las Vegas descended, there were many different sights to see through the smudgy airplane windows. My brother and I pointed out the glimmering green MGM Grand Hotel and the towering Stratosphere as we flew past. 

One hard landmark to miss was the giant, glowing orb in the middle of the city. The Sphere. From the moment we saw it, my family knew we had to visit this brand new tourist attraction. I mean, it's an enormous glowing ball of lights. How could we not go? 

The Sphere was opened in the fall of 2023 and has become a new staple in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is an arena that holds concerts, shows, and other entertaining events. The exterior of The Sphere contains 1.2 million circular LED lights, creating a spherical shaped video screen. The screen displays an array of intriguing visuals, videos, and advertisements. The interior of the sphere includes a large, domed screen which serves as a way to display background visuals for concerts or showcase films for visitors to view. 

When the arena is not hosting a residency for an artist or a band, it has an event called “The Sphere Experience”. This event includes an interactive experience and an immersive film which runs every two hours every day. The interactive experience was listed as a time to talk with interactive robots, view art installations, and get a 360-degree avatar capture. The second part was listed as an immersive film in the theater that would be multi-sensory. As a tourist, this seemed like a really neat experience, so my family booked tickets. 

When we arrived at the base of The Sphere, it was rather complicated to find a way in. It had similar entrances to any other arena or concert venue, but the organization was weak. There were way more people there than anticipated for a mild day in March. The line to get in wrapped around at least 7 times. This is completely understandable as the venue is very large and can seat up to 18,600 people—but it was the security that was an issue. For the hundreds of people that were there, they only had one person for security, or at least at the time when I went in. As my family bought tickets inside the venue at the box office, we did not have to wait in the long line. For those who bought tickets online and were in the line, I’d assume they had to wait over 45 minutes to enter the building. 

When it was my turn to be scanned, the security guard failed to check my bag. I had nothing in it that would be harmful, but if the guard did such a poor search of my bag, how well did he search the bags of other visitors? Throughout the rest of my time at The Sphere, the worry about this continued to linger in the back of my mind. 

When we got inside the building, we were officially in the first part of the experience was the interactive experiences. The huge crowd we saw when we entered was no longer an issue, as the interior was so spacious. The lobby was both open and futuristic. It was bathed in different shades of blue lights and decorated with several different forms of advanced technology. For instance, there was a structure made up of a lot of fans that spun to cast projections. Set up across the floor, there were several different stations with interactive robots and 360-degree cameras.

My brother and I rushed to get in line for the interactive exhibit that said it would give us a 360-degree avatar capture. After our wait in the line, we finally went into the picture station, which was covered with dozens of cameras that would be used to make our avatar. We both stood inside and waited a moment while the machine created our avatars. When we were done, they told us they would send the final video of the avatars to my phone. 

When I finally got the result, let’s just say, it wasn’t exactly as expected. When the experience was advertised as a machine that would create an “avatar”, I thought it would be virtual characters of us, that would move and walk around like that of a video game. Rather, it was just a 360-degree photo of us inserted into a video. Our avatars were frozen in place and did not move. I feel that it should have been advertised as just a “360-degree video” instead of an “avatar experience”, as it ended up being a tad misleading. I wouldn’t say the video was not cool—the 360-degree imagery was very impressive and something I have never seen before. The fact that it did not necessarily provide what was advertised is the part that was slightly off-putting. I ran out of time to actually go interact with the robot stations they had set up, but from the looks of them, they also did not seem as “high-tech” as advertised. 

This first part of the experience lasted one hour. After we finished it, we were allowed to enter the auditorium where the main attraction began. There were thousands of seats in the auditorium and they were slanted at a steep angle. I had to walk upwards to get to my seat, and as someone who is afraid of heights, this was relatively unnerving. When I got to my chair, I sat down and, if I'm being honest, I don’t think I stopped holding onto the armrests for the entirety of the film.

When the film began, I was immediately transported into the different scenes. It was extremely immersive, as the screen extended high above my head and was curved in front of my face. They showed clips of scenic destinations, like mountains and oceans, and immersed the audience into videos of animal species and different human societies. The chairs had vibration effects embedded in them, that made the viewing experience even better. Other than my continuous fear of the height in which I was sitting, the second part of the experience was amazing. The audio and speaker systems were loud, but in a way that made the experience much more enjoyable and realistic-feeling. The quality of the videos was incredibly detailed and intricate, it made me feel like I was actually there with the people or animals on the screen. 

The film showcased the importance of preserving the environment, which I found a little ironic considering how much energy The Sphere likely takes up, but it was still an important message overall. 

The Sphere experience was enjoyable, and I would recommend that anyone who visits Las Vegas should visit at least once in their lifetime. I do think that the first part of the experience was a little underwhelming, but the second part made up for it completely. I wouldn’t say it is something that I would go back to if I returned to Las Vegas, but it was intriguing to experience at least once. I would definitely suggest it to those who have never visited it before, as it was overall a great time.