I take a break from normally scheduled how to tips for bloggers to tell you about my weekend away… I think even though you may be here to read about blogging tips, you’ll still be interested in my sweet escape this weekend. Grab your coffee, I’m covering 4 days in one post.

First, a brief history. In the recent past, I have covered some events that have happened at the Sands properties here in Las Vegas. These properties cover Sands Expo and Convention Center, The Venetian and the brand new Palazzo. Because of my coverage, I was invited to a special event this weekend at The Palazzo and that’s what I’ll be telling you about.

All images in this post were taken by me.

This is the Palazzo. Opened in February 2008, it’s a $1.6 Billion dollar megaresort. And really, it’s mega.

My invitation this weekend was to stay, complimentary (as in FREE) for 4 days and 3 nights in a luxury suite. Just for me and 4 guests (I got 2 rooms free for all those nights).

When I received the offer, I quickly reserved my rooms and invited my parents to come over for the weekend from California to enjoy the VIP treatment with me.

Friday

I lost my Internet here at home on Friday. It was terrible because I was attempting to finish up a custom design project. Seems I got more coding work done at the hotel on their Internet than I did at home but this is another story.

When my parent’s arrived in town, we ate at the wonderful Memphis BBQ and headed over to the Palazzo to check into our rooms.

The grand lobby is everything grand and then some!

This fountain that stood in the center is magnificent and simply breathtaking. The lobby is spacious with nice seating and a great lead into the casino floor.

Just beyond this fountain, was the registration desk where I happily stood in line behind the sign that read “Invited Guest.”

Smooth and painless we were checked in within a matter of minutes. My parents went off to their room on the 5th floor with their Bell boy. Joanne, Zadey, and I took off to our room on the 37th floor to get settled.

For the record, this was also my first visit to the Palazzo so everything was a brand new experience.

The worst thing I have to say about our suite was that the windows were incredibly dirty. Why did this bother me? Well, you see my room carried a strip view. And while I’m sure it’s difficult to clean windows on the 37th floor, people do this for a living, and surely it can be done!

I digress and have these somewhat mediocre shots from my window:

To the left, from the window view was Mirage. While I could not see the irrupting volcano, it was still nice to see.

Decorated for their show of the Beatles, from 37 floors up, the Mirage looks beautiful and nicely lit up at night. It was a delight to see!

Directly in front of us was Treasure Island. Probably one of my least favorite of all the casinos, this view was awesome. Even more so when we watched the show in the front, The Sirens of TI, do their nightly routine which includes fire and fireworks. You could even hear the show, while faint, but still enough for someone who’s seen the show before to know what’s happening.

And to the right, we saw a view of the brand new Trump Tower (soon to be Trump Towers). It’s simple but done in elegant Trump gold style.

The room was all together spectacular with an awesome soaking tub, separate shower, and a grand vanity. There are no complaints to the room which also included 3 plasma televisions, a living room area, and a sectional that pulled out to a twin size bed (that Zadey slept on).

Room pictures can be seen on my Flickr account, linked at the bottom of this post.

Saturday

Saturday carried the entire reason we were invited for the weekend. The official Grand Opening of Palazzo’s show, Jersey Boys. While it’s been playing for the last month, this was the night that all the important people were invited to. And while I was not high on the list of VIP’s, it was enough that I was there on a night you could not purchase tickets for!

Jersey Boys was originally a Broadway musical and is Tony award winning. The show takes you through the four distinct viewpoints of the original band members, boys who struggled to stay on the right side of the law, build an identity and gain commercial success from the streets of New Jersey. The first viewpoint comes from the founder, Tommy DeVito and gives the little known gritty details of life, love, and making it big.

Taking place later in the evening, we first explored the hotel on Saturday. Due to the Jersey Boys show taking place on Saturday evening, we wanted to ensure that we could easily find the Jersey Boys theatre and I had the need to fulfill a collection addiction: I had to find the Jersey Boys souvenir shop to purchase a Jersey Boys mug!

Once we entered the Jersey Boys shop, we had a great time looking around. From the TV’s on the wall that played old videos of 4 Seasons, to the t-shirts and mugs. They indeed have a great collection of goodies to fill your Jersey Boys need!

It’s in this shop that we came across our very first celebrity sighting. And it’s none other than Frankie Valli himself!

While I would have loved to walk up to him and get our picture taken with him, mention we’re fans, shake his hand, we decided not to bother him. Instead, we were fans from afar. To tell you the truth, I’m not even sure he knows this picture was taken from him. Although, I must note, it was fun to watch him watch himself on TV playing old 4 Seasons videos.

Prior to the show, we had to pick up our tickets – for us and my parents. To do this, we headed over to The Venetian where we gained access to the private, VIP lounge.

Tucked away next to the bathroom, of all places, we found the lounge. Yes folks, this is the private high rollers room where they are served coffee and the newspaper.

This is also where you request for the limo to take you back to the airport, call to arrange your airport pickup; they’re rarely seen and heavily used by VIP and high rollers.

Inside was absolutely amazing. The room was dripping with riches and here we are, with a stroller hanging out in the VIP lounge. There were many great things for my 2 ½ year old to get into indeed. Thankfully, she was nice and secure with hands inside the stroller at all times!

We received our tickets from a nice woman who was even sweeter to ensure that we received 4 tickets that were together. Additionally, she handed us our VIP party access passes for the after show gala!

Once we had tickets in hand, we took Zadey to my brother’s house and headed back to the Palazzo where we dressed for our evening with my parents: dinner, Jersery Boys, and a gala. What more can a girl want?

Dinner was great! We ate at a Mexican food restaurant at the Venetian that sat inside of The Grand Canel Shoppes, we ate while listing to Gondolier’s sing to those riding the Gondola down the canel.

Show Time!

I don’t even know how to begin to describe the show. Amazing, wonderful, awesome, outstanding, there are not enough words to tell you about this show. It’s absolutely a must see! If you’re visiting or live in a city where Jersey Boys is playing – go see this show!

The theatre had amazing sound, every seat in the house gave you a great view of the show, and it was well decorated in a 70’s motif! Absolutely worth every penny you’d spend to see this show!

At the end of the show, three of the original four 4 Seasons were invited onto the stage (Nick, one of the original 4 Seasons has since passed away). While no words were spoken, it was still an awesome sight to which the crowd gave a long-lasting standing ovation.

After making our way out of the theatre, it was time for a restroom pit stop and a walk down to the Palazzo’s Ballroom where the VIP Gala was to be held.

While waiting for the lines to allow each of us to use the restrooms, Mom and I sat at slot machines. She jumped up, hollered for me to grab the camera because “THAT’S FRANKIE AVALON!”

He was just 2 feet away from her having a conversation and she couldn’t help herself but to have a picture. After 2 failed attempts at a good picture of Frankie Avalon, he was gracious enough to notice my photo attempts and stopped to pose for the above picture.

Gala

To tell you the truth, the gala is not what I expected. But there are no complaints with the strong drinks, the company of my parents, and the view.

After a few minutes of testing drinks from the waiters that passed us by, we decided that we were going to leave.

While my parents left pretty quickly, Joanne and I decided to take a tour around the Palazzo Ballroom first. We were thankful we gave ourselves the time!

Upon exiting the ballroom, we noticed the press area with the red carpet. We headed over there for shots of the cast members and 4 Seasons. I shot so many photos here that most of them are on Flickr for your viewing.

However, allow me to highlight just a few…

I stood about 5 feet away from Frankie Valli and shot this picture. As he was preparing to make his entrance onto the red carpet, I had to get him standing around.

Who else would have this opportunity? I mean really, I couldn’t bug the man for a photograph with him. Something seemed a little strange about that. (Although I wish for the sake of Joanne, I would have asked him to take a picture with her. It would have meant a lot to her!)

But, this picture I think is quite a nice profile shot. I’m pretty proud of myself for this one!

Also making an appearance on the red carpet was Bob Gaudio. While he’s an original 4 Seasons, you might know him from writing their hit songs: “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” and “Walk Like A Man.”

Joanne, a huge fan and super shy, actually asked for a photo with him. His answer was a simple “sure.”

And now, here you have my most awesome wife with Bob Gaudio. I have my celebrity picture somewhere with Penn and Teller, here’s Joannes!

Press photos can also be seen on my Flickr account.

Sunday and Monday

Because my parent’s had to get back to California and head to work on Monday, they left on Sunday. We closed out our weekend with them by having breakfast at Sunset Station buffet.

Joanne and I picked up Zadey from my brother’s house (Zadey’s first slumber party away from home) and headed to meet my parents.

At the end of the meal, Joanne took a picture of all of us:

From left to right: Mom, Me, Steve, Dad

After our brunch at Sunset Station, Joanne and I headed home for me to attempt to get some work done with my horrible net connection. It somewhat happened. After several hours, we went back to our room where she took a picture of me that is now going to be used everywhere I need a photo!

Monday morning we checked out and headed home. Back to the real world, real work, a ton of email and phone calls to catch up on. And of course, I simply must get back to giving you some information on blogging.

But, if you were looking for the blogging message in this post, take this one: Writing reviews and informational content on local events and having them published could get you invited to VIP parties too!

Images from this post and many more may be found by visiting my Flickr account.

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