Review: Celine

We drove to Caesars Palace even before checking in to our hotel. That was probably a mistake, because we were still dressed like mountain men. I still had on everything I wore to the Grand Canyon, including two pairs of long thermal underwear. And plastic bags over my socks that were visible whenever my pants rode up a bit. But we rocked up to the poshest casino in Vegas like that anyway, because that's how excited Paul was about Celine. (I have to admit I encouraged it a bit).

Paul's pulse got faster the closer we got. When we turned off Flamingo Boulevard onto The Strip and it was right in front of us I thought he was going to pass out... there was a huge billboard and screen with Celine on it. Though I had protested before, we decided that we just had to go to Caesars now and not wait until tomorrow. Paul took photos of every Celine sign in the casino as we walked towards the Colosseum.

Our first glimpse of Celine outside Caesars Palace.

---the rest of the story after the jump---

Paul illustrates his excitement about seeing Celine tomorrow.

Paul felt sick the next morning. He thinks it was his sinuses, but it looked like nerves to me. He decided to stay in the hotel room the entire day, just to make sure he felt his best at the concert. I slept in and then went shopping. While I was out I couldn't resist buying him an early birthday present - a Celine Dion watch he had been drooling over the night before. (It's more tasteful than it sounds!)

The watch.

We drove to Celine nice and early to make sure we didn't miss anything, but Murphys Law kicked in quickly. We had only brought one nice belt, and I let Paul wear it because I had a blazer on anyway. But I didn't like how it made my pants sit, so I decided to nip out to Target to buy one - it was only one km away after all.

It seems that I seriously underestimated Las Vegas traffic. 25 minutes before Celine was meant to start, I was standing in the slowest checkout queue I've ever been in. I threw a little tantrum, chucked the belt on the ground and stormed back to the car, mumbling under my breath like a madman.

Gridlock. By the time I made it to The Colosseum, I had less than a minute to spare and Paul's hair was white.

The show was AMAZING. She's incredible live. Highlights (besides the required repertoire of her own hits) included a Michael Jackson Medley (in the clip above), Goldfinger from James Bond, and my personal favourite, Ne Me Quitte Pas, an incredible emotional French song. She actually cried at the end. That was the most moving thing I think: she had only opened the show a week before, so we saw it about as raw as you can. Instead of the polished show you see after six months on tour, we got full feeling and guts.

We were sitting right against the stage on the left hand side. We could see the beads of sweat on her face. Paul cried hysterical tears about four times. When she left, she touched everyone's hands along our side. Except ours. Bummer!

Paul snapped a photo of Celine's husband leaving the auditorium.

Posers.

At the gift shop, Paul predictably went over budget. The best thing that happened there was that we met four awesome Celine fans. They're the most die-hard of a group of 14 fans from all over the world, who met on her fansite and come together to see all her shows. Last year they sent a letter to Oprah and were given tickets to the Oprah Show where Celine announced she was coming back to Vegas! They all returned for opening night, and the four we met had seen the show four times in a week.

At the Gift Shop. Paul literally dreamed of this moment.

We went out to dinner with the girls after the show and had a great time - they showed us their favourite place to eat. We thought we were used to huge American portions, but huge American portions in Las Vegas are a whole other ball game! Neither of us could finish. The girls all shared plates. Clever.

At dinner with the four awesome uber-fans.

We just had to take the photo op!

She was so amazing that we decided to come back the following night and buy stand-by tickets. We waited in line for nearly three hours, and it paid off. We were able to buy great last minute tickets for a princely-but-probably-reasonable-sum, and repeated the whole evening!

AA