Well, after much stress in booking this trip, waiting for the dates to be released, etc. I can tell you all it was so unbelieveably worth it! I touched Prince two days in a row!!! Back home now in NJ, I feel like it was all a dream. I'll begin at the beginning I guess, this will be lengthy but it was a long night ...We got into Vegas on Wed. You know Prince is in town as soon as you hit the airport- saw a huge billboard minutes off the plane. Headed over to the Rio around 9ish expecting to get in but found a line of people and were told it was sold out. I was surprised as I hadn't heard that the wed. shows were selling out and since it was supposed to be "ladies free" I didn't bother to look into getting tickets ahead. So, if you're planning on going to 3121 on wed., get your tickets early. Eventually headed back to the Monte Carlo (where we were staying) to catch Purple Reign, the tribute show (will post info on that separately).
Friday, the 19th, we had dinner reservations at 3121 for 8pm. Unfortunately, I had way too much to drink the night before and was fighting a bad hangover all day. That, combined with all the stress of getting this Vegas trip planned and, of course, pre-Prince excitement took a serious toll on me. Just walking into the restaurant I was a nervous wreck. As we reached the hostess, she turned her attention to the 2 women right next to us, saying, "Mavis?" and on to that someone (female name) was expecting her and where she would like to sit- music room? In my completely flustered state I did not even realize it was Mavis Staples until the actual show where I saw her again in the VIP area dancing up a storm. (ugh...i could really kick myself for that one).
The restaurant is gorgeous, perfect soft lighting, and kept very warm. All the staff were great and we were given the chocolate 3121 CD's as "a gift from Prince". I asked to sit in the music room, and once I saw the size of it, and what that meant for the aftershow, it was all over for me. My stomach was in knots! I tend to have a nervous stomach and that damn hangover wasn't helping one bit! I barely ate a thing and felt like an idiot but got the feeling the servers have seen people like me before! My friend thoroughly enjoyed her meal and was stuffed by the end. At one point, our waiter asked if there was anything else he could do "for our experience" to which my friend said, "Can you get Prince in here?" He replied, "Didn't you see him, he just walked through about 15 minutes ago. Some girls out front were whoo-hooing...". We seriously thought he was joking, but I did recall hearing some small commotion
from the outer room. Then our other server came up and he asked her, "didn't Prince just walk through here?" and of course she replied yes. He went on to say Prince walks through at least once every Fri. and Sat. So, basically he walked right by us- (he enters and leaves through the kitchen door in the back of the music room)- and we didn't even notice. (stealthy little man!!!!) So, by now, I'm really tensed up! I couldn't get out of there fast enough to have a cig and try to calm my poor stomach down. We head towards the club around 9:45 but I couldn't stand on line right away- which was also longer than I expected for VIP. We sat by some slot machines for awhile while I tried to pull it together. Finally on line, it seemed somewhat chaotic for a bit. Staff was coming and taking your ID to go get your VIP tickets which took what seemed like forever! As someone else said, it's a bit nervewracking to hand
over your ID these days- if it got lost you'd be stuck in Vegas- no plane ride for you!! Anyway, we were finally taken inside. (Now, I've seen posts that say VIP tables are first come first serve, but our tickets had seat numbers written on them, and our host had a seating chart he checked before seating us- so obviously our seats were already chosen).
There is no bad VIP table and I recommend it to all. We luckily were at the end of a table and immediately next to the stairs which was great. Made for easy trips out to smoke or go to the restroom. The VIP area is roped off and no one is getting in your seat. The club was bigger than I expected, but still the smallest place I've ever seen Prince (this was my 11th show I believe). So, then we wait. Can't say I was very impressed with DJ Rashida but once the Prince videos started I felt better. Then at 12:30, he took the stage and I was cured!!! I began writing the set list down on my ticket envelope and after the third song, it now reads, "Touched Prince!". He came into the VIP area, straight through the crowd and then climbed up on the cabinet directly
behind us. Of course, I went into deer in the headlights mode- I've never been that close to him before and his pant leg was about 2 inches from my face. My friend realized my shock and began screaming at me, "touch him, touch him!!!! When I didn't do it, she then grabbed my hand and forced me to! So, I touched his pant leg and then when he got down I touched his hand. Oh my God! I was shaking like a leaf. He proceeded around the VIP area and was up on another cabinet in the crowd on the opposite side. This was all followed by Purple Rain once he was back on the main stage. Lolita was after that and since I was still shaking I figured it was a good time to go have a cigarette. As I walk outside lighting up, I see Slash from GNR casually leaning up against the box office also smoking. There was one girl chatting with him but no crowd or anything. Of course, I had left my only pen and paper on the table for the set list, and my friend had the camera phone also inside. Oh well. Have to mention he looked much better in person than I would have expected. He was brought in by Rio staff and seated in VIP 2-3 tables away from Mavis, which was only a stairwell and about 4 tables from us. The back center of VIP seems to be the celebrity seating area, larger booths, a bit more room.
The show was fantastic!! One of the highlights for me was to hear If I Was Your Girlfriend. Shelby is a welcome addition as that girl can sing! My friend really enjoyed her. Ended about 2:30, we headed over to the restaurant but quite a long line was already formed. We got on for a bit, but after a couple of head counts I knew we wouldn't make it in the room so I faded the aftershow till Sat (or so I thought ). We went off and played roulette for awhile and around 4am walked back over to find no line at all and were able to walk right in and sit in the outer room. There were only a handful of people out there- which seemed very surprising. I was able to sit right along the path and watch straight through the door- direct view most of the time (except for awhile there was a tall woman blocking my view- yelling
"bravo" continuously). When I first saw him he was playing guitar with his back to the room. For awhile I stood right up at the door next to one the bodyguards, Prince was looking right at him (therefore in my direction by default!) nodding/gesturing. He seemed to sit quite a bit that night- up for a solo, then sitting again. I would guess he played about a total of 20 mins or so but I'm not sure exactly what time they began. The room is kept so dark, it would have been hard to keep an eye on him except his suit had silver sequins (or something similar) around the collar. Actually, on our way in, we heard one of his guys requesting for the lights to be lowered- to which the hostess was like "Really?? Lower??" lol! It makes sense though as the room is so small he would probably feel really uncomfortable otherwise. The guards are
there but you'd never know it. They just casually hang out near the doors. $20 per person min. for the table- but that was easy with the $7.50 bottles of water! My water cost more than my friend's Corona! It was so worth it though as even from the outer room I couldn't have been more than 25 feet or so away from him when he was up. They ended about 5:15, with a quick announcement that "Prince has left the building" bringing a round of laughs, then "That's a wrap, see you tomorrow".I was ready to be in that room waiting!! Part 2- coming up in next post.
Must recommend to anyone who doesn't make it into the music room to go ahead with the outer room. You don't have to pay the $50 or wait on line, and yet you can still see, hear and be closer to Prince than you might imagine!

very nice

What an incredible experience. Thanks for posting and I didn't know that about the not having to pay in the outer rooms of the restaurant. I'll be anxiously waiting for part II

cool,cant wait 4 pt.2