BillieBalloon said:

SquirrelMeat said:

Nice side salad. Now slap a 20oz rump on there and I'm game.

And a pancake?

I'll just pull a few of those out of the fence and save some money

BillieBalloon said:

I feel better knowing his remains are at home in Paisley Park.

"For what it's worth, you're somewhere here on Earh."

CuddlyBear said:

starkitty said:

A couple of things that stood out to me. The live stream with the representative. Touching. He was so emotional, voice cracking. I got choked up listening to him speak. I think they are really trying to abide by Prince's wishes and his explaining how if they had waited that his things would deteriorate.

But secondly the first person off the bus to tour. Shouting "yay" and "I've always wanted...". I know different people have different reactions, but I can't imagine being remotely joyful at arriving and entering. Not so soon after his passing, maybe ever. I think I would be quite somber and sad.

Just sad.

[Edited 10/6/16 13:00pm]

My tour was at 9:30am. I think we were the first group inside of Paisley Park. Here's a bit of what I observed/experienced. (Sorry ahead of time for typos etc. If only you knew how long I drove from home lol)

The Reactions From "Fans": Everyone I talked to was very friendly. There were people from ALL over & some people from outside the U.S. Some people were quiet. Others mingled, in awe of the atmosphere. I personally was quite bummed (not becuase the tour wasn't amazing/life changing) because of the fact that Prince wasn't in the building alive & breathing.

Paisley Park GA Experience: AMAZING. I would have to actually talk to you guys on the phone to explain how wonderful this experience was for me. I'm nearly crying as I type this. The amount of LOVE that Prince put into Paisley Park is overwhelming. Its like I could feel his spirit through the entire place. While in the atrium, LONG BEFORE they told us about his remains being in the mini Paisley Park building, thats were I felt his spirit the most. It was very intense. Then when they actually told us that his remains were infront of us, I wanted to start crying. I just felt a deep sadness. In that same area they have many different rooms that were all open. Except for one room/closed space (basically a mini kitchen with comfy furniture) with see through glass, that has been left untouched. The tv was on the sports channel. Apparently, this room was kept just how Prince left it before he died. I'm telling you guys, I would have to talk on the phone to tell you about it all.

Taste Experience: I didn't purchase that before hand BUT I have the menu of everything that was served. The food smelled SO good! I could smell it while we were walking around PP. When I have enough time I can post a picture of it.

Merchandise Experience: I also have a picture of the list of everything that was sold today. The set up was quite smail. The line was SUPER long and a tad bit slow (not blaming them b/c of the last minute decision to reopen PP) The setup of the merchandise was neat. They had shirts, keychains necklaces, mugs & much more. I bought two shirts, a keychain and necklace. The tour guides told us that everything for sale in there had been approved by Prince & that this wasn't something they made up themselves (as far as the designs on tshirts & mugs etc)

Parking: We parked in a garage LITERALLY minutes from PP. Everything went smoothly. There were plenty of spaces. The buses were on time. The drivers were great/nice.

OVERALL I have nothing negative to say about this experience. The guides even told us at the end of the tour to feel free to voice our opinions about how they could make the tour even more enjoyable. It's such a shame that some people have it made up in their minds that everything about this is TERRIBLE & REPULSIVE when they have't been & don't plan to go. If you don't want to go then fine but don't make us feel bad. I know I LOVE and RESPECT Prince just as much as everyone else he's made an impact on.

It took me a little while to opened my laptop and type this. My emotions are up and down.. If you have anymore questions, i'd be glad to answer them.

[Edited 10/6/16 13:54pm]

So while I have been on the .org for many years, I post very rarely. However as I went to Paisley Park this morning and went on both the GA and VIP tours it would be a good time to post my experience as well as the differences between the 2 tours incase some of you were wondering.

This is a very long entry and if you want to be surprised about the Tour, don’t read any further, there are “spoilers” below.

The experience started with taking the bus from Chanhassen parking garage to the park. As I was on the first bus, we were greeted by the media (2 video crews and several additional photographers and reporters). Upon entering the building we were all personally greeted by the mayor of Chanhassen welcoming us to his town. Given all the issues earlier this week it was a nice touch.

VIP’s were asked to go to the left and GA’s to gather in the right side of the entry way. VIP’s were offered the chance to purchase a thumb drive ($10.50) to be used later for a photo opportunity and given an purple arm band.

It was made very clear to all that camera’s, recording devices and phones were not to be used at all. If caught, we were told we would be banned from Paisley Park. This was said in a very nice way (….prince had strong feelings and we have the same so please respect…..)

My first tour was the GA tour, so I will explain next what was covered and after I will tell how the VIP tour differed.

Both groups started the tour together in the entry way. The person giving the intro tour was one of the recent hires and was following cue cards.

She then undid the velvet rope and we all walked into the atrium passing several gold and platinum awards as well as a very cool Musicology award with a ticket from each of the shows and a letter of condolences from President Obama.

Once in the atrium we had a new guide whom talked about the atrium, princes birds, which we could see their cages upstairs and when quiet hear them coo. There were several rooms off the atrium which had small exhibits (some you could walk into the room others had plexiglass and you could look in.

We were able to look into the “little kitchen” which is where we were told prince relaxed, watched basketball and ate.

In the center of the atrium incased in plexiglass was a miniature model of Paisley Park. Inside the model was a purple box, and we were told his remains were inside this box. GULP…that was not something I think anyone was prepared for.

The mini exhibits off the atrium were:

Dirty Mind – I believe Prince’s original Hohner guitar was on display

Sign o the times – you could walk into the room and some of the instruments were on display + a tv was showing concert footage

Diamond and Pearls – you could walk into this room as well and had princes yellow costume from the era and other things on display

Princes office – we could walk into this room as well

There was a 4^th exhibit (Lovesexy) however it said it would be ready in 2017.

We were then moved into Studio A where we heard 2 of his newest songs Ruff Enuff, which is circulating and another song called “Soul Patch” which was from a Jazz album he was working on when he passed. In one of the rooms off the main studio was a display of some instruments and on a music stand were 2 songs (one was typed and I could not see the title, the other was handwritten and I believe the song was called “cool down baby cool down”

We then moved into the “inspiration hallway” where they showed us a mural and then into the “purple rain” room. I believe this was at one point a studio and the place Prince played basketball.

It has memorabilia from purple rain (original script, motorcycle, white cloud guitar and his purple coat from the movie)

We moved from this room to the Parade / Graffiti Bridge room. This room had videos of both movies playing as well as the parade drum kit, and some costumes and instruments from graffiti bridge.

From here we walked down the “history hallway” which had images of prince since 1979 and most of his Grammys’ a soul train award and several others.

From here we went into a small room (just outside the main sound stage) which had a ultra rare, futuristic looking grand piano (1 of 14 in the world) and then into the main sound stage.

Inside where several mini-stages which instruments from several era’s (jam of the year, piano and a microphone….)

After walking around for a few minutes they played about 10 minutes of concert video.

From here we walked into the NPG music room (a smaller sound stage) where there had more instrument set ups on stages.

From there we moved into a small entry way type room where they played Prince’s Super bowl performance (while a guide talked about the show) and off to the side was a small installation with items which people placed on the chain link fence outside of paisley.

From there the tour finished and we were brought into a tent which had merchandise (several T-shirts from Piano and a microphone as well as for Baltimore, Third Eye girl, Purple rain, as well as mugs, a program and even ping pong balls). T-shirts (smaller then XXL) were $23.

If you had not purchased the special tasting before hand you could purchase it there.

I had it and it was quite good. Items included:

Wild Rice with Pumpkin Sauce

Coconut Curry with Black Rice and Chickpeas

Grilled Broccoli

Bibb Lettiuce Cups

Kale Chips

I then exited the tent and walked around back to the entrance for my VIP tour.

While it was the first day and clearly there were bumps (people with Friday tickets got in on Thursday, people lost their tours) all was pretty orderly. Tours were seemingly all on time which was very impressive.

As I waited in line for my second tour of the morning, the experience was a bit different. No media anymore a little more organized, and the mayor had left.

While we were waiting to begin, someone from Paisley Park addressed the group. He asked how many people were local (which was about 20%) and asked them to please reach out to their representatives to let them know that Prince’s “Fans” (yes, he said fan’s and not Fam’s) were the type of people that Chanhassen would want in their community and to lend their support for continued tours of the park.

The VIP started the same as a large group (about 30 people) and we all went into the atrium and viewed the mini exhibits together. When the group was ready to go to Studio A the VIP’s (maybe 10 or less of us) went to a special Video Editing room where we watched some Musicology concert footage (which included Patti Labelle and members of the band and Prince).

From here we went to Studio A and got a much more intimate tour (same guided content just less people) the Purple Rain room, Parade/Graffiti Bridge and History Hallway.

At this point we got another “extra room” which was Studio B (this studio was off the history hallway). Inside the room was a ping pong table, and an area with 2 of princes piano’s (a black one and a purple one). On the purple one was also a dark blue (or maybe purple) guitar. You could sit at the purple piano and play it (each key had a sample and when you played it you could hear it) as well as a song book with lyrics on top and the piano also had lyrics painted on top (I believe this piano was from the Piano and a microphone tour).

It was here that you could get your photo op while playing the piano or next to the guitar.

The line for the photo op was about 30 minutes (maybe more) as clearly they were having some first day logistical issues, but people played ping pong to pass the time and were generally good mannered. On one side of the studio the wall had huge black and white images of each of the members of 3^rd eye girl and Prince.

In the studio they played 3 tracks from Piano and a microphone tour (Black Sweat, dirty mind and joy in repetition). Off the main studio was a small room (I think it was called the galaxy lounge) with the walls painted with stars and planets on it, which had a black light on.

From here we went out to the entry room of the main sound stage (The one with the futuristic piano) then onto the main sound stage, NPG music room, etc. and completed the tour. The VIP tour included the special tasting as well.

While we were in the hallways and atrium there was music piped in. It was a mixture of “Hits” as well as some more rare tracks like “Moviestar”.

The guides did there best to answer all types of questions but it was clear that they were all brought in for the tour and were not folks from the park so they basically stayed to their scripts. None the less they did a great job with the amount of training they were given.

I am sure some of my details might be a little off as it was a lot to take in.

Both tours went faster then I realized and I am glad I went on the tour twice in a row as I picked up on things missed the first time around.

I was also surprised at the variety of people on the tours, there were clearly many die-hards, but also some people who clearly more casual (in Princes office were photo’s of children and someone asked if they were princes grandkids).

We were told that today the park was going to see over 2,000 guests and that we should come back as they would be updating and changing some of the exhibits from time to time. We were told Prince had over 20,000 pairs of shoes and costumes (which will be rotated in and out) and they made a point to tell us that many of the mini-exhibits were already in place before he passed or they had just completed work which he had laid out his vision for.

While I think I saw Kirky J. walking around, no one “famous” was around nor any of the family members. It was clear the security guys walking around were from Prince’s entourage as one of them told us how prince used to beat him at ping pong all the time.

Hopefully all of you will get a chance to see the Park!

Now looking forward to next week’s tribute show!!!!

rogifan said:

Here's a review from the Current. Not quite so glowing. Though I suspect things will improve over time. In a way it's good there's only limited tours right now. Apparently visitors were asked for feedback so hopefully this will be a learning experience that they can improve upon for when this is fully approved. http://blog.thecurrent.or...itors-see/

This statement I wholeheartedly agree with:

"Whether you love or hate what’s been done with Paisley, there’s no escaping the fact that it’s a place like no other. The most important thing that remains to be done is to return performances and recording sessions to the building, so it can again be alive with music. Guides and galleries aside, making Paisley Park a place for new music again will truly be the most important tribute to Prince’s incomparable legacy."