Tag Archives: The Package Tour

NKOTB Package Tour Preview

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May might be coming to an end, but that means that summer (aka concert season) is just beginning! This Summer I am seeing NKOTB (5 times), Toad the Wet Sprocket, Ryan Bingham and Bob Dylan, Justin Timberlake and Jay Z, and Joan Jett and others at the Shindig Festival. It all starts Tuesday May 28th at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut where I will be until Saturday June 1st attending the first three shows of The Package Tour featuring New Kids on the Block with Boyz to Men and 98 Degrees.

heading-wide1

On Tuesday May 28th, Mom and I are driving six hours up 95 to Uncasville, CT. For two nights, we are staying at Mohegan Sun Casino where the NKOTB shows are. We should arrive on Tuesday just in time to check in and eat dinner before I go to the show. Mom will play the slots while I am screaming for Jordan. For this first show of the tour, I have seats in the stands (Section 15 Row J) but close to the stage. I will be live tweeting the set list during the first show on May 28th, as well as pics and videos. After a night of stalking the boys in the casino, or hopefully there will be an opening night after party like there was in Vegas on opening night of the casino tour, I will spend Wednesday restfully playing the slots with Mom. For the second show of the tour, I am in on the floor next to the stage in section Section 6 Row G. I won’t be live tweeting during this show, but I will post pics, vids and set list after it. I need pay attention since I will only be seven rows away from Jordan! The next morning Mom and I will check out of Mohegan Sun Casino, drive about 8 miles over to Foxwoods Casino to spend the next two nights. We want to get the whole Connecticut Casino experience, plus Friday night at Mohegan Sun would have cost $500! With no NKOTB show on Thursday, we will have the entire day and night to play the slots and relax. Friday May 31st I will drive back over to Mohegan Sun in the afternoon for my very first, and probably only, 5-Star VIP Package. (I still need to join a group of 10, so if you need a Jordan girl please let me know.) I had never planned on buying the expensive VIP ticket, but this was originally the first show of the tour (and then they added the two prior) and I couldn’t get a floor ticket. This 5-Star VIP package includes: One premium reserved floor ticket in first 7 rows in Sect. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7, Meet & Greet photo op with NKOTB, Exclusive NKOTB gift bag, Pre-show refreshments, NKOTB VIP commemorative laminate, Early entrance into venue, Crowd-free merchandise shopping, and Onsite VIP hosts. Needless to say, this should be an amazing night! Hopefully I can get at least a few minutes of sleep after the Meet and Greet and concert because I have to drive six hours home the next day.

NKOTB Memphis 7.2.09

NKOTB
Memphis 7.2.09

Exactly two weeks later I will attend my fourth NKOTB Package Tour show at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC on June 14th. For this show I have a floor seat next to the stage in Section 8 Row F. This is my ‘hometown’ show, so just a short drive and metro ride away. Then just over a month later I am seeing my fifth and final NKOTB show of the summer at the MixTape Festival in Hershey, PA. I am only going to one day of this two-day festival. I bought VIP for this as well. It is not a ‘Meet and Greet’ opportunity, but I do get a Reserved Single Day Ticket to festival in section A, B, or C (rows 4-13), Access to Exclusive VIP-Only Mixtape Afterparty Saturday hosted by NKOTB with a DJ set by Benji Madden, Access to the Exclusive Backstage VIP-Only VH1 Performance Stage, Lower Level Ticket to Rock n Jock Mixtape Festival Dodgeball match at GIANT CENTER, Ticket to Hersheypark, One Parking Pass, One Mixtape Festival tote bag, One Mixtape Festival water bottle, One Mixtape Festival t-shirt, Access to shaded and air conditioned VIP Lounge with snacks and cash bar, VIP-Only flush toilets and air-conditioned restrooms, Private VIP festival entrance, and On Site Event Host. The price is totally worth it even without a Meet and Greet, considering just the ticket would cost half of what I paid for this VIP. I can’t imagine how this year’s MixTape Festival is going to top last year’s, but I am sure it will be a blast!

Please remember keep reading this blog and follow me on Twitter @DeenasDays and on Facebook as I live tweet throughout the NKOTB Package Tour – as well as the other concerts I am going to this summer.

3 months of NKOTB & Casinos

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I saw the first two shows of the NKOTB casiNO tour in Las Vegas in 2010. It is three years later and NKOTB is touring again, but this time it is not called the casino tour – although for me it should be. I am going to five NKOTB shows in three months and four of them are in casinos, because I love the slots! This summer the NKOTB tour is called the Package Tour and also features Boyz II Men and 98 Degrees. This is the story of my planning and ticket buying odyssey for the NKOTB Package tour.

NKOTBThe Package Tour

NKOTB
The Package Tour

When the dates for the NKOTB Package Tour were first announced, I noticed they were opening the tour at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut on May 31st. This was perfect because I wanted to go to the first show of the tour and bonus that it was on a Friday night at a casino that was a driveable six hours away. I also saw that NKOTB was playing in DC on Friday June 15 and in Philly Saturday June 16. Again perfect because I am only a half hour from DC and less than two hours from Philly, plus it was a weekend. Unfortunately, tickets for all these shows went on sale at the same exact time. So I prioritized by proximity and got my DC ticket first, then Philly, then Mohegan Sun. But by the time I was able to purchase my Mohegan Sun ticket, they were sold out of floor seats. So what’s a girl to do? Buy a VIP ticket of course. I bought the cheapest VIP ticket I could that would get me a seat on the floor and a meet and greet with NKOTB, among other goodies. I booked a room for two nights at Foxwoods Casino fifteen minutes away from Mohegan Sun Casino because it was half the price. This worked out perfectly. I was seeing three shows, including the tour opener, while only really traveling to one.

NKOTBMemphis 2009

NKOTB
Memphis 2009

Be aware of perfection. About a week later NKOTB added more shows to their tour including a second show at Mohegan Sun casino. This would not have been a problem except it was added two days before the original one. Now I had a ticket (a VIP ticket) to the second show of the tour, not the first. I had no other choice but to buy a ticket to this added show, so I could be at the first show of the Package Tour on May 29th at Mohegan Sun Casino. I bought my floor seat and added another night to my hotel reservation at Foxwoods. Since I had added another show, I decided I did not need to go to the Philly show and sold my ticket to my friend who couldn’t get one. This second show at Mohegan Sun actually worked out better because now I could spend more time at the casinos in Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.

NKOTBVegas 2010

NKOTB
Vegas 2010

Be careful what you wish for. A couple weeks later NKOTB added many more shows to their tour including a third show at Mohegan Sun and a show in Atlantic City. Again, they added a show before the other two I already had tickets to. I couldn’t very well go all the way up to Connecticut to attend the second and third shows of the tour and not go to the first. So I bought a ticket to the first show of the NKOTB Package Tour on May 28th at Mohegan Sun and added yet another night to my hotel reservation. Then I decided to buy a ticket to the Atlantic City show because I have never been to the East Coast Vegas. Also, concerts on July 26th have been very lucky for me, like when Larry hugged me on his way to the stage in Pittsburgh at the last U2 360 show in the US.

 

For those of you keeping score at home, I am going to five NKOTB shows in three months. In May, I am going to the first three shows of the Package Tour on May 28th, 29th and 31st at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut – staying four nights at Foxwoods Casino. In June, I am going to the DC show at the Verizon Center on June 14th – just a drive and metro ride from my house. In July, I am going to the Atlantic City show at the Taj Mahal on July 26th – staying two nights at the Showboat casino next door. So it isn’t Vegas, but it is a lot of NKOTB and a lot of casinos.

NKOTB 10

NKOTB 10

By the way if you’re asking yourself why I need to see more than one show of the same group on the same tour, you obviously don’t know me very well and have not read my On the Road with U2 blog.