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TeamCeline Grand Prize of the Year A dream vacation for two to Las Vegas to attend A New Day… and meet Céline!!! The 2005 Grand Prize winner, Sarah from Michigan, U.S.A. and her sister embarked on a dream vacation to Las Vegas in April 2006. You can read Sarah's account and view photos from their incredible trip below! It all started at the end of December, 2005. I had received a message from TeamCeline saying that I had won a contest. I knew that I had entered the monthly contest, but also a contest for the ‘On Ne Change Pas’ DVD. Finally, the on the 2nd of January, I learned that I was the Grand Prize winner for 2005. I really could not believe it! All my dreams would be coming true! Not only was I going to get the chance to meet my idol and have VIP seats, but I was going to have my trip to Vegas paid for!!!! I was in so much shock! I soon learned that I would be in Vegas April 27-April 30. I was very excited as well as my sister, Mary (she was the person who I chose to come along with me). I was looking forward to the trip for a long time, and even had a countdown going on. I did begin to be a little nervous though because Celine was sick and had canceled six shows. I wasn’t going to let this get me down, I was going to keep the faith that Celine would be back on her feet and everything would go as planned! My sister and I left for Vegas late Thursday night, and arrived in Vegas a little after 10 PM. We took a shuttle to Caesar’s Palace, got checked in and headed to our room that was in the Forum Tower. On our way to the room I spotted the jackpot! The Colosseum, the box office and Celine’s store! It was so amazing! However, we were both pretty tired and headed to our room. We did have a pretty nice room at Caesar’s. The best thing was when I opened the curtains and looked out…low and behold there was the Colosseum. I had the perfect view for any Celine fan, and I don’t think that was an accident. We slept in on Friday. We were going to take it easy and rest up for my big night. We explored the Strip for a little bit. We saw the Venetian and the Mirage hotel. We were able to see the white tiger at the Mirage which was pretty cool. After that, we headed back to the Caesars, and I decided that I wanted to go check out the Celine Boutique. I easily spent my $100 gift certificate and then some! But, I was able to get a lot of neat things! I purchased the AND poster, the CD blanket, the AND program, a shirt, a mug, a key chain, the Celine frog, a magnet, and a necklace. I loved being in that store! It was amazing! After we left the Boutique, we decided to check out the pools for a little bit. It was really warm, but nice to lie out in the sun and dip our feet in the pool. We went back to the room and watched some TV and then started to get ready for the big night. We had plans to meet a friend of mine at 5:00 for dinner, so we headed down to the Celine boutique. We ate at Wolfgang Puck’s Chinese Fusion restaurant, and I got sesame chicken, which was really yummy! I was getting more nervous as time went on because I kept thinking about meeting Celine in only a matter of hours. At about 8:00 or so, we headed backstage, and I was relatively calm. I had brought with me a stuffed frog for Celine as well as a book of well wishes from fans around the world. Unfortunately, Celine had a busy night with meet and greets, and she wasn’t going to be signing any autographs, but I was able to leave my copy of For Keeps behind to have autographed. My sister and I sat in the “green” room waiting with the other groups. Then, Celine came out. I saw her and my first reaction was that this isn’t real! To me she looked like a wax statue, yet she was moving and talking! I was the second person to get my pictures taken, and as soon as I headed over to Celine, I started balling my eyes out! I couldn’t help it! It was such an emotional moment for me. Celine was so amazingly sweet though. She said, “Don’t cry sweetie, it’s okay”. I gave her the frog that I had brought along, and she really liked it, so much so that we took pictures with the frog! She had asked me if I was going to be at the show tonight, and I told her “yes, and tomorrow nights too!” When I gave her the book of well wishes, she asked if I was supposed to be at any of the shows that were canceled and I said no. All too soon, my time was over with Celine was over, but it will be something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. After the meet and greets were over, we headed up to the lobby to get seated for our show. I had front row seats, center stage. I sat in seat 405 for good luck! I was in for a surprise the entire night because it was my first time seeing the show. I loved the opening number of A New Day Has Come. Celine had such a crisp and clear voice; I would have never known that she was sick just the week before! I loved every song, and Celine gave her best the whole time. I had my eye on the rose, and I knew that it was given out at the end of the show. I was into every song, singing along, trying to get Celine to notice me. However, it seemed that she was always looking out at the audience, not really down at the people in the first few rows. The time came for the show to be done, and Celine had the rose and was bowing on stage. After that she headed down the stage straight for me! I couldn’t believe it. I was able to hug her again, twice in one night! She gave me the rose, and we hugged for a while, and then I even gave her a kiss on the cheek, it was so amazing, more than I could have asked for! Saturday my sister and I went out for breakfast at a buffet at the Mirage. It was pretty good food. We headed to the Bellagio to see the fountains, which were very cool! We took it easy that day and got ready for another night of Celine! I was able to meet some other fans from TeamCeline that night, which was pretty fun! I had 6th row seats, which were definitely not as good as front row, but they were still excellent seats! Celine was just as good this night as the night before, and I enjoyed the whole show, and of course it ended all too soon. We headed to bed on time on Saturday because we had plans to go to the Grand Canyon on Sunday, and had to be up early to check out of the hotel and catch our bus. We were able to see the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon, which was really a great experience. I loved being able to see a natural wonder of the world! We got back late from the tour (we were told we’d be back to the hotel by 8:45pm) about 10:00pm, and we had a 10:50 flight. We tried our best to get to the airport, but missed our plane by three minutes! So, we didn’t get home until seven hours later than we were supposed to, but that’s okay! Vegas was totally amazing, and I just loved being able to meet my idol. It definitely was the experience of my life that I will NEVER forget, thanks to TeamCeline! |
