Bunchkin
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2001
- Messages
- 4,667
Hello Everyone!!! Beware this is a loooonnngggg post, but I didn't want to leave out any details for all of my Bon Jovi addict DIS friends!!
I never wrote a trip report for our last WDW vacation but here I am writing one about our road trip to see Bon Jovi.
Here's the details...........
The concert: Saturday 3/29 @ 7:30 in Madison Wisconsin
at the Kohl Center
Road Trippers:
Me: Nicole DH: Tony DD: Lauren
DS: Hunter And my sister: Nancy
Only myself, DD and my sister went to the concert.
We start out Saturday morning finishing last minute laundry, packing, and stuffing the minivan with luggage and all the tons of baby stuff one needs to bring along on a trip. We need to make a stop at the grocery store down the road before hitting the road. All goes well at the store, in and out in record time. But I realize that I have only one check left in my check book and now need to run back home for more checks. Don't want to be out of town with only one check left, just in case. So back home we go, luckily it's a short ride.
Finally we hit the ROAD!!!!
We have a 3 hour ride ahead of us. Not that bad of a ride. But latley the baby doesn't enjoy long car rides. He does ok with plenty of entertainment from everyone in the minivan and takes a nice nap as well.
And then a turn for the worse........ Lauren, who's 5yr old, says she thinks she has to go to the bathroom. No problem we say, we'll pull over at the next exit. Wellllll......the next thing you know she say's she has to throw up.
Luckily we had a garbage bag in the van and my sister was sitting next to her. We weren't sure if she was car sick or if it was the Krispy Kreme she had for breakfast. We stop shortly at a grocery store to go to the bathroom AND buy more garbage bags!!! And by cooinsidence at the first stop at the grocery store earlier in the morning I had bought Dramamine. So we gave her half of a Dramamine just in case it wasn't the doughnut. Shortly after hitting the road again she falls asleep and naps for a while. She never gets sick again the whole trip, so who knows what it was.
We arrive at our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Lake Menoma, which is attached via a walk way to the Lake Menoma Convention Center. We got there just in time for checking in, because just minutes later a Mary Kay convention let out and there were at TON of Mary Kay people everywhere. All over the lobby, the lounge, the sitting areas.....EVERYWHERE!!!! There was a sea of women in matching outfits!!!!
I checked in and got our room keys. Then we go park the van in thier parking garage. Unload the van and head to the elevators. We stayed in room 1216 on the 12th floor. It was a Club Room, which allowed us access to the 14th floor. On the 14th floor was several large suites and a meeting room along with a Executive Club area where there was a bar, several sitting areas and tables with chairs, along with 2 large screen tvs. They served hors d'ouveres and cocktails at night and breakfast in the morning. Cool!!!!.....free food!!!!!
For those who may or may not know there was no 13th floor. Hotels do not have a 13th floor, never.
To get to our room via the elevator you had to slide your room key into a slot next to the elevator floor buttons. I've never had to do this before nor have I ever seen this in a hotle before. Our first ride up to our room was with a bunch of Mary Kay people. They all ooooo'd and ahhhhh'd Hunter. We were trying to figure out why we were the only one's who couldn't get our room number button to light up in the elevator. We then saw the room key slot, slid it in and the pushed the button. All the Mary Key ladies said, "Ohhh you must be important, you have to put your room key into the slot to get to your room.". We all laughed, and then my DD says "No. We're just here to see Bon Jovi.". LOL!!! Kids say the funniest things!!
We get to our room. It's right near the elevator. Our room was a very nice size room. Two queen beds, a large desk with chair. Two comfy chairs with ottoman and table between. The beds were the nicest we have ever experienced at a hotel. The bathroom was large! And equipped with Neutrogena toiletries! Fluffy towels too!!! And a large closet, not just a metla bar to hang things from. And there was an armoire with a huge tv inside.
Very nice room!!!! This is were I learned the TRUE meaning of "You get what you pay for" phrase. I got a great Entertainment rate on the room.
Let me not forget the view from our room!!!! Holy cow!!!
We had the best view of Lake Menoma AND the state capital building. It was just gorgeous!! The room was at the front of the hotel. So you could also look down at all the people pulling in to check in.
After some investigating of the hotel lobby and a walk over to the convention center to look around, we decided to save time by eating at the hotel for dinner. We eat at Nine West which is a French restaurant. (Please no comments about the French!) We had a great meal!!! It took longer than we expected to eat and we still needed to get ready for the CONCERT!!
Least us not forget what this trip report is all about. So we hurry to eat and head back to the room to get ready. We are out of the hotel within a half an hour. And luckily it's only 1.5 miles away to the Kohl Center. (Which is part of the reason I picked this hotel, the location.)
We find our way easily but have to park in a self-park lot 4 blocks away. It only cost us $3 to park, not bad. And the walk wasn't that bad. And we were soooo excited to be seeing Bon Jovi that we walked the 4 blocks in record time. With Lauren having a piggy back ride from my sister.
The crowds were forming in lines outside the Kohl Center because the doors weren't opening until 7:30pm. We picked a short line and got in quickly, passing a rather light security check. There were other lines that were much longer and I couldn't understand why people kept lining up in the longest lines.
We stop and purchase a tee shrit for Lauren. A cute baby pink shirt that says 'Bon Jovi Bounce Tour 2003'. This was her first big concert and she was so happy to get a shirt!! I was not happy at the $40 price!! We also get a tour program for $15. GREAT pictures inside!!!
The concert started with Goo Goo Dolls as the opening act. They were good. I'm not a huge fan, but enjoyed thier show. There were still a lot of people not yet seated at. But during the intermission they filed in.
We had good seats in the second mezzanine facing center stage in the 4th row. And we brought along red, white & blue glow sticks to hold up during Bon Jovi's song ' The Distance' which is dedicated to all the troops.
The lights finally dim and the crowd goes wild. Bon Jovi take the stage and everyone gets to thier feet. Jon looks great all in black leather!! WooHoo!!!
They perform all the great new songs and the 'old' one's too. The last time I saw them in concert was in '89. And thier looks have only improved with age.
The stage is set up with huge sattelite dishes that project close ups of the band and other images and graphics. This is so cool to be able to see them magnafied!!! The light show was great too. It was by far the best concert I ahve ever been to! Several of the 'old' songs they let the audiance sing the first few lines of and then they would start singing from the beginning of the song again. They did this durng Wanted Dead or Alive. It was the best!!!
Richie sang 'I'll Be There For You' be himself on lead vocals. This was great. Jon actually left the stage during this. And made a wardrobe change during this time. Jon's energy was electric. And he was feeding off of the audiances energy as well. Did I mention the woman who threw her bra at him during the first song 'Bounce'?? He stopped singing!!! Though the band continued playing. He looked at it and went back to singing on cue "Me I just don't give a ffffffff"......and threw it back at her!!!!! It was the funniest!!!!!!! LOL!!!!
They played for 2 hrs.!!!!! It was the best time!!!
Lauren did have her moments of tiredness and complaining the concert was too long. But she regained her momentum after a potty break and a cold bottle of water (which cost $3 for a bottle of Desani water!!! )
She had the best time. And she wasn't the only youngster there. There were a lot of children there and several we saw that were her age. She thought that was really cool!!
We leave right before the last song of the encore which was 'Twist & Shout'. And take the now looong 4 block back to the vehilce. We get back to the hotel and crash.
Baby's clock is still working at he's up at 6:30, as usual. All red eyed I feed him. I haven't had such an exciting night out in years. And I feel hung over even though I don't drink. LOL!!!
After everyone is up I open the curtains to see outside in front of the hotel............. 3 TOUR BUSES!!!!!!!
We can't believe our eyes!!! We see two matching green tour buses parked together. And a blue tour bus on the other side of the street. Obviously the 2 green for Bon Jovi and the blue for the Goo Goo's. We grab the camera and take a few pictures. Like I said we had the best views from our room!!
This is the other reason I picked this hotel. It was the largest and priciest and the nicest and I was hoping to see the band!!!! I admit it!! I'm a Bon Jovi addict!!! We all get ready and head up to the next floor (the top floor) via our room key. The room key is the only way to get to our floor, the 12th, and the next floor up the 14th. We enter the lounge area to see NO band members, of course!! They put out quite spread of yummy food!! Bagels with spreads, cereal, yogurt, granola, juices in bottels, milk, fresh orange juice, danishes, coffee, several different teas, lots of fresh fruit, toast with jellies. I mentioned to the yound lady in charge in the lounge, who sets out the food and asks if you need any thing, that there were tour buses outside. And she said that means that the band would be staying in the suites. But famous people very rarely come to the Lounge to eat and that they normally order from room service. This just confirmed what we already thought....Bon Jovi was here!!! After eating we decide to be BOLD!!! Instead of heading right back to the elevator we decide to walk past the suites and see if we can hear anyone.....important that is!! We head down one corridor, but don't hear anything. Then down another cooridor. We see the largest room they must have, it had double doors. We hear inside some music playing inside and a woman addressing a child saying "What are you doing spinning like that you're going to get dizzy?". Then Lauren said very loudly "That must be Bon Jovi in there!!". We quickly grabbed her and headed for the elevator!!! Giggleing all the way. We had left DH & the baby in the room. So it was just the three of us. We were kind enough to bring DH back a bagle. And told him all about our 'after breakfast adventure'!!!! He couldn't believe what we did!!
It was totally fun and totally against my normal persona to do something like that. It was GREAT!!!!
After that we finished packing up and headed out. We stopped outside the hotel and took more photos of the tour buses and the capital building. And then headed to an outlet mall about a half hour away for some shopping.
The ride home was quiter than the ride there.
We had the BEST time!!! And I took some nice pictures. And will get them developed him this week. I didn't bring my digital camera because I figured with the seats we had at the concert that we wouldn't have gotten the clearest shots anyway. I now have to figure out how to post my pictures so you can all see the pictures of the tour buses!!!
I hope I didn't bore all of you with my lengthy report.
But I wanted to share my exciting trip with all of you!!!!
Bon Jovi is coming back this summer to Chicago and I can't wait to see them again. I'll be bringing my sister again, but not Lauren. 
I never wrote a trip report for our last WDW vacation but here I am writing one about our road trip to see Bon Jovi.
Here's the details...........
The concert: Saturday 3/29 @ 7:30 in Madison Wisconsin
at the Kohl Center
Road Trippers:
Me: Nicole DH: Tony DD: Lauren
DS: Hunter And my sister: Nancy
Only myself, DD and my sister went to the concert.
We start out Saturday morning finishing last minute laundry, packing, and stuffing the minivan with luggage and all the tons of baby stuff one needs to bring along on a trip. We need to make a stop at the grocery store down the road before hitting the road. All goes well at the store, in and out in record time. But I realize that I have only one check left in my check book and now need to run back home for more checks. Don't want to be out of town with only one check left, just in case. So back home we go, luckily it's a short ride.
Finally we hit the ROAD!!!!
We have a 3 hour ride ahead of us. Not that bad of a ride. But latley the baby doesn't enjoy long car rides. He does ok with plenty of entertainment from everyone in the minivan and takes a nice nap as well.
And then a turn for the worse........ Lauren, who's 5yr old, says she thinks she has to go to the bathroom. No problem we say, we'll pull over at the next exit. Wellllll......the next thing you know she say's she has to throw up.
Luckily we had a garbage bag in the van and my sister was sitting next to her.
We weren't sure if she was car sick or if it was the Krispy Kreme she had for breakfast. We stop shortly at a grocery store to go to the bathroom AND buy more garbage bags!!! And by cooinsidence at the first stop at the grocery store earlier in the morning I had bought Dramamine. So we gave her half of a Dramamine just in case it wasn't the doughnut. Shortly after hitting the road again she falls asleep and naps for a while. She never gets sick again the whole trip, so who knows what it was. We arrive at our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Lake Menoma, which is attached via a walk way to the Lake Menoma Convention Center. We got there just in time for checking in, because just minutes later a Mary Kay convention let out and there were at TON of Mary Kay people everywhere. All over the lobby, the lounge, the sitting areas.....EVERYWHERE!!!! There was a sea of women in matching outfits!!!!
I checked in and got our room keys. Then we go park the van in thier parking garage. Unload the van and head to the elevators. We stayed in room 1216 on the 12th floor. It was a Club Room, which allowed us access to the 14th floor. On the 14th floor was several large suites and a meeting room along with a Executive Club area where there was a bar, several sitting areas and tables with chairs, along with 2 large screen tvs. They served hors d'ouveres and cocktails at night and breakfast in the morning. Cool!!!!.....free food!!!!!
For those who may or may not know there was no 13th floor. Hotels do not have a 13th floor, never.
To get to our room via the elevator you had to slide your room key into a slot next to the elevator floor buttons. I've never had to do this before nor have I ever seen this in a hotle before. Our first ride up to our room was with a bunch of Mary Kay people. They all ooooo'd and ahhhhh'd Hunter. We were trying to figure out why we were the only one's who couldn't get our room number button to light up in the elevator. We then saw the room key slot, slid it in and the pushed the button. All the Mary Key ladies said, "Ohhh you must be important, you have to put your room key into the slot to get to your room.". We all laughed, and then my DD says "No. We're just here to see Bon Jovi.". LOL!!!
Kids say the funniest things!!We get to our room. It's right near the elevator. Our room was a very nice size room. Two queen beds, a large desk with chair. Two comfy chairs with ottoman and table between. The beds were the nicest we have ever experienced at a hotel. The bathroom was large! And equipped with Neutrogena toiletries! Fluffy towels too!!! And a large closet, not just a metla bar to hang things from. And there was an armoire with a huge tv inside.
Very nice room!!!! This is were I learned the TRUE meaning of "You get what you pay for" phrase. I got a great Entertainment rate on the room.
Let me not forget the view from our room!!!! Holy cow!!!
We had the best view of Lake Menoma AND the state capital building. It was just gorgeous!! The room was at the front of the hotel. So you could also look down at all the people pulling in to check in.
After some investigating of the hotel lobby and a walk over to the convention center to look around, we decided to save time by eating at the hotel for dinner. We eat at Nine West which is a French restaurant. (Please no comments about the French!) We had a great meal!!! It took longer than we expected to eat and we still needed to get ready for the CONCERT!!
Least us not forget what this trip report is all about. So we hurry to eat and head back to the room to get ready. We are out of the hotel within a half an hour. And luckily it's only 1.5 miles away to the Kohl Center. (Which is part of the reason I picked this hotel, the location.)
We find our way easily but have to park in a self-park lot 4 blocks away. It only cost us $3 to park, not bad. And the walk wasn't that bad. And we were soooo excited to be seeing Bon Jovi that we walked the 4 blocks in record time. With Lauren having a piggy back ride from my sister.
The crowds were forming in lines outside the Kohl Center because the doors weren't opening until 7:30pm. We picked a short line and got in quickly, passing a rather light security check. There were other lines that were much longer and I couldn't understand why people kept lining up in the longest lines.
We stop and purchase a tee shrit for Lauren. A cute baby pink shirt that says 'Bon Jovi Bounce Tour 2003'. This was her first big concert and she was so happy to get a shirt!! I was not happy at the $40 price!! We also get a tour program for $15. GREAT pictures inside!!!
The concert started with Goo Goo Dolls as the opening act. They were good. I'm not a huge fan, but enjoyed thier show. There were still a lot of people not yet seated at. But during the intermission they filed in.
We had good seats in the second mezzanine facing center stage in the 4th row. And we brought along red, white & blue glow sticks to hold up during Bon Jovi's song ' The Distance' which is dedicated to all the troops.
The lights finally dim and the crowd goes wild. Bon Jovi take the stage and everyone gets to thier feet. Jon looks great all in black leather!! WooHoo!!!
They perform all the great new songs and the 'old' one's too. The last time I saw them in concert was in '89. And thier looks have only improved with age.
The stage is set up with huge sattelite dishes that project close ups of the band and other images and graphics. This is so cool to be able to see them magnafied!!! The light show was great too. It was by far the best concert I ahve ever been to!
Several of the 'old' songs they let the audiance sing the first few lines of and then they would start singing from the beginning of the song again. They did this durng Wanted Dead or Alive. It was the best!!!Richie sang 'I'll Be There For You' be himself on lead vocals. This was great. Jon actually left the stage during this. And made a wardrobe change during this time. Jon's energy was electric. And he was feeding off of the audiances energy as well. Did I mention the woman who threw her bra at him during the first song 'Bounce'?? He stopped singing!!! Though the band continued playing. He looked at it and went back to singing on cue "Me I just don't give a ffffffff"......and threw it back at her!!!!! It was the funniest!!!!!!! LOL!!!!
They played for 2 hrs.!!!!! It was the best time!!!
Lauren did have her moments of tiredness and complaining the concert was too long. But she regained her momentum after a potty break and a cold bottle of water (which cost $3 for a bottle of Desani water!!!
)She had the best time. And she wasn't the only youngster there. There were a lot of children there and several we saw that were her age. She thought that was really cool!!
We leave right before the last song of the encore which was 'Twist & Shout'. And take the now looong 4 block back to the vehilce.
We get back to the hotel and crash.Baby's clock is still working at he's up at 6:30, as usual. All red eyed I feed him.
I haven't had such an exciting night out in years. And I feel hung over even though I don't drink. LOL!!!After everyone is up I open the curtains to see outside in front of the hotel............. 3 TOUR BUSES!!!!!!!
We can't believe our eyes!!! We see two matching green tour buses parked together. And a blue tour bus on the other side of the street. Obviously the 2 green for Bon Jovi and the blue for the Goo Goo's. We grab the camera and take a few pictures. Like I said we had the best views from our room!!
This is the other reason I picked this hotel. It was the largest and priciest and the nicest and I was hoping to see the band!!!! I admit it!! I'm a Bon Jovi addict!!! We all get ready and head up to the next floor (the top floor) via our room key. The room key is the only way to get to our floor, the 12th, and the next floor up the 14th. We enter the lounge area to see NO band members, of course!!
They put out quite spread of yummy food!! Bagels with spreads, cereal, yogurt, granola, juices in bottels, milk, fresh orange juice, danishes, coffee, several different teas, lots of fresh fruit, toast with jellies. I mentioned to the yound lady in charge in the lounge, who sets out the food and asks if you need any thing, that there were tour buses outside. And she said that means that the band would be staying in the suites. But famous people very rarely come to the Lounge to eat and that they normally order from room service. This just confirmed what we already thought....Bon Jovi was here!!! After eating we decide to be BOLD!!! Instead of heading right back to the elevator we decide to walk past the suites and see if we can hear anyone.....important that is!! We head down one corridor, but don't hear anything. Then down another cooridor. We see the largest room they must have, it had double doors. We hear inside some music playing inside and a woman addressing a child saying "What are you doing spinning like that you're going to get dizzy?". Then Lauren said very loudly "That must be Bon Jovi in there!!". We quickly grabbed her and headed for the elevator!!! Giggleing all the way. We had left DH & the baby in the room. So it was just the three of us. We were kind enough to bring DH back a bagle. And told him all about our 'after breakfast adventure'!!!! He couldn't believe what we did!!It was totally fun and totally against my normal persona to do something like that. It was GREAT!!!!
After that we finished packing up and headed out. We stopped outside the hotel and took more photos of the tour buses and the capital building. And then headed to an outlet mall about a half hour away for some shopping.
The ride home was quiter than the ride there.
We had the BEST time!!! And I took some nice pictures. And will get them developed him this week. I didn't bring my digital camera because I figured with the seats we had at the concert that we wouldn't have gotten the clearest shots anyway. I now have to figure out how to post my pictures so you can all see the pictures of the tour buses!!!
I hope I didn't bore all of you with my lengthy report.
But I wanted to share my exciting trip with all of you!!!!
Bon Jovi is coming back this summer to Chicago and I can't wait to see them again. I'll be bringing my sister again, but not Lauren.
