1. What is your favorite part of being on tour? I love getting to connect more personally with the audience on tour. Getting to meet them and chat for a while is something that we can’t really do in LA where we film the TV show. Because of this, touring feels more real to me! It’s meeting the audience that are behind the camera and getting to know them. It’s definitely my favorite part of touring! – Emma Slater
2. What is your favorite # on the Hot Summer Night Tour to perform? Dancing the Viennese Waltz with my fiance Sasha is my favorite dance on the tour. It is dedicated to the moment we got engaged on Season 23 to a song we absolutely love, “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran. – Emma Slater
They started lining us up for our photos and as always the experience was awesome with the guys. Once all the group photos were done those of us that had the Ultimate upgrade were lined back up (we had an interaction just us and the guys). I love that they give this option! I entered and was met by Danny and Donnie. I was joking around with Donnie saying you always tell me to remind you to follow me on twitter but, you never follow. Little did I know at that time that Jordan was doing a FB live so Donnie’s face lights up and next thing I know Donnie is live following me on twitter after all these years on Jordan’s FB live. The entire experience had me laughing harder than I had in years! Joe was commentating, Jordan and Donnie were being absolutely hilarious. I quite literally had the time of my life in that 5-10 minutes I was with them. They all made me feel so special and really after the year I had to that point I needed a great laugh and they sure delivered.
Show: I had a pit ticket for the Raleigh show and then had a lower bowl seat for Charlotte. The pit is always such a crap shoot. I ended up with this very tall, very drunk woman in front of me when they were on the inside stage and didn’t really have any interaction when they were on the outer stage. In retrospect I probably should have done the bar stools like last tour. The lower bowl seat in Charlotte was ok and we did have interaction with Donnie when he was returning to the stage one time.
Final Verdict: NKOTB does it right, they always have in my opinion. In past blogs I have talked about the cruise. I would say if given the chance to only do one, I would always chose the VIP at one of their concerts. They are all such nice guys, the personal interaction you have with them is just second to none in my opinion. I have loved them since I was 15 years old and still love them today. As with a lot of other blogs I have done on other artists the VIP staff can either make or break your experience. In Raleigh it was totally fantastic, in Charlotte it was a poor experience the way they handled check in, the groups, not caring when several organized groups of 10 were split up.
I was very torn this year on attending CMA Fest due to a medical issue I was dealing with but, after speaking to my doctor he said I could go as long as I took it slow and returned on Monday to have surgery.
CMA Fest: 
I went to Chris Jansen’s fan club party this year and he really is a great, humble guy. His party was a good experience, they had some breakfast snacks, mountain dew of course and he played several songs, told stories and then did a photo op. The one challenging thing with CMA fest is picking the FC parties you want to do each year. I really enjoyed Cole’s last year but, many of them overlap or conflict and I like to get new experiences each year to share with you all.
Could have been improved: I usually love and rave about the Big Machine Group pop up and the experiences they offer. I don’t know what happened this year but, I did not have a good experience with them. We got up early one morning, lined up, sat in the roasting sun and at no point in time were we told that the line for Brett Young was cut off, would be cut off etc. and we asked SEVERAL Big Machine staffers that came out to video our excitement etc. After waiting for nearly 2.5 hours and just before we entered the door we were told sorry no more. I was so disappointed and so upset. We should have been told at some point way sooner than that like they had in years past. You don’t make people wait in the heat that many hours thinking they would get in and do that. Very uncool this year Big Machine. To make matters worse they told us he was going on to an event at another location so we went over there and the people at Fan Fair had no idea what we were talking about. I finally had enough and found a place to sit down outside the hotel because I wasn’t feeling well and at one point I look up and here comes Brett Young. Mind you there were 3 people and we asked him for a picture and he just kept walking acting like he didn’t hear us. That entire experience soured me on Brett truthfully. It would have taken maybe 15 seconds to say hi and do 3 photos. Same thing happened about a half hour later with Bobby Bones, again just acted like he didn’t hear the 2 people next to me that yelled his name. I get they are asked for a ton of pics and that they have places to be. I just wish they would remember this is what the Fest is all about and without the support of fans nobody gets to be big and famous.
The only other thing I wasn’t a big fan of that I had not done before was the photo line. Now on one hand it’s very cool that they have that option. It just get so crazy congested and I wish the staff that worked the photo line would be a bit nicer. I understand not everyone listens but, don’t lump everyone together. Nobody wants to spend a lot of money for an experience and be constantly spoken to in a negative/nasty way or man-handled. If you are going to offer the experience then find a way to keep the lines moving without being nasty to everyone. Deal with the few bad apples and you will see the rest will follow the rules.
Helpful Tips discovered: I have been attending this festival now for 3 years and I have always done that long walk over the bridge back and forth to the stadium. This year my friend that attended with me discovered the buses that ran back and forth. That really was a godsend this year because I wasn’t feeling that awesome and I think that walk each night would have been tough. So cheers to CMA Fest on the buses, I wish I had discovered them sooner.
Show/VIP: The show was great, filled with creativity, awesome dance #’s. The VIP after the show was great as always with Derek & Julianne doing a Q&A for a good half hour or so, being very candid and showing off how down to earth they are. After the Q&A we were escorted back for our photo opportunity. They are both very nice and laid back. After that it was time to go, it was long night.
Final Verdict: Derek & Julianne were awesome the tour company should have been a lot more considerate to the VIP’s and emailed us instead of expecting us to sit around for 3+ hours because the VIP was moved to after the show!
David & Lindsay 
Simone Biles & Sasha Farber 
Normani Kordei & Val Chmerkovskiy: 
Rashad Jennings & Emma Slater 
Simone Biles & Sasha Farber 
Bonner Bolton & Sharna Burgess 
Nancy Kerrigan & Artem Chigvintsev 
Nick Viall & Peta Murgatroyd 
Normani Kordei & Val Chmerkovskiy: 
David Ross & Lindsay Arnold 
Rashad Jennings & Emma Slater 
Heather Morris & Maksim Chmerkovskiy 
Nick Viall & Peta Murgatroyd 
Mr T & Kym Herjavec 
Bonner Bolton & Sharna Burgess 
Heather Morris & Maksim Chmerkovskiy 
Charo & Keo Motsepe 
Simone Biles & Sasha Farber 
Nancy Kerrigan & Artem Chigvintsev 
David Ross & Lindsay Arnold 
Erika Jayne & Gleb Savchenko 
Rashad Jennings & Emma Slater 
Normani Kordei & Val Chmerkovskiy: 
watch much TV so she wasn’t sure about any of his characters. He did break his neck in the past so he is dealing with an injury. Their dance was fun to watch and it did seem like he was trying to be in character of a bad dancer.
y opinion is everyone needs to give her a fair shot as ballroom and Latin dancing with a partner are very different than what she has done in the past. Julianne touched on that as well during her comments. We should also remember that she is not the first person on the show that has had dance experience.
a lot of fun to watch and Lindsay is really good at pulling out her partner’s strengths.
excited to see what they come up with this season. They are sure to bring the heat and the sizzle.
feet clapping for them as they were dancing last night. They are in it to win it and absolutely will be one to watch this season. Their personalities mesh so well and I bet they bring the fun all season long!
ver the years.
h content skill for an opening week performance.
Having VIP and meeting the professional dancers of DWTS was honestly a dream come true. They were the nicest people and just amazing. I met Val, Laurie and Artem in the meet and greet and I was just in shock. I could not believe I was standing in front of them! They gave the absolute best hugs I did not want to let them go! Emma & Lindsay were mingling and honestly they were the sweetest! They talked to me for so long and it was so nice of them! Meeting them was such a dream come true…I cried so much! Getting this chance I felt so blessed and I just could not thank Heather enough for the opportunity! Doing this meet & greet I know for sure I will do it again on the next tour! Thank you Heather for giving me the opportunity to meet my idols!
My favorite part of my first VIP experience was for sure meeting the pros! Especially Emma Slater and Val Chmerkovskiy! They have been such role models in my life and to finally meet them was amazing! They were two of the nicest people I have ever met! I was very surprised as how nice and humble the pros are! I knew they were nice but, honestly I did not think they would be the most amazing people! I am so proud to call all of the pros my idols!