Princess Diana Exhibit Las Vegas: Honest Review by a Lifelong Fan
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When Princess Diana got married in the “wedding of the century” I was about 14, and my friends and I stayed up all night to watch! It was a wedding we’d never forget. What a true-life fairy tale! Ever since then, I’ve followed her and the Royal Family with interest.
After high school graduation, a couple of friends and I used our diligently saved baby-sitting money to visit England. One day of that 1984 trip, we loitered outside Kensington Palace, flirting with the guards who were not much older than us. After a few hours (!), they confided to us that the Princess of Wales was about to arrive home, and we could stand there right by the driveway if we promised not to do anything stupid.
Trying to “live in the moment” as opposed to looking through the camera, the one picture we snapped is at the above right! Now I wish I’d looked through the lens! 😀 But Diana did smile at us as we awkwardly waved, and we were excited to see that she was driving the car herself!
Recently I was delighted to see that Las Vegas now has a new tribute exhibition dedicated to Princess Diana and the Royal Family! I checked it out, so let me fill you in on what it’s like!
The Exhibition was put together by the Pink Ribbons Crusade, a nonprofit raising funds to fight breast cancer, along with entertainment companies the SBX Group and SEE Global Entertainment. A portion of each ticket sale goes to the Pink Ribbons Crusade.
The Exhibit is on the 3rd floor of the Shops at Crystals Mall, which is right next to the Aria Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Click here for directions.
The Exhibition is open daily. You can buy general admission tickets for around $30 or a VIP ticket for $7 more. VIP gets you an audio guide, entry at any time, priority line access (skip the line), and a free gift. I got the VIP ticket so I didn’t have to be held to a firm arrival time. Knowing quite a bit about Diana and the Royals, the audio guide wasn’t super interesting or useful for me, but maybe it would be to a Windsors newbie.
The Exhibit basically goes in chronological order of Diana’s life through several themed rooms. There are many photos, personal belongings, and a collection of personal correspondence from Diana, Charles, and some others. Diana’s school notebooks and her handwritten hairdresser appointment list were also on display.
Other memorabilia includes a piece of Charles and Diana’s wedding cake(!), the seating chart from their wedding reception, and a quilt featuring Diana’s image, which you can’t see up close but can see from far away.
The exhibit also includes sections on various members of the Royal Family, including Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Phillip, Prince William, and Prince Harry. There’s a section on the British Royalty and the White House (see Richard Nixon and Prince Philip yucking it up)! There’s even a display of one of Princess Grace of Monaco’s fur coats and gowns thrown in for fun.
The part of the exhibit I was most interested in seeing was the gowns of fashion icon Diana. The website for the exhibit touts having the largest on-display collection of Diana’s gowns. The FAQ section noted that her wedding gown is an “exact replica” of the original Elizabeth Emanuel wedding dress. Unfortunately, it’s not noted that many of the clothing items on display are recreations made of paper! It must be said these paper recreations by Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave are impressive to see, but not exactly what I was picturing or hoping for.
Then there were 81 doll-sized replicas (in cloth!) of Diana’s gowns. This was kind of fun to see, but again, not really what I was expecting. 😀
The adorable and famous Black Sheep Sweater was on display. It is a replica and is also sold in the gift shop!
Finally, there is a nice display of some of Diana’s authentic evening gowns! I think there were 7 in total, including the Gianni Versace-designed LBD.
In summary, I was happy to have spent my money for an hour at this exhibit as opposed to disposing of that money in a slot machine! It was fun to see the real gowns and some of Diana’s own collection of correspondence to people. I also thought the wedding reception seating chart was fascinating to see, as I’d never come across that before.
Please let me know what you think of the exhibit if you’ve been there! Am I being too hard on it? Thanks for reading!
As a European woman, I am actually quite surprised that there is a museum for Diana in Las Vegas at all! I have not visited, but it is probably natural it is less extensive than displays in London 😉 Glad you could experience some part of this strong woman’s life in Vegas!
Love, love, love an honest review! I would have never known this was in Vegas either!
Going to Vegas in March and will be sharing this post with my friends to see if they agree to go! Great post! 🙂
I love the Royal Family too and really loved seeing Diana’s wedding dress at Kensington Palace – the exhibit looks great and I noticed some Grace Kelly things too!
What a great review. Honest, truthful and respectful( kind of like the Princess herself) A great read for any Princess Diana fans wanting to go see the displays.
No you are not being too hard. I feel you gave a truthful review! I thought the most interesting item was the seating chart even though I don’t have a clue who the attendees are. Good job!
Phew! Thank you!