Booking Opens Today!

[Petrushka]

Stand by your computers Proms booking opens at 9am today.

Not overly impressed with this season's programmes so only going for 9 Proms this year.

[amateur51]

Stand by your computers Proms booking opens at 9am today.

Not overly impressed with this season's programmes so only going for 9 Proms this year.

Being a wuss, I've decided that it's likely that this Summer is going to be a scorcher and therefore I'd rather stay at home in the relative coolth of my flat and listen on the radio/TV :biggrin:

[PhilipT]

So .. how are people doing? I got into the Waiting Room at about 9:20, and the queue is going down at about 1 a second, so I'm looking at about 10:20.

[pilamenon]

Just finished - got in after about 6 minutes and had a 15 minute wait or so from 800 or so. Only one problem - my Cadogan Hall request that I'd put on the Proms planner wasn't there, and when I tried to buy it separately after my main transaction, it put me to the back of the queue. :grr: Now relying on someone else to get that ticket.

Main worry was that the cat insisted on jumping about over the computer - had visions of being logged off just as I got to the front of the queue. :doh:

[bluestateprommer]

Well, it took me something like 10 or so minutes actually to get into the e-queue, with continual refresh starting at 9 AM your time (I refuse to state what time it is here :doh: ), and another 27 minutes to wind down to my spot where I could actually log in. However, having said that, I admit that I got the main thing that I wanted, but it only occurred to me later maybe to add on something else. But I thought of that too late, so in principle, I'd be back of the line. Oh well, assuming I make it over there in one piece, I'll have to line up in the Prommers' queue normally for the rest of the items :) .

[Donnie Essen]

I forgot to get out of bed. Was 4300 or something in the queue about 25 minutes ago, now I'm 3419. I don't mind too much. Ain't booking for a lot.

[Mr Pee]

Don't like the Royal Albert Hall. :sadface:

Can't stand London in the Summer. :sadface::sadface:

Staying at home with my HD TV and Radio 3.:ok:

[Donnie Essen]

I thought this thread would be real active this morning. I ain't too hot on the Albert Hall either. The sound kinda sucks. Booking way less than last year.

[prokkyshosty]

Greetings all! Yes, be advised to do all your business when you're in there, as once you get dumped out, you go back to the end of the queue, which was 3000+ last I checked. So much for my second thoughts on one particular show that I didn't include in my Planner.

The big question for me today was... booking opened at 4am in the states, do I stay up or do I wake up early?

[Ferretfancy]

Nightmare!

I got on the site at 9.00, but was told there were already 4000 odd in the queue, which was very odd, as the site was not supposed to be accessible before that time. Did 4000 people log in simultaneously? Anyway, I finally got to book my season ticket at about 1045, but the system failed to recognise my card details, even though I repeatedly entered them correctly. I decided to use a different card, but the same thing happened until I reset my password, more wrestling!
Finally got my confirmation at 11.15.
The joke is that as season ticket holders we will still have to send in passport photos by post!

Nobody who wasn't insane would design the Internet like this if starting it all over as new technology, but they let the nerds loose didn't they?

[Simon B]

My strategy this year was to only book at this time for those events where I calculate demand will be exceptionally high. I'll take my chances on tickets for other events nearer the time so I don't have to put up with whatever randomly chosen poorly located seats the system chucks at me. Or just queue up and Prom. One (the only?) advantage of my (and all my colleagues) being made redundant in January and now working as a short-term contractor wherever in the country (mostly Cambs/Herts for some reason) I can peddle my skills is that I get some control of my time rather than being dictated to by the corporate clunking fist. "I'm unavailable on afternoon X" comes at the price of zero income on afternoon X, but at least I get to go to the Proms without a fight.

I was contemplating getting an arena season ticket for the first time, but in the event there aren't really enough concerts of interest to justify it, and I'm not sure I'm quite ready for all that standing up...

In the event I logged in pretty much on the dot of 09:00 (bleary eyed as I didn't get in from last night's BBCPO concert in Manchester til about 02:45), and quickly got into the queue at about number 500. It didn't take long to get through the waiting room, and I'd created a plan for the few "priority" concerts I wanted tickets for at this stage.

I was alarmed to see that there were already no stalls tickets for the Gothic (can the demand really be -that- high?!) and since I'm organising tickets for a group and there's not going to be a second chance to hear this piece (probably ever!) I had to take what's on offer and hope for the best. Loggia boxes - can't stand them, but it was the best on offer, so...

Got tickets for the Venezuelan Mahler 2 (could be a disaster, could be fabulous so worth the risk, certain to sell out pronto). They're too close to the stage, but again, best on offer, and procrastinating will just result in no tickets for this one.

Also got tickets for Gergiev/Kirov Swan Lake - miraculously in the right place, the only ones.

Finally CBSO/Nelsons and Bychkov Verdi Requiem (both too far away from the stage - I love random seat allocation) as spending what could be a scorching summer Sat/Sun in a queue instead of at the seaside isn't my idea of fun!

For the other 15 or so I might go to, I'll take my chances either once specific seat-selection is available, or by arena promming.

Hope everyone else gets the tickets they want.

[prokkyshosty]

Ferret, sadly, sounds about right. I clicked obsessively from 9.00 to about 9.15 before I got into the waiting room at what I thought was the earliest possible moment .... at about 1500. I thought it was a disaster, but I guess I got lucky -- as soon as I got out I tried to go back in and the queue was somewhere around 5000. As for the card details, I had problems for weeks leading up to today where the website wouldn't remember my change of address, demanded new passwords constantly and generally seemed like it wasn't the most robust of websites. Still, glad you got it, and perhaps I'll see you in the season pass queue. Bring the ferret!

Anybody not get what they wanted? My only problem was 2nd Tier for Brian's Gothic being sold out, I ended up in the Circle. But if I was so early in the process and the Gothic was already limited, I'm worried that some folks here might not have gotten it.

[Simon B]

Update - site now says "Prom 29 has sold out" - that's the Venezuelan Mahler 2. No surprises there then...

[Donnie Essen]

My strategy this year was to only book at this time for those events where I calculate demand will be exceptionally high. I'll take my chances on tickets for other events nearer the time so I don't have to put up with whatever randomly chosen poorly located seats the system chucks at me.

That's what I've done. I'll take a look at the other stuff when I can pick the seats. Got tickets for the Havergal Brian symphony (could only get the circle though). Lucky enough, I guess.

[Petrushka]

Logged on at exactly 9am but despite continual refresh didn't get in until 9.20 by which time I was 4773 in the queue. Going down at a rate of about 1 a second so still took nearly 2 hours. By 11.00 Prom 29 had sold out so I'll be in the Arena for that one. My seat for the Gothic is in the Circle. Got everything else OK.

Did anyone get through before 9am as some claimed last year.

[Petrushka]

I thought this thread would be real active this morning.

So did I. After the multiple stories of disaster and complaints about the website last year I was expecting another repeat. Looks like most are satisfied then?

[Lizabel]

I got in to the waiting room at 9.03, at 363 in the queue. By 9.15 I was already at 27, so I sat staring at the screen ready to pounce. I didn't touch anything, honest - but when the screen refreshed it told me that I was now at 3671 in the queue. Not fair! Did anyone else have this experience, and can anyone tell me what went wrong?
Relatively happy ending, though - I did get all the concerts I wanted, though not the seats I would have preferred.

[gedsmk]

Didn't make it into the waiting room until 9.15 despite repeated attempts. 3231 in queue. But was eventually able to get all the concerts I wanted, though not necessarily in the places I wanted. Best improvement on last year is the confirmation of seats and seat numbers. Last year had to wait until they sent me the tickets to find out what I'd managed to get.

[StephenO]

Don't like the Royal Albert Hall. :sadface:

Can't stand London in the Summer. :sadface::sadface:

Staying at home with my HD TV and Radio 3.:ok:
Likewise. I prefer Birmingham, Cardiff or Malvern for my concert going.

Quite a lot to look forward to in this year's Proms, though - Benjamin Grosvenor in Liszt on the opening night, Sibelius 7 from Mark Elder and the Halle, Rachmaninov from Noseda and the BBC Phil, Stephen Hough, Miah Persson :loveblush: in Mahler 2, Gergiev conducting Swan Lake, Haitink's Brahms, Volkov's Bruckner and Fischer's Mahler, not to mention Elijah and Der Freischutz. I don't think I'll be straying far from R3 this summer.

[LHC]

Well it appears you all got lucky.

Like everyone else I logged on at 9:00. However I couldn't get into the queue until 10:20 (at 4760) and didn't get to book tickets until 12:40, by which time most of the performances I was after were either sold out or only had a few circle seat left.

[gedsmk]

I took a look over at getmein.com someone has spent a small fortune buying up seats throughout the season to sell at premium prices.

[bluestateprommer]

The reason for the relative lack of posts here may be that people were trying to book on the RAH's site and didn't want to be distracted. Multi-tasking does have its limits.

With respect to Petrushka's post about expected disaster, I sort of expected that too, but this was my first time booking on line and my initial impatience with getting into the e-queue aside, it went OK. In retrospect, I didn't think to write down my exact number, but it was something like 1758. So by comparison to others, I guess that I didn't do that badly.

It looks like 5 sell out concerts as of this time.

[Bax-of-Delights]

I did try at 9.a.m and got into the waiting room at 9.15 - number 4565. As Mrs BoD was expecting a day out and her normal extensive preparations could be counted on to allow me some leeway I sat until 10.15 and by which time I was 2500. Then, there was a call of "well, I'm ready!" and so I had to log off.:sadface:

On our return at 9 p.m. I logged straight in and got the Bax 2 (I guessed it wouldn't be sold out anyway!) but realised that apart from the general area of the Hall one couldn't choose exact seats. I presume this was to avoid congestion on the first day.

[David Underdown]

On the Brian, I gather the performers will number 1015 and the choirs will extend into the side stalls, so there were fewer seats available to start with

[Petrushka]

If I logged on, as I did, at exactly 9am I wonder why 4772 people can be in front of me and Prom 29 still manages to sell out when the seating capacity of the RAH is roughly the same figure. Surely not every person ahead of me booked for this Prom?

'On the Brian, I gather the performers will number 1015 and the choirs will extend into the side stalls, so there were fewer seats available to start with'

When I attended a performance of the Gothic in the Victoria Hall, Hanley in 1978, the number of performers outnumbered the audience and the conductor had his back to the rear wall. Brian was born in Stoke on Trent and his inspiration for the title was Lichfield Cathedral, my 'local'. I performed at both venues as a church chorister in 1965 and 1972 when local choirs were brought together under the direction of Dr Gerald Knight.

As I was also at the 1980 Ole Schmidt outing will anyone else have been to three live performances of the Gothic?

[PhilipT]

I don't claim that these numbers are exactly right, and I'm open to correction, but: The seating capacity of the RAH for an Ordinary Let is 3,929. That number includes 740 seats in the Arena that aren't in the Arena at a Prom, so the number comes down to 3,189. Prom 29, Mahler 2, requires a large choir, so it's a good bet that the 450 Choir seats are off sale, and the number comes down to 2,739. If 30% of those 4772 people ahead of you tried to book two seats each, some of them would be disappointed.

[Kuhlau]

I started trying to get in at about 8.59AM but it wasn't until about 9.05AM that I was actually put in the waiting room. I think I was 1192, but it still took about half an hour to count down. Managed to get reasonable seats in the stalls for Beethoven's Ninth and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (plus the late night Hamelin spectacular) but wasn't quite so lucky with Verdi's Requiem which I understand has now fully sold out. The stalls must have gone immeadiately as I have been placed in the second tier. On the whole, not too bad, and I've managed to secure accomodation in the Imperial College too, so all in all - happy enough!

[Eudaimonia]

I was very lucky indeed: in the waiting room at 9:00 (107th), on the purchasing screen at 9:03, and the relieved owner of an Arena season pass by 9:06. Hooray! Or rather, make that 4:06 New York time. I had to be up early to volunteer at an animal spay-and-neuter clinic anyway, so I'm glad it worked out.

You might think it's a bit nutty for a season ticket subscriber to want to be there on the dot-- but it totally makes sense when you remember that if there's any one group of people motivated enough to queue en masse at the earliest possible opportunity, it's the Arena prommers. Looks like I was right: yesterday afternoon, I heard that 263 (283?) of the possible 500 passes had already been sold--over half gone in a couple of hours! I wonder if they're sold out yet.

PhilipT: hello again--nice to see you here! In case you missed the name swap, I'm the front-row nuisance formerly known as Schopenhauerian...looking forward to commiserating with you over the sad state of the RAH dining facilities soon. Cheers! ~E. :smiley:

[Lord Mersey]

Poor catering facilities at the RAH. Surely not!

Lord Mersey

[Brassbandmaestro]

Surely, the RAH ticket accquiring system could've been managed better, in the knowledge they would've known about the amount of people that would have been using the facility?

[PhilipT]

Poor catering facilities at the RAH. Surely not!

Lord Mersey

Greetings, My Lord! It seems the RAH catering providers have changed again, this time to Rhubarb, so they'll start with a clean slate this year. It wouldn't be right to post it here, but any personal friends who want sight of the e-mail I had from last year's Catering Manager in response to my complaint about the cutlery in the Arena Foyer Bar have only to ask. The RAH is supposed to be the nation's village hall; providing diners with metal forks and plastic knives would disgrace the lowliest village hall in the country.

Philip

[Lord Mersey]

Philip

I am very reliably informed that the standard of cutlery provided by the Royal Opera House is of much superior quality. This is particularly so when sharing an ice cream!

Lord Mersey

[NickWraight]

Given that the RAH ticket system is only put under severe pressure once a year for a few hours (8 weeks concerts on sale all at the same time) I am not surprised the ticketing system has not been "improved" to just take this brief period into account.

I can appreciate that to be able to pick specific seats would be useful but think of the additional time this would take per booking and the computer power required.

One point it would be interesting to have comments on is the Booking Fee of 2% plus £1. Given that the Proms Planner ensures the purchaser prepare their concerts in advance, inccluding picking the seating area, I would assume there is little or no human input to the process until the tickets are posted - where there is a measurable cost. Also, think of the time taken for the queue to come round to your turn and the purchaser pays for this privilege!

Paradoxically, if you buy the tickets at the RAH Box Office the purchaser occupies the time of a staff member for as long as required but no Booking Fee is levied.

[David Underdown]

Quite, and the booking fee is now considerably higher than when they actually had to shuffle all the paperwork and key the information from the forms into the system themselves. Still, for the moment they still have to manually stick the photos onto the season tickets and write the names on themselves (why we can't just upload a jpeg and they produce the ticket all in one I don't know - they must already have all the tech in house for producing ID cards)

[Eudaimonia]

Poor catering facilities at the RAH. Surely not!Oh, I never had any trouble personally--but then, maybe I wasn't paying attention closely enough. :winkeye: However, nobody who was there can deny that Mr. T had a most unfortunate string of bad service; you'd almost think they were doing it on purpose when they saw him coming.

Oh well-- here's to clean slates and fresh starts!:bubbly: :ok:

[Hilaryjane]

I had major issues this time. I was away for the weekend and had to borrow a friend's laptop. I didn't get online until 9.30 am, and there were over 5,000 in the queue. After nearly 2 hours, I got to the site, gave my email address and password, but when I went to log in, I got thrown off the site, and my friend had to shut down his laptop because the screen was frozen. I then spent 40 minutes waiting to speak to someone at the box office to complain. Having said that, when I did manage to speak to the box office, I got my season ticket booked in five minutes. I probably should have phoned up instead of trying to book my ticket online!

[LHC]

I'm surprised that they haven't followed the Opera House's tactic of spreading demand over a few days, particularly as the queuing system was pioneered by the Opera House.

It would seem sensible to have the season tickets sold on one day, with the tickets for individual proms going on sale a few days later. As it is, two sets of people attempting to make very different sorts of bookings are forced into the same queue at the same time.

[Lord Mersey]

I booked in person at the RAH and was finished by 9:10am. Saved the booking fee and also did not have to constantly hit the re-dial button on the phone unlike last year.

Eudaimonia
My comment about the catering was tinted with a slight hint of sarcasm.

Lord Mersey.

[David Underdown]

LHC

possibly but even season ticket holders will often by buying at least some chamber or Saturday matinee tickets in addition. Doubtless you'd then get charged two booking fees.