JNC

Thanks all for taking the time to give me some thoughts. Overall the consensus seems to be give it a try! Thanks for the additional info re packages. I'm just curious, what do people feel are the 'cheaper' 'good' seats in the amphi. Not wanting to overlap with another topic here but usually I tend to sit in the central amphi, around the £30-40 mark which usually gets me somewhere in the region of L-P depending on performance (though this will likely move back looking at new season prices...). Do people prefer to sit centrally or do you compromise and prefer a closer seat at left/right side block? Also at risk of asking a stupid question, are the friends rehearsals pretty much a run through of an entire ballet with music? Or is it more like a class style rehearsal where certain scenes are practised over and over again. I wouldn't be able to attend anyway due to work sadly but curious! Agree there's something to be said for supporting the royal opera house anyway, I like to think I do so with buying tickets and introducing friends to ballet as well, but I suppose the membership is an every little helps item too.

Yes the website doesn't really seem to make things easier for us...

Thanks both! Slightly reassured that not all can afford the stalls (though one day for a special occasion I may treat myself, but I don't see that happening for a few years yet!). Not that I'm not interested in hearing from those who can afford the stalls (you lucky things!) just a reflection on the reality of my salary! Interesting that the package system is only available for more expensive amphi seats, I'm guessing this is maybe rows A-F (or thereabouts?). The furthest forward I've managed has been L! Geoff - yes £1 a week doesn't seem like much when you put it that way! I could also consider it a donation to the arts I suppose! But I also feel I could get a decent ticket for £62 which is what has stopped me buying one so far. Bridiem - I generally find it's the more expensive seats that have less availability on general booking, as those who can afford membership (who I presume can also afford more expensive seats) have already got them. But it does make sense that those who love ballet/opera want to go see most, if not all performances, and then certain performances multiple times which does of course mean each individual ticket costing less though the overall cost is the same or more!

Also I'm intrigued about the packages system - are they quite flexible or only available on certain dates?

Hi all, still newish to the forum so not sure if this is the right place to put this so please do move if not. Enjoy all the discussions on here and find it all very insightful! I'm debating whether it would be worth getting a ROH membership - I'm under 30 so would qualify for young friends (and anything above this is out of my price range anyway). I have a job with regular hours so it looks like I wouldn't be able to attend any friends rehearsals. I have so far only bought tickets £30-40 (though realistically would be looking to spend up to £70 for the new season depending on what I think is value for money) so I question if it's worth it for me, as the membership is the same as another ticket! So it looks like I'd really only be getting the membership for priority booking, but usually at the price ranges I buy (generally seats in middle amphi) there is reasonable availability (apart from when I tried to book for the Firebird mixed bill I had to settle for tickets which were actually cheaper than what I wanted to spend as the better seats had been snapped up!). The other thing I'm thinking is now the Linbury is open, which is a smaller theatre, I'm even less likely to be able to get tickets in there? Furthermore with the ROH price increases I can potentially see more people may be booking seats in the price ranges I may be looking at (especially if they want to see multiple performances), although I also think people who can afford a membership are more likely to spend more on seats (and most in this forum seem to prefer to sit in the stalls etc, which I would love to do occasionally but have never been able to afford) but perhaps this is a misconception. For additional information I mainly go to see ballet, around once or twice a month and generally see each ballet performance at least once (depending on what's on, I didn't go to see Frankenstein at all, but have seen R&J twice!). I've seen two operas over the past year and think in future I'll mainly stick to ballet, though with the odd opera maybe once/twice a year (though for opera I would actually be looking to spend even less on tickets then for ballet!). I also wonder if having a friends membership creates a bit of a scrum on friends booking day, as that's what you pay for so I imagine the website is pretty crowded and so in some ways it may be 'better' to wait for the general booking day as there may actually be less people on site that day (though admittedly with fewer available seats!). I do wonder if 'friends' are sort of a squeezed middle of paying for priority booking, but there have already been various premium friends booking periods open before so you still don't get access to the seats you want necessarily? Also wondering if friends membership generally increases every year in price, because I'd be quite annoyed if I had to pay substantially more year on year (ie seeing ticket price increases over the past year has really worried me). I wouldn't want to pay £62 for a young friend this year say, and then end up with it being £75 next year - I know it's impossible to predict this but just wondering if historically the membership price does increase year on year, and how proportionate it is? I presume the friends membership runs for a calendar year (e.g. from 1st June to 31st May say)? So in short - those who have membership (particularly those with just 'friends' membership) - what makes it worth it for you? Do you generally get to buy the seats you want on booking day (would also be interested to see how much you spend generally). Has anyone stopped being a member and found a big difference, or recently started? Sorry for a long post and genuinely grateful for any insights you can provide!

Does anyone know roughly when casting is announced? It would make sense that they should announce before Friends booking so can we presume Autumn casting to be announced late June?

Re crime - I actually felt incredibly safe travelling in Russia. The metro stations have cctv and guards (admittedly not necessarily in the trains themselves) and so I would say your risk of getting pickpocketed is the same as in every other major city (London/Rome etc). In short - I wouldn't worry, just use your common sense. I think it helps if you dress in a way that doesn't particularly stand out and mark you as a tourist, and as in most places you look like you know where you're going so you don't make yourself a target. I found locals to be really helpful, and those that could speak English would often go out of their way to help and give directions/get us a taxi/just have a chat as they were interested in tourists! But definitely worth knowing a few words/reading a little bit of Cyrillic - to be honest you should be fine in central St Petersburg but if you do want to go elsewhere it may come in handy (but not necessary, I survived!). I went in 2017 if that's helpful, so before the Salisbury incident so not sure if being British now would give people a different perception, but I had no issues back then.

Ticket now sold

For the visa application you also have to come to London to give fingerprints. Mine cost around £120 two summers ago, although this was through an agency so slightly more expensive. As I was travelling independently and in hostels rather than hotels, I got my visa via Real Russia travel agency (I also booked my trans siberian train tickets with them). Obviously you pay a little more (but actually it was fairly reasonable I thought for the service they offered), and still have to fill out a lot of paperwork but it does take a lot of the pressure off, so depending on how convenient it is for you to get to London and how much of a risk you want to take booking hotels in advance for the visa paperwork I would recommend them. (Of course what a lot of people do is book hotels and then cancel them later but I didn't really want to do this). If you're staying longer than a week (I think it's a week but double check this) you also need to ensure you get registered with the local police - a lot of nice hotels will do this for you but hostels/airbnbs won't. I have to say I was never asked for this paperwork either in Russia or when leaving Russia but I didn't want to fall foul of Russian bureaucracy. One way to circumvent the visa is by coming via an organised cruise (from Helsinki etc) and staying less than 48/72 hours but I spent four days in St Petersburg and the city and sights are definitely worth at least this, if not more if you want to do day trips to the palaces so I highly recommend a longer stay if you can afford it! St Petersburg is beautiful and well worth it though!

Catherine Palace is lovely, and so is Peterhof, though I would only go to Peterhof is the weather is nice as the fountains are glorious in the sunshine. Didn't look inside Peterhof actually, but the grounds are worth a visit. Catherine Palace is a must see but be warned if you go without a tour the queues can be long so plan to get there early. I don't know if I would say the city is walkable - generally the main sights are quite close but it depends where you're staying. You have to walk a lot of the time anyway as unlike central London each metro stop can be a 10-15 minute walk away anyway (rather than 5 in London). Generally I found the city to be incredibly touristy (and this is compared to Florence/Rome etc). By this I mean that whilst a lot of other European cities have a good mix of independent travellers and tour groups, I found St Petersburg to be primarily tour groups with little independent travellers. This made things like the museums/palaces a bit of a pain, as huge tour groups would get priority and queue jump and the sites didn't really seem that helpful for independent travellers (e.g. getting to Catherine Palace independently on a local bus is doable but the bus has no clear stops announced so you need to be paying attention and when it looks busy indicate you want to go to Catherine Palace to the locals around you and they'll tell you to get off). This meant in my experience, in other cities where I could do a few sites in one day, with St Petersburg I found it was best to focus on one main priority sight I wanted to see that day, and then have a list of additional things which I would do if I had time but it depended entirely upon queues and how busy the priority sight was. In short - it's a beautiful city but don't expect to do too much otherwise you may exhaust yourself - pick one 'must see' each day and then plan around that. And depending on finances you may want to join a few group tours if time is precious, as this will enable you to queue jump in certain venues as well as arrange transportation for Catherine Palace/Peterhof. Enjoy!

Hi, yes it’s still available - PM me if you’re interested.

Potentially too early to be advertising this but one ticket for the Firebird mixed bill opening night. Tuesday 4th June 7.30pm start Amphi P58 (central seat) - selling at face value for £18 E-ticket so can forward on the email following bank transfer. Happy to PM proof of ticket beforehand. Essentially I'm keen to go but I have a ticket for the following week anyway, and I will have only just seen R&J on the 1st plus just back from holiday so thought it may be better to have a little (one week!) break and only go once! If it doesn't sell now will re-advertise closer to the time, or return to ROH box office.

Hi Ruth, Have messaged you.