Bruce Wall Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) All relatively smooth here ... got everything I wanted ... short of the Amphi standing for opening Giselle (everything was gone so had to settle for a slip at extra dosh) and no amphi standing AT ALL for ANY performance of Cav/Pag. That said the queue went through very quickly and there were no itinerant messages. Might now the ROH's website problems have been sorted for good? (If so perhaps we should just lie low rather than tempt fate.) How did others find it? Edited October 21, 2015 by Bruce Wall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Poor selection of tickets for virtually everything I wanted: haven't got *any* of Osipova's scheduled performances - not helped by the Two Pigeons programme being priced as a full-length rather than a mixed bill, which seriously reduces the number of "seats" I can get. That said, queuing lasted all of 5 minutes, which is a lot better than 2 hours! Bemused to see what I'd been told were the new day seats being sold online for several performances. *Very* disappointed to see that one of the Nunez/Muntagirov Giselles is amphi-barred: given that one of their other performances is the cinema one, this effectively only left me one date. Still, things were so slow that I've come out with a grand total of 5 tickets. Will have to go back in and get others some other time. Think ROH should perhaps make it clear that, while you have 60 minutes to select your first ticket, you still have only 30 to complete the transaction? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodlandGladeFairy Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) I also had a good experience with the ROH general booking for Winter 15/16 only queued for 5 mins & secured 3 tickets for Giselle with Marinela Nunez & Vadim Muntagiro on 6th April which was what I wanted!!!! Orchestral stalls as well Edited October 21, 2015 by WoodlandGladeFairy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A frog Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) Bruce, Cav/Pag was put on sale the previous season, that might explain the absence of anything truly cheap. Things did run smoothly for me as well, though I'm a bit disappointed with availability and wonder if they still keep tickets for general public for all performances, the Nunez/Muntagirov Giselle I was looking at had a fully booked amphi by 9.05. Also a lot fewer SCS than I'd become used to the past couple booking days (I did get one for Takada's Giselle, which had a surprisingly high number available, but it was the only performance I checked that did). ETA: apparently that Giselle might have amphi tickets for students only, their others weren't much better anyway. Edited October 21, 2015 by A frog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coated Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Good for smooth booking, bad for getting SCS or rehearsal tickets. Def a large improvement over 501 errors 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Actually, I spoke too soon: the site has seized up every time I've tried booking for Elizabeth. Oh well, the tickets were horribly expensive, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 *Distinctly* happier bunny now 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Disabled-friendly comfortable seats for Nuñez/Muntagirov Giselle booked and confirmed within 12 minutes - I nearly fell out of bed with the shock! Must be the quickest booking I've ever made. Expensive though - if I remember rightly, £15 more than the same band of seats for Manon last year? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmhopton Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 In and out fairly quickly and mainly got seats I wanted. Because of the lack of amphi seats for Vadim's Giselle on 31st March went to stalls circle and got a ticket there for this and the Rhapsody mixed bill matinee Jan 23rd. Not been in the stalls circle for ages so it will be interesting to see how it compares with the amphi. Seat No's C27 and B23. Does anyone have any idea what the viewing will be like? It didn't look too bad from the seat photo. be interesting to see the dancers up close and personals for a change rather than peering at them through my binoculars in the amphi. Got reasonable amphi seats for the Rhapsody mixed bill matinee on Jan 16th and 30th.Didn't intend to book for Osipova's Giselle but couldn't resist looking and got a really good stalls circle standing for the opening night; what a bargain at £10! Can't remember the last time I had a standing ticket as I never even bother looking normally, thinking they'll all have been sold. Perhaps someone had just returned it from their basket. Despite the warnings about not been suitable for 'those of small stature' presumably at 5ft 2" I'll be ok. I seem to think I was before. Like Alison previously I think the ROH should make it clear about the 60 minute and 30 minute buying restrictions. Like most people I suspect because I was rushing I only saw the 60 minute time and then relaxed thinking I had loads of time to select and then got a shock when I was in the middle of selecting and realised I only had 10 minutes to go! Only other thing I didn't like is when you clicked 'continue shopping' it didn't take you back to the winter booking period and you had to go to the bottom of the page and click again on it and then whatever ballet you wanted. Just adds extra time if you're in a rush to beat the 30 minute deadline. However, apart from this the whole experience was quite stress free and I do appreciate them changing the opening day to Wednesday as that's my day off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billboyd Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 It would seem there were more SC standing available today than on Supporting Friends day. Makes you wonder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluebird Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 It would seem there were more SC standing available today than on Supporting Friends day. Makes you wonder. That's probably because they released the SCS places originally reserved for students 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billboyd Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) Still makes you (one) wonder..... - even more... Edited October 21, 2015 by billboyd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) Only other thing I didn't like is when you clicked 'continue shopping' it didn't take you back to the winter booking period and you had to go to the bottom of the page and click again on it and then whatever ballet you wanted. Just adds extra time if you're in a rush to beat the 30 minute deadline. To repeat a tip I have given on a previous thread, bookmark the following link to the list of everything going on sale today: http://www.roh.org.uk/events/booking/20151021 And every time a "booking day" is coming up, amend the date code at the end of the URL in your bookmark to match the date in question. Then when you have selected a ticket and are in your shopping basket, instead of clicking on "Continue Shopping", all you need to do is return to your bookmark to select your next date. Edited October 21, 2015 by RuthE 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 That's probably because they released the SCS places originally reserved for students Still makes you (one) wonder..... - even more... Don't forget that there is absolutely nothing to stop you, as a Supporting Friend, going back and making an additional booking as a member of the general public once spare student tickets have been released for sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billboyd Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Yes, RuthE - but, it still begs the question..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coated Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) Don't forget that there is absolutely nothing to stop you, as a Supporting Friend, going back and making an additional booking as a member of the general public once spare student tickets have been released for sale. Turns the whole thing into quite a lottery though - you'd have to either not buy for performances in your 'friends' booking at the off chance that you get a SCS in public booking (I didn't see any....), or you end up with tickets you won't need and hope that they return / resell. There is a lot made of how lovely it is to provide student tickets but the fact that they remove low price option from the wider population is happily ignored. If someone wants to donate money to make cheap ticket available to students, why not allocate some seats at lower cost instead of handing over a bunch of of the decent-ish cheaper options? And let's be realistic: how many students actually want to stand? If they are not hardened opera/ballet-nuts already, standing tickets aren't going to persuade most of them that going to the ROH is great fun. Do I sound a bit curmudgeonly? That's because I am after I 'had' (fair enough, I could stay home) to buy a relatively costly seat a few times when no decent cheapos were left in my booking period only to have students standing behind me that can't stand still for 2 minutes, fidget loudly through the entire first act and then don't come back after the interval. Edited October 21, 2015 by Coated 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petunia Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 No luck with "Elizabeth"... sold out for the days I'll be in London in January *sigh* . There are no day-tickets for the Linbury as far as I have understood. Oh well. Will post a WANTED and hope for the best. But I've got a ticket for the Ashton matinee with Hayward/Hay! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 It would seem there were more SC standing available today than on Supporting Friends day.Makes you wonder. Or presumably if people can afford to be a supporting friend I would have thought they have no need to buy cheap seats/standing places surely?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Keep looking, Petunia. Only other thing I didn't like is when you clicked 'continue shopping' it didn't take you back to the winter booking period and you had to go to the bottom of the page and click again on it and then whatever ballet you wanted. Just adds extra time if you're in a rush to beat the 30 minute deadline. I'm not sure it ever has done. I just click the "Back" button. It would seem there were more SC standing available today than on Supporting Friends day. That's probably because they released the SCS places originally reserved for students Must have been invisible ones, then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Or presumably if people can afford to be a supporting friend I would have thought they have no need to buy cheap seats/standing places surely?! A lot of people join the Friends simply so they have a better chance of getting the cheap tickets. Personally, I look at Friends membership purely as the number of performances I would have to sacrifice in order to pay for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Or presumably if people can afford to be a supporting friend I would have thought they have no need to buy cheap seats/standing places surely?! Why would you think that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pasdedeux Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 It would seem there were more SC standing available today than on Supporting Friends day. Makes you wonder. Turns the whole thing into quite a lottery though - you'd have to either not buy for performances in your 'friends' booking at the off chance that you get a SCS in public booking (I didn't see any....), or you end up with tickets you won't need and hope that they return / resell. There is a lot made of how lovely it is to provide student tickets but the fact that they remove low price option from the wider population is happily ignored. If someone wants to donate money to make cheap ticket available to students, why not allocate some seats at lower cost instead of handing over a bunch of of the decent-ish cheaper options? And let's be realistic: how many students actually want to stand? If they are not hardened opera/ballet-nuts already, standing tickets aren't going to persuade most of them that going to the ROH is great fun. Do I sound a bit curmudgeonly? That's because I am after I 'had' (fair enough, I could stay home) to buy a relatively costly seat a few times when no decent cheapos were left in my booking period only to have students standing behind me that can't stand still for 2 minutes, fidget loudly through the entire first act and then don't come back after the interval. As a student, I can understand how our SCS ticket allocation has been off-putting for others. But I do think it has had a tremendous impact on accessibility. I might point out that it's very rare that casual, uninterested students manage to get SCS seats. Even though they are released exclusively for us, they are still gone by 9:30am, as was the case this Monday. Thus most of those 'annoying' members standing behind you are articulately passionate members of the community. There are many students like me who visit the ROH at least once every month, if not fortnight, and who like to see different casts within the same productions. Undoubtedly, we are the greatest beneficiaries. Case in point, I secured standing tickets to 3 Giselle performances (Osipovax2, Lamb/Hiranox1), Tosca and EO within a comfortable five minutes. There are many of us; at any point in the SCS, I'll run into at least three fellow students who are equally devoted. I also suspect that there are many more senior audience members abusing student accounts (perhaps using a young family member's details) to reserve these seats - at least two people have blatantly admitted this to me before. One of these people I see nearly every single time I attend a ballet performance, always in one of the most central standing places. It is aggravating, to say the least. But it is not at us that the initiative is aimed - we who would begrudgingly pay for more expensive seats if the scheme wasn't there. Even though it is rare, it does happen that students have somehow meandered into the SCS places without much previous knowledge of understanding of either opera or ballet. But nearly always, they are tremendously moved. It is most likely their first journey to the ROH; instead of craning down to see 1/4 of the stage from the upper slips or basically nothing at all from the balcony standing places (which really shouldn't be sold - the most dreadful place in the entire house) they receive full access to a sublime performance. I remember, last season, watching L'elisir D'amore beside a self-proclaimed first timer who sneezed and fidgeted so much I thought he was dying of boredom. To my surprise, however, that I heard a loud sniff during Nemorino's aria and glanced around to see him crying profusely. It was almost laughable. I have seen him at least twice since. It is the same elsewhere; in my degree of roughly two hundred people, at least fifty of them have graced the ROH before which is a disproportionately large amount. At least some of them have taken advantage of the SCS, and it is these people who are most likely to return. It becomes a new enjoyment to explore and slowly they delve deeper and deeper into the somewhat inaccessible art forms to become the audiences of tomorrow. Strangely, I feel perversely proud whenever I see this. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Why would you think that?Because it costs a bomb...well to me anyway! I've given up being a Friend because that's too dear now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 A lot of people join the Friends simply so they have a better chance of getting the cheap tickets. Personally, I look at Friends membership purely as the number of performances I would have to sacrifice in order to pay for it.That's how I viewed Friends and why I gave it up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A frog Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Why would you think that? I wonder why the ROH doesn't allow memberships to be paid for monthly by direct debit, I suspect more people would be tempted to upgrade which surely they would be happy with. A premium membership (and if there are no SCS tickets left at supporting level, it means that is when they are bought) still has the SCS tickets at reasonably good value (assuming one then buys as many tickets as allowed per production which is likely the case anyway at that level), but as a one-off payment it is quite a lot compared to a £10 ticket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 The fact is, the best Stalls Circle and Balcony standing places provide the sort of quality of view that you'd generally pay a minimum of ten times the price for in a seat. I go to the ROH for both opera and ballet, at least once a week from September to July and often more. Just because I could afford to pay more than, say, £10 a time, doesn't mean I can afford £100. Let's say a good standing place is £10 and my actual price limit is £15-20. I'd far rather have the view you get from an amazing standing place than be crammed up into the Upper Amphitheatre or Lower Slips with a distant or restricted view for £20. If my Friends membership ends up working out as a surcharge of a couple of pounds per standing ticket over the course of a year, that's still within my price range, and therefore represents money very well spent. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 I might add to the above that if I weren't such a regular attender, I almost certainly wouldn't bother with membership and would put the money I'd saved towards better tickets. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 I wonder why the ROH doesn't allow memberships to be paid for monthly by direct debit, I suspect more people would be tempted to upgrade which surely they would be happy with. A premium membership (and if there are no SCS tickets left at supporting level, it means that is when they are bought) still has the SCS tickets at reasonably good value (assuming one then buys as many tickets as allowed per production which is likely the case anyway at that level), but as a one-off payment it is quite a lot compared to a £10 ticket. A very good idea. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Booking easy, but choice restricted. I am not a Friend but as I come from a long way off I like to buy good tickets for the 6 or so visits I make per year. It is impossible to get Grand Tier which all seem to be hoovered up by the friends which is irritating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodlandGladeFairy Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 I live out in the sticks so when I go up to London to see the Royal Ballet I am prepared to pay for decent seats though I'd love to be able to see multiple casts of a production and try out different locations in the theatre. As it is I always try to go for the orchestra stalls, as its my treat for my once or twice (or if I'm lucky three!) a year trip to see the Royal Ballet. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewinelake Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Having been quite pleased to get seats for Giselle, I now find that the girls have 50% chance of their ballet exams on that evening!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 I live out in the sticks so when I go up to London to see the Royal Ballet I am prepared to pay for decent seats though I'd love to be able to see multiple casts of a production and try out different locations in the theatre. As it is I always try to go for the orchestra stalls, as its my treat for my once or twice (or if I'm lucky three!) a year trip to see the Royal Ballet. I have the same problem which is why I go for good seats, like you. Grand Tier is my absolute favourite. It's always a marathon - I leave home at 13.00 and get back about 03.00 the next day but its almost always worth it. Oh for a decent late night train service - hanging around at Waterloo in the small hours is no fun! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 I don't think anywhere is: I can say from personal experience that Victoria isn't, and killing 1/2 an hour at Clapham Junction late at night is absolutely no fun either. I remember trying to eke out a trip to the Sainsbury's to fill a long gap, and it was really difficult. It's not so bad if they actually announce the platform for the train so you can at least sit in it, but they quite often don't do that until 5 minutes before departure time, and of course at CJ they can't do it at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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