Fonty Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 13 hours ago, JennyTaylor said: This reminds me when I went to a football match in Nice (very low key) and they confiscated a bottle of Sun cream. What did they think I was going to do with it?? I managed to retrieve it at half time We had the same thing happen when we attended a football match at Wembley, as part of the London Olympics. The security there was stringent, and one of things they confiscated were the tops to our water bottles! We were allowed to take the empty bottle in, minus the tops, and get them filled at various places for free, so it wasn't to make us buy bottled water once we were inside. When I queried this, they said it was to stop debris being thrown on to the pitch. So what was to stop us lobbing our empty (or full) water bottles then? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 the 'not-so-opened-up' new ROH Why-oh-why-oh-why, is the bar area outside the amphitheatre restaurant (on the old terrace, if you turned left after going through the doors) STILL roped off? That area has heaters and lighting an nice tables and chairs/sofas - and no one can use them. I have been to 4 shows so far this season, and only on one occasion was there anyone using that area - one table occupied by 2 couples. Everyone has to squash into the 'bar-stool' area (great if you're young and able to get on them - though I suppose they are trying to replace us old regulars with student age patrons, so I suppose it makes sense) or go outside into the cold, now that the seasonal weather kicking in. I know they are supposed to be for overspill from the restaurant, but I've not once seen that more then 2/3rds full. Be nice if they gave us back that area - and I would understand if we got turfed out now and then, if the restaurant really was overfull. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 4 minutes ago, Fonty said: We had the same thing happen when we attended a football match at Wembley, as part of the London Olympics. The security there was stringent, and one of things they confiscated were the tops to our water bottles! We were allowed to take the empty bottle in, minus the tops, and get them filled at various places for free, so it wasn't to make us buy bottled water once we were inside. When I queried this, they said it was to stop debris being thrown on to the pitch. So what was to stop us lobbing our empty (or full) water bottles then? the 'logic' (and I use the term loosely) for this is baffling. They do the same at gig venues. So you pay a king's ransom to see your fave band, with the sole intention of lobbing a full water bottle at them. That sort of thinking is just daft! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliceinwoolfland Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 I was a bit disappointed with the new spaces last night. Lots of beige, and the basement area did feel like an uninspiring museum cafe. Imagine how much more beautiful it could have been if the ROH had found a way to blend it with the old spaces - quirky chandeliers, hanging pointe shoes, murals made of costume fabric scraps, artwork across the walls, modern furniture with red velvet upholstery.... The Amphi bar felt more like a corridor than a bar, and my ticket and bag were not checked at all which was a tad disconcerting. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timmie Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 (edited) 24 minutes ago, Fonty said: So what was to stop us lobbing our empty (or full) water bottles then? It is to stop you throwing full water bottles - which would hurt on impact. A bottle with top off will lose a lot of water in-flight I guess. Simple way round it is to take spare tops with you... Edit: I just tested throwing a topless bottle in the garden and a little more than half the water stayed in the bottle, which would hurt a bit less I suppose. Fortunately not yet an issue at ROH. Edited October 28, 2018 by Timmie 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esmeralda Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 25 minutes ago, Timmie said: It is to stop you throwing full water bottles - which would hurt on impact. A bottle with top off will lose a lot of water in-flight I guess. Simple way round it is to take spare tops with you... Okay, this explanation makes actually sense! Now I need a logical reason why once I wasn´t allowed to take a pillow in an audience room - they said it was of safety reasons because it was "inflammable". I wondered about my clothes and if I should leave them too but it was very chilly at this day so I decided against it😉 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 (edited) 59 minutes ago, Timmie said: It is to stop you throwing full water bottles - which would hurt on impact. A bottle with top off will lose a lot of water in-flight I guess. Simple way round it is to take spare tops with you... Edit: I just tested throwing a topless bottle in the garden and a little more than half the water stayed in the bottle, which would hurt a bit less I suppose. Fortunately not yet an issue at ROH. We are a very thorough bunch on this website, aren't we? 🙂 The things we do to understand the rules and regulations. Edited to add Esmeralda's post made me laugh out loud. I can feel a nude flash mob moment coming on, as we all storm the roped off amphitheatre bar area. Edited October 28, 2018 by Fonty 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 1 hour ago, Fonty said: We had the same thing happen when we attended a football match at Wembley, as part of the London Olympics. The security there was stringent, and one of things they confiscated were the tops to our water bottles! We were allowed to take the empty bottle in, minus the tops, and get them filled at various places for free, so it wasn't to make us buy bottled water once we were inside. When I queried this, they said it was to stop debris being thrown on to the pitch. So what was to stop us lobbing our empty (or full) water bottles then? The O2 used to do this; more recently they tried to stop me taking in a bottle of water; lid or not. I said I have to have water available at all times to take medication as soon as I need it, so they let me take it in (probably because I was using my wheelchair tbh). Apparently the reasoning behind removing the lid is because if you throw a full bottle with the lid, it can cause a substantial injury. You can of course throw it without the lid but the water would empty out to a degree so by the time it reaches its target it would be either lighter or empty. Edited to add that I’ve just read Timmie’s post! ☺️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thalia Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 On 14/10/2018 at 12:27, Thalia said: The “in” and “out” is now very clear but they’ve changed the former “in” door to be the “out” door in the ladies, which has the potential to cause some severe door bashing to anyone coming out of the disabled toilet. A near miss happened on Monday at the rehearsal. I noticed last night that the “in” and “out” doors have been changed back. Someone is listening! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graemew Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 For the last two days (Sat and Sunday) at 1pm the Ampitheatre Bar has been either totally closed, or not selling coffee, and indeed not very helpful at all! The downstairs area (the bit that looks like Ikea) was very quiet and if you made it up the escalator to the closed bar/roped off outside area you had difficulty getting back down as the down escalator was off. It did seem a little as though "Open Up" was "Closed Down". 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 Perhaps a minority view but I've been very impressed with ticket checking and bag checking during the first two instalments of the Ring. My ticket was checked for Rheingold and all three Acts of Walkure. Dreadful journey after visiting friends in Wiltshire with yet again the overhead wires damaged out of Paddington so trains were terminating at Reading and everyone was having to pile on to the Waterloo trains - a two hour journey rather than 30 minutes. Made Act 1 with a few minutes to spare, no time to check in at the hotel, bag properly checked at the entrance and very effective cloakroom service to leave my bag and collect at the end. Teething problems seem to me to being dealt with. As an aside La Ballerina really does have catering for multiple suppers during the long interval down to a fine art with preordering and cold staters already at the tables. And a fabulous Walkure, particularly Acts 2 and 3 - not the best Sieglinde/Hunding so Act 1 was not great and I'd been slightly disappointed by Rheingold as I felt very little sympathy for any characters and there wasn't that much differentiation between singers/volumes. But Walkure Acts 2 and 3 were special - Nina Stemme (after her opening Ho jo to hos) and John Lundgren outstanding. And so good to see the production stripped down to essentials in Act 3 where less is definitely more - some of Rheingold and the earlier Walkure Acts just seemed a little too busy/fussy. Looking forward to the next instalments and of course Bayedere Rehearsal and the final Mayerling with Bonelli/Morera. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 11 hours ago, Anna C said: Apparently the reasoning behind removing the lid is because if you throw a full bottle with the lid, it can cause a substantial injury. You can of course throw it without the lid but the water would empty out to a degree so by the time it reaches its target it would be either lighter or empty. Well, when I went to the O2 to watch the RB in Romeo & Juliet, we were told that it could be a hazard (we were sitting in the arena) if they had to evacuate the place in an emergency because the bottles might get kicked over and trip people up. So we were allowed in with no lids on the bottles - and you can guess what happened, can't you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 Incidentally, there were some seemingly persistent sweet-wrapper (or possibly plastic bag?) rustlers in the Upper Slips last night. All 3 acts, I think it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliceinwoolfland Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 Does anyone know anything about this? https://www.roh.org.uk/functions/roh-late From the description it sounds amazing, but the weird photo is putting me off......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 Oops, just found this sitting in my editor, so I obviously didn't get around to finishing it! I really can't get over how confusing it is there now, with all these levels. Considering that I've been going to the place ever since it reopened, and for well over a decade before that, I'm finding it really disconcerting without the names of the individual tiers. The other day I was amphi right, went down loads of stairs and assumed I must be nearly at the bottom, then suddenly ran into the usual traffic jam and realised I was only at Grand Tier level! I can appreciate that it must be useful for the ushers, though, as they can see simply which door they need to point people to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninamargaret Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 and strange that they still use the 'old' descriptions like Orchestra Stalls etc on the web site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 49 minutes ago, ninamargaret said: and strange that they still use the 'old' descriptions like Orchestra Stalls etc on the web site. Let's hope they haven't got their eye on that next! (Though maybe they have enough other problems with the website at the moment...). My sister has very generously got tickets in the Orchestra Stalls for us this evening; would it really sound so exciting to be going to 'level 1' or whatever it is? It's all part of the romance of going to the theatre. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob S Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 3 hours ago, bridiem said: My sister has very generously got tickets in the Orchestra Stalls for us this evening; would it really sound so exciting to be going to 'level 1' or whatever it is? It's all part of the romance of going to the theatre. Give it a couple of years and the Orchestra Stalls will officially be known as ‘Level 1 presented by Rolex’ 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 Ha ha Rob S 😂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob S Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 (edited) .....’Level 5 in association with Specsavers’.... Edited October 30, 2018 by Rob S 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 The Donald Gordon Grand Tier... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob S Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 2 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said: The Donald Gordon Grand Tier... No, no, no....Emirates Level 3....one of the entrances to which can be named the Donald Gordon Doors after a lengthy protest march outside the building, ‘Abu Dhabi Dome: London’ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl H Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 1 hour ago, Rob S said: Give it a couple of years and the Orchestra Stalls will officially be known as ‘Level 1 presented by Rolex’ That Rolex watch was driving me mad, I changed my home page back to the original one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 Carpets and furniture brought to you by Ikea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 7 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said: Carpets and furniture brought to you by Ikea. I love Ikea (but possibly not in ROH)! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 Well, the way the carpet looked a week ago, they’d be better getting sponsorship from Shake & Vac! Sponsorship opportunities abound. Airwick could utilise their plug in air fresheners to dampen down the aroma of fish. The butter portions in the restaurant have been reduced to one smear between two so a great opportunity for I Can’t Believe it’s not Butter Then there’s the stage sets: Virgin Space Programme pleased to bring us the Fly Tower. Rudolf’s marital bed courtesy of Vi- Spring. okay, enough now. Train arriving Waterloo for tonight’s performance. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 41 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said: Well, the way the carpet looked a week ago, they’d be better getting sponsorship from Shake & Vac! Thanks Penelope ... I have now got the Shake & Vac ear worm!!! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninamargaret Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 Arrived early their evening, Bow Street entrance. Asked if they'd like to see my ticket. No, but could they check my bag? I commented that I hadn't had this done since,Open Up and was told that they were still ironing out one or two jinxes!! Took the lift to the PH, got stuck in it, with no light on. Found an alarm, and eventually the door,which had got stuck, opened. Fabulous first act of Mayerling after all that. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graemew Posted November 4, 2018 Share Posted November 4, 2018 Nit-picking perhaps, but at the intervals between last night's Bayadere performance, the male loo on level 5 was in a state, as was the ladies apparently (my wife tells me). Previously (probably on 100+ visits) the loos have been manicured between intervals, but this definitely hadn't happened. Is this because they are now in more continuous use? Also those terrible door signs! I usually wait in the corridor while my wife uses the facilities. People are getting terribly confused because the over-large printed-paper signs take all their attention and they fail to see the small "male" and "female" icons and seem transfixed. Why not replace them temporarily with the m/f icons on them too? Always amazed at the agility a lady has in escaping from the gents loo having picked the wrong IN 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thalia Posted November 4, 2018 Share Posted November 4, 2018 I found the “experience” of going to the ROH was lessened somewhat by staff waiting all gloved up with vacuum cleaners as everyone streamed out last night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graemew Posted November 4, 2018 Share Posted November 4, 2018 18 minutes ago, Thalia said: I found the “experience” of going to the ROH was lessened somewhat by staff waiting all gloved up with vacuum cleaners as everyone streamed out last night. Didn't notice that last night. In fact I was surprised that the level 5 and g/f bars were still serving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl H Posted November 4, 2018 Share Posted November 4, 2018 1 hour ago, graemew said: Also those terrible door signs! I usually wait in the corridor while my wife uses the facilities. People are getting terribly confused because the over-large printed-paper signs take all their attention and they fail to see the small "male" and "female" icons and seem transfixed. Why not replace them temporarily with the m/f icons on them too? Always amazed at the agility a lady has in escaping from the gents loo having picked the wrong IN I did this on my first visit 3 weeks ago, walked in, thought "what on earth have they done to this room", suddenly realised it was the gents, and just avoided crashing into a man entering Other things last night, the Piazza Doors were broken , just when I wanted to get away quickly, and the cold weather had cleared people off the amphi terrace so was able to sit and eat my own modest food, don't feel guilty now because everyone is doing it, but why couldn't they have sliding glass windows here as well, probably to stop people eating their own food, it did feel cosy and warm by the bar stools! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graemew Posted November 4, 2018 Share Posted November 4, 2018 (edited) 19 minutes ago, Beryl H said: I did this on my first visit 3 weeks ago, walked in, thought "what on earth have they done to this room", suddenly realised it was the gents, and just avoided crashing into a man entering Other things last night, the Piazza Doors were broken , just when I wanted to get away quickly, and the cold weather had cleared people off the amphi terrace so was able to sit and eat my own modest food, don't feel guilty now because everyone is doing it, but why couldn't they have sliding glass windows here as well, probably to stop people eating their own food, it did feel cosy and warm by the bar stools! The broken doors were a godsend! When they were working it was near impossible to get through without them stopping mid-revolution due to over sensitive sensors. A staff member had to stand by telling people trying to get in to "keep walking" to clear the sensor behind them and get the doors started again. So not only did you go into the gents, but you exited by the "in" door! Did you not see the OUT on the other door, it was big enough. haha! You have to agree that the ROH is giving access to more areas as part of the Open Up programme. Edited November 4, 2018 by graemew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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