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Post by melly on May 6, 2020 9:37:41 GMT
I'm going straight to the chargeback option through my credit card. Was already refused a full refund for my Back to the Future booking and the way ATG is behaving is not only ridiculous but illegal.
I am happily taking an exchange with DMT who have been completely up front and requested people do so, while offering an incentive up front, if you CHOOSE not to take a refund.
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Post by melly on Jan 18, 2019 22:00:36 GMT
I paid nothing for the seat, didn't make the sea of moving people any less distracting, and there wasn't anyone in the seat in front of me. Just giving a helpful warning to anyone booking, as the cheaper back rows seem to be getting a lot of recommendation based on the usual layout. Pillars, balconies, edges of circles and overhangs don't move, people do. Personally, I'm way more distracted/bothered by that than having to peer uncomfortably because of a restricted view, and just wanted to give people that extra piece of information to consider. In no way, shape or form could those seats be described as "restricted view", and the rake is significantly steeper than the rake in the stalls of most West End theatres. It's a non-issue. For those of us who actually have to pay for our theatre tickets, more expensive seats are not always an option. As I said, for the price they're charging, those seats are reasonable value, possibly better value than the more expensive balcony seats, and better value than they have been for other productions in the same venue. When price enters the equation, sometimes you have to be prepared to compromise. I have no idea who you are or why you've felt the need to tear apart my posts, without even reading them correctly, but I won't bother trying to post advice to help others in future.
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Post by melly on Jan 18, 2019 20:22:38 GMT
I would be wary of being cheap and booking the back rows. I was row T, and the angle you're watching at is much steeper than it was designed to be, because the stage is so much further forward. So every head, in every seat, in front of you is potentially an issue. I was much more aware of the rest of the audience than I should have been, because I was looking down across them, rather than over.
For other shows in that theatre, that back row has been on sale at the same price as non-premium stalls seats further forward. At £21, based on the layout for this, it is reasonable value, and possibly better value than the (more expensive) balcony seats. Even given the rake, the view will be better than it usually is from the side benches they've replaced. The view won't be as good as it is from the first couple of rows, but - newsflash! - the view from the cheap seats is never as good as the view from more expensive ones, and paying more isn't always an option.
I paid nothing for the seat, didn't make the sea of moving people any less distracting, and there wasn't anyone in the seat in front of me. Just giving a helpful warning to anyone booking, as the cheaper back rows seem to be getting a lot of recommendation based on the usual layout. Pillars, balconies, edges of circles and overhangs don't move, people do. Personally, I'm way more distracted/bothered by that than having to peer uncomfortably because of a restricted view, and just wanted to give people that extra piece of information to consider. Also, I paid £16 to see it with Sutton Foster, so £21 to look at people's heads isn't great value!
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Post by melly on Jan 17, 2019 22:14:33 GMT
I would be wary of being cheap and booking the back rows. I was row T, and the angle you're watching at is much steeper than it was designed to be, because the stage is so much further forward. So every head, in every seat, in front of you is potentially an issue. I was much more aware of the rest of the audience than I should have been, because I was looking down across them, rather than over.
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Post by melly on Dec 3, 2018 15:31:42 GMT
Could somebody please remind me how to get around the empty seat rule when booking on the Delfont Mackintosh website? I managed it last time and can't work it out now. There's three seats left rear dress circle for tonight and I want two of them! Put the one you don't want in your basket in a different browser/your phone, then that should free the other two up to buy.
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Post by melly on Sept 30, 2018 15:09:11 GMT
I liked how all of the rooms, including the carriages of the subway train were a cool, minimal, flat grey. Totally at odds with the description of “cosy” or “homey” from Andy (who is an airline pilot, not cabin crew which might be deemed a bit of a cop out) but they’re lit with beautiful pastel coloured borders. All of the cast are in very muted tones except Bobbie who is flouncing around in almost neon orange and red all night. The centre of attention of course. I thought it looked stunning. I'm pretty sure Bobbie said at least once he's a flight attendant. His costume is confusingly more pilot like, but I don't think they gave him a 'male upgrade' to pilot.
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Company
Sept 30, 2018 9:36:29 GMT
via mobile
Post by melly on Sept 30, 2018 9:36:29 GMT
Would recommend avoiding the extreme sides for this, as the 'rooms' create a lot of extra corners so you miss more than you normally would. I was in the dress circle slips which were still great for the price, but people being hidden in corners, even when right in the middle of the stage, got frustrating. I'm in the slips when I go- are they extremely bad? I've been hesitating in paying a bit more for a better seat, think I might have to! I wouldn't say extremely bad. I was in A3, the one closest to the stage so had the 'worst' spot and it was more annoying than bad, and I don't think I missed anything important. And I was also really close and had paid way less than the people basically directly below me. Personally I'd say more avoid ends of rows that are still full price and you're missing all those moments, but for slips price it's fine.
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Company
Sept 29, 2018 22:04:33 GMT
via mobile
Steve likes this
Post by melly on Sept 29, 2018 22:04:33 GMT
Saw it tonight and loved it. Not Getting Married was definitely the highlight for me, and Richard's very small pants!
Would recommend avoiding the extreme sides for this, as the 'rooms' create a lot of extra corners so you miss more than you normally would. I was in the dress circle slips which were still great for the price, but people being hidden in corners, even when right in the middle of the stage, got frustrating.
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Post by melly on Sept 29, 2018 9:39:16 GMT
I've just returned a single £20 upper circle slips seat for March 12th, if anyone is looking for a cheap ticket. I personally find Jamael, Rachelle and Sifiso's performances really disappointing and had been hoping they'd be gone. Does the alternate do the midweek matinee normally or is it Jamael? It's currently Monday for Ash.
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Post by melly on Aug 25, 2018 18:48:35 GMT
I’m still wondering how Viagogo can successfully sell these tickets. How? Are they sending credit cards to be swiped to the buyers? The photo ID thing I can see how they get around because the staff aren’t all that thorough in their checks. It's surely only worth it if the seller can be long gone with the money, before the buyer is turned away from the theatre. If this is possible, then Viagogo would have to cover every refund themselves, and you'd think they'd stop allowing any Hamilton tickets to be listed. Or the seller goes along, which is what the line sitters on Broadway had to do for a while. I had a check for the tickets I have, and the prices are inflated enough that you'd still be making a profit.
In this case, even if the listing hadn't been spotted, it would have been discovered at the theatre when either my friend or the buyer turned up second, and the tickets had already been printed. As soon as they looked into it, only one person would have the correct ID and card.
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Post by melly on Aug 25, 2018 18:25:51 GMT
Was this booked in the "hacked" period from January? It was the 29th January release, yes, booked that first day. I already changed my password for that though, and it had been changed since.
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Post by melly on Aug 25, 2018 14:37:45 GMT
CHANGE YOUR TICKETMASTER PASSWORD NOW.
My friend's tickets were cancelled for being listed on viagogo by someone who hacked her account. When I went to change mine, my password had been changed, and so had another friend's who has a current Hamilton booking.
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Post by melly on Aug 21, 2018 22:04:30 GMT
I hear its going to Martine McCutheon in her triumphant return to the West End.... Vom. Just saying. The same response could be given to many of the genuine suggestions in this thread!
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Post by melly on Jun 2, 2018 23:36:46 GMT
The Victoria Palace is lovely and cool when you walk in, but too warm by the time the show starts and just gets warmer and warmer as the show goes on.
Southwark Playhouse is too hot, and if you're sitting near the front you may get to enjoy the pleasure of being sprayed with sweat as cast members twirl.
The Coliseum is blissfully cold.
Piccadilly theatre is okay temperature wise.
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Post by melly on Jun 2, 2018 20:32:25 GMT
I received an email from the Palladium/RUG offering a free upgrade to £65 seats on £39.50 tickets. Only usable if you have the actual email, just to note. And only midweek evenings during holiday time when folk are away. Fair enough, there are over 2500 seats to fill every single night. And I sat and went through every single date and it's only for upper circle seats which should be the discounted price in the first place. Claims nothing available in the stalls or dress circle when you're in the offer.
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Post by melly on May 29, 2018 11:33:56 GMT
Water was constantly dripping onto the front of the stage Problem with the drencher, perhaps? It was just in front of the proscenium arch, where there's a large speaker and a light right below, but we couldn't tell how far up it was coming from. It seemed be be dripping in front of the light though, so quite far forward and under the actual theatre roof.
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Post by melly on May 28, 2018 22:17:01 GMT
Show stopped for roughly 10 minutes then restarted with no more problems. Water was constantly dripping onto the front of the stage, right in front of the MD. Dripped onto King George throughout his first song, causing Waylon Jacobs to forget which line he was singing.
Then all the cast were eyeing the puddle and trying not to slip, before they were all called off stage.
There was apparently a downpour around the same time, but no idea if it was coming from outside or an A.C unit or something. It was quite a lot of water though.
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Post by melly on Apr 16, 2018 19:59:25 GMT
If the people in the front row tonight are part of the '23 times' group (which seems quite likely from what they're saying), they deserve any slagging off people want to throw at them. Squawking, squealing, whooping and fake laughing throughout. Generally any 'look at me' behaviour you can think of doing. They're not here to see the show, they're here to be seen.
They have friends around the theatre from what they're saying, but the 2 in front row (and to a lesser degree the one further along) are awful.
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Post by melly on Dec 21, 2017 18:50:29 GMT
Has anyone had a problem with the expired credit card workaround, when they came to swiping the card for your tickets? I'm also in the odd situation of holding 2 separate bookings for the same performance (2 sets of 2 seats, booked months apart). One was my first booking, on a now expired card, that I subsequently updated to my new card via Ticketmaster. The other booking was on this new card. How do I approach this - obviously, they're all under the same name, it's members of my family with me, but do I need to get the card swiped twice, or does the system cleverly know that the card has been used for 2 purchases for seats in different parts of the theatre, or do I need that original card (which I've kept) to get the original booking? I had what was actually one booking, but for seats either side of an aisle so they were separate. They had to swipe my card twice to get both tickets, wasn't an issue at all and just took a few extra seconds, so that shouldn't be an issue.
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Post by melly on Dec 16, 2017 1:21:37 GMT
I sat in AA14 for act 1 yesterday and it really shouldn't be sold for any price. My right leg could almost fit, pressed right against the wall in front which is a lovely rough wood just to make it even more pleasant, but I could not have my left leg in the space at all. I had to turn in the seat so my legs were in a space that luckily existed at the side of my seat. This meant having my head turned throughout so I also got neck ache.
I may count the view as even worse though. There's a curtain that doesn't pull fully back that blocked most of the view I may have had, and cast sat there frequently, pulling this even further forward. I spotted a seat and moved myself at the interval luckily. I noticed AA1, the equivalent seat on the opposite side, was also empty for act 2.
If you're taller than 4 and a half foot, or bigger than a size 4, you will be ridiculously uncomfortable. But if you're shorter than 5'4, you'll struggle to see anything at all. Leg room wasn't as bad in the other 3 seats, and I don't think the view was as drastically blocked, but the first and last seat in AA should definitely be avoided.
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Post by melly on Dec 10, 2017 16:30:38 GMT
Is there only one merchandise queue at this theatre? Considering the amount I have heard regarding the line being so large, they may benifit from a makeshift stand elsewhere in the theatre too of the more basic merchandise. Because some people just want a keyring or a magnet and its almost not worth the queuing haha. I heard an usher saying there was another one, but it's up in the Grand Circle, so inevitably a lot of people don't bother going up there. By the time I got into the auditorium at about 7.05 they had already closed the merchandise queue and weren't allowing anyone else to join it before the show started. We joined the queue for the Grand Circle Merchandise stand at 6.35 and didn't make it to the front until 7.05, after taking less than 5 minutes to get in from the main queue outside. The queue goes right down the outside stairs up to the Grand Circle, so I don't know if they'd allow anyone sitting elsewhere to even get to it anyway.
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Post by melly on Dec 9, 2017 23:20:42 GMT
Saw the show tonight, having previously seen it at The Public and on Broadway and after listening to the original cast many, many times and the only person I missed was Phillipa. It really didn't feel like it was only the 5th show and almost all of the cast are great and look and sound like they've been doing this for a while.
For those familiar with the obc, I found most of the london cast VERY similar, with Jefferson, Burr and Eliza the most different. I really enjoyed both Jason and Giles though, and despite being hyper aware of the lisp after all the discussion on here, it didn't bother me until the very last song where I felt the impact from Burr was lost. Jason, while very different from Dahveed, makes the role his own and I thought gave a great performance.
I am very surprised though with all the discussion of Giles' lisp, that no one has commented on Rachelle's (imo) awful diction and pronunciation of many sounds and letters. I'll admit I was unsure of her Eliza from the moment she sang the first Elizas, as her voice is very poppy which I didn't like. But I really didn't enjoy her performance from helpless onwards because I personally found her diction and pronunciation very distracting and off putting, and way worse than any lisp from Giles.
I thought she redeemed herself slightly in Burn as her acting was great, but for me she actually ruined the final song. Every word was missing part of it, and if I didn't already know the lyrics I wouldn't have a clue what Eliza did. I felt the final song completely lost its emotional impact because of this. There are certain sounds and words that Eliza says a lot, that she was unable to say throughout the show, and for me it really didn't work and pulled me out of the moment every time she sang.
I am still slightly bitter about losing my row b seats, but from the upper circle you do get the full impact of the lights and the revolve which are definitely well worth seeing from above and I would have totally missed this (again) from the front stalls. I'm not sure from what point in the stalls this would be visible, but I think they really add to the show and those that aren't booked yet should aim for further back/up, if possibel, to get the full impact.
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Post by melly on Nov 3, 2017 19:25:49 GMT
It's commercial theatre, not a charity so it's no surprise that they didn't give you premium seats since you didn't pay for premium seats. It is when other people were given premium seats, I wouldn't have expected it otherwise. And when I was specifically told it was totally sold out and there would definitely be no other seats available at any price. It's completely fair to expect if some can be given premium seats, then all should have been. If it's about not giving them to people who hadn't paid for them, no one should have got them.
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Post by melly on Nov 3, 2017 18:04:03 GMT
If anyone is still trying to get tickets, using Firefox (I tried it on a Mac, not sure about Windows) enables the seat map, which seems to be switched off for everyone else. Just had a look through a lot of dates and there's only really £200 premiums left or a handful of £100 boxes and a couple of restricted view rear stalls. Thank you so much for this tip! Every search I did on chrome gave me nothing unless I asked for premium. I wasn't going to pay £190 for the many premium seats coming up on the dates they told me were completely sold out, since I should have had them for my original £79, but they wouldn't reallocate me to a date I could actually attend. I just managed to grab the last two £32 upper circle seats in early December, nothing like my original row b stalls, but at least we're going and it cost less!
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Post by melly on Oct 3, 2017 17:53:46 GMT
I did wonder if re-seating was done in order of receipt of the form we all had to fill in. I know I did mine within minutes of them sending out the emails, and I do wonder if those who returned them first got served first. Any thoughts from those here? Oh, and the Evening Standard picked up on the story tonight, too. When I said that I'd been one of the very first to book, and had filled in the form within 2 hours, the guy said that everyone else must have filled it in before that 2 hours. So TM are claiming it was done in order of survey return, did everyone who has actually got something acceptable in December do theirs on that Friday before 3pm? It definitely wasn't done in booking order, or I would have got mine ahead of everyone who isn't DMT priority.
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Post by melly on Oct 3, 2017 17:00:43 GMT
1) It is my point! 2) How can it be nothing to do with DMT when a) you are directed to Ticketmaster from the DMT website and when b) they own the theatre and have publicised the completion date of the theatre restoration as October 2018, with tickets for performances being sold from November 2018? Cameron Mackintosh is the producer of the UK show (along with Jeffrey Seller) and he owns DMT, which owns Victoria Palace Theatre. In the Latest News update on CM’s website it looks like he thinks Ticketmaster will work their magic. When they don’t, and customers are dissatisied and frustrated, who's going to let him know? It won’t be Ticketmaster, that’s for sure... I agree with you completely, should have made it clearer that my post was what they said when I called, not what I thought (minus the final sentence). Although your point 2a is exactly why they couldn't do anything to actually help when it comes to bookings/tickets/cancellations, as they have no access to the ticket system themselves. I made it very clear how unhappy I was that the whole thing has been dealt with so unfairly, but anyone that matters won't care anyway. They make more money by not reseating everyone.
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Post by melly on Oct 2, 2017 21:22:22 GMT
Isn’t Ticketmaster just the monkey in all this? Has anyone tried contacting the organ grinder, i.e. Cameron Mackintosh, the producer of the show? Without communicating your upset directly, how will anyone be aware that you’re not happy? (I wouldn’t have thought Ticketmaster, or their customer services team, could care less...) I called dmt and it's nothing to do with them, even if you booked using their dmt+ code. They own the theatre but the American producers put all sales with ticketmaster so it is all on them. And I would imagine ticketmaster (And Cameron for whatever cut he gets) want the premium ticket sales and couldn't care less that they've seriously restricted how many people they'll reseat.
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Post by melly on Sept 30, 2017 12:18:59 GMT
How do you have a photo of which seats were sold vs. not sold? When I pull up a date, it just says no tickets are available. I would be happy to pay premium if I could get a ticket LOL I took a screencap the second the DMT+ presale started. Entire middle section of the stalls from about 5th row to most of the way back and the middle section of the dress circle were never sold. Obviously the section they intend to sell as premium. It's more than enough seats to mean they definitely wouldn't need 3 whole months to accommodate 2 weeks of cancellations, even if not a single person asked to cancel or wanted later dates.
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Post by melly on Sept 29, 2017 15:24:39 GMT
I was reallocated to January 1st, despite asking for early December dates. Centre row b stalls changed to side of j dress. I'm a dmt+ member so was one of the first booked, and filled in my dates within a couple of hours of getting the email.
Just called and was told no dates at all left in December, and February before we could possibly get anything in stalls. So despite being one of the very first to book, I've had to just take a refund.
I pointed out that I have a photo of which seats were sold and know there were hundreds still available, but these have apparently all been reallocated. Of course there will be plenty of overpriced premium seats released soon, even though us initial bookers are being told every seat is gone.
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Post by melly on Aug 26, 2017 21:29:10 GMT
Lights went down at pretty much exactly 2 hours 20 tonight, then another few minutes for curtain call.
I do a silent cheer normally when I hear there's no interval as it means I get home earlier, but found this too long. Wasn't a toilet or even comfort issue as such, but it's a really long time to sit in one position, and you can only fidget so much in a theatre seat without actually getting up. I think I may have cried if I'd been in the cheap front seats though.
My biggest issue was my attention span cut out at around 1 hour 50 minutes, as did most people's judging by the fidgeting and watch checking. 140 minutes of actual show is a long time to stay focussed on one thing. The last 4 songs were probably my favourite part, but I really just wanted it to be done at that point.
It is very rare to get a film that is 150 minutes long (making it roughly 140 minutes without the end credits), and cinema seats are a lot more roomy.
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