London Palladium Theatre Tour: avoid
Feb 9, 2024 17:45:27 GMT
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david and toomasj like this
Post by mkb on Feb 9, 2024 17:45:27 GMT
During the check-out process for Peter Pan, LW Theatres tried to upsell all manner of add-ons. The theatre tour was an eye-watering £35.00 each, but this is one of the greatest architectural performance venues in the nation, and we love seeing behind the scenes, so I thought, let's treat ourselves.
There was no indication of start time, but we were promised a souvenir programme for the panto, which turned out to have a value of £12, but quite why a couple would want two, I don't know. We gave away our second one to a grateful American family. We were also promised first entrance to a bar at the end before the other punters were admitted.
I feared the worst having seen a critical posting in the Peter Pan thread, but we'd already booked, so how bad could it be?
The answer was: terrible. This was not a tour; it was a money-making scam, and theatre management should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
The host, Liv, was perfectly affable, and gave us a history of panto, most of which we already knew. In terms of discussion of the history and architecture of the building itself, there was practically nothing.
The tour takes you up the main staircase, then through to the Legends Bar and the VIP Bar, and that's it. Unlike any other theatre tour, there is no backstage, no onstage, nor even a look into the auditorium where there are many architectural features that could be talked about.
From beginning to end, the tour lasted precisely 36 minutes. That's nearly £1/minute each, a nice little earner. We were decanted to a bar where queues had already formed, but we were given an amazingly generous 10% bar discount voucher, but it was made clear it was only one per party, not one each, and it could only be used the once, so we were advised to bulk buy all the evening's drinks in one transaction.
Clearly, we were not the only tour guests feeling like we had been taken for a ride. One old lady had the temerity to complain and was fobbed off with "I'll pass on your feedback".
The duty manager told me he was not empowered to deal with any complaints which must instead be made to a customer services email address.
The whole experience left a very sour taste.
One star.
18:01-18:37 (Saturday 13 January)
There was no indication of start time, but we were promised a souvenir programme for the panto, which turned out to have a value of £12, but quite why a couple would want two, I don't know. We gave away our second one to a grateful American family. We were also promised first entrance to a bar at the end before the other punters were admitted.
I feared the worst having seen a critical posting in the Peter Pan thread, but we'd already booked, so how bad could it be?
The answer was: terrible. This was not a tour; it was a money-making scam, and theatre management should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
The host, Liv, was perfectly affable, and gave us a history of panto, most of which we already knew. In terms of discussion of the history and architecture of the building itself, there was practically nothing.
The tour takes you up the main staircase, then through to the Legends Bar and the VIP Bar, and that's it. Unlike any other theatre tour, there is no backstage, no onstage, nor even a look into the auditorium where there are many architectural features that could be talked about.
From beginning to end, the tour lasted precisely 36 minutes. That's nearly £1/minute each, a nice little earner. We were decanted to a bar where queues had already formed, but we were given an amazingly generous 10% bar discount voucher, but it was made clear it was only one per party, not one each, and it could only be used the once, so we were advised to bulk buy all the evening's drinks in one transaction.
Clearly, we were not the only tour guests feeling like we had been taken for a ride. One old lady had the temerity to complain and was fobbed off with "I'll pass on your feedback".
The duty manager told me he was not empowered to deal with any complaints which must instead be made to a customer services email address.
The whole experience left a very sour taste.
One star.
18:01-18:37 (Saturday 13 January)
