Cinema Booking Rage

Nemici

Went to see reloaded the other day in the Savoy.

Booked tickets and collected them a few hours before the show, only to find out that you have to join a gigantic queue halfway down o'connell street even though I HAVE ALREADY BOOKED.

Does this strike anybody as strange ??

In UGC you book tickets, swipe you credit card and walk to your seats. No queue - no hassle.

rant over (opinions please)

commuterised

why did you have to queue? what were the ppl queuing for?

In Dun Laoghaire you also swipe your CC, collect tickets and just walk to your seats.

What's the point in pre booking if you still have to queue..

GuanYin

Originally posted by Nemici
Went to see reloaded the other day in the Savoy.

Booked tickets and collected them a few hours before the show, only to find out that you have to join a gigantic queue halfway down o'connell street even though I HAVE ALREADY BOOKED.

Perhaps asking the people working in the Savoy may yield some answers?

Nemici

Originally posted by commuterised
why did you have to queue? what were the ppl queuing for?

In Dun Laoghaire you also swipe your CC, collect tickets and just walk to your seats.

What's the point in pre booking if you still have to queue..

sorry maybe not clear enough.

went up with the tickets in hand to the front of the queue and asked could we go in to our seats. and we were told no you will have to join the queue as it is "free seating" and first come first served. it baffled me.

vibe666

funnily enough I was going to go to the Savoy because I'm just in Merrion Sq, but in the past whenever its a good movie (LOTR2 comes to mind) because they have so little internal space for people apart from the screens, and that they have movies starting/finishing so close together they have to make you queue.

Because of this when it came to reloaded I went to Dun Laoghaire on Sunday, booking my tickets over the phone with a CC 3 days before hand, and just swiped/collected them when I got there.

They have loads of room inside and I didn't even have to queue for popcorn despite it being the 7.30pm on the Sunday of the opening weekend of the biggest movie of the year so far.

I got there 15 minutes before it started and walked straight in and got a good seat for me and the missus, jod done!

and there's agood chipper open on the way back to the bus stop too

Draco

The Savoy are no longer doing assigned seating. It's a pain in the arse as it now means going extra early to opening nights. I shall be going to Ster Century now for opening nights and only go to the savoy on a whim.

RainyDay

The Ormonde in Stillorgan allows you to choose your seats online, showing you a map of the seats in the cinema & you can take your pick - Neat...

Pugsley

In the cinema near me you can grab the ticket a few days before the showing, and they will hand you your ticket there and then. So when the film arrives you just walk straight in, no CC or nothing needed, just the ticket.

Tusky

Originally posted by Pugsley
In the cinema near me you can grab the ticket a few days before the showing, and they will hand you your ticket there and then. So when the film arrives you just walk straight in, no CC or nothing needed, just the ticket.

You can do that everywhere afaik

richindub2

nemici - you werent queing in a ticket line id say, you were queing to get into the actual screen. Because of the whole free seating thing its best to get to films in the savoy a bit early. All it takes is a little planning ;p

went to see reloaded there last saturday at 2 - arrived in with a mate at twenty to 2 who collected the pre booked tickets from a machine and we went straight in, no waiting around or nothing :E

KdjaCL

Ster Century have started free seating now cant pick your seats anymore.

I dont mind i go during the day as i hate Qs and like to have about 7 rows to meself.

kdjac

Saruman

Is it always free seating in Ster Century now? I know it was when i was getting my Reloaded tickets. I was told this was the case.. i assumed it was because i booked for 3:40 so not a huge rush of people to see movies at that time.

Nemici

Originally posted by Draco
The Savoy are no longer doing assigned seating. It's a pain in the arse as it now means going extra early to opening nights. I shall be going to Ster Century now for opening nights and only go to the savoy on a whim.

yeah I would like to go out there but I dont have a car so its a major hassle to get there and back. Town is just easier.

Spock

its worse for us on the phone, people ring up and say can i have tickets for the matrix.
thats it.
I mean bloody hell, you could say what time or where you want to sit.
Im fed up of people ringing in and asking to see the matrix

vibe666

the phone booking line in Dun Laoghaire is an automated affair, so you don't actually get to speak to a real person at all.

its slightly annoying, but to be honest, it works so why not have them all like that?

RainyDay

, it works so why not have them all like that?

Because you can't usually get 'special requirements' from an automated phone system, e.g. aisle seat.

vibe666

in my experience though, most of the cinemas around dublin are free seating anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

you want a good seat, you get there early.

RainyDay

most of the cinemas around dublin are free seating anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

It's a big issue for long-legged buggers like me - Ability to get an aisle seat where my knees wont get squashed every time the guy in front leans back is a major factor in choosing cinema - If I can't get a pre-assigned seat, I'll go somewhere else (like the Ormonde or UCI Tallaght)

vibe666

I'm 6'5" and I've spent most of my adult life either banging my head on stuff or with my legs all over the place when sitting to get some legroom.

I pay for extra leg room on planes (aside from ryanair, I just have to be the first one on the plane and get to the emergency exits) and in the case of going to the cinema, I just make sure I get there 15-20mins before it starts and I'm ususally fine.

I'm not going out of my way to go somewhere so I can absolutely 100% guarantee a bit of extra legroom. I just get there early to avoid disappointment

RainyDay

I'm not going out of my way to go somewhere so I can absolutely 100% guarantee a bit of extra legroom.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess - Getting their 15-20 minutes early would be more of an inconvenience for me than choosing one of the cinemas with guaranteed seating.

vibe666

fairysmurf

Bannor

Originally posted by Spock
its worse for us on the phone, people ring up and say can i have tickets for the matrix.
thats it.
I mean bloody hell, you could say what time or where you want to sit.
Im fed up of people ringing in and asking to see the matrix

I've booked tickets for Ster Century over the phone twice recently - won't be making the same mistake again.

Opening Saturday of X2 - tickets booked for centre,centre turned out to be fourth row from the front out on the left edge.

The opening night of Matrix Reloaded - we showed up and swiped the card to discover that the booking we had placed for the 8.00pm screening on 'the Big Fella' had in actual fact been tickets for the 8.30pm screening in Screen 5!

We went to the desk and were politely told to f*ck off that we must have requested the 8.30 tickets. While we were there six other people made the same complaint. Obviously we all made the incorrect booking - I mean the cinema wouldn't have continued to take bookings if there weren't seats available for the 8.00pm screening or would they?

Tenshot

I've had the same problem with Ster Century bookings being a half-hour off. I think it happens when they have a popular film showing in multiple screens simultaneously, and they run out of digits to let you choose which showing you want. The voice messages seem to wrap around following "7, 8, 9, 0, 1, 2, 3.." while the code waiting for the keypress is going "7, 8, 9, 1, 2, 3..." and ends up off-by-one on the films towards the end of the evening.

For the Matrix Reloaded the other night, I hit some key (probably zero) to get a human and negotiated some decent seats near the back - the last two times I've used the fully automated system, it's put me in the front few rows even when I booked several days in advance!