Looking back at Greenwich...

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bongo-girl

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What a great day. Still buzzing at the whole Olympic experience. Brilliant Team GB - well done with the silver - nail biting stuff.

A couple of things that I'd change if I had a magic wand though...

WATER...ridiculous queues for the water points. Should have had entire banks of them, they were slow and woefully inadequate for the job.

FOOD...LOCOG obviously didn't realise how hungry eventing fans can get! The queues at the food village during the lunch break were so long that we decided to sack food and just go and buy a chocolate bar from a 'treats' stand...even they had sold out of half their products! If you are going for the dressage or the show-jumping definitely take some snacks to nibble on, and maybe stock up on bottles of drink as soon as you get there so as not to get stuck in the lunch time queues.

MERCHANDISE...really wanted to get a shirt as a memento from the games, but aside from an excess of men's sizes and designs in baggy shapeless form they ran out of most women's sizes and designs very quickly. I asked if there would be an option to buy something later on-line, but apparently they don't have an on-line outlet. Think maybe a little more market research in who (women) buy what at these kind of events would have helped.

But on the plus size the emotion of it all was second to none, the way the whole stadium shook as GB fans showed their appreciation for our riders was amazing, and one gamesmaker in particular, whose name I didn't get who went UNDER the stadium for me when I managed to drop both my flag and my tickets through a gap in the scaffolding to retrieve them for me was a total superstar! (Particularly as one of his underlings had proven incredibly unhelpful and had rolled her eyes at me when I enquired if there was any chance of someone getting them for me earlier...

All in all, if you are still to go down to Greenwich - YOU WILL HAVE A BLAST!!
 
You can fill up water bottles from the taps in the loos (its drinking water) and avoid queues - note to anyone going soon!


I went for dressage day 2 and everyone was SO helpful and friendly, everything was great. Only problem was running out of loo roll.


Went back for SJ (armed with my own loo roll!) and was sent the wrong way to the arena (from Blackheath spectator gate) - they wouldnt let us down the path signposted to the arena and sent us down another one, which was then blocked off by stewards with strict orders not to let us through and they had no clue where we were meant to go. Lots of other people in the same situation. Bit of the xc course were blocked off so despite being only a few hundred metres from the arena we couldnt get down to it, had to walk a really long way around which wasnt helped by none of the stewards having a clue! Toilet queues were also far longer as about a quarter were out of order!

Other than that two wonderful days though, the arena was great, I was SO impressed with the xc and think they got the difficulty just right, the ground held incredibly (walked up to a few fences on SJ day and there was no mud round them at all!) and the whole atmosphere was simply incredible.
 
Went for X/C Monday and S/J yesterday....

Water....not a problem for us??? Maybe you aren't used to queueing?? It's fun to chat to others for 5 mins.....

Food......we took our own so no problem there.....

Merchandise....got ours online before the games started.....

It was FABULOUS and I loved every minute and feel very lucky that I managed to get tickets for 2 days...

Well done LONDON and well done TEAM GB!...XX
 
SJ was great - super well organised. Toilet queues were OK if you nipped down between horses, and water in toilets was fine to drink (they are not blue portaloos!). We took a picnic, but queues for ice-creams and things were OK. Greenwich Market and street festival were great on the way back - we stopped to avoid the rush (not that it was too bad at all).
 
Ok - maybe I should have clarified it as looking back at MY Greenwich experience ;o) Glad that there were other water outlets - the two queues we tried were SOOOO long. Loved the Greenwich festival, and the whole thing, but just disappointed that I won't be able to get a top cos they were all run out in my size by lunchtime. Madisonbelle - where did you get yours....? Still really want something to show I was 'there'. Very proud of what was pulled off though...
 
Go to the London 2012 official website..... Believe John Lewis is also an official seller too.... Lots of t-shirts/hats/key rings and many more things.......
 
FOOD- We took our own food also so was never an issue for us but the queues we saw for food were long.

WATER- took empty bottles and filled them up as soon as we arrived, did not have to queue and they lasted us the entire day. i agree there should have been more water stands though.

TOILETS- sometimes I think some people just like queues. The amount of people i saw queueing for loos when there were loads of empty ones in sight??!!

BAR- The only time we had to queue (other than getting in to the park) was at the bar. Could actually get a decent beer though so well worth the wait and was not that long a queue t be fair.


Well done to the organisers. It was a truely unique experience!!
 
We too had a fantastic day out at a superb XC phase. Our minor gripes were
- they had run out of printed running orders by the time we arrived (11am) and we had to wait till the volunteers printed more on a slow photocopier. This was surely avoidable with the knowledge of 3DE organisation we have in the UK!
- it took us a while to even find a water fountain! None of the volunteers we asked knew where it was. Once there we filled 1 1/2 litres into bottles so that was us sorted.
- having eaten all our own food, I was longing for an ice-cream around 5pm. We were in the start/finish area and there was not a ice-cream stand in sight. Hot dogs, baked potatoes etc yes, and chocolate, but no ice cream. In the middle of the summer, this seemed strange.

Our major gripe was the absence of signposting once we left the park at 6.30pm. It took us 40 minutes to find the park and ride pick-up point. The location was NOT as shown on the map sent with out tickets, and (yet again) none of the volunteers admitted to being aware that there even was a park and ride service. However, once we had finally fallen exhausted onto a bus, we were back home in Ipswich exactly 2 hours later, which seemed pretty good, all things considered.

Great result, the silver medal.......:-) and for once the BBC coverage of eventing was top-notch.
 
I had a fantastic day at the XC and thought it was all run v well.
My only few niggles were the lack of printed maps showing fence numbers - we got so confused until a lady let me see her map and I finally got my hands on one halfway through the day! I managed to get a running order but would have been annoyed if I hadn't - actually gave our spare to the map lady who hadn't got one :) We had no problems with queues for toilets or water, but did queue for the bar!! :D
My main gripe was the programme... I wish they'd done an 'Equestrian Programme' with details of all 3 sports, scoring, history, team profiles etc - same goes for every other sport. Having paid a fiver for my Day 3 programme I got 3 useless pages on eventing and lots about diving and boxing! :( would be nice to have a proper memento.
 
Went to SJ day of 3DE and still buzzing about it. I've seen better SJ but the atmosphere was second to none, and made it head and shoulders above anything I've been to
Fab ,fab, fab
 
Was I the only one who took in new sealed water bottles... was allowed and didn't have to bother to queue for any 'filling stations'? Maybe i'm odd, but the security guys were happy, despite the officials confusing and panicking so many people saying ALL liquids would be confiscated while we waited 4 mins to be 'checked'?! My mum who came with me also was allowed in with her orange juice (new and sealed).
I had a great day, would have liked to have gotten closer to a few fences, but it was a bit of a battle to get through some crowds!! and I left earlier than I would have liked, but had a bus to catch (literally) to get home, and knew that it would take 2 hours to get across the city (it took 1hr 45).
Shame about the holds on course, hope all is ok with everyone.

And, on a personal note, it was a true dream to go to a horse trials WITHOUT any irritating yapping and lead around your legs dogs! No dog poo to be walked in and no lose horse chasing pooches either!! Revelation!!
 
duckling said:
I had a fantastic day at the XC and thought it was all run v well.
My only few niggles were the lack of printed maps showing fence numbers - we got so confused until a lady let me see her map and I finally got my hands on one halfway through the day! I managed to get a running order but would have been annoyed if I hadn't - actually gave our spare to the map lady who hadn't got one :) We had no problems with queues for toilets or water, but did queue for the bar!! :D
My main gripe was the programme... I wish they'd done an 'Equestrian Programme' with details of all 3 sports, scoring, history, team profiles etc - same goes for every other sport. Having paid a fiver for my Day 3 programme I got 3 useless pages on eventing and lots about diving and boxing! :( would be nice to have a proper memento.
Click to expand...

This too!
 
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