Olympia seats - disappointed

asmp

asmp

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Can't complain too much as bought the seats from Groupon at less than half price but was very surprised that the top price seats we had been given gave very poor viewing. We were in row D so only four rows from the front and close to the action but in section 13 which is near the corner. We found that we couldn't see about a third of the action. I've seen more from cheaper seats.

Saying all that we still had a great time as usual yesterday and spend lots of money! Just would have been a bit miffed if we'd spent £61 on each ticket.
 
It's taken us a while to figure out where the good seats are. We normally go for the mid-range seats and sit near the back then you tend to get a view where you can see everything. There's always a location where it's "good...but". Like if you sit in the front row where the aisle is. Good that you get the leg room but you spend the whole time trying to see through people walking past! I don't know what it is with people that they can't get to/leave their seats before a performance they want to/don't want to see starts!

Our annoyance this year was the noise from the flipping hospitality boxes. Clanking plates and a constant drone of chatter. Not great when watching dressage to music! V distracting
 
We booked pretty late and were in block 13 row F on Tuesday and we thought the view was OK our tickets were £16.25 each in booking fee half price with a BD Code so those tickets would have been approx. £32 - not sure why yours would be £60 2 rows in front?. Got a nice close up of the rein-back at C in the Grand Prix :) . Maybe if I'd paid £60 I would have been disappointed.
 
We were in a very similar lace and thought it was a great view! I sat near the top for something else and you could see the whole arena, but down at the front you get a much more realistic view of what's going on
 
I think the tickets are priced like in a theatre, the closer you are to the stage the higher the price. At Olympia to get a good overview I think you need to be mid way up, for the dressage behind the judges at C, and high enough up to see the whole horse and as much of the arena as possible. Its one of the few places you can go in the cheap seats and get a good view.
 
Just a thought, I wonder if Olympia has a general seat map which dictates pricing but doesn't take into account the type of event. So what is a good place for a horse show is not for a different type of event.
 
We were there yesterday so the first day of the SJ when the top prices are £61. I am short so that may have been part of the problem but I did hear the person behind me saying that she could only see the back legs of the horse when it was jumping in the corner to the left so it wasn't just us. Luckily a lot of the action is filmed so you can see on the screen in the middle what's going on.
 
I was in block 1 about mid way and in the sj the veiw was amazing, you could see everything. For the puissance we again had a great view of the landing side but they went and put that huge clock in the way!!
 
asmp said:
Can't complain too much as bought the seats from Groupon at less than half price but was very surprised that the top price seats we had been given gave very poor viewing. We were in row D so only four rows from the front and close to the action but in section 13 which is near the corner. We found that we couldn't see about a third of the action. I've seen more from cheaper seats.

Saying all that we still had a great time as usual yesterday and spend lots of money! Just would have been a bit miffed if we'd spent £61 on each ticket.
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I was two rows behind you yesterday and bar not getting a full view of the treble (but that's just course placement for you) I didn't think they were too bad tbf, especially not at the Groupon price. Not sure I'd pay the full price for block 13 seats though.

SussexbytheChristmasTree said:
We booked pretty late and were in block 13 row F on Tuesday and we thought the view was OK our tickets were £16.25 each in booking fee half price with a BD Code so those tickets would have been approx. £32 - not sure why yours would be £60 2 rows in front?. Got a nice close up of the rein-back at C in the Grand Prix :) . Maybe if I'd paid £60 I would have been disappointed.
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Tuesday night is always much cheaper than the actual Olympia performances.


I had more issue with the woman who kept holding up her tablet sized phone to video the driving!
 
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I stopped going to Olympia some years ago because I got tired of CONSTANTLY being disrupted and having my view blocked by people entering and leaving their seats.
Why do people pay so much for tickets if they don't want to watch the show ?!
 
We were on the end of the row which was a bit of a pain as people did drift in after the SJ class had started. I asked one couple to wait while the horse finished it's round as I didn't think it was fair on the row or the rider for us all to move while the horse was jumping. Trouble is that everyone has huge bags full of stuff (us included) so moving every few minutes is a nuisance.
 
Ella I agree, I had a group sat next to me who didn't watch the first half of the freestyle, instead just chatted, laughed and constantly moved around disturbing everyone.They then left their bags in the interval and stood on the balcony for the last half but attempted to come back and get through us without asking us to get by, my legs are too long to slide past and I already had to sit at an angle to avoid kneeing the guy in front of me in the back constantly! I bluntly told him the above and said it was only polite to say 'excuse me'.
 
they certainly were! we were on the balcony in block 2 and they were incredibly loud and the constant sound of plates on trollies were a pain in the arse. Oh well, it was a last minute decision to go as a friend couldn't go so I had the tickets and im still so happy I went. Im in the front row tomorrow for the world cup so will be away from them!
 
I went last night, paid £68 per ticket to sit at the end of block D, I could bearly see the left half of the arena. Oh well luck of the draw. But what I couldn't deal with was the group of 13 - 16 year old girls that talked CONSTANTLY and LOUDLY throughout all performances!! I now know their life stories, their jobs as grooms at a riding school/livery yard. I know that amy really likes the guy she's texting but the girl at the end things she's a bit of a slag for leading him on. They all want free-jump stirrups in blue and well chloe's jack would jump better than all of those riders :/

I gave them looks, asked politely for quite, they took no hint and began getting louder.

I quite literally nearly killed them! Completely ruined the jumping performances. Thank god for the loud music during the met police and cossacks who were amazing!
 
Noise from the boxes were bad. im a bit of a nutter when getting tickets, always have the computers ready and manage to get front row seats. This year managed the same, but my god were people noisy in the boxes. You always get the know it alls sitting behind you, but I just giggle and to be honest it adds to the entertainment :-).

I do have 2 pet hates though.

1) people arriving late, they should not allow it!!
2) people who pay for the seats and then dont use them. I kid you not there was 23 empty seats in block 5 alone during the WC SJ on sunday - a performance that had sold out!! they were empty all day, so looks like a block booking not used which is a shame

I really do think OLympia need to enforce a no shopping bags to seats rule and have a drop of point by the stands. firstly its a pain for anyone sat next to the person who must by 42 whips and 6 rugs for the same price as at home and secondly god help if there is a fire and rush!!

Still we had a fab time!!
 
Echo the annoyance of the coming and going during performances. Fortunately we were in a short row so no particular problem but does make you wonder given the price of the tickets as to not actually watching much or all of it. Was quite nice though as sitting next to a family and one of their children (who was not that young but perhaps first time at Olympia) was quite excited and that sort of helped get into the atmosphere. Even joined in Noel!
 
teapot said:
I had more issue with the woman who kept holding up her tablet sized phone to video the driving!
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There was one along from me videoing everything. She might as well have stayed at home and watched it on TV for free! I bet most of these videos and photos are never looked at.
 
We were in a corner but the view was great (wasn't the driving amazing!). We also had annoying people, the row in front was up and down 3 times before the driving had even finished! The people behind us took the annoyance biscuit though. They were drunk and screamed through the whole thing (I've never heard an adult woman sound that much like a bat) They missed half the performance then spent the rest of it complaining that they'd missed the agility and police ride. They spilt a drink down my back, hit us round the head with their inordinate amount of shopping and pulled my friends hair out when it got stuck as they stood up to go and get more drinks. In the SJ class they were screaming throughout people's rounds which is so rude, when Guy Williams had one down they screamed that he was a *******ing idiot!
Then when they left they told us we were rude for giving them funny looks!
 
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