56 replies to this topic

[MarkInLondon]

Anyone coming over?

[TheYaz67]

Was considering it, since the parents live in Oxford (so I would have somewhere free to stay at least), but expensive flights and your crap weather has scared me off....

[pockmeister]

Was considering it, since the parents live in Oxford (so I would have somewhere free to stay at least), but expensive flights and your crap weather has scared me off....

The weather will be lovely. We're saving summer for the Olympics. It'll be blazing sun.

But you're too late to come over - the queues at Heathrow are growing by the hour, and if you're not already in them, you won't get into the country.

And even if you do, you can't get to London, because the motorway from Heathrow is collapsing. And if that doesn't get you, the Jubilee line will. Yup, we're ready for the world...

[ninjacornelius]

I'll be there. I was able to pick up a few tickets through the USOC when they first went on sale, but I'd like to get more once I got to London. Is there any hope of finding tickets on the secondary market? I don't really have the financial means to buy tickets at a 1000% markup, but I'll be there for two weeks and I was hoping to be able to grab tickets to random events here or there as my schedule allows.

[LondonSox]

The ticketing has been a fiasco. I have friends who were on holiday when the tickets came so they refused to deliver them and now they can only pick them up in person on the day.
Other than the weather, the price you missed transport.
The events are all over the city but the main concentration is in a stupid area. You can drive. Good luck. You can get one tube line and walk or another and walk a long way.
Another fun fact you are only allowed to wear items sponsored by official sponsors. So if you wear a coke t shirt and Pepsi is the sponsor. You are not allowed in. You have to dump the shirt. Ha ha ha.

The cabbies I talked to are dreading it. A number are going away for it! If traffic gets bad (if lol) there are a number of vip lanes that go into effect. Eg the embankment sooo be down to one lane for non vip traffic. Ouch
I also was told for the para Olympics they have thousands of sponsor provided bmw to help the para athletes around but erm none of them are wheelchair accessible. For anyone who has been to London much they will understand what being disabled is like to get around. Most tube stations don't even have wheelchair access.

I am so.dreading this as a showcase of London.

[Mugsys Jock]

I'm coming this weekend, for concerts in Hyde Park.

Please ask the Queen to stock up on beer.

[TheYaz67]

The ticketing has been a fiasco.

Well, to be brutally honest, this has been a feature of most recent summer Olympics regardless of who the host has been IIRC, so don't see why you Brits should be excluded. Frankly you queue much better than anyone else, so you will cope better than most....

(But don't kid yourselves, the weather will be foul)

[pockmeister]

I'll be there. I was able to pick up a few tickets through the USOC when they first went on sale, but I'd like to get more once I got to London. Is there any hope of finding tickets on the secondary market? I don't really have the financial means to buy tickets at a 1000% markup, but I'll be there for two weeks and I was hoping to be able to grab tickets to random events here or there as my schedule allows.

There are still tickets available through official source for the more random events - think men's beach volleyball qualifying rounds, pretty much all the soccer, handball etc etc. You don't need to go through the grey markets if you're happy to watch something odd / low talent

I'm coming this weekend, for concerts in Hyde Park.

Please ask the Queen to stock up on beer.

They'll be cancelled. The Wireless festival last weekend in the rain destroyed the turf, and they're scrabbling for a plan B because it won't stop raining.

(But don't kid yourselves, the weather will be foul)

Yes. Wettest Olympics ever based on the papers today. Hyperbole, but it's not going to be good.

[Joe D Reid]

I thought about heading over (my sister lives over there, so I'd have a place to stay), but not to attend the events. I'd wanted to sit in some pub far, far away from the actual events and listen to Londoners grump about the Olympics. Nobody grumps like the Brits. Money got in the way, though, so I'm going to have to rely on the SoSH contingent to give me my grump fix. We're off to a good start!

BTW, is the Jubilee line really the only way to get to these venues? Even I know that line is a disaster.

[Spacemans Bong]

Oh yeah, they're the world champions at moaning. I like moaning so that's why I fit in so well, though sometimes you have to remind them they live in a prosperous, relatively well-running first world country and not Rwanda.

The Jubilee Line is actually much better than it used to be. It was front-page news when they finally stopped closing half of it for works on the weekends.

[cjdmadcow]

I think people are being a little disingenuous regarding the transport situation from central London to the Olympic centre as there are a number of ways of getting there, including the Jubilee Line, the 5-minute high-speed train from St Pancras / Kings Cross to Stratford, the DLR and even river boats. Plenty of choice, but definitely no driving.

There will be transport difficulties but there's plenty of ways to get to the venues, just a little patience may be required. Assuming you get through Heathrow first!

Can't believe a Scouser is standing up for London...I've been down here too long!

[MentalDisabldLst]

Oh yeah, they're the world champions at moaning. I like moaning so that's why I fit in so well, though sometimes you have to remind them they live in a prosperous, relatively well-running first world country and not Rwanda.

The Jubilee Line is actually much better than it used to be. It was front-page news when they finally stopped closing half of it for works on the weekends.

Have they stopped closing the Piccadilly line yet? I once had a white-knuckle, seat-of-the-pants Heathrow Express ride from Paddington because the goddamn Piccadilly line had to close on a weekend. Made baggage drop deadline for my international flight by less than a minute.

And the fookin' Circle Line, too. No, you assholes, I don't want to change trains 3 times. Why can't you work on rotating weekends like the rest of the subway workers in the world?

Christ, even thinking about London transportation makes me as grumpy as the locals are.

[PseuFighter]

I'll be there from 7/27 through 8/5.

[loshjott]

Not enough griping in that last post.

[PseuFighter]

fuck off, wanker.

[PseuFighter]

(was that better?)

[ifmanis5]

Another fun fact you are only allowed to wear items sponsored by official sponsors. So if you wear a coke t shirt and Pepsi is the sponsor. You are not allowed in. You have to dump the shirt.

You cannot be serious.

[MarkInLondon]

The ticketing has been a fiasco. I have friends who were on holiday when the tickets came so they refused to deliver them and now they can only pick them up in person on the day.

So the alternative was leave them on their doorstep? In my experience the ticketing process has been as fair as it could possibly have been.

Other than the weather, the price you missed transport.
The events are all over the city but the main concentration is in a stupid area. You can drive. Good luck. You can get one tube line and walk or another and walk a long way.

Not true. There are three tubes lines running to the Olympic Park, plus two different overland lines and the DLR. Oh, and a load of bus links running too or near the event. (and all the public transport drivers have been given a cash bonus each, so they'll all be on their best behaviour )

You'd be mad to drive, and the organisers are effectively saying that.

The cabbies I talked to are dreading it. A number are going away for it! If traffic gets bad (if lol) there are a number of vip lanes that go into effect. Eg the embankment sooo be down to one lane for non vip traffic. Ouch

Cabbies can be split into 3 camps -the ones who are dreading it, the ones who are seeing it as a cash cow, and ones who haven't a clue what's going to happen so don't want to rush to judgement.

Look at it this way - London Cabbies get paid for sitting in a traffic jam, to the extent that sometimes you think they deliberately go looking for them...

Again, don't drive in London.

[PseuFighter]

fuck ticketmaster.

i had two opening ceremony tickets in my cart this morning, after refreshing for 20 minutes the second they became available (the 20.12 ones). finally made it through once, and hit the back button by accident. wouldn't let me go forward. poof.

seriously; fuck ticketmaster.

[MentalDisabldLst]

You figured out a way to pay for them and have them delivered, huh?

[PseuFighter]

in the interest of this thread and all things London -- fuck off.

[PseuFighter]

also, i'm quite hammered right now.

[Tony the Pony]

Anyone coming over?

Yes, after the Games.

Probably all of September - and about 90% chance we'll move to England. Looking at the Norfolk coast. To be continued, but we should meet up for a visit to the New Den

[Tony the Pony]

And why does the logo look like Lisa Simpson is giving Bart a blow-job?

[PseuFighter]

Rolled the dice. Just nabbed one USA Men's Basketball ticket on the LOCOG site using my company's London mailing address, and my USA Visa card. The order went through, but it's will call. I just hope they release the ticket to me. If not, whatever, consider it a risk.

[LondonSox]

You cannot be serious.

That's what I was told. We shall see.

So the alternative was leave them on their doorstep? In my experience the ticketing process has been as fair as it could possibly have been.




Not true. There are three tubes lines running to the Olympic Park, plus two different overland lines and the DLR. Oh, and a load of bus links running too or near the event. (and all the public transport drivers have been given a cash bonus each, so they'll all be on their best behaviour )

You'd be mad to drive, and the organisers are effectively saying that.



Cabbies can be split into 3 camps -the ones who are dreading it, the ones who are seeing it as a cash cow, and ones who haven't a clue what's going to happen so don't want to rush to judgement.

Look at it this way - London Cabbies get paid for sitting in a traffic jam, to the extent that sometimes you think they deliberately go looking for them...

Again, don't drive in London.

Well the alternative is what every fed ex ups or other delivery service do. Try to deliver then store it so you can pick them up.
That is true Stratford is only a 15-20 minute walk from the park in the rain. Hope no one ha sponsored umbrellas.

The jubilee line and the dlr are great examples of British forward planning. The jubilee line is by far th newest underground line taking billions to make and then a year after opening the signals started failing and they decided they needed to upgrade from the old style system used on the underground to modem signals with fibre optic cabling etc. Again this was the NEW line. The contractor claimed they could do this with some holiday closures and two weeks over Christmas and new year.
Yeah they failed. So then they took nearly another year of every weekend closures. Ha ha I used this line to commute fml.
It seems to be ok now though.
The dlr was build to provide transport to canary wharf etc when they re developed it. Before the jubilee it was the only method. Once canary wharf was a huge success even with the jubilee in they needed more capacity. Unfortunately the dlr was build to support two car trains, in order to expand to three cars they had to go around and rebuild/ reinforce the entire light railway structure. They had build zero expanation capability. To have built the stronger version would have not been much more, the way they did it, billions and shutting down the dlr every weekend.
Better still they did the jubilee and dlr shut downs at the same time, so you couldn't have any transport on or off the isle of dogs all weekend. You say why not drive? Well 1) it's London but better 2) the had to repair the main tunnel as well and they did it on .... The same weekends!!

God I miss London

One more story on the central line, right when I moved to the us the first time so in like 2002 ish the central line wa shut for about a year. Why? Because a part of the track was supported by bricks, where a hole had developed. The brick stack fell and the train going over had its engine fall through the bottom of the train and wreck the track for over a mile. A year later.. A year.
You may also enjoy seeing the escalator repair signs, where to renovate an escalator takes 8-9 months. For one.

One other awesome London transport story. I went with my now wife to live earth or whatever that charity concert thing was a few years back. It was in wembley. My wife loves madonna but I made her leave halfway through her set and booked it to the tube. We got the last tube. They announced this was the last tube leaving the station as it was a Sunday, there were around 50,000 people behind me in the stadium. They didn't run any extra trains.

Or how about when the Waterloo and city line, which is a shuttle between Waterloo station and bank station was shut for a day for leaves on the line. This is an underground line between two huge stations. Leaves blew into the station, all the way down the station into the train lines, this is about a 3-5 minute walk from the surface to the track. The line was shut down.

Of course the weather has been epically terrible recently and is expected to continue through the Olympics. So that will help.

[PseuFighter]

Just got a pair to the Great Britain men's match at Wembley. Specifically --

Senegal v Uruguay
Great Britain v United Arab Emirates

[PseuFighter]

Also, for the record, I have a spare to that (and yeah, it's a double-header). Category B, 45 GBP.

[LondonSox]

http://gawker.com/59...before-olympics

The tube drivers threatened a strike during but that got resolved I hope this is too

[PseuFighter]

is there any way to know the boxing draws? if not, anyone know when the schedule of fights is actually announced? i can't seem to find anything...

[DrewDawg]

is there any way to know the boxing draws? if not, anyone know when the schedule of fights is actually announced? i can't seem to find anything...

No draws, but here's generic schedule: http://www.london201...le-and-results/

[PseuFighter]

Might you know when the draws are announced?

[DrewDawg]

No clue, this is all the info I can find:

The boxers are paired off at random for the Olympic Games, without regard to ranking, and compete in a single-elimination tournament.

Not sure why it's secretive, but since boxing starts Saturday, I'm sure they'll be announced soon.

[PseuFighter]

Cool; thanks. Not sure why it's so secretive too. I wasn't finding much of anything.

[PseuFighter]

Any fun things to do near the Victoria station? That's where I'll be staying; plan so far is work during the day, and events each night and on the weekends. Still will try to find some down time to see more things, and would love to know if there are any quick attractions nearby.

Thanks!

[PseuFighter]

n00b question, but --

My flight arrives at Heathrow around 9am, on the morning of the opening ceremonies. What's the best way to get from there to the Victoria station? (staying at the Park Plaza Victoria)

Next question, the best way to get from the Victoria station to the Stratford station? I'm picking up my tickets at a box office at the Stratford gate to Olympic Park. I'm hoping to be at the hotel by noon, and would like to leave for Stratford around 2 or so. Earlier the better, I think, given I'm guessing ridiculous security and a bunch of queues to nowhere.

Edited by PseuFighter, 23 July 2012 - 11:48 PM.

[MentalDisabldLst]

There's only two mass-transit options out of Heathrow: the express train to Paddington (nowhere near helpful to where you're going), and the Piccadilly Line on the underground. You can change at South Ken for the (eastbound) Circle or District lines to Victoria, or change a few stops later at Green Park for the Victoria line for one stop. Coming from Zone 6, it'll cost you (I think) about £6.20 each way. Get an oyster card, or borrow one from me.

If that sounds too plebeian for you, a cab would be about £60. There may be shared van service, I don't know.

Getting to Stratford is similarly straightforward: take the (northbound) Victoria line two stops to Oxford Circus, and pick up the Central line (all eastbound ones should go at least as far as Stratford. You could also take the Jubilee, but it's often a shitshow, and its path to Stratford is kinda circuitous. Generally speaking, for my money the Victoria line is the nicest and fastest underground train, so take it when you can.

[MarkInLondon]

Any fun things to do near the Victoria station? That's where I'll be staying; plan so far is work during the day, and events each night and on the weekends. Still will try to find some down time to see more things, and would love to know if there are any quick attractions nearby.

Thanks!

You're close to pretty much everything in the West End - restaurants, theatres, clubs, take your pick.

Most of the major tube lines run through Victoria, it's a big transport hub.

[Hendu's Gait]

If you want to watch the nbcsports stream online and you have comcast make sure you have your password tomorrow because they're not the brightest customer service organization and it takes quite a while if you don't usually use your account online.

[Hendu's Gait]

http://au.news.yahoo...ing-organisers/


LONDON, July 25, 2012 (AFP) - - The organisers of the London Olympics said Wednesday the queues were easing for thousands of foreign spectators collecting their tickets, following reports of six-hour waits.

CoSport, the official ticket agency for the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway and Sweden, came in for sharp criticism after fans had to queue for several hours at a centre in London, in temperatures approaching 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).

Jackie Brock-Doyle, communications chief for the London Games organisers LOCOG, said the situation appeared to be improving, following discussions between the organisers and CoSport.

"We have had a couple of conversations with the ticketing team over the last two days about the resources they need on the ground to manage the situation," she told reporters.

"We have offered to help and support them with resources if that is an issue, but they are telling us they are getting it under control."

On Tuesday "it certainly appeared to be better, but we are monitoring it and will continue to do that".

The London Evening Standard newspaper reported that visitors from abroad had been forced to queue in the heat for up to six hours to collect their tickets.

The report said John Schrader, 54, from Adelaide in South Australia, waited for more than four hours to collect basketball, swimming and athletics tickets.

"You have several hundred people queuing for four, five, six hours; this is a significant public safety issue," he told the paper.

"You could have people collapsing or fainting. People are getting dehydrated and are in the sun."

......

CoSport did not respond to AFP's request for a comment.

Edited by Hendu's Gait, 27 July 2012 - 11:08 AM.

[fletcherpost]

Love the two Scots lassies not singing the Anthem for the first Women's Soccer match. Daily Mail not happy...always a good thing.

[PseuFighter]

Not surprisingly, fears of London coming to a screeching halt during the olympics have been greatly exaggerated.

[PseuFighter]

Either I'm in the silent majority or I'm blissfully oblivious to what - if you read all over the internet - looks to be the biggest shitshow in the history of the world, currently taking place in London.

I was:

• Warned of massive queues at ticket collection (many hours, in fact). In reality, I waited 30 seconds before getting to an open window at Olympic Park, and had all of my tickets 30 seconds later.
• Advised to get to events hours early. In the two I've been to so far, I've made it from the underground, through security, and to my seat in under five minutes each. This includes the Opening Ceremony.
• Told that London's transit system is effectively shutting down, and would be impossible to navigate the city; thus, the city would shut down. In reality, it's easier to get through London today than it is basically the entire time I've lived in New York. It's not empty, but it's not packed to the gills either. They even give you an unlimited day pass with each ticket purchase.
• Warned that tickets would be impossible to come by, and expect to pay a premium for every single event. In reality, I've so far purchased tickets at face value to pretty much any event I've wanted to go to, and have been following the right folks to help track down where more tickets are still to be had. Getting tickets has so far been simple, and the tickets are cheaper than most seats at Fenway regular season games. (note: I might just have some super-awesome ticket procurement skill too).
• Told to expect overbooked hotels and flights. In reality, I've already been bumped to a suite, and I had the seat next to me empty on my inbound fight.
• Suggested to give myself hours at Heathrow, that it's a mess, that Heathrow would be the big embarrassment. In reality, I was out of Heathrow in 30 seconds. No line at immigrations. None.

The press here sucks, I guess, as do folks on most message boards commenting not on the games themselves, but on whatever minutia they can drum up that might come off as making this look like a total failure. In just three days, I've gotten to see this city, meet all kinds of interesting people from all over the world, and gotten to attend a few Olympic events (with many more to come this next week). I just got back from WEMBLEY STADIUM (!) and my twitter feed is full of people bitching about how the credit card machines weren't working, when all I can think of is how I just got to cross another line off my sports bucket list.

[MentalDisabldLst]

Yeah, sure... but you can't tell me the whole "driving on the left" thing isn't throwing you for a loop.

[PseuFighter]

Nope. It says "LOOK RIGHT" and "LOOK LEFT" at every crossway.

[cjdmadcow]

Just bagged a bleachers ticket for the women's handball tomorrow afternoon - France v Sweden (1430) and Great Britain v Brazil (1615).

Really pleased as I've been on the London 2012 website for hours recently, I even had a Mens 100m final ticket in my basket at 1am this morning but it 'disappeared'.

At least I'll be able to say I saw a GBR team at my home Olympics.

[cjdmadcow]

Aquatics Arena

[cjdmadcow]

Water Polo Arena

[cjdmadcow]

Velodrome

[cjdmadcow]

Basketball Arena