MinkyKnights Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 There were a few threads here over the last couple of weeks that questioned the pre-gate queuing. With there being two possible gates to queue at, some of us were concerned that things could get a bit messy. On Tuesday, Jason said (in a post here): "All gates will open at the same time as each other like they have every year. I hope that puts everyone's mind at rest." It didn't really, as the problem of two queues merging was still there. But as I understood it, there was nothing that Showmasters could do about this, so we made the best of the situation and information. I appreciated Jason finding out what was going on. The assurance that both gates would open at the same time at least allowed people to make an informed decision about where they wanted to queue. With the Brompton gate being closer to the venue entrance, I chose to queue there. I arrived at 4.30am and joined two other mad buggers, one of whom had been there since 4am. At 7am, we stood and watched from behind the still-locked gate as the Earl's Court queue marched past us in the distance. By the time our gate was unlocked, the Brompton queue had pretty much had it. Despite queuing for two and a half hours, I was behind people who said they'd arrived at 7am (whom I must thank for saying 'you first' when the doors finally opened - very kind). When I looked down the queue, I also saw people in front of me who arrived at Brompton 90 minutes after me. So it was a bit of a shambles. After all the debate here and the final reassurances, it was disappointing. (And dufresne is no doubt laughing into his socks. ) VT-wise, it turned out not to be a huge disaster (for me, at least), but I would like to feed back to Showmasters that what they said would happen didn't. It's something to be aware of next time - as should the punters. On a related note, queue jumpers (who arrived long after the gates had opened) were pointed out to crew, as we're always told to do, but nothing was done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenshidarkangel Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 (edited) Personally I think this year was handled badly and not to Showmasters usual standard. We arrived at 8am and qued for an hour. There were plenty of que jumpers that I saw (Throughout the whole con) and security/showmasters werent on it. And Karen. Personally (and I know people will dissagree with me on this) I think they over sold her yesterday. She was just to busy and many people went away dissapointed. I think many people would have happily sacrificed the Q and A to make sure more people got an autograph and that brief meet. Also new staff in blue Tshirts generally had no clue what was going on what should have been happening ect ect until a showmaster vet turned up. Think Vet should have been with guy handing out VQ tickets as he had to deal with alot of poopy of dissapointed people. Dissapointing LFCC and not to usual standards. Sowi Showmasters. Edited July 10, 2011 by arwenandlegolas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autographfan Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Personally I think this year was handled badly and not to Showmasters usual standard. We arrived at 8am and qued for an hour. There were plenty of que jumpers that I saw (Throughout the whole con) and security/showmasters werent on it. And Karen. Personally (and I know people will dissagree with me on this) I think they over sold her yesterday. She was just to busy and many people went away dissapointed. I think many people would have happily sacrificed the Q and A to make sure more people got an autograph and that brief meet. Also new staff in blue Tshirts generally had no clue what was going on what should have been happening ect ect until a showmaster vet turned up. Think Vet should have been with guy handing out VQ tickets as he had to deal with alot of poopy of dissapointed people. Dissapointing LFCC and not to usual standards. Sowi Showmasters. To be fair, they did hand out Karen VQ tickets whilst saying how unlikely it was to meet her, it wasn't a matter of overselling as most of the people I saw getting tickets in the 1200-1400 range understood. Stopping handing them out altogether would have meant that, if she did magically sign everything, people who tried to get VQ tickets would have less of a chance than people just hanging around at 5:30 on the off-chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HohoCullen Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Personally I think this year was handled badly and not to Showmasters usual standard. We arrived at 8am and qued for an hour. There were plenty of que jumpers that I saw (Throughout the whole con) and security/showmasters werent on it. And Karen. Personally (and I know people will dissagree with me on this) I think they over sold her yesterday. She was just to busy and many people went away dissapointed. I think many people would have happily sacrificed the Q and A to make sure more people got an autograph and that brief meet. Also new staff in blue Tshirts generally had no clue what was going on what should have been happening ect ect until a showmaster vet turned up. Think Vet should have been with guy handing out VQ tickets as he had to deal with alot of poopy of dissapointed people. Dissapointing LFCC and not to usual standards. Sowi Showmasters. To be fair, they did hand out Karen VQ tickets whilst saying how unlikely it was to meet her, it wasn't a matter of overselling as most of the people I saw getting tickets in the 1200-1400 range understood. Stopping handing them out altogether would have meant that, if she did magically sign everything, people who tried to get VQ tickets would have less of a chance than people just hanging around at 5:30 on the off-chance. I kinda agree with the Karen's VQ tickets, because I was 1418, and it got to 1399 so my mum went to buy a ticket with her credit card - and the women at the desk refused to sell us a autograph ticket because she said the queue was too long when it was short as it was near the end of the day. We ran back to Karen's signing area and it had been opened to Open Queue. My mum ran back to tell the ticket women while I waited by the queue, and the crew said if we didn't get into the booth by 6pm we couldn't get in. We were SO lucky that my mum got in literally THIRTY seconds before they closed it. I had already set myself up for disappointment as I was expecting it to close before my mum got back, but I do agree that they should have stopped the VQ tickets at earlier numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dufresne Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 (And dufresne is no doubt laughing into his socks. ) Very much so, Mr Colourful Diagram It's a bit like two people can be in a photo with the guest, but they need to both pay and get a copy each. Or having to leave the talk area after one talk, to join the back of the queue to come straight back in. It's not ideal or absolutely perfect, but neither is any other way of doing it. Now can people stop hijacking this thread to discuss Karen's own queue ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinkyKnights Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 I spent ages making that pretty map too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuato_Lives Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 The one and only thing that annoyed me was queue jumpers in the pre-paid early bird queue and they got away with it too. There was 2 ladies in front of me, one of which was a wheelchair user. There was a slight pause when the wheelchair had to be pushed up a curb, as I was directly beind them I stopped and waited and everybody behind did the same thing which was great because nobody overtook them allowing them to retain the correct queing order which is only fair. However this created a gap in the queue and a few people who were in the queue that had doubled backed around to the front had the audicity to jump in to and in the process pushing in front of people who had been waiting up to an hour before them. They could see why the gap was created yet they still had the nerve to push in. If you are these queue jumpers and you are reading this then learn to be more respectful of other people and not be f*****g low enough to queue jump infront of a wheelchair bound attendee. You know who you are!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerraHawk Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 At 7am, we stood and watched from behind the still-locked gate as the Earl's Court queue marched past us in the distance. By the time our gate was unlocked, the Brompton queue had pretty much had it. Despite queuing for two and a half hours, I was behind people who said they'd arrived at 7am Yeah I was about 10th in the Brompton Queue. You had to laugh really. I reckon there must have been a good 60 people in the ECQ marching down and about 200 (further back than I could see) in the Brompton Q seeing them go past. I was actually staying on the EC side, and at 5.30 there were 2 or 3 onm that side and 10 in the Brompton Q. Today was a lot more relaxed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myself205 Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 The one and only thing that annoyed me was queue jumpers in the pre-paid early bird queue and they got away with it too. There was 2 ladies in front of me, one of which was a wheelchair user. There was a slight pause when the wheelchair had to be pushed up a curb, as I was directly beind them I stopped and waited and everybody behind did the same thing which was great because nobody overtook them allowing them to retain the correct queing order which is only fair. However this created a gap in the queue and a few people who were in the queue that had doubled backed around to the front had the audicity to jump in to and in the process pushing in front of people who had been waiting up to an hour before them. They could see why the gap was created yet they still had the nerve to push in. If you are these queue jumpers and you are reading this then learn to be more respectful of other people and not be f*****g low enough to queue jump infront of a wheelchair bound attendee. You know who you are!!! In a different place: I was in the queue for Christopher Lloyd talk and behing me there was a man with crutches. We started to move and then two boys jumped in the queue in front of the man. I'm a quiet person but this kind of behaviour really annoys me so I turned around and pointed to the boys the end of the queue, telling them they just overtook the gentlemen. People cam be so rude. Idem in the talk, people sitting in the gold passes area. No respect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobd_uk Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 To be fair to SM, the opening of the gates is out of their control. As to queue jumpers, did anyone say anything, or were we all very British about it and just mumbled complaints under our breath?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queen_Sindel Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Sorry, you BOUGHT a ticket for a Karen autograph? I got there in the early-bird sess.. VT 800-odd.. I KNOW they gave out way more.. I was assuming the poster meant she bought a voucher to pay for the Karen autograph. They do look a little like the tickets after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidbrookes Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I was one of those that turned up at 7am just as they opened the Earl's Court gate entrance. I think that put me about 30ish. I felt a bit bad about it and my friends who would have turned up at a similar time as me were about 150th so I demoted myself to there. If you saw a guy apparently jump in the middle of the queue and then start to play a card game on the floor, that wasn't me jumping in, I had been further in front but thought I would sacrifice a few VT numbers to save boredom for 2 hours! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alx Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 And Karen. Personally (and I know people will dissagree with me on this) I think they over sold her yesterday. She was just to busy and many people went away dissapointed. I think many people would have happily sacrificed the Q and A to make sure more people got an autograph and that brief meet. Also new staff in blue Tshirts generally had no clue what was going on what should have been happening ect ect until a showmaster vet turned up. Think Vet should have been with guy handing out VQ tickets as he had to deal with alot of poopy of dissapointed people. Dissapointing LFCC and not to usual standards. Sowi Showmasters. I think Karen was perfectly placed. Showmasters knew her normal form and knew she could go with the demand. In terms of the handing out of VQ tickets for Karen, that was myself, and Im not new to Showmasters, I have been crewing with them for 8years. I was aware of what had been going on, and I think the people that waited until the end saw the speed in which we were able to put the ticket numbers up by. The only thing that had slowed us down following Karens talk was everyone who joined the queue despite their numbers not being called. As for handing out VQ tickets, I kept handing them out and pointing out the realistic chance of meeting Karen was dwindling. Anyone from 1150+ would have had me say that you would need to come back after 5pm, and it would be a push, from 1250 onwards I was saying that it was then highly unlikely, Nonetheless if you can stay as close to 6 as you can, some of my VQ's will have been to each family member, some of the tickets will have gone to people who couldnt stay for whatever reason, and we would try our hardest to get everyone through. Proof is in the fact that with 3minutes to spare we had an open queue, and Karen signed until everyone had gone through. Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeatrixKiddo88 Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 The only queue-jumping I saw saturday morning was our friend David who joined our group... ...from ahead of us in thr queue. Yes he gave up his very close-to-the-door place in the queue to come back about 50 people in the queue and join us. Didnt want to queue alone and leave us with number 200+ for Karen. Luckily my estimates for what numbers we'd get were too high and we ended up with the 90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pez Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 only que jumping i saw this weekend was in the photoshoot ques and a few vt ques and yes i confronted the person about it and i got the usual i dont speek english that i got the last time i confronted the same group of people last year. i know for a fact that they can because they post on here and they talk to the guests in pretty much flawless english, also people shouldnt asume that other people cant understand what there saying in there native language because quite frankly i think if showmasters had heard some of the things they were saying they would have been ejected from the building. yes i told a crew member but nothing was done. again because of the whole 'i dont speek english routine.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natalie Vanstone Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 There are a few issues with the whole queuing system that I found utterly baffling to be honest with you. My friends and I all purchased pre-paid tickets for Early Entry Saturday, apart from one of us. We joined the back of the early entry queue at around 8.15am (yes I know, late!) and we were snaked all the way round the back of Earls Court. The one person who had to pay on the day for her early entry obviously joined the pay on the day queue. At 9am when the doors opened we all began to move at the same rate. Now, what annoys me, is that people who paid on the day to get in were getting into the building BEFORE those of us who had pre-paid. As far as I am concerned this makes a mockery of the pre-paid system. Surely those of us who have paid extra to get into the building first, in advance, should actually GET INTO THE BUILDING FIRST?!?! I understand that some people don't want to, or in some cases, can't buy advance tickets, but I feel that should they turn up on the day for early bird tickets they should then join the back of the queue of those of us that have paid in advance. My friend who joined the pay on the day queue actually got into the building before those of us that had already got our tickets weeks before. Also, I agree with people commenting about folks pushing into queues and I agree that it shouldn't happen. Someone's comment about someone pushing infront of a wheelchair user peed me off no end, but on the flip side, I was in a VERY long queue for Jessie Cave's auto on the Friday Preview night, and as we managed to get reasonably close to the front of the queue, a gentleman in a wheelchair rolled OVER MY FOOT and PUSHED IN!! Now what the heck would you have done in that instance?!?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericsdonor Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Was there a price difference??? I thought the prices were the same it just depended on whether you bought in advance or not, to be fair if I hadn't have been paid when I was I would have had to pay on the day and I thought the prices were the same??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adriangill Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 The ticket prices are the same. There is the additional charge of the postage though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Showmasters Admin showmasters Posted July 13, 2011 Showmasters Admin Share Posted July 13, 2011 ok to clear these points up once and for all 1 the gates to the venue were to be opened at the same time , there were not i was waiting with the public my self to get in that morning and i was not happy with the venue staff at all , i told them that latter on in the day and the next day it was fixed and the doors opened at the same time , mistakes are made in life and maybe 10 to 15 people got to be 5 to 10 people ahead in the morning , not a big issues really i do not think but for sunday it was fixed . 2 if anyone thinks that you would get in quicker in the pay on the day entrance then go for it , i look after the door and there are 20 x the amount of people paying on the day then pre paying, but it seems that the same people keep on going on about how there is no difference , there is but "hay" do not buy one and time your self . paying for the ticket in line takes a lot longer and everyone thats in the pre paid line are all in in about 30 minutes , were as the pay on the day line was there most of the day and took up to about 45 to 60 minutes from start to getting in . 3 its just what it is Pre Paid not get in first into the show ticket , it will never be that , if you want to get into the show "FASTER" in a FASTER LINE then buy a pre paid ticket i am reading stuff on here that is just not true , if two people join both pre paid and pay on the day lines at the same time you will not get in any faster , at best you will get in at the same time if you are in the first 10 people in line which means you getting there at at least 6am , but if you are 50 or 100 people behind the first in line you will be a lot slower , just think about it it makes sense what i am saying ok done my bit on this i know some of you will not believe me but its the truth i am going to close this thread now and really it has been talked over thanks for you thoughts and i hope you see what i am saying jason I would like to feed back to Showmasters that what they said would happen didn't. It's something to be aware of next time - as should the punters. On a related note, queue jumpers (who arrived long after the gates had opened) were pointed out to crew, as we're always told to do, but nothing was done. well i was a were of this as i was next to you there was no next time as sunday it went to plan as to queue jumpers who did you tell in the crew ?? i was the one letting you in i was there most of both mornings and any one ANYONE jumping in was sent to the back of the line as that is the right thing to do and shows people we will not tolrate that at our events . sorry but i work the doors to stop things like this happening and so as to get it right for everyone . if anyone want to talk more about this with me then do email me at info@showmastersonline.com thanks you jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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