Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - RETURNS QUEUE THREAD

[madsonmelo]

It's good to know that it's not that hard to find tickets for the show, I guess the wednesdays shows are easier to get than the others ones, right? I will try queues if the friday forty doesn't work out the way I want.

[madsonmelo]

No problem, I will be there on the first week of December.

[tigi101]

Hello all,

I'm hoping to get returns tickets for the show on a Saturday. On a Saturday what time do you recommend getting there, we were going for as early as possible 7.30am?

Is it worth going down on the Friday afternoon too? Or will they only sell the returns ticket for a Saturday on the Saturday?

Thanks for all the great advice on here btw.

L xx

[auss]

Hi guys, I'll be in London in February next year and I was hoping to ask anyone who's been in the returns queue about the safety of the area?

I'll be a mid-20s female by myself and I was going to line up early morning (5/6ish) for the Wednesday shows, but it's an area i'm unfamiliar with so if it isn't safe I'll arrive later - transport wouldn't be an issue because my hostel is a 10 minute walk from the theatre.

Thanks for your help! I'm extremely excited, and if anyone has any other tips that would be great

[Deleted]

It's pretty central and I very much doubt you'll be the only one in the queue, I reckon you'll be very safe indeed. Do wrap up warm though!

[viserys]

The worst that ever happened to me when I was waiting for a friend in front of the Palace Theatre was some rather scruffy guy trying to chat me up, but I guess that can happen anywhere. Just across the street from where the returns queue will be is the Soho Fire Station that's (I assume) permanently manned, so just in case, help would be nearby.

I second the idea of wrapping up warmly

[Deleted]

Take care not to be run over by a speeding fire engine.

[Deleted]

It's a busy area from early in the morning with people going to work etc so you won't be 'alone' and it's generally what I'd consider a safe area- and like many said it's opposite a fire station as well. There's also a fair few coffee shops to pop to for warming up (if you can do a space holding agreement with your queue neighbours)

[auss]

Thanks everyone! Huge help

[dreas]

Hello,
My girlfriend has surprised me with a weekend in London this coming weekend. I would very much like to return the favor and get up early and wait in line for tickets for her. What is a realistic time I should arrive? Also are Saturday returned tickets for both parts? I have decided to risk this rather than purchase Curious Incident tickets that are guaranteed. Right move?

[daniel]

Nov 21, 2016 15:47:11 GMT dreas said:

Hello,
My girlfriend has surprised me with a weekend in London this coming weekend. I would very much like to return the favor and get up early and wait in line for tickets for her. What is a realistic time I should arrive? Also are Saturday returned tickets for both parts? I have decided to risk this rather than purchase Curious Incident tickets that are guaranteed. Right move?

Massive gamble. If you get there early enough (I'd say 7am latest) you will get tickets, but you can expect to pay top whack (I believe £95 per part) and you may be queuing until just before the show starts, so may not get much time to enjoy London with your girlfriend! Good luck though, if you decide to give it a go

[ctas]

Someone I know was there from 6am on Sunday but didn't get tickets. Maybe a lack of returns that day?

[potterhead5]

Hi,

Does the returns sue open at 10am? I'm looking at going on a Sunday or Wednesday, can anyone tell me what time they got there and if they got tickets? I was thinking of going at like 6 am as I really don't want to miss out.

[Flim Flam]

Hi folks,

Need some advice please.
Not a Potterhead so haven't been following all the chat in this thread.

Sister and niece coming up to London next Sunday (4th December), leaving Monday. Teenage niece would die and think she had gone to heaven if we could get tickets (2) for Sunday.

I know its like hens teeth, but trying to work out the best strategy to try at least.
Have been searching the Nimax/ATG sites of course.
And will drop into the box office during the week, just in case anything is coming up for Sunday.

But, if that fails, what is the situation with queueing on Sunday?
Don't mind getting up early (family huh?)but no desire to spend an entire day sitting on the pavement in London (been there, done that...)
How does it work? Do you queue early and then the box office opens at 10am and you get given tickets? Or do you have to queue all day?I know they do not hand out the tickets early because of the touting situation, but not sure how it works.

Sorry if this has all been explained elsewhere, haven't got time at the moment to read it all.
Thanks!

[sondheimhats]

They sell return tickets as they come in. So if you get there at 6/7am, you're more likely to get tickets earlier in the day (possibly even right when the box office opens). When I went, I got there right at 10. I was about 20th in line, and I was lucky enough to be offered tickets 10 minutes before the 2pm Part 1. It was a really close call, though.

[maggiem]

I went along to the Box Office last Friday morning on the off chance, to see if there was anything for April 8th (closest to my birthday next year).

I got very lucky and secured £20 stalls tickets for that day!

It is possible if you are prepared to check. Please keep trying... you never know!

[Flim Flam]

Update: I am now in the official running for the 'Aunty of the Year' Award.
Dropped into the Box Office today and got 2 £20 tickets for both performances this Sunday.
Now that's what I call a result!

Oh, and best of all. Now I don't have to get up ridiculously early on Sunday morning and queue in the cold for returns. Thank goodness for that!

Thanks for all your advice folks.

[jbg]

Hello all!


I am fortunate to see some availability on the dates i would like to attend, however my budget would only allow me to see one show (they are priced at 199 for both shows).

Is it possible to watch the first show and have the second show returned? Are the tickets separable?

Thank You

[viserys]

But would you really want to see only one half? Would you walk out of a movie at half time?

I cannot really answer your question whether you can return the ticket for the second show, however I would recommend to try for other tickets at some point that match your budget and would enable you to see the full thing. It's not like the two shows are separate stories, it's basically one long story you'd miss half of by only seeing the first show.

[Deleted]

I assume it is possible, I'm sure there's a returns queue on nights when only Part 2 is running, but I've not heard of anyone doing this so it's an assumption rather than an informed idea. It's not like Henry IV though where you can happily see one at a time and still get a decent story, it really is one super-long play hacked in the middle. I don't think it's significantly spoilery either to say that the cut off point at the end of Part 1 really does have the power to frustrate if you're not coming back right away for Part 2, and I imagine it would be even worse if you weren't coming back at all! It's your standard interval hook, but ramped up A LOT.

[potternutter]

Hello,

I was in an online queue for 10 hours last August, but managed to get 2 tickets to Cursed child in July (eek!). Since then however, I have found out I am pregnant and due in May- and as I live in Manchester it's not going to be possible to leave a newborn and travel to London to see two shows 😭
I have contacted the theatre and there is no chance of a swap, they said I could sell them to my friend and let them know her name and my booking reference and they will change the booking to ensure she gets in fine- but I can't bare to do it just yet if there's a chance of a swap! We are thinking of coming to London for a babymoon on Fri 24th Feb to Sun 26th- any suggestions on how we can secure tickets before we spend a fortune booking a train and hotel?

Thanks for any advice!

[andrew]

Jan 10, 2017 22:13:02 GMT potternutter said:

We are thinking of coming to London for a babymoon

A...

A what?

[Deleted]

Jan 11, 2017 8:07:44 GMT andrew said:

Jan 10, 2017 22:13:02 GMT potternutter said:

We are thinking of coming to London for a babymoon

A...

A what?

I believe that's what's more commonly known as a holiday...except one of you is pregnant.

I'm a bit confused by the original question though, as the theatre have said there's no way to swap (as it's sold out) the only way you'll get tickets is if you stand in the returns queue, which might not be ideal for a pregnant lady. If I were you I'd buy new tickets in the next allocation going on sale soon, for when the baby is older and can be left for a weekend. And perhaps see something else on the 'Babymoon'

(ok now I'm thinking of the scary baby in the sun in Teletubbies for the word 'babymoon')

[Deleted]

Jan 11, 2017 10:27:09 GMT @theatremonkey said:

Jan 11, 2017 9:05:25 GMT @emicardiff said:

except one of you is pregnant.

Which one? Does it affect the name of the break, depending?

Maybe, also does it change depending on if there are existing children? I'm too confused by all of this now.

[Deleted]

See, I get the joke, the answer is obviously "the woman", but potternutter hasn't actually specified if her other half is a man or a lady, so just... "one of you". That'll do. (In some couples it could be "both of you" but that's going to be a much less frequent occurrence.)