Cirque Du Soleil in London

[richard3330]

Hi

We're going to see Cirque Du Soleil's Saltimbanco at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday in the afternoon at 3pm. Is anybody else going, or has anybody already seen it?

 

[KayleeUK]

Not seen it - but would love to hear a review when your back

Kaylee

 

[vernon]

I'm going next Tuesday, haven't seen Saltimbanco but I have seen La Nuba and Quidem. Both of which I enjoyed. Have heard mixed reviews about the Albert Hall as a venue. Because of the way Cirque works all over the stage there are places where your visibility is limited to certain parts of the stage. Some people thought it was a WONDERFUL venue, some weren't so complimentary.

 

[Astrid]

I had planned on going Richard but never got around to booking the tickets, we loved La Nouba!

Look forward to hearing all about it.

Astrid

 

[richard3330]

I can understand people having mixed reviews about The Albert Hall as a venue. We also have seen La Nouba in Florida and Quidam last year. Why did they change from having the massive tent in Battersea?

 

[WDWfan uk]

Hi Richard .. before they performed Quidam at Battersea they had used the Albert Hall in previous years - one of the shows they performed there was Allegria and the other I can't recall but the Royal Albert Hall was their original venue.

I really wanted to see Saltimbanco - I tried to get tickets on the 'net and I also called but they only had naff seats available for the performances we could make and time has flown by since and I made no further enquiries ....... I look forward to hearing your opinions.

 

[Olaf]

I've only seen La Nouba live, but a cable channel recently had an all day Cirque Du Soleil feast. They played tapes of all of their programs. It was incredible!

 

[richard3330]

I know what you mean, Shirley. We rang up to try and book the day it was released to the public, we rang at about 4pm and already most of the decent seats had gone, for the original perfomence that we wanted. I'm not sure whether some companies or something has bought seats in bulk or whether it is just extremely popular this year.

Thanks for the information about The Royal Albert Hall.

 

[richard3330]

Hi

We came back last night, as we stayed over night Friday at a hotel in London so DW could do some shopping (The whole of London and our hotel seemed to be filled with Americans and a few Japanese, we barely saw an English Face, except taxi drivers!)

The show was brilliant, even better than Quidam and about equal with La Nouba in my opinion. I thought that The Royal Albert Hall was a perfect location. We had the 3rd most expensive seats, yet still had a brilliant view with no interruptions. The show worked all over the stage and we thought that the seats were great (and a lot more comfy than the ones that were in the circus tent in Battersea last year!!). The acts were great and there was also some audience participation, in which some people got completely embarrased by! The merchandise was as expensive as ever. The programmes were £8, but were quite good, with lots of photos and information. All in all we thought it was a brilliant show, the performers are incredibly talented.

Does anybody know which one it will be next year?

 

[WDWfan uk]

....... I've been waiting for your verdict ! Oh how I wish I'd got those tickets - whereabouts were your seats?

It does sound wonderful - I'm pleased you all had such a great time - thank you for reporting back

 

[KayleeUK]

Sounds like you had a great time Richard - Thanks for posting!!

Kaylee

 

[richard3330]

We were in Row M, it is hard to explain whereabouts we were, but we were on the ground floor level, near door 9. We were to the side of the stage, but still had a great view. I don't think that there was any act at all that we couldn't see, except one where for a short while a blue light was shining over towards us, making it hard to see, but it only lasted about a minute and we still saw the majority of the act.

Another bonus was that some people at the centre part of our row didn't turn up (or they were just empty seats), so everyone in our row moved up, giving us better seats (more central) than what we paid for. The staff at the hall were really friendly and it was their idea for our row to move up

 

[kazzie]

Hi,

I'm just back from the show....and very disappointed because of where we wwere sitting it ruined the show......We had the best seats available when I booked at least six months ago that cost £42.50 each.If you imagine a horseshoe shape we were the last seats on the horseshoe,behind the stage,and had an extremely restricted view.We were in a tiered box that had two rows of seats,ours were the back row.So the people in front of us who also had a restricted view,were leaning over the balcony,which meant their bodies cpvered at least half of the stage for us behind.There were two seats next to us that the guy who sat there said were the comp. seats for staff,and we had paid top dollar for ours We couldn't see any of the things going on around the stage or in the crowd and unlike The Cirque in Orlando that plays to an audience all around the stage,this show 'played' straight in front to the audience,so we were looking at the performers backs.

We were so unhappy with the seats we left at the interval.I went to speak to a manager.She offered for us to return another day,but I felt it would be a mistake to return,so she took my tickets from me and my details.I'm not sure if they will offer a part or full refund.A woman interuppted as the manager was talking to me saying excatly the same thing,but the manager quite rightly asked her to wait as she had butted in to my complaint!There was also another person waiting to speak about the same thing.

I guess they sell these restricted view seats and allowing for the fact not everyone will bother to ask to move or for a refund it is still worth it for them.They cannot possibly be the best seats that were available six/seven months ago,so the box office staff must try to fob these seats off first.I have learnt a lesson from this,if I don't have a diagram of the venue to know exactly where I'm sitting ,I'll no longer be trusting of staff booking my tickets and telling me the seats are great.

 

[Astrid]

Great to read your report Richard - so pleased that you had such a fantastic evening, just wish, like Shirley, that I had got my act together sooner and gone as well - ah well, I'll make up for it with La Nouba again in May!

Karen - Sorry to hear your evening wasn't as successful, hopefully you'll get some kind of refund.

Astrid

 

[richard3330]

Sorry to hear about your seats, Kazzie.
IMO, I thought that the show was very well done, and the performers were performing in all directions, not just the front. I am sorry you were dissapointed though, hopefully you will get a refund. I do agree with you about them trying to sell the worst seats first and saving the better ones for nearer the time. We tried to get the best seats for any performance on the day it was released, and they said that none were available.

 

[SpottyDog]

Richard, I'm so glad you enjoyed the performance and had a real 'Cirque Experience'. Sounds like we'll have to put this on out 'annual tarditional trips' list from now on.

Kaz, sorry to hear yer problem with restricted view- been a victim meself of the 'sell the worst seats first(ish)' ticketing ideal. Did they not state they were 'restricted view' seats? if not, and assuming that can be proved, you should have a case for a full refund - unless the tickets were priced at the lowest end of the scale, which would imply worst position etc. I hope you get a realistic and acceptable response from Cirque or The Albert Hall Management.

 

[WDWfan uk]

Karen what a great shame!
I must say that I was suspicious when I looked into the ticket situation a long time ago - the only top price seating left included a type of package which included drinks and buffet food or similar, thus costing a fortune per seat..... at the time I thought that I would wait until they opened some of that seating back up again in the event that these seats weren't taken up.
I do hope you get a full refund - if a view is partially obstructed, you should be told at the time of booking so you have the option to decline.

 

[kazzie]

Thanks for your support!
I checked my credit card online just now, and I have been given a full refund

I will be much ,much more careful when I book seats in future and suspicious if booking seats way in advance if the 'best' seats have allegedly already gone

 

[UKDEB]

A colleague went on Saturday and he too had 'not great' seats which were the only ones available. He says they've extended the show by an extra week due to demand.

I'm really interested in this concept of selling the worst seats first. I've just booked to see Matchbox Twenty at Wembly Arena. I booked online at Ticketmaster on the day of release and the 'best available' seats were not what I'd have chosen. I was trying to fathom who on earth gets all the best seats and had come to the conclusion that they must be released to fan clubs or tour operators or other bodies before they go on sale to the general public.