Hamilton Cancellation Line May 29
2016, 01:17:28 AM
I so appreciate this board, it had me very prepared for my trip to NYC and the Hamilton Cancellation line that I will now give My Hamilton Cancellation Line Experience:
If you don’t want to read my detailed experience here is the nitty gritty:
Arrive Monday at 6:00pm for Tuesday I am 16th in line.
Tuesday May 24 Show: 10 regular tickets come out (don’t know break down) 0 Premiums (plus 3 tickets resold to line from patrons) 13 total in.
Wednesday May 25 show: 9 regulars (4 unclaimed lottery) +4 Premiums 13 total in.
Now all the stuff in between:
Monday May 23 8:00am - I grab my 11-year-old daughter from bed in Alabama put her in the car for a surprise. After planes, trains & automobiles (not in that order) we arrive at the RRT 6:00pm Monday May 23.
To my surprise I find we are nowhere near first in line, as a matter of fact we are 16 & 17 in line. The line begins with 2 girls for 2 tickets that arrived at 2 pm, 2 line sitters for premiums if they come out, otherwise for 4 tickets, one girl from MIT for 2 tickets (friend arrives next morning), 2 more girls paired for 2 tickets (Maryland & Sweet Girl), 4 HS kids for 4 tickets, 4 college friends for 4 tickets and finally myself and my daughter for 2 tickets. I already begin the prep with her that we will not be seeing the show on Tuesday! I quickly settle in and start making plans. I have a weeks’ worth of luggage with me, an 11-year-old girl and what appears to be just over a 48 hour wait ahead. Around 8:00pm a young boy shows up on his own joins the line. He does not get in and this makes me very sad, very nice kid, had tickets to another show on Wednesday already so he only had the one day. Around 9:30 my daughter and I go get some food and do the stage door at Something Rotten which turns out to be great because we run into friends from home, and they come get my daughter and take her around the city for a good part of the day on Tuesday.
After grabbing some food and Something Rotten stage door we return to line and I come to the conclusion that my old body and her young one are going to need some time on a real mattress over the next 48 hours. I get to know the 4 college kids ahead of me, who are also resigned to the fact that this is a 2-night event, and make a deal with them. I would pay for the hotel room, let me and my daughter head back for a few hours then they can use it for a while until it was time to check out. Around midnight we left and got a few hours of good sleep. I leave our sleeping pads, rain coats, blankets and umbrella for the college kids and the nice boy. I get a few hours of sleep, just enough to get me through the day, but also so little that it made the next night’s sleep on the street much easier due to exhaustion. When I returned to the line around 6:00am, 2 of my new line buddies head to the hotel for some sleep! While I was gone a family of 3 had arrived around 2:00am and many more behind them, I did not meet to many of them, the line must have hit 50 people by 9:00am. I was shocked how many stayed until 7:00! I think a few left, and a few purchased from TM. I will get to know a few of them the next night.
As we sit through the day nothing very eventful happens until later in the afternoon. Around 3:00 a line sitter shows up for the Wednesday show and he is very concerned with going down the line asking who is here for tonight and who is here for tomorrow, and all of us from 6-20 for the most part are telling him both, that didn't seem to be an acceptable answer, he really wanted to know where he was in line for the next day. My assumption was that he would be calling his client to let them know the situation. Shortly after this one of the security guys came out also asking what night we were waiting for, so most people just told him that they were there for tomorrow.
Around 5:00pm as expected we are sent to the Marriott side of the RRT and asked to form 2 lines one for today and one for tomorrow. I personally was not happy about this and I feel that the line sitter had something to do with security making this decision. But it really did not help him, everyone who was on the bubble to get in (#8-20) split between the lines. Holding their spots in both lines, and the people behind that, who were willing to stay, just committed to Wednesday.
6:45pm I can see things are getting tense in the line, as no tickets have come out yet. The 2 girls in front have had a friend show up, she is waiting outside the ropes, the line sitters have also had their clients arrive and wait outside the ropes. Box office comes out with 2 tickets the first girl goes in, her newly arrived friend goes in with her (there was some drama there but in short that is the way it worked out), the second girl from the 2:00pm Monday arrival makes it in, then the first line sitter and client, next line sitter and client, the 2 MIT girls, then one more ticket, for one of the 2 girls (Maryland) who had partnered up in line. So a total of 10 tickets are handed out. I have no clue what kind of tickets any of them are. Also on this night one lady comes into the line with 1 ticket she had paid $1100 for (she brought receipt) and she was really embarrassed to be asking money for it but just wanted to get something back, as her friend backed out, I heard her ask $500. I am not sure if a bidding war started but one of the HS kids took it. Also at some point shortly before 7:00 while were waiting for security to come offer tickets, a guy out of nowhere grabbed one of my college kids and said he had 2 tickets and to come with him, so she grabbed a friend off they went and they each got in for $100! So all in all 11 people ahead of me went in on night one! The 3 HS kids in front of me that did not get in decided one night was enough they did not need to miss another day of school. So I am now 4th & 5Th in line, YAY!!! Way better then what I was expecting. Now behind me I have nice boyfriend who arrived around 9:00am Tuesday, always in line for Wednesday, for his girlfriend’s birthday, 2 line sitters and another girl who had arrived around 10am. The girl asked us to hold her place while she took her stuff to a hostel and she would be back before tonight’s show was over.
The Marriott people came and made us move across the street during the show, so we waited by the dumpster between parking lot & Neverland, I made a couple of trips to the theater during the show to make sure that no one was showing up for the line the next day. I did find one, so I had to disappoint her that she was not first but actually about 10th in line.
Before the show let out, my daughter and the remaining college kids and the nice boyfriend had lined up for stage door and it was a great one Lin came out so all is good! I on the other hand sat by the sneak out stage door and got to see and speak briefly to Anthony who is my favorite so that was nice. As the crowd cleared from in front of the RRT we move the line back to the stairs in front of RRT.
About 11:00pm comes and we have some drama. Our new #1 in line, Sweet Girl who had paired up Monday evening with another individual (Maryland) that got her a few spots ahead of her actually arrival time – basically she had jumped the 2 groups of 4, of which only 2 remain. Long story short (1,000 words in HA!) She had found a girl crying outside the RRT because she had bought an online ticket that turned out to be counterfeit, so our #1 thought it would be a great gesture to make this new girl to be her plus one apparently they had some sort of mutual friend. I never did figure this out. None the less I agree very nice gesture, but now that moves us all back one spot. Go back to the beginning of this story, our girls who were 1&2 for Tuesday night, at the last minute were 3 tickets instead of 2, so had they not added a +1 Sweet Girl would have seen the show Tuesday Night. I reminded Sweet Girl of this and how it made her feel at the time she realized she got bumped back. I made the suggestion that Counterfeit Girl be placed as my +1 in the number 6 spot. Needless to say this did not go over well with Counterfeit Girl. She was very clear that Sweet Girl could take who ever she wanted, which I agreed was correct. But I appealed to Sweet Girl that there were 5 of us that arrived Monday afternoon that remained, and that she had jumped 2 of them already and that we had spent all this time together and asked her how she would feel if this decision kept one of us out. A few other people got in the discussion and it was decided that Counterfeit Girl would be 6 in line, but would not sit with me, we would need to change seats with the others. Great! Problem solved! And I certainly think a fair decision, though now boyfriend points out she is ahead of him and he had been there all day and I agree with him as well. Sweet Girl and Counterfeit Girl go to dinner; only Sweet Girl returns. Counterfeit Girl decided that 6th was not worth the risk of sleeping out, and was her last day with family before going to Germany so she was out. She did return the next afternoon to tell everyone goodbye and had a word or two for me – oh well. As it turns out had she stayed she would have gotten in with great seats. As the drama was unfolding a group of 3 arrive, a brother, sister & friend.
So around midnight as we all tuck in for the night the line looks like this: Sweet Girl 1, college kids 2 &3, me and my daughter 4&5 boyfriend 6&7, girl who left for hostile never returns, line sitter 8 but premiums only, 8:00 pm arrival Adult willing to take premium or tickets 9&10, planning on bringing friend if it works out, brother/sister/friend 11,12,13.
Wednesday morning more people have arrived, a girl willing to take a premium, line sitter (though this one never admits to it) hostel girl comes back (possibly a line sitter but not for sure), but does not ask for spot back in line, both willing to take premiums. We do not sleep in order so when security comes out at 6:00 am and takes pictures in the morning we are not in order, but as long as we are in photo we are good. Line continues to grow but not near the number as on Tuesday. There is no Matinee for Hamilton this Wednesday.
Around 1:30 I walk my daughter to Something Rotten matinee, may be the only show other than Hamilton she sees if this goes on another day.
Wednesday is a little more active for tickets. 2 premiums come out around 4:30 in the afternoon, the first line sitter takes them. Security then comes out with 2 more, and when he does Adult who had arrived the night before is in the bathroom, as well as the next girl in line willing to take premiums, but line sitter and hostel girl (possible sitter) are holding their hands up. This is where I take action and tell security that Adult is in bathroom and she is next in line and wants them, he tells me that he has to pass her if she is not there, I make a little fuss and he gives me 2 minutes. The matinees are just letting out so there is a crowd, I run through all sorts of old people screaming “excuse me, emergency, so sorry …..” as I get through the crowd Adult is just coming out the revolving door of Marriott so I yell for her to run, now we are both knocking old people down and get to the ticket office just in time!!! YAY! I feel bad for the 2 people the tickets could have been passed to, but the other girl wanting premiums behind Adult was in the bathroom as well so just seemed like the right thing to do (turns out if Adult had missed them she would have gotten the last 2 tickets, not sure where the seats were though). I visit the line on Thursday, Hostel Girl and Line Sitter (still not admitting that he is) are at the front of the line and they get premiums for Thursday night.
Steins arrives sometime in the afternoon while we are all still in front of the RRT, he also begins to ask who is staying for Thursday, everyone around me again is telling him both. He does not like this, he really wants to know his number. He feels they will do 2 lines, I tell him if they do that we will split and be in both lines, so he heads to the back of the line somewhere.
Around 4:00 Leslie Odom comes, then leaves several in line go to get photos, he is very polite, says he will be right back, comes back with some coffee and says lets do this.
Around 5:00 they move us to the Marriott side of the RRT, but do not split us in to 2 lines, even though they were adamant the night before this is the way they do it. Around 6:30 they come out and they ask Sweet Girl how many tickets she says one they send her in, then College girls get asked they say 2 and get in, then they say they have one more, I send my daughter in. I have to go in a pay, this is when I find out these 4 are unclaimed lottery tickets. FRONT ROW! The college kids and my daughter run off to Marriott to clean up!
Around 7:45 they come out and tell me they have one ticket. This is very exciting, but I feel bad because the line sitter I spent Wednesday with tells me since the new rules are out they bring out the premiums, then the pairs and then the singles, so if this is true there are no pairs coming out. Turns out not to be true. Boyfriend, and girlfriend (who joined us Wednesday morning) get in and sit right next to Adult who paid premium price (ouch). Then 2 of the 3 sister/brother/friend got in. My seat was a special needs chair in the last row of orchestra – but is the best seat I could ask for, being under 5 feet tall it is very rare that the person in front of me is not an issue for me to see. These seats were elevated so it was fantastic!
All in all I would do it all over again! The show was the best thing I have ever seen, by spending the extra night the seats worked out perfect. But even better than the show for me was my daughter’s excitement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iUhojj-jcs
My advice for others:
1. Bring something to sleep on – camping pad
2. If you can plan for 2 nights, you should get in!
3. Make friends with everyone!
4. Be patient
Things I learned from my experience:
1. The line does a very good job of monitoring itself.
2. The line sitters are very nice guys, though I think that is a very important part of their job.
3. RRT Security is not consistent from night to night on handling line
4. There is no good time or bad time to get in line
5. Hamilton is everything it is cracked up to be
6. Leslie Odom Jr. has very skinny ankles
|
. 
STAGE MAG
