hi all!! greetings from my post-cancellation line experience today, wednesday 3/23!
as i've mentioned, i'm with my 10 year old in NYC (from LA) and today was our one chance to see Hamilton. we enlisted the help of one of the Dudes for the wait. He started on the line at 5:45pm TUESDAY EVENING (well, 5:15pm actually, he arrived early)... and told us the thrilling/surreal news that we were 1st on line for WEDNESDAY's matinee. My daughter and I arrived around 9:15pm Tuesday and after taking a peek at the line with about a dozen people on it, we stopped at a nearby pizza joint and bought 2 pies to bring over to the line -- one for my Dude Louis and the 3 others from that company and the other for the other 4-5 civilians who were already there. After reading such strong anti-line sitter comments here, I wanted to do something to promote good will, especially so no one would act harshly in front of my daughter. Anyway, my daughter and I sat for about 2 1/2 hours (giving our line sitter Louis took a break) and then Louis returned to sit for us from midnight til 6am Wednesday. Then, my daughter and I returned to finish the wait from 6am on... So in total we had booked a line sitter for 10 hours and we did an additional 9 hours ourselves.
The line kept getting moved from one area to another -- first, to not block a parking gate/area, then so the custodial team of the RR could hose down the sidewalk in front of the theater. Everyone was very civilized about the relocations, keeping their places in line.
From about 9am on we stayed put in front of the theater. The line tripled by this time and even workers from the theater told the people at the back end that they were wasting their time waiting, even on a 2 show day. I guess there were 35 people on line at this time?
around noon, a woman from the box office came out to offer 2 premium seats. we passed. so did all the line sitters and about a half dozen others. Two single ticket people took them.
things stayed quiet for another hour and my daughter looked TERRIFIED. at this point we were starting to mentally prepare to stay through to the night show. and i have to say, even though it was really cold, waiting was actually very pleasant. We had little REI chairs, 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of socks, hand warmers... sure the people who stayed all night sitting on the floor were probably wrecked at this point, but the money spent on the Dudes made the difference.
anyway, around 1:15pm, the woman came out again and said she had a pair of seats for the night show and a single for the matinee. we leapt at the pair and a girl about 10 places down (well after the line sitters and the group from the pizza party the night before) took the single for the matinee.
the seats are great, all things considered, row H orchestra, but far house right, like the last 2 seats (18 & 20). I am hoping the view is decent, but we're just so thankful to be in the #roomwhereithappens.
As I was paying for our tickets, I asked the guy at the box office window how it looked for the others on the line, if he thought a lot of other tickets would be made available. He said, "maybe a couple, I mean, we're pretty booked up today."
a couple things:
1 - I really can't say enough about the awesome LINE DUDES. whatever your moral stance about using the service, they are fantastic, warmhearted guys (one even walked us to the train at midnight, just because...). I felt safer knowing they were on the line. Plus, for us, it was a great investment. in total we paid about $240 for the line dudes (incl tip), $45 for the pizza and $350 for the pair of tickets -- so $635 for 2 orchestra seats (about $320 each).
2 - the street outside the theater seemed waaaay chillier than other blocks in the area. keep that in mind if you're waiting out there.
3 - I saw some posts reacting to the DUDEs pic/caption of the girls lining up at 10am Weds for Thursday's show... I saw those girls. They started the Thursday line all on their own. In fact, I thought it was actually a little unfair for the girls to do this... I think the people who were waiting in the wednesday line should get first dibs at starting the thursday line. I mean, what if someone who missed out on tickets Wednesday PM wanted to just keep waiting? I don't know... maybe it's done this way all the time, but I think it made things a little chaotic.
4 - these were the chairs we got -- they come apart and fit in a bag that's tiny enough to fit in a backpack.
https://www.rei.com/product/846402/alite-monarch-butterfly-chair?cm_mmc=cse_PLA_GOOG-_-8464020002&CAWELAID=120217890000811519&lsft=cm_mmc:cse_PLA_GOOG
anyway, this thread has been so helpful to us with our planning. Thank you so much for your insights and suggestions...
best of luck to everyone trying to get into the show!!!
Updated On: 3/24/16 at 04:21 PM