I felt never dismal, but the experience surely was. Tried my best to get a ticket, waited for the day where my one-and-only time slot (10.09.2015 at 2pm) was open for sale. Sat at the computer in time. And failed.
Reason for that one slot only are my travel plans which are not dominated by myself but by my work/client.
Thanks to this now I will have another full day in the city of London – and save some 70GBP for train tickets to Weston-super-Mare and back.
I would have made it a fun trip though. And maybe even have saved that money. And I would have seen other places in England than Heathrow and London. Another time…
Actually, my idea was the following: I´d buy 3 tickets. One for myself and 2 to give away to someone, who would take me to Dismaland, from Heathrow and back. 2 spares because not everyone likes to ride with a stranger (me). I am sure it would have been an awesome experience and fun time with fellow fans. Crazy day it would have been. And those who know me know that crazy is a compliment for me (and from me).
That morning went as follows:
10.00GMT = 11.00 in Hamburg.
screenshot from 11.00 and 40 seconds
dates available, but not clickable.
oh, yes of course, only seconds later, the site was too busy for me to proceed:
This took some 45 minutes, while I had 3 tabs open, refreshing at different 20sec intervals.
Then all 3 windows showed space for me to book at the same time.
Only 1 ticket? Well, better than none, but didn´t go with my plan. But okay, I take it!
Well, I wanted to take it…
Okay, same result on all 3 tabs. The previous „1“ was … ???
I thought I had lost it, but refreshed a few more times.
Then this :). Option for up to 5 tickets, I took the 3 I wanted and proceeded.
To PayPal. I had to go through some 3 steps, then „back to Dismaland“ page.
WHAT??? Yes, WHAT a bad booking system, that does not take out the tickets chosen by others while they were free for me to choose too, but the previous choser seconds ahead of me proceeding with payment.
I tried again, but could only get this screen from then on:
So after an hour, I gave up my fun plan to go see the Dismaland installation:
I am fine. Thinking about the imperfect booking system I believe, they were using one that is not a big number and such does not have the capacaties of a good booking system, of one that can handle massive fan „runs“. Well, it does not have to be perfect. It is art. It is fun. It is a hype.
Those who go, enjoy! As I will enjoy my day in the city of London.
