tonymoco wrote:Would someone who was at the Paramount on Monday or Tuesday please confirm whether or not it's possible to pick up "fan club" priced tickets at 6pm (5:50pm!) and then leave to have dinner and be readmitted back in for the show?
Someone had posted that once you pick up your tickets you can't leave the theatre. I'm hoping that's not entirely accurate or that there's a way around it.
Also...
Were they letting backpacks etc in?
Is the "bathroom problem" only happening before the show, or at intermission and/or other times as well?
Thank you.
Tony
We picked up our tickets on Monday at 6PM, and I asked the ticket takers if we could go in and come back out to eat. They said no way. I don't know of a way around it.
There is a special fan club table inside the lobby to pick up tickets, there was no real line for it, the line is for general will call that queues up to a machine that reads your CC and then dispenses your tickets. The fan club presale tickets are handled differrently. There is no need to pick up tickets first and then go eat, we're going to get there early for parking, then go eat, then pick up tickets around 6:30 or so for early entry. No need to hang around waiting until 6PM to get your tickets, might as well be doing something else. Ignore the people out front saying that you need to stand in line for Ticketmaster will call, go to the table inside the box office lobby to the left with two nice ladies with boxes of envelopes. First 1/2 of the alphabet on the left, 2nd half on the right. They are practically right in front of where you go into the theater. This entrance is not the main theater lobby. After you go in, walk straight ahead about 60 yards or so, and you'll come to the main theater lobby on the left. It's well worth a visit as it is a beautifully restored Art Deco architecture. The walls and ceiling are gorgeous, and you can try to hear the beards singing about the racket of the crew setting up the bar/refreshment stand. There is a large merchandise table here also, don't spend time at the small one when you come in through the box office entrance. The box office entrance is around the side of the theater and faces onto 21st st. There are two parking lots by the theater. Heading up Broadway from 880, turn left on 20th St and it's just on your right 1/2 way down the block. The other one is best accessed from Telegraph which splits off of Broadway around 15th St. Take this split and then turn right on 21st st, there's a sign that says "Paramount Theater" and this street has all the tour semis parked there and the band bus. The parking lot entrance is on the right just past the box office. This is a small lot, maybe 30 cars. The other lot is a lot bigger. Both should have space before 6pm. Both are $10.
There are a bunch of restaurants within a couple of blocks of the theater, just walk down Broadway (away from the bay) about a block, there's a Louisiana Fried Chicken place (fast food, but quite good and inexpensive, one of the ticket takers recommend their Peach Cobbler) on the corner you can't miss. Next to it is a wine bar with a menu that looked good. Across Broadway from these was Luka's Tap Room which looked like another food candidate. Cafe Madrid is on Broadway going the other way, at the end of block the Theater is in. Here's a Google search for nearby restaurants. All those little red dots are restaurants and you can click on them to see what they are, most are lunch-type fast food places, but there are plenty of variety with in a 2-3 block radius.
http://maps.google.com/maps?near=2025+B ... 122.268208
With regard to rest rooms, we didn't use them right before the show, but they were a disaster at intermission. Don't drink very much before the show would be my advice... the couple next to us left a song before intermission (Anthem) to use the restroom, sort of a mid-concert emergency. That's another option to consider. The ushers only let people back into the seating area between songs, which is nice for audience, but not so nice for those that want a quick trip to the rest room.
I don't know about backpacks. I didn't see them searching anyone though, but we got in early and were nearly the only ones there.