I spent a lot of money on an experience and didn't enjoy it

[Newname101]

There's something I've wanted to do for ages, do dh and I bought very expensive tickets yo do it. We travelled into London which he hated and it was short and wasn't for me, I left feeling stupid and sad that we spent out money on it. Dh said at least we gave it s go and we had the money spare. I enjoyed walking through St james park with dh more than the activity.
It's really made me doubt myself and worry about doing things in the future.

I feel like that about London theatre. I don't want to spend that much on something I may not like.

I have been to see stuff I know I'll like (Harry Potter) and prefer cheap seats so it's not a huge waste if I don't enjoy.

I had £25 seats last week for something -moved at the interval forward 6 rows as it was empty -those were £79! Really not worth £50 more for slightly better view (and mostly better as no one in the seat directly in front of me)

It is! I loved every bloody second.

Years ago I bought expensive London theatre tickets for my bf for his birthday. Took a lot of organisation to get to London on time ( work, child care for my kids) It was awful, the day I found out I hate musical theatre, not sure he really enjoyed it either. Stopped at pub restaurant on the way home to find he hadn’t booked a table ( as I’d understood the was doing) and we couldn’t get in. worst birthday “treat” ever.

You might find it easier to go for simpler things nearer home OP. Depending on your and DH interests you could get joint RHS membership for a year for way less than £200, or look at National Trust or English Heritage membership or Art Fund maybe?

Another more expensive one. DH wanted to take me to experience the Northern Lights, he died before we could do it. I saw ‘see the Northern Lights’ flights advertised. Drove two hours to the airport, sat through a talk about the flight, 3 hours in the air then a two hour drive home alone in the pitch dark. Only flight they did that season that didn’t see a glimmer of the Northern Lights…… still not seen them.

Yes!

Oh no, it was the Wonka experience wasn't it...

But seriously, Bruce Dickinson could just fart on stage and it would be a great gig 😁 you'll have a ball.

You need to be brave and just keep on doing it, remember if it didn't work out it isn't your failure. My DP dragged me along to the Van Gogh immersive experience against my wishes. I kept on saying who goes to an immersive experience when you can see the real thing in the National Gallery? I ended up loving it, who knew? The exhibition is all very informative and interesting but that didn't make it for me. Oddly enough, the virtual reality immersive session was an extra £2 and not included in the ticket price, because of that quite a number of visitors gave it a miss. The immersive experience wearing a virtual reality headset made the exhibition for me, I did it twice over but after that the staff started to give me funny looks otherwise I would have done it a third time. Imagine spending 10 minutes being inside and walking through all of Van Gogh's most famous landscape pictures, moving seamlessly from one to another. Can't do that looking at the real thing.

We saw Iron Maiden in 2022 at Download and they were excellent - and I'm not a fan. Great display team, lots of energy. Enjoy it!

Also, Fascinating Aida (linked to upthread) are touring at the moment and they're worth every penny to go and see as well, they're hilarious.

I know lots of people who have been to ABBA Voyage and not a single person has had anything negative to say about it. It's on our list of things we want to do!

@Copernicus321 re Van Gogh
is that why reviews are so confusing? Maybe most reviewers didn't do the headset bit.

I would find that expensive but I can't work out what I think of it and I'd have to factor in travel, hating the Tube and not wanting to do London anymore

the Van Gogh thing looked amazing in Emily in Paris but the website looks meh. I'm not even sure if it's the same one

@Newname101 I struggle to forgive myself for wasted money. I think a lot depends how much you have going spare

it's hard to know what to say without knowing what it was, but I find doing as much research as possible is always a good idea

everything is expensive so it's worth being really careful if you're going to beat yourself up later. My default is basically erring on the side of staying local and not spending an amount that would have to be really "wow" for me.

I loved the aquarium, and I've been to lots of aquariums. we've got the Plymouth one near us that is often considered one of the best.

I loved all the areas about different habitats, and was absolutely enchanted by the sea walnuts. they were so beautiful to watch, with their shimmering stripes of bright, reflective rainbow colours. had to get dragged away from that tank.

which just goes to show, we all enjoy different things. you can take into account other reviews, but ultimately, you have to decide if it's right for you, and sometimes, you're going to get it wrong. but there may be other things you think will be okay, or go along because someone else wants to, and love it.

I spent 150 on a family ticket to an experience for my sons birthday. He had wanted to go for so long, was a huge build up to the day. He hated every second of it. But we had a day out, all together, trying something new. The fact he hated the experience and the rest of us werent bothered about going anyway, we put behind us and we still have a nice memory of spending time together. Oh, and the weather was so dreadful we couldnt even do our planned walk around town.

We did that about eight years ago for DH birthday. The hot chocolate guy sold us the dirty plastic mugs so he wouldn't have to wash up! Didn't see any stars either, that big telescope wasn't working then.

Saw Iron Maiden last year OP, not sure what tour PP was referring to but Bruce Dickinson was ELECTRIC, his voice didn't have any issues! Such an amazing gig that my partner and I are taking my soon to be 7y/o DD in the summer also!

I've been to quite a few things where a major part of it isn't working or closed off and they just carry on expecting you not to mind. I think companies should be required to be upfront about this by updating their medias to reflect the change and/or offering a percentage off the ticket price. We're just being ripped-off otherwise.

Thank you so much for this post. That had been on my bucket list for ages. Now it isn't. Brilliant description of a rubbish outing!

8 years! They told us it had been out of order for a year.

What gets me is their arrogance- every complaint is met with a completely inadequate, inflexible response. Equipment not working for that period is inexcusable. Putting the stinking toilets right next to the wooden hut where you sit is just stupid- it's not like they have no space, it's in the middle of thousands of acres of moorland and forest. Rubbish, cheap refreshments are meh- you even have to pay extra if you want a biscuit, they only offer you a cheap instant cocoa or coffee, not even a digestive biscuit. The weather isn't their fault but they need a plan for it happening and they don't have one. They don't offer refunds, partial refunds or a chance to re-book- and weather is often a difficulty. The woman who responds to on-line complaints just sounds dim - she keeps repeating 'we are a charity so can't refund' but that means they take your money and offer nothing.

No one would book if it read 'Come to our dark skies observatory where one of our only two big telescopes has not worked at all for years and the other is only useable if one of our staff manages to get the hatch cover open by hitting it with a piece of wood. We often experience cloud cover and, if that is the case, you will see nothing. We offer a cup of weak instant cocoa free as refreshment. Sit in a badly lit, freezing cold, hut next to stinking toilets to enjoy the whole experience and look at 6 tiny samples of space rock encased in plastic. We have no plan B to offer so if the weather is bad it'll only be the cocoa and the rock samples and the toilet but you are welcome to sit in the hut and wait to see if the clouds lift. If they do we will offer a small hand telescope between every 4-6 people and you can look at the sky yourself. Our staff are personable. No refunds.'

It is in an amazing place and the drive in the pitch blackness was beautiful but nothing to do with them really- we could just go up there and drive around for free.

Op I'm sorry you had a bad time but at the same time a lot of people are concerned about what it it.
We are all grown ups and can look at other reviews to decide if we still want to go or not but I'd be grateful if you could just share what it is, thank you

St James's Park is one of my favourite places in London.

As @Newname101 won't tell us, my money's on a Yoni massage with DH watching

Some people have guessed it, it was the taskmaster experience. I pre booked it before it was open and I love taskmaster, seen every episode, been to live performance level of fan. We paid full price and had to move the tickets once which cost us more. The room was really well done, great to see things from the show but the actual experience was only around an hour long and felt really rushed. If we had only paid 50 pounds each I would have been fine but full price felt a rip off, especially as my early bird tickets were meant to be discounted.

Knowing you don't like something is as worthwhile as knowing you do.

I had the opposite experience and paid £££ for Phantom of the Opera tickets for DDs birthday as she loves it, I wasn't a huge fan of the film or particularly the music but my god it's the best thing I've ever seen and I've seen most shows at the West End

Equally I've had some days turn out to be a complete waste but we've just not repeated similar in future.

We did the taskmaster thing and absolutely loved it but we only paid £25 pp for the tickets through the lottery system they have.

If I had paid more than that I too probably would have been disappointed. I never do these things unless there are discounts or offers on as they are always overpriced.

I've had a very poor experience with Kielder and their unprofessional customer service too. We missed our event due to their zero comms in bad weather and then refusing rebooking or refunds. Lots of complaints online at the time showed many of us in the same boat.

Edited to add @stonebrambleboy & @LuluBlakey1 as meant to quote their posts.

Thanks op.

Oh how disappointing other posters are right though put it down to experience but don't let it put you off other things.

We spent a fortune on a helicopter experience in the US I spent the whole time covering my eyes it was horrible, Dh felt bad because it was him who wanted to do it, but it's just one of those things.

I have realised that I rarely enjoy concerts, trips away etc more than walking my dogs in the woods. I haven't exactly turned into a hermit but I have cut a load of stuff out that old me thought was indispensable for a good social life.