Pre book everything!

[PumpkinKlNG]

So our plans got cancelled today so I thought we would try to book somewhere else but you can’t go anywhere, due to this booking now before you go system you can go anywhere spontaneous, I tried they zoo, nope, the aquarium, no, museum no! Has anyone else found this? You can’t just go somewhere spontaneous anymore as everything needs to be pre book or it’s sold out! This is from 10 am btw

It is full though because they still have restricted numbers going in, rather than full full.

I've booked some events and places on the day we were going. It's certainly possible to do that. We aren't going to London, so that probably helps.

@PumpkinKlNG

Can’t risk just turning up as we are the opposite end of London but good to know for the future

But aren't you complaining that you can't just walk up and book because everything is prebooking?

@PumpkinKlNG

Can’t risk just turning up as we are the opposite end of London but good to know for the future

The museum if natural history says on their site they have walk in tickets you just have to wait

@PumpkinKlNG

These are places that have never been full until Covid restrictions though, I’ve never been turned away from any of these places and was allowed to buy tickets at the gate, you are not allowed to do that now though, the zoo has never been too full to let people in

It's as if they are limiting capacity due to the pandemic.

No herc

Natural history museum.was one of the places I looked at. O was told they were fully booked fir the next week or so. They did say we could come on the day and wait in a queue for the daily released tickets.

So there was a chance of a ticket nyt no garuntees so getting on multiple trains to London is hit and miss

I’m saying these places you aren’t ever turned away from usually? So it’s not a risk? I’ve never been turned away from any of these places when turning up pre Covid 😕 I know why they are limiting that doesn’t mean it isn’t frustrating

Pre covid they didn’t have to worry about people wanting/needing space.

Pre covid a lot of these places ended up so crowded nobody could properly enjoy them.

I think booking and limits on numbers so people can enjoy things is a positive personally.

Another one who loves everything being a bit less crowded, sorry OP!

I like it. Less crowded and no queuing to get into places. I’ve found a lot of cancellations for places I want to go to close to the date so it’s worth checking every few days.

Oh honestly I think this has totally ruined London for me. The whole point of living in the city (I am a Londoner so this is somewhat in jest) is that you can make plans on the day. Nice weather - head of to Diana's playground or the Zoo, pouring it down - head of to the natural history or another local museum or something else. I really really hope they stop doing it. I absolutely hate it with kids. I am not going to get on the tube and wait outside the NH with kids in the rain. In my experience - you could always get into things fine before

For everyone saying it's due to the pandemic - I get it but I hope they dont keep it for ever more. Otherwise, I will just have to book places weeks in advance on the off chance it's raining that weekend. In practice, that means I just dont end up using any of the tickets, forget to cancel them and it becomes a real pain

Definitely show up. I had tickets for natural history museum later this week but my email said you don't need to cancel if you don't need them. When we were there before they were letting people in without bookings.

We were in London last we and I must admit the prebooking for museums and galleries was a bit tedious. Got booked into Tate Modern okay but other galleries websites like National Gallery and Tate Britain were ever so confusing and I couldn’t quite work out which thing to book so we ended up giving them a miss. Still had a good time though and it was dead easy getting into restaurants etc because so quiet, so that made up for it!

I hate it too OP, I like to see how we’re feeling on the day before deciding where to go, and now not only do you have to book in advance you have to pick a time as well, we went to the sealife centre recently and we could either have a 9am slot or 3pm so I had to hope the kids woke up early otherwise I’d have to wake a sleeping baby to get there 😱

I agree OP and miss the spontaneity for these reasons:

It's exciting for DC to just decide to go somewhere the night before or that day.
I don't like prebooking incase DC are ill or car doesn't start etc.
I miss the freedom of choice.

First world problems though.

It's very shit when the weather is unexpectedly bad and you've got something booked. You know it's going to be awful but you can't do anything else and you feel obliged to go because it's pre-booked.