To feel frustrated so much has to be booked in advance these days?

[Teentrauma]

I'm talking mainly attractions and days out. I've found that increasingly over the last few years and certainly since Covid many places require booking online in advance taking away spontanaety as they're often full up on the day. For example, tickets for a kids Father Christmas experience locally sold out within hours of tickets going on sale the other week - in August! We also booked to go up the Snowden railway - had to do in advance as wouldn't have got on otherwise. On the day, the weather was appalling and we wouldn't have gone if we didn't have tickets. We saw nothing and it was a total waste of money!

I get it's more efficient for the businesses and also takes away the need to queue. I'm probably a dinosaur but I hanker for the days when you could just decide to do things spur of the moment!

I like planning and prebooking for the certainty and to stop me letting days drift away - it keeps me focused and motivated! But a major issue is for big attractions and events it enables bots and scammers to buy up all tickets and sell them on for inflated prices.

I think I prefer booking in advance. I always hated arriving at the pool only to find out that everyone had the same idea and the queue's out the door! Then queue for ages only to be told that every session is full, but I can book in for two hours' time. Booking in advance is more predictable and leads to fewer disappointments.

I booked Santa yesterday and the Christmas panto way back in May! I quite like that, as Christmas is expensive enough so it's nice to spread the cost a bit by getting some of the expensive things paid for early.

I am somewhere that usually isn’t all that busy but can be very busy for a week or so at Easter and in the six weeks of summer. The local children’s attraction has emailed all the season ticket holders to ask them to book when they want to come. So there is a chance you could be turned away, even once you’ve paid.

Re Centerparks - I think you’ve always had to book everything in advance there. A friend told me (pre Covid) about someone he knew who had gone but hadn’t realised about the booking. They could stay there but couldn’t eat out or do any of the activities.

I need to book parking for the beach in a few days time but I keep putting it off as it's non-refundable and in case we can't make it.

But I know I'll be gutted if I don't book it and it gets full.

Swimming reminds me I had to spend 40 minutes prebooking an open swim for DD1 invited to go with her GF one night.

I had to open an account - not straight forwards and her council card was linked to a childhood swim lessons via me which we haven't touched since well before covid. I also had to pay as she had cash but no debit/credit card at the time.

They spent an hour there - pool was empty bar them and DD1 hasn't been back since.

If other two lids ever decide they want to go swimming it would be the same fight though the on-line system and I doubt I'd remember how - as you can no long turn up and pay though they still have staff in office I assume they must have reassigned duties.

I'm the opposite. I much prefer knowing that I can book things in advance so I know whether we're going or not. If you want to have spontaneity there are still many, many things you can just wake up and go do: park, beach, visiting landmarks, museums etc., you just can't expect to wake up on the day and go to a ticketed event if you haven't prebooked.

I just find the whole spontaneity argument a bit odd, but I guess it depends on personality. People might say 'oh I don't know if I'll fancy doing this thing in three weeks!' whereas for me, if it's a thing I enjoy, I know I'll want to do it so I book it. Nothing is gonna majorly change in three weeks that changes my desire to go for a swim or to some other event. The only caveat is health stuff, if you have a fluctuating health condition you might struggle to know whether on the day you'll be well enough, totally get that. But the simply 'not sure how I'll feel' stuff really flummoxes me if I'm honest.

They didn’t lose out though, they were operating at maximum capacity. That capacity doesn’t magically change because more people turn up. They were taking the maximum possible revenue from the available facilities

Totally agree- there are many things I don’t do any more as I would have to book too far in advance. I don’t know how busy I will be at work - nor would the people that I might be meeting . Leads to cancellations or going to an (expensive ) event when it really does not work for me.

Years ago we went camping down to Devon and Cornwall. We turned up at a campsite and got a spot. Whilst there we might look up where we went next, call on the way and we would have a space. Not you need to book many campsites way in advance and wouldn’t get anywhere decent with facilities by turning up on the day or or even the day before.

Our recent holiday to a European theme park was a bit of a disappointment on one respect. We booked last minute - week before - and booked a meal plan. Then we’re told after paying for said meal plan that the restaurants all open for booking 12 months in advance for people staying on site and 3 months in advance for people staying off site. So a month before we went there were no tables available to book in the park. Our hotel has space but we didn’t want to eat there every night as it was still a decent walk from the park back out to the hotel to back again to the park in the evening. We ended up wasting our meal plan on quicker serve walk in places where we could use our plan but the value was about half what we had paid. I joined a fb group for tips just before we went and realised I should have joined the fb group before going as it seems common knowledge amongst regulars who holiday there.

I moved back to the Uk recently after 30 years. This has been my main bug bear, I can’t stand planning things all the time, especially with the weather! I just decided not to be part of the system where you have to book and instead do mostly things where I can please myself. The occasional thing I will do like a nice restaurant.

Agree

Especially xmas. I’ve already booked my FC visit for December but im not happy.

sometimes i see people post on social media in December does anyone know a good FC grotto ? No mate, you should have thought of this in March

its ludicrous

sometimes i see people post on social media in December does anyone know a good FC grotto ? No mate, you should have thought of this in March

Oh yes, I see this sometimes and feel for them, but it's really how it should be! I have a friend who is a bit old school and doesn't have kids so isn't very up to date with this stuff. She said she wanted to treat a relative & young kids to a Christmas lights event. I sent her the link and told her bookings opened on whatever date in August. I asked her the other day if she'd booked and she said she would do at the weekend as she's been busy. Needless to say it's completely sold out. She's so upset and I feel bad for not stressing she needed to be online THE MINUTE bookings opened!

So ridiculous. I haven’t even thought about Christmas events, my kids went back to school yesterday. Why would anyone do that in the summer hols?!

My parents took us to the Selfridges FC a couple of times back in the 70s. No way would they have booked (by post/phone obvs) as they were very spur of the moment people and quite disorganised. I do remember I missed out on going to Brownies as my mum didn't know you had to put my name down, not wait until I was 7, so some degree of booking required even back then 🤣

Oh and I had no idea about swimming! My kids are teens so haven't been for a few years but that would really wind me up! What next? Book to take your kids on the swings at the local park?!🤣

I just looked on our local pool's website and guess what? You have to book, even for a general swim! Wow! So no more "it's a nice sunny day, let's go swimming!". Arghhhhh!

But isn't that preferable, that you can check from home, rather than show up like two hundred other people and either find that the pool is so busy you can't move an inch, or you simply can't get in because the queue is so long and they've stopped accepting new swimmers?

The pool isn't an infinite space and there can only be so many people in there safely. It'd be much less convenient surely to get everyone ready, pack bags, get your kids hopes up, and then arrive and find that you can't have a swim?

You can go 'oh it's a lovely day let's go for a swim', you just check the website beforehand and book so that you know whether you can go or not before setting off.

Yes, booking everything in advance is a pain. And having to download apps for everything from car parking to hotels annoys me too. I don't want to do everything through my phone or be staring at it the whole time.

I don't mind a bit of booking in advance but it just feels like everything is like that now. I'm definitely more of a spontaneous type who just wants to decide on the day. How do I feel? What's the weather like? But also, going with other people. It just feels like such a PITA to all synchronise our booking so we definitely all get in together. It also causes more double bookings eg I've booked Santa thing back in August for a date in December and then in November we get a party invite for the same day.

It creates a sense I might miss out if I don't book and attractions have a guaranteed income. If they don't insist on prior booking and it's a rainy day, a lot of outdoor places would be empty if you've already bought tickets and it rains but don't turn up, they still have their money.

I totally agree. I just want to turn up and pay. It takes ages online with some companies and I don't want another new account, password or app.

For those who hate all the apps (and the rest of modern life)...

I am a planner and don't mind booking ahead generally.

But when I am on holiday I want to be spontaneous and not have to decide before I travel what I want to do.

I'm a very spontaneous person and hate planning. My dc recently went on a holiday abroad with their grandparents . Even there they found they were unable to do some activities such as horse riding as it had all been prebooked weeks earlier.

So last night I had a fit of energy, been suffering from long covid for over 18 months so this is still rare and it was a seize the moment event. Went on line at about 7 pm and booked a slot at the tip for 8.30 this morning. Loaded up the car with a pile of stuff we've been meaning to get rid of. Drove round this morning, got there at 8.28 and was driving out at 8.32. The lovely guys at the tip helped me unload the car. Absolutely great and I hope no one tries to take away out booking system for the tip.