Quick! Fancy some family tickets to Ice Age 3 this Saturday?

[HelenMumsnet]

Woolworths.co.uk are offering Mumsnetters family tickets (for four people) to a special, red-carpet showing of Ice Age 3 in 3D this Saturday morning (4 July).

The London showing is full but there are still tickets for Aberdeen, Birmingham, Brighton, Cardiff, Castelford, Didsbury, Edinburgh, Hull, Ipswich, Milton Keynes, Nottingham and Sheffield.

If you'd like one, please email your full name, address and preferred cinema to [email protected]. But get your skates on: tickets are limited and will be offered on a strictly first-come, first-served basis.

Sorry to be a complete bitch grouch and keep banging on but am even more now at tales of empty seats that all the disappointed children (whose parents emailed VERY early on might I add?) could have filled.

Please if you are going to do this again in future plan it and execute it properly

yes, meant to add that the sheffield one was about a third full, if that, and although there was some sort of official photographer there, it was the ladies with the digital cameras doing the family shots. I presume the guy with the pukka digital SLR was doing some shots for the publicity?

no Wii, guitar hero or even film artwork for posing with; our photo was taken in front of a woolies advertising board!

But, the film itself and the goodies more than made up for that.

I went with a friend and her DS to Aberdeen.

Again, I was really pleased with the rucksack of goodies; but was suprised at so few people being there. I hope no-one missed out that wanted to go here too.

Again, was great MN spotting.
Thanks MN and Adam. I had a great day out and it was my DS's first time at the cinema, so I'm thrilled that he enjoyed it so much.

I wasn't sure who was an MNer. I looked a bit erm rumpled and not remotely MN! (it is also possible I was seen smoking before we went in)
There were a couple of very Bodenesque families there, so maybe they are on here?

We had our photo taken three times. As we went in, then upstairs with the cut out which is the one we were given and again on the way out with the goody bag.
There was a guy taking pics constantly though, even during the film (we were in the front row so I spotted him)

I have to say we enjoyed the magician. He was doing card tricks at first but went on to other tricks, easier for the group ro watch and then onto lollies pulled out of ears and the like.
The kids loved that. He didn't have enough time to trick them all a lolly, but they did all get one.

I'm actually very impressed.
It was worth getting up early for.

There was no guitar hero or wii or similar at ours, nor was there a cutout for a background for the photos but nevermind.

We'd better check out all the lovely pics of us online on the woolies site

Nottingham was very empty too but did hear a lady saying she had her email via a family friend who works for littlewoods I don't think I saw any other mumsnetters? I had a red skirt on. . . .

We went to Aberdeen - very fun morning for the girls, they enjoyed the film and were completely made up with the goody bag - they thought it was a rucksack, to find it had toys was extra icing!

To any Mnetters with two boys who were at Aberdeen - did you swap all the girl toys in your bag with two little curly headed girls? If you did, that was us!

I was desperately trying to work out who might be a Mumsnetter. We need a secret headscarf knot or something.

Really sad for my kids that they didn't get to go to Aberdeen, especially hearing there were so many empty seats.....Never mind, every cloud has a silver lining - if we had been picked to go then I wouldn't have managed to spend an hour on the phone this morning getting Billy Connolly tickets for September

AM actually quite now that i am hearing of empty seats. It seems that most people who emailed should have got tickets yet it appears that the minority got tickets.

Feels like a publicity thing more and more especially hearing about the half arsed "entertainment", not enough goodie bags and the constant picture taking. Was anyone asked if they wanted their images used for publicity (assuming that was the case).

Adam, can you tell me who organised this? Was it yourself(or your company?) Or Woolies?

There wasn't too much by way of picture taking at Aberdeen. They took pictures at the start to hand out after as fridge magnets, and I checked with the member of staff that they weren't being used for publicity.

Other than that, they took a couple of the families in the cinema - didn't phase me overly as we'd received £25 worth of 3D cinema and another £25 worth of toys for the girls - we knew it was promotional, wouldn't have accepted the freebie if we didn't.

They took photos continually in Mnchester and told me to look for them online. Not bothered about that by the way, just worried that I looked a twat .

I have to say I was quite disappointed and will be cancelling my woolworths registration as it does seem like it was completely about getting us interested in them and very little of what was suggested really happened.

Ipswich was very empty and yet Goober didn't get tickets.

There was nothing to tell us where to go and we wandered up and down outside with toddler getting more stressed by the second until someone came out of the fire exit and took us in there.

"Families will be invited 30 minutes beforehand for interactive games and entertainment in the lobby and entranceway"
Erm, where? We had to go upstairs to the extremely hot bar area with full length windows so it just got hotter, waited for 45 minutes and the magician still didn't come over to where we were sitting in that time. No interactive games at all.

"Each cinema will feature a red carpet, a Woolies rep and they will enter a fun interactive new Woolies world before the movie starts"
Well, there was a red carpet I suppose, of about 2 metres long! No Woolies rep and certainly no fun interactive new woolies world.

"Depending on cinema size, we aim to have wii games, Guitar Hero, a camera with photo printer and at least one entertainer at each cinema. All lobbies will include Ice Age 3 2D artwork so we can photograph families with ?the cast?"
I know Ipswich is not a huge town but there were no games at all and no camera with printer except the cinema staff who took our photos with the 2d artwork.

"Entertainers will include a magician, a living statue, a contortionist, an acrobat, a juggler, cheerleaders on rollerskates and football trick whizzes. Mixed in with interactive games, technology treats and flashing cameras this will be an exciting experience for everyone!"
From comments on the thread so far it's not sounding like an awful lot of this existed at any of the cinemas....

Don't get me wrong, it was really nice to be able to see a film we wouldn't ordinarily have been able to afford to go to, and the goodie bag was much better than we had expected (most of it was rather boy orientated but I don't know if that was because we had 2 boys with us?), the staff were lovely and we all throughly enjoyed ourselves, but we could have had just as good a time at the £1 movies for juniors showing and not had the waiting around in the heat beforehand, or ended up feeling like we'd been part of some kind of marketing ploy ....

And I completely forgot to spy for sherby!

MoM, is is possible that many people did what I did, and accepted the offer not knwoing you were supposed to specify how many were in your family?
There was a Dad with his daughter next to us so that would account for 4 empthy seats possibly.
Perhaps others did the same?

It is true there was no Guitar Hero or Wii though, but as the group was so small I didn't feel it necessary, and the goody bags hadn't ran out when we got there, and I went to the loo immediately after the film.

I s'pose I just want to defend it as we had such a lovely time and treats are thin on the ground in our house. (because I don't have a job, not because I'm mean!)

I was very un MN tbh, too early but I guess you could say my girls were bodenish

We too swapped our toys with a little boy as my girls arent inot ben 10.

Was worth going for the film and the goodie bags but as said was disapointed by "enterinment" at the start, which was one man, who was going round families rather than having everyone watch.

VIPs got a star on a board though, was very jealous LOL

They said at our showing that a lot of people hadn't turned up! I suppose 9am is very early for some people if it doesn't seem like such a treat.

For those of us who it is a treat, like mugglewump, it was an enjoyable experience. I am not sure I really get your point POTC, of course it was a marketing ploy, they didn't do it out of sheer kindness.

The majority of those seated were groups of 3 or 4, and even with accounting for some not bringing the entire 4 ticket allocation there were still lots of empty seats, including all 3 front rows!

I understand they didn't do it out of sheer kindness, but they did suggest much more than they actually provided, but only after having got lots more MNers to register than would otherwise have done ....

If a Company are going to put on an 'event' I would expect that event to include some of what was on the list, but from what has been said on this thread it sounds like the majority of cinemas did not have anything more than one entertainer.

I understand what you are saying, but I do think it's a bit much to say you will deregister as a protest when what was given was still a pretty good deal by anyone's standards.

Ah well, I was happy with the free film, the entertainer, the photograph and the fantastic rockport back pack full of toys but then I must be easily pleased.

I have a great deal more sympathy for those that didn't get tickets.

thanks MN and adam.

we were in Brighton today and had a lovely time!
agree that the "entertainment" beforehand left a lot to be desired.
there was one entertainer there and that was it. no wii, no interactive games etc

but we had a good time anyway, the film was fab and the goody bag was very much appreciated by ds1.

you can still get free tickets for other movies though hope you all get some soon. Have to say this is the first thing I have ever been given in comp stylie from MN in 6 years.

I suspect a lot of people didn't turn up. Shame

POTC - it was all about announcing the relaunch of Woolies online and the VIF free cinema ticket scheme for Sat mornings. I think it's a lot more than just a one-off marketing ploy, especially as Woolies has always been about families so it's good to see them at least taking steps to give something back to all those who were sad to see them go back in December (now they exist in the digital space and that). I promise I'm not rentaquoting this! ;)

I'll be asking what can be done for all the mumsnetters who missed out last minute. Email me over some suggestions!

I turned up adam, shame my name wasnt down I was sooo worried they would turn me away, lucky i had email.

Possibly RA, but I did see the guest list for the cinema we were at and there was only a dozen names on it at most - and one of those was press.

I would suggest a mini goody bag for the ones who lost out or at least first pick on tickets for an up-coming movie?

Adam what might be nice is if there's a film out at Christmas, have those who missed out this time on the list for that. As you said, it was about re-launching Woolies and Woolies being about family stuff. It might be a good idea as a family morning out, away from the madness of Christmas shopping. Have a Santa, some Christmas songs and a bit of mulled wine for the mums and dads.

Probably the cheesiest and suggestion possible but there you go, I don't wok in event planning.