What time should you get to the park before an event?

moomin75

I have managed to get tickets for the athletics that start at 10am, what time should I arrive at the park? and does anyone have any useful tips to share on best places to go and see or anything to make the day more enjoyable and less expensive.
Thanks

unclekevin

If you can arrive at the stadium for about 10.00am or if you want later, i arrived at the stadium for about 9.15am and it was half empty, my friend arrived at 10.45am and really didn't miss much.
If your wanting to have an enjoyable day then walk around the park as there are lots and lots of photo opportunities and there is also a live park where it's free and you can sit and watch other events taking place on a big TV.

moomin75

Someone said you have to be there 2 hours before to get through security, is this true? we plan to spend some time in the park after the event to look around and make a day of it. Very excited and Thanks for the reply

barbarawright

I didn't have to queue at all for security for any Olympics events and I shouldn't think the Paras are any different though someone might be along who has been to the stadium in the last couple of days. I would have though 9.15 at Stratford would give you plenty of time (it's about 15 minutes into the Park)

lizards

Yeah, with the Olympics I arrived by 9am for a 10am start and missed nothing. By far the thing that took the longest was the queue for water (around 20 minutes) and the queue for a bacon roll and coffee (another 20 minutes) Skip those and you could show up at 9.45am outside the park, and still be there for the start. There was never ANY queue for security.

lottiegirl

We went yesterday session started at 9am , we arrived at the park 7.30 sailed through security , bit of a walk to the copper box and was seated at 7.50 am. so did not need all that time! Area empty was first in!
We used our tickets then for the riverbank area blind five a side football. and wheelchair basket ball. so full day , was really good. No queues for water outside Riverbank. Hubby arrived later. and was in a large queue for the football , however managed to blag his way to the front of the queue by saying we were inside and saving him a seat. This was lucky as they stopped letting people in as full.But as people left they were really good at making people move down into empty seats and counting how many seats were available and letting more people in .
Wheelchair arena they counted people out by rechecking tickets but that was half empty in the evening when we were there -huge arena.
I recommend taking empty water bottle as small bottle of water £1.60 coke etc £2.30. We took food with us -no problem ate in the stadiums but plenty of picnic benches around outside.
Have fun.

unclekevin

moomin75 wrote: »

Someone said you have to be there 2 hours before to get through security, is this true? we plan to spend some time in the park after the event to look around and make a day of it. Very excited and Thanks for the reply

Load of rubbish, the security check took 2 minutes, fast and efficient, as I've previously mentioned, there are lots to see and walking from venue to venue will take up a lot of time.

balletshoes

we have session tickets only for Olympic park (the athletics in the Stadium) on Monday.

Am I correct in thinking that as these are not day passes, we can't go into any other venue in Olympic park to see any other events? I know we can stay in Olympic park and watch the big screens, walk around the area etc.

pinkzebra

balletshoes wrote: »

we have session tickets only for Olympic park (the athletics in the Stadium) on Monday.

Am I correct in thinking that as these are not day passes, we can't go into any other venue in Olympic park to see any other events? I know we can stay in Olympic park and watch the big screens, walk around the area etc.

Correct, you can only watch the athletics session, but you can watch other events on the big screen. Have a great day.

blackeberg

Some food tips. There's a decent sized Sainsbury's in the old Stratford shopping mall. It's just over the road from the non-Westfield exit of the station. They had hot bacon and sausage rolls on the morning that we went. There was also 3 for 2 on all pastries and plenty of sandwiches and salads. If you're pushed for time then there's a big M and S food hall on the Westfield side.

Sainsbury's also had some of the souvenirs such as flags and mascots without the queues that you find in the official shops.

Something to see. Under the bridge between the Aquatic Centre and the Water Polo Arena there was a cool art feature that dropped words formed from water droplets into the river. If it's the same as the Olympics then the Live screen on the Basketball arena side of the park had more space to sit out on the grass.

Have a great time.

graspandsave

lottiegirl wrote: »

We went yesterday session started at 9am , we arrived at the park 7.30 sailed through security , bit of a walk to the copper box and was seated at 7.50 am. so did not need all that time! Area empty was first in!
We used our tickets then for the riverbank area blind five a side football. and wheelchair basket ball. so full day , was really good. No queues for water outside Riverbank.

Can I ask how you got into another arena/venue when you had tickets for the copperbox, or did you have tickets for both venues to start....bit confused, sorry if it sounds a daft q.

We have tickets for athletics stadium on monday (am), and am wondering if we can get to see anything else "live" I do plan to go and see the the big screen area.

We were lucky enough to to get wheelchair basketball tickets at north greenwich arena yesterday, didnt even know there was wheelchair basketball going on elsewhere?

also, what sort of food is on offer insode the olympic park and what sort of cost? at the 02 we paid 8.50 for fairly uninspiring fish and chips,:eek: and during the olympics at bt london live food was absoluteyl vile andseriously overpriced :mad:- a strict no food and drink policy was in force then.