Lance Around Orlando

Red Alert…Red Alert…Red Alert…ALL TICKETS HAVE BEEN SOLD!

[Editor’s Note: At the end of this post is a short, seven minute video of Cary Elwes’ talk at the 2013 FFF.]

I am in a panic…

Cary Speaks at the 2013 FFF

It’s several weeks before the FFF and as I look over the guests list for this year I notice that Cary Elwes is going to be in town for a special 25th anniversary showing of The Princess Bride. This is Mrs. LanceAround’s favorite movie. I have to make sure she can attend this event.

As an official blogger for the FFF, my press badge allows me into all movies, provided there are extra seats. The Platinum pass holders are let into the theatre first. After them goes the regular ticket holders. Then journalists with an official FFF press badge are allowed to take an empty seat. After that, any FFF volunteer can take a seat. However, for really big events, I know every seat in the theatre will be filled. So if I want to make sure I don’t miss an event I have to buy a ticket.

I go to the FFF website and click on the “purchase ticket” icon for “A Brunch With Cary Elwes Featuring The Princess Bride.” As I’m humming to myself and thinking how happy Mrs. LanceAround will be, I encounter the following message:

“This event is now on stand-by. Since we must reserve an allotment of tickets for our VIP pass holders, we have a limited number of tickets available for general admission. Once those tickets have been sold, a program goes on stand-by until the day of the program.  On the day of the program, we will have a stand-by line at each venue.  15 minutes before the start of the program, we will do a seating assessment to determine if we have any additional tickets available to sell.  We will then sell them to the individuals in line until the venue has reached capacity. You can take your chances, or secure your spot at this unforgettable event with a Platinum Pass or a Movie Star Pass.

Panic!

What do I do?

I consider purchasing a Platinum Pass just so I can make sure we get into this event. Not a bad idea, after all the money supports our favorite film festival. In addition, for the rest of the festival I wouldn’t have to wait in the press line and I could get the best seat in the house.

No, I decide that the service I provide the FFF by working all day and night using my LanceAroundOrlando blog to get the word out about the festival is more than enough. Besides, I would feel uncomfortable being the first one into the theatre and getting a good seat while the people I just interviewed for the LanceAroundOrlando blog are standing at the back of a long line in the pouring rain.

Cary Greets FFF President Henry Maldonado

The first thing I do is corner Henry Maldonado, president of the FFF. “Henry, I need your help. Can you pull some strings and get me a ticket to see Cary Elwes.” Henry puts his arm on my shoulder and gives me a sympathetic look with his trademark impish smile. “Sorry, LanceAround, I don’t think even I could get an extra ticket.” I love Henry even when he’s not exactly being totally honest with me. He goes on to tell me that the Cary Elwes event sold out in 30 minutes–the fastest in the history of the FFF.

I run into Matthew Curtis, the Programing Director. “Can you get me into the Cary Elwes brunch?” I ask while fluttering my eyes and trying to look desperate. Well, that technique might work when it’s done by Mrs. LanceAround, but Matthew just grunts that he does the programming and has nothing to do with ticket sales.

I consider putting an ad on Craigslist…bartering with a Platinum passholder…bribing the person working at the ticket counter…Wait a minute! None of these ideas sound like something LanceAround would do!

I know I’m getting desperate!

As Suspected, the Line was Extremely Long

Finally I resign myself to the fact that I will simply have to show up to the theatre early and be first in the standby line…What’s early?…Let’s see, the program begins at 10:30am…The website says 15 minutes before the show, but I’ve seen the standby line for popular shows and they begin to get long AT LEAST one hour before the show…Perhaps if I came TWO HOURS before the show…But this is Mrs. LanceAround’s favorite movie, maybe I should line up THREE HOURS before the show, hmmm, that would be 7:30am. WHAT! 7:30am??? I’d have to leave my home at 6:30am…get up at 5:30am…No, that’s not going to work. Hmmm, maybe I should just camp out after the midnight showing Saturday night…But by the next morning I would probably smell bad, which might put off the people I try to interview for my blog…

I’m telling you, I spend several days agonizing over this.

Flash forward to April 9th. It’s now five days before Cary’s event. At 10:30am I get an email from the FFF–A LIMITED NUMBER OF TICKETS ARE BEING RELEASED FOR CARY ELWES AT NOON TODAY! I look at my watch. It’s now 11am and I’m getting ready to hop on my bicycle for the hour long ride to my office. I immediately call Mrs. LanceAround at the office. “Please have OJ and yourself on the computer at 11:50am ready to order tickets from the FFF website for the Cary Elwes event.”

I get on my bike and pedal hard. Dang, of course this is the day when there is a huge headwind. Normally when I pedal this hard it takes 35 minutes to get to my office. Today I pull in at 11:52am. As soon as I walk in the door I see OJ prepping some flyers and Mrs. LanceAround casually reading Headline News.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?,” I shout. “WHY AREN’T YOU ON THE FFF WEBSITE TRYING TO ORDER CARY ELWES TICKETS?”

The Theatre is Packed

Turns out they tried to order tickets on the website but it kept telling them they couldn’t. I leap into my office chair, login to my computer, encourage it to login faster (It doesn’t seem to help) and finally I get to the FFF website. It’s now 11:55am and the website message says that all tickets are sold out. But it looks like the old message.

I use three screens on my computer, so I open the FFF website on all three screens. For each one, in turn, I click on the “Purchase Tickets” link. From 11:55am to 12:02pm I get the same message–all sold out…

THEN…

I get a dropdown box, “How many tickets?” I have a choice of one to twelve. I click on six. It takes me to a credit card screen. Quickly I input all my information and click the button. Waiting…waiting…waiting…waiting…ORDER CONFIRMED! It worked. I now have six tickets.

Wait a minute…what if NumberTwoSon wants to take a date? What if NumberOneEmber wants to bring a friend? I’d better get some extra tickets. I click on “purchase tickets”…ALL SOLD OUT. I do it again, rotating between my three screens. I must have clicked on the ticket button another 20 times until, once again, I see the message, “How many tickets?” This time the dropdown box only allows 1 or 2. I guess there’s only two tickets left! I click on the two, input Mrs. LanceAround’s credit card information (I don’t want there to be any confusion) and I hit the button. Waiting…waiting…waiting…waiting…ORDER CONFIRMED again!

NumberOneEmber’s Ticket and Press Pass Signed “As You Wish” by Cary

And that’s how I was able to take the entire Florida Dream Homes Team to see Cary Elwes at the 2013 Florida Film Festival. Later, Henry Maldonado will tell me that when they released the extra tickets they sold out in 20 seconds. I asked Henry how many extra tickets they released. “60.” Hmmm, I decided to not tell him that I had purchased over 13% of all the available tickets as soon as they were released!

So, how was Cary?

Well, below is a short Seven minute video of part of his presentation. In addition, SunnySetfani will provide her perspective of the event. Then, OJ will write a post and tell you what happened when she met Cary…Stay tuned, it’s a heartwarming story that you won’t want to miss. I promise! And I even have two more videos for you–one each for their blog posts…Enjoy…

This entry was posted on April 22, 2013 at 5:08 pm and is filed under Art Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.