Upon my arrival to Bloc 2007 I was met with a huge crowd of the Bloc family trying to get in and register their tickets, chalets and wrist bands at recpetion desk, the staff there looked run off their feet, I never felt quite so close to people as i did in that ensuing push en masse for the next member of the friendly pontins staff.
What happened that night?
Will there be a frantic crowd of people trying to register again next year, or will there be a more effecint way of getting people in? and getting their chalets and wrist bands registered a lot smoother?
did anyone else get there and wonder why it took so long to get things sorted or did i just show up too late?
I hear what you're saying but in my experience I have never been a festival where I haven't had to wait/queue to get in to the venue. I think it is to be expected unless you turn up at some extraordinary hour. Don't know if I have always been unlucky or if it's as common place as I expect it is?
i agree to an extent that the friday night crush isn't too painful or even unexpected, but the problem arises when people get to their chalets and find them in a pretty dilapidated state. you are told to report any damaged items to reception on arrival or face the astronomical cost of replacing them when you leave. except you can't get to reception because of the queues.
i witnessed a LOT of people having to pay ridiculous amounts of money to 'replace' shoddy items that clearly hadn't been replaced in decades and i don't think it's too strong to call it a scam. i ought to say that this has nothing whatsoever to do with the good folk who organise bloc, but it clearly draws in a lot of revenue for pontins.
i don't know if this merits a thread in its own right, but i think it might be wise to share some guidelines on this. i'll be taking lots of photos of stuff on our arrival just in case we're among the unlucky ones this time.
just in case anyone missed it the first time, this isn't a dig at the bloc staff at all.
we're working on managing the crush on friday night - the reason for it is really that the reception area is really quite small. Last year was only really very tight for ninety minutes or so, and what with all BLOC family being such nice people it was pretty good natured. So stand by for improvements!
When it comes to damage, fair point that reporting it on the friday night isn't too easy! But the reception is there the next morning and the ladies who work there are incredibly nice. So long as you make sure you note if anything is a bit dilapidated, you should be able to avoid any fines.
and I don't think [hope!] that this was a very widespread problem??
that's reassuring, cheers. let's hope the high number of people i witnessed getting fined last time was coincidental.
so is the message that you can report damaged stuff on the saturday morning, and not be accused of damaging it yourself on friday night? i still think i'll have a camera handy as a back up just in case.
sorry if i'm making an unneccesary big deal out of this. i'm sure it'll be fine.
yeah of course - you can report it any time that you can speak to someone at reception, and if there is a long queue saturday morning makes sense. Pontin's, not bloc take charge of all the accomodation but we want to make sure that everything is fair...
the ladies at reception are very nice, it's really not in their interests to rip anyone off but they have got a big job on their hands checking 500 apartments and sorting out any real damage.
just be very clear with them over the actual state of yours to avoid any confusion
i remember the nightmare queue's last year on the friday night. i also seem to remember a litre of rum takin the edge off it tho and turnin it into an absolute hootenanny
even at it's busiest tho, it still beats the shit outta the queue's for other festivals, so let's not complain too much!
it was pretty good natured. So stand by for improvements!
