Club Arnage

I have  ;D

PM & Can Phil
See you there.
Same outward and return.
I'll try and find you on the outward this time.
But you need some identification on your wagon.
There are just too many winis there  ;)

Mark
2003 Lemons Gang

get a good price?
i will try tomorrow but my luck dont happen for a motorbike until january for some reason.
stay well Markie..

Which crossing are you doing Mark?? I've tried to check on the Brittany site but they don't appear to be taking any bookings for 2004 yet??

  ;)

Don't have to book a ferry, Mr RS2 and I live 'en France'

Don't mean to rub it in, but we only have to drive 1.5 haours from Dol de Bretagne to Le Mans

Superb!

RS2 Babe
x
 

 ;)

Don't have to book either !!!  :P

What date is next years race, campsite booked and confirmed via Just Tickets.

Jem

Jem,

There are a couple of threads in the Help section on this subject that state the ACO has given provisional dates of 12th/13th June, to be confirmed later (as usual).

Try:   http://www.clubarnage.com/yabbse/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=730;start=0

For us campsites and ticket booking acknowledged in writing from the ACO, again to be confirmed later, but much cheaper than Just Tickets (if you can stand the uncertainty for a while).

Surprising to hear that ticket agencies can CONFIRM camping etc. already when the ACO can't. What does this tell us?? Answers on a posting please..........

Jem

Fair play fella.... Book early to avoid disapointment...

Used MRI this year to avoid repeat of the hassle of previous years...

Can you book Tribune tickets through them and also, do they offer a choice of site...

The Dark Warrior

jpchenet
Portsmouth to Caen
Brittany Ferries
They don't offically open for bookings yet
but it is possible to make a reservation if you phone them.

Get on the Tuesday night out
and
Sun night return
and I'll see you onboard  ;D

Best check that the MRI will have enough beer DW... to say I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth after they ran out last time, would at least imply they had some bitter... but not a drop of beer left by 5:00pm on Sat! But that's a whole other soap box... which I've stood up onto many times before... so I'll drop it....   >:( (sorry.. blood boils when I see those three letters!)

Deap breaths... deap breaths...   :) OK now.

Sorry... didn't mean to change the topic... Back fo Ferry crossings... My mate in Pompey sorts ours, but he doesn't normally get his arse into gear until March!

Mark,
We are thinking about Monday night out for next yearbut will deffo be sunday night return
PM

"Used MRI this year to avoid repeat of the hassle of previous years..."

DW, I reckon the only reason there's hassle with the tickets is because MRI and similar outfits are buying them all up. Joe Public then can't get them from the ACO, so end up going to MRI (how late did you leave it in previous years?). It's a vicious circle I know, but if everyone boycotted the b*stards then it could only help matters. They would then have to flood the market with their unsold tickets, and would probably take a smaller allocation next year.
After all, did anyone who really, really tried, end up with no tickets this year? I know I advertised a full set (camping, g'stand, g entry, ferry xing) on CA this year, admittedly only a week or so before the event, but I failed to sell them.
Ok, you've gone the 'safe' route, but the bottom line is that you're still being ripped off.
'Out of beer' indeed.
F*ck me, August and we're talking about tickets already...
H

Is there any way that CA could organise representations (petition perhaps) to the ACO to get them NOT to sell so many tickets to agencies etc?  That would make it easier for us to get them direct.

Dark Wazza!

The bloated plutocrats at MRI and their ilk are nothing but sub human scum and should be knelt over a ditch and shot in the back of the head until they agree to stop spoiling it for other folk. A bit drastic I know, but it's the only language these crypto-capitalist bastards understand.

Would it be rude to suggest you be offered counselling until the MRI brainwashing wears off?

H…

The points you make are absolutely right… the operators are cashing in on me, and others like me who want peace of mind and are prepared to pay a premium for that peace of mind. You’re absolutely correct to say that if you want tickets, you can, if you know where to look, or if you’re lucky, you can probably turn something up… you bailed me out of the cart a couple of years ago when I had my bagged lifted by some thieving t055pot… something for which I’ll always be grateful…

But the root of the problem sits with the ACO. They cannot organise a session in a brewery. My group comprises on average 12-14 of us in most years and we travel from Blighty, Holland and the US , we all arrive at different times from Wednesday through to Friday, using planes, trains and automobiles… we all want to be on the same site to ensure we can enjoy the race and the camerarderie that is Le Mans… The prospect of having our trip compromised because we’re unable to source tickets in the same campsite is something that we’re simply not willing to accept.

Its time the ACO got its head out of its back passage moved into the 21st Century.

Why not start to use internet technology say, for ticket booking (its not as if its witchcraft) or at least put in a system that we could all feel confident in. If they did, I’d do business with them.. of course I would… But my annual trip is just to important to me to have it potentially compromised.

Best wishes

DW

Mr Zarse

The offer of counselling is a kind one... I will discuss with SWMBO and ask her if it's OK for another regular evening out 'confonting my inner demons...'

I fear however, that the only day free will be a Tuesday... ;D

DW

Well said DW.  Totally agree ;D

With comments re ACO etc

Mr Gibberish

An excellent idea re the petition... I would suggest though, that the French reputation (please accept my apologies Gilles... no personal offence is intended) for intransigence and a refusal to listen to anybody (especially if you speak English) would make the exercise pointless...

Andy Z's comment about having people shot could be better applied to the blundering administrators at the ACO.... get rid of them and get somebody runnning the show who has a grasp on reality and could treat the running (of some elements) of The Great Race with common sense and respect that it deserves...

Gilles, allez le revolution...!!!


DW

DW

I suspect that you are depressingly correct  :'(

However, if gilles could knock-up a french letter (letter in french) which we could all copy, and post hundreds of them to the ACO, it might make a point 8)

Gilles may be wise to consider the 'french letter' wording.... I understand that they actually (unless opened unintentionally) prevented any 'knocking up'...!!! ;D ;D ;D

Ahhh.. DW it's you! How's the Esprit and yourself?

Sadly, as has been seen before on this forum, all of the discussions on tickets spiral like fag ends in a urinal, towards that plughole (and rather tasty air freshener) that is the ACO.

I assume MRI are English, so I'm a tad stymied as to why the ACO should be so keen to offload tickets to them. I suppose there's some sort of clerical saving to be made by having one recipient of heaps of tickets, rather than vice versa, but is that a good enough reason? Don't get me wrong though DW, I can understand your reasons for using them, and anyway, you have your eyes open and know what to expect. Unfortunately some poor saps believe their marketing and leave with a poor experience of the race.

No, I agree, a petition would be useless, so if it must be an open season on MRI, then so be it. Uncle Albert could pick them off from quite a range, and I think it would give him more pleasure than holding a .45 to the back of their heads. And can we smear their reps with something that would make them irresistable to Gnasher and his devil dog chums?
H

H

Great to hear from my friend, hope that you’re well…

The Esprit… ? Yep, she’s well, however some of the counselling I alluded to in the response to Andy Z is with a psychiatrist… What other woman would refuse to move from the pub car park, standing absolutely silently, refusing to say a word… leaving me to plead with her to come home…  not to leave me open to the giggles, nudges and the sign of the ‘O’ made by putting thumb and forefinger together and moved gently back and forth, from other patrons… and to cap it all when she did move, it was with some other bloke who took her away to ‘find out what was wrong…’

But she’s back now in great health, going at it like a train and leaving me all breathless and sweaty… and continuing to bleed my wallet dry as I struggle to keep her in the manner to which she has become accustomed… love hurts…

As regards MRI (or Page & Moy) and the ACO, beats me too mate…!!

In all seriousness though, if the ACO had a bloody clue what they were doing and I felt I could rely on them, of course I’d deal direct… but they’re a shower and I don’t... And looking outside of the debate on this forum its just an unfortunate fact of life… If somebody can’t be bothered or doesn’t have he requisite skill to do something themselves, then somebody will come along and do it for them and make a turn… Think international rugby tickets, theatre booking agencies and all of us, when it comes to selling (or buying) our houses…

However, if anybody has 6 MB I’ll have them now… just please don’t use the traps after I’ve released the pigeons for the long flight home…

Stay well…

DW

DW,

Perfectly understand the need to keep everyone together on the same camp site etc.  And I think it just goes to show the superior quality of the whole event if (and lets face it, it's pretty much all of us) people are happy to pay extra if it's the difference between going or not going. The "bloated plutocrats" and "crypto-capitalist bastards" and may I add... "can't organise a p*ss up at Le Mans f*ckwits" at MRI know this of course.

...Always up for a bit of MRI bashing...  8)

I've been one of the "poor saps" that BigH speaks of, and whilst I was happy at the time of booking to pay the extra for the notion of securing tickets after stupidly leaving it quite late... it wasn't the price that was the problem. If they had delivered what they said we had paid for, then fine, but they didn't. No, No, No, No...  >:(

In most lines of work, mistakes can be forgiven, circumstances sometimes are unavoidable, but gross incompetence deserves all the hot metal a .45 can deliver.  ::)

If you charge people £50 each to get into a bar for what is generally as big a drinking weekend as it is racing weekend... you'd have to be some top flight dumb arse mother f*cker to not get enough beer in... and to f*ck up so badly that it only lasts an hour of a 24 hour race. I can only assume the person in charge of beer supplies was a T-Total monk who had been told to expect a few people who like a little tipple on a nice day...

How hard is it to understand "These guys all drink like fish when they come to Le Mans, so as we've sold 5000 tickets, we'd best purchase 50,000 cans on a sale or return basis"

Jesus... I'm not even in the Bar/Catering/hospitality industry, I've only been to Le Mans twice and yet this little gem came to me without to much effort!!!

nuff said.  ;D

Russ,

I think you summed it up well. It's 10 years since I took a trip courtesy of an agency and have yet to hear a convincing argument to make me think again.

P.