I won a competition recently, courtesy of Virgin Holidays. It was two tickets for “Dancing on Ice” in the London O2 Arena. What made it special, however, was that it was from the comfort of the Virgin Atlantic Corporate Box.
The arena has 96 corporate suites on two U shaped levels between the lower and upper tiers of seating. Levels 2 and 3 are only accessible from VIP entrances and whilst it is hardly exclusive in that they must accommodate getting on for 2000 people, the concourses feel spacious and quiet compared to the throngs below who paid good money rather than getting schmoozed.
Arriving at the suites themselves, they have a decent sized lounge with bar and sofas, with three rows of sets beyond stepping down to the balcony edge. Each row of seats (between 5 and 10 depending on the size of the box) has individual cupholders and are pleasantly comfortable, at least for an arena. Glassware is not allowed on the seating but you can take your drinks down in plastic glasses, or alternatively, there is a shelf and barstools if you prefer to hold on to your drink (& chat).
The staff from Virgin holidays told us that they share the box with Virgin Atlantic and it costs them a five figure sum as the catering and drinks are supplied by the venue, you can’t bring your own catering in. As it was a 21 seat box (three rows of seven) they chose nine lucky winners who could bring along a guest. We had specifically allocated seats and Karen and I were lucky enough to get the front row. (I had guessed that from the eTickets we had been sent, and also guessed correctly that the box would be almost opposite the stage rather than off to one side).
Our coats were swept away into the suite wardrobe and we were immediately offered drinks from their extensive bar and given free rein to the finger food. We had red wine before the show and in the interval, with a refreshing Magners iced Cider at our seats during the show (refreshed after the interval).
Now Karen loves Dancing on Ice whilst I am much more Blase’ about it (probably a side effect of relamping at the top of wobbly scaffold towers actually on the ice at Richmond Rink back in the 80′s.) I did, however, enjoy the performances of national treasures Torvill & Dean.
The trouble with ice shows is that they are a vast open stage and very difficult to fill, although they had a valiant effort at the start with large tent style cloths doing an impressive Kabuki drop afterwards . It was ten years since we had been to the Greenwich Peninsula (it was the millennium dome then and a bit of a touchy feely PC flop when crowds stayed away in their thousands but it did have one massive success – the opening ceremony Millennium Drop). Now the O2 is vibrant and thriving, the entertainment avenue feeling a little like Universal Citywalk, although the dome is still only half full in the doughnut around the arena and the British Music Experience was only drawing a trickle of people, probably because the tickets were £15. (It sounded a bit too much like an online interactive version of the ill fated pop museum in Sheffield that we managed to visit before it bombed.
As we had been to see a Matinee, we squiffily made our way to the Leicester Square TKTS booth and picked up some (slightly) cheap(er) tickets for Sister Act at the London Palladium, Stalls Row C right at the side. It doesn’t have any of the songs from the movies so if you went expecting that you might be a little disappointed but we already knew that and the new Alan Menken songs certainly rock. I also got a big scenery fix as the set changes are stunning. The wine wasn’t as good as Branson’s though and also rather expensive, stinging my Mum £21 for three glasses of red ordered for the interval.
Here are some low quality pics from the O2, they don’t let you take decent cameras in.
