xyz123

NeoPatrick.....I always stop at a convenience store to pick up snacks for half time at the theatre and I don't make any effort to hide them. I have a bag I carry with me at all times and often times it is checkied. I don't hide the bottles. I've never had the slightest problem or look and I've been doing it for years. What would be the problem anyway? (Especially since rarely do any of the theatres have the deired flavor of soda pop I want i.e. diet coke cherry...can't drink Pepsi and I usually can get 2 500 ml bottles for about £1.20 or something like tha...still excpensive by my standards but far better than what they rip you off with at the theatre! (it's too bad though I can't get ice cream but c'est la vie).

MissPrism

The lie is already half-way across the world but here is truth putting his boots on.
http://www.paymentscouncil.org.uk/me...s/-/page/2196/

NeoPatrick

xyz, I recently tried entering a local theatre with half a small bottle of water -- left from a stop a little earlier. It was confiscated. There is NO WAY I could enter with my own water, yet alone snacks. Why? Because they'd rather sell the same bottle of water for $6.50 -- yes, that's right -- that I just bought at a convenience store for 99 cents. I've also seen them search small backpacks or daypacks and confiscate snacks and water as well!

janisj

Dr_DoGood: "<i>Well.. the advice of travellers is limited to their expereinces when they were in London, not under current conditions. Given an "on the spot report" by a journalist compared with experiences from God-knows-when maybe it was a logical deduction.</i>"

Almost half of those posting to this thread ARE Londoners . . .

(Giggled at the concept of 'half time' at the theatre. Was that sort of like an NBA game?)

NeoPatrick

janisj, I know what you mean as I have friends who also call it "half time" at the theatre. But that's OK, I talk about the "intermission show" of the Super Bowl -- so I guess we're even.

StCirq

And some who aren't Londoners actually talk with/email with Londoners nearly every day. Gosh, some of us even work with Londoners daily. You don't have to be "on the ground" to have current information these days.

xyz123

...actually in London, it's called the interval.

Neopatrick...I assume you're talking about North America with the confiscation of goodies. That's often done at the all parks too as you probably know. Of course, it's done at the airports too under the guise of security, at least soda pop (but we all know the real reason is to protect the concessions on the other side of security)....

janisj...in America it's called intermission...in London it's called the interval..I call it half time. (but then again, I'm weird...when a soccer team has not scored I say they have no score not nil).

xyz123

BTW...the National Theatre in London usually has asked me (I don't know if it is a demand or a request but I do) to check my bag but they gladly hand it over to me at (half time, interval, intermission).....like I said I have never been stopped entering a theatre in London and security checks are often in effect and they see the sodas (along with Walkers chips in the blue package and an aero bar).

janisj

"<i>janisj...in America it's called intermission...in London it's called the interval..</i>"

Um - yes -- I DO actually know that . . .

You used 'half time' - I didn't.

xyz123

I never doubted for one second you did! (It was meant in fun)

nytraveler

Theaters in the US don't let you bring in drinks or snacks from outside (unless hidden) since they want you to buy theirs at sky high prices. Since I'm past the age of needing to graze constantly to watch a movie - it doesn't affect me. But to a family going to the movies with 3 kids it's a big issue.

Pegontheroad

The idea that London ATM's would run out of cash is silly. Do you think it's somehow escaped their notice that they'll have millions of visitors for the Olympics and will need plenty of cash?

BKP

<Do you think it's somehow escaped their notice that they'll have millions of visitors for the Olympics and will need plenty of cash?>

Substitute "cash" for "security" then google G4S.

Of course there will be little hiccoughs along the way. I'm not a pessimist -- I'm actually very excited for the Olympics -- but I do plan on being prepared.

I don't think all of London's ATMs will be drained, but I think it's foolish when time is an issue and there are several uncontrolable variables to not have a back up plan.

annhig

unless you are going straight from the airport to an olympic venue it is highly unlikely that you won't be able to find an ATM with some money in it.

of course one or two might run out [and the NatWest debacle does spring to mind] but there are loads just along the road where there will be no problem.

honestly, there is no way that Londoners [who number some 9 million or so, give or take the odd million] would put up with not being able to get out any dosh.

BKP

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...ard-chaos.html

While I believe that most of the ATMs in London won't run dry -- bringing cash to the Olympic venues still seems to be a good idea. Whether or not the fault belongs to Visa or Wembley -- people were still out of luck.

NeoPatrick

From the article: " A Visa spokesperson said "We understand that Wembley's systems failed and therefore they were only accepting cash at the food and beverage kiosks. This cash only decision was made by Wembley management and not Visa."

So let me see if I understand this. Visa made a deal that Wembley (like other Olympic venues) could ONLY take Visa cards or cash, and when Visa didn't work, it was clearly Wembley's management who decided to only take cash? What were the alternatives -- close the counters completely?

Christina

It isn't minor nor only disreputable news sources, I heard that story about ATMs perhaps not having enough money in the areas with lots of visitors due to the Olympics on NPR national news. I think I heard it near the beginning of them. Of course, I would't say all news in the US says that, it isn't really the kind of thing most news sources even would report about. And it wasn't by stupid travel article writers, either, not at all. I don't know why it is silly to think that could happen, there are events where ATMs run out of cash, perhaps due to problems with the drivers or various reasons, it is not impossible. And they are run by banks, not the Olympic committee.

janisj

Christina: "<i>I heard that story about ATMs perhaps not having enough money in the areas with lots of visitors due to the Olympics on NPR </i>"

That was just a re-reporting of the initial exaggerated/erroneous news story. That is the problem, once one news outlet picks up a story - they all do (either rehashing the original or having their own staff report the same) and it becomes 'fact'. Urban legend is more like it . . .

and BKP's link is about credit card readers not working, not about cash machines running dry

bilboburgler

The Uk has a press that loves to make every mole hill into a mountain (unless it is about hacking phones) and makes up stories to sell papers. Brits are used to this and most people ignor what is published daily in the red tops.

These is no truth in cash running out in London.

"Horror" tacos run out in New York...... now fill in the rest

flanneruk

"It isn't minor nor only disreputable news sources,"

The story about cashless ATMs owes nothing to the hyper self-criticism of the British press.

It was invented by the London bureau chief of the Associated Press - owned by most US media, and once a respected source of real news.

The URL, originally on this thread between St Cirq - as ever happy to attack someone for reading newspapers - and janisj, has now been deleted from this thread, presumably in a fit of patriotic fervour by a Fodors employee distraught at the depths American media have sunk.

But the story was carried, without a hint of reservation, by the Huffington Post, US News and World Report, the Time-Life group and about a thousand equally gullible American "newspapers"

It was based on an experience of this romanticiser masquerading as a reporter during the four day Jubilee weekend. His claim is that he found an ATM by the riverside that had run out of money (perfectly possible in a location usually remote but suddenly surrounded by tens of thousands of flotilla watchers). No British newspaper carried the story: no-one in London can confirm it.

But, in the true American tradition of writing any old crap. the reporter happily spun this into a city-wide cash shortage.