Phantom and the Gold Experience

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We had one night left in London before leaving again for Salisbury. The treat for this day, Sunday, was to see the Phantom of the Opera at the matinee. I signed us up for, and paid for the “Gold Experience”.

I spent part of the morning packing as we were to leave on Monday for Salisbury, so we would leave our large bags at the Holiday Inn and only take what we needed for Stonehenge stuff.

We left and stopped to buy some tea for one son and a grandson. We were quite disappointed in the fact that many shops appear to have closed.

After buying our tea we hurried on to “Her Majesty’s Theater. We didn’t know what the “Gold Experience” would be, except that we were to tell the staff we had arrived.

There was a line outside of the theater but there were staff at the line who asked us about our Covid status. I told them that we were to tell them we had arrived and that we had the Gold Experience.

Well, Laurance was called over immediately. He had a small book and found our names in it. He took us inside the theater so we wouldn’t have to stand in the cold looking for our digital tickets.

Laurance then led us to the area that was set up with a bottle of champagne and snacks. When I said I was gluten free he immediately went and got gluten free chips for me. With champagne poured he went off to procure programs and better seats.

Lawrence came back in time to pour more champagne and told us that he’d back to escort us to our new seats. Fortunately, we didn’t need to drink the entire bottle of champagne as we’d come back during the break.

We enjoyed sipping our champagne and then it was time to experience “The Phantom”. Dale and I first took our kids to see The Phantom in LA after we left the farm back in 1990. It was so great then. Since that time, I’ve seen it in N.Y. with my granddaughter, Christabel, after working there. Then I took my granddaughter, Zaya to see it in San Francisco when we were going to miss her birthday a couple of years ago. We had tickets to see it in New York last year but it was canceled. Then we had tickets to see this in London this past July but then it was canceled.

The production was so good, and being only a few rows from the front was even better. We thought that we should go back to see it again with grandkids but then realized that it would be feasible. Alas.

From Phantom we were hungry and only a short way from the Café at St Martins in the Fields Crypt. We stopped in there for a glass of wine and inexpensive church food. The menu hadn’t changed but we were fine.

We walked to another tea shop to see if they had anything different but there wasn’t much. Too bad, we walked back to our hotel.

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