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March 29, 2008 was the most exciting day I’ve had in a long time! My mom and I left at 6:30am to get in line for our ellen standby tickets at Universal Studios. I’ve been waiting a long time to go now and tried for 2 weeks to be caller 11 to win tickets, but I was not caller 11, nor 1-10. Our tickets for sure did not come with a guaranteed show ticket. Upon arriving at Universal we figured we would be sitting behind the toll booth operator waiting for them to open, but as soon as we arrived, shut off the car, the line started moving. At 7:15 we were held up at security bag check for a few minutes until they opened that line. The place was buzzing with people as there was some kind of huge wresting thing going on and the first 200 people there were able to do a meet and greet with the wrestling TV stars. It was fairly easy to distinguish who was an ellen fan and who was there for wresting . We fast walked to get to where we needed to get in line.
When we arrived we were number 20. Pretty good huh! This was now at 7:30am and check in did not start until 11:30 & show time was at 1:30. Based on our timing, the spot in line there was a wonderful bench there. Other people behind us dragged a table and chairs, so we had a comfy spot to sit and chatted with our new friends who we would get to know over the next 4 hours. Went and picked up some cinnamon rolls while my mom held our spot. We saw people walking by with blue tickets and red ones. Massive amounts of blue ones but only a few red ones. Must be contest winners or something. When our line finally started moving they handed the first few people in line a Red ticket marked VIP guest! Whoo hoo. Pays to be there so early. Didn’t even need to suffer, we had a nice chair to rest on and shade over our head with the big awning. We saw this room where tons of people were packed into suffering and then they said red ticket holders over here where they had plush leather sofas and nice table and chairs to sit on and free ice cold water. They took us out in group numbers. We were tickets 177 and 178, so we went 4th. I saw tickets higher than 403. They ushered us down this long roped off path walking by everybody that didn’t have a ticket that was longing to have one. That’s how I felt yesterday. We finally made it into the secure area. No more stretching over a fence far away, we were IN!
They put us in a great center seat where we could easily see ellen on stage. The show was fantastic. There was a marshmallow eating contest, only this time they replaced marshmallows with oranges. Our player for our side was too short to reach the ropes. The crowd cheered for a winner. Ellen said she would announce the winner later. At the end of the show ellen was about ready to close out and she said, oh, your all getting Annual Membership passes to Universal Studios!!!!! Wooo HoOOO the crowd went crazy. Awesome gift. They shot off cannons of confetti and blue and silver confetti flew everywhere!! It was rockin. The crowd went wild. The first two shows she didn’t give anything big away. We got a picture of the girls we sat by who got Stryker, Ellen’s DJ, to come take a picture with him. We also got some pics of me down by the stage. Disposable film. We filled out our form and they will turn them in and we will get our Universal passes in the mail. What a great time was had.
Next year I’m going to start checking the website every day to wait for the announcement of ellen at Universal Studios tickets so I can hopefully get real tickets and not standby ones. Although, the standby experience was half the fun. Oh, when the seats got full they had to start putting some standby on the lawn grass. That’s where we thought we would be so we brought cushions. When it came time to handing out the Annual Pass forms, those people were asked to leave. Bummer for them, that could have been me. : ( It pays to get my butt up out of bed! After the show we went into Universal Studios to watch the Mardi Gras parade. I thought Ellen might be on one of the floats, but we did not see her. Maybe she was in costume again. Great day!
When we arrived we were number 20. Pretty good huh! This was now at 7:30am and check in did not start until 11:30 & show time was at 1:30. Based on our timing, the spot in line there was a wonderful bench there. Other people behind us dragged a table and chairs, so we had a comfy spot to sit and chatted with our new friends who we would get to know over the next 4 hours. Went and picked up some cinnamon rolls while my mom held our spot. We saw people walking by with blue tickets and red ones. Massive amounts of blue ones but only a few red ones. Must be contest winners or something. When our line finally started moving they handed the first few people in line a Red ticket marked VIP guest! Whoo hoo. Pays to be there so early. Didn’t even need to suffer, we had a nice chair to rest on and shade over our head with the big awning. We saw this room where tons of people were packed into suffering and then they said red ticket holders over here where they had plush leather sofas and nice table and chairs to sit on and free ice cold water. They took us out in group numbers. We were tickets 177 and 178, so we went 4th. I saw tickets higher than 403. They ushered us down this long roped off path walking by everybody that didn’t have a ticket that was longing to have one. That’s how I felt yesterday. We finally made it into the secure area. No more stretching over a fence far away, we were IN!
They put us in a great center seat where we could easily see ellen on stage. The show was fantastic. There was a marshmallow eating contest, only this time they replaced marshmallows with oranges. Our player for our side was too short to reach the ropes. The crowd cheered for a winner. Ellen said she would announce the winner later. At the end of the show ellen was about ready to close out and she said, oh, your all getting Annual Membership passes to Universal Studios!!!!! Wooo HoOOO the crowd went crazy. Awesome gift. They shot off cannons of confetti and blue and silver confetti flew everywhere!! It was rockin. The crowd went wild. The first two shows she didn’t give anything big away. We got a picture of the girls we sat by who got Stryker, Ellen’s DJ, to come take a picture with him. We also got some pics of me down by the stage. Disposable film. We filled out our form and they will turn them in and we will get our Universal passes in the mail. What a great time was had.
Next year I’m going to start checking the website every day to wait for the announcement of ellen at Universal Studios tickets so I can hopefully get real tickets and not standby ones. Although, the standby experience was half the fun. Oh, when the seats got full they had to start putting some standby on the lawn grass. That’s where we thought we would be so we brought cushions. When it came time to handing out the Annual Pass forms, those people were asked to leave. Bummer for them, that could have been me. : ( It pays to get my butt up out of bed! After the show we went into Universal Studios to watch the Mardi Gras parade. I thought Ellen might be on one of the floats, but we did not see her. Maybe she was in costume again. Great day!
View all pictures on a slideshow, click here.
