My very long review..... do love a long review!!

So.... daughter and I travelled down on the Friday evening to Elstree. We stayed at the Ibis, before we checked in, we walked up the road where we had to queue. Found it no problem. Ibis is the perfect hotel for the studios, close by ....basic, but ideal!
Checked in and then went to the big 24 hour Tesco's which is close by.
Back to the hotel to try and get some sleep... was so excited, I didnt sleep...up at 2.00am made a flask of hot chocolate up, took a blanket, chair, wrapped up warm...got there 2.30 and already there were some people there, first lady got there 12.30am!! we were 9th and 10th in the queue.
There was a security guy there who would pop out from time to time. We had a laugh with our new found friends.
Was easy enough to go back to the hotel to refill flasks/hot water bottles etc!
A lady in front of us had got some little heat pads (almost like a tea bag) she had got them from one of the £ shops, and they were brilliant. I was well wrapped up, but my feet got cold, despite having layers on!!

About 6.00ish it started to rain...and rain...and rain! Up until then the time passed quickly.
Tickets supposed to be validated at 9.00am, but 9.15 still nobody there to validate....dont think they wanted to get wet!
The queue behind us, stretched as far as I could see ....just one mass of brollies! Did I mention the rain!!!!

Eventually we got our tickets validated with the sticker and went to Tesco's for breakfast... although its a big Tesco, it was only a Costa Coffee cafe....we had a toastie and went back to the hotel. Hoped to have a sleep, but still in a Strictly bubble no sleep to be had.

We had to be back to the gate at 3.15,
Glammed and glittered up, we had a slow walk (both in heels, it had to be slow!) in the drizzly rain up to the gate.... I had planned to leave my phone at the hotel, but as we had to wear coats, carry brollies, I took it as I knew we would be queuing up for coats. Met up with the brolly brigade again, another long queue. Eventually started to move forward into the marquee, Handed in coats on one side, phones on the other.
There was the 'photo booth' with various props you could use and have 2 photos ... they are good quality photos as well.
There is a bar in there, tvs and seats.
Toilets outside, apparently 6 toilets (very small though)
A lady announced what was going to happen when we went through for seating, not sure what time we went through, but the first 10 people were taken through, first to the area opposite the band, in like a covered seating area. I knew the seats were small...but they were very, very small! One thing, although they emphasise the fact to go in number order....we found there were a few who did push in, we had another couple behind us and we were 9th and 10th! The couple behind, wasnt the couple that was behind us in the queue early hours of Saturday morning!
Wasnt pleased at all, but the person who seated us had us in the wrong section... so was taken to the seats behind the judges.... we was on Bruno's left side, a few rows back... the best seats were reserved for Production .... so not fair, I didnt see them queueing for 7 hours, and in the pouring rain! (I think I mentioned the wet rain!) People complained, but it didnt do any good, because of the Remembrance show, Service Men and Women had the front seats.....understandable, they should. But not the Production staff.
So really had to rely on the tv to see the dancers.

The show was amazing, really, really enjoyed it. First of all we saw Andre Rieu ... performing Hallelujah, followed by Brendan and Natalie dancing. Beautiful... so moving when the poppies fell.
Loved the dancing, the pro dance was very moving as well. Did have 2 attempts at it, due to lights going out, and a dancer missing a step! Third time lucky.

We had a break, orange juice and kit kats handed out. Some of the pro dancers chatted with the audience by the stairs. It was nice to see the celebrities mingling with family and friends... Judge Rinder with his grandparents, such a tender moment.

Elimination process.... we had a good view of Judge, and really felt for him, so nervous.
The ones on the dance floor, couldnt properly see them.
They are all so supportive of each other.

There is a warm up guy there and certainly gets the audience involved, clapping, booing, cheering, laughing.... by the end of the evening you are worn out, with all the standing up, sitting down in those very small chairs!
By the end of the evening I was feeling like I had jet lag (that was obviously due to lack of sleep) but without the flight!

Once the person who was out was announced, you see them doing their last dance and then the interviews of the remaining celebs.

Then a massive queue to get out, we had AJ/Oksana/Joanne pass by us. Some people were lucky enough to get autographs, as they stood by the dance floor.

Went back into the marquee and daughter queued for the coats and I queued for phone....it is well organised and the queue does move along steadily.
Then...back to the hotel....certainly slept better Saturday night!

So that was my Strictly experience, would I do it again.... I doubt it (I say that, might be different if I was lucky enough to get tickets!) they really need to look at how tickets/seating is done.

Just need now for my brolly and shoes to dry out... I know I mentioned the rain!!

Thank you so much for sharing this . Glad that you enjoyed it. Could you tell which celebrity seemed to get the most cheers ?

Thanks for the report. I do wonder if it is worth trying to sit upstairs by going later to get the tickets validated so as to get a better view. Still it sounds like it was a great experience. Did you have a favourite celeb?

Thank you so much for sharing that with us. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your experience.

Can't say I would want to go through all that, but forewarned is forearmed for others.

Glad you enjoyed and I'm sorry about the rain, it must be such a pain to be queuing in the rain.

Well I think the loudest cheer went to Ed!!! People up on their feet, cheering, clapping, stamping of feet! So funny! But Danny got a good cheer!

That is what my daughter said, at least you can see, looking down at the dance floor.... the warm up guy referred to those seats as Economy seats....and our seats as Premium Class (obviously hadnt sat where I was sat!!)

Thank you so much!!!!

Ha, so glad to hear that especially because they're my 2 favorites

Thank you so much for that Karen, felt like I was there with you, even holding a brolly !

So pleased you had a good time, but agree re the seating. First arrivals should get the best seats in the house.

Thanks, Karen. Lucky you.

My hubby suggested taking a pop up tent ... might have been a good idea! Only one I could find reasonably priced was Peppa Pig!!! Probably wouldnt have coped with all the rain though!

Thanks for your review Karen, a brilliant summary of your SCD experience.

Thanks Karen, great report . Seems to me the seats upstairs are preferable , surely you would have a better view of the dancing .

It all sounds amazing but very tiring! It's an experience many of us will probably never get (not through lack of trying though), so you have lots of great memories (and it would be an added bonus if you could spot yourself on the telly)!

That was a good read ,thank you ,hope you have got warm and dry now

did actually spot my daughter at the very end, where they are chatting with the remaining celebs. Daughter wanted to chat with Ed, but he was busy!

Thank you for taking the trouble to tell us about your experience. I've always wondered what it must be like.

Thank you for being our mole, worth knowing about the chairs. Curious how they manage when Tess squeezes in between people in the friends and family section?.

Another question you might be able to answer, what was going on with Andre Rieu's violin mic?

Thanks for letting us know how your day went Karen!

Oh yes I would like to know that too. Whether it was just us who couldn't hear him.

Thanks for all you've written.
A good insight, the real Strictly experience.

Which pro dancers chatted to the audience I'm curious to know small details like that.

Thank you Karen for such a long report - and the added bits too.

Very interesting

To be honest... it was pretty much the same in the studio.... could hear the music, but not the violin, or his ladies singing. We said the same and thought we would hear it better on the Sunday night show, but obviously not.