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Manx Telecom reported that "ISDN circuits" went down at 8:35am and it's caused all sorts of chaos, family tried to ring GP this morning and that linked phone service was all down too.

Cheers for that I'll tell the girl to leave it for a bit.

Tell her to keep trying, I got through at 11am.... So, the phone lines are up

When do normal people give up?

Three and a half hours. Three times chose sailings online but crashed before payment can be made!

Still trying.....

Wahey! We got through, Friday of practice week until the Sunday following the Senior

Booked at last on the phone line. Thursday practice week to the last Sunday of race week. Same as this year. It all seems worth it now

I was so close to giving up. After about 4 and a half hours I finally completed my booking online. Sadly didn't get the exact sailings (they were still available the first three times I started to book online) but happy with what we did get.

Relieved we're going, but really starting to question if I ever want to go through this morning's experience again. It's never taken me more than about an hour in the past.

Last year, I tried to book using 2 mobile phones, and a land line on constant redial for 3 hrs without getting through. This as well as trying to log on to the website during that time without success.
By 11.30am I finally gave up and spat my dummy telling the wife ' thats it, I am not going'
30 second later, I decided to ride over to the Pier Head in Liverpool to see if I could book there. Thirty minutes later, I was booked on the sailings I wanted.
This year, I decided to go straight to the Pier Head at 8.30am and not bother with the phones or website. When I got there, there were about 80 people in the queue. One guy had been there since 4.30am! All booked and paid for within the hour.
Far less stressful than previous years. I dont know what they achieved this year by opening the bookings a week earlier, there is still the same demand all at the same time?

Did everyone get the crossings they wanted? I did mine on the website early yesterday morning without issue (just got lucky I guess). felt bad for this that tried doing it on the phone all day though

I can only speculate on why it was brought forward and I guess it is so that people can book before they travel (for those who go to practice week). I felt that with yesterday being a working day rather than a bank holiday the website would take more traffic and the phones would not be as busy as previously.

My experience was that the opposite was true, although I have no idea what impact the on island phone problems had yesterday.

I was more than happy booking online yesterday morning & getting the sailings I wanted.

Last year, I got off the ferry at 06:00 and joined the queue in Douglas, it was 11:30 before I got a booking and that booking meant staying on the IOM until the Tuesday after race week. (Fortunately, by regularly checking the website, I managed to get a more suitable return sailing.)

Not sure what the SP can do, it's a hugely popular event and once a year they have this massive booking problem, not helped this year by a telephone issue.

Still, I'll be arriving on Saturday for 2 weeks of heaven - yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

(22-05-2018, 01:20 PM)Nasher Wrote: Not sure what the SP can do, it's a hugely popular event and once a year they have this massive booking problem, not helped this year by a telephone issue.

I'm not sure what they can do either as it's not my field of expertise. However, although the SP are generally in a different marketplace, perhaps they should take a look at how other major sporting events or concert ticket sellers operate as they rarely seem to suffer the same problems despite often having a bigger demand for tickets.

I eventually got sorted online at 13:15 after trying from 8am. Having to come back Friday night on the half 10 boat which I hate but beggers cant be choosers. Definately thinking about riding from Castleford to Liverpool next year to book at the office.

I suppose it depends on what sailings you want?
Personally, I want to be there for the whole of race week, so that means being there on the Friday, and coming back after the Senior the following Friday. Years ago, I always booked the sailing for the Sunday after the Senior, as it wasnt uncommon for the race to be on the Saturday due to bad weather.
The sailing I want now is out on the Friday 3,30 am boat, and back on the Late boat the following Friday, both from Liverpool.
One way to avoid some of the strain on the system is to offer an automatic renewal for the following year. I seems obvious, but what do I know.

I've booked the Friday 3:30 boat from Liverpool too though I am coming back the following Sunday just in case the Senior is put back although it hasn't happened since 2012 when it didn't run at all in the end. I try and get at least 3 race days in if I can, like this year I arrive on Mad Sunday and go the following Sunday, I'd love to do the whole fortnight but I'd have to stay in a proper bed and I can't afford that. It was weird this year booking for next, it's like another poster said you forget the stress of trying to get through once you've booked it!

The first race of the 2019 tt is the race for a bloody crossing 😀

I'm tempted to drive to Liverpool next year, it's an hour and half from me and sounds a lot less painful than the phone/internet debacle.