Donna in Hollywoodland

Cinderella

I met my friends Karie and Valerie at The El Capitan Theatre , for a screening of Cinderella .
We thought it would be a fun evening to have a girls night out and see Cinderella together.
And we knew the place would be packed with children, and we were prepared for that.
What we weren't prepared for was the rude parents.

We rushed up to the Balcony area, and got some seats in about the fourth row of the balcony.
There was a woman saving the entire first two rows of the balcony. She had jackets and purses all over the seats.
The pre-show entertainment started, and an actress dressed as Cinderella came out and started to talk to the children and sing a song.
This woman stood in the first row of the balcony, on her cell phone. Obviously calling whoever she was saving the seats for.
She stood there talking on her cell phone and looking around, trying to find her people.

I heard people on the other side of her tell her to sit down. Some one went to get an usher, and the usher came to talk to her. Her people were still not there, and the movie was about to start.
"Thats it, we're moving", said my friends. We gathered our things, and walked farther up the balcony.

We found a row, where the first two seats had a jacket draped over them. Someone else saving seats. But the three seats next to them were opened.
Just than a man arrived, obviously a Dad.
"Oh, that one seat is ours", he said, to me about the seat I just sat in.
"Um, you didn't have a jacket on it. And you weren't here" I replied.
"Great, I'll just make my kid sit on the floor", he replied and moved to another row in a huff.
Okay ... If there is not a jacket on the seat, it is not officially saved.

Ahhh... the movie was starting. But what was this ? A little bitty Infant right in front of us.
And the Infant started to cry.
The parents took the baby out. The parents came back.
The baby started to cry.
They went out, and came back.
Both parents taking the crying baby out, and bring the baby back.
After about the Fifth time of two grown adults getting in and out of their seats right in front of us - my friends said "We're moving."
I said "I'll stay here"
I stayed put. I swear those two parents didn't see 5 minutes of the movie, they were both in the lobby with a crying infant more than not.

My friends moved to the side section. And I could see what was happening to them out of the corner of my eye.
The movie had already been going about 20 minutes, and a big group of Adults and Children arrived and sat right in front of my friends.
The Mother standing in the aisle, directing the children, for like a good five minutes. I am sure she was blocking my friends views of the screen.
And the Mother brought snacks for her kids and was passing them out. From a Crinkley Bag that made such loud crunching noises as she opening and closed it, that even I could hear the bag as I sat on the other side of the aisle. The crunchy noise was
even annoying me.

My friends must have moved farther up the balcony. I couldn't see them out of the corner of my eye.

Yes, once the movie ended I saw - they were practically in the last row of the balcony.

On our way out of the lobby, we tried to get the Theatre Manager but smoke instead to someone who appeared to be an Usher Supervisor.
Our comment was that if you are going to allow people to come in after the movie has started, then an usher should escort them in, and a get them to a seat right away.

The Usher Supervisor really didn't care. She just kept saying "Sorry this had to happen." One of my friend was hoping for some Complementary Tickets to make up for our pain, but it wasn't going to happen.
I am sure the Usher Supervisor was thinking that three grown woman going to a Childrens movie should realize it was going to be noisy. But noisy wasn't our complaint. And we certainly expected to have lots of noise from the children.

We just weren't expecting the parents who were there to be totally lacking in basic social skills. And we weren't expecting that the Theatre itself would allow grown patrons to make so much noise when they arrive 15 to 20 minutes late for the movie.

We gave up talking to the Usher Supervisor, and headed over to Hamburger Hamlet .
I ordered a Mushroom Ravioli with a chicken breast - which was absolutely fabulous !