It may be known to some/many of you that several of us crazy American fans are planning to visit England over the holiday period to get our fix of live Manchester United football. Johno and I will be taking in some matches. 50 Euro will be travelling separately, and I believe one or two others may be present as well. Others who are going can post in here too so that we can hopefully get something organized. So, here's the logistical issue--finding some way for us to meet some of the more prominent UK-based posters, hopefully in some sort of pub setting. I'm not precisely sure where everyone lives, but I kind of have a general idea. For those of you who are interested, here's a general plan that Johno and I have put together for our trip: Dec 22nd: Arrive London 23rd: London 24th: Travel to Manchester 25th: relax in Manchester (most things will be closed I guess) 26th: United-West Brom match 27th: Travel to Birmingham 28th: Birmingham-United match 29th: Travel back to Manchester 30th: meet with people, stadium tour? 31st: United-Bolton match Jan 1st: Travel back to London 2nd: London (I'll be at the Fulham-Sunderland match) 3rd: Arse-United game 4th: depart Anyways, those are our highly tentative plans. The day of the Arsenal-United match at Highbury, we may also try to meet up with some of the Arsenal America crew if possible (though I think for our own safety, it might be better to watch the actual match in a Spurs pub). Kavster has also purchased a ticket for the Birmingham game and is planning to join us for that. Those of you who live in Manchester or the surrounding area, it would be great to grab a pint before/after at least one of the matches. Same for anyone here who lives in Birmingham or London. Non-United fans who post here are welcome to join in as well. Of course its a busy time of the year, many of you may be visiting family and the like, which is understandable. However if you've got a few free hours, we'd love to meet up and talk footie and other random topics. More information as it becomes available.
Wow, how much will thsi cost for you all? And are you serious about watching the match in a pub for safety? lol, sorry for my blissful ignorance
Yup... gonna be a kickass way to spend the holyday(<--not a typo). Can't wait to get to England and to see United, OT as well as meet some of the other posters if at all possible. also, Yajur - maybe we could squeeze in a trip to Carrington as well if there will be a training session we could see - might be a shot at Autographs there???
not watching it in a pub for safety... if we could go to the game we'd just be very low key. However we don't need to go to a pub and be low key... a SPURS pub would be anti-arsenal and as such it would be ok to cheer United on rather vociferously from there.
I'll admit it, I'm jealous. I have my wife convinced to make a trip to see United at OT but I don't think I could convince her for three games. I hope to join whomever for the next trip, at least for one game. Have fun and make sure we get regular reports.
For those looking for something a bit more structured: http://www.muscusa.com/tours/ We actually got our home match tickets through MUSCUSA, but we're not on a structured tour. Had to arrange all our own airfare, food, accomodations, etc.
I think Carrington is quite high security nowadays. Before they started training there i think you could go see them, but now it's a no go as far as i know. It's partly to keep the media out of our hair as well. Sorry to p!ss on your parade.
Achtung/johno: Would either one of you be willing to share some info as far as some costs for this kind of trip? Things like tickets costs, lodging, travel from London to Manchester, etc. I'd like the info to help plan a trip of my own, and I'm sure others would too. Thanks.
One thing I learned from all this so far? Wait until last minute to book the plane (if u've got the balls) prices much cheaper now... $300 per ticket from JFK to London. I spent $500 on my ticket. It looks as if Lodging will run us less than $40 per night (each) and it could be around $30 and lower too. We paid for membership in MUSCUSA and ManU's official supporter club as well... both memberships came up to like $100 together. The games were £55 iirc so that gives u somewhat of an idea... (PS if achtung responds before this is posted, i took about an hour to do this cuz I'm working w/ a deadline right now)
All events in this production are ficticious. Any resemblance to anybody living or dead is purely coincidental. EDIT: I paid £45 for the Brum-Utd match.
Damn my retail vacation blackout!!! Is anyone planning to go a little later in the season? I'd be up for a spring trip, especially one that includes London, as I have never been there.
Well, tickets for this week in particular were pretty bad, I paid close to $800 for airfare from Chicago. Also I ended up booking kind of late since I had to get the match tickets confirmed first. From most of the eastern US, you can usually go for more in the $500 range if you look around enough, and obviously the east coast can be even cheaper. Lodging in London is relatively expensive, but for hotels sometimes you can get in under $90 or so, so if you split the costs its not too bad. I wouldn't recommend hostels unless you really want to penny pinch--and don't mind the possibility of dirty roommates who you have to share a single bathroom with. Travelling from London to Manchester by train, well I don't remember the exact prices, but its definitely cheaper if you book several days in advance. Basically the price you pay will vary a lot based on how cheap you want to go. If you're a student, you can stay in a hostel, eat once a day, and get a railpass to save money. If you can afford it and you prefer a little more comfort as most of us do, you might as well spend a little more. I think this trip will run somewhere in the vicinity of $2000/person when all is said and done. That's a very rough "guesstimate" though.
Students can get hold of a Railcard that gives you 1/3 off all fares, and is available for £20. You should normally book around 7 days in advance if you want slightly reduced ticket prices for the trains, but i'm not sure how much you would save. A single trip from London King's Cross to Manchester is £14, quite reasonable for a full adult fare.
I didn't realize you guys were going for nearly 2 weeks. That's awesome!!! It's money well spent; you'll have fun and remember it forever.
As Achtung said, I'm gonna be over in England for about a week, staying with friends in Manchester for a couple days, more than likely on and after Boxing Day.
Yeah, aware of the whole Spurs/Arse bit, I just wondered if you guys were serious about watching it in a pub
Joho/achtung i was going to say, while over there you should try and catch a FCUM match .....they play on 12/26 and 1/2
You guys couldn't possibly pick a worse time to come to blighty lol. It's the one time of the year were I have to do 'the rounds' which entails travelling to all family memebers AND spending time with them and THEN going abroad to see the GF's family ANDspend time with them...lol I wont be back to 'normal' until Jan 6th Next time gadget, next time *smacks cat