Benaroya Hall — Attraction in Seattle

I'm here in Seattle visiting my son, so I wanted to check out the Seattle Symphony with him, which means Benaroya Hall.

Luck had it, that the Symphony was playing with the Harry Potter Movie "Goblet of Fire".

Geek night out it is...

It's a beautiful Hall, with many glass panes throughout the main lobby, that pull in beautiful light with cool reflection opportunities as that light..and you, change location. It was a sold out show this evening, (duh), but we had no issues getting around inside. Logistics in here is a breeze, and the crowd moved fluidly about, on all 3 floors for that matter... especially those on broomsticks.

We took the water taxi over from W Seattle, and then simply walked here, so I'm not well versed on the parking situation. But I'm now versed on the "mean streets" of Seattle, because we had to walk thru a couple blocks of them to get here. Wowsers... The Lobby was quite nice inside, with plenty of seating on all the levels to enjoy your martini and people watch. We sat on nice sofas on level 3 looking down at all the common folk. Be smart like us, and pre-order your drinks for intermission, which allows more time to sip on them, as you can't take your drinks inside.

The acoustics inside the Hall were wonderful and it appeared that there weren't really any bad seats. The angle of the orchestra seating allows for better viewing and line of site. Even the side boxes are slightly angled toward the stage instead of looking directly across the venue...brilliant. The crowd responded loudly, and consistently to the Movie, Conductor Sarah Hicks, and it's Home Team Orchestra!

It was an extremely satisfying first experience for sure!

Now... if we can only slip past those creatures outside the Hall.

Wish...

This review is specifically for the facility and not for the symphony.

If you’ve not been, the building itself is lovely inside with Dale Chihuly’s incredible glass art hanging from either end of the entry halls. Ushers are friendly, kind and helpful. The restroom and facilities overall are clean, well lit with good signage, and accessible. Thank you for having seat risers for the children and for having so many there to help people navigate during children’s programming for patrons who had never been.

The elevators were not functioning on either ends of the parking garage which they should be two hours prior to show time. At 30 minutes to show time they still had not been turned on causing everyone that had arrived that day to have to go outside and walk around. For adults, not a crisis but with children it’s a pain and people pay to park there because of the convenience of going straight up and not having to haul winter coats and such.

Opening doors on time didn’t happen upon most recent visit. There were pre show activities booked to start at 10am and the show began at 11am. Because the doors didn’t open until 10:15, lines were long and there were only a couple of people taking tickets. Additionally, patrons had to take extra walks to arrive at the entry doors, throngs of people did not get to participate in the pre show activities and the activities were cut off so they could not participate after the show. This was disappointing to so many who arrived early to participate.

Please address these items for future...

I don't come here very often but maybe 5 times a year. I love this place but I do want to suggest a couple of things.

Please inform your guest that you can not bring your coffee inside the hall. A lot of people were ordering their coffee before entering the hall in the cafe inside the Benaroya Hall lobby, 10 before the show started. YOU KNOW people will bring it inside. There is no way they can drink that hot coffee within 10 min. I felt so cheated when the usher told me that I could not bring the coffee inside. Then a kind lady at the bar told me that I could buy their cup and pour my coffee then bring it inside. I WOULD HAVE GLADLY BOUGHT THE CUP if they told me IN ADVANCE when I ordered my coffee. However, at this point, I just wanted to throw away my freshly brewed coffee just because I felt I was deceived. People come here to have a good time. We will spend a couple of dollars more if we can do that after you spend all that money and time.

Please keep the concert hall AROUND safe. I am local so I know this is an ongoing problem that we do not know where to start. However, as soon as I left the hall, I had to encounter people who asked me to buy questionable merchandise on the street. I saw one guy follow a woman to ask her the same thing so we had to keep our eyes on her just in case something happened. Please do not tell me I am dramatic. We all know that nobody is safe here even if you are in your...