Cowutopia Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Dano really is a great guy. Met him several times and he had no problem signing some stuff and chatting a bit every time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devilish34 Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 A few things based on what's already been said:Getting in was a cluster fvck. ----------------------------------- That and the girls in the skanky Holloween costumes in the station. You're from Philly so simple things are difficult for you. --------------------------------------------- Did you get any of their phone numbers for future visits Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefiestygoat Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 I had a great experience. I had a free train ride both ways. I was one of the first people into the arena so I went right to all the different food stands and got my food quick. I actually thought the service was great but that was probably because I was so early there was no/little line. I liked the food there, it was awesome. The arena is absolutely gorgeous and I was loving the cupholders in the seats even way high up. My only concern was leaving the game. We made our way to the escalator and it was crowded. Halfway down I saw a big blob of people going for the crappy promotional poster. We got lucky and barely made our way off the escalator but had their been 5-10 more people on the floor ahead of us, then we wouldn't have been able to exit and their would have been a big mess of people falling all over each other as the escalator crashed them into everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
langsgirl Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 (edited) Light Rail fromGrove Street was super easy and quick..easy to get to Prudential..actually a very nice walk and perfect weather. The doors were very crowded to get in but it still iddnt take us more than about 3 minutes so I wouldnt call that bad. The food lines looked long on the upper concourse because they were going all the way to the wall.. but the lines to the wall up there were shorter than lines at CAA. They seemed to move fine. I finally saw the mural.. still uncertain how I missed it a few weeks ago. Loved signing the jumbo puck.. hopefully it will be displatyed somewhere.. and loved all the extras they had out from the week before when we were there. Welcome to the Rock - awesome No Ole.. pretty cool. Light rail back to Grove. super easy again!! Was able to get beer super fast both times. Edited October 28, 2007 by langsgirl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJayDevil Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 The arena is ridiculous. I got to stand next to Vanderbeek and Lou and I took a picture with Pat Burns. The only thing that needs to change is they need to allow access for ALL season ticket holders to the Goal Bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HellOnICE Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 (edited) The arena is ridiculous. I got to stand next to Vanderbeek and Lou and I took a picture with Pat Burns.The only thing that needs to change is they need to allow access for ALL season ticket holders to the Goal Bar. Agreeeeed. My family are club holders, and we have the lounges to ourselves and the goal bar too. But we aren't going to use everything, especially at once. There's enough to go around for everybody. I was at the goal bar in the second Intermission, and aside from those watching Steve and Dano, it wasn't crowded at all. Edited October 28, 2007 by HellOnICE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mackchi Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Eh, I wasn't really impressed. Its a nice arena, its new, its not bad but for me it didnt live up to the hype.Sightlines were ok, food wasnt bad and moving around the arena was fine but the bathrooms have too few stalls, there was no where to eat or sit other then at your seat, the LCD screens on the scoreboard are super crisp and clear...but about twice as small as they should be, those electric rings that run around the arena where making the rink ligher and darker based on if it was a bright advertisment or not (it was distracting for a fan, it must have totally sucked for a player). It also didnt feel like there were that many vendors, infact I only saw 2 little devil den stores for merchandise where as CAA had one every 10 feet. At the end of the first I attempted to go in one, but it was so small it was filled with 30 people and they were all basically in line snaked around inside. I got there around 5 hoping there would be things going on but all I saw was some singer in booth, I did see the cup when i got inside which was nice but it felt like they didnt invest much into activities for the people there. Not disapointed, but I wasn't wow'd like a lot of others. Very good post. I agree. I made reservaqtions at the retaurant for 6 people for 5:30. DON'T waste your time or money . The wait staff was horrendous, invisible, and short staffed. What they didn't know about this date? No menus on tables? people getting under cooked and cold buffet with no receipts. Not even salt and pepper on the tables or any where to be found!!! The simplestn high school cafeteria group could have done a better job!!! We walked out without paying because we couldnt find anyone to pay!!! I didnt want to miss the opening ceremony....After the puck was dropped and a few minutes into play I went back to the restaurant to pay (pretty stupid of me) and still couldn't find our waitress or even a manager. By then the entire restaurant was folding the tables up and closing. I did go to trhe bar side and there were a few suits...that looked like managers near the bar cash register and they were counting receipts or something and FINALLY I saw our waitress and said I wanted to pay and she didnt even realize that we hadn't paid!!! The registers were closed and they opened them up again and I paid and she was apologizing to me and thanked me for coming back. If I wasn't someone with a conscience I could have stuck them for a big bill ( I am sure Vanderbeek could have absorbed it) but I didnt want the waitress to get hammered. Bottom line with the restaurant and Vanderbeek's idea that it will be a destination...YOU GOT A LONG WAY TO GO!! Go eat at the concession stands or go to Ironbound for food or wait for some new restaurants to open up. Regarding the Rock itself...an 8 out of 10 at this point. still need finising touches. like toilet paper and towels, better signage in the place etc. It will get better. My season tickets (lower bowl behind Marty are excellent) The people on staff...overall rating including vendors, information, ushers, security 3 out of 10....this REALLY needs improvement. There are more nimrods then sharp people. Coming from the train station and the walk was excellent 9 out of 10. Same with the return. There was some backup for the NE Corridor train but they did bring in extra trains and seemed to get that sorted out. We did wait in the street for about 20 mins before they let us in to get the trains. Appaarantley the platforms for the trains had too amny people so they made us wait downstairs. Once they let us go in it was OK. But the transit police looked overwhelmed outside. Newark police we all over the place...don't know for how long...I hope its not just for opening night. my overall rating for the night, including the fact that the Devils sucked ....4 out of 10. I felt like a kid on christmas morning waiting for that special toy...getting it and finding out that it needs batteried and your parents forgot to get them and all the stores are closed but wait until tomorrow and we'll get them.... you got the idea... sorry for the long post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HellOnICE Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Look, I understand you were frustrated. But I mean, I would never go see a play the first night of previews...you know what I mean? As for the staff that I encoutered, from the food vendors to the panini people, ushers, bartenders, security...they were all fine..much nicer, younger, and a bit more vibrant than the CAA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJDevils_Rock Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 I made reservaqtions at the retaurant for 6 people for 5:30. DON'T waste your time or money . Sorry your experience sucked. Your experience is the exact reason we decided to skip the restaurant on opening night. To many things in there would need to get worked out. Try the Italian Hot Dogs in the Taste of Newark section. They were fab! Our over experience was good. Trains in and out were easy for us! The Arena Bar was great for a warm up!! The lines didn't seem to be too bad inside. There are things that can be better, and I am sure they will be. Over all I am pleased, and never ever plan to return to CAA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yort44 Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Agreeeeed. My family are club holders, and we have the lounges to ourselves and the goal bar too. But we aren't going to use everything, especially at once. There's enough to go around for everybody. I was at the goal bar in the second Intermission, and aside from those watching Steve and Dano, it wasn't crowded at all. Actually, from a business perspective I bought Goal Bar seats because of the exclusivity. If they allowed everyone up, I'd definitely move as everybody would be there since Dano and Steve do the pre and post game show live from there. It would be a nightmare trying to get around, especially with the small staircase leading to it. From a fan perspective, I totally agree with you. I was blown away by the Goal Bar and Goal Bar seats. You definitely get the feeling that it's a private box, just with more people. The good news is that Goal Bar seats are available for each game as they did not sell out, so anybody can experience it if they want to pony up. Just hanging out next to Dano while he's on the air is pretty cool in itself. Lastly, I'm glad I passed on the Club Seats as my fear of having too many people and too few stations to eat were confirmed by some folks I spoke to last night. Figure there are 1100 people in each section going through a buffet. Can't be a smooth process on sold out nights. Probably better on less crowded nights and if you eat late. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mackchi Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Sorry your experience sucked. Your experience is the exact reason we decided to skip the restaurant on opening night. To many things in there would need to get worked out. Try the Italian Hot Dogs in the Taste of Newark section. They were fab!Our over experience was good. Trains in and out were easy for us! The Arena Bar was great for a warm up!! The lines didn't seem to be too bad inside. There are things that can be better, and I am sure they will be. Over all I am pleased, and never ever plan to return to CAA. Yea...but its not like they did not know it was opening night. The arena bar was packed...tried to get in...will try next time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devlman Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 This just brings me to the point that it seems like this place needs more space for non-club seat holders to go. With so many food vendors on the concourse area, theres no real good place to socialize or eat outside of your seats...unless of course you've got the premium tickets to enter the lounges, bar, restaurant etc... Agreed. The upper deck concourse is so narrow at certain points. And eating at your seat is a bit tricky. Throw some tables around. Put some more signage down for the escalators, too. I will always get my foor downstairs because of the shorter lines and much bigger concourse. I think people will figure that out. But overall, great to see the Devils awesome new home. Fantastic time and great atmosphere. Hopefully they can get these kinks out by Wednesday. I predict a 16,000+ crowd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weekes Head Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 I had issue with the service near the City Grill by my section (211). I waited FOREVER just go get up there, made my order for buffalo chicken tenders, waited another FIFTEEN minutes for them, asking more than a few times what the deal was, just to find out there wasn't any buffalo sauce left, and that if I wanted REGULAR chicken tenders I'd need to wait another 5-10 minutes for them to be made...and this was RIGHT before the start of the game. No apology, no anything. The lady who took my order was a huge bitch, too. From what it sounds like, the service was real hit or miss, but that can be expected for the first few games. Also had another issue with the Nacho station, but it was just more of a miscommunication among the staff I think...when we were standing on line, I had noticed that two beers were left sitting out...right as my brother ordered, they put the two beers back in the fridge. When I ordered, they took the same two beers out of the fridge, because when I went to my seat and took a drink out of one of the beers, it was disgustingly warm. My knee hurt too much to walk back, so it was warm beer I was stuck with. So sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJDevs4978 Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 I had issue with the service near the City Grill by my section (211). I waited FOREVER just go get up there, made my order for buffalo chicken tenders, waited another FIFTEEN minutes for them, asking more than a few times what the deal was, just to find out there wasn't any buffalo sauce left, and that if I wanted REGULAR chicken tenders I'd need to wait another 5-10 minutes for them to be made...and this was RIGHT before the start of the game. No apology, no anything. The lady who took my order was a huge bitch, too. From what it sounds like, the service was real hit or miss, but that can be expected for the first few games.Also had another issue with the Nacho station, but it was just more of a miscommunication among the staff I think...when we were standing on line, I had noticed that two beers were left sitting out...right as my brother ordered, they put the two beers back in the fridge. When I ordered, they took the same two beers out of the fridge, because when I went to my seat and took a drink out of one of the beers, it was disgustingly warm. My knee hurt too much to walk back, so it was warm beer I was stuck with. So sad. Yeesh it's probably a good thing I didn't have time to eat much at the arena with all the kinks they had to work out. Heard some guy behind me complain about being on line for chicken tenders for ten minutes then they didn't tell him till he got to the front of the line that they were out and it would take another 10-15 minutes to cook more. I was in the City Grill line and saw you there a few lines over, but after a couple minutes of standing in line without moving at all I was like screw it and left, I do want to see the whole introduction ceremony. I went down to the main concourse in the second intermission and had a pizza slice - no line there but then again I'd finally figured out the right way to go downstairs by then from my section so I was down there quick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJDevils_Rock Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Yea...but its not like they did not know it was opening night.The arena bar was packed...tried to get in...will try next time I couldn't agree more. They probably should have opened the restaurant for a few trial seatings to try and work the bugs out before opening night. With any new place there are kinks to be worked out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squishyx Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 (edited) Yeah, I had the worst time trying to get downstairs, me and my little sister circled the whole damn arena before giving up and taking an elevator that took about 10 minutes (not exagerating we were waiting with people with watches). Do they switch the polarity of the escalators or something so that they are all up until the game ends? Edited October 28, 2007 by squishyx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devilsfan26 Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Yeah, I had the worst time trying to get downstairs, me and my little sister circled the whole damn arena before giving up and taking an elevator that took about 10 minutes (not exagerating we were waiting with people with watches). Do they switch the polarity of the escalators or something so that they are all up until the game ends? I noticed during the 2nd intermission that they had one going up and one going down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senators Advocate Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 You're from Philly so simple things are difficult for you.--------------------------------------------- Did you get any of their phone numbers for future visits Your reading comprehension skills are amazing for someone who lives in the boonies. It wasn't difficult, getting in just could have used some foresight by the staff. ----------------------------------------- Nah I'm not making all that many trips up there, so I would have just gone for a tongue bath from the one dressed as a cat and left it at that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threestars Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Trying to get in was awful...terrible planning. They should have had a lot more ticket collectors/ security wand people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelastonealive Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 (edited) Trying to get in was awful...terrible planning. They should have had a lot more ticket collectors/ security wand people. Agreed, getting in sucked. Getting out was easy though, and I wound up with 6 of the Opening Night lithographs. The folks handing out the giveaways are farrrr nicer in The Rock than they were at CAA. The guy asked if we got enough and was physically stuffing more posters under my girlfriend's arm 'cause her hands were full Edited October 28, 2007 by thelastonealive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevestevens Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 I got 2 posters, someone handed one to me on the left, then one gave me one on the right. Good deal. The things i had problems with were obvious first day things. Transportation in and out was great, very easy. Getting in was difficult due to security. Overall i thought that was fine. The areana was incredible. Im not sure if its me, but not having concrete floors, walls, then plastic stiff seats is nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threestars Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 I have 2 prints...if anyone who wasn't there wants one, PM me your address and I'll send you one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devilish34 Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Your reading comprehension skills are amazing for someone who lives in the boonies. It wasn't difficult, getting in just could have used some foresight by the staff.----------------------------------------- Nah I'm not making all that many trips up there, so I would have just gone for a tongue bath from the one dressed as a cat and left it at that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteyNice Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Just to add a couple of things... - The train getting in was fine. Getting out was a bit of a clusterfvck and it would be a lot better if Long Branch and Trenton trains left from different tracks. - Getting in, as has been said, was a nightmare. It was after 6 before they really started letting people in where I went in (the entrance right next to the team store/box office). They did not have enough ticket scanners so they had to tear my ticket which was annoying. - Nowhere to get programs I walked around the lower level completely just taking it all in and eventually realized that while I saw a ton of food places I did not see just a simple table with a guy hawking programs. I popped in to the souvenir places I saw downstairs and they were all sold out. Finally found a souvenir place up stairs that still had them. The workers there were nice but not good at their jobs. They had trouble using the credit card machine and did not know what a pennant was. - I love my cup holder! - Even from the $10 seats the view is excellent - Between periods they need to make it so one escalator goes up and one goes down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammyk Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Just to add a couple of things...- The train getting in was fine. Getting out was a bit of a clusterfvck and it would be a lot better if Long Branch and Trenton trains left from different tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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