The ACO enclosure
Discussion
Absolutely worth it. Great viewing area. Champagne, Wine, Food available in a relaxed environment. Seated area. You can sign someone in for €15 (split the cost of the membership and that works out really well). With a discont on entry and grandstands what is not to love?
Only queues where around the McNish saftey but even then still some seats free.
CFZ (Chav Free Zone).
Only queues where around the McNish saftey but even then still some seats free.
CFZ (Chav Free Zone).
dan5oclocksmith said:
Thanks.
Last question - the ACO site isn't clear on when your year membership runs from and to - is it a year from joining, or per calendar year?
I think it is a year from joining so if you stagger it right you may get two years cheap tickets or two years enclosure entry (I guess it would only work if Le Mans was 16th next year and you bought the pass on arrival then the next year went back to the 9th). Easier to just buy it for both years Last question - the ACO site isn't clear on when your year membership runs from and to - is it a year from joining, or per calendar year?
I confirm ACO membership runs annually from the 1st of the month in which you sign up.
I also thought the ACO enclosure opposite Dunlop was pretty good, although viewing was standing only. There were also plenty of TV screens in the bar areas.
Incidentally, I was amazed at all the space taken by the ACO and the corporates in this area. If I had a general entrance ticket only, I would have been annoyed at the decreasing access points to view the race.
R.
I also thought the ACO enclosure opposite Dunlop was pretty good, although viewing was standing only. There were also plenty of TV screens in the bar areas.
Incidentally, I was amazed at all the space taken by the ACO and the corporates in this area. If I had a general entrance ticket only, I would have been annoyed at the decreasing access points to view the race.
R.
dan5oclocksmith said:
I didn't go last year, but I'm sure in 2009 there was a big screen on the inside of the esses after the Dunlop bridge - not this year. That used to be a reasonable vantage point for Sunday morning around 8am where you could catch up with everything in peace 
I'm glad someone else remembers this - I had thought there was one too! There last year, gone this.The damn thing shut at 02:00 and I wanted to stay and watch the race through the night!
The view from the enclosure was good though.....great spot for catching McNish's incident. Great viewing spot at night too.
The organisation at the bars were piss poor though. You queue for your drinks...then queue again to pay for them?! Just stupid!
I tell you what though.......
The ACO girls alone were worth paying the fee for
The view from the enclosure was good though.....great spot for catching McNish's incident. Great viewing spot at night too.
The organisation at the bars were piss poor though. You queue for your drinks...then queue again to pay for them?! Just stupid!
I tell you what though.......
The ACO girls alone were worth paying the fee for
Spiritual_Beggar said:
The damn thing shut at 02:00 and I wanted to stay and watch the race through the night!
The view from the enclosure was good though.....great spot for catching McNish's incident. Great viewing spot at night too.
The organisation at the bars were piss poor though. You queue for your drinks...then queue again to pay for them?! Just stupid!
I tell you what though.......
The ACO girls alone were worth paying the fee for
Pictures? The view from the enclosure was good though.....great spot for catching McNish's incident. Great viewing spot at night too.
The organisation at the bars were piss poor though. You queue for your drinks...then queue again to pay for them?! Just stupid!
I tell you what though.......
The ACO girls alone were worth paying the fee for
This was my first year of ACO membership, and my conclusion was that all the numerous positive comments on here about the ACO building must have been left by the drunk and/or deluded.
From descriptions, I expected something like a flash hospitality area with settees, and big plasma screens, and bars etc. The hospitality area is a spartan space, with the tinsiest of bars (where you also order food), one or two teeny-tiny TV screens on the wall, and a small number of wooden garden tables and chairs. Ambience and bells and whistles = zero.
On Saturday, prior to the start, the queue for food was unbelievable - as was the wait to get served. There were only two people taking orders and payment (you couldn't fit many more behind the bar). By the time I got to the counter, a number of food items had sold out. By the time I was served, I smellt like a BBQ, because of all the smoke coming out of the kitchen - presumably from grilling the sausages. Oh, and the prices were obscene - 10 Euros for a sausage and a few chips. Oh, and even though I was paying 10 Euros for sausage and chips - I couldn't have mustard with that, even though the guy in front of me was having mustard on his hotdog. Mustard - apparently - was only for hotdogs. Riiiight. Then, there wasn't anywhere to sit - since the few chairs were taken up. There is a bar and seating outside in the midst of the underneath of a tribune (not very pleasant) - but at night, it was much too cold to sit there. Can't imagine it was much warmer during the day, since it didn't get any sun.
As for showers, 2/4 were out, and there was a massive queue for those too - in the middle of the day. There was hot water, although the shower room itself was freezing because all the windows were open.
Good things are hourly hard-copy updates on positions, although they ran out. There were also two multi-socket extension cables, which you could use to recharge your 'phone. However, they too were permanently full - seemingly, in part, due to staff using them.
The best part though, was on Saturday during the lengthy period of safety laps. An officious little man with a Napolean complex, decided he was going to make it his mission to stop people exiting down the main staircase - instead, forcing them onto the circuitous route via Tribune 18 (to be fair, this is marked as the exit - in French). He was flapping about like the proverbial blue-arsed, and made a couple of minions move one of the signs to the wall, and planted one of said minions on the staircase to police it.
Nobody noticed the signs, and everyone trying to exit tried to use the staircase. Poor ACO girly had to keep telling them to go via Tribune 18. Some people accepted, some huffed, and some had an almighty huff and puff - and a particular German chap almost had an embolism. The irony? The staircase was pretty much always empty. The other irony? People came in from the tribunes to go out down the staircase; they were told they couldn't - and had to go back out to the tribunes - either handing in the red pass they had just been given, or having to show their tickets again - just to exit. Apparently also - according to a major league huffer/puffer - some were getting into tribunes without tickets, through trying to pull a fast one and saying they were just exiting. And as the embolic Teuton pointed out, you therefore couldn't use the indoor toilets, and the nearest lot of outdoor ACO ones were closed
As the guy with the hotdog *and mustard* said to me: logic never was their [the French] strong point. Oh indeed, my little Danish chum, indeed. This was borne out on several occasions.
Will I renew next year though? Yes, because the building is the only place to be anything other than freezing, and it was nice to be able to have somewhere peaceful to sit (when you could) - when you had enough of the crowds. Plus, hot water - whatever the queue - versus none at Beausejour, was welcome.
Have to, however, give the ACO themselves their due. I emailed them whilst trying to book tickets, with a couple of issues. I didn't get any replies, so I posted on their Facebook page stating that it was a poor show that everything had sold out so quickly, that I couldn't book one of the tribunes due to an error message, that none of my emails had been replied to - and everything had now sold out. Next thing I know, I receive an email apologising and asking what tickets I wanted, followed by an invoice for the camping and tribune I asked for
I also got some amazing help, via email and post, from the ACO when I was enquiring about membership.
Finally: the Passion 24 camping is tarmacced, and has the feel of a supermarket car park - in case you were thinking about it. I had booked it this year (thought I'd give it a go); and after driving round grassed campsites, begging to be let in - I had to buy another camping pass for Beausejour. Thought that was a bit cheeky - making me pay all over again. But by that time, I couldn't care less - I was so glad to find somewhere.
[/War and Peace]
PS Pretty sure the booking site said Durand grandstand (17) didn't have view of a screen (or was that 18?) - but it did; and a great one at that
From descriptions, I expected something like a flash hospitality area with settees, and big plasma screens, and bars etc. The hospitality area is a spartan space, with the tinsiest of bars (where you also order food), one or two teeny-tiny TV screens on the wall, and a small number of wooden garden tables and chairs. Ambience and bells and whistles = zero.
On Saturday, prior to the start, the queue for food was unbelievable - as was the wait to get served. There were only two people taking orders and payment (you couldn't fit many more behind the bar). By the time I got to the counter, a number of food items had sold out. By the time I was served, I smellt like a BBQ, because of all the smoke coming out of the kitchen - presumably from grilling the sausages. Oh, and the prices were obscene - 10 Euros for a sausage and a few chips. Oh, and even though I was paying 10 Euros for sausage and chips - I couldn't have mustard with that, even though the guy in front of me was having mustard on his hotdog. Mustard - apparently - was only for hotdogs. Riiiight. Then, there wasn't anywhere to sit - since the few chairs were taken up. There is a bar and seating outside in the midst of the underneath of a tribune (not very pleasant) - but at night, it was much too cold to sit there. Can't imagine it was much warmer during the day, since it didn't get any sun.
As for showers, 2/4 were out, and there was a massive queue for those too - in the middle of the day. There was hot water, although the shower room itself was freezing because all the windows were open.
Good things are hourly hard-copy updates on positions, although they ran out. There were also two multi-socket extension cables, which you could use to recharge your 'phone. However, they too were permanently full - seemingly, in part, due to staff using them.
The best part though, was on Saturday during the lengthy period of safety laps. An officious little man with a Napolean complex, decided he was going to make it his mission to stop people exiting down the main staircase - instead, forcing them onto the circuitous route via Tribune 18 (to be fair, this is marked as the exit - in French). He was flapping about like the proverbial blue-arsed, and made a couple of minions move one of the signs to the wall, and planted one of said minions on the staircase to police it.
Nobody noticed the signs, and everyone trying to exit tried to use the staircase. Poor ACO girly had to keep telling them to go via Tribune 18. Some people accepted, some huffed, and some had an almighty huff and puff - and a particular German chap almost had an embolism. The irony? The staircase was pretty much always empty. The other irony? People came in from the tribunes to go out down the staircase; they were told they couldn't - and had to go back out to the tribunes - either handing in the red pass they had just been given, or having to show their tickets again - just to exit. Apparently also - according to a major league huffer/puffer - some were getting into tribunes without tickets, through trying to pull a fast one and saying they were just exiting. And as the embolic Teuton pointed out, you therefore couldn't use the indoor toilets, and the nearest lot of outdoor ACO ones were closed
As the guy with the hotdog *and mustard* said to me: logic never was their [the French] strong point. Oh indeed, my little Danish chum, indeed. This was borne out on several occasions.
Will I renew next year though? Yes, because the building is the only place to be anything other than freezing, and it was nice to be able to have somewhere peaceful to sit (when you could) - when you had enough of the crowds. Plus, hot water - whatever the queue - versus none at Beausejour, was welcome.
Have to, however, give the ACO themselves their due. I emailed them whilst trying to book tickets, with a couple of issues. I didn't get any replies, so I posted on their Facebook page stating that it was a poor show that everything had sold out so quickly, that I couldn't book one of the tribunes due to an error message, that none of my emails had been replied to - and everything had now sold out. Next thing I know, I receive an email apologising and asking what tickets I wanted, followed by an invoice for the camping and tribune I asked for
I also got some amazing help, via email and post, from the ACO when I was enquiring about membership.
Finally: the Passion 24 camping is tarmacced, and has the feel of a supermarket car park - in case you were thinking about it. I had booked it this year (thought I'd give it a go); and after driving round grassed campsites, begging to be let in - I had to buy another camping pass for Beausejour. Thought that was a bit cheeky - making me pay all over again. But by that time, I couldn't care less - I was so glad to find somewhere.
[/War and Peace]
PS Pretty sure the booking site said Durand grandstand (17) didn't have view of a screen (or was that 18?) - but it did; and a great one at that
Edited by spanishchocolate on Thursday 16th June 22:17
spanishchocolate said:
What were these wristbands? Saw people with them, but never saw them given out (and I didn't get one)
We are, in the main, talking about the ACO enclosure by the Dunlop bridge on the inside of the circuit. Private viewing area, nice people to greet you, food, wine, TVs etc. You got the wristbands entering here. A Chav free oasis of calm. 
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