u/javaheidi

I will be traveling to Finland next March for a sporting event in Tampere. From the airport I can take a bus or train North. Seems easy enough. Quick transfer after one stop on the train or direct from the airport by bus. I generally prefer trains because I've experienced a big traffic jam in a bus. Not fun. (Honestly though, last summer there were some problems with Eurostar being sabotaged, so nothing is perfect).

All of that seems easy enough. It's the return that will be a little more complicated. I plan to spend 2 days in Helsinki before flying home. I believe I'd want to stay somewhere pretty central. Close to cafes and restaurants. Maybe a church tour or something (I'll be tired). Possibly one of those cruises to Estonia (in March??)

My question is about getting from the train to the hotel and back from the train to the airport and how not to overly complicate things by staying somewhere inconvenient for transferring, but still offering an easy location for relaxing.

I'm not necessarily looking for hotel advice (no particular budget so if you have somewhere wonderful in March, lay it on me) and I don't mind using Uber/cabs

I just don't want to feel stressed about missed trains and planes, but I also want to be able to just walk outside and find enjoyable activities.

So I gueds mainly I'd like to know how difficult these transfers will be, and in light of all of my preferences, is there advice about where to stay? Any input would be greatly appreciated! ❤️❤️

I've had an email exchange with the rep at the Skating Finland organization. It makes s little more sense to me now.

They are very worried about not being able to fill the arena. The local interest is low and they want to change that by making indivifual tickets available. And they believe it will not be heavily attended by international skating fans.

The all-event tickets are extremely discounted, and again they are concerned about covering costs. (Just a reminder, the Boston all event ticket was $2,800. I didn't attend Prague to do I don't have s comparison, but these are $1,500)

Also she says the ISU is very involved in all of the decisions, so it's not that they are trying to mess with us it's just working out that way. There have been multiple changes made that have made it hard for them to map out the seating. They don't want people to buy a seat that won't be available at the time of the event.

I guess we need to give them some grace.

The ticket pre-sale for all event tickets happened this morning. I followed the link in advance and clicked into the sale at 11am (Finnish time) only to find that there were only around 20 seats left, all together, and all in the last few rows of the corner in the "premium" section. I've never seen tickets go so fast like this before, so I emailed them.

Here is their reply

"There was indeed very high demand today. As the number of All-event tickets is limited, unfortunately not everyone interested may be able to purchase one."

Limited to how many? Are they not interested in having serious fans attend?? There's no way I'm going to fly halfway around the world after having to piece together a package, which would not include practice access.

The pre-sale was only for all event tickets, so I'm confused about why they would bother with a pre-sale if they were only releasing a limited number and are possibly releasing more later.

"We will also release a limited number of additional tickets during the general sale on Wednesday (although fewer than were available today)."

I've refreshed that page many times, there are no additional all event tickets available in the pre-sale. I'm very confused about what's going on. Are they holding back additional all-event tickets for the general sale? That would be crazy. Why bother with a pre-sale then?

"We have also reserved excellent seats in both the Premium and Curve categories for Day tickets, so if you are unable to secure your preferred All-event ticket, Day tickets will still be a very good option in terms of seating."

I'm I missing something?

(Edit to correct spelling)