Photo by Katherine M. Hill
Parents have been given an extroardinary opportunity that was previously unavailable under the Bush administration: obtaining Easter Egg Roll tickets online. Parents of years past have been forced to line up outside downtown to secure tickets, limiting attendance to local families able to miss work.
The new ticketing policy forces new questions to arise: will tickets be scalped for high prices? Will out of towners get tickets but fail to show? And that's where I come in, townies and tourists! Tickets are on sale today (probably right now—the time was undisclosed at press time) and I want you to know how easy it is get get to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
But before we continue I need you to understand one thing. You. Can. Not. Drive. to the White. House. Though our new President's administration is savvy to new media, the security-based policies yore remain: you can not drive to the front door, or in this case, the South Lawn, of the White House. Not even on April 13, 2009 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Here are some tips:
- Take Metro
- Allow at least one hour to get there
- Account for little legs, and later, tired legs, on the pedestrian leg of your journey
- The nearest Smart Bike station is Metro Center
The White House advises Metro Center (Red, Orange, and Blue Line) or Farragut West, Federal Triangle, and McPherson Square, all sharing the blue and orange lines. It's a walk to any of these stops, but it's doable provided all in the party are in good health. The walking distance from Metro Center, which WMATA reccommends and is marginally closer, are as follows:
Walking from METRO CENTER METRO STATION to PENNSYLVANIA AVE NW
- Exit station using 13TH ST NW & G ST NW exit
- Walk approx. 2 blocks W on G St NW.
- Turn right on 15th St NW.
- Walk a short distance N on 15th St NW.
- Turn left on Pennsylvania Ave NW.
- Walk approx. 1 block W on Pennsylvania Ave NW.
Once you have the tickets, all you need to do now, is show up!
WMATA
Smart Bike locations
2009 White House Easter Egg Roll
White House Tours and Events
White House Opens Up Easter Egg Roll Ticketing, DCist
White House Moves Easter Egg Roll Tickets Online, Washington City Paper
Easter Egg Roll ticket distribution going online, USA Today
Comments
People will definitely be interested in the event. They should bookmark this page on how to get to the WH for all future reference, too.
That's really helpful!
The system has many issues, most importantly, when users eventually get a turn they are given a ten minute window to buy their tickets, but the servers are often too bogged down to complete the process in ten minutes.
what link is available to get the tickets?
I've been trying to get tickets for the White House easter egg roll for the past HOUR AND A HALF. the website keeps timing out. I got all the way to freaking end and IT FREAKING TIMED OUT. I'd rather have stood in line.
What a disaster. I've been trying to get tickets for 1.5 hours and the system keeps crashing. I'm sure this new scheme will only aid the well-to-do (with superfast computers) just like the Administration's Wall Street bailout plan.
I have been trying to get tickets for 1 1/2 hours and still no luck. I briefly thought i was getting some I put in the quantity I wanted and the search came back saying "No tickets are available" I changed the time i wanted to go from 9:45 to 8am and did the search again, now the web site says "tickets aren't available for any of the times... Check back later".
It's sort of frustrating, to say the least, but I will keep trying.
It's technology's dirty little secret, the web can't handle this kind of stuff, just not gonna happen. Instead of thousands of parents waiting in line, now you have millions of parents, scalpers, scammers, jerks clicking to get the tickets. The website will self-destruct, you won't know whats happening, and then they will claim "We didn't anticipate the volume of people trying to get tickets online" for the crash.
The first thing that the White House tech people should have asked the vendor was to demonstrate that they could handle the volume. I knew that this would happen.
I enjoy and appreciate your traveling advice, but I also love the accompanying graphics!
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