#but yea here's my unnecessarily long post about global packages

[kimcheolwoon]

sorry if this is annoying/u already answered this but how did you go about getting tickets?

18 days…it’s taken me 18 days to answer this because I am a literal menace and yeah health blah blah blah…but whenever i actually did find the time and energy to sit down and answer this i would get distracted and poof! there it goes…

BUT ANYWAY you’ve probably already like figured everything out because if you’re anything like me, you probably researched relentlessly and asked around and figured out that hey some info isn’t hard to find if you look in the right places with the right words and blah blah i talk too much

ANYWAY ANYWAY i got ticket to SW 2017 special edition in tokyo dome through the SM Global Package (an aggreagate of their current packages are found on their travel website here *make sure to create an account!!!!* and they also have a twitter which sends out updates about tours and packages that will open). I am going to tell you right here and right now and forever DEPENDING ON THE TYPE OF PACKAGE YOU GET/WANT, THIS THING IS NOT CHEAP. IT WILL BREAK YOUR BANK IF YOU DO NOT PROPERLY PLAN/BUDGET. With that said, my package was a total of $979 x 2 because I bought a twin package (which i will talk more about later. wow i am on a roll with words today ^^), but i have seen packages for some tours that are as low as $250 and as high as $1010 (but there is a reason for this huge disparity that i’ve noticed and will comment on later). However, the price for each package includes hotel booking, transportation to and from the venue, and meals. it DOES NOT cover things your flight ticket!! I’m from the US of A. I want you guys to know that after everything…i ended up spending nearly $3k on this trip. (Now $2k was for the package and the flight ticket…but the extra $1k was me splurging on my unworthy friends and buying all the things i needed while in Japan like binoculars and food and souvenirs for myself because fuck i’m in SHINee land!)

Okay so #1 is PACKAGES. i bet you’re like wtf????? I’m gonna use Taemin’s Off Sick GP as an example. 

Every single hmmm is it row or column??? ROW…every single row that you see is a package. These packages, at least for Korean concerts, are grouped by type (deluxe, superior, or economy) and by the number of people attending (single or twin). The single or twin option is actually more for your hotel room booking than anything else. Which is why Twin packages are cheaper by person than singles. They are also divided by “Course”. This is what that means:

Course A and B are always the exact same except for the concert date. (which is why i didn’t include it in the top picture). So essentially for packages, you show up the day before, check in to your hotel, get your nice shi*t, sleep, wake up, eat breakfast if you want (it’s freeee), and then meet up to travel to the concert, go crazy, go back to your hotel, sleep, and if you’re lucky to get a C course, do it all again the next day whoop! The number of courses depend on how many concert dates there are. SM usually always only starts out with the standard two day concert, and then LATER as if it’s some big surprise…will add another day or two. If they do add another day or two and you already purchased a course C GP, no you cannot just have them add the extra dates. You would literally have to buy another GP. DO NOT DO THAT. At that point you’re already in Korea and there’s always people selling extra tickets at the venue the day of a concert or whatever. Just buy a ticket from a local. 

Every GP buyer gets this cool benefit where they get to pre-order goods and idk about yall but i saw those queue lines at TD…i walked those queue lines at TD…i vowed that i would never ever stand in a queue line like that ever. I had friends who went hella early and STILL spent three hours queuing for goods…ONLY FOR THEM TO RUN OUT!!! It’s insaaaane. So yknow what you guys should do? Thank your GO peeps profusely if they ever had to stand in a queue to get goods for you. These things are no joke. 

Deluxe package buyers get the most for their money i swear. When you buy deluxe you stay in the nicest fucking hotel omfg i looked it up and everything. It’s almost always decked out in like pillows and covers and stuff of the artist you’re going to see and you get to take that stuff HOME along with all the other free stuff (i keep refraining myself from saying sh*t because this stuff is not sh*t) that SM gives you. Deluxe peeps also get a free tour of the co-ex atrium where they will literally SHUT DOWN THE ENTIRE STORE just for you guys and they will jam your artist loud through the speakers and monitors land it’s just so so nice. AND they give you a free meal voucher to a nice ass restaurant and/or you can join in the meal that they set up for the deluxe package holders which is ofc hella fricking nice. So I had a lot of people tell me before that getting the GP was not worth your money blah blah and i say one thing YES IT IS YES IT IS YES IT IS! If you wanna go for it because you are afraid of being in a foreign country by yourself, then buy it. If you wanna go for it because you’re like me and cannot get around or book a hotel (under-aged) to save your life, then buy it. If you wanna buy it for all the free stuff and cool activities, then BUY IT. 

Uhm, so disparities between Korean and Japanese concerts. Since SM does not own Japan like they do Korea, things are a lot less limited. For instance, where Korean concert packages will almost never have less than 12 separate packages, Japanese concert packages only have six or less. This is because in Japan SM doesn’t make the distinctions between deluxe, superior, or economy. Everyone stays in the same hotel. Everyone gets the exact same free goods. No one goes on an elaborate tour or eats at an elaborate restaurant. You’re all on the same playing field. The only price difference you’re paying for is course type and twin/single. 

Now now now listen, let me tell you this now…getting a GP for a Korean concert is…how do i say….FUCKING HARD. So before trying for SW 2017, i thought i would mock try for Taemin’s Off Sick concert (the first one) I was on the moment it opened…and there was only 4/12 slots left. His GP sold out in less than three minutes! I had a friend who tried for SWC V last year and literally got KICKED OFF THE PAGE because there was so much traffic. It is gruesome I’ll have you know. But getting a Japanese package is soooo much easier…i wonder why???? No i don’t. It’s because when you’re trying for a Korean concert, you are also competing with Japanese fans for the exact same spots. And there are a lot of them, and chances have it they are way more experienced at this game than you are. So, i’ve had a lot of people tell me that when they’ve went for a Korean concert GP, most of the other participants were Japanese…like 90% of them are Japanese. Which is really not surprising at all considering how almost all SM artists promote in Japan. So my advice for you there is GOOD LUCK MY CHILD cause you’re gonna need it. 

ah this is long. okay last thing (i think, i hope). Japanese GPs are usually more (read: waaay more) expensive than Korean concerts becaaauuuussseee so far, the only GPs SM has done in Japan have been for dome tours. So this is Tokyo Dome, Kyocera Dome and like obviously these are legendary stages that usually bring a different level of concert experience. So i get it. Like yeah hike up those prices! Also, we stayed in the Shinjuku Washington Hotel and idk if yall ever looked into it or anything but 1) it was hella nice and located near a business district in Japan and 2) apparently it was for rich people. So i really enjoyed my time in Japan and i do not regret dropping nearly $1000 to see my favorite concert in Tokyo Dome. And I had such an amazing time in Japan, I can’t possibly regret anything because getting the GP allowed for me to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity. Also our tour guide was the absolute cutest i think i fell in love with her every time she spoke. And i even got into an elevator with her and she talked to me about Jonghyun so i was literally almost dying on the floor because too to too much. Her name was Lily, Such a sweet name for a lovely person. (she was also the tour guide for Jonghyun’s The Letter Agits during one of the weeks and she saw my tote bag i had from his concert and that’s how the convo started and just *dies*)

Okay i think I covered everything (and more)…i refuse to read back through this long thing because aaaahhh i wrote a lot i’m sorry but i hope this compensates for being fuck ass late. (I cuss too much i’m sorry)