Online Movie Ticketing Comes to PEI

Prince Edward Island continues to (slowly) join the modern world.  Empire Theatres, which operates one theatre in Charlottetown and one in Summerside, has introduced online ticketing.

City Cinema, Charlottetown's independent movie theatre, has offered an online ticketing service for quite a while.  (They charge 50 cents per ticket.)  However, this blog post refers to the island's mainstream movie theatres.

I decided to try out the service last night when I went to see Surrogates (good movie by the way).  I browsed to the movie showtimes for Charlottetown and clicked on the time I wanted to see the movie.  I was then prompted for my email address and payment information.

A six-digit booking reference number was then displayed on the screen and emailed to me.  I brought the printout to the theatre with me just in case.  When I arrived at the theatre, I went straight to an automated box office machine and clicked, "Pick Up Tickets."  I input the six-digit booking reference number and my ticket spit out almost instantly.

Verdict?  I really like the service.  It was much faster than waiting forever for the automated box office machine to approve my transaction or in a line at the ticket counter.  Best part?  The service is completely free.  Empire Theatres does not add a service fee at all.

Here's the link for those of you wanting to purchase movie tickets in Charlottetown: http://www.empiretheatres.com/theatre/showtimes/61

Wednesday is Raise-A-Reader Day

Wednesday is Raise-A-Reader Day here on Prince Edward Island.  Newspaper hawkers will be out across the island.  The money will go to the PEI Literacy Alliance, which focuses on literacy outreach and education.

So, those of you on PEI have a good reason to buy an actual newspaper tomorrow.  I'm sure many of you are like me and have transitioned to digital news but let's support a good cause tomorrow.

You can read more about Raise-A-Reader Day at The Guardian's website.