Time to jockey for the White House Easter Egg Roll
Can it really be time to jostle madly queue up politely for the White House Easter Egg Roll again?
Why, yes. Now through Feb. 28, you can sign up for the lottery to get free tickets for the April 5 event.
Things look a little different from last year's signup, when tickets were offered for one day online.
Do you remember what happened on this blog that day? Hundreds of comments poured in from people who were desperately, desperately trying to get Easter Egg Roll tickets. They refreshed the White House site all day, but many came up empty-handed in the end.
This time, you register ahead of time at a different site -- recreation.gov. Here are the rules for 2010 from the official White House site:
"Entries for the 2010 White House Easter Egg Roll Online Lottery will be accepted from Thursday, February 25 through Sunday, February 28. One entry per person may be submitted at anytime during the lottery period. All entries will have an equal chance of being selected.
"The lottery will be run on March 1. Lottery results will be available starting Thursday, March 4, 2010 at recreation.gov."
Sounds much more civilized. If you're trying to go this year, I'd love to hear about how your application process goes.
*Tip of the hat to @CharmCityMa on Twitter, whose tweet alerted me to this news.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Comments
My two grandsons would LOVE to come to this event! Please, please, please let it happen for them!!!!
Posted by: Carolyn Westberg | February 25, 2010 3:32 PM
Oh Wow! That time again already!?!? Yay! A sign of spring for sure. I certainly do remember the response you got on here last year...I was one of the unlucky ones refreshing over and over and over again, got as far as requesting a time and # of tix and just kept getting bumped out. I do hope this lottery system is more user friendly. I just successfully submitted my lottery application (takes less than 4 min. to register and apply...SO EASY!) so now I'll see what happens when the results are announced on March 4th! Good luck everyone! Thanks Kate for the heads up about this!
Posted by: Laura | February 25, 2010 4:56 PM
i was SUPER lucky last year and actually got tickets. It was not easy though! This year has been much easier. Honestly, I'm not sure if I want to go again because last year, the crowds were HORRIBLE. I went before Obama changed it and it was so much better. We'll see about this year though!
Posted by: Safire | February 25, 2010 8:25 PM
I too was able to obtain tickets last year. My parents took my son and his friend to DC and had a wonderful time. My parents told me that there were lots of people, but it was a once in a life time experience for the children. I hope I am able to obtain tickets again this year. :)
Posted by: Tina | February 28, 2010 2:35 PM
Woo hoo! Just logged on to recreation.gov and found out I was a lucky lottery winner -- we got tickets for our first choice time slot. Hope the rest of you also were successful. I camped out for the egg roll several times in previous years (and did not mind doing it) but never dreamed I'd be lucky enough to get tickets this year through the lottery. Now that they've upped the age to 12 and under my daughters are still eligible. We can't wait!
Posted by: Susan | March 4, 2010 8:46 AM
I was lucky enough to win tickets also. We are excited since this will be our first trip to the easter edd roll. I hope it is worth the 8 hour drive.
Posted by: Georgia | March 4, 2010 11:15 AM
Darn, we didn't make the cut for this year's lottery, but so glad to hear others did! Hope everyone has a wonderful time (and good weather)!!
Posted by: CharmCItyMa | March 4, 2010 1:19 PM
Bummer...no success for us this year either. For those of you who are the lucky ones - have a great time! We'll try again next year (I do miss the old days where we could camp out for them(met lots of fun, freezing cold people!) - but that's when I would take my nieces. Now that I have my own kids, I'd like them to experience it!).
Posted by: Laura | March 4, 2010 5:01 PM
Bummer! Just got my e-mail:
Thank you for applying to the 2010 White House Easter Egg Roll. We are sorry to inform you that you were not selected in the 2010 White House Easter Egg Roll on-line ticket lottery.
Posted by: CKisMom | March 4, 2010 6:37 PM
I am SOOOO happy...We got tickets. My boys and my niece are going to be sooo excited. We are driving 16 HOURS to go to it so hopefully it will be fun! We are not telling them till we get there so it should be a GREAT surprise! Question for any of you that have previously gone...Can you take pictures with the president or get his autograph or anything (the kids not the adults, lol)??? Thanks!
Posted by: Amy | March 11, 2010 2:46 PM
Set my alarm for 11:55 am on Feb. 25th, logged onto www.recreation.com and entered lottery at exactly 12:01 am. Got notification on March 4th that I had won 4 tickets. Looking forwad to taking my granddaughter and niece to this event.
Posted by: Carolyn | March 13, 2010 6:50 PM
I wasn't able to obtain tickets this year. But that's okay, my son was able to go last year, annd that's an experience he will carry in his memories for the rest of his life. However, I do anticipate hearing whether or not I was approved for the tour of the White House this month. :)
Posted by: Tina | March 13, 2010 6:59 PM