Well, a cream tea and a formal afternoon tea are definitely different experiences -- the afternoon tea is really designed as a place to hang and socialize while eating fabulous foodstuffs and drinking tea, and not having anyone to socialize with kind of changes that dynamic. But I'll see how it goes -- one of my hotels does an afternoon tea that might be fine to do solo.

I ended up buying a ticket online, even though it was very expensive. I just didn't want to risk not getting to see it. The seat is very very good, so I'm trying to take the tack of "once in a lifetime event" and not think too much about the money. Because I just really have legendarily bad luck. It's a running joke among everyone here in town.