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dmarleyI'm still working on the detailed daily reports, but here's the overview:
Overall, it was a very good con, if rather different for me than in previous years. For one thing, my buds and I almost always spend every night in the open gaming room roleplaying, and this year that simply didn't happen, which was a first. We even had our games planned and so on, but we were all running in so many different directions that we never connected. Plus, Melissa was leaving the hotel every night to be with the baby, Brian was running demos for Looney Labs, and I was hanging out with my fellow slashers, so our prime gaming time was usually missing at least two or three players. Plus, we seemed to be going to a different convention than the folks in our other room. They were out partying most nights, while our room was usually snoring by midnight. At least we were going to two *fun* conventions. :)
I went through registration on Thursday afternoon, and got through in what I felt was a very reasonable time. I still think the registration system sucks, because the members are sorted by membership number and not by name, and if you don't have the card with your membership number you have to have it looked up. But they had things organized very well, at least on Thursday, and were getting people their numbers pretty efficiently. Plus, most people were smart enough to have their cards with them to begin with. We'd left ours in the car, but it wasn't worth trucking all the way back to the car park to save fifteen minutes in line.
Before the con, there were some doubts about whether or not there would be enough memberships left to sell at the door. They were still selling them, but the size of the crowds made me think that they oversold, and later I heard an unconfirmed rumor that they'd oversold by about 3,000 memberships--28,000 instead of 25,000. I believe it. The habitrail from the Hyatt to the food court was constantly packed, and getting from the lobby to the down escalator was a challenge.
I have to say, though, that for the most part the organizers did a good job this year, at least in the parts of the con I was involved with. The panels mostly took place in rooms of sufficient size (although John Rhys-Davies panel on Friday was in a severely undersized room, which is why I missed his only appearance at the con), and the staff were pretty good at organizing lines and emptying rooms to make space for the folks waiting. Not to mention that the guests actually showed up for their panels, which is always a plus.
There was one big glitch, though, and that was the cancellation of the entire Video track. They had guests and panels lined up, but when the participants arrived the track had vanished. I had an old college pal who was slated to show his just-finished movie Zero Prospect--which had taken him nearly two years to complete--and suddenly he was there with nothing to do and no venue for the flick, which sucked.
One thing they did this year, which they might have done last year but I wasn't there to know, was have a policeman out on the street between the Hyatt and the Marriott holding traffic so fans could cross directly over. Year before last, they tried to make everyone walk up the street to the light, but that was only effective as long as people were standing there basically yelling at everyone constantly. Which, come to think of it, was the technique the hotel security used in the Hyatt lobbies to make the traffic actually move ("No circles, no circles, keep moving, keep moving...."). I have to say that it worked, because it was, in fact, possible to move from one spot in the lobby to another.
We stayed in the Marriott this year, and it was much, much nicer than the Hyatt. For one thing, the Marriott isn't a gigantic concrete sponge. For another, they have an elevator system that more or less works. There are three separate banks of elevators, each of which serves a specific range of floors. If one is, therefore, staying on the 45th floor, one doesn't have to stop at every floor between 1 and 45, just at every floor between 31 and 45. I heard a lot of people bitching about the elevator waits on Monday morning, but quite frankly I was impressed that an elevator with space for us and our luggage did, in fact, arrive within 10-15 minutes. Try that at Chattacon.
The big shock of the weekend was the parking bill. There was a lot across the street with parking for $10/day, but it was an open lot and we were (justifiably, as it turns out) uneasy about the security. So, we popped for the indoor lot at SunTrust for $15/day, and our final bill for parking was $67. Next year, we're driving the car to my sister's and taking Marta.
So, on the whole, I'd rate this year's DragonCon a good 4 out of 5 for organization and fun. We've got our memberships for next year, too. :)
Overall, it was a very good con, if rather different for me than in previous years. For one thing, my buds and I almost always spend every night in the open gaming room roleplaying, and this year that simply didn't happen, which was a first. We even had our games planned and so on, but we were all running in so many different directions that we never connected. Plus, Melissa was leaving the hotel every night to be with the baby, Brian was running demos for Looney Labs, and I was hanging out with my fellow slashers, so our prime gaming time was usually missing at least two or three players. Plus, we seemed to be going to a different convention than the folks in our other room. They were out partying most nights, while our room was usually snoring by midnight. At least we were going to two *fun* conventions. :)
I went through registration on Thursday afternoon, and got through in what I felt was a very reasonable time. I still think the registration system sucks, because the members are sorted by membership number and not by name, and if you don't have the card with your membership number you have to have it looked up. But they had things organized very well, at least on Thursday, and were getting people their numbers pretty efficiently. Plus, most people were smart enough to have their cards with them to begin with. We'd left ours in the car, but it wasn't worth trucking all the way back to the car park to save fifteen minutes in line.
Before the con, there were some doubts about whether or not there would be enough memberships left to sell at the door. They were still selling them, but the size of the crowds made me think that they oversold, and later I heard an unconfirmed rumor that they'd oversold by about 3,000 memberships--28,000 instead of 25,000. I believe it. The habitrail from the Hyatt to the food court was constantly packed, and getting from the lobby to the down escalator was a challenge.
I have to say, though, that for the most part the organizers did a good job this year, at least in the parts of the con I was involved with. The panels mostly took place in rooms of sufficient size (although John Rhys-Davies panel on Friday was in a severely undersized room, which is why I missed his only appearance at the con), and the staff were pretty good at organizing lines and emptying rooms to make space for the folks waiting. Not to mention that the guests actually showed up for their panels, which is always a plus.
There was one big glitch, though, and that was the cancellation of the entire Video track. They had guests and panels lined up, but when the participants arrived the track had vanished. I had an old college pal who was slated to show his just-finished movie Zero Prospect--which had taken him nearly two years to complete--and suddenly he was there with nothing to do and no venue for the flick, which sucked.
One thing they did this year, which they might have done last year but I wasn't there to know, was have a policeman out on the street between the Hyatt and the Marriott holding traffic so fans could cross directly over. Year before last, they tried to make everyone walk up the street to the light, but that was only effective as long as people were standing there basically yelling at everyone constantly. Which, come to think of it, was the technique the hotel security used in the Hyatt lobbies to make the traffic actually move ("No circles, no circles, keep moving, keep moving...."). I have to say that it worked, because it was, in fact, possible to move from one spot in the lobby to another.
We stayed in the Marriott this year, and it was much, much nicer than the Hyatt. For one thing, the Marriott isn't a gigantic concrete sponge. For another, they have an elevator system that more or less works. There are three separate banks of elevators, each of which serves a specific range of floors. If one is, therefore, staying on the 45th floor, one doesn't have to stop at every floor between 1 and 45, just at every floor between 31 and 45. I heard a lot of people bitching about the elevator waits on Monday morning, but quite frankly I was impressed that an elevator with space for us and our luggage did, in fact, arrive within 10-15 minutes. Try that at Chattacon.
The big shock of the weekend was the parking bill. There was a lot across the street with parking for $10/day, but it was an open lot and we were (justifiably, as it turns out) uneasy about the security. So, we popped for the indoor lot at SunTrust for $15/day, and our final bill for parking was $67. Next year, we're driving the car to my sister's and taking Marta.
So, on the whole, I'd rate this year's DragonCon a good 4 out of 5 for organization and fun. We've got our memberships for next year, too. :)