CV Complaint Thread

Don?t get me wrong I loved CV! For the most part I enjoyed it and look forward to C6. This thread is for those like me that need to vent a little. Hopefully the mistake made this year will not be made again. Maybe I am the only one that feels this way.

1. What was up with the queue lines? I understand they didn?t want a mad dash for the merchandise but even if you didn?t want to go through the exhibit hall first, they still made you go through the line. I missed a panel the first day because they made me sit through the entire line just to find out it was only to get in the main exhibit hall. Every time I tried to get out of the line I was yelled at by security.
On Sunday I had to sign in early for pre costume judging. I had to fight with the security guard to let me go straight to the room on the first floor without going to through the entire queue line again! He kept saying that room is restricted! I ended up just ignoring him and went in anyways.

2. Hotel arrangement. I stayed in the Hilton Orlando which was a really nice hotel a mile from the convention center. The problem was, whoever plan CV decided a mile was close enough to walk ever day so no shuttle service. Most days I walked this route twice in a hot costume. That?s 4 miles a day not including the amount I walked at the convention center.

3. The mixer party was a failure. I was there 10-10:30 so maybe it was better earlier or later. On one side you had a dj with 2 kids dancing. Then on the other side everyone was crowded around a few fans fighting with lightsabers. Did anyone really enjoy this? No thought was put into this party and it showed.

There is more but this was a start. I do feel better after venting.

 

tl;dr versionSpeed dating sucked, *No sleep ruined my life. *I only made it to three panels. *I missed the experience hall.

Good thread, because CV was great, and I should be thankful that I was one of the few who saw the maker in person (along with Seth Green, etc.-great day I won't forget) but I definitely wasn't without some huge disappointments I regret, and I NEED this thread:

1.No sleep. I got there at 1 AM (had no sleep at home, nor on the bus), and couldn't bring myself to successfully fall asleep on the concrete outside. We got inside I still couldn't, I partially blame my friend for this one, constantly tapping me on the shoulder and making jokes and SFX (after the Clone Wars voice actor gave him a compliment on his SFX it was over folks, he made "blaster sounds" nonstop... :-S). I understand your as huge as fan as I but did you SERIOUSLY need to wake me up to point you found a picture of a Boba Fett t-shirt in the schedule pamphlet, or to rehash jokes from, "Something...Dark Side"?!

Reason I'm mad about that is because somewhere around 3:30 PM, my body just "crashed"-I could barely walk, my head burned, and I felt like passing out-and it felt like a nightmare being at CV to feel this way...I was so pissed.

2.The overlapping panels. I know this is our choice, but seriously guys...the overlapping times coupled with the time it takes to walk between each one made me only able to make it to three before 7 PM. That's right, I finally made it to my first Celebration and experienced THREE panels. >:-(

3.Speed dating was an awful thing. I know, I know-the words "dating" and "Star Wars" by default don't go in the same sentence, but I didn't expect it to be THAT bad. I'm not insulting the looks of the girls (whom were attractive), or the male to female ratio (which was equal believe it or not) but the event overall itself(and the biased host). I got "paired up" with several women 50 and over...yeah those were great "dates."

At the end of the day-I ended up with zero matches (was it calling Han Solo my fave char when I'm wearing a DV shirt or what?)-I should've used some common sense around the hype that sw.com gave to the event actually making sparks happen (there's no way people got engaged and married off of that thing). Getting a gf wasn't my ultimate goal at the convention, it's just that I thought it'd honestly be a good place to try (and succeed)...my bad won't ever waste time on it again.

3.I missed EVERYTHING after the Main Event. After the debacle of speed dating (which honestly left me feeling pretty down and demotivated) combined with the "crash" I had I was stuck sitting down and trying to recover for about two hours. I went to the Robot Chicken event, when I felt "better" and I didn't notice it was starting late AND running over schedule (thus I missed the One-Man Show I was extremely hyped to see)-it ended around 7:00 PM-when just about everything interesting was now closed (yes folks, I MISSED the Experience Hall and autographs god-REMOVED, DAMNIT! I'm hyper pissed about that).

4.I lost track of all my friends there. I came with one pal, and met four others whom I had previously only knew from Facebook there, and we were all together....until the Main Event ended. It was a shame because, and don't tell anyone who runs CV...

(He gave me someone's four-day pass who had declined to attend anymore-but said he wanted it back after the Lucas event)

I couldn't find him in the crazed frenzy that happened after exiting the Lucas event, and really spent most of my time (before crashing) looking for him which didn't come to fruition until near closing time. The guilt of it all and not knowing how soon his friend needed it back KILLED things for me (which ended up being not soon, as he was coming back Sunday). :-(

I regret splitting from my friend (whom I knew in real-life) who had the time of his life, the time I was supposed to have at CV.

5.People who would "whoo" at non-exciting moments and yell, "IT'S A TRAP!" constantly in the line. It's the greatest

 

with what?! don't leave me hangin, brah.

 

My post got accidentally posted early, haha..I was editing it meanwhile.

Back to the positive side of CV.

 

Sorry, but over the course of the entire 4 days I only went to 4 panels plus the auction. There's no way to cater to everyone's tastes, and frankly making it to 3 in a day is quite good.

 

Oh wow, I'd figure four days is quite a bit time to make it out to more...yeah I'm starting to feel better about it anyways.

The main ones I missed were the plot workshop, hour with Anthony Daniels, One Man Show, and Drawing Class. (which I know Anthony Daneils has been a common guest elsewhere, and I'll probably get future chances at everything else).

It's really all about making the Main Event, that makes me forget the downfall post 3 PM.

 

One Man Star Wars is cool, but it will be at every con from now until the end of time and you can probably find videos of most of it online, not a big deal if you missed it.

 

I think a lot of people put pressure on themselves to experience every ounce that CV had to offer and that just isn't realistically attainable. I had written out an itinerary before I left for Florida of all the things I wanted to see, and although it was a very good guide to have, I wasn't able to see everything I wanted and I have no regrets, including not getting to see the Main Event (I decided to take a shift at Official Pix at 9:30 Saturday morning).

I'd like to see more of people's complaints about CV itself and not so much of things that were out of their control (personal decisions, lack of sleep etc). From all accounts this was one of the more successful Celebrations to date so legitimate complaints can only help to make it that much better the next time around.

 

Oh sorry..yes, as in things run by the OCCC and CV? 10 dollars for some rice and sausage was pretty crazy-but they did balance it out by having places like McDonalds as food vendors , I had no problems with anything else-it'd just be talking about the OCCC building itself and not Celebration.

This was my first one (and first convention too)-next time I'll know to make an actual, realistic schedule (and tell my friend to lay off the TIE Fighter impressions all day/night). Missing that experience hall is what got me the most (but on the bright side, I probably would've complained about not being able to afford certain stuff-heard the Force FX's were still $100 and up..back to Ebay for those. )

 

3 panels in one day is excellent actually.

I had VIP access and that would still be excellent by my standards, even without having to wait in a single line for any of those.

The first day, I didn't go to a single panel, haha. I did have to wait in the horrible art show line, which was the fault of having one register like a bunch of total morons. Good call guys! lol. I felt pretty good about the first day, though, because I had the Dave Filoni meet and greet, which was really fun, then after that more exhibit hall stuff, got a picture with and autography from Gary Kurtz, and Ashley Eckstein, so basically I got out of the way most of my shopping and a few autographs that first day. It was fun and relaxed, wasn't trying to make a bunch of panels.

After that I got to see the panels I wanted to for the most part, you always miss some, but to be honest this is why even one Celebration is simply not enough I don't care how energetic you are, what your VIP access is, or how many days you go. It's. Not. Enough. I've been to all 5 now, I don't think I went to hear from a few people until 2-4 celebrations into it, like I never even bothered hearing from Peter Mayhew or Kenny Baker or the model makers or things like that until Celebration IV and V, because there were always prequel panels I would have rather been at or just things in general I thought sounded more interesting. And this time we had a meet and greet with Mayhew that was fantastic, but I used CIV to go to a lot of the stuff I had always missed or not cared about as much before, which is probably why CIV wasn't as exciting for me as the first three but it was a good opportunity to catch up.

You have a better time if you don't try to fit EVERYTHING in, just enjoy yourself and take it all in, go to the things you can, but don't rush or pressure yourself at these things. It's so much better to enjoy it as it comes. I always used to pick at least one must-attend event per day, though, that was nice because as long as I did that, then everything else was like a bonus.

 

Can't thank you guys enough yet again, I kind of regret complaining so much now-had no idea how well off making three panels was.

I'll probably look around for some good pictures of the art I missed.

 

My only gripe was how the lines were handled at the art show for the first two days. Just straight up massive chaos.

I actually had a better time with the artists that had their own booths outside of the show and you could go up, get what you wanted, and pay for it directly to them. Loved it.

I think I probably would have bought more artwork in the show, but it was too much of a hassle.

 

How much did CV have to do with the shuttle service? I always had the impression it was the convention center that arranged all that.
The mixer was interesting, I'll say that. I came to CV by myself, and met some good people at the mixer. It was easy enough to strike up a "leave it to star wars fans to have a lightsaber battle instead of dance" conversation. I don't know how late you stayed there, but people eventually started dancing, and it was fun.

I really liked how they had overlapping panels. I think Charles Ross is amazing, but I've seen the One Man Star Wars Trilogy three times now, so I didn't need to see it at CV. I was on the main hall or maybe at other panels during that. I enjoyed how they had some repeat panels (I missed TFU II #1 because of Mark Hamill, so I saw the repeat the next day). I was telling people that while it's upsetting to have some conflicts, it shows how much amazing programming is going on. It helps to give each fan a unique experience. Something I was upset about was how I was waiting in line for Mark Hamill instead of seeing Masters Of The Empire, even though the events themselves didn't actually conflict. On the bright side, I met great people in that line, and will now give more thought to Jedi Knight/Master badge for C6.

I wasn't really a fan of convention/last tour to endor exclusives being sold out way early. I'm not upset I didn't get a last tour shirt, but I probably would have impulse bought one if they were available when I went through. I got my O Lando shirt, though, so I'm happy.

This was my first Celebration, so everything was new and magical to me. All of my actual complaints are things that were entirely within my control (like staying in a hotel so far away), but I'll be able to fix next time.

 

Only one problem.... no shuttles during midday

 

This was my first Celebration, and overall it was awesome! I had to get used to the idea that I would not be able to see every panel that I had on my to do list. I wished more panels would have been repeated at a different time/day (as there were panels that were repeated). I really wanted to catch some of the costuming panels. As a former convention service manager, I understand there will always be some glitches but the key is to solve these problems quickly as they present themselves.

I do have to complain about the hotel shuttle service. Stopping it all together between 11:30am - 5pm, was not helpful. They should have made a run once an hour during this time frame. I bought a pass for the I-Ride trolley, which helped...but it was standing room only and I probably had to wait 30 minutes in the sun to catch it. The hotel shuttle driver blew past my hotel's stop one morning. If I didn't have the trolley pass, I would have been stuck waiting another 20 minutes in the Florida humidity.

My other complaint was the autograph lines. I had tickets with numbers in the 100's and 400's, but if the line was closed it really didn't matter what number you had. I tried three times on three different days to meet Ray Park. I finally gave up and paid $5 to have him sign my item without meeting him. There should have been a better schedule as to when each actor would actually be signing. Standing in line for two hours, missing panels and the time that could have been used walking through the hall, only to find out that the actor has not even arrived yet was disappointing to say the least. If we are paying money for an autograph, then the actors should be present.

Lastly, was the movie concessions stand. CV was to celebrate ESB. Did they not think lots of people would attend the showing of this movie? The concession stand ran out of just about everything early on. The mini popcorn maker probably produced the equivalent of a bag of microwaved popcorn every 5 minutes or so. It was a disaster.

I am now waiting for the announcement of Celebration VI! If it is on the East Coast, I will be there.

 

Congestion:

Whoever plans these conventions really needs to work on the floor plan a little better. 'Grid lock' was not uncommon.

Upside: I got to talk to lots of great people in line, including a hilarious Palpatine who was hitting on my friend.


Exclusives:

I was in the Hyperspace line very early every morning with people wanting to get the oversized Boba Fett. When they would finally let us on the main floor, the vendors had already bought them all up and were selling them for 3 times the asking price.
I know this isn't very 'capitalist' of me, but I think they should restrict vendors from buying exclusive items so that attendees can get a fair shot at them. I wasn't concerned about it, but I'm feeling angry on behalf of hard core collectors.

Upside: The Hasbro people were very friendly and gave me a giant awesome bag. Yay Hasbro, boo greedy independent vendors.


Volunteers:

There were a few really rude volunteers at the 4th floor panels. I could have done without that.

Upside: I found volunteers on the floor to be friendly.

 

Absolutely right, those vendors were the scum of the earth, but I suppose they were just doing anything for a buck. That was completely and utterly unacceptable.

That was my biggest complaint, actually, ANY exhibitor badge, ANY other badge besides Jedi Knight or Jedi Master should have been completely forbidden from buying anything before the 10 a.m. opening of that hall. It's not acceptable that I am a paying customer, highly paying, and have to wait behind someone who is an exhibitor and is *making money* from being at CV! It's business for them, pleasure for me, they need to wait. I shouldn't have to wait behind them as a VIP, it's ridiculous. That was poorly handled. I don't care if Acme is their own company, for instance, they are there at the pleasure of Lucasfilm, and they should follow whatever rules are set. So in the future, that needs to be one of them -- you are not to sell any art prints to anyone with an exhibitor badge before 10 a.m. Wait your turn.

And those dealers who bought the figures before everyone else should have had their booths closed and been kicked out. It was totally against the spirit of the saga.

 

Queue broken record: it's actually not completely this case. Yes those of us with exhibitor badges sometimes got the chance to pick up some of the exclusives early, but that was capped in many cases. For example, Hallmark only allowed 30 of their exclusive to be bought by exhibitors and crew early each morning, and then we actually had to wait in line behind a good chunk of regular pass and Jedi Knight/Master holders. On the last day, the ornament was actually sold out by 10:05am after the vendor allotment was exhausted at 9:15am (and technically that line wasn't supposed to start until 9:30). When something is exclusive to the point that less than 1-5% of badge holders can get them, people will miss out. While there are going to be some vendors who played the system, don't lump us all together when some of us also missed out on them.

 

I hate that we even have to have a thread like this, but since we do, I'll add my 2 cents:

There were not really any "must have" exclusives for me this time so I won't chime in on that (plus it's all been said already).

Where I saw the ball really dropped was the queuing process to get in to any room. The ONLY room I saw that had a sign to tell you where to go was the Digital Stage (except when that queue was used for Mark Hamill). We instead had to rely on the generally very rude and unfriendly blue-shirted staff to tell us where to get in line.

There was no reason for it to be that difficult. If a room holds 2000 people, and there is only 30 minutes between sessions, you can expect up to 2000 people to start lining up outside of the room ahead of time. Therefore you need to figure out where to put those people and get some signs up for it. Don't throw me attitude because I don't know where to line up and had to ask you. It's not my fault that you didn't tell me where to go. The schedule says "Chapin Theater" so that's where I go. Rudely yelling at people to go somewhere else to line up is uncalled for and I saw it every day

 

I never had any of those problems queueing up for panels. I just went there, asked the first person I saw where the queue was, and they directed me to where I need to go. Several times there was somebody there shouting where the queue was, and I heard several announcements and even got some tweets about locations of lines. Personally, I thought this was really well-organized, especially since they had someone at the end of the line to direct people. I will say that it was less organized on Friday, but on Saturday and Sunday it was very well-done. And the only time I ever felt that it was congested was when leaving panels.

 

Cutting you off that not all the exhibitors are making a profit. Volunteers for exhibitors, people running the tables for fan groups, and even those hard-working Belgian guys who brought all the cool props had exhibitor badges, and were not making any money whatsoever.

 

How about we make a informal rule for this thread?

Every time you post here with a complaint, you must then go over to the anti-complaint thread and talk about an aspect of CV that you DID like (here)

 

I waited in the line on the first day, I thought it was odd that there was a huge line to get into the merchandise section. But on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I simply walked to the right, went up the escalator, and walked right into the panels. It wasn't advertised that you could do this, and the escalators in the front were blocked, but the escalator to the side was wide open each day.

 

I'll agree with this. Lines for the art show well not well organized and the artist area needed more elbow room. Fortunately my artist wrote up the ticket reserving my print and told me I could pay and pick it up on another day which I did when the line was more reasonable on Saturday.

 

Good point. I still think they shouldn't get an early go of it, though, 10 a.m. for everyone but the VIPs. Nobody else should have been able to buy anything early.