CV Complaint Thread

I was just responding to the threat of having it in Indy again! A city which apparently finds it appropriate to snow at the end of April.

LA again would be aight, but expensive. How about Kansas City? We could probably get convention rates at a fine John Q. Hammons hotel.

 

Ummmmm....could we hear New Jersey, anybody? (Purely a selfish, fiscal suggestion on my part!
Kim

 

KC has some of the best BBQ in the world and I know a lot of the good places. Transportation is a PITA though.

 

Almost no discounting at the Celebration store on Sunday.

More of a disappointment than a complaint, but I would have picked up a few more things if they had dropped the price a little. I checked throughout the afternoon Sunday and the only thing discounted was the Vader light up shirt which I wasn't interested in. At 4:30 pm, there were only a few people milling around the store and plenty of product left. I picked up a lot of extra things the Monday of CIV.

Another minor complaint would be Orlando in August. I felt like I was stewing if I was outside for longer than 15 minutes, except for Friday night. I thought Orlando was a great host city, but it should only be there if they do it during the October-April months.

 

Don't forget C4 wasn't in August! Orlando is a great place for a convention but if you ask anyone when is the worst month to go to Florida they would all say August. April would be a better time however April would not be a good time of year for Indy. Why choose they worst month of year to have it? I guess they got a good deal and figured we would go anywhere which they were right. Even having it over Star Wars weekend would be better. Not only was it hot and humid but it rained everyday!!!

I thought most things where spaced out pretty good. At C4 everything was REALLY spaced out. Noone saw each other. The only thing I thought that could use more space was the exhibit hall. Why did they need to cram all the vendors so close?

 

I think my only real complaint (that I can think of right now) is how fast they sold out of Last Tour to Endor shirts. I didn't get many shirts from this trip, but I wanted that one. Meh, I guess I had that made up to me by getting a free Attack of the Show shirt when I met Blair Herter.

 

Come to think of it, my phone did run out of minutes around the time I was at the Greyhound station, that might've influenced the trouble post 1:30 PM at CV. Big problem indeed (as it started that huge debacle of looking for my friends for four hours). No texting is on it neither.

I was thankful to have made it to CV being as "poor" as I am-not that I magically had "rich" resources when I got there. $10 prepaid minutes phone is $10 prepaid minutes phone. Next time I'm budgeting for the con a lot better-all $200 of what I had was spent on nothing that was at CV (and come to think of it, even though I missed autographs and the experience hall, I would've probably cut myself out of the money needed for a return bus ticket and taxi later that night.)

 

My complaints -

1) Not enough time to do everything I wanted. Can't be helped but next time I'm not going in costume 2 days in a row. Maybe.

2) Frakkin' lines to get in? The con was open, it was 10am and I still had to be cattleherded through a line? That is just ridiculous and people did miss panels and such.

3) Don't get me started on the security people. They were non-existent during the 501st photo shoot and provided no support. We almost had a child get his leg caught in the escalator.

 

I forgot all about that. Yeah, it was really pointless the hotel shuttle buses didn't run between 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM, except for Sunday.

 

I think they were playing to the majority here, and you can't really knock them there. I, like most people I think, didn't set foot outside of the OCCC between at least 8:30am and 6pm each day. They didn't *have* to provide free shuttles at all. I was very surprised they did since there is already the i-ride system.

 

Thats what i payed my 750 dollars for! sorry but true .. when i was ushered up to get Carries autograph I DID feel bad though! the line was big .. but as for the panels i chose to pay so that I didnt have to wait in line .. im not a wealthy guy just love STAR WARS an all in this trip from Scotland has cost thousands!! wont be doing holidays any time soon .. CIV perhaps! lol

 

I'll second your vote. I'd love to see the con here in NJ.

 

Thirds.

 

For Florida in August, but we were lucky. In some years there have been back-to-back hurricanes; I'm just one didn't cause this to get canceled or people to back out of it. There was no rain the night everyone was outside waiting on Lucas, no mosquitoes and I actually wasn't hot that night, but the heat was getting to me during the Hyperspace Hoopla.
I was inside the convention center during the whole time it was open so I only felt the heat in the mornings when arriving and walking around the building from the west parking lot to the front--couples, do you have to walk side-by-side on sidewalks, preventing people from passing you? I didn't know until the third day that I could have exited to the west parking lot without walking all the way around the building the same way.

 

The biggest gripe for me was the Art Show line. It was really bad by like 10:20, and i had headed there right after buying a poster tube, program, CV poster, and shopping bag at the store. As soon as I saw it, I adapted, though. I told most of the artists' that I wouldn't be paying for things today, and as most of the things I bought from them were commissions, they were fine with it. I didn't end up paying until Saturday and Sunday, but it all worked out. Still, the lines WERE horrible...anyone could see that by just looking at them! It was nice on Thursday when they moved the line outside the actual show area, so there was much more room to walk around. They actually had two cashiers on Suinday, which was awesome. Still, it needed to be organized far better.

I didn't go near the autograph hall the entire time (not my thing) so I can't say anything about that. I also didn't attend a single panel or event over four days, which was not my plan when I got there but I don't regret happening. The only ones I really regret missing are the writing panels on Friday and Saturday.

Also, the shuttles not running in the middle of the day were horrible if you tend to oversleep. I barely missed the last one on Sunday and had to call a cab. Saturday was even worse, and my roommates and I didn't even arrive at the con until 3 PM (luckily the two of them drove down, so we had a car). I made up for it every day by staying until the very end (I was one of the people being herded out of the Experience Hall at 5:30 on Sunday, and even then I hung out in the main hall and took pictures for another 45 minutes ).

I wasn't upset about the food prices at the con, as I had been expecting them.

Overall I spent 80% of my time in the Exhibit Hall/Art Show, and the rest went to R2-D2 Builders, 501st Legion, and Ralph McQuarrie Gallery. I didn't even end up going to the Fan Movie Theater. I never even set foot on the top floor.

I'd seen One Man Star Wars at CIV, so it wasn't a huge loss when I didn't end up going this time around. Too bad about the Costume Contest(s) though. I'd signed up for Speed Dating on Saturday, just for laughs. I didn't expect to make any kind of connection there. I didn't end going to that either. My reason? I was at the JC booth on Friday, and a friend of mine said he and another friend had passed two people they knew on Thursday, who were heading to Speed Dating. One of them stopped to talk to them, while the other went on. They were still talking when their friend came back and said they weren't going to Speed Dating. When asked why, they said "I saw them." Good enough for me!

 

Yea I totally researched speed-dating after CV and really saw how bad it is for everyone involved at ANY speed-dating event. But hey, single, antisocial, never had a gf guy-I just had to try it.

Enough about that debacle though:

At the end of day my ultimate goal was seeing George Lucas-so I achieved that. I'll catch Amy Allen's autograph next opportunity...I don't know what made me "not" want to go into the autograph hall upon first glance(maybe my thin wallet)..reminds me of how I would say, "No." to VGs and toys I wanted as a kid when they finally would be in front of my face....just for no reason.

My mind does strange things...or maybe the lack of sleep for so many hours BEFORE the convention ****ed me THAT hard:

Thursday Aug 12th:
Came home from school-stayed up until 12 AM, said I needed sleep, but decided to pack my stuff so I wouldn't be rushing tomorrow:Ended up staying up until having to leave for school at 6 AM. (No sleep from 12 PM to 6 AM )

Friday Aug 13th:
Acted all sorts of looney at school-got out at 5 PM and literally had only two hours to make it to the Greyhound station..still no sleep. (that's 8 more hours)

Not a wink of sleep at the Greyhound station-bus came at 10 PM. (3-4 more hours on the no-sleep clock)

Bus-ride took two hours, but still not a hint of sleep. (2 more hours)


Saturday Aug 14th(Huzzah, Convention Day):
Made it to OCCC at 1 AM (YAY!)-couldn't fall asleep on that concrete the whole five hours (NAY!). Envied the people around me who were sleeping like babies...seriously, how did you guys do it?!(5 more hours on the no-sleep counter)

Inside at 6 AM-still no sleep waiting in the Lucas line. Just when I was finally passing that magical threshold into sleep-I got a tap on my shoulder telling me it was time to go in. Otherwise, my friend would constantly bother me (see brass knuckles reference below) in a way that made me regret bringing him along. I'm such a nice quiet guy, and understood his excitement. I shouldn't have, should been like, "*** you-you slept today."

Had a temporary recharge in energy during the main event-but now looking back I see what happened to me that afternoon. At least I saw how much my body could take before saying, "Nope! That's it pal, I'm resting whether you like it or not!"



Next time:Coffee, packed food, pillows, brass knuckles to knock my friend out when he keeps waking me up during the wait for stuff to open.....

I like this thread-because it helps me etch out my mistakes. And of course, learning from your mistakes is the first step in assuring a smooth ride down the road.

HS29 EDIT: Like Billy_Dee said, you need to star out the complete word.

 

CurlyHayami, I gotta congratulate on your openness. It takes balls.
However, you have to edit out you **** words or you're gonna risk getting banned.

 

same here with the artist thing .. had already been in contact with the one i wanted on line dont think its bad really wanted print FOR MYSELF n he gave it to me n i payed him later the whole art payment was a shambles ONE MAN ON THE TILL!!!! lol lol come on guys work it out its not hard! got my print so thank you x

 

Had a BLAST at C5!! But...

It'll be a cold day in Hell before I ever buy anything from Gentle Giant. After the way they handled the Boba Fett and Stormtrooper oversized exclusives. The EXTREMELY limited number they were selling, not to mention selling those to exhibitors before anyone else could even get in the door was UNACCEPTABLE!! Besides, after I talked with the one of the booth operators, they stated that many of the Con exclusives were made available to their Premium Members online before the Con. HOW IS THAT A CON EXCLUSIVE??!! If you're selling these items OUTSIDE of the Con venue, then IT'S NOT A CON EXCLUSIVE!! Sorry for the all-caps, but this really frosted me and consequently I won't ever buy anything from Gentle Giant again. Also, I refused to buy anything from any of the scumbag exhibitors that were turning around and scalping those same exclusives for 2-3 times their worth. Scalping tickets is illegal, why shouldn't scalping merchandise be?

Once I got over that, I had a great time.

 

Oh dang guys I'm sorry-it's a natural thing for me to cuss that I'm really trying to work on controlling-I blame school.

Sorry, it's all stars from now on (or none at all/euphenisms), raw cuss words-ways of the dark side are they.

 

It may sound trivial, but I did not like how the badges attached to the lanyards at all for CV.

For past Celebrations, the lanyards came with a metal spring-loaded hook that would go thru the circular punched out hole in the badge, which made for a secure fit.

I was initially worried that my CV badge would get accidentally pulled off the "aligator teeth" fastener without me knowing it. So I used a thick plastic zip tie to secure my badge to my lanyard to give me that peace of mind.

 

I agree. My badge fell off multiple times.

 

i brought my own badge holder

:tape

duct tape rules!

 

While I had no issues with my badge, I was very aware of the potential for that clip to fail.

I hate to contribute to the complaints again, but here's one that I just can't ignore:

The pre-order pickups at the Celebration Store. I had thought that pre-ordering my program and a t-shirt online would be a time saver. That could not have been farther from the truth.

Upon getting to the store, I walked around and picked up the other items I wanted. I then found that I had to get in a special line to pick up my pre-order items. Ok, no biggie.

But then they tell us that you can't pay for additional merchandise in that line and that you have to then go get in the main line to pay for your stuff. Huh?

This was especially stupid since the shirt and program were both available in the store still. The only thing pre-ordering them did was a) allowed me to pay for them a few months ago and b) spend an extra 40 minutes in a 2nd line.

The pre-order was pointless to the point of being counter productive and went from a potential time-saver to a massive time-waster.

 

That Celebration store didn't make any sense. People getting inside after waiting in line and being smacked in the face with all sorts of cool STAR WARS stuff and displays don't want to go away from it all to pick up a t-shirt. That stuff should have just been sold like anything else. Even one of the people working in that store told me she thought those shirts being available only for pre-order "was dumb as hell because they could have sold five hundred of those."