VIP Experience

Ive been coming to this site for years during the prequels but never signed in.

This was my first Celebration and I had a great time. I wanted to know what everyone thought of the VIP experience. It looked to me that the Jedi Masters didnt get what they paid for. I was a Jedi Knight btw

Here are a few of my observations:

1. The first day wasnt good. Staff didnt know much about letting us in, where we should go etc. It did get better but they should have had it together dsy 1
2. A Place for checking my bags was awesome. I didnt have to carry anything around all day
3. Lounge was nice, but snacks and drinks...lacking.
4. I heard the prints for the Masters wasnt exclusive...there were stacks leftover
5. Having reserved seating was awesome, I didnt stand in lines and did other stuff and then just walked in.
6. Reserved seating all the way to the right sucked. They finally corrected this.
7. Where was the entrance for only the VIPs? I seemed to get a different answer all the time. I eventually just walked in the main entrance every time.
8. I didnt use the store discount(didnt care for that merchandise) and I didnt use the autograph card.
9. I met alot of nice people who wanted to have fun, and we did. Sorry I couldnt make the force.net party...small kids.


Would like to know what you guys thought. Make sure to tell whether you had the Knight or Master package.

Thanks.

 

Hopefully not offtopic but I am a Hyperspace member, and I very very underwhelmed by the benefit of the HS at the CV.

At C2 or C3 I remembered there was even a special lounge for Hyperspace memebers. Not at this one!

It was all so well organized, in fact, I didn't see the benefit of HS member Vs non-members really. Pretty sure the non-members weren't that envious of the HS members.

 

You are aware they discontinued the hyperspace program right?

 

???

http://www.starwars.com/fans/event_news/cv_hyperspace_perks/index.html

 

Hyperspace is being discontinued in 2011. Anyway, I don't see lounge on the list of benefits you linked there, so, I don't understand why it's such a surprise to you. Also, I remember the Hyperspace lounge at C3 being super-crowded anyway, making it not worth it.

 

No no, I meant there was a Hyperspace lounge at C3.

I am not surprised because I saw the list of benefits beforehand, but I am just disappointed with the benefit not being that great, you know what I am saying?

Before, Hyperspace was worth much more mainly due to the prequels in development, but now it's just a cartoon related news(Which I have nothing against, it's a good cartoon, but I rather see a live action instead) which makes it not that interesting, personally.

 

Yeah, that's why I said:

No.

EDIT: Sorry! My BFF from the convention stayed logged in to my computer. This is AaylaSecurOWNED.

 

When are you guys going to learn that this VIP stuff is just a way to get more money from ya? At least you got reserved seating and free baggage check. Those are what I would call actual benefits.

 

From my standpoint the bag check and the reserved seating were well worth the price. I was able to go do so much more than I would have if I wouldnt have had the reserved seating. That said, there were some things I mentioned that didnt live up to expectations. The first day especially there was alot of confusion.

I just want to hear what others thought, especially the Masters.

 

I was able to see first hand at least one of the benefits of being a VIP. They were allowed to cut the line for autographs up to three times. If you did that for Mark, Carrie and Warrick/Anthony/Ray you saved a ton of time as their lines were crazy. A lot of the VIPs did this for Ashley's lines as well, as her signing availability was extremely limited.

I heard that although the VIPs had reserved seating, many of them chose to take better seats up front if they were available, which I don't blame them, but reportedly many were going unused. There was talk of opening up the unused seats to the all ticket holders, but I do not know if that happened.

 

Masters actually had 6 line cuts for autographs; I was a Jedi Master at CV, but yeah I only used 3 of those actually. I didn't want to pay for Mark Hamill, I have a lot of signed stuff from him, what I really wanted is a picture with him, and that was EXTRA beyond the ridiculous price, so uhh no thanks. I did pay the $50 for Carrie Fisher, against my better judgment. I have a lot of signed stuff from her already too, but I figured, eh, gotta meet her once, so it's all good. I mean, Mark Hamill seems like a really cool guy, and he has some projects going himself now, but I could probably meet him outside of a convention if I really wanted and not pay $125 for it. It just seems steep.

I cut in front of Ashley's line, though, that was great. I could tell the rest of the line was annoyed, haha, especially because she talked to my friend and I for like 7 minutes while everyone else waited. It was hilarious, but good times.

I thought the Jedi Master package was absolutely worth it, but does that mean it was perfectly run or even well run? Uhh, no, it doesn't.

Basically, Day 1 they get a D- at best. Like.. there was a room, and eventually we got what we wanted, kind of, sort of, but it was like pulling teeth. My friend was a Jedi Knight, and we just adopted the attitude that we will simply demand whatever it is we think we should get or that we were promised and not really pay any attention to people trying to stop us or basically beat it into them that hey, this is what this means. Like with the autographs, the Ashley line, the floor manager (who should know better, she was wearing red after all, not one of the volunteers) said we had to wait at the back, blah blah, you don't get to cut. I said yeah, actually, I do. The package says I do, and if you don't deliver that's what we call false advertising in the U.S., if not breach of contract because when you purchase something like a service, you are essentially entering into a contract with the vendor for said services. Anyway, she talked to her manager, who corrected her, and we were good to go. But that was basically how it went for ALL of Day 1 and a lot of Day 2, they couldn't figure it out, had no idea who we were, what was the deal, nothing.

I just didn't understand, being a film director who manages people on a busy set, what is so difficult about communicating properly to the people who need to know, the information they need to know. It's not that difficult, you just need to have a meeting and explain ok, here is what this means, here is how you treat VIP members, etc. Just the 50 of us Jedi Masters paid like $37,500 or something to attend, so yeah, I think they should have had it figured out by then!

There was a lot of confusion about whether we had any priority seating in other auditoriums besides the main one, they didn't think so at first, so you had to demand it every time. You couldn't ask, you had to simply tell them this is how it is, I'm going in early, I'm a VIP, and if you have a problem with that go talk to someone who cares. And they eventually figured it out that we were going to get what we paid for. But it should never have come to that. Then the Mark Hamill seating? Terrible. All the way off to the side, I was seated way the heck up there, behind a ton of Jedi Knights, like every one of them, and that was annoying to me. I thought I should have been up front, and they fixed that by the Lucas event which is really what I cared about, so they redeemed themselves big time.

I would say at first, I thought the VIP package was a bit of a rip off and was highly annoyed. By the end of the last day, I felt they had done a good job recovering, and even if I would only rate their overall performance a C+ or something, at the same time I would say it was still easily, easily worth the price. I would have paid twice as much frankly to have the experience I did, because I am not a fan of waiting in any more lines than I must. This was my 5th Celebration, I've really seen it all by this point, met everyone, experienced the horrible lines of the past and braved

 

The VIP package was well worth the money. Actually, it was worth more than what I paid. I wouldn't have met half the celebrities I did without it. I would happily buy it again, anytime. Reed did such a good job with the con. I wasn't excited to go, but I did have a great time after there. I agree that the VIP pass is the only way to experience Celebration.

 

Hey thumbs up t Amanda also!! she and her team did a great job..... thought the VIP thing worked well ... hey i slept in on the Saturday got to venue by 9.15 and STILL got great seats for Lucas!! lol .. there should have been better meet n greats no disrespect but miss Ray Park for Mayhew dont think so!!! ...Park should SO have been a meet he gets on with the fans so well Daniel Logan too natural .. oh and SACK Froggy the pix turn out ok but my god they are a bunch of ***** ! .. the first morning they didnt have tickets know there own times etc EVERY time i went for a picture it went wrong,couldnt find the photographer lol, was cancelled ... they were a mess .. Reed hang ur head in shame Lucasfilm they made u look cheap ... THINK ON!... been paying your bills for nearly 40 years now!!! lol
All in all CV was fantastic.. again sorry didnt do proper thanks to Amanda n her team john from Scotland here had a really cool time .. the force is with us .......................

 

I have to say I really enjoyed the Ben Burtt panels, they were great.

I bought alot more stuff than I had intended. On the last day I found a booth selling action figures 6 for $10. I bought one of every kind they had for my son who is currently 2. I really didnt see alot of exclusives that I wanted...I did get the Hallmark ornaments Ive been collecting those for a while. Being able to check my bags was great.

Any other VIP thoughts? Im surprised there doesnt seem to be alot of feedback.

 

There weren't THAT many VIPs, haha, especially us Masters!

But I can tell you there was a lot of griping that first day among Masters, we were pretty ticked off. And there was a lot of feedback given about the fact that we should have had a meet and greet with the Clone Wars voice actors, as promised, which never happened. I was also disappointed with that because for me, it's always onwards and upwards, yeah it's fun to look back BUT I've already seen most of the old-school panels and know the stories, so I prefer to focus on the Clone Wars stuff because it's new and I haven't met these people yet. Oh well, it was great meeting Dave Filloni. He's an awesome guy, the Clone Wars are in good hands.

 

I enjoyed being a master, on the 1st day I cut 11 lines to the front without my card being stamped at all.

When the next celebration is here again, I will do Jedi again, I think I was the only dude from England and I am glad I got it

 

Nope I know at least 2 others that had Knight passes.

 

sorry I meant Jedi master I had

 

50 Jedi Masters
250 Jedi Knights
...and 30,000 Padawans!

 

poss from England I was a master from SCOTLAND lol ...had a great time as i said before the meet n greets HAVE to be better, people wanna meet the cast its as simple as that NO disrespect to the creative mega talent that we were given .. but if you have LUCAS MARK and CARRIE there then THAT for 750 of you US dollars is what we expect.. all in all a great experience oh one last thought though it never involved myself because i wasnt interested in getting stuff but for everyone else ... if YOU DO NOT HAVE A KNIGHT OR MASTER BADGE ... YOU SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO LINE UP AND PURCHASE BEFORE THE CONVENTION IS OPEN ...it was a joke that exhibiters etc could line up before fans that had payed hundreds of dollars that n Froggy were the worst things BOTH of which could be resolved VERY easily ...

 

(Posted here from a second thread, to keep everything together.)

Like a lot of fellow fans, I have just returned from Celebration V. I went because I love the Star Wars genre, and everything that has to do with it. I have followed Star Wars since the first screening of Episode 4 in 1977. I noticed one thing about my fellow fans--the vast, vast majority of the people I met that enjoyed Star Wars were always kind, generous, considerate and were always ready to talk to a fellow fan. I found this to be true throughout the years...
...until now.
I will reference the VIP experience thread on this forum. Folks, I will say, without reservation, that I read indications of some of the most selfish and elitist attitudes I have ever experienced. What do I mean?
1. The people who take great pride in barging in the lines for celebrity autographs and photographs.
2. Barging in lines to panels and other large events.
3. I did not think that getting "Knight" and "Master" privileges allowed such rude behavior.
4. Rude and insensitive behavior toward volunteers and Security personnel who were staffing these events. These people--especially the volunteers--worked long and hard hours, going without sleep and food to try to make this event as pleasureable as possible--and I applaud their efforts. These people are also given specific instructions concerning the running of the events and the lines going to those events.
5. Just because you have a VIP pass, it does not mean that you should bully these volunteers--or anyone else who happens to be in your area. You make yourself look really immature, selfish and inconsiderate.
If the VIP pass does allow you access to a line, then show some manners. Saying "thanks" or "excuse me" and "please" makes people behave toward you in a courteous manner. Barging in and being loud makes you look like a dolt. Whenever people see you acting like this, they will pass the word around about you, and you may not appreciate what you hear.
Bottom line--purchasing those passes does not give anyone the right to act like a bully. Remember, there are thousands of other fans who may have saved and scrimped to attend a Star Wars Celebration. Put yourself in their place.

 

Please don't lump all of the VIPs in the same boat. Yes, there were some rude VIPs (we experienced this as well) but my husband had a VIP pass and tried to be as curteous as possible. There were several lines that he waited for non VIPs to get their autos before he got his, even thought he paid to go first. One day OPX told the VIPS they would not honor the cut passes and he didn't raise a fit, just left and came back a different day. Many times the crew in charge weren't always sure what was going on, but never did the VIPs in line with us get snippy. Many of the other VIPs were really nice and bought their pass as an extra step to make their Celebration experience the best it could possibly be.

I'm sorry you met some of the bad apples, but the group overall were very cool to hang out with.

 

I'm glad to hear you had a good time.

 

I apologize if there seemed to be a generalization. My point is that some of the folks who had the VIP passes figurately rubbed other fans' faces in it. I chose not to get the VIP passes because I wanted more cash to spend on collectibles; unfortunately, I found that on Thursday, when the Hallmark exclusives came in, I rushed to the line and found the "stop" sign up--meaning that after that person, no more ornaments would be given out. The only fans who could have gotten in line that early were VIP's and exhibitors.

Saturday, the same thing happened with the Hallmark exclusives.

I have been collecting the Hallmark ornaments (both Star Wars and Star Trek) since they came out. I spoke to the Hallmark representative concerning this; he said that his company did not anticipate the demand for the ornaments at this Convention.

I mentioned this here--NOT because there were VIP passes and perks--because to rub into someone's face your "privileges" associated with your pass to non-pass holders can be very mean and self centered. Again, there is no generalization meant-I simply want to remind those who have a penchant for this type of behavior that it was the regular fans--millions of them worldwide--who made Star Wars into what it is today. We come from all walks of life--some of us can afford exclusive passes without breaking a sweat. Others have to scrimp and save in order to participate. One thing that I believe the vast majority of fans have is a sincere desire to meet and greet our fellow fans; and not to have to endure posturing and crowing about how "privileged" they were.

To all the regular Star Wars fans--I was glad to meet you, and hope we'll meet again. To the VIP's who I met--the same sentiment applies; you were good people to associate with! To those who have the "elitist" mindset--you might want to reconsider.

 

It's worth noting here that I got the Hallmark ornaments on Friday and I was not VIP. I was, however, in the Hyperspace line. I think that's where you lost it. As I walked in, just about everyone in front of me saw the length of the GG line and went straight to Hallmark. Sorry.