Your Thoughts On CII - The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Some thoughts...

- People generally don't like paying over retail for books ( Revised Core Rulebook )
The Celebration / WotC store appeared pretty skimpy to me and my friend, although we did see it late at night, after they were closing up. The volume of content was lacking. They ran out of stuff at around 9:00. With tens of thousands of people, this should have been foreseen and avoided.

- If Lucasfilm thinks I'm paying $ 10 for a "special program", try again.

- The lines were overwhelming, and all schedules one hour later.

The positive...

- The events and presentations are top-notch. Tempurature-controlled, spacy, large audatoriums with monitors are ten times better than rainy tents and standing in the mud for hours.

- The Fan Film Awards were awesome, and seeing TPM with fellow hardcore SW fans was a treat. Great sound and ( digital! ) picture on that.

- The guests are all great. I'm glad Carrie is coming, Hayden was great, and the Billy Dee and John Hollis reunion was priceless.

- Great costumes. There's far more at this Celebration, which is good for pictures, and many Jedi women pleasing to the eyes.

What do you think about the coming days?

 

you just had to rub it in. Well, I saw Spiderman tonight.

 

Some comments...

Much better then Denver...

The opening ceromony and keynote was in the mainroom and the kicker is it only holds 2900. Theyre were 20,000 people here. You do the math. By the afternoon I think a great many people left in discust. Why? Because the lines we saw in the morning were gone. By the way I didnt see the opening ceromony and the 8 minutes of footage. Hear they are doing it again today but have no idea where or when.

Food service is incredibly bad. They needed more vendors spread apart. It wasnt until the PM did they even have vendors with soda/water/juice stands.

The keynote presentations need more video intercut between the talk. Kids especially get antsy.

But I cant say more...It is fun and so much better then Denver (I had fun at Denver). More space, more fun...No flood

 

My only complate, WAY TO MANY PEOPLE! IT WAS SO CROWDED I COULD NOT MOVE WITH OUT BEING CRUSHED! LOCAL NEWS SAID 30,000 PEOPLE BY NOON.

 

Attack off the Fetts was great. All three men are such a pleasure to listen to.

 

I just returned from Indianapolis several hours ago, and I have to say that I was gravely disappointed. I have been a StarWars fan for over twent years, and have been to several sci-fi conventions. My wife and I payed sixty dollars, stayed for two hours and saw nothing but crowds of people. We attempted to go upstairs and were told every show had been filled. The upstairs shows required an orange ticket that you could only get if you went upstairs. I have a question for the idiots running the show HOW CAN YOU OBTAIN AN ORANGE TICKET IF CAN'T GO UPSTAIRS TO GET ONE!!!!!
I also have some advice for wizard. Don't over sell a show for profit or you'll lose money paying fans like myself. I will never again go to convention hosted by this company.
I would rather have been told the show was sold out rather than have watsed my time, money, and energy going to this convention.
The best thing I got from the show was a bag of new doritoes.
a very disappointed fan

 

I spent $60 (x2 for my boyfriend too) back when tickets first went on sale (when was that, february?) because I'm now in Indianapolis and was thrilled that I'd be so close . . . I've never been to any kind of scifi convention before and couldn't wait to hit my first one . . .

Here's what i found.
Lines were horrendous.
Where to go what to see? No idea. No signs or directions. (Or very few).
The program with map - mostly illegible.
WAY too many people. I thought I was getting in early on something that was going to be quickly sold out. Seems that they sold tickets to anyone regardless of how many people could actually fit feasibly here.

Great exhibits though . . . I especially loved the "action figure box" but, alas, I wasn't ready to wait hours to stand in it.

Got to see fabulous costumes . . . my favorites were an 8 year old boy as Lando complete with mustache, and a Hoth Luke with giant Wampa arm. And too many incredible Fetts to count.

Overall though . . . I won't do this again. I'm no autograph hound or must-haver of collectibles, and it seems that those are the people these things are geared for, not your everyday fan like me.

 

DAY 2
Today was even worse then yesterday with the crowds. They had no sighn's ANYWHERE to tell you what line was for what! And everytime I went to see a exzibit,there was a 90 min wait in line! It was SO un organized it wasen't even funny.Autograph for Carry Fisher was limited to the first 400 people in line,when there was about 800 in line when i walked by it.They stoped all auto's by 3pm!! What a Rip.I went back this afternoon around 2:30 and by the time I left at 4:30 it was still packed!I had my 10 month old in a stroller and had so many people rudly run into my little one with out even saying sorry.I'm GLAD I went ,dont get me wrong but over all Id give it a C+/B-

 

Have to defend CII...

Yesterday other then the very first show you could walk into the main stage without any ticket.

We went to the Costume talk, the Rick McCallum talk and the Hayden talk. None of these were full.

After people found their way around things evened out.

Today we spent more time in the Exhibition hall, took my kids to the kids room (Ian Mccaig was great with the kids) took in the specatular which it truly was. We also watched part of ROTJ this evening but one of my sons was really tired.

One other thing to mention...I find my fellow fans extremly warm and friendly. I have my 7 year old, 4 year old and 6 month old with me. Every one has been great to them from the fans dressed as Stormtroopers playing with the 7 and 4 year old. To no one getting pissed when my 6 month old gets excited (he is very vocal when excited and of course Star Wars is nothing but excition. Not crying he has been great).

 

My first convention of any kind. I had a one day pass for Saturday. (today) Lines were long . Especially the store. What a nightmare that was.

I had a great time. Repeat ....A great freakin time. I got there at 9:00 (not a fan club member), entered at 10:00 and hit the store line right away. 2 hours later I was one of the lucky ones to barely get a figure. Lunch at White Castle (everything is very close to the con center). Rick's show at 3:00 (after an hour & 15 minute wait) and then the climactic end was an hour with WARRICK DAVIS at 5:30 (also with an hour and 10 minute wait. Too tired to go on so I leave.
RECAP

9:00 Get in line at door

10:00 Enter the con center and head for store

12:15 Leave store and con center for WHITE CASTLE.

1:00 Head back to line for Rick's spectacular for 3:00

4:00 Get in line for WARRICK DAVIS (5:30)

6:45 Leave Con center happy because for 30 bucks I got my money's worth because an hour with Warrick turned in to 75 minutes of picture taking and DYNAMIC performances. He was awesome. It made my day!!!!!!!!

 

I just got back from the 25th Anniversary Concert and I have to say it's been one of the highlights of the Celebration so far. Best part was the Imperial March - the members of the 501st marched in, gave me shivers!

Speaking of the 501st, those guys (and gals) deserve one huge THANK YOU! from each and every fan. They've been volunteer security throughout, and doing it with humor and style. They patiently pose for pictures, play with kids and generally show a lot of class.

Yesterday was great, today was far too crowded. I was told they sold 40,000 tickets, and I think every one of those ticket holders showed up today. Lines were horrible, and crowds unbearable. Wizards handling of the crowds wasn't very good, lines went every where, people waited for a long time only to discover they were in the wrong line!

I'm going to take some time to evaluate my experience here and write a letter to the powers-that-be at Wizards. I sincerely hope they will have learned valuable lessons from this Celebration before they start planning Celebration III.

 

My friends and I have come back from our 24 hour experience. we came all the way to indiana to see the Celebration II, and hoped to see Rick McCallum and other people. However, the only SW cast member me and a friend met was Anthony Daniels. He was headed out to observe the 501st legion setting up on teh convention center steps. Luckily I had seen so many pictures that I had to run up and garbled how great it was to meet him. Luckily, I mqade contact, adn he shook my right hand! Sadly, didn't get a photo or autograph.

My friends and I after taht were a bit disapointed that lines were for everything. The line for the three Fetts stretched out the door and about where we started in the new arrivals line. So, we wandered around, the interior of the main floor was a bit awful. Even in San Diego's Comic convention, there is so much more space to maneuver.

The lines for teh store were pretty bad, my friends and i stood in it for 1 1/2 hours, and mainly it was to get the figures, but I took away a convention shirt. and later, I found a great deal on the doug Chian special portfolio lithographs for Episode I at Suncoast's shop (though teh fact that you had to wait in a line that ran around the booth to pay was bad).

But, luckily me and my friends did luckily get to sit in on John Knoll talk about doing visual effects on Episode II (and the idiot microphone guy kept ignoring me, even though I had my arms raised for 25 minutes!). Luckily, as an animator, I did get to ask him questions later, and john showed a kick-@$$ quicktime movie showing the Reek, Acklay, several Naboo creaturs, a Geonosian and a Kaminoan walk cycling and dancing to the Bee Gee's 'Staying Alive.' My attempts to make a contract so I could have this hilarious bit of animator fun was turned down,. but hopefully, john will include it on the DVD (no word, but then look at the outtake extras on Episode I).

Then, we stayed for the showing of the animatics sequences, where they showed rough Computer graphics., which is something I have been contempplating in my animation classes. The leader of this discussino was very informative, and gave me some sound advice that I plan to follow up on. so sadly, my friends adn I did not get to see Hayden, Rick, or even a return appearance of Anthony Daniels. However, the trip was average, but it went a way from being teh satisfatory trip that would outdo my comic convention travels to San Diego.

B-/C+

However, I did by chance get to be one of teh 60 people to be scanned by Gentle Giant Studios (they did all the scanning of Episode II vehicles, cast, etc), adn got to use mylego building skills again and build parts of teh LEGO Yoda.

 

I only attended Saturday and the crowds, lines, etc. were crazy. But I had a great time. I only live 3hrs. away and the trip was short, parking cheap and close and the line to get in way shorter than first expected. (I bought my ticket that day). I only had three goals, the figures, Hayden, and an Ewok action figure. All were met. It was awesome to see the great costumes and makeup of those walking around. I loved the R2 builders display and the dioramas. I didn't get to see Star Wars in 30 mins. because the line was too long and I wanted to get into the hall one more time. But really had a great time. If C3 is within driving distance, I'll be there in 3 years.

 

It was Star Wars heaven for me. I spent all my money (only $100 though) and saw Hayden up close and made eye contact-more than what I was expecting. I haven't got my film developed yet but hopefully they will come out good. I got two nice posters (Padme one and the 25th Anniversary one) and a beautiful TPM book. As well as all the goodies they were handing out. I was cautious of spoilers and didn't buy the Soundtrack or novel. But I unfortunatley saw the cards on display that reveal alot of AOTC. Lines were long but it gave me time to relax and chat with other fans. I really enjoyed it and I'll definitley remember May 4th.

 

1. I was a little peeved at myself because I had a GREAT picture of Rick holding his Yoda VIP badge whilst sticking out his tongue, and then I accidentally deleted it Grr...

2. I loved seeing Eps. 1,4-6 on a big screen, but considering who was showing it and the equipment sitting in that room, I think that they could have shown it digitally. Especially since Rick was touting digital the entire weekend, I felt it was a cheap letdown to see the special edition (which they scanned in digitally, if I recall, to do more editing) off of VHS. It looked like absolute crap.

3. One of the vendors in the middle was selling bootleg anime. (Actually, they were fansubs from Singapore or something like that, but they were not legit.) Almost all of the titles he was selling were already either commercially available in the States, or the rights to them had been bought out (meaning that it is illegal to distribute them and all respectable fansubbers pull them from their distribution line.) Not only that but he was charging $20/tape, whereas a respectable fansubber would charge about $7/tape. It was sick. I called over a group of 3 "Event Team" people, plus the police officer, to the guy's booth and explained what was going on. Hopefully he got fined up the butt.

3. There were non-fan club members in the members only line who got in early and were ahead of me in the store line.

4. Some jerk bought 10 Jorg Sacul figures before he was finally caught... (and he was in front of me).

5. Guy in front of me got the last figures on Friday.

6. Rick's digital promotion + 8min clip was absolutely awesome.

7. They needed bigger rooms for a lot of the things - i.e. the ILM demo in Naboo (I think it was in Naboo) did not have enough space for everyone.

8. Members Only lounge had no food nor drinks available in it... was just a bunch of chairs.

9. The line was a mile long to get in... lucky I got in line at 7am.

10. The whole needing tickets thing for events in Coruscant thing was kinda crazy in my opinion... should have just had it in the RCA Dome where there's plenty of room ^-^. I guess where they had it was probably the best available option, I was just somewhat disappointed that there wasn't room for all that wanted to see it.

 

CoK has returned from Indy with a mixed bag of thougth on C2. Indy in general was a great choice with ample Hotel space. CoK got a great deal at the Omni (59 bucks) and they bumped us up to a suite. Can't beat that. As a major fan who attended the denver Celebration there were highlights and lowlights. CoK hopes that the wizard folks eventually read this thread and then make some changes.

The Good:

The star Wars folks, as they alwasy do, were absolutely awesome. Rick McCallum's spectacular was superb (great Spidey trailer), and the film footage rocked. All the folks from the ranch were perfect.

The Wizards staff was OK, but they seemed OVERWHELMED. Whenever a question was asked, it was answered quickly and efficiantly.

The Bad:

The staff from the Indianapolis Convention center was ridiculous. I had a situation where a lady would not give me a cup of ice after standing in line for hours for an expensive coke. The staff, especially the catering staff, were incompetant and rude. Enough said. If CoK were the Wizards folks, CoK would have serious issue with the Indy Convention staff.

Lines:
This was poor planning. CoK attended a large convention in Atlanta of Homebuilders. It is said to be the largest in the US and the had major speakers such as Rudy Guliani and some olympic stars. The folks who organized this spent a year planning the logistics of making the convention flow. Indy had none of this. Shame on Wizards for such poor planning. Very poor. You folks knew how many people were attended. Get the job done and plan so that the fans do not have to spend so much time lost and bewildered. Sell tickets to the specific events early. get commitments from the Stars early. Pay them to commit to coming so that you can do the essential planning. And make the Convention for 5 days or a week so that people do not have to so impersonations of sardines.
The lines were enough to drive me to crack and it ruined a lot of the experiance for me.

The Store:

CoK came to C2 ready to spend major cash. I left with 6 Sacul figures . The rest of the stuff was just not that impressive. I wanted a tee shirt and hat but the design was not that great. CoK would have stood in line for some cool stuff but it was just fair.

Overall, A fun time but frustrating......very frustrating. CoK was so looking for ward to this and enjoyed the content of the Convention. It was not very well done however and Wizards needs to reassess.

Maybe Wizards can't handle Star Wars

Oh PS

150 bucks for the autographed novel. Ridiculous, CoK bought the one form Denver and it was 80 or 90 bucks and looked a lot nicer.

The Star wars authors of the EU were great. very friendly and accessible. Now if the would only bring back Chewie.

 

The convention was very disappointing. Who organized it???? I saw no one celebrating only looking very beat down and pissed off. First problem: Was there any limit on the peole that they let in? The place was overcrowded. 2. The smell and the heat: The place was a sauna. Also, while many of the costumes were very cool to look at they also put off a strange funk. C'mon guys we're all geeks but do we want to be smelly geeks? 3. Did anyone see any signs? How hard would it have been to put more signs on the walls to point you in the direction of the Naboo Room or Coruscant Room? The map they gave didn't help. I saw a few blind gentleman at C2 and they were finding there way around as good as I was. 4. What did being a fan club member get me? OOOOOH!!!!!! a special lounge with nothing in it. Oh, and how special and exclusive was this lounge? My wife walked in without a fan club lanyard (yes I'm a married star wars fan). Oh well this expereince sucked!!!!

 

The Good-

1. It was in Indianapolis, where I live!
2. Seeing the 8min of AotC digitally.
3. Yoda kicking ass.
4. Talking will all the Lucasarts ppl.
5. Anthony Daniels of course, he signed autographs while we waited to get in this morning and took pictures for like 30min or more.
6. For anyone who saw the THX "Wow" demo, if u noticed on teh room number, there was a pieace of paper with an "8", because ironicly we were taking picutres of the banner, and noticed the room was 113, so we made that pieace of paper and put an 8 on it, so the THX demo was in room 1138 and we put on the paper "Please don't remove -mgnt" and after putting it up saturday night, it was there all day today, hopefully some ppl noticed and enjopyed it
7. The various panels we made it to.

Now for the bad..... the really bad
1. Lines, WTF is this ****? 6 hours to get an autograph from Fisher. Might as well pic two events to see per day, and get ready to wait. I hope other's brought their GBA's also.
2. No free books, whats up with that?
3. 36,000 special action figures, and yet, SOOOOOOOOOOOO many were unable to get one, my self included. We got to the store today before 10am, and they were gone, such a disadvantage for us non-fan club members, might as well just called it a fan-club/ebay special.
4. Closing of stairs for no reason.
5. Ok, this is going tob e a long one. I'm sure other's noticed the dealrs in teh Exibit Hall selling the bootleg Movies and Anime and TV shows and such. This REALLY irk's me. Right after watching the opening ceramonies, and hearing Rick's speech about seeing art teh way it was meant to be and such we head down to the dealers, and we see these bastards selling this ****. Over the course of the weekend I took over 200 pics of the booths, thoes running it, the products they were selling, and even the one booth showing the movies. So we made our way to the customer service desk to make a complaint and see if anything could be done. And after telling them all this, and saying we have proof in our pictures, they basically said "We dont' give a ****" ok, that's a little harsh, what they said was "We sell these booths to these ppl, and they can sell what ever they like, and there is nothing we can do about it" Which is total and utter bull****, they are under law by us bringing it to thier intention that illegal acts were going on to do something about the fact. Using their logic, I could have sold crack, as long as I gave them the money for the booth space. What's really sad is this put a cloud over the weekend for me and my friends. If you want to d/l fansubs of anime or what have u, that's one thing, but taking these and making a profit off of them is totally illegal. The boxs looked like they had been printed ona relaly bad bubble jet. I am going to contact the MPAA and Wizards of the Coast tomorrow and see if there can be something done. But I will never go to a con ran by, nor by the products of Wizards, which is so sad because I love Magic and D&D. Oh well. Sorry about the long post.

 

I JUST got home and have a splitting headache. We just went Saturday and that was enough of taking everyones crap but not nearly enough time to do everything. I did 3 things...3!!!!!!! I got inside at around 9 30 after waiting in line forever and when I did we went straight to the Sagamore ballroom to see Hayden, Daniel, and Temaura and thank god for a friend of mine Laura or else I would have been at the end of an endless line. We were one of the first people in the room and got ****** seats. I was so ticked. I am one of the biggest Hayden fans and and 4 HUGE guys w/out a clue about him sat infront of me and I couldnt see ****. I was so mad. Then I was just so excited I saw him I had to go agaoin so right after we went back in line to get more tickets and my parents ended up not going and I did w/Laura and we were at the front of the line once again and once again got crappy seats. Some guy and his BABY took up 3 seats....GRRRRRR But Hayden kept staring over at me and Laura. That was great. I was continually taking pictures when he looked over. I had 3 cameras. He told the crowd he had been walking around during the brake in a storm trooper costume checkin out the celebration. I could have died. After that was over I went off w/my parents and basically everything was over. I couldnt go to the damn store coz almost everything was almost sold out and we jusy koinda continually fought crowds and thats IT. I took pictures of ppl in costume and thats IT. That really sucked. I wanted to see the Stunts! and the talks w/Rick McCallum and a ton of other stuff. I followed nothing on my schedule. We left and went to Applebys then went to get pictures developed. ALL OF THEM WERE BLURRED. I was so pissed and still am. Only like 3 aren't blurred. I have one roll left top develope and hopefully they're good. But seeing Hayden and knowing he knows I'm alive has made my century. GAAHHH he was gorgeous. But, the celebration wasnt what I expected. But seeing Hayden made it all the better. I still need to unpack and shower befoer myt interview tomorrow...


BUT I SAW HAYDEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! TWICE!!!!!!
I still cant convince my parents to take me to Toronto fgor the premiere of EP II

 

My 2 cents!
1) Too many people. From advance sales alone they should have seen how many people where going to attend. They should have limited the number of tickets. Overcrowding left many fans unhappy because they couldn't get into most presentations.
2) Unorganized. Nobody knew that they needed a ticket to stand in line to get a ticket to stand in another line....etc...to get into a presentation. By Sunday morning they had a little bit of a clue, but still long lines and confusion.
3) No food in the Fan Club Lounge.
4) Convention staff who thought they were the gestapo.
But this stuff was good:
1) The presentations were awesome and candid. The stars didn't act "above" the fans, and the ones signing were terrific.
2) More food choices that at GenCon!
3) Great costumes all over the place! My favorites were the stars-n-stripes Stormtrooper, the red-eyed Admiral Thrawn, and the 7 ft. tall Wookie who roared very well.
4) Yoda! Yoda! Yoda!
Will I go if there is a C3? Maybe. If it's at a larger place (more room in presentations) and limited tickets are sold.
On a side note, I went to a Chinese restuarant on Friday and Daniel Logan and Temura Morrison were dining there...I sent Boba Fett a drink! (non-alcholic, of course) He came over to our table later and gave me an autographed Topps card. Neat! He's a really nice kid! We then went to see Spiderman and guess who else was in attendance...Boba Fett once again!
-Karma

 

I live in Indy so felt really blessed that I'd be able to go to the convention without having to travel far and incur the expense of hotel/gas/food etc.

Overall I'm glad I went all three days, though it was a really exhausting experience. I saw all the actors who played the Imperial Officers on Friday, as well as a panel discussion by the NJO authors. Friday was topped off with Hayden Christensen/Nick Gillard in the Coruscant Room, hosted by Anthony Daniels, which was a really great, entertaining show. Saturday, though it was too crowded to see anything,r eally, did end up having my favorite presentation, co-screenwriter Jonathan Hales, who was a wealth of great info. Also saw a well-done Hasbro presentation in the Dagobah room.
Sunday -- only the Trilogy of Stars presentation, but it was followed by the Rick McCallum spectacular, and I was thrilled to get to see the digitally projected scenes, as there is no digital theater in which to see Ep II in Indy.

I went to the exhibit hall all three days, simply because there was so much to see- my biggest score there was on Friday, when I went to the Dave Dorman art booth and he was there signing prints-- and not only would he sign his prints, but he'd do a sketch in the margin next to his signature on the spot, of any character/vehicle/droid you wanted! So I got a print called "Legacy of the Jedi" that was a nice montage of Luke, Vader and Obi-Wan, so asked Dave if he'd give me a Yoda sketch to "complete the legacy" and he sketched a beautiful Yoda right then and there. Definitely will have to get it professionally framed.

I'm glad I got to see essentially all the presentations that I wanted to see-- didn't bother with autographs or the exclusive figure-- I'm not a real autograph person (the Dave Dorman thing was just lucky timing, I would have bought a print had he been signing them or not) so I didn't mind not getting any of those. The exclusive figure was lame anyway, and I don't really collect many toys from the films.

My biggest complaint, along with just about everyone else, is that they really overbooked the thing. It's a poor reflection on Wizards of the Coast that they so gouged people on ticket prices, and then oversold them anyway just to jack up their profits at the expense of the fans. A terrible thing to do. I didn't mind waiting in line so much as just the crowd in general-- there would have been lines regardless-- but simply hardly being able to walk through the cramped exhibit hall was even more frustrating than the lines. I really wanted to leisurely explore the toy "museum" but the press of bodies made it claustrophobic and impossible.

To compound overselling tickets, WotC could have done a lot more to alleviate the overcrowding, but they didn't which just made the place seem even more crowded.
The coordination of lines and movement was poor, the use of space in the convention center was terrible, and the signs and directions were non-existent. These were all the reasons that after the full three-day weekend, I'm completely wiped out. Had this event been better planned and not oversold, I think everyone involved, from fans to coordinators, would have been far less exhausted by the experience.

My biggest thanks go the 501st Legion-- you guys made the show-- you entertained the fans, were happy to stop for pictures, and all had great attitudes. I LOVED all the costumes-- it really lent a special aura to the convention, and was a definite bright point amongst the overcrowding and lines. Kudos.

Sorry for the long post, but there's much to be said!

 

I absolutely loved it! I didn't get to go to Denver, and was only at C 2 for one day, but it was awesome! Sure, we waited in line for two hours to get in, but I saw this woman get propsed to, Anthony Daniels walk by, and this really cool mass of "Imperials." Registration was really quick after it got started.
I actually like lots of people, in a weird sort of way. It was a squeeze getting into the exhibit hall, but once we were there it wasn't that bad.
We waited in line for an autograph ticket, which was kinda long, but I was flipping out as I walked through the area where the stars were signing. Warwick Davis, Kenny Baker, Peter and Billy Dee! Oh my gosh!
Then we went upstairs for the hayden show. That line was horendous! But by a twist of fate we got tickets with fifteen minutes and got into the show really quick. Then show was great, especially with the eppy 2 footage.
I agree that the food service was bad, though. On the other hand, I was in the middle of a mass of star wars fans. It was just too cool to worry about lines.
After walking around the exhibit area a little more, we got in line for the Carrie Fisher autographs. The line was HUGE, but it gave me a great amount of time to talk to the people in line with me. And meeting Carrie Fisher was amazing. She's such a legend. I was almost hyperventalitaing. It was great.
Last stop was the fanfilms. We only got to see one, the last one, but it was hilarious.
Over all, I thought it was really awesome. I didn't mind the lines, becuase I was at the Star Wars Celebration, this really awesome convention-filled with wacky star wars fans like me-that only happens once every three years.
Wow. I had such an awesome time. I'm definietly going to try to go all three days next time.
Eirtae

 

I had a great time. All the fans were great. All of them who were cotumed were great and willing to stop for photos.

I saw Hayden, Anthony Daniels, Nick Gillard, Peter Mayhew, RA SAlvatore (he signed my novelization), Bill Dee Williams (from a Adistance), and Jonathan Hale.

There were tons of long lines, but I guess that goes with the territory. I attended the concert, saw TPM and ANH screenings, took lots of pictures, and just walked around ans saw lots of cool stuff.

Aside from the maps being pretty bad, it was a great time and I don't see what all the negative sentament is all about.

 

Would an online petition of some sort be a more effective way to communicate some suggestions/concerns about the convention? I truly think the waiting line issue and the general overcrowding needs to be addressed.. and maybe some sort of ticket voucher system should be introduced for autographs where you have a punch card and are limited. Oh, or maybe use a punch card or your badge to mark when you have received your special collectible Celebration items (i.e. the Sacul figure) so that others don't hoard them all and prevent some members from even obtaining one.

Maybe we should consider getting something organized so that we help Wizards of the Coast think about ways to improve the convention in the event they were going to have a Celebration III. Just an idea..

 

Well, after going to both celebrations, I have to say that this was fun. It seemed like at Denver it was alot easier to get into presentations, but I did skip the ones with Ray Parks, which were the long lines. At this last one though, there was soo much else to do, that I didn't really miss not going to many presentions. Instead I wandered around the vendors, went to the book table (did that first thing friday, and even then, they were running out of books, but I got some neat ones!) got autographs, got action figures (agian, advanceded planning of jumping in line first thing when I got in, saturday morning, but the line was still long, and even longer by the time I got out.) We also went to see Billy Dee Williams (and the cutest little kid dressed up as Lando!) and the continuity panel with authors. I missed all the big presentations, but really, that wasn't why I came as much. I had alot of fun talking with other fans and some of the actors in the autograph area. Shannon Baksa was really nice and talked with us for a while, and took pictures, and even told us something about the new Zahn book coming out. Amy Allen was also great and talked with us for a bit.
All and all, it was alot of fun, and my only complaints are that there was a few too many people, there should have been more then one of some of the shows, and better organization of lines and rooms (like maybe directions on signs of were the rooms were)
As for letting them know, there was a survery that at least I filled out, and I put a note on there about my complaints.