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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

CVII The Official Celebration Anaheim Feedback Thread

Discussion in 'Star Wars Celebrations' started by LAJ_FETT , Apr 11, 2015.

  1. dante144

    dante144 Jedi Master star 1

    Registered:
    May 26, 2005
    Best thing was meeting old friends and making new ones. I think our badges should have our first name on it so it is easier to connect. I had so many conversations but didn't get a name or contact. But the camaraderie of the fan-ship was awesome, whether talking to someone in their 20s or in their 70s.

    The bad...
    Long lines. 3-4 hours to see an exhibit? Or a game? Or a panel? That is absolute rubbish. Bad planning or small venue. tsk tsk

    Dice should have had a playable demo or Battlefront. Shame on them. As far as I am concerned at this time it is vaporware.

    The convention center wrapped people around the building until 10:30.. The venue opens at 10. If you paid, had a badge you should have been able to walk in the doors at 10:00.

    Not being able to get into the movies was silly. The digital theater I hear can only hold 1000 people. What?! The secondary theater on the Orlando Celebration held 2500. The main theater can hold 6000. It was a nice comfortable viewing at CV and CVI

    The bad planning is really inexcusable. There are people that flew in from Europe and Australia. Two hours to get into the store? And another two hours to pay? The last day I had to make a decision whether to do the exhibit or the battlefront presentation. Also I had missed the battle front panel BECAUSE THE ROOM ONLY HELD 1000 PEOPLE!

    Surprised the fire Marshals didn't go nuts.

    More official parties would have been cool. Maybe one on Thursday night.

    More good things:
    The food trucks were cool.

    The Live Stream from StarWars.com was cool. Cool to get in the Cantina. They should do more of those with other sets.

    ReedPop, do better next time. Get a venue large enough to handle the numbers.
     
  2. dante144

    dante144 Jedi Master star 1

    Registered:
    May 26, 2005
    Also, they should have shown that sizzle reel of Rogue One again at the closing. The excuses were lame.
     
  3. 80ninjas

    80ninjas Jedi Master star 1

    Registered:
    Apr 25, 2014
    They really had no reason to have a playable demo when E3 is literally right around the corner. Between now and release you've got E3, Gamescon and two PAX weekends. This is EA's big game for the year, so of course they're going to save something for E3.
     
  4. ChrisLyne

    ChrisLyne Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2002
    I think it might have something to do with their agreement with Paramount about the Rogue name. They apparently agreed not to promote the film to "the general audience" until after MI5 was released. The original panel wasn't live streamed but the closing ceremony was. They probably felt it was just a little too close to "general audience" for comfort, especially as someone could probably rip a pretty high quality version from the stream and put it up on YouTube (plus the live stream videos are all replayable I think, not tested that since the weekend).
     
  5. MotivateR5D4

    MotivateR5D4 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 20, 2015
    On Sunday I heard some horror stories about the TFA panel line, what happened was since people stayed overnight and were laying out and generally being relaxed about the whole thing, the line itself was pretty spread out. In the morning when everybody stood up and packed their stuff up, the line became much more condensed, leaving quite a bit of room at the back end of each line. So what ended up happening was as people began to enter Hall E at 6,7,8 am, the staff would simply usher them into those lines that still had room in them, leaving people in the other lines pretty upset watching it. I was at the front of my line and nobody really noticed it, but I talked with a guy who was at the back and he said it was happening in each of the lines and people were getting kind of heated about it. And I could understand the frustration. You wait literally all night, and then watch as somebody strolls in at 7 or 8 am who will get into the panel before you.

    And about the convention security, almost the same thing happened to me. There were about 200 hundred of us waiting upstairs at about 9 pm to watch a New Hope on Friday night, there was one concession stand still open on the other end of the the third floor from where we were waiting by the Digital Stage. So I went and got a water, and on my walk back the security was blocking entry back into the line. Being a total jerk about it this one guy said I can't go back. I pleaded with him that I was already in line just a few minutes ago and had been there for the previous hour, but went to get a water, and he just stood there and mocked me and said that I wasn't. Almost ruined my day until he finally let me back in, but still telling me I was never in line. Still bothers me thinking about it. He could have easily said hey man I'm just doing my job I don't know where you came from, we could have talked with the Celebration staff who did see me earlier, and worked it out. But his whole attitude about it really just bothered me and especially knowing I probably wasn't the only one he was doing that to, as they made no announcement not to leave that particular area. There was very little communication between the venue staff and the convention staff.

    Anyways, I digress. These complaints, however, pale in comparison to what happened to an entire queue room waiting to see the premiere of Episode 3 in 3D on Friday night. Basically, long story short, the first queue room was let into the Digital Stage, they completely forgot about the second queue room, let everybody waiting in the hallway in until the theatre was filled, and then finally remembered there was an entire room of people waiting who had been there long before anybody in the hallway was there. Apparently, even the staff were debating amongst themselves who should go tell them that they simply can't enter the theatre to watch Episode 3. I heard families had been in there for upwards of 2-3 hours. I saw the room after and all the metal railings were tore up and it was a mess. The staff tried compensating by giving them pins and wristbands to the Rebels panel, which then screwed over the people waiting for the Rebels panel...

    Overall I had an amazing experience, which I described in another thread here where somebody had asked if the multiple day pass is worth it. But these three specific points I think are worth mentioning.
     
  6. klingklang

    klingklang Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 12, 1999
    Wow. I had no idea that was going on. I noticed how short the lines got for that when we were told to stand up so they could issue wristbands (and that in itself was fun because the wristband issuer for my area was a person who wasn't going in order of the line, but instead went in the order of whomever stuck their wrist in his face quicker). I didn't realize they let latecomers fill in that extra space at the back. That's terrible.

    I know a lot of the staff did the best they could and a lot of them were helpful and patient, but there were a lot of grumpy and rude staff members who didn't make it easy. Like you said, they could have reacted better to these situations. It's almost as if they should have issued wristbands for every line.

    I heard something bad happened for that ROTS queue, but I didn't realize it was as ridiculous as forgetting an entire room. Makes you wonder how that even happens. And the compensation for their error didn't seem fair either--to anyone involved (what if you didn't participate in the pins or had any interest in Rebels?).

    As a side note, did people reply to the survey to ReedPop?
     
  7. MotivateR5D4

    MotivateR5D4 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 20, 2015
    I didn't realize there was a survey. Probably too early at this point anyway to take any feedback into consideration and make changes based on it.
     
  8. SinderMoonStar

    SinderMoonStar Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Mar 22, 2015
    Loved getting to see my friends and share our love of Star Wars. The panels were great but i do have a few issues with how things were ran.

    A.) Lines.... queues and line queues. Why did I have to walk to the complete opposite end of the building, to get in a line queue to enter the exhibit hall 15 minutes after the front doors should have opened? Only to walk through 12,000 people to get to the end of the building I needed to get to?

    B.) Some kind of ticketing system needs to be in place. Like a fast pass where everyone gets 4-5 chances to be first (after VIP and Medical) in line for a certain panel. Instead of wasting valuable time being in a queue waiting for said panel.

    C.) Have a simulcast room. A room that just plays all the panels that we might have missed because we were in line or viewing another panel. Better yet, don't plan all the big panels so close together, spread things out. I've been to several of these cons and there have been lots of evenings that the Con closed but we went to a night event that started at 7PM.

    D.) Spread the con out!! There was so much room in the main hall that could have been utilized so that there was more room to walk between the vendor booths. I know that more people showed up than initially thought, so better floorplanning is a must for future cons.
     
  9. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    If the ReedPop survey is online, feel free to link it here so others who attended can reply.
     
  10. klingklang

    klingklang Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 12, 1999
    It came via email. I assume they sent it out to the emails on file from those who bought a ticket to Celebration.
     
  11. torjoreyri

    torjoreyri Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    May 9, 2014
    It's silly when you just take a quick glance at it, but consider that people were lining up since at least 6am to get into the convention center when it opened at 10am. If they opened the main doors at 10 and just let anyone in, then what does that say to the people who were waiting since 6? And furthermore, what kind of insane mob would there be, with everyone rushing the doors to get in?

    A queue definitely helps to keep the madness in check.
     
    jawajames likes this.
  12. obiwopkenobi62

    obiwopkenobi62 Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Feb 23, 2015
    Like everyone on here said it was very unorganized. Don't get me wrong I had a ball, but it did have a lot of bad stuff. CV and CVI were way better. The people in charge lied about parking too. 3 out of the 4 days when they had signs saying parking at the convention is full, go to Angels stadium, I drove over to the convention center and got parking right there. That kind of ticked me off that they would do that. The other thing was the selling of alcohol. I don't have a problem with drinking but there's a time and a place. I saw many people pounding drinks down that had little kids and strollers. I wanted to know what genious thought it was a good idea to sell alcohol. It's bad enough if there is someone rude there, then add alcohol to the mix.
    We had 6 people in our party and rented a house close by which was great. We also made our lunches and brought them with us. The problem was there was no big area to eat like CV and CVI. There were tables here and there. Lastly on Friday my wife and I were in line for Anthony Daniels autograph. We are like 3 people away from him when a female volunteer says to a male volunteer at 10 till 4:00,"find out who has Friday tickets only and bring them to the front of the line". I said, " wait a minute what are you doing?" the guy says they only have Friday tickets and Anthony Daniels has to be somewhere. So I told him that he should write something on the Friday ticket holders so they can come back later. He says they can't make exceptions. I say you already are making an exception by putting people ahead of us. That's when the female hears me, comes over and says, we'll try to get you your autograph but if you can't we'll give you a VIP ticket to come back another day and cut in front of everyone on line. So like some others have said, their answer to everything when they screwed someone, was to make up for it by screwing someone else.
    Like I said there were none of these issues at CV and CVI. I'm hoping that everyone fills out their surveys and lets them know about all these problems. That's the only way that they will be able to fix the problems we're all talking about.
     
  13. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    I'm surprised about the selling of alcohol - just what you need in a crowded venue. I know at the first CE in London, the convention center didn't sell alcohol (unless it was in a restaurant that I didn't go to) but there was at least one pub nearby. (We went there on the Sunday to get away from the place for a bit). I don't have any issue with alcohol but I don't think it should be sold at that type of event.
     
  14. Billy_Dee_Binks

    Billy_Dee_Binks Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 29, 2002
    I'm reposting my rant I took to Facebook after the terribly mismanagement of the Revenge of the Sith 3D screening:

    Very frustrated by the way Lucasfilm/ ReedPop mismanaged the one time only World premiere of Revenge of the Sith in glorious 3D.
    Only 1/3rd of the people standing in line got in. I myself waited in line for two hours. This screening was the main reason for me to attend (yes, even more important than the TFA Teaser).
    It's what I flew across half the World for.
    Why didn't they use the big arena for these much anticipated screenings instead of the always cluttered Digital Stage? Why didn't they scrap 2D A New Hope for a second showing for never before seen Revenge of the Sith 3D? Why didn't they count the number of people waiting in the holding room so they would know when to stop letting them in?
    This is what happens when Lucasfilm does their best to snub the Prequel Trilogy, treating it like the underappreciated step child of the family. A whole generations of fans (actually three generations) line up to this and were upset to the point they refused to leave after the line was capped. Looking over at the Convention Center from my hotel's balcony I could see at least 250 still remaining hopeful, even though the film was already over. I gave up half an hour into ROTS to get the seat of someone leaving after taking in the film's bombastic opening.
    This screening was a most unfortunate mismanagment entirely on Lucasfilm's/ ReedPop's part.

    Same would later apply for the Rebels Season 2 premiere. They held the Rebels Trailer panel at the Celebration Stage, but the actual episodes? Nah, let's show that at the smaller stage.
     
    Octavian Dibar likes this.
  15. Octavian Dibar

    Octavian Dibar Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 6, 2015
    This. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the Rebels season openers, but the digital stage was the completely wrong venue for that. It should have been on the Celebration Stage. The tiered seating arrangement would have made a huge difference and greatly improved the experience. The poor kids that got stuck sitting behind adults of even average height were screwed. They might have been able to see the upper 50% of the screen...maybe.
     
  16. Oddacon

    Oddacon Jedi Knight

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 2015
    Like many others I completely agree with the assessment of the con being oversold. The lines and wait times were absolutely horrible and there seemed to be no order to them. I was shut out of several panels I wanted to see and had even arrived early. I understand that happens at cons so that's not on them but it was still frustrating.

    My biggest beef was with the chaos pit known as the Official Celebration Store. Day 1 was awful and I hear I should consider myself lucky I only waited 2.5 hrs to buy my stuff. I've never seen such pandemonium. You had to get into line to get in line to buy things.

    My only regret was not being able to see the Ep VII props with my own eyes. That being said, I still got to do and see a lot of cool things and would give the con a 4/5 stars.
     
  17. Lowbacca_1977

    Lowbacca_1977 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jun 28, 2006
    The store was hands down the worst part of the planning.
     
  18. Padme501st

    Padme501st Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 4, 2006
    I had a blast though I agree, this celebration's planning was worse than the previous ones. You would think after running several stateside celebrations, ReedPop would know what to do. My issues were:
    1. Lines... yeah i get it. Standing in line at a convention is part of the experience. I don't mind. What I do find ridiculous is when I have to go stand in line 3 1/2 to 4 hours earlier for a panel that isn't like the JJ panel. There's not even a queue line for it yet, but if you weren't there that early you didn't get to go in. And even then, it really all depended. I was in the center of the ROTJ screening mob to try to get in the queue room. I made it in and I'm glad I was in the first room, knowing what happened to the second room but it was absolute chaos. The Digital stage held 2,150 people apparently. But the main queue room for it only held 1,000. Don't get me started on the Battlefront panel.

    2. Venue Staff- When a staff member in a blue shirt says that he will punch anyone who crosses his line right before the Rebels screening, whether they be men, women or children... that's unacceptable. He said he didn't care, cause he was a volunteer and couldn't get fired but that's a little inappropriate.

    3. Celebration Store- Walked by it several times during the four days. Never bothered to go in with the lines they had and the emptied shelves. Standing in line for the few panels I did get to go see filled my days up anyways

    4. Exhibitor Hall- I didn't care for the layout this time around. I also preferred having the 501st/Rebel Legion get their own room instead of just stumbling into them.

    5. Theft- I've never heard of that much theft at a Celebration before. Armor, arts stolen from strollers, not including the store. I felt it was worse this time around.

    Still had an amazing time, had a lot of fun talking to people and I loved the close proximity to CVS/hotels/Disney that this center had.

    Also about the Celebration Stage queue lines, they were labeled 1,2,5,6,3,4 on the ground. I noticed that when I was in line for Carrie.
     
  19. MotivateR5D4

    MotivateR5D4 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Those blue shirts were really something else. With your example, that's not something that should have been taken lightly, and that individual should have been reported and removed from working the event immediately. Volunteer or not, a venue staff member issuing threats of violence like that should at least be reported to ReedPop, so they can follow up on it appropriately.
     
  20. Padme501st

    Padme501st Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 4, 2006
    I didn't report it at the time (especially since a black shirt let us in to the Rebels screening a few minutes later, so I was distracted) but I did mention it in the post celebration feedback email they sent out.
     
  21. Darth_BDO

    Darth_BDO Jedi Padawan

    Registered:
    Jan 15, 2015
    A few things to consider when talking about how unorganized it was or how long the lines were...
    1.) I don't think any predicted this number of people to show up. There were an estimated number of 150,000 people over the 4 days. Previous events topped out at 35,000 people so this was insane.
    2.) This center is WAY smaller than the one in Orlando but considering that it averages only 30,000 people every event, that place should have been fine.
    3.) Having the attendance suddenly nearly quintuple out of the blue probably left them scrambling to decide how to deal with it. They probably didn't have enough workers or merchandise or space to deal with that number of people.
    4.) Ok yes, they should have stopped selling tickets at about 60,000. It was way over sold. But they are out to make money and stopping at that reasonable number would have cut profits down more than half of what they sold.

    Now, none of what I said means that I am ok with what happened at the con. It was poorly organized and downright infuriating at times. ReedPop royally sucks at doing cons. I went to NYC Comic Con which is also run by them and it was awful.

    Let's start with the good news...
    1.) Great panels. There were so many things I wanted to see that I was heart broken trying to prioritize them.
    2.) Fun atmosphere. Loved being surrounded by people that share your passion instead of thinking you are crazy like your friends at home. :)
    3.) Artist area was run well. Didn't spend forever picking up prints here which was nice.

    And now the bad...
    1.) The Celebration Store. - This has already been covered at length so I will not spend alot of time on this, but I was sad to leave without any SWC merch because in the end I decided that I didn't want to waste 4 hours at SWC to get a shirt that says I went to SWC. Seemed stupid. But each time I passed it has empty shelves and a massive line and people telling me it wouldn't reopen for 2 hours. Horrible organizing.
    2.) Long Panel Lines - I found myself making heart breaking decisions between 2 panels and standing in line for 2 hours for my first choice only to not get in and end up missing them both. This was frustrating. There should be some way of telling people when they get in line what their chances are of getting in so you don't waste time. Something like a theme park signs that say 2 hr wait from here only it tells you about how full it is right now. 80% full at this point.
    3.) WHY ARE THE BIG EVENTS SHOWN IN THE SMALL ROOM!!!! - I missed all of the movie screenings and the Rebels panel because they put it on the digital stage and not the Celebration Stage. Ummm what?? I get in line for Episode 3 about 3 hours before it started and they told me it was full. That's just insane. It was terrible stupid planning.
    4.) Workers don't know where to send you. - Had trouble finding the line for the Ray Park panel. Got lucky that a guy made a scene about getting sent all over the place and a worker escorted us there and we got in the first line.
    5. ) Battlefront Panel - .....Just wow. My husband went straight up there as soon as the doors opened that morning and he wasn't even close to getting in. It probably would have helped for something that popular to once again be on the CELEBRATION stage and not the DIGITAL stage.

    All of that said, it was a blast. I had the time of my life because it was Star Wars. Could it have been better? Of course. But I would not trade the weekend for the world.
     
    Padme501st likes this.
  22. ardavenport

    ardavenport Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2004
    I filled out Reed Pop's post Celebration survey. I had a great time, but I think the Orlando Convention Center was nicer -- The 501st did not get their own room this time and the spaces provided for the R2 D2 Builders was not as good as last time. They said they weren't allowed to bring all of their cool display stuff. And I didn't see any fan films there; that's a shame.

    The food trucks were good and they did have soft serve ice cream cones in the convention center <yum>.
     
    Padme501st likes this.
  23. Obi Anne

    Obi Anne Celebration Mistress of Ceremonies star 8 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Nov 4, 1998
    I seemed to have deleted the post Celebration survey before answering it.

    In general I agree with what has been said here, but I actually preferred this convention centre to Orlando. My main suggestions for the future would be to do like at CIV when the store was outside of the main convention centre, and opened longer hours, so there were seperate lines and times for it. I would also increase the number of smaller panels, I know that for example Rebel Legion submitted panel proposals that weren't in the program, that way there would have been more alternative panels to go to if you missed the main one.

    The worst line in my pov was for the Collector's stage. They really need to put that one in the bigger room. I love listening to stories about collecting, even if I'm not a collector myself. Since they started to hand out free collectibles it's gotten crazy though and you need to stand in line for hours just to get in to a panel about guys talking about how they ended up buying a certain thing.
     
  24. MotivateR5D4

    MotivateR5D4 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 20, 2015
  25. GlastoEls

    GlastoEls Jedi Padawan

    Registered:
    Oct 31, 2012
    Overall feedback same as everybody else: incredible content and an amazing weekend, but organisation (lines, officious stewarding, etc) irritating.
    Panel list in order of enjoyment:

    1) Revenge of the Sith in 3D (crowd cheering when Anakin pulled his lightsaber on the younglings was quite something!)
    2) Smuggler's Bounty - just a fun atmosphere
    3) JJ Panel & new trailer (the cheer when Han & Chewie were shown...)
    4) Rogue One (surprise trailer)
    5) Empire Strikes Back lost music with David W Collins
    6) Closing Ceremony
    7) Carrie Fisher panel (she's mad and so charismatic)
    8) Art of Ralph McQuarrie panel
    9) Canon panel
    Delighted that 2016 is in my home town, London. Jedi Master tickets in the bag!