The "I Had a GRAND TIME at C4! Let's do it again!" Thread

echo, fanforce badges and the fanforce and regional fanforce table, for start

 

My CIV experience was awesome. One of the highlights for me was meeting one of the artists who my husband and I commissioned to do a sketch & then meeting up with him after the con to pick it up.

Volunteering for OPX was a blast. I worked with Orly (Shaak Ti) and Daniel Logan. Orly was really nice & polite the whole time. Dan wasn't at his table for the most part but I got to talk to his girlfriend who hung out for a few minutes.

Participating in the creation of the Endor Forest diorama was fulfilling. I created an Ewok. I stopped by at 2 pm on Monday to pick up my creation but they couldn't find it If anyone has possession of Ewok #184, kindly return it.

Conversation with Carrie Fisher was hilarious! I didn't know much about her so everything she talked about during the Saturday panel was news to me. Now I definitely have to watch that scene with her & Harrison in ESB. Carrie said "...We were not hungover. We were STILL drunk."

Attending the fan club breakfast on Sunday & hearing Steve Sansweet's informative & funny speech.

Meeting people from the boards. It was great to finally see faces & not have to rely on avatar images.

The Fan club only day on Thursday was a blessing. I got all the exclusives that I wanted on that day & didn't have to worry about it the rest of the con.

Outside of the Con we got to...

*See the Cubbies play at Dodger Stadium. It was an awesome game. I'm so glad so many Cub fans showed up (almost half of the people there were).
*Visited Universal Citywalk. There's no shortage of entertainment here.
*Go to the Walk of Fame, the Chinese theater, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
*Cruise down the Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu & Santa Monica.
*Go through breathtaking winding canyon roads.
*Visited relatives who I haven't seen in 10 years.
*Go to the mountains to view L.A. at night.

The L.A. location worked out well for us. We had no shortage of entertainment & food. I am so glad that we rented a car & borrowed a GPS unit from a buddy. That GPS unit became our best friend. We never got lost and it had TONS of information on places to go see and eat.

I hope to meet more of you in CV!

 

Although I had a few problems during CIV, overall it was a lot of fun. Starting things off with the movie marathon was great! I'd say that was the highlight of the whole thing. Talking with John Alvin was a lot of fun. He really seemed excited to be there. The hours with Carrie Fisher and Ray Park were awesome too, especially Fisher who is absolutely hilarious! Plus the crowd was a lot of fun. It was great being around so many Star Wars fans, I've never experienced anything like it.

If I had to complain it would only be about the prices for food, an incident that made me miss out on most of Saturday, and a rather disappointing meeting with Anthony Daniels. But overall my CIV experience (which happened to be my first Celebration experience) was great!

Can't wait for CV!

 

The only thing I really had to complain about was some roommate drama, but at least it was resolved eventually. This was my first Celebration, so I'm thinking of it as a learning experience. I've learned that next time, it'll be worth the extra money to either get my own room or to just share with maybe one person whom I trust.

Anyone tempted to spend their last pennies on a trip to London in July so we can do it again?

 

Sigh... sure wish I could go to London. Would love to have more time to talk to everybody, and not have to spend practically every minute on work! I keep entering The History Channel contest... LOL.

 

C-IV was absolutely amazing! Never in my life have I had so much fun. I don't think I slowed down once during the five days I was there. There was always something to do or see, and I enjoyed every mintue of it. So many speakers and panels and shows! Meeting JCers was definitely the best part, though.

If they do a C-V, I will be first in line for sure.

 

We wound up at the Walk-of-Fame Holiday Inn which was two blocks from the Kodak and Graumann's. The rest of the family had a blast and even cuaght the American Idol contestants Wednesday after the finale. In addition we hit:

In-and-Out Burger
Universal Studios including the backlot tour
Sunset Blvd
Rodeo Dr
The LaBrea Tar Pits
Venice beach for margueritas
The Santa Monica Pier to dip our tootsies in the Pacific

The Chuckspawn and I took The Metro to the convention center everyday, and we used the buses to go everywhere else. I would recommend however that you don't use public transportation dressed as an Endor Commando. Every other time I rode the Metro there were no announcements, but when I showed up in costume; every time I got on a platform or train the warning, " If you see any suspicious persons or activity in the area; please notify the authorities immediately." It only happened when I was in costume. I also passed some LAPD officers and had their undivided attention until I showed them my convention badge. On the whole it was a most excellent adventure.

 

I had a great time! What made it great? I've been asking myself this. I had so many experiences that rocked and some that just pissed me off. This was my third time working for Mary's Elite Squad and I had tons of fun! My hardest job was line control for the Boba variant at the SWshop.com booth, but was the funnest as well! I met so many cool people and had a great time with them. It helped that they listened to me because I had to do my job and they respected that. I don't get that much living in LA permanently now... I had some who said I was a jerk (keeping it clean), but I was a jerk to everyone equally." I guess I am an equal opportunity jerk! LOL
I had fun setting up in the archives and chatting with people I met from the Rose Parade and FIDM events from a year prior. It was just great!

My biggest thrill is knowing that I'm working to make the event the best I possibly can for others. The volunteers combined efforts hopefully made it a fun time for all (I've seen the complaints and some are valid, but it is what you make it). Everyone I have seen who I knew attended C4 and asked their thoughts said that they liked it and had fun. So, I am happy and am looking forward to the next Celebration where ever it is!

some of the people I met, but didn't have enough time with were Caroline and Christine and Julia! J, you need to sleep more and relax every now and then, but D-Land and SW for vacation would make anyone hyper! Rach, I still owe you that B-day drink. The folks at TDH.com, thanks for letting me sit at your booth when my foot was killing me. That really helped out! Oh, how can I forget Fangs from the Badlands! You were so much fun!!!

But my favorite part was meeting one person in specific. e-j, you just are just so much fun and so entertaining! You made my Celebration even better!

 

e-j is also reeeeeally tolerant

 

Hmmm.... is there a limit on the number of times we can enter that contest?

 

Limit is one entry per day per e-mail address. I checked .

Contest ends June 3.

 

"But why is all of the CIV gone?"

ENCORE!!!

 

I think of Celebration as a Star Wars trade show, not a convention. Compared to other events of its size (like DragonCon) then the programming is extremely light. Even so, I didn't get to some things I might have liked. My priorities were wearing costumes for 5 days and hanging out at the fan tables and I got lots of that.


A few random, notable things:

- They had convention center staff at the doors looking for badges. BIG improvement over CIII where they were slow and under-staffed.

- Good line management and experienced volunteers. I overheard a couple of volunteers comparing CIV to ComiCon and I wonder if that made the big difference between CIII and CIV, that the volunteers had experience with big crowds?

- I hardly got to the Fan Club lounge, but I appreciated the chairs and couches they had there.

- The store was really quite surreal. Huge space with islands of product in the middle of the room, like a modern gallery of conceptual art. Lots of space and hardly and waiting. I did not even try to find the CIII store, what people were saying about it was so bad at the time, but CIV was a breeze.

- Carrie Fisher was quite good. If any of the actors want to come to future Celebrations and just come on one or more nights for a performance or a show, that would be terrific. I don't care about autographs or questions.


Is there a play list for the fan films they showed at CIV??? (and CIII, too) There were quite good, but I'd like to be able to look them up online as well and see what I missed.

 

To be fair, DragonCon is at least three times the size of a SW Celebration, and not quite so family-oriented.


We really enjoyed C4 ourselves. Wednesday we worked Will Call (always a good opportunity to meet SW fans from around the workd ). Thursday was the day we kept all to ourselves and did all of our buying, autographing, and saw SW in 30 Minutes. That day was capped off with the 501st party. Friday morning was getting Fisher's autograph, One Man SW and later we worked the costume contest. The opening ceremonies were a snore, but along came Saturday to erase that boredom. First it was some shifts at the Lazer Tag followed by the entertaining Kershner talk. Then we did an OPX shift with Ray Park (that man must have ADHD ), then the 501st shoot, and finally the Carrie Fisher event. Sunday was mostly volunteering but we did get to work the MR party as well. That was a nice evening and the current relationship with LFL didn't really affect the party. Monday morning was for a last look around followed by an afternoon shift with Peter Mayhew. He was quite entertaining, although some of his comments aren't repeatable here. No big complaints overall. C4 was quite enjoyable for us.

 

I had an absolute blast. It was my first Celebration and a really good experience overall. A few things I might have done differently. For instance, it wasn't until late Saturday that I discovered that the Hotel Figueroa was the place to hang out at night. Oh and Carrie Fisher walked by the vendor booth I was working at and stuck her finger in the little lighted electric fan we had going. No one seemed to recognize her walking through the Exhibitors' Hall.

There's a list of the fanfilm winners here. I think another one was Revelations which is also on atomfilms.com if you do a search.

 

I was fortunate to have driven from home just 1hour and 30 minutes to the L.A. Convention Center on Friday and stayed until Monday.

I miss it.

I took my beta reader who came all the way from Florida. We are posting a story here called "Luke Organa, Prince of the Sith" and we only knew each other through emails/phone.

I took my 7-year-old son who was dressed as Darth Vader and I was Princess Leia.

I even met my doctor there!

Here is some pictures:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sherazade92700/album?.dir=5f6escd&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

I am writing an article for a local newspaper and if you would like to share your C4 story, send me a PM!

I am so happy I was able to go!

Sherazade

 

with all due respect, there's nothing wrong with complaining if it's a ligit grip. my goodness, the opening ceremonies thread says it all as well as a few other threads. we're all so worried about not saying anything negative about anything that has to do with lucas...I mean come on, let's be real. a certain amount of honesty would be good here. we pay our hard earned money to support his empire, we should be able to expect a certain level of expectation. this is why we wait in the long lines whether it be the movies or the conventions.

yes for the most part we had a great time and it was way cool to see everything and everyone there. the moments I spent with some of the actors i'll never forget. to get the autographs and pics with them was way cool too. to see what I saw was good and would probably do it again (maybe), but to somehow say that if you had a bad expeience in any way, forget the fact it was in many ways, then that's complaining? i'm sorry I call that being honest in ones experience. it was what it was: some people had no problem ever ever ever and it was like a fantasy world for them where they were transported to another dimention in time and they're still there and for some, well **it happened.

I don't want to complain as it would've been nice to have all go well or if something did happen, it wasn't a big deal. that just wasn't the case for me and many others. if I was to ignore that and pretend it didn't happen because gee golly I got to see some friends, i'd be living in denial. sorry i'm too honest of a person to think like that. again I say this will all due respect and i'm not raining on your time as i'm sure it was wonderful.

 

Tom, I still owe you a drink for saving my life as well!

 

Yes, that is true; you do owe me.

 

Hah! I wish I had seen this thread before the "HORRIBLE!" one. Good to hear that some folks had a good time (I know I did).

You guys rock.

 

I can certainly agree that it was great fun to be there. I really liked the interaction you could have with not just other fans, but also with Authors, Artists and alike. That together is what made it such a great experience: the interaction and fun together.

 

This is my third one, and in many ways C4 is much better than previous ones. Each C has had it's pros and cons but IMHO I think things get more streamline and less of a headache with experience, for both the fans and the convention management. I am SOOOO ready for the next one!

 

I had an awesome time at Celebration IV. This was my second Celebration (first one was Celebration III) and both were great. They both had their ups and downs, but I've had a spectacular time overall at both events and I can't wait for Celebration V.

 

I can't wait to do it again. So sad to think that C5 is two years away. Any chance of having a JC get-together at some other upcoming cons, like ComicCon or DragonCon? Erwin also suggested we could all go to Las Vegas for a little reunion next year, which would be interesting to say the least....