DragonCon 2013 - the good, the bad and the ugly-Part one

[agt_spooky]

Let's begin with the bad and the ugly, shall we, and save the good for another post.

Wow, this was such a screwy convention this year that I don't know where to start!

How 'bout from the beginning? My buddy charityflint and I arrived on Thursday afternoon and after checking in immediately went to pre-reg at the Sheraton. Last year we walked right in. Not so much this year. To our horror and amazement, the line stretched all the way down the block, around the corner, all the way down that block, around the corner again and halfway down that block! I honestly lost track of how long we were in that line, standing outside in the overwhelming heat and humidity. I thought I was going to pass out by the time we actually made it inside the hotel and wound our way through the endless queues to get our badges. We found out later they finally had to cap the line at 9 p.m. and reopen at 8:00 the next morning. It was insanity!

The other huge issue we had was with Froggy's Photos, the official photographer for the convention. Last year he had his schedule up several days before the con so you could plan your days around the times for the actors you'd picked. Not so much this year. Here it was, Thursday night, with the con starting Friday morning and there was still no schedule. Not only that, but to make the situation even worse, this year Froggy's was going to be having photos both in the Marriott and at the Hilton, creating even more chaos. They finally put out one copy of a schedule out on the tables at both hotels, which hundreds of people were trying to take pictures of with their phones, only to tell us that well, it's not actually the final schedule. Come back at 9:30 tomorrow morning! Seriously?? WTF?? Needless to say, this was not a good start to the convention.

It ended up being that Charity and I had to be back over at the Marriott the next morning anyway because we needed to get autograph tickets for Richard Dean Anderson and William Shatner, which was down the hall from Froggy's, and were supposed to go on sale at 10:00 am. I end up finding out my first photo op with Michael Cerveris (the Observer from Fringe) will be at 12:30. Should be plenty of time to get our autograph tickets and make it to my photo op, right? Yeah, not so much! After standing in line for two and a half hours the RDA and Shatner people are still not ready to sell because they don't have any tickets! It was absolutely ridiculous and we were among a ton of pissed off people. I ended up having to leave Charity standing in line to go get my photo op.

And here was the next theme of the convention, after the "standing in endless lines" theme - actors just completely blowing off their photo ops.

After waiting in line for nearly a half hour we were told that Michael simply "didn't show up" and that we would all have to try again on Saturday. Can you believe that shit? And it wasn't just him. I heard from people that several Buffy and BSG actors never showed up, either. And those are just the ones I knew about. Talk about a slap in the face to your fans. And it wasn't just the photo ops. The person next to me in line said that she waited for nearly 3 hours for the Walking Dead panel and none of the actors showed up! Several of the Stargate people didn't show up to their panel, either! Oh, and then an hour before my photo op with Amy Acker it was announced that she canceled her entire convention appearance!

The frustrations continued after that. As many of you know, I'm a big fan of Star Trek Enterprise, so I was thrilled that Dominic Keating was going to be there. I pre-purchased his photo op online from Froggy, but when the final schedule appeared, Dominic wasn't on there. After inquiring about him on Friday morning I was told he had canceled his convention appearance, too! I was so upset by this point I wanted to cry. It took nearly 20 minutes for me to get a refund. Now Dominic's panel was supposed to be on Friday afternoon but since I was told he wasn't there of course I didn't go. So imagine my surprise when I went into the Walk of Fame and there at the very first table is Dominic Keating! I immediately went up to him and told him about the photo thing and being told he canceled and he was pissed. He'd been fighting with Froggy about not being put on the schedule and Froggy basically said "too damn bad". Can you believe that shit?? He told me that he finally got Froggy to put him in at 3:00 on Saturday and noon on Sunday but still wouldn't list him on the schedule. So I had to go back and wait in line for half an hour to re-buy his photo ticket again! I was so incredibly pissed that I'd missed Dominic's one and only panel as well. As you can guess, things didn't go well when I showed up on Sunday for his photo. The guy at the photo room door was like, "Who? He's not on the schedule. He canceled." I was ready to punch someone, I swear. Thank god, right at that moment Dominic appeared and I'm like, "HIM! RIGHT THERE! Let me in the goddamn room!" I had seen Dominic in the hallway the day before (he was staying at my hotel) and he said "Hello, love" to me, so when he saw me for the third time, walk up for the photo, he held out both arms and was like, "Come here!" It was really sweet and he was thankful that I had persevered and finally gotten my photo. I felt really sorry for him. He was treated like shit and he'll never be back to DC and I don't blame him one bit. Now I understand why so many people hate Froggy.

Then there was the Night at the Aquarium event we went to, which is a pay event, it's not free. Last year the outbound shuttles never showed up, forcing all of us to walk all the way to the aquarium. And we paid for the shuttle. Nice, eh? This year the shuttle was supposed to start running at 6:30. It was nearly 7:00 (the time the event started) before it showed up and instead of being a full size bus, it was some tiny thing. We didn't make it onboard the first shuttle and had to wait 30 minutes before it showed back up again. Yes, they were running one shuttle for the hundreds of people lined up. Unbelievable. Those poor people at the end of the line probably didn't get there until the event was nearly over.

Format changes - the Walk of Fame was moved out of the Hilton and over to the Marriott, which sucked because we stayed at the Hilton and it used to be convenient. The dealer's room was moved out of the Marriott and down the street to a completely different building. We heard so many horror stories about the new location (overcrowding, elevators and escalators not working) that Charity and I didn't even bother going.

Endless lines - You'd think that after holding this convention for a zillion years the DC people would know how to handle the crowds and get people lined up. But no, it's always mass chaos and you're smashed together like sardines for hours. I felt so sorry for the people they made line up outside for various panels when the skies opened up on Sunday and it poured rain for several hours.

There were just so many things that went wrong this year, which really blew us away since last year was so much fun. This year was nothing but an exercise in frustration, leaving both Charity and I to seriously consider not going back next year, which is a shame.

Some good things to come in the next post. Honest!

Comments

[cadia58.livejournal.com]

"HELLO, LOVE"?? How can you even remember any crappy stuff after THIS??? ;-))

[agt-spooky.livejournal.com]

LOL! You are absolutely right. Thank you for putting that in perspective. :-)

[greeneyes-fan.livejournal.com]

You know, that many guests canceling suggests that something odd happened behind the scenes. Especially since the cancellations were not publicized in advance.

[agt-spooky.livejournal.com]

The thing was (besides Amy Acker) they weren’t actually cancelations. The actors were there at the con, they just decided to not show up for their photos and/or panels. I’ve never been to a con where the actors have done this and it blew me away that they’d treat the fans that way.

[deanvica23.livejournal.com]

God very bad organization. Not of schedule what hell for the actors and fans. I think when the actors see a bad organisation as that they leaves or even their management ask their to leave. That suck sorry.

[agt-spooky.livejournal.com]

I don’t know how things went so wrong this year when last year was so good. It hurt both the actors and the fans. You don’t pay good money to get treated like crap.

[bluewolf458.livejournal.com]

I know that actor appearance is subject to possible work schedule, but all those 'cancellations' makes me wonder if the actors were even approached and invited to attend in the first place.

[agt-spooky.livejournal.com]

The thing was (besides Amy Acker) they weren’t actually cancelations. The actors were there at the con, they just decided to not show up for their photos and/or panels. I’ve never been to a con where the actors have done this and it blew me away that they’d treat the fans that way.

[bluewolf458.livejournal.com]

Now that is odd - years ago one of the Trek actors said that for them, cons were basically boring, and their appearance was the only thing that broke the boredom.

So now I wonder... was there some glitch in their contract with DC? Had they been told when a photo/panel had been scheduled? Because reading your reports makes me think that someone on the committee wasn't doing his job properly.

[girlygothic.livejournal.com]

was there some glitch in their contract with DC? Had they been told when a photo/panel had been scheduled? Because reading your reports makes me think that someone on the committee wasn't doing his job properly.

I'm thinking pretty much the same thing. Considering how last minute Froggy was with posting the "final" times for photo-ops, how much you want to bed that the guests were told different times?

[agt-spooky.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking pretty much the same thing. Considering how last minute Froggy was with posting the "final" times for photo-ops, how much you want to bed that the guests were told different times?

I really have to believe that was the case. If it was one isolated incident that would be one thing, but to have multiple actors not show up? That’s just too bizarre to be a coincidence.

[agt-spooky.livejournal.com]

I’m beginning to believe there was a major miscommunication breakdown between some of the actors and the convention. If it was one isolated incident it would be one thing, but multiple actors missing panels, photos, etc? That’s just bizarre. Because like you said, if they’re not actually doing something it’s boring. And why would you do that to your fans, you know? Because without us (and our ratings points) they’d be out of a job!

[mdfawn.livejournal.com]

This is so interesting (although obviously not for you) because I have someone on my f-list from the other fandom I'm in that is a volunteer for the Con. Watching her Tweets you would have never guessed at these problems.

I'm so sorry that this year's experience as soured you and your friends desire to go next year.

[agt-spooky.livejournal.com]

It’s all a matter of what you feel is most important for your con experience. For me it’s the photos and autographs. So if your volunteer friend wasn’t working those sections she really did probably have no idea the chaos that was going on elsewhere. She was lucky she wasn’t dealing with all that!

Hotel rooms for next year go up for booking next Tuesday, so I’ve got til then to decide if I want to go back. I have a feeling I’ll try it one more time, but if it’s another bad experience it’ll definitely be my last. :-(

[rivercritter.livejournal.com]

How? How were we both in the same city at the same time and never got to meet up even for dinner?? :(

[agt-spooky.livejournal.com]

Sunshine! OMG, as you read in my entry here, things were just bad, bad, bad for me this year. Nothing went right. Because of schedule changes and impossibly long lines nothing that Chris and I planned turned out right. We missed so much stuff. Including YOU! I am SO mad everything blew up in my face and I couldn’t connect with you. Then I went and left my stupid phone in my hotel room on Sunday! ARGH! I’m heartbroken I didn’t get to see you. I didn’t even get a chance to meet up wtih my buddy Adam who lives there, too. :-( But I’ll be back next year and we’ll make solid, air-tight plans before the con even starts. {{HUGS}}

[donelbo.livejournal.com]

OMG ... after reading your post I'm seriously thinking about not attending next year!!! That sounds like a big nightmare!!!
Besides Amy canceling the Con (which doesn't surprise me that much) the Dominic story is just BAD!!! Is there only 1 photographer for the event?

I'm mean WTF ... how can the actors don't show up for there photo sessions and panels? They get payed for that!
Specially I always thought that the BSG people were so awesome to the fans!

*points to the icon*

I heard that Julie Caitlin Brown is running the Con ... is that true?

[agt-spooky.livejournal.com]

OMG ... after reading your post I'm seriously thinking about not attending next year!!!

I know I was afraid I was going to scare you off! I don’t know why this year was the complete opposite of last year.

Is there only 1 photographer for the event?

Unfortunately, yes. Froggy is it.

I'm mean WTF ... how can the actors don't show up for there photo sessions and panels? They get payed for that!

I know! I can only hope that it wasn’t their fault. That with all of the confusion going on with the schedules they just didn’t know when and where they needed to be.

I heard that Julie Caitlin Brown is running the Con ... is that true?

I honestly have no idea. That’s the first time I’ve heard her name mentioned, but I also don’t know much about the behind the scenes of DCon.

[donelbo.livejournal.com]

You were really close to scare me off ... but in the end it didn't work :P.

It is so funny ... I have your voice in my head as I read your comment to my comment. :D :D :D
Maybe I go crazy now ...