Post by bababooey on Jun 23, 2014 21:01:54 GMT -5
Got home from Philly earlier this morning. First time in Philly, first time at a Con outside of New York, and first time I went to a Con multiple days. It was a mixed bag. Thursday and Friday were great. There was room to move around and do a lot of stuff. Saturday was a mess. I saw King Bálor (CM)™ standing in line for the Guardian's of the Galaxy photo op so he can confirm mess (I would have come over to introduce myself but I didn't want to lose my spot in line).
The people that actually worked for Wizard World, wearing the black shirts, were friendly and helpful when you could get to them. The volunteers were a complete joke. I can think of multiple times when volunteers walked away from people trying to ask for help.
First i was trying to ask the volunteer with the ponytail and glasses where a particular photo op line was and he just said "Somewhere on that side" and walked away.
Then, there was a line of people forming just to ask the shorter Asian girl about photo ops lines and she actually ran away from everyone. At another point I asked this girl where and when a particular photo op line would be forming and her answer was "We haven't decided yet." How are these things not worked out in advance? I herd people saying the long Doctor Who line was screwing things up, but Wizard World sold tickets for it, so I don't get how they weren't prepared to accommodate that.
Finally, my brother really wanted to get an autograph from Evan Peters yesterday. We saw that you needed to buy tickets at a separate booth for some reason. So we go over to the ticket sales booth where there is a long line. No one was at any of the sales booths. After 10 minutes of waiting for someone to show up, I just went over to Evan's table. The volunteer asked me if a had a ticket. I told him that no one was at the sales booth. The guy said "Well I guess they're out of tickets. You should probably ask someone if there are tickets left." When I asked him who I should ask he walked away.
Not all the volunteers were bad though. There was one in particular that I wish I got her name because she actually deserves credit for the job she did. She was about average height and kind of heavyset. She was working the photo op lines and she was pleasant and helpful, even during the mess Saturday was. She constantly walked up and down the lines with a smile on her face, politely asking people to stay within the tape that distinguished the lines, and stopping to answer questions.
Speaking of the tape that defines the lines, I was amazed at how much trouble people had simply staying between two lines. However, Wizard World could have been better prepared for this. New York Comic Con puts up guard rails to define lines, and they also have the novel idea of putting a sign at the end of the lines so that people know what lines they are walking into as they are walking into it. Wizard World put the signs at the beginning of the lines, so when lines were long, we had to ask the clueless volunteers.
Picking up out photo op prints was another mess on Saturday. People were just hoarding around the tables and not moving. They tell you the wait time for the print is 45 minutes, so I don't get why people were heading straight to the table right after taking the picture. The staff should have also been backing people away from the table or kept the people moving.
The separate ticket booths sucked too. At one point I walked up to Daniel Cudmore's table and the sign said than an autograph was $45 and a picture was $45. I wanted to get a quick picture with him. The volunteer said that we had to buy a ticket. So I figured that since I wanted a picture at his table, I went to the autograph line. The salesperson told me I had to go to the photo op sales. So I go to the photo op salesperson and ask if I can have 2 tickets for a photo op at the table. I give him the money and he hands me two tickets that look like the professional photo op tickets. I say "Are these to take a picture at his table?" He says "No. You take a picture over there where the photo ops are." I told him "We just want to take a picture at his table." The salesperson tells me that he's not taking pictures at the table. I tell him that the sign at his table says that he is. The salesperson just says "Do you want the photo op or do you want your money back?" So I got my money back.
The guests we did meet were all either nice to us or tried to be nice until the staff basically rushed us away. Bruno Sammartino in particular was trying to chat a little with the people he was taking pictures with but the volunteers were shoving the tickets right in the people's faces and telling them to leave. Bruno actually grabbed onto some people and wouldn't let the staff force the people out until he finished talking to them. We took our picture and Bruno started talking to us, next thing I know the volunteer is waiving a yellow ticket in my face and saying "The exit is this way." Bruno's line wasn't even super long.
We waited in line for 2 hours for a photo op with John Cena, but I didn't mind that because it wasn't disorganized. It was just a long line. Cena was nice too. He complimented my brother on his shirt. He said "I love your shirt. I'm a big fan of 8-bit games."
Ralph Macchio was really nice and down to earth. We got an autograph from him and there was like no one on line so he talked to us for a few minutes. He saw my batman shirt and asked me how I thought the new Batman vs Superman movie was going to turn out. Then we talked about My Cousin Vinny and Beer League. He said that he was surprised more people weren't choosing the Beer League 8x10s and he asked me if I was interested in hiring a pitching machine (if you have seen Beer League you will get that joke). We also got a photo op with him and there were maybe 15 people on his line. We took our picture and he said "Let's do one more for the road." So we ended up getting 2 pictures with him.
The Comic Book Men were super down to earth. Only $25 to get a picture with all 3 of them and they chatted a bit.
I wasn't sure who Soni Aralynn was but she was hot so we went to talk to her at her table. She was really nice and we talked for about 5-10 minutes about comics. The conversation mainly revolved around who was the best Robin. I almost started laughing because she's really hot and she kept saying "I love Dick." (referring to Dick Grayson.
Greg Capullo was the nicest guy we met all weekend. On Saturday we tried to meet him but he had a super long line. We were starting to get close to the front and then we saw him get up. All of a sudden he starts walking down the line with a marker signing stuff and telling people "Sorry I gotta go do a panel. I'll be back at 2:00." We were going to buy a print at his table and have him sign that so we unfortunately didn't have anything for him to sign. We went back to his table later in the night buy he was gone. So after we got done with our photo ops on Sunday we went back to his table where there was a sign that said he would be returning at 2:00. It was about 1:00 so we grabbed something quick to eat and returned to the line at about 1:45. Greg got back to his table about 15 minutes late, but as his helper was setting up his stuff he came over and talked to some of us for a couple minutes. He basically said "Sorry I was late. I was just eating this huge burger, and I grew up poor so I still have the mentality of not letting any food go to waste so I had to finish it." So as we got closer to the front of his line, we noticed people were just putting their stuff down and he would talk to them and sign their stuff and take a picture if they asked. He had no prints out that he was selling. We soon realized he was signing up to 5 autographs per person totally free. Luckily, we had bought two designer series figures so we would have something for him to sign if he started running down the line again. So we got to the front, he signed our figures and talked for a second. We were too starstruck to ask for a picture. My cousin wasn't planning on getting anything signed but when he saw it was free, he just put his Adventure Time backpack on the table. I'm sure he was confused as to why he was signing a backpack but he happily signed it. It's cool to see that he was just giving away so many free autographs. He's a pretty big deal but he was very approachable.
Overall, I had a good time. Disorganization aside, we had a lot of fun and accomplished a lot. Kinda sucked that me and my brother were cosplaying for the first time on Saturday and we had pretty cool costumes (I was the Black Mask and my brother was my goon) but we spend most of the day out of costume, waiting in lines for photo ops. We were literally in the photo op area from 1:30-6:00. For New York Comic Con we are going to give cosplaying another shot and try to dress up as Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock (I realized that wearing masks isn't for me). We are going to continue going to Wizard Cons but next year we will likely go to a different one.
The people that actually worked for Wizard World, wearing the black shirts, were friendly and helpful when you could get to them. The volunteers were a complete joke. I can think of multiple times when volunteers walked away from people trying to ask for help.
First i was trying to ask the volunteer with the ponytail and glasses where a particular photo op line was and he just said "Somewhere on that side" and walked away.
Then, there was a line of people forming just to ask the shorter Asian girl about photo ops lines and she actually ran away from everyone. At another point I asked this girl where and when a particular photo op line would be forming and her answer was "We haven't decided yet." How are these things not worked out in advance? I herd people saying the long Doctor Who line was screwing things up, but Wizard World sold tickets for it, so I don't get how they weren't prepared to accommodate that.
Finally, my brother really wanted to get an autograph from Evan Peters yesterday. We saw that you needed to buy tickets at a separate booth for some reason. So we go over to the ticket sales booth where there is a long line. No one was at any of the sales booths. After 10 minutes of waiting for someone to show up, I just went over to Evan's table. The volunteer asked me if a had a ticket. I told him that no one was at the sales booth. The guy said "Well I guess they're out of tickets. You should probably ask someone if there are tickets left." When I asked him who I should ask he walked away.
Not all the volunteers were bad though. There was one in particular that I wish I got her name because she actually deserves credit for the job she did. She was about average height and kind of heavyset. She was working the photo op lines and she was pleasant and helpful, even during the mess Saturday was. She constantly walked up and down the lines with a smile on her face, politely asking people to stay within the tape that distinguished the lines, and stopping to answer questions.
Speaking of the tape that defines the lines, I was amazed at how much trouble people had simply staying between two lines. However, Wizard World could have been better prepared for this. New York Comic Con puts up guard rails to define lines, and they also have the novel idea of putting a sign at the end of the lines so that people know what lines they are walking into as they are walking into it. Wizard World put the signs at the beginning of the lines, so when lines were long, we had to ask the clueless volunteers.
Picking up out photo op prints was another mess on Saturday. People were just hoarding around the tables and not moving. They tell you the wait time for the print is 45 minutes, so I don't get why people were heading straight to the table right after taking the picture. The staff should have also been backing people away from the table or kept the people moving.
The separate ticket booths sucked too. At one point I walked up to Daniel Cudmore's table and the sign said than an autograph was $45 and a picture was $45. I wanted to get a quick picture with him. The volunteer said that we had to buy a ticket. So I figured that since I wanted a picture at his table, I went to the autograph line. The salesperson told me I had to go to the photo op sales. So I go to the photo op salesperson and ask if I can have 2 tickets for a photo op at the table. I give him the money and he hands me two tickets that look like the professional photo op tickets. I say "Are these to take a picture at his table?" He says "No. You take a picture over there where the photo ops are." I told him "We just want to take a picture at his table." The salesperson tells me that he's not taking pictures at the table. I tell him that the sign at his table says that he is. The salesperson just says "Do you want the photo op or do you want your money back?" So I got my money back.
The guests we did meet were all either nice to us or tried to be nice until the staff basically rushed us away. Bruno Sammartino in particular was trying to chat a little with the people he was taking pictures with but the volunteers were shoving the tickets right in the people's faces and telling them to leave. Bruno actually grabbed onto some people and wouldn't let the staff force the people out until he finished talking to them. We took our picture and Bruno started talking to us, next thing I know the volunteer is waiving a yellow ticket in my face and saying "The exit is this way." Bruno's line wasn't even super long.
We waited in line for 2 hours for a photo op with John Cena, but I didn't mind that because it wasn't disorganized. It was just a long line. Cena was nice too. He complimented my brother on his shirt. He said "I love your shirt. I'm a big fan of 8-bit games."
Ralph Macchio was really nice and down to earth. We got an autograph from him and there was like no one on line so he talked to us for a few minutes. He saw my batman shirt and asked me how I thought the new Batman vs Superman movie was going to turn out. Then we talked about My Cousin Vinny and Beer League. He said that he was surprised more people weren't choosing the Beer League 8x10s and he asked me if I was interested in hiring a pitching machine (if you have seen Beer League you will get that joke). We also got a photo op with him and there were maybe 15 people on his line. We took our picture and he said "Let's do one more for the road." So we ended up getting 2 pictures with him.
The Comic Book Men were super down to earth. Only $25 to get a picture with all 3 of them and they chatted a bit.
I wasn't sure who Soni Aralynn was but she was hot so we went to talk to her at her table. She was really nice and we talked for about 5-10 minutes about comics. The conversation mainly revolved around who was the best Robin. I almost started laughing because she's really hot and she kept saying "I love Dick." (referring to Dick Grayson.
Greg Capullo was the nicest guy we met all weekend. On Saturday we tried to meet him but he had a super long line. We were starting to get close to the front and then we saw him get up. All of a sudden he starts walking down the line with a marker signing stuff and telling people "Sorry I gotta go do a panel. I'll be back at 2:00." We were going to buy a print at his table and have him sign that so we unfortunately didn't have anything for him to sign. We went back to his table later in the night buy he was gone. So after we got done with our photo ops on Sunday we went back to his table where there was a sign that said he would be returning at 2:00. It was about 1:00 so we grabbed something quick to eat and returned to the line at about 1:45. Greg got back to his table about 15 minutes late, but as his helper was setting up his stuff he came over and talked to some of us for a couple minutes. He basically said "Sorry I was late. I was just eating this huge burger, and I grew up poor so I still have the mentality of not letting any food go to waste so I had to finish it." So as we got closer to the front of his line, we noticed people were just putting their stuff down and he would talk to them and sign their stuff and take a picture if they asked. He had no prints out that he was selling. We soon realized he was signing up to 5 autographs per person totally free. Luckily, we had bought two designer series figures so we would have something for him to sign if he started running down the line again. So we got to the front, he signed our figures and talked for a second. We were too starstruck to ask for a picture. My cousin wasn't planning on getting anything signed but when he saw it was free, he just put his Adventure Time backpack on the table. I'm sure he was confused as to why he was signing a backpack but he happily signed it. It's cool to see that he was just giving away so many free autographs. He's a pretty big deal but he was very approachable.
Overall, I had a good time. Disorganization aside, we had a lot of fun and accomplished a lot. Kinda sucked that me and my brother were cosplaying for the first time on Saturday and we had pretty cool costumes (I was the Black Mask and my brother was my goon) but we spend most of the day out of costume, waiting in lines for photo ops. We were literally in the photo op area from 1:30-6:00. For New York Comic Con we are going to give cosplaying another shot and try to dress up as Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock (I realized that wearing masks isn't for me). We are going to continue going to Wizard Cons but next year we will likely go to a different one.
