The Bad of Dragon Con 2014

Last year, I did a post about all the bad things about Dragon Con and I thought I'd do that again. While my con experiences were mostly positive, there were some negatives. I'll cover the good stuff in my daily recaps that I'll be posting in the next couple of days.

The biggest bad was the crowds. Friday felt more crowded than usual but it was still pretty easy to move around, especially early in the morning. Sunday was fine, crowd-wise, but we left early on Sunday because I got sick.

Saturday was awful though. The crowds were extremely thick. Saturday crowds have always been heavy in the eight years I've been attending Dragon Con, but it has gotten worse and worse the last few years.

We got stuck a couple of times in the same place. In the Marriott there is a junction where you can go right to go to the Hyatt, left to go to the food court or the women's bathroom and straight to go to the blood drive and some track rooms. First time we got stuck was around lunch time and we were trying to get to the food court. A line was being routed through there for some reason and once we got past the doors out of the Marriott the crowds thinned out.

Later that night we were trying to go straight to get to the Kaleidoscope track room because there was a panel I was on. Todd is good about bobbing and weaving through the crowds but we got stuck behind a pair of women who were in wheelchairs side by side!

I don't mind seeing wheelchairs and I try to give them space, but these women were causing a traffic jam because they didn't have enough sense to go single file in a highly congested area. Todd darted in front of them to try and get around, and one nearly ran him over! Luckily they didn't and we made it with a few minutes to spare to my panel.

I also had more issues this year than any other with people stopped at the top of escalators. Escalators keep moving but several people stopped and gawked at the top of them, nearly causing a pile up. This happened to me many times over the course of the weekend.

Lastly, the dealer's room in the America's Mart was a bad as well. They had it in the same place this year and it was still a hugely confusing maze. It also got very crowded and we didn't even try to go there on Saturday. At least this bad is hopefully going to be fixed - from what I've heard, they are moving it to another building in the America's Mart where it should be less of a maze.

All in all, the good did outweigh the bad and I'll go over the good in depth with my recaps of each day. But the crowding issues is something that Dragon Con is going to have to address sooner than later.

Dragon Con Cospitality Lounge

Dragon Con is only a couple of weeks away. Lots of excitement on social media as the con gets closer, but there was an announcement yesterday that has gotten a mixed reaction.

The 10th floor of the Marriott is a large open space that has traditionally not been used by the con. It has over the years become one of the most popular places to do meetups and have photoshoots. The only time I've ever been up there was for a BPAL meet & sniff my first Dragon Con ever.

But this year it's being turned into a cosplay rest area where no photography is allowed. The Cospitality Lounge, as they are calling it, is being hosted by Riot Games. I like this idea as a place were cosplayers can go and rest or do repairs. But I never really used the 10th floor before so I'm not losing anything.

I can understand why people who use that area are upset though. It's two weeks before the con and a lot of the cosplay photoshoots have already made arrangements. Now they have to scramble to try and find another area that won't be too crowded and big enough to contain a cosplay group. I've actually never done a photoshoot - but I've seen pictures and they can be large gatherings.

Hopefully those groups will find places to go and hopefully the cosplay area is pretty cool!