Because I live in east coast I already spend a pretty penny to pay for me and my fiance to spend a weekend here, so in order for this to be worth the trip I have some extremely high expectations. The reason I ventured out this far was to see some guests for my Fire Emblem collection but what I got was quite a bit more than what I expected.

Artists Alley/ Vendors

When it comes to vendors I’m not really all that picky about the selection. I was actually really satisfied with the vendors that were here, I found a shot glass with a Fire Emblemsymbol on it which was something I have been hoping to find for awhile now. What I liked most was the room that they had to look around. The convention had a lot of attendees and yet there was plenty of room for me to walk around and I didn’t feel crowded at all which I absolutely loved. Like I said earlier, I went with my fiance and it’s very important for me that she doesn’t feel crowded. I felt like this convention did a fantastic job providing a lot to offer without making everyone feel like a pack of sardines. As for the artists alley, I’m extremely picky on what art I get and I found two artists that managed to create artwork that met my expectations and several others that I stopped and spent a long time considering, another reason I was glad it wasn’t crowded. So overall it was one of my favorite shopping experiences at a convention.

Panels

I didn’t go to a lot of panels for a reason I’ll discuss in depth in a minute, but with the panels I did go to I really had a great time. I went to a few Q&A sessions and the sound quality was great, I even got offered to talk in a panel by Tara Sands for a Pokemon Generations discussion. I didn’t get to but the offer was still pretty cool. There was a pretty wide variety of panels offered and I thought it was a great selection.

Guests

As I said before I went to this convention to find guests for my collection. I was very happy with the guests at this convention but I was worried about the autographs. This convention puts all the guests signing in one line and you line up for all of them. I didn’t exactly have much luck with that last time I dealt with that. This time was different because the staff managed to help me be at the right place at the right time to be near the front of all the lines for the autographs I wanted to get. I had no trouble getting the autographs I wanted, which was a relief because some people like Cindy Robinson and Mela Lee do not attend conventions often and I did not want to miss out.

Extras

Remember how I told you I was busy and didn’t go to a lot of panels? That’s because I was busy earning ribbons for my badge. You earn ribbons for a variety of things such as pokemon battles, random trivia, games, I even got a ribbon for pretending to die in front of a Mimikyu. I found these random activities so addicting that I was walking around looking for staff pokemon trainers to battle for ribbons. I even got three shiny pokemon ribbons that represent shiny pokemon from the series. I also got to beat Team Valor and Instinct, I couldn’t find Mystic. I infiltrated Team Rocket from the inside with the help of Looker, a staff member dressed as Looker, and got a ribbon for singing I’m a little teapot. It was this randomness that I found addicting and I loved finding new ribbons to add to my badge because each one was a new story that was part of my convention experience.

Final Verdict

I was hoping to get rare autographs and have a decent time at this convention and got way more than what I expected. I got great panels, I had a comfortable time with the shopping, the guests were amazing and there was so much to do at this convention. I really wish it was closer or I’d go to this convention next year just because I had that great of a time. Unfortunately it’s a flight across the nation so making this a yearly trip would get too costly, but if the guests are awesome again I’m sure to come back. This was one of my favorite conventions to date.

Hotel

While this is not part of the convention review I have to bring up how awesome our hotel was. We went to the Holiday Inn Ontario Airport and it was an awesome hotel. First of all we had a great view from our window, as seen above, the room was comfortable and what really made it great was how awesome the staff was. On our way to the hotel the driver of the shuttle gave us directions on how to get from the hotel to the convention center as well as where to go for late night convention activities not found at the center. He was very helpful and then the front desk was nice enough to recommend some local restaurants to dine at and we were not disappointed, one employee went as far as to get my fiance chap stick because we had no idea where to go to find a place that sells them and we didn’t exactly have a vehicle with us to go places. Overall if we go to this convention again, we will be at this hotel.