I honestly went to this convention a little apprehensive after two rough convention experiences back to back but I was hopeful that this event would turn things around and be epic.  This convention had a nice layout where it was split among two hotels and had quite a bit to offer. So without further delay I’ll get right to my thoughts on it.

Guests

As some of you may know guests are the primary reason for me to even attend any conventions.  This convention had amazing guests; however, this convention does not have a large list of guests so keep in mind that if you go to this convention to meet someone, it’s a good chance a lot of other attendees are there for the same person.  The autograph sessions went really smooth.  I like how this convention will watch to make sure people don’t line up too early and once the line forms they give the people in line tickets so that nobody can save a spot in line for someone not there.  Plus it’s a nice way to prevent a lot of disappointment from people who waited for the entire autograph session only to not get an autograph since the tickets serve as an estimate for how many people can get autographs during the session and if time allows they will allow those without a ticket to line up. It was a really smooth and well done system.

Panels

I didn’t do much with panels at this convention because most of the panels I wanted to go to were during autograph times; however, this convention had several amazing fan panels that discussed various topics, a lot of how to panels and many panels featuring the guests.

Organization

I want to put a little thing on the organization of this event because I feel like this is where this convention shines the most.  The event is in two hotels with one hotel containing all but one of the autograph sessions and all the gaming events.  The other hotel had the panels, dealers and a final autograph session which featured every guest at the convention.  I know a lot of people will wonder why not do all of this in one hotel, well the fact is they used every nook and cranny of the hotels they were in so if they were to do anything of the sort they would need to change locations.  Truthfully while it was a little bit time consuming to go from one hotel to the other I was rather fond of the location and how it was used.  Furthermore this convention had a reliable shuttle service between the two hotels with the most lovable drivers.  I rode on buses with four different drivers and each one made a pleasant atmosphere for the ride.

The convention designated doors specifically for an entrance or an exit with the dealers which at first made things difficult to find but luckily there was plenty of signage and color coded tape used to assist with that matter and the staff did a great job moving people around to make sure everyone could get where they needed to be.  Overall I rarely ever felt this relaxed at a convention and the organization shown at this event made this possible.

Dealers/Artist Alley

There were quite a number of vendors at this event and while I didn’t find anything to buy it was nice to see a wide variety of items to shop from.  My fiance even bought her first anime related item, a copy of the Death Note.  There was plenty of room in the dealers room to move around comfortable and I didn’t see a lot of the same items multiple times which is something I really like.

Overall

I had an amazing time at this event.  I felt so relaxed and managed to do what I came to this event to do. The organization was a beautiful thing as it seemed like all the planning just made everything fall into place.  At first glace there were some aspects of this convention that seemed tedious but when you take the experience as a whole it really felt like an event that made the most use of their time, space and guests.  If time allows I’m already considering going to this event in 2019.