Problems with Queueing anyone? And general views about Sat

[Kite]

I did have some issues

1. The line for the line to buy tickets was extremly long. In the end to get tickets it took an hour and a 40 mins

2. When I left the expo to use the toilets. I came back and there was a line to get back in to the expo

3 Whilst in that line to get back I was talking to someone and apparently there was a screw up with the early entry so they only got to go in 40 minuites later then wwhat was advertised. And apparently the express line was also filled with people who didnt book the appropiate ticket

4. Personally I hate the UV stand system. As when you use the toilets. You cant tell if you washed the UV stamp in the sink. I know its dificult to rub off a UV stamp but if you dont know what those stamps can do. Whether it can rub off with a touch of water

I dont mean to have a moan As in the end the day was a great time. And i can understand if it was due not having enough staff as there were 2 other events happening as well. The property one and the Nigeria one

Just thought I would post this up and I would be interested to hear what others though about the day in general

[JellyTheGreen]

It was a good day in general, thankfully I seemed to avoid all of these problems by getting to the convention early and being pretty much near the ticket booth to buy when they opened. However, I found the line to get -in- after buying the tickets to be a bit... silly. I mean, yeah, every other time we've had quite a few people having to go in and line up, but how did the line get to big? How did the line to get tickets get so big that when I bought my tickets, me and my friends gawped and felt very sorry for everyone in the massive line- bigger than any other year I've been to!

It seemed they were understaffed in general, 3 ticket booths open on perhaps the most busiest London Expo I've been too was a little silly. Hopefully they correct this next time.

Also, the Nigerian expo and the business-like expos didn't help with population control either.

[alicedragon]

I thought today was great. It did seem slightly busier then usual, but that might have been because of the two other events. We had early entry tickets and we weren't sure where we were supposed to go, but luckily there was plently of staff that showed us in the right direction. I thought the staff were really helpful You can't really moan about there being too many people, it's just something you can't avoid. The people moaning about the on the day tickets queues must be people who haven't seen/heard about them before. The reason there was a queue to get back into the expo was because they have to check everyone's stamp and the line moves pretty fast anyway.

[fks-102]

The staff were pretty helpful, thats for sure. When we went into the hall we were told to walk straight ahead because we had pre-paid tickets. Then we were confused where to go next but then we saw a member of staff waving like a mad man at us! Lol
I'm glad i came early - when there was room to move around freely. As the day rolled in it became hard to move in the hall I thought. It was so hot aswel so we kept on going to sit outside
We found it well worth the extra £3 to miss out that MASSIVE queue. That must have been horrendous
Overall, I really enjoyed it and will definately go again next may, it cosplay next time though.

[shaneh87]

There was a queue for most of the day from what i saw.Might be the reason the room wasn't that packed XD I got there at like 9:45 and walked straight in gotta love that early entry

[Verbaluk]

I enjoyed the day my first time in london for years i live in manchester was so sleepy set of at 4 am in morning XD.
Most annyoing thing was the early entry thing wating after 9 am to get in kinda meh but did not really make a big diff as still got in faster then the other people.

All in all i really enjoyed it next time i go i soo wanna cos play also i wonder if thier was any one else from near my end manchester probs not people where very freindly thier also what in these times is great seeing people smiling having fun ect.

Just hope next time i can get to know a few people on these forums felt weird walking about seeing tons of people grouped up hope the people that are thier on sunday have a great day.

[NekoShuffleJump!]

I had an AMAZING time. I went on my own but I still managed to talk to people and it was just beyond excellent. MCM just gets better and better each year! There were so many awesome cosplays it was incredible and I think I hugged more people today than I have in my entire life, including other expos! So much happiness it was awesome!

Big thanks to Adziu for his help on the route, without it I may not have made it there at all! I also thought I saw you on the DLR, until I realised you'd probably be in cosplay not to mention I thought I saw you a few times throughout the expo each time wearing something different. So it's either clones or I'm terrible with faces. Probably the latter!

Thank you to the girl with the Kiba facepaint and her friend who kindly let me friendily stalk to the expo so that I didn't get lost!

Thank you to the TF2 Cosplayers who let me tag along on the way back to Victoria! Yes it was long, yes we took the 'scenic route' but it was an adventure XD I couldn't have gotten home without you!

The two Left 4 Dead zombies were awesome and were excellent at their role! They totally stayed in character all the time which must have taken so much talent. When the male zombie stared down my camera lens, aside from being totally freaked out I could see by the look in his eyes that he WAS the zombie at that moment, so much skill! The female zombie chased me when I said "HIIII~!!!!" right up close to her and then ran away, those zombies can really move XD

Tarzan was both awesome yet somehow disturbing at the same time with his loincloth and loincloth only =P

Topless snake was amazing too, your voice cracked me up everytime I heard it! XDD

I hugged Hello Kitty, high-fived Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, and the two guys who did The Matrix cos-- Lookalike were just stunning, never seen such amazing resemblence before.

I almost had a yaoi moment with a stranger seeing as we kept running into each other again and again. Don't worry, I was the Uke =P

Thanks so so so so so sooo much to everyone who let me take a picture, I'm really gutted that loads came out bad and blurred because I didn't stay still for long. HUGE thanks to everyone who let me hug them and hugged me back. I always try to hug anyone with a 'Free Hugs' sign but sometimes if it's in an awkward position where we can't really move then I can't do it, this year I managed to hug loads of people!

Thanks everyone who went, you really DID make MCM absolutely intense, even though I went alone you all kept me company in various ways shapes and forms ^^ I saw some other people that seemed a bit lonely too, reach out to people! We'll reach back! ^__^

Of course, HUGE thanks to the MCM staff who's hard work and organisation made this all possible! We love you!

Argh! I don't know how to cut this off but I'm just going to be babbling on and on about how great it was and various stuff I remember if I don't stop soon! I'll probably remember a bunch of stuff as I make other posts XD

[Tesla]

To get into Expo wasnt to bad. I had early entry and only had to queue for 40 minutes.

I agree with the problems about the queues if you had to leave the room to go to the loo or grab something to eat. Took me an hour to get back into Expo ( thankful my stamp hadnt washed off ).

Didnt seem to many stewards there and on the whole i think they did a great job to control the queue jumpers and pushers in but if I was gonna critize at all it would have been nice not to be screamed at by them whilst trying to queue or when trying to get into line.

Was my first expo experience and really enjoyed it.. was able to do all of the parts I wanted to do with very little waiting around.

Really impressed and had a wonderful day.. looking forward to coming again.

Thanks so much MCMexpo

[Timcanpy55]

I think it was good, could have been better but yeh the ticket que was awful.

[ANDREWHEARNE]

Nice thing I like about the Excel centre there is no need to get a taxi, I got there around 10:30am time and did not have to queue very long, only 15 to 20 minutes so it was really easy. The hand stamp is a good idea..

[laurarattigan]

The queuing was ridiculous. I had early bird yet didnt get in until 9.45. What is the point in paying £5 extra for each person when you get in 15 minutes beforehand? I was queuing way before 9am and witnessed queue jumping, people who had arrived much later getting in first, it was ridiculous.

[Solaris Phoenix]

I think with so many people buying early bird tickets and the length of the queue, it's going to be difficult to get everyone in for the set time. If you've got, say 5,000 people all wanting to get in at 9am, you've got to tear all their tickets and stamp all of their hands without getting a huge crush of people going for the entrance at once. Trying to let everyone in at the same time could be devastating if you consider tragedies like Hillsborough.

When I went to the Anime Expo in California, which gets phenomenally greater attendance than the London Expo simply because it's in LA, everyone had different coloured passes around their necks that staff just needed to glance at to make sure they were in for the right day, and a third colour for 4-day attendees.

Having said that, it would have helped if they'd actually opened the gates at nine...

[Lenrir59]

Bring back the old stamp system! Almost didn't get in twice since the UV ones were virtually invisible!

That was my only gripe, rest was good.

[Wally]

I knew from previous experience that I'd be waiting for a lengthy time to get in at the general opening time, but seriously. Have we not learnt after 16 expos that it might make it easier to have more ticket booths? I also remember when there used to be a line JUST for buying fast track tickets. Maybe I got in a tiny bit too late, but it sure as heck did make it a lot easier previously.

Expo staff were very polite, but some of them didn't really seem all that sure where to put people who had purchased fast track tickets that morning. However, the lady I did ask was very helpful and went to go double check, to make sure she was doing things right. Well done to her!

I can't say the same for the non-expo staff though. I met an extremly rude man working by the exit, who interupted me mid-sentence when my boyfriend tried to line up and kept getting told to pretty much go away, and not re-directing him to where he was meant to be going. Trying to talk to him was very hard and I got me pretty frustrated, which made me upset, and in turn made him get worse. I feel that after all this time, if staff still can't handle people who just want to know what's going on and where they're meant to be going, what on earth are they doing there?

Apart from all that, Saturday was BRILLIANT. I went as Ronald McDonald and met tons of lovely people (apart from one who thought it would be hillarious to kick me. TWICE.), spent lots and generally had lots of laughs!

Well done expo. =D

[Ryoko]

I did get really miffed on the Saturday, having to que for about 20 miutes for RE-Entry into the hall after leaving to take someone outside to go home and to get some water and something to eat. IMO knowing there was a huge que to get back in would put people off ging outside for fresh air, some water, food or even a trip to the loo, which cant be healthy. What was more annoying that was my friend and I were split from our other friends, I would have been really gutted if I was on my own and had to que again to get back in to find my mates.

Also, did anyone else notice that the 're-entry' door kekt changing, so the first time you's use one door, then when you went to try and re-enter again you got seriously yelled at by some stuards to use the other door.

I had a great weekend but I did have a bit of a strop at the re-entry que when all I wanted to do by that point was collapse and sit.

[Adziu]

Saturdays are getting extremely crowded with the huge number of attendees. I have to admit I find all that queuing hard to deal with and often wait until much later to go in.

Sunday is far more comfortable.

[Granny Gertrude]

I found it easier to move on Saturday compared to May, but of course I don't do much moving around. I'm glad the hall was bigger though, or it would have been as crowded as May. I'm sure the dealers loved the number of people though!

[Saikouze]

I didn't really understand where the entry and 're-entry' were. So when I finally got my ticket (only 45 mins though, so im not complaining) I didn't know you could just enter, so I joined the 're-entry' line the whole way for 20 mins!!

[sunny1r]

Usually i get in the queue at 10 and leave at 11, but this year my friends were lazy so we qeued for normal entry at 11 we finally made it into the expo at 12:40. IF i had known that I would be in the queue for almost 2 hours i would have forced my friends to leave earlier.

the queue jumpers were quite sneaky this time round. They Free hugged people further up the queue and then stayed with them. This happened to my little brothers friend and the jumpers ended up in expo within an hour.

Saturday was great pretty everyone had great costumes and i loved the huge space available. Definitely nowhere near as crowded as May or any of the other Expo's I've been to. So good job there:D

The invisible hand stamp was hilarious when i first got it. By then the stewards knew what i was going to ask and immediately said "It's Invisible Ink you'll see it under UV light:D". The washing hands problem is easy to go around, just have it stamped further up the arm so it wont get wet.

[RanmaSyaoranSaotome]

I must be the only person who enjoys the queue, even though it WAS painful wearing my head ._.

[Toadsanime]

My only problem was that this was the only time I've had to queue to get back in to the hall after being stamped. It was probably down to having to be checked over for your UV stamp.

[Adziu]

I must be the only person who enjoys the queue, even though it WAS painful wearing my head ._.

Nah, queuing in an eye-catching costume is fun, as people come running up to you for photos.

[Lloyd_Irving]

I got up at 8am to queue on Saturday, my friends needed extra time to work on their costumes.
Think by the time I got in it was nearly quarter to 11.
Being on my own for that long was boring, but I was glad to get in xD

[Toadsanime]

I must be the only person who enjoys the queue, even though it WAS painful wearing my head ._.

Just quickly noting that I saw you on several occasions and spoke to you for a bit but was unsure if you recognised me. I was asking you how much of a pain it was to be wearing that head and you said it weighed several stone and stuff.

Anyway, on topic, as I have advance tickets queueing isn't quite so bad and is certainly bareable.

[Adziu]

I got up at 8am to queue on Saturday, my friends needed extra time to work on their costumes.
Think by the time I got in it was nearly quarter to 11.
Being on my own for that long was boring, but I was glad to get in xD

It really is much better to go everywhere with friends!