Con Recap: Anime Matsuri 2011, a.k.a. Oni-Con Part Deux.
I've been meaning to re-post my Anime Matsuri recap for days now but I've only remembered it while lying in bed. Netbook time. The following is copypasta'd from the A-kon Artist Alley forums.
Oh my God where do I even frickin' begin...
Even though I'd heard all the horror stories about the hotel from people who survived Oni-con 2005, I tried to stay optimistic. That was six years ago, the hotel had gone through a major renovation, it COULDN'T be that bad again. Sometimes my optimism heading into potentially suck-tastic situations reaches levels of stupid that even I cannot comprehend.
My mom and I drove down on Thursday morning and got there about 12:40pm where we were greeted by a security guard that did nothing but nod at us no matter what we said. It wasn't until later in the day we found out the reason he did nothing but nod was because he had no idea what the hell we were saying -- he didn't speak a lick of English. Always a good idea to put people who cannot speak any English at all in a position of interacting with people. That was our first warning sign.
The second was checking in. I ALWAYS get to cons the Thursday before early in the afternoon to try and get my room on a low floor for the sake of my mom's claustrophobia on elevators. We have NEVER had a problem doing this. This time, though, the guy at the front desk told us go "go somewhere and come back at three and then you can check in." My answer was "Go WHERE, exactly?" We then asked if we could unload our truck and store our luggage until 3:00. "Nope, our storage room is too small. Keep it in your car." It's 80-something degrees outside, I don't want to leave my luggage out in the car where stuff like makeup and iPods can melt. We had to anyway.
Once we FINALLY got a room, we headed through the maze. The hallways were filthy with crap everywhere, wet spots on the carpet, and what looked like dried vomit on the second floor. Our room was disgusting. The bathroom hadn't been cleaned from the previous occupants and had wrappers behind the toilet and hairballs drifting across the floor. There was something smeared on the screen of our TV which didn't work with the remote OR manually pressing the buttons on the front of it. The clock didn't work, either.
We waited for another two hours trying to get somebody to help us get our stuff out of the car and ended up having to find a cart ourselves to do it. I have a fridge and microwave I take to every con and it's incredibly hard for me to handle because I have a bad back. We had to haul the cart to the corner of the building because that was the ONLY ramp in the entire parking lot. Once we were in the building and struggling to get the cart down the hall we came across one of two hotel employees who gave a damn about anything, an engineering guy named Josh. He asked if he could help us and he took the cart the rest of the way up to the room and even unloaded it in the room for us. We were SO thankful he had no idea. He ended up coming by throughout the weekend to say hi and chat with us which was one of the only things that was good about this weekend. He told us if we needed anything to just call Engineering and ask for Josh and he'd help us, whether it be for luggage or whatever. God, he was so nice!
The artist alley was a joke on Thursday afternoon. As I mentioned in the other AM thread, we were originally only going to get ONE of those narrow tables. ONE. And they were only about a foot away from the walls with no exits and no chairs. Seeing as how I couldn't find ANYBODY from con staff to ask about this, I hunted down Janet, the manager from the hotel who was in direct contact with the con. She was the only other person from the hotel who gave a damn. I told her how much the current set up WASN'T going to work and why. She told me there weren't supposed to be any chairs there and we were supposed to stand the entire weekend! By the time our conversation was finished she said they'd double up the tables and give us chairs. It took me another two hours to find Leon to find out where the hell we were supposed to check in.
As for pre-reg and on-site reg being outside, Janet had NO CLUE why AM set up that damn tent outside; she had planned for them to be inside next to one of the ballrooms. That is the ONE THING that was completely Am's fault, not the hotel's.
Friday morning some idiot pulled the fire alarm. The hotel staff came on the PA to say an emergency signal had been received and to wait for further instruction. About 10 minutes later they shut off the alarm and of COURSE they never came on to give us the all clear. I had to call the front desk to find that out. At least at Akon when the fire alarm gets pulled they come on to tell us to ignore it!
I am so glad Leon placed me in that big corner of the hallway in front of the concession stands! I had a little bit more room behind my table and it wasn't quite so much of a cattle call directly in front of it. I felt SO BAD for the people who were down that main hallway and even worse for the people in the doom hall, particularly when I saw the elevator was out of order. By that time the situation seemed typical for the hotel. Calls for the elevator to be fixed fell on deaf ears just like calls to maintenance, housekeeping, and bellmen to the rooms.
Friday night was the damn rave. Right outside our window. At one in the morning. I know people have been bitching about it being shut down and moved, but come on. Not everyone is at the con to party all night; some of us are there for business and actually want some sleep at night. The music was so loud at the height of it that my mattress was vibrating! I was one of many who called down to the front desk to complain. I have no problem with the people who want to rave, but do it in a ballroom or something AWAY from the rooms. People have to coexist at a con.
As I stated in the other AM thread, by being seated in the corner of that hallway I got to witness every disgusting thing the hotel staff did at that concession stand. They included:
- Wearing gloves only half of the time
- Handling a sweat rag while wearing the gloves and then touching food with said gloves immediately after using said sweat rag on themselves
- Passing an open trashcan over the top of uncovered food
- Keeping pastries and condiments like tomato, lettuce, cheese, etc. out in the open and completely unprotected from coughing, sneezing, and touching
- One of the women behind the stand kept finger combing her hair into a ponytail right over the food and then not washing her hands before handling the food again
Needless to say it was unappetizing. The heat was also TERRIBLE on Friday, a little better on Saturday, and I have no idea what it was like on Sunday because I rage!quit everything and went home. We brought a table fan down with us on Saturday and had it going under the table for most of the day.
Sunday I came across people sleeping in the hallways CROSS-WISE so the entire hallway was blocked. They were so out of it that they didn't even BUDGE when we asked them to move. Where was security to make sure that crap didn't happen? I then went downstairs to pick up my stuff from the front desk and found my table cover had been stolen. I have used that cover at 12 previous cons and nobody had EVER touched it. By this time I was so angry at the entire situation I ended up rage!quitting everything, checked out of the hotel early, bitched at them until I got some fraction of a discount, packed up my stuff and left.
THAT was a whole other ordeal -- trying to get a bell cart to haul my fridge and microwave back down to the car. The bellman we eventually got (after complaining LOUDLY for a long time) was verbally abusive and obnoxious to us the entire time he was "helping" us and had an accent so thick we couldn't understand anything he said. He ran ahead of us and bitched at us the entire time to keep up with him through the crowded hallways. He cussed the entire time, and once he got our carts in the truck and I said we needed to go up to the room to get the fridge and microwave he was exasperated and said "I am VERY BUSY!!" and I almost lost it with him. I told him that's all well and good but we were trying to get the hell out of there and we were paying customers so GET UP THERE. It wasn't until right when he was loading the fridge and microwave into the truck that he finally got really, really nice -- because he wanted a tip. Needless to say he didn't get one.
After our luggage was packed into the car we went back to break down the print stand and saw two cops sitting behind our table. WHERE WERE YOU LAST NIGHT. We broke down, my lovely neighbors helped me carry the print stand out to the loading area, and my mom pulled around with the truck to load it in. While we were finishing up our packing Josh came running up to us asking where we were going because he had put in a special rush request to fix our TV so we'd have it that night (we were planning on staying over and driving back Monday). He stayed and chatted with us for a little bit after that, we told him how wonderful he'd been, and we asked him his last name so we could write corporate to say nice things about him. He apologized profusely for the horrible treatment we'd gotten while we were there and gave us hugs before we left. I wonder how such a nice guy was stuck working with so many idiots.
I heard several other stories throughout the weekend like one woman with the rodeo who checked in to a room with no towels and vomit in the sink, other rooms with blood stains, pizza boxes on balconies from previous occupants, and various states of mold and mildew in the bathrooms. I also heard about the vice president of the hotel kicking a 15-year-old girl in the legs as she was sitting on the floor quietly talking with some friends (they're the ones who told us about this), and was then rudely told to go back to her room. In the middle of the day. Talk on the AM boards is that one of the managers was arrested on Sunday for assault. I hope it was him.
Dear God I've never been so happy to leave a con. It's a shame, too, because the con itself was okay; sales and attendance were good. I would go again but only if they are NOT at this hotel ever again.
Thankfully AM has said they will not be returning to the Crowne Plaza. I already wrote a letter to their corporate offices and hopefully a lot of other people from the AM forums have done the same. That place seriously needs to be shut down by the health department.
Oh my God where do I even frickin' begin...
Even though I'd heard all the horror stories about the hotel from people who survived Oni-con 2005, I tried to stay optimistic. That was six years ago, the hotel had gone through a major renovation, it COULDN'T be that bad again. Sometimes my optimism heading into potentially suck-tastic situations reaches levels of stupid that even I cannot comprehend.
My mom and I drove down on Thursday morning and got there about 12:40pm where we were greeted by a security guard that did nothing but nod at us no matter what we said. It wasn't until later in the day we found out the reason he did nothing but nod was because he had no idea what the hell we were saying -- he didn't speak a lick of English. Always a good idea to put people who cannot speak any English at all in a position of interacting with people. That was our first warning sign.
The second was checking in. I ALWAYS get to cons the Thursday before early in the afternoon to try and get my room on a low floor for the sake of my mom's claustrophobia on elevators. We have NEVER had a problem doing this. This time, though, the guy at the front desk told us go "go somewhere and come back at three and then you can check in." My answer was "Go WHERE, exactly?" We then asked if we could unload our truck and store our luggage until 3:00. "Nope, our storage room is too small. Keep it in your car." It's 80-something degrees outside, I don't want to leave my luggage out in the car where stuff like makeup and iPods can melt. We had to anyway.
Once we FINALLY got a room, we headed through the maze. The hallways were filthy with crap everywhere, wet spots on the carpet, and what looked like dried vomit on the second floor. Our room was disgusting. The bathroom hadn't been cleaned from the previous occupants and had wrappers behind the toilet and hairballs drifting across the floor. There was something smeared on the screen of our TV which didn't work with the remote OR manually pressing the buttons on the front of it. The clock didn't work, either.
We waited for another two hours trying to get somebody to help us get our stuff out of the car and ended up having to find a cart ourselves to do it. I have a fridge and microwave I take to every con and it's incredibly hard for me to handle because I have a bad back. We had to haul the cart to the corner of the building because that was the ONLY ramp in the entire parking lot. Once we were in the building and struggling to get the cart down the hall we came across one of two hotel employees who gave a damn about anything, an engineering guy named Josh. He asked if he could help us and he took the cart the rest of the way up to the room and even unloaded it in the room for us. We were SO thankful he had no idea. He ended up coming by throughout the weekend to say hi and chat with us which was one of the only things that was good about this weekend. He told us if we needed anything to just call Engineering and ask for Josh and he'd help us, whether it be for luggage or whatever. God, he was so nice!
The artist alley was a joke on Thursday afternoon. As I mentioned in the other AM thread, we were originally only going to get ONE of those narrow tables. ONE. And they were only about a foot away from the walls with no exits and no chairs. Seeing as how I couldn't find ANYBODY from con staff to ask about this, I hunted down Janet, the manager from the hotel who was in direct contact with the con. She was the only other person from the hotel who gave a damn. I told her how much the current set up WASN'T going to work and why. She told me there weren't supposed to be any chairs there and we were supposed to stand the entire weekend! By the time our conversation was finished she said they'd double up the tables and give us chairs. It took me another two hours to find Leon to find out where the hell we were supposed to check in.
As for pre-reg and on-site reg being outside, Janet had NO CLUE why AM set up that damn tent outside; she had planned for them to be inside next to one of the ballrooms. That is the ONE THING that was completely Am's fault, not the hotel's.
Friday morning some idiot pulled the fire alarm. The hotel staff came on the PA to say an emergency signal had been received and to wait for further instruction. About 10 minutes later they shut off the alarm and of COURSE they never came on to give us the all clear. I had to call the front desk to find that out. At least at Akon when the fire alarm gets pulled they come on to tell us to ignore it!
I am so glad Leon placed me in that big corner of the hallway in front of the concession stands! I had a little bit more room behind my table and it wasn't quite so much of a cattle call directly in front of it. I felt SO BAD for the people who were down that main hallway and even worse for the people in the doom hall, particularly when I saw the elevator was out of order. By that time the situation seemed typical for the hotel. Calls for the elevator to be fixed fell on deaf ears just like calls to maintenance, housekeeping, and bellmen to the rooms.
Friday night was the damn rave. Right outside our window. At one in the morning. I know people have been bitching about it being shut down and moved, but come on. Not everyone is at the con to party all night; some of us are there for business and actually want some sleep at night. The music was so loud at the height of it that my mattress was vibrating! I was one of many who called down to the front desk to complain. I have no problem with the people who want to rave, but do it in a ballroom or something AWAY from the rooms. People have to coexist at a con.
As I stated in the other AM thread, by being seated in the corner of that hallway I got to witness every disgusting thing the hotel staff did at that concession stand. They included:
- Wearing gloves only half of the time
- Handling a sweat rag while wearing the gloves and then touching food with said gloves immediately after using said sweat rag on themselves
- Passing an open trashcan over the top of uncovered food
- Keeping pastries and condiments like tomato, lettuce, cheese, etc. out in the open and completely unprotected from coughing, sneezing, and touching
- One of the women behind the stand kept finger combing her hair into a ponytail right over the food and then not washing her hands before handling the food again
Needless to say it was unappetizing. The heat was also TERRIBLE on Friday, a little better on Saturday, and I have no idea what it was like on Sunday because I rage!quit everything and went home. We brought a table fan down with us on Saturday and had it going under the table for most of the day.
Sunday I came across people sleeping in the hallways CROSS-WISE so the entire hallway was blocked. They were so out of it that they didn't even BUDGE when we asked them to move. Where was security to make sure that crap didn't happen? I then went downstairs to pick up my stuff from the front desk and found my table cover had been stolen. I have used that cover at 12 previous cons and nobody had EVER touched it. By this time I was so angry at the entire situation I ended up rage!quitting everything, checked out of the hotel early, bitched at them until I got some fraction of a discount, packed up my stuff and left.
THAT was a whole other ordeal -- trying to get a bell cart to haul my fridge and microwave back down to the car. The bellman we eventually got (after complaining LOUDLY for a long time) was verbally abusive and obnoxious to us the entire time he was "helping" us and had an accent so thick we couldn't understand anything he said. He ran ahead of us and bitched at us the entire time to keep up with him through the crowded hallways. He cussed the entire time, and once he got our carts in the truck and I said we needed to go up to the room to get the fridge and microwave he was exasperated and said "I am VERY BUSY!!" and I almost lost it with him. I told him that's all well and good but we were trying to get the hell out of there and we were paying customers so GET UP THERE. It wasn't until right when he was loading the fridge and microwave into the truck that he finally got really, really nice -- because he wanted a tip. Needless to say he didn't get one.
After our luggage was packed into the car we went back to break down the print stand and saw two cops sitting behind our table. WHERE WERE YOU LAST NIGHT. We broke down, my lovely neighbors helped me carry the print stand out to the loading area, and my mom pulled around with the truck to load it in. While we were finishing up our packing Josh came running up to us asking where we were going because he had put in a special rush request to fix our TV so we'd have it that night (we were planning on staying over and driving back Monday). He stayed and chatted with us for a little bit after that, we told him how wonderful he'd been, and we asked him his last name so we could write corporate to say nice things about him. He apologized profusely for the horrible treatment we'd gotten while we were there and gave us hugs before we left. I wonder how such a nice guy was stuck working with so many idiots.
I heard several other stories throughout the weekend like one woman with the rodeo who checked in to a room with no towels and vomit in the sink, other rooms with blood stains, pizza boxes on balconies from previous occupants, and various states of mold and mildew in the bathrooms. I also heard about the vice president of the hotel kicking a 15-year-old girl in the legs as she was sitting on the floor quietly talking with some friends (they're the ones who told us about this), and was then rudely told to go back to her room. In the middle of the day. Talk on the AM boards is that one of the managers was arrested on Sunday for assault. I hope it was him.
Dear God I've never been so happy to leave a con. It's a shame, too, because the con itself was okay; sales and attendance were good. I would go again but only if they are NOT at this hotel ever again.
Thankfully AM has said they will not be returning to the Crowne Plaza. I already wrote a letter to their corporate offices and hopefully a lot of other people from the AM forums have done the same. That place seriously needs to be shut down by the health department.