Sorry if this thread was going to be made by a staffer. If so feel free to delete this thread.

There are only a few things worth griping about this year.
1. The Dealer's room: Scarce supply of porn. Recently turned 18 and I wanted to celebrate by legally buying porn. But that's not a big deal.

2. Karaoke: One night? C'mon! I only got to sing once, plus I loved that AP was the only con where there were originally two nights of Karaoke.

3. The Dealer's room: Taxes, taxes, taxes. That's all I can say. I was so psyched about buying something where the prices were labeled, with no fine print, and even asking the vendor "How much does the [blank] cost?" and getting a reply with the correctly labeled price, but when they decided to bag it and it almost reaching my hand, they blurt out "$40, with tax..." tax... It's not the part about paying tax, it's the part of not informing the consumer that the tax was not already added on.
No where at that booth, did it state "$[x]+ tax.]

Was it the anime palace booth?

Agreed.

1) dealer room has nothing.
2) taxes wtf desu?
3) REQUIRE MORE MINERALS

Hmmm. I'm not sure. If you were to enter the dealer's room, and take a right, and then turn the corner, it was the longest, and I think the only booth on the left side.

I actually saw plenty of things in the dealers room that I wanted, but I didn't buy anything so I had no idea about the taxes. Not all of the vendors taxed though. I know that because I was shopping with a friend and one of the vendors gave him amazing deals with no tax added or anything. I thought AP did a pretty good job with the dealer's room this year, especially knowing that Tekkoshocon was the same weekend.

Location: There was no real central place to hang out like at last year's AP. Sure there was a lobby but there was limited seating and it didn't really feel like the right kind of place to just sit and relax. Also, the halls were cramped and not a good place to just stop and chat if you felt like it. Along with this, the artist alley was in one of these hallways and I always felt like I was in the way whenever I stopped to look at something.

huh, no, it wasn't anime palace then, though I think they had some taxes too (I'd have to check the receipt for my figs and stuff), unlabeled.

- Nowhere to eat within walking distance
- Dealers room stuff sold out FAST

Not really too much to gripe about. Maybe I'm still in zombie mode and can't remember.

The noise room (Ballrooms 1 and 2) was a place set up that never had any events, just music playing. It was space we used to do just that.

My gripes?

Disgustingly overweight minors wearing booty shorts and short-shorts up their asses.

Seriously, do any cons put up a Decency barrier? Watching what appeared to be molted ham hocks jiggling was very disgusting. I'm all about self expression and costuming, but this was sheer attention whoring.

And for the record; No, they were not cosplaying anything, the ones I spotted were all the 16 and under crowd trying to look nasty as hell for some reason.

I think the only gripe I had about the location was that it was a heck of a long walk to get food.

It's all Karma. If they dress like whores, they'll be treated by whores.

Hm, I knew that place was there but never really stopped in. I guess it was because the lobby in '07 was right where we got off the elevators and it wasn't really a room as much as it was where everyone was. It's hard to explain but it had more of a homely feel to it.

And if they are treated like whores, they will become whores.. Then probably give us all hepititus, luckily we have a hole that can cure it at this new hotel.

The biggest gripe of all, especially for those who played BlitzBall: THERE ARE NO RULES!!! The woman that was running as the refree was a complete idiot. I mean come on, do you have to stop every couple of seconds to put on a new rule or give a speech of how someone threw the ball wrong? Not only that she couldn't keep the scores straight.

But they LOVE the attention it seems, otherwise they wouldn't do that.

I had a pretty good time, all in all. If anything, I would make panels that were more varied? Or at least more panels going on at the same time. There were long periods of time when I was just wandering around in the hallway trying to find something to do, because none of the panels in that hour interested me. Not that hanging out isn't fun, it's actually my favorite part of cons, but it would have been nice to go to more than three or four panels the entire time I was there. I ended up going home earlier than I had expected because nothing after the cosplay really appealed to me. That's not the cons fault, that's just my personal taste, but I feel that if you had more panels going at once, you would appeal to more people.

Minor gripe - why was the hotel so cold? I'm not sure if that's a problem you could handle or more of a hotel issue, but I was freezing the whole time I was there. It's good for cosplayers in heavier, hotter outfits, but I was shivering in the ballroom when I was watching the cosplay. It seems like the only warm part of the building was in the hallways.

I was cold too. Maybe they'll turn the AC down a little next year?

I was freezing in my hotel room, but everywhere else seemed warm, by comparison, at least.

I guess my main grievance is just the general layout of the hotel. There were definitely some rooms that were bigger and spacier, but last year's hotel was a lot more open, with a lot less halls to walk through. I was in the noise room a lot, and I had a good time in there, but I think it was more comfortable when the entire lobby was the hangout area, as opposed to one room having to be set aside for it.

The dealer's room definitely seemed spacier, though, and the ballroom worked nicely for the cosplay and most other events held in there. I don't think it worked that great for the concert or rave, though, for whatever reason. Liked the room last year better for those 2 events(well, ignoring the technical difficulties, that is, the lack of them was nice...although the beatboxing was missed). Oh, and the game room was much better. I guess it was mixed.

Being able to walk to the waffle house last year was also a luxury I missed, but I managed to work around it.

I loved the waffle house last year, the waiters were all so baffled though. I had one ask me, "Honey, is there a party going on near here or something cause a boy came in here in a dres and PINK hair?" Imagine that all in a really twangy accent and you will see how hard it was for me not to piss myself laughing with her right there :D

Hmm, it was a fun time and all, but my gripes would have to be some that've already been said.

1. The fact that there was no central place to meet. That just plain sucked. Sorry guys, but a noise room just doesn't do it. It's not big enough and theres too many tables in such. The lobby last year was ideal for that type of thing. (not to mention that the entire layout of the hotel was way better)

2. Cramped hallways and such, yeah, stuff like that, not being able to just step aside and talk to people or something without constantly feeling as though you were in the way.

3. Okay, this may seem minor and what not, and I can sort of understand why you guys did it, but it still kinda got to me. My buds and me didn't get to the karaoke until well into it, and we asked if we could do Hare Hare Yukai or Sakura Kiss and the guy running it said "it's already been done." That was said about almost every Japaneses song we knew XP So, we were out of luck. I can understand not wanting to play a song like, four or five times, but repeating it once or twice won't kill anyone. Plus, we really wanted to do Hare Hare Yukai T.T

On the plus side....

1. Larger dealers room, heck yes.

2. The layout of the gaming room was way awesome... all though... did DDR have to be in a closet?

3. And yeah, the con so rocked!

my only.. well the only one im gonna post problem was the cosplay... isnt ness and marth super smash characters?.. and when were they EVER in an anime...

There was a Fire Emblem anime but I don't think Marth was in it...

I'll address that.

Firstly, we did have a few verbal screw ups that resulted in us allowing some video game characters to walk on, but they were not judged.

Secondly, there was a Fire Emblem anime with Marth starring in it, it is just an old one. Early nineties, I believe. It was a short ova and I don't believe it ever actually made it to America. And on that same note, the Ness proved to us (hardcore!) that there was an Earthbound OVA as well, just a very obscure one and again, never brought over to america. Believe me, he had enough source material to prove us wrong on that one.

Oh wow. That's awesome. I want to see both of those now!

The one thing that was probably the worst of all was the location. The hotel was beautiful, but it was definitely not an ideal place to hold Anime Punch. The layouts of the previous two hotels were perfect, and I what I was honestly expecting.

My gripes? Hotel was COLD. I was running gaming for most the con, and we thought it would warm up decently after we had lots of people and systems in there running. Even with all that, it was still cold. The lobby was cold, the hallways were cold, everything was pretty darn cold. I adjusted the climate control in the few rooms that I had panels in that had the ability to make it less cold, but most places you couldn't do that.

We had a few staffers that either didn't hear or completely ignored our brief on how we handle security, and therefore I saw and heard of a few instances where fun stuff was happening that got canned for no real reason. I believe the appropriate people have been shot (or at least reprimanded).

Not enough TVs for the gaming room, definitely not enough projectors everywhere.

Con suite closed Friday night. Con suites should NEVER, EVER close; especially at night when you need a caffeine boost and a place to chill for a while.

Not enough staffers at the hentai panel. That could've been so much more awesome, but it was awesome as it was anyway.

Mostly a bunch of small, nitpicking stuff. I thought the con was pretty damn awesome, things went more smoothly then ever before, and I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!!

Agreed - I believe this hotel, while nice, didn't have a great layout for a con. A large central lobby is nice for a smaller con, since people-watching is a main event. And the hallway got way too congested because of Artist's Alley.
What is the staff's opinion?

The noise room was (unsurprisingly) too noisy to just hang out in, so I saw people draping themselves everywhere. You see that at every con, it just seemed a little more obnoxious than usual (in the elevator?? C'mon!).

DDR in the game room closet wasn't pleasant, but it did help keep the game room funk to a minimum.

Pro's: Nice panel selection (yay drinking songs), con suite was great (tasty curry, thank you), dedicated room for Rockband, dealer room was easy to navigate.

Edit: Temp was perfect for cosplayers, but that's just my opinion.

This is the only convention (possibly in all the world) with a consuite that goes even remotely near 24 hours! It was closed for about 3 hours the entire convention, so fucking deal with it!

As for the layout. I personally love having a central atrium. Sometimes that's not always possible though.

The con suite was closed from about 6-9 AM on Saturday morning because the people who were in there watching it needed sleep.

I thought the temp was perfect, and putting another shirt on isn't that hard anyway. It was freezing balls outside all weekend so how did everyone that was cold actually get to the building?

Again, Con suite was closed for about three hours, that's pretty sweet if you think about it, and all of those times were VERY late. I left con suite at 3 am friday night and I know that at 6 am saturday it was still open also.

For those who wish there was an atrium, there was a lobby that was lame but DID exist, and there was a HUGE hall chunk in front of main where we had the dance performance and where the much spoken of spin the kunai happened. A great place to sit and congregate for sure. A CENTRAL location would have been nice but the other hotels were worse in every other way BUT that.

Okay, and thank you. I'm glad staff is recognizing the lack of a central lobby and how it plays into a con atmosphere.
Obviously I don't know the other hotel choices so I can't comment on what was ultimately better, but thank you for acknowledging our gripes.

To my knowledge, the other hotels in the area simply didn't have the space for a convention our size. We pretty much outgrew last years hotel, as nice as it was. Trying to keep it there would probably have been disastrous, space-wise. This hotel didn't have the best layout, but the halls were wide, we had the noise room, and a few other small places to congregate, so, it could have been worse.

It is hard if you're wearing a costume and you don't want to cover up your costume. I didn't put another one on underneath before I came because I didn't expect the hotel to be THAT cold (when I was at Ohayocon in January, in cold weather, my costume was enough to keep me comfortable while I was inside.) And I didn't stay overnight, so no change of clothes. Would it have killed the hotel to turn up the heat at least a little? It's good for the more heavily dressed cosplayers that the hotel wasn't hot, but at the same time, it's not good to freeze the guests who aren't dressed heavily. I was very uncomfortable in the main ballroom because I was so cold in there, even with all those people who had gathered to watch the cosplay. Going out into the hallway didn't help much, either. The game room was another place that was super cold, I couldn't stay in there very long.

But I suppose different people have different comfort levels. Some people can just tolerate the cold better than others. I'm not one of those people, unfortunately. x_x Like I said, it was a minor gripe and not a huge deal, but I really hope the con next year will be a little warmer. Knowing my luck, I will put on another shirt underneath my costume and that's when the hotel will decide to blast the heat. :P

It's weird. I was unbearably hot most of the convention, but I'm used to keeping my house at a fairly cool temperature. And a lot of the time, I was in hot cosplay (Hello, Viral had a scarf, shirt, cape, and THEN add my hot binding on top of that,) or doing events that had a lot of people in a small space, thus raising the temp.

So I totally just skipped the second page of this but I'm going to put in my gripes too...

1. I hated the Noise Room. I went to see a panel and all I could hear was the Noise Room. That would've been fine if it had been in some other location, but putting it next to the main ballroom thing was irritating...and I would've hated to have been an artist there.

2. Speaking of artists...cut down much? I like looking down Art Alley. I like seeing the knicknacks that I shouldn't buy but am because I'm supporting some artist and not some company. I was an artist last year and I feel like one of the reasons I didn't get to have a table is because there were not even HALF as many tables this year.

3. Dealers Room. Crowded and severe lack of good merch.

I can't complain about much more. I was actually quite happy with everything...except maybe the hotel, but that's already been addressed.

Yes! I thought I was the only one that was kind of put-out by the fact that the DDR was in what looked like a closet that had indeed been hacked out of the side of the wall.

The DDR closet should've been twice as big as it was, but the hotel didn't remove the stuff that was in it. So we had to make do with what we had, which I thought turned out pretty awesome anyway.

Plus the cosplay room was very hot compared to the rest of the convention.

TRUE. Four massive lights and limited ability to change the temp in the room kept it pretty damn toasty in there XD