Fanime First Timer

[SomeDudeNamedErwin]

Hey, I'm a con virgin I've never been to one before, but I want to go to Fanime this year. So I want to know everything there is to know about getting in and stuff. And how to avoid the long line I read about. Thanks for the help in advance.

[Kuudere]

Theeeere's pretty much no way to avoid that line. But honestly, it's not the worst thing ever, since you're surrounded by interesting people who have the same interests as you. Bring a portable gaming device or something if you're by yourself and don't want to socialize.

[kookiekween99]

At this point, you have the option between early registration and at-con registration. Early registration is for the whole weekend and is done online. I believe the price is $60.

If you have any other questions concerning Registration, check the FAQ: http://www.fanime.com/registration-faq/

As for how to avoid long lines, I find that going Friday afternoon rather than Thrusday night or Friday morning cuts down wait time to around 5 minutes. However, you run the risk of missing certain programming that happens Friday morning, so it's up to you to decide which is more important to you: short line, or seeing EVERYTHING. I personally don't really care about seeing EVERYTHING, so I tend to show up Friday afternoon after school.

(Note: I'm not staff, I just wander these forums a lot.)

[ShadowKnight508]

Well, I showed up at roughly 8 AM last year and was in the mid-200's in the line when they opened the doors (took 33 minutes from when they opened the doors for me and my friend to reach the front of the line to register). However, the line was almost non-existent after 2 PM, for people were walking through the designated area to sign up without any issues.


What may be best in your case is to do the early registration and pick up your pass on Day Zero (Thursday, May 26th) so that the following day, you can get in the faster "already registered" line and get into FanimeCon in a easier manner.  

(refer to what Kookiekween99 said)

EDIT: Messed up the times...the line was mostly gone if not non-existent by roughly 2 PM.

[LordKefka]

Hey, I'm a con virgin I've never been to one before, but I want to go to Fanime this year. So I want to know everything there is to know about getting in and stuff. And how to avoid the long line I read about. Thanks for the help in advance.

How to avoid the line/wait? You can't completely. You either get there early in line... which requires you to wait a bit before reg is opened or you can get there "late" and expect to wait as well. I dunno how long reg takes though. I heard like... less than a hour so it shouldn't be bad since reg at FanimeCon has been pretty good. Plus, you probably get to talk to a few people while being in line. Should be fun either way.

[Kuudere]

Well, I showed up at roughly 8 AM last year and was in the mid-200's in the line when they opened the doors (took 33 minutes from when they opened the doors for me and my friend to reach the front of the line to register). However, the line was almost non-existent after 10 AM, for people were walking through the designated area to sign up without any issues.


What may be best in your case is to do the early registration and pick up your pass on Day Zero (Thursday, May 26th) so that the following day, you can get in the faster "already registered" line and get into FanimeCon in a easier manner.  

(refer to what Kookiekween99 said)

On Friday? I think I showed up around the early afternoon last year on Friday, and the pre-reg line was out the door and around the building. I guess they apparently joined pre- and early-reg into one line. It was not a 5 minute wait for me, unfortunately. But the staff worked fast considering the size of the line, so the line really looked worse than it was.

[otakuya]

The reg lines go by pretty fast. When you're in line, with several cosplays walking by and antics happening all around you, you already have most of the Fanime experience even without a badge. That goes for pretty much every line at Fanime, especially Cosplay Spectacular, the longest line of all.

[SpiritOfKairi]

On Friday? I think I showed up around the early afternoon last year on Friday, and the pre-reg line was out the door and around the building. I guess they apparently joined pre- and early-reg into one line. It was not a 5 minute wait for me, unfortunately. But the staff worked fast considering the size of the line, so the line really looked worse than it was.

Seriously?  When did you arrive?  My roommate and I go there at about the same time (maybe a little later) and were only in the pre/early reg line for about 10 minutes.

Anyway, as for the regular registration line, the one time I used that was about 4 years ago, and my friends and I were in line for about 2 1/2 hours.  But then again it was a Saturday (busiest day), and we got there later in the morning (around 11) so a lot of people were already trying to get in.  At any rate, I've been doing pre and early registration ever since and have avoided extremely long lines.  I think the longest I've had to wait in the pre/early reg line is 45 minutes.

But like previous posters have stated, there's really no way to get around a line.  Fact of the matter is Fanime's a really popular event and a lot of people want to get in.  You do need to know more things than just which line might be more beneficial, though.  If you do early registration for $60, you will need to bring a government ID when you pick up the badge.  Either a driver's license or a passport will do for this, but not a school ID as they have no security features and are easily faked.  I don't believe you need to bring one if you buy a badge at the convention, though.  In those cases they aren't susceptible to giving an attendee someone else's badge if they're buying it on the spot rather than picking up one that's already paid for.

[Kuudere]

I want to say it was around 1-ish (my memory of the time may be imprecise, though). They had to have a staff member next to the door that the line continued out of in order to prevent people from accidentally cutting by thinking that the line ended at the door. When I was let into the indoors line, I had to keep telling the poor people that the line continued outside whenever they'd get behind me. It wasn't a painfully long wait or anything, but it definitely was longer than 5 minutes.

[SpiritOfKairi]

Ouch =(.  Yeah I can imagine it sucked a little not only having to wait in line that long, but also having to tell the newcomers they had a ways to go when they tried to get in line.  But at least everyone got in within an hour or two, right?

As for the time, I think we got there a little bit later, but not that much.  Kind of amazing so much changed during that time considering we strolled right in, were immediately at the front of the line and could see the staff booths, and shortly after had our passes in hand.

[robozombisaurus]

Umm myself and a friend of mine are making videos to help.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Muwcyrxbhmo
that one is about registration hope it helps  :P

[SomeDudeNamedErwin]

Wow, guys thanks for all the help. I'll be there for sure, I'll be crossplaying as Konata.
Yep, my first time at a con and I'll be crossplaying as our favorite Blue-haired otaku. ;D