Messages

I might have a friend help me out but does she need a badge? This will be Friday night, she's just wants stay help me if I need food or need a bathroom break or be my human calculator.

Yes, it's required to have a badge on Friday.

It should be fine since I have that same problem before. If you are still uncertain, emailing the Registration staff will help and they can note it in their memo.

They won't let you do it if you're under 18. Best option would be to see if you can transfer the hotel room into the name of one of your friends who is 18+. They don't really care who pays for it, but the name on the room has to belong to an "adult". So, I'd give them a call for sure. :D

Or make sure they listed at least one of the roommates (that are over 18) in the itinerary and they can check in instead.

I stayed at the Fairmont a few years ago (like, around 2010).  It's a fairly nice place.  The lobby is huge with big comfy chairs and the rooms are fairly spacious too.  One kind of awkward thing though, is the shower.  It's this kind of clear glass booth-stall in the corner (think in the same vein as a phone booth), and it's all tile on the bottom so you have to be careful about watching your step.  But IIRC the toilet has a rolling door that blocks it off from the rest of the bathroom, which is nice.

The only other awkward thing I can think of is getting in the building an operating the elevator late at night.  If someone wants to confirm this then go for it, but IIRC at about 9-10 pm they lock the south tower.  This makes it so, in order to get in, you have to insert your room key into a pillar located by the entrance doors.  (You have to be kind of fast catching the door as well.)  Then when you get in the elvator, you have to insert the room key AGAIN before it'll let you choose which floor.  I'm not sure why they do this, but it's a thing, and a good reason to keep track of your room key at all times (besides the obvious ones).

Aside from the little annoying things, it's a nice place to stay.  It's quiet, a short distance from the CC, there are a bunch of restaurants nearby, the rooms are always spotless, the beds are comfy, and just overall it's a good hotel.  Lol only reason I don't stay there anymore is because I like the convenience of the Hilton better.

Good to know! I've only attended Fanime a couple of times, my first year we drove back and forth from home & last year I stayed at Ramada. I'll try Hilton or Marriott next year just because they're adjacent to the CC

The Hyatt is a great hotel to stay in since it is just across the street of the convention center and next the civic. They have mini-fridge and a very comfy sofa in the King room.

[May 15, 2015 11:59pm]

I have a spot for Friday if anyone needs a partner. Also, when is the latest we should pay? I don't have enough funds for $80 atm until my next paycheck.

By latest or before May 15, 2015 11:59pm since that's when we stop accepting applications. Or when spaces run out.

[Hotel Stayed:]

Hotel Stayed: San Jose Hyatt
Nights Stayed: Thursday night to Monday morning
Amenities: Mini-fridge and sofa bed
Helpfulness of Staff: Very helpful and polite. When I was checking in, they gave us the wrong room so I had to go back to the front desk and showed them the email for a double bed room, not one king bed. It was very quick and smooth! The parking was hassle-free!
Roomshares?: 6 people. 4 on beds, 1 on sofa, and 1 on floor. Surprising, it was still comfy to sleep.
Pros of Hotel: Easy walk to the convention center.
Cons of Hotel: Hoping for the window to open more than a crack for some fresh air.
Would You Stay Again: Most definitely.
Recommendations/Suggestions/Misc: For quieter sleep, I suggest getting the room facing the parking garage.

Beside the long lines to get into the swap meet for buyers; as a seller, checking in and items examination went very smooth! You guys were great with the process.

Hopefully, we can get a different venue to hold swap meet. Sitting on a hard floor was rough.

You guys are too amazing! Picking up our badges was a breeze! Beside flying through the maze for a good exercise. XD. It was magnificent. The staffs deserves a good hug! <3

Oh. Is it possible now to switch from CA pick up to Fanime instead if this is going to be an issue?

Yes. You do not have to request it- essentially we ask this of everyone so that we can get a gauge of where to allocate our resources (such as in this instance). You may pick up at either location regardless of what you chose during registration but I do strongly suggest to pick up at FanimeCon if you are not attending CA at all.

Okay! Thank you very much for this clarification! Will do!

Oh. Is it possible now to switch from CA pick up to Fanime instead if this is going to be an issue?

Check in starts at 6:30pm both days, we will start letting people in to buy at 7:30pm.  If you have not registered or have not made "late check in" arrangements with me via email, your spot will be refunded and given to the next applicant on the wait list.

The 10:30 time was only if we were in South Hall.  Since we didn't have to be in there, we can stay open the full time.  The advertized time is Midnight to start clean up, but we usually allow you to run late if it's still busy.

Further instructions for People with spots and Waitlisted people will be sent out today or tomorrow.  I know it's really close to the con, but we're working as fast as we can.

If anyone is still stuck at Step 5 right now, it's because we're still awaiting some form of verification before approval is done.

For spot selection, it's completely random.  There is no priority or At-Con selection.

This answers my question about being late to check in. Thanks! I'm picking up my badge at CA and they don't start until 5pm. I will email about being a bit late if I do.

Stuck on stage 5 too. =/

[What to bring if you will pay at the convention:]

Is it mandatory to bring a Photo I.D. when i buy my pass AT fanime? What if i don't have an ID. note: lost my student ID.

Taken from their FAQ.

What to bring if you will pay at the convention:
Valid government issued photo ID such as: a student ID, passport, driver's license, or state issued photo ID card

Other than that, you will have email registrationATfanimeDOTcom

Mod edit: changed to appropriate email

kyraensui: i posted this earlier but yeh they only added that link to the t and c sometime yesterday probably cause of complaints. i even have a screenshot from a week ago for when i was saving all my fanime information. the only thing in the t and c was the no refunds policy there was no link to the forums with the rules. you DID get rules in your email but in order to get that email you have to pay first. i can understand why ppl were upset for sure.

Actually, I didn't paid for my badge until last week, but the week before last week, I just registered without paying. I did a group reg so I'm guessing it's different for paying individually.

Hate to tell you this, but the badges aren't refundable.  It's in the FAQs for buying badges, the terms and conditions part of the registration page, and it was also in the fine print when you purchased them.

Yes but what wasn't in the T&C is that you need to be there in person to pick up the badge.  This exact situation has occurred to my friend who was getting a badge for me, which I can not pick up.  This person and I are planning on speaking to a lawyer regarding this, as we do not believe this is legal.  On top of that the staff has been rather rude in dealing with us, which has made it into somewhat a personal matter.  Neither of us have any further intention of attending Fanime due to the rude treatment by the staff and the way they have been handling customer service.  The whole convention should probably be renamed to Scamime, because that's what this feels like.  Seeing that this has also happened to others is somewhat encouraging, because if we're right about this being illegal, this may turn into a class action lawsuit.

For single registrations, only the person whose name is on the membership badge may pick it up from Registration.

If you are registered in a group, only your group leader may pick up the group's membership badges.

When you registered your badge, it was in your email confirmation too. I wonder if you actually READ the T&C or your email carefully because it has posted WAY before the registration was opened.

That's fine. Fanime is in May which means you had months in advance to decide on going or not even if paying the badge $10 more when the registration opened or pay more at the door. It's your decision and sadly, not everyone thinks of the consequences later. This works in retail too. They CAN deny refund especially when it states clearly on the receipt and signs. Just people don't bother reading it UNTIL much later. 

TBH, Thursday is not the only day, but all throughout the weekend, anyone can pick up their badge. I don't see how this can be a problem?

I suppose that makes sense as far as liability. However it still saddens me. I really did feel like being able to register 2 people in a group just flowed so much better. But I DO see what you're getting at. I also had trouble finding more information on the site... then again I am old and the new layout befuddles me lol. I will just have to find a time that works for him, or I'll just forget about the ticket I mean 55 bucks really isn't that much.

I am not sure I understand how having each and every individual person who pays for registration being there and present when picking up their badge shortens the line wait time however? With group registration it made it possible for only the group leader to be present to pick up the group's badges versus every single individual being present. This year each and ever single person who registers will have to be physically present to pick up their badge, which would naturally mean more bodies in the line. For example if a group of 3-4 friends want to attend together, in years prior the group leader would wait in line while some of the other group attendees handled the hotel setup. It saved a lot of time and saved space in line, but this year those same friends have expressed that they'll all be standing in the line at the same time Thursday morning together so they can get their badges at the same time. Which makes 3-4 bodies in the line instead of only 1.

I haven't attended the con in probably 3 years so I'm still lost to the changes. But I am hoping they all work for out for all the congoers. Hoping it'll be just as fun this year.

Thank you for your help and I look forward to attending the con.

There's no absolute solution for making the line any smaller or faster as long there is a huge demand for attending it. Look at Comic Con or Anime Expo. I've waited a good two hours in line at AX and that was only on Day 0. It's nice that most cons I've attended has Day 0 to pick up the badge only and able to lessen most of the lines.

It shouldn't be stressful as is. 

I know a lot of conventions do, but FanimeCon isnt one of them sadly... :/

Like which conventions who does this?

This is so awful I have never had a problem with this. There is no way I can find random people to be in my "Group" I don't see why it would hurt them to have people pick up someone else badge if anything it should help keep the lines smaller and make things quicker.

It would be wrong IF someone claims to pick up someone's badge and when the actual person comes to pick it up to find out someone else did, who are you going to blame for this mistake? In honestly, this is the BEST policy to make sure all attendees can get their paid badges. This policy has been like this ever since I went to Fanime for more than 10 years.

I've actually did find friends of friends to help me with the group registration to get the minimum.

OMG that was crazy! Got a reservation for at least my 2 backups but had to waitlist for Thursday night! Hope it comes up! (Maybe I should have gone with staff housing jeez!)

where's the waitinglist?!!

You HAVE to call Fanime Housing to get on waitlists. I booked online while I was on hold on the phone. Once I got through I already had my confirmation numbers to give them.

I have email Housing before to be on the waitlist and they do let you know if you have it or not.

I'm sorry- did you register through the cmrus link? To complete a registration, you must enter your credit card information and complete the purchase then.

https://www2.cmrreg.com/fan_6a/register.aspx

You should have gone through a Payment Summary before clicking Accept Conditions and Submit Payment.

I have registered, but I wasn't given to the Payment Summary of where to input my payment. I registered under a group registration so do I have to wait until I get the minimum requirement to pay?

Thank you.

From my experience, you need to hit the group minimum before you can pay for any of them.

Thank you. I got my response in an email too. This is quite a new experience since I was able to register as a group without the require minimum before 2013 to pay.