Yo everyone. Back from Fanime and had quite a long nap.
This year's Fanime for me wasn't completely the best year. It had it good moments and its bad moments.
One of those bad moments though was a little episode that occurred when trying to enter the B&W Ball and one of the Fanime staff members.
A friend of mine wanted to go to the B&W Ball, so we stood in line to go inside. We've waited about 15-20 minutes in line (we were waiting in the line in the Fairmont hotel that goes up the stairs). At the top of the stairs, the line breaks slightly to allow access to the stairs/escalator and had a staffer there as crowd control. Next to the line was a quick photo booth that took those prom-like pictures for $5, so when my friend and I reached the the top, we agreed to do it. We had our picture done, which took less than 5 minutes.
We tried going back in line but the staff member at the top of it kicked us out and forced us to go to the back of the line. Apparently we couldn't go back since they've according to him "reached maximum capacity for the line", giving us a really bad attitude. We went back down the stairs and saw the end of the line, which extended past the restaurants, which in retrospect was another easy 45+ minutes.
Irritated, my friend and I ended up walking past the line and stayed at the photo booth to wait for our picture to finish printing, with the same uptight staffer giving us an attitude. After we got our picture from the booth, we bailed out from the B&W ball and did other things, but as far as it was concerned, our night got pretty messed up.
(If you were in line going to the B&W Ball and you recall a guy dressed in black Visual Kei clothing and light brown hair and a Stocking cosplayer, that's us)
Now, my friend and I have gone to Fanime many times in the past but she has never went to the B&W ball before. Following this episode, she certainly doesn't want to go back. We never even entered the ballroom and had no intention of waiting in line when we were kicked out for something so small.
The way I see it, you should've raised an issue with the other staffing members and explained your side of the story. I would've gotten back in line anyways. The only thing he could've done was call for staffers, which would in fact help you out.
@J - If I seem a little short with my sentences, I'm still on travel and typing on a smartphone that doesn't like forum format at all. First of all, my apologies for your bad experience. We ended up in a smaller ballroom than last year, which means we hit the limit a lot sooner and with negative attendant results. The not very well communicated policy due to chaos was that if you had ducked out before the limit was in place you would be let back in. At the very least, you should have been treated with civility. Can you PM me the staffer's name/appearance so we can handle this (internal personnel matters, etc.)? Thank you and my apologies again.
Jyunishinsho,
I apologize that your experience with the BWBall was not stellar. I do hope that this does not deter you and your partner from coming back to future BWBalls at FanimeCon. There were some communiication issues during the BWBall and we are working to resolve those issues for next year. We were in a smaller venue this year and that caused the big back up in the line. Again we are working on resolving these issues for next year and we are hoping that things run a lot smoother next year. Your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated. If there is anything else, please feel free to email me at
[email protected].
- Jim