Convention Attention: Oh, the horror! D:

[XAngelswingsX]

Of course, we all know conventions are fun, exciting, and enjoyable (otherwise you probably wouldn't be here). The guild has its fair share of passionate cosplayers and motivated con-visitors, and I'm sure all have their share of good memories.

However, things are bound to have a shadier side too. Cosplay mishaps, hotel mix-ups, registration errors, lost items, messy orders, scary convention ground adventures and utter chaos, you name it!

So! Share your stories with the world!
Vent your frustration, show your struggles, and perhaps, a happy ending after all? I hope so!  

[XAngelswingsX]

Since I created this topic (I've created a monster! D=), I might as well kick it off right away =o.

Several weeks ago, I ordered a wig at a Canadian store for my Michael cosplay, since the quality of wigs in stores here usually isn't very high, and I have no experience in wig styling at all. They would pre-style the wig for me, and after I picked out the exact color I wanted, it was made entirely to my wishes, which I was very grateful for.

Because of the short time left, I paid extra to have it shipped with the UPS, which is generally a lot more expensive, but would ensure that it'd arrive on time, or so they promised. I got an e-mail telling me the date it was sent to me, and all the details, including the address I'd provided, and it all looked very good and professional.

Some days ago, I decided to track the package, something I could do with the code they'd given me, to check at what day I could expect it. Everywhere I went following the links, I saw the correct information, and all seemed well.

...Then I got to the UPS site..

Right there, behind my address, it said: "NO"
Now, our country code happens to be NL, which isn't NO, so I decided to e-mail the company that made the wig for me, asking if that was a transfer of some sort. Sadly, I was informed it wasn't.

Somehow, somewhere, one guy managed to type in the WRONG country code. Thanks to that, my wig which I need in a week time, is now happily sitting in Oslo, Norway. When the company tried calling the UPS about the mistake, the ever charming UPS told us to, in short, go to hell. No, they would NOT send it to me, even though I paid for their insanely high shipping costs. They even wouldn't sent it when the wig company offered them a lot of extra money for it. No, was their final answer. However, here it comes:

They DID want to send it to whatever random person in Norway, who had nothing to do with the package, and let them send it to me.

In the unfortunate case of me having no random stray family and friends in Norway, the only thing they wanted to do was send it ALL the way back to Canada, only to let them send it to me again afterwards. This would take two weeks. I only have one left.

So here I am, without a wig, unsure if I'll be able to cosplay at all at an event I've waited an immensely long time for and spent a lot of money on. All the wig company could offer was a wig in a completely wrong colour for all the money I spent on the actual wig, with no guarantee it'd TRULY be in time. I'm currently keeping my fingers crossed, hoping the friend of a friend, who lives in Norway and offered to try and help, can do anything at all to get my wig to me. Otherwise, I have to wait another year for the next event, since there's hardly time to make or get any other outfit now D=.

All I can do is hope X.x.  

[xBulmax]

@XAngelswingsX: aww, thats so sad- i hope that friend of a friend can help you smile especially as you spent so much money on it!

as of yet i don't really have any bad storys to tell... only that my wig was a little shorter than i thought it would be, but that didn't really matter, nothing as bad as XAngelswingsX!  

[XAngelswingsX]

@ xBulmax: Well, we can only wait and see if I still get it, if I do I'll surely be posting pictures on the forum! ^_^. I saw your cosplay idea, it looked really nice! I really hope the shorter wig didn't alter your ideas in a bad way too much! ^^  

[xBulmax]

XAngelswingsX

@ xBulmax: Well, we can only wait and see if I still get it, if I do I'll surely be posting pictures on the forum! ^_^. I saw your cosplay idea, it looked really nice! I really hope the shorter wig didn't alter your ideas in a bad way too much! ^^

oooh, you definitely have to post pictures if you do ^.^
thank you ^.^, the wig didn't alter it at all, it was only really about 2 inches shorter than i thought (maybe less than that), so it didn't really matter... i did order it from ebay, so i suppose i'm quite lucky it wasn't any worse XD!  

[AirborneInfection]

I had something similar happen to me at Anime Boston this year. To be honest, the amount of stress that went along with that con outweighed the fun... but on with the story.


My friends offered to pick my up halfway between MA and VT, because i couldn't get a ride or afford a train from VT to MA. So, my boyfriend, who wasn't going to the con, borrowed our friend Bryan's car and the two of us drove down to MA. Now, at the time we were living in our apartment that's owned by the school and school was out, so no one was there besides us and a few other people scattered throughout the apartment. My boyfriend was really upset because he had to spend six days on his own, and in this apartment that's depressing. So I was already in a really bad mood when I met with my friends at the halfway point because I felt guilty for not being able to bring him along.

now for some back story. My friend who was driving me, was also my friend making my costume. She works a lot, and had her own costume to worry about, but she told me she could do it so I trusted her, because I myself can't sew for crap. (I was doing Mizune from Soul Eater.)

So I get into the car with my friends after we meet with them, we drive our separate ways, and about an hour outside of Boston and my friend's jaw drops and she says "Oh sh**." Immediately i notice she's looking at me and trying not to cringe so i start getting nervous and going "what?! what?!"


"I forgot your costume."

You can imagine what happens here. I completely snap and when i snap, i don't yell. I get dangerously quiet. I sat in silence the rest of the way, because I had absolutely no costume, and not enough clothes to support myself because I like traveling light, and only brought enough clothes, including the costume into my calculations, for 3 days, because the other two didn't matter if i recycled clothes. Needless to say, that was my first big con and i felt like a tool the whole time because i was the only one not in costume out of my group and i had to BS one last minute.

*sigh*  

[XAngelswingsX]

@ xBulmax: Yeah, sure was lucky then, you never know what you get from Ebay! ^^'.

@ AirborneInfection: Wow... I probably would've started laughing maniacally at a friend if they said they forgot my costume, thinking they were joking O_o'. Talk about a LOT of bad luck.. >_<.  

[Obscuranoxious]

@AI: o 3o I've actually had nightmares about getting to a con and forgetting my costume. The weird part was is that the con in the nightmare had passed 2 months prior o.O

I sorta got one. Its not as bad as the last 2, but it still kinda made me mad. Last year at Otakon 2008 I had found roomies on the Otakon website. This being my first time staying at a hotel without family present and staying all 3 days at a con. Well that was all fine and good, Otakons not far for me so I drove up and was meeting the other guys. Now I expected maybe 4-5 other people, nothing major. Well, I get to Otakon, and I meet up with the guy who rented the room. Heres when things get bad.

He tells me that the hotel had literally ******** our reservation in the a**. Not only did they not have our room despite the room had been reserved since otakons hotel block was posted, they also wanted us to pay an extra 100 dollars as a service fee AND we couldn't get the room til friday. We had arrived at otakon for pre-reg pick up thursday night. This left us without a room for a night.

Now that I was worrying about this, I went through the 2 hour line, got my badge and went and sat at a borders reading manga for another hour til I finally got a call saying he found us a temporary room if we all chipped in 30 dollars. With no other choice, I accepted. The rest of that night was fine.

We moved to the right hotel that next morning and went on to the con as normal. The only bad thing was what I found out next. On top of the 5 we already had, we had 4 more arriving that night -.- So the next 2 nights I was stuck in a 2 twin bed room with 8 other guys.

I am never doing that again.  

[XAngelswingsX]

iZanami-oKami

@AI: o 3o I've actually had nightmares about getting to a con and forgetting my costume. The weird part was is that the con in the nightmare had passed 2 months prior o.O

I sorta got one. Its not as bad as the last 2, but it still kinda made me mad. Last year at Otakon 2008 I had found roomies on the Otakon website. This being my first time staying at a hotel without family present and staying all 3 days at a con. Well that was all fine and good, Otakons not far for me so I drove up and was meeting the other guys. Now I expected maybe 4-5 other people, nothing major. Well, I get to Otakon, and I meet up with the guy who rented the room. Heres when things get bad.

He tells me that the hotel had literally ******** our reservation in the a**. Not only did they not have our room despite the room had been reserved since otakons hotel block was posted, they also wanted us to pay an extra 100 dollars as a service fee AND we couldn't get the room til friday. We had arrived at otakon for pre-reg pick up thursday night. This left us without a room for a night.

Now that I was worrying about this, I went through the 2 hour line, got my badge and went and sat at a borders reading manga for another hour til I finally got a call saying he found us a temporary room if we all chipped in 30 dollars. With no other choice, I accepted. The rest of that night was fine.

We moved to the right hotel that next morning and went on to the con as normal. The only bad thing was what I found out next. On top of the 5 we already had, we had 4 more arriving that night -.- So the next 2 nights I was stuck in a 2 twin bed room with 8 other guys.

I am never doing that again.

Oh my, that sure sounds crowded D=. To think some girls I went to Abunai with once already complained the bed was rather 'full' when there were four people staying in a room meant for two O_o'. Hotels tend to be a bit screwy with their whole registration-business sometimes >.> *prays her hotel got hers right* ^^". I'm going by myself and had to fix up my own hotel, where a double room was cheaper than a single due to some weird offer, so... now I have a double room on my own, whoo! xD. So far no more horror for now, after the wig fiasco.

I never actually got the wig crying . I had to buy one and style it myself, with about 0% experience or skill, little time, and online tutorials. Bugger D=.

Oh yeah, a friend from university had some hotel 'trouble' too for Abunai, but it wasn't too horrible. He had been bragging for weeks about the 'awesome' hotel he was going to stay at, and all the 'chicks' he'd get that way and god knows what (he's a bit of a sad Casanova, I tend to ignore or mock it >.>'). So, suddenly around the registration time, he asks me if the cottages are any good. Surprised, I asked him where his hotel room that he'd booked had gone.

Turned out he needed a credit card to book a room, which he didn't have, so he ordered one. By the time he finally got the much needed credit card though... the hotel was full.

I feel sliiightly mean, but I couldn't help but laugh ^^'. Everything turned out fine though =3.  

[Roswitha]

I have one. It's not really that bad but it threw me off gaurd.

So...We all know that once we step into a Con we loose personal space at once. And it can get a little bit sweaty. Well, I saw a Lupin The Third Cosplay and I went up to him and asked for a hug. He agreed, but because of his height that when he hugged me I was dugged into his arm pit. D: .....
Yeah.  

[scattered.lullaby]

Well, two things with this last AB.
My old friend who reserved the hotel room, like a few weeks before the con... Everyone but iunno three people? Dropped out of our hotel room for college issues and other things that I don't even remember! ahaha.

So, this happening since the majority was my friends, i got blamed for all this happening and I wanted to make it better. So I went to TONS OF PEOPLE. Forum people etc etc trying TRYING to find people for our room!
It was all so stressful x_x;;;

I eventually did and salsababy got her friends to join, which was nice.

Then the hotel messed up our reservations and instead of our two person room having two beds, it was one bed. XD  

[AirborneInfection]

scattered.lullaby

Well, two things with this last AB.
My old friend who reserved the hotel room, like a few weeks before the con... Everyone but iunno three people? Dropped out of our hotel room for college issues and other things that I don't even remember! ahaha.

So, this happening since the majority was my friends, i got blamed for all this happening and I wanted to make it better. So I went to TONS OF PEOPLE. Forum people etc etc trying TRYING to find people for our room!
It was all so stressful x_x;;;

I eventually did and salsababy got her friends to join, which was nice.

Then the hotel messed up our reservations and instead of our two person room having two beds, it was one bed. XD

On the bight side, our bathroom was HUGE. And Tom's gay Jedi made up for us having to sleep on the floor. I would room with you again in a heart beat though. <3 It was fun. :3  

[Miss_Goku]

Oh god, those all sound really awful! Notice how it's mostly problems with the hotels though? razz They're so rubbish! Speaking of, I have my own tales to tell!

Well, first of all...a big group of us that were members of this website booked a couple of rooms at a youth hostel. We did this a few times and it was mostly ok until the last time we stayed with this group. Basically on the third day, which was the second day of the expo, some staff member from the hostel barged into our room at god-knows-what time in the morning, telling us we all had to get out by 10 am because our room had been booked by another group of people. Now this was bad enough, but what was worse was that the organiser of our group knew about all of this and didn't actually bother to tell us, so we ended up having to share a four-person room between eight people, which was not at all comfortable. Needless to say he's a bit of a t**t. He didn't even apologise for what he did, alleging that he informed my sister of this already, which is complete rubbish because this is something she blatantly would not, or could not forget.

Now for the second one. After the fiasco of the first hostel a group of us decided it would be better to organise our own accomodations. So, we all booked a couple of rooms at another hostel much closer to the expo and in a much nicer area of london. The first time we did this it wasn't so bad, but the second time was a complete fiasco. This time it wasn't the fault of our group organiser but of the hostel itself. The first night we got there, they said that we would have to share our room with a random person, since there were only seven of us in this group and we were in an 8-person room. That wasn't so bad, they reassured us that it was only for the one night. However when we got back from the expo the following day, we came into our room to discover that there was not only one, but THREE extra people in this time. All of them complete scumbags. Well we weren't having any of this. Not only was there not enough space for them all, but we had PAYED for all 8 of the beds in that room, meaning we were paying extra money for the bed that wasn't being used. Now the fact that they were just giving this bed away to any random person was completely unfair, why should someone else have the bed we payed for? So, we accosted a member of staff and insisted that they got thrown out. Turns out one of them hadn't payed for a room at all, and one of the others was meant to be in a room three floors down. Anyway they got chucked out and we got re-imbursed for one night. What really annoyed me though was that instead of us being allowed to keep our one extra bed, they gave us a random one bed room and gave our extra bed to complete strangers. That really doesn't make any sense at all!! GAH! Yeah anyway. My advice is don't stay in a hostel if you can avoid it!

...hm. That was a bit long. Sorry! D: Needless to say we have learnt the errors of our ways and only stay in hotels. >_>  

[exdraghunt]

Ah, all the hotel horror stories. Makes mine pale in comparison.

((We booked a little late, and got a 1 bed room, and five people were sharing the room. They told us that we got a rollaway, but we got there and, guess what, no rollaway. No extra blankets, either, so several of us froze that night. One of my freinds even slept in a chair in his fursuit to stay warm))

I think the real horror with cons is what our hotel rooms look like on Saturday night. The hotel we stayed with had a pool, so there were wet towels hanging on every availble surface in our room. It smelled so bad.



Also, i think everyone knows the feeling of not realizing their cosplay had a rip/popped seam until a few hours later. I sat down in a chair, then looked down and realized I had managed to rip the crotch seam of my suit. There was another layer of costume underneath, but still...

I did a lot of sewing at that con. We kept ripping costumes.  

[Miss_Goku]

Ack, it's so annoying when your costume breaks halfway through a con! D: You don't know whether it's going to be really sturdy until you actually get around to wearing it. That's why I always take hundreds of safety pins with me and lots of thread and sewing needles (and strong glue for extra measure!). And wigs are another thing. Especially if it's long, and it's blowing a gale outside. I completely detroyed one of my wigs in about five seconds flat by going outside with it on. D: It was expensive too!