Jumpyghostface

I really like Olympia, and I like the separate floors/areas - this means that crossover noise isn't such a problem, and there is enough floorspace for people to sit down if they want to. Transport is fairly easy there, and there's enough food outlets, too. However, if Olympia is used again, SM *have* to sort out the stairs and lifts situation, as it was both dangerous and frustrating this time. Signage, too. Post clear signs on the stairwells that just spit you out into the street (rather than allow you to move between floors), and mark clearly on each floorplan (and have more floorplans) where each useable stairwell and lift is.

Yes, there was - on the YALC floor. At first I thought he was a cosplayer, but since he was in front of a bit with books about an angel (can't remember titles, sorry) I twigged he was a promo guy. I think he may have run out of flyers by that point.

We were in a queue - me, and my teenage son who was dressed as Skaara from Stargate. Bloke stops, asks my kid for a photo with him, I look up, double-take and blurt out OH MY GOD, as the bloke is Alexis Cruz. (I managed to recover, apologise for the blurted-OMG and ask if it's ok for me to take a photo of them together, too.) It was such a kind thing for him to do, and it totally made my kid's weekend. We had no idea he was there! (Props, too, to the absolutely lovely group of grown-up Stargate cosplayers who earlier on had "adopted" my kid for the duration of a photoshoot. They were so kind to him. One of them lent him a zat and he thought it SO COOL.)

The Morons ,as you put it, are the people who fake disability or illness or exaggerate what they have to screw the system out of everything they can get. Everyone, sadly including genuine people, gets tarred with the same brush.This is the price you pay for bad back Britain.Not the staffs fault. I work in the benefits system so i see it every day. Just how can you tell whos putting it on when you have seconds to assess someone and respond to a request.I see fake doctors notes and even hospital letters so i'm not surprized event staff are cynical about someones heath issues.I see people at premieres using wheelchairs etc to get access to disabled pens to gain easier access to the stars for autographs when i've caught them out walking around normally at other times when they weren't expecting to be seen. No offence to anyone on here that has a genuine need for assistance but just pointing out what some people will do to gain advantage and why some people will see you as not being for real. awful but thats the way it is. And I know people who have multiple, serious problems after having worked their entire lives, and have had their disability-related benefits cut off by over-zealous benefits staff (and who have won on appeal when they've gone to have those benefits reinstated). And the whole "I saw you walking normally earlier so you are clearly faking it now" thing - you clearly don't know how many disabilities work. I took the stairs sometimes this time at the LFCC, and the lift a couple of times. Other weekends I would have been completely unable to use the stairs at all. On a flat surface I walk perfectly "normally". I'm a prime candidate for your judgemental, ignorant assumption of being a faker, and you'd still be wrong.

I like Olympia as a venue, especially if all the halls are used - having separate floors and halls means that the talks don't get drowned out by all the other noise. The main problem with the venue was access between the floors, as not enough stairwells and lifts were open. If this were addressed, and PROPERLY SIGNPOSTED, a lot of the upset and frustrations of the day would have been avoided.

...is just awesome. Check out the 360-degree photos already made: http://www.syfyfancam.com/view-all-fancam-videos/

Photos: we queued for the morning slot - on the information posted here, photos up to batch 4 should have been called. But in the end, after we'd queued for the whole thing, they said they wouldn't even reach the end of batch 3, so we had to come back in the afternoon. (We weren't even supposed to be at the con in the afternoon, as I had another appointment outside the con, but when I explained this to the pit boss, she basically said too bad, she couldn't help.) ANYWAY, rearranged our afternoon, came back for the afternoon shoot. Was near the front of the queue, was told that the previous shoot was running late, and we should make ourselves scarce for half an hour before starting to queue again. We did. We returned in half an hour to find the queue happening anyway, and we were a long way down, halfway to the other end of the hall. This seemed less than fair as we had already queued twice and been told to go away. Total props to the blueshirt with the very loud teacher voice who was trying to give out the information she had to the queue - she was a star. ANYWAY AGAIN, when we got in it was great. RDA was giving hugs to everyone, and was so cheerful for someone who had been working nonstop in a boiling convention centre all day. Lovely man.

Going by today's experience with three different stairwells: if it's easy to get into the stairwell, it doesn't lead anywhere good. All of the signage is terrible. We got into the building, as you do, on the ground floor. We went to the first floor, to be told the photo shoot we wanted was on the ground floor, so we retraced our steps. To be told again that the bit of the ground floor we needed could only be accessed by going back to the first floor, walking across into a different hall, then going back to the ground floor. Later on, we were on the third floor, wanted to go to the second floor. Was told by a blueshirt that the best method was to get the goods lift from the third to the first floor (as the stairs down were jammed full), then climb up or get a different lift. 40 minutes later we had indeed got from the third floor to the second... I really hope they have someone with a pad of paper, a sharpie and a roll of stickytape sorting out the signage tonight for tomorrow.

Negatives: - terrible signage and directions. - really terrible stairs management - dangerous and frustrating that too many of the stairwells were closed. Some of the stairwells that were open just spat you back out onto the street without warning - a sign stating that would have been useful. - terrible photo queue management. The blueshirts were doing their best, but they were giving out contradictory information which meant we wasted an hour and a half in a queue that wasn't necessary. If you want your volunteers to have a good experience, and to be able to give a good experience to the punters, then it's only fair to train them properly and give them accurate information to act on. Positives: - the person whose character my kid was cosplaying as came over to him and asked him for a photo. Totally made our day. He was so kind to do this, and it was just absolutely brilliant, not to mention a bit of a shock. - a really lovely group of grown-up cosplayers from the same show as my kid's cosplay "adopted" him for a photo shoot. My kid couldn't have been happier - it was such a lovely thing to do and he had such a lovely time with them. - other people too! We have met so many nice people!

The worst-case scenario if you do run out of cash and the Olympia cashpoint is out of money and/or the queues are huge: walk or bus to Hammersmith tube station (10 mins max) to use the cash machines there, or walk 5 mins in the opposite direction along Ken High Street - a couple of blocks along from Olympia there's a Sainsbury's Local which has a cash machine.

Have bitten the bullet and gone for Saturday, though I'd rather Fri or Sun. My kid has shot up since last year so his Stargate outfit will need some adjustment!

I have bitten the bullet and we will go for Saturday! (Not ideal but we will take what we can get. Also it takes my kid a while to get into his costume...)

Does anyone know when the photoshoots/whatever will start on the Friday? Because the doors will open at 1 pm (earlier than before), but I would imagine a lot of people will not be there until later (including me) - makes it a bit risky to buy shoots. (I don't mean specific photoshoots - I've just learned on another thread that the schedule won't be announced until a lot later - but photoshoot sessions in general.)

Argh! And thanks. It was easy in past years because the Friday session didn't kick off until the late afternoon, but now it starts at 1pm.

(and Sunday is sold out, and Saturday is a bit full-on and crowded for him.)