phoebemonkey

Indeed. I don’t think Jewel Staite had a separate pay desk on Saturday either - she was opposite the cafe bit when I saw her. There really wasn’t much room to queue so the blue shirts were having difficult organising people. Didn’t help that nobody knew what VQ she was up to! At one point I got offered number 400, which was pretty useless. Apparently there was “a lot of abuse” of the system, but I don’t think penalising those of us who actually need the extra help is useful. Sadly there will always be people who take advantage - but that’s not our fault! If I remember rightly, last year as well as the lift in the Gold Pass entrance area (or an area similar, the Olympia’s confusing!), the one at Gate H (near the Diamond Pass collection) was also in use at least some of the time. The two lifts we had this year seem to be the smallest in the building! Also - while I remember, did anyone notice if there were multiple left luggage areas open? The only one we found this year was down a steep flight of stairs - I was glad my partner could go down for me!

Yep, it's been said on this forum that the policy was changed due to misuse of the extra help bands (and perhaps some unscrupulous carers?). But it basically meant unless the guest wasn't busy it was extremely difficult (or impossible) to get their autograph. Thankfully I had a diamond pass for David Duchovny (it was *fun* trying to navigate his queue in my wheelchair!), but I got pretty stressed out trying to get Jewel Staite. Especially when the first blue shirt wrongly told me I didn't need a VQ ticket - and then basically ignored me later on! I was very relieved when another blue shirt managed to slot me in, but she wasn't really supposed to. Since I'm already sitting down I don't mind having to queue - but having to fight the crowds to attempt to get a VQ ticket is basically impossible for me. Plus my partner (who was my carer) and I are both autistic, so neither of us are fond of disagreeing with anyone, or being stuck in a busy area not knowing what's happening The lift situation oddly seemed to be worse than last year. It would be extremely helpful if they could allow us to use the two lifts in Olympia West - to save trying to get from one side of the hall to the other. I'm sure one of the Olympia West lifts (the one to the main stage/autograph area) was accessible last year, and there was also another lift at the Gold Pass entrance. I was puzzled why they didn't use those this year. Also allowing those with extra help passes to exit through other doors (e.g. the front entrance or Gold Pass entrance) would have been helpful - I was knackered trying to get back to Olympia West!

Highs Jewel Staite being lovely - when I wheeled into the photo shoot I commented that I didn't want to run over her feet (she was wearing sandals) and she cheerily said "oh don't worry" :) She was also lovely at her autograph table, so I managed to say how pleased I was she had liked Edinburgh (my hometown). Customising her signed message depending on what picture you picked was a nice touch - I chose her from SG Atlantis, so got "lots of love from the Pegasus Galaxy" Meeting David Duchovny. I've been re-watching the X-Files so it was awesome to see him in person! When I saw him at the photo shoot and the autograph bit he asked how I was and said to have a great day. His talk was funny, although boy does he mumble! Haha. Seeing Jason Mamoa - even if it was rather fast going through his photo shoot! Lows Being a little frustrated on Saturday morning to be told at the extra help desk I still needed to go across the hall to get my diamond pass. I wouldn't have been annoyed if we hadn't been told before the event that diamond passes could be collected with the extra help passes... Getting incorrect info about Jewel Staite's autograph queue. We went to get a VQ ticket while Jewel was elsewhere, but the blue shirt (American lady) at her table insisted we didn't need one and to "just come back later". So we did that, only to discover the VQ tickets were at 400 and we were meant to have one! I was a little upset and pretty worried we wouldn't get an autograph, but thankfully another blue shirt managed to fit us in a bit later on. She seemed a little exasperated that the first blue shirt had been telling people they didn't need a VQ ticket! Exits. I would really appreciate if the exit could be marked on the floorplan. Also why were most of the doors blocked off? I understand restricting entrances, but when we were trying to get to the main road outside the Olympia I really would have appreciated that door being unlocked. There were lots of security staff hovering around, but even after asking if there was a way to get out that didn't involve having to wheel back across the entire venue (I was pretty exhausted!) they just shrugged and glared at us. Not very helpful. At least one additional exit away from Olympia West would have been useful. The behaviour of some attendees. The majority of people were great as usual, but there's always a few who harass crew and stand in really awkward places. (Hint: if I'm sitting in my wheelchair near the entrance/exit of a photo shoot, don't stand right in front of me and block the doorway). Also I came across some incredibly rude people when I was trying to ask a blue shirt for advice outside Jason Mamoa's photo shoot on Saturday afternoon. I was literally sitting right in front of the blue shirt waiting to speak when people cut in front of me, spoke over me and treated me as if I was totally invisible! After 5 people acting like this I eventually had to literally sit and wave my arm at the blue shirt's face so she'd talk to me - and someone still tried to barge in! Seriously, some manners would be nice.

The crew were awesome as usual :) A special thanks to the girl who was organising Jewel Staite's autograph queue on Saturday afternoon - we had gone earlier on and been told by another crew member that we didn't need a VQ ticket, but this turned out to be incorrect (I think she got confused, saw my wheelchair and didn't realise extra help people still need VQ tickets now). So we were a little stressed since we didn't have a VQ, but she was amazing and managed to fit me in!

From my perspective in the extra help queue, the main queue on Saturday looked like it was moving pretty fast! I was a little frustrated to get to the extra help desk and be told that I still had to go collect my diamond pass from the opposite side of the hall. (My arms certainly got plenty of exercise this year!) I'm pretty sure when the entrances were posted on here it said they'd just have our diamond passes at the extra help entrance to make things easier... but clearly that didn't happen. I wouldn't have minded so much if we hadn't actually passed the diamond pass desk on the way to queue! Lol.

Thanks :) That reassures me a bit. The crew were super helpful last year so hopefully I'll be able to explain.

I have a bit of a clash on Saturday afternoon - I'm batch 6 for Jewel Staite's photo shoot, which is almost certainly the PM slot. But I have a diamond pass for David Duchovny and his talk is on at the same time. Unfortunately I can't dash over there straight after the talk since a) I'm a wheelchair user and b ) I have to go catch a train back to Glasgow anyway! Eeep. Would I be allowed to tag on the end of the AM shoot (since I probably wouldn't make the PM one, train or no train) or is that not allowed?

Really hoping that on the revised schedule David Duchovny’s talk on Sat is moved slightly earlier. It’s the only one I have a ticket for, but if it stays at that time I might miss part of it (have to dash off to get train back to Glasgow!). Just my luck that it’s so late in the day, lol.

Having been lucky enough to see some amazing guests at both Collectormania in Birmingham and London Film and Comic Con this year, I'm a bit disappointed in the line up so far for Glasgow. Looks like I might even not bother going at the moment! (Especially since the venue is so ridiculously cramped and claustrophobic compared to the others - I get totally crushed in my wheelchair. They've really outgrown it and should consider the SEC (for example)). I looked back at some of the previous Glasgow ones I missed... given it's the Buffy (and Stargate!) anniversary it would be awesome to have someone. Could you bring back one of the previous guests? Since they have clearly been here before, so they can't be 'too big' for Glasgow? (Lol) Suggestions: Nicholas Brendon Emma Caulfield Amber Benson Juliet Landau Anthony Stewart Head I'm totally dreaming with this suggestion, but since she cancelled Birmingham (and she's the only original Stargate SG1 team member I haven't met yet!) could you try asking Amanda Tapping? Pretty please?

Edit by QS: Please check your E-Mail from Samantha. It explains the Details about how disabled guests can join the autograph line in Detail.

Oh also, like others have said, I was a bit puzzled about why Chris Judge and RDA didn't do any sort of Stargate talk together... the Michael Shanks/Ben Browder one at Collectormania was brilliant and since RDA/Chris talk about each other in their talks it didn't make a lot of sense. In fact Chris even brought it up himself and said he didn't know why it was like that... I'm guessing it was scheduling issues or something, but it's a bit odd to have two of the main cast not doing anything together.

The disabled/extra help entrance was at the same door as the general entrance - not next to the Gold Pass entrance like it had been last year. (This had been stated on the forum, but the extra help emails had outdated info and still said to go to the Gold Pass entrance). I used the extra help entrance - we were able to go past the main queue, collect our extra help/carer wristbands, have our tickets scanned and collect diamond passes. Then we went in past the general entrance with no issues - it was pretty smooth, although if we hadn't gotten a taxi to the venue I would have had to be pushed in my wheelchair round the building since it was really quite far away from the main road/train station! I understand this is because there's simply not enough room for the large number of disabled/extra help people at the Gold Pass entrance anymore (due to safety etc). In terms of suggestions for next year, it would be good if there were more signs (like A LOT more). There was a lot of time spent trying to find things/figuring out what queues were for etc. For example the main entrance for the second stage wasn't accessible (big step) so we had to go in the secondary entrance, through a cafe/sitting area. This wasn't signed so there were a lot of confused people as well as chancers trying to skip the main queue into the talk! (Thankfully crew appeared to tell them to go queue, lol) Having better signs for the diamond/gold seating in the main stage would be great too - there was a lot of grumbling because people coming in late to talks would ignore the 'diamond pass only' signs and just sit in those rows. Which meant they were in front of the general ticket people who had queued for ages! I felt sorry for the poor crew girl since she was trying to police the entire area herself at one point. Also would it be possible to have signs for the photo shoots? As others have commented, it's often hard to hear what batches etc are being called - plus some people just crowd round anyway! If there was a sign to hold up for each batch (like on a stick?) perhaps that would stop the crew being asked what numbers had been called constantly. Just a suggestion :) I was really pleased that there were lots more lifts in use than there were in 2015 - it was easy to get between floors in my wheelchair :) All the crew we met were friendly and very helpful.

I went on Sat/Sun and had a great time. I'd been in 2015 and this year was SO much better in terms of layout etc. Some highlights: - Alyson Hannigan being so incredibly cheerful and telling me she loved my t-shirt (which I'd designed myself) - Alan Tudyk's talk - very funny guy and I was lucky enough to get something from his "random bag of crap", haha. It's a signed crumpled magazine! So random! - Chris Judge being his usual giggly self and telling us about his best pranks (his trousers were brilliant too, lol) - Getting a Buffy season 1 DVD signed by both Alyson and Alexis during their talk! - The great crew member running the Sunday morning photo shoot for Benedict Cumberbatch. He stayed patient despite a lot people not paying attention to his instructions, and when my mum explained I'm autistic and was feeling really anxious/panicky about the massive crowd (it seems bigger when you're sitting in a wheelchair somehow!) he was amazing and got us through quicker. He even spotted us afterwards and checked it had gone okay! :) - All the crew members and venue staff who were very helpful and friendly :)

Nothing - it was great :) I'm just not a big fan of brown and found the original colour scheme (minus the black background) easier to read.

If anyone wants a nicer, printer friendly version (i.e. not just inverted colours) I've made one :)