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Piskie
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Can you please be more organised. Waiting in an queue for half an hour for Wil only to be told once we got to the front that we were in the Commander line not the Lieutenant line.

 

We weren't the only ones. You need to organise and communicate with us better.

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Just leaving the NEC now. Thought the crew were doing a sterling job at the photo areas considering most of the attendees didn't seem to be doing what they were instructed to do, or for example turning up 30 mins too early for a Shatner shoot. My only criticism would be areas A & B should have been further apart as it was very busy around there.

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Thought the crew were doing a sterling job at the photo areas considering most of the attendees didn't seem to be doing what they were instructed to do, or for example turning up 30 mins too early for a Shatner shoot.

I'd certainly agree that attendees often don't help in these situations, but pretty much everything was running late today which I think added to a lot of the crowds.

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Queued for half an hour to get in because there were only a handful of people checking tickets.

Yesterday was worse by a mile, which ironically enough is about how long the queues felt. Some were taking hours to get through.

 

Yes 40 minutes for a coffee is annoying, but that's the NECs problem and happens quite a lot at large event venues like this. Things always take longer.

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I agree the Wil Wheaton talk queue was a bit of a mess. There was a crew member on the back door scanning people but hardly anyone seemed to have spotted her so there was a huge scrum at the other two doors.

 

I didn't appreciate having to queue in Subway or the newsagents either but that's not DST's fault. ;)

 

For the most part the queuing went pretty quickly. There were massive queues for entry and for Shatners World but once they started scanning people they moved pretty quickly.

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I don't really have anything to complain about. I went to the event Saturday only.

Yes there are queues, what do you expect? You're not the only one there.

 

Getting to NEC at 8:15, ticket scanned and hand stamped about 8:40, in DSTE main door by 9:05. Not a problem and to be expected.

 

For the paid talks (I saw Wil) there were crew there you could ask where to queue depending on your ticket. I think it also made sense to send everyone outside for Shatner's World since it technically wasn't part of DSTE, which means they could officially close the DSTE event, and the tier seating was made very clear by all of the crew there.

 

My two main photoshoots were Alexander Siddiq (who also had all of the cancelled Friday shoots to go through, but I was happy to wait, and being one of the last to finally get their photo I was thrilled to see him still smiling and greeting everyone - such a nice guy!), and Walter and George Bridge shoot (which was delayed, and in knowing it was delayed and that I was in Batch 5 I left and went and did other things like get Christopher Lloyds autograph, bought my D-bridge photoshoot for later, bought some eaglemoss ships).

 

I left my D-Bridge shoot to the end of the day, when there were fewer things going on and I knew there weren't going to be interruptions from guest/bridge shoots. Of course the Classic Bridge had more guest/bridge shoots so I can't comment there. One thing I would say about the Bridge shoots - at DSTL 2012 the bridge was enclosed with a window for people to view the bridge photoshoot area, which I think would have been very beneficial at DSTE as the "open" guest/bridge shoots were drawing large crowds of attendees trying to take their own photos and clashing with the large queues of people who had paid for the guest/bridge photoshoot. The regular photoshoots were enclosed.

 

I think my main complaint would be attendees. I felt sorry for the crews having to deal with the queues who, from the shoots I saw, did a pretty decent job of keeping it under control. However, so many attendees just seemed to be oblivious of the people waiting and queueing, somehow believing they are able to just walk up to the front and get there photoshoot, or take a selfie. Okay if you have a question for the crew, but once you've got your answer please just take your place in the rest of the waiting crowd, rather than standing in front of everybody else who have been waiting for sometime already. So many were doing this and so the crowds just crept closer and closer to the photoshoot entrance and clashed with the [real] queue, causing a mess. I suppose I feel somewhat at an advantage as I am very tall and could easily see what the crew were asking us to do and when they called out each batch, but in being tall I could also see that it was many of the other attendees just being completely oblivious of the crowds and queues and making it worse (I mean, what did they think everyone was doing? Just standing around for fun?).

 

I also think a lot of people coming to these events plan too much, which is very understandable if you really want to get everything, and for many these events and meeting certain guests can be a once in a lifetime thing. But in planning my day, I certainly make sacrifices knowing I will only have time to get a few shoots, a few autographs, a few talks (paid and free). If I wanted more I would have gone for the weekend pass rather than the one day. I believe you just have to be realistic, and plan your day around the unknowns. Try to leave gaps for your paid events for extra time, which could easily be filled with free talks, shopping, or just to go and sit down and take a break. Just remember: there will be crowds (big crowds); "attractive" photoshoots will have very long queues; and talks will overrun.

Oh, and bring your own food (purchased mine at New Street on the way), its so much easier.

 

Overall, I had a really good day. Thank you DSTE and to all the guests that could make it.

Happy 50th Birthday Star Trek!

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Had a really good time yesterday. As others have mentioned it was always going to be very busy on Saturday so queues are to be expected! I made the effort at getting there for just before 7am. I made a quick dash to the guests area and managed to get low ticket numbers for all the guests I planned to meet. No complaints from me at all. It got really manic at the William Shatner queue but in my opinion it was organised by the staff really well. Hopefully Showmasters have taken note how well attended this event was and consider the Midlands for a future film and comic con. Either at the NEC or Barclay Card Arena. They are held in other regions so we are due one too!

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I deliberately turned up just before opening time on Friday thinking that the queue would have thinned out by then. Ooops! Wrong. I don't know how long I was queuing (got chatting with the nice people behind me, which helped to pass the time - hi Jo and Rhiannon, if you're reading!), but I'm guessing over an hour. Still, once I got in there, I was amazed at how spacious it was in there as I was expecting to wade through hordes of people (Saturday was, understandably, a lot squishier, so I left the hall if I didn't have autos or photoshoots to get).

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I am always astonished that the number of people who attend events with thousands of other people be they conventions, concerts, music festivals and then moan about having to wait in a queue for things. Baffling. Like so many have said the queueing system is simple but so many people just did not know what a que was (especially virtual queues). For example I was first in line for Alexander Siddig coming back from lunch on the Sunday at around 13.30 they were showing ticket 1-80 but while I waited (approx 20 minutes) it was incredible how many people just tried to queue behind me then every 2 minutes the excellent crew member would shout out that if you didn't have tickets 1-80 or a pass could you come back later, 90% of them either left or came up asking for a ticket and upon getting a ticket at around the 150 mark were upset that they couldn't come back by about 14.30 and get straight in.

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I stood well out of the way to look in my folder and find my ticket for the Klingon bridge shoot that I'd bought, found it and just thought I'd better join the queue when I looked up and realised the queue had somehow come out and joined me! How easy was that? Just wait and the queue will come to you! ;-)

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I thought apart from friday, queuing wasn't too bad, although, I did get a bit used to queuing that instead of walking straight in to the event on the Saturday I automatically joined the queue for a cash machine.

 

But I do agree with the comments above that it's a lot to do with the attendees, people were gathering round photo areas with batches above five when they were still on the previous guest.

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I am always astonished that the number of people who attend events with thousands of other people be they conventions, concerts, music festivals and then moan about having to wait in a queue for things. Baffling. Like so many have said the queueing system is simple but so many people just did not know what a que was (especially virtual queues). For example I was first in line for Alexander Siddig coming back from lunch on the Sunday at around 13.30 they were showing ticket 1-80 but while I waited (approx 20 minutes) it was incredible how many people just tried to queue behind me then every 2 minutes the excellent crew member would shout out that if you didn't have tickets 1-80 or a pass could you come back later, 90% of them either left or came up asking for a ticket and upon getting a ticket at around the 150 mark were upset that they couldn't come back by about 14.30 and get straight in.

It's frustrating because i've been to so many events that had none of these problems. Comicon in Birmingham, bigger than this, never waited longer than 20 mins to get in from arrival. At one point there was only one set of three people giving people wristbands (which they ran out of).

 

 

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Getting your package was hard, long disorganized ques. Payed talk were better in 2014, because they were in a empty hall and you could sit down and wait in your package Que, out of the way of other people.

Edited by seela
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I am always astonished that the number of people who attend events with thousands of other people be they conventions, concerts, music festivals and then moan about having to wait in a queue for things. Baffling. Like so many have said the queueing system is simple but so many people just did not know what a que was (especially virtual queues). For example I was first in line for Alexander Siddig coming back from lunch on the Sunday at around 13.30 they were showing ticket 1-80 but while I waited (approx 20 minutes) it was incredible how many people just tried to queue behind me then every 2 minutes the excellent crew member would shout out that if you didn't have tickets 1-80 or a pass could you come back later, 90% of them either left or came up asking for a ticket and upon getting a ticket at around the 150 mark were upset that they couldn't come back by about 14.30 and get straight in.

Thanks. I was said excellent crew member. Glad some people understood my plight!

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