MLP*

I agree that if you just paid for convention entry and nothing else then it was poor value for money. Unless you watched the talks on the two free stages then there was really nothing else to do. You could walk round the rest of the convention area in half an hour because there was hardly anything in it. There are lots of angry posts on the Facebook page from people who fall into this category. This was definitely a show where you needed to plan in advance exactly what you wanted to do and then pay for those options. The problem was that the lack of any real information until a week before the event made it very hard to do this. I bought my tickets a week before the event as soon as the talk tickets went on sale. So I was happy with it as a day out because I got exactly what I paid for.

Definitely need a 30th anniversary TNG event for next year.

With respect, how much money the actors make is nobody's business but theirs. They are working all weekend so why shouldn't they be paid for it ? I don't agree that there's pressure to do everything in a day. They sell weekend tickets for people who want to spread things out more. As to whether it's worth paying large amounts of money for a few seconds with a particular actor, that's up to the individual. To me it's not, hence I go mostly for the talks but for thousands of others it clearly is, hence the long queues for most of the guests !

I was going to buy a Tier 6 seat but they sold out so I ended up with Tier 5. Turns out that was a lucky break as it seems to have been the difference between being able to hear the show or not !

Agreed. What a lovely guy. I got VT number 10 so got a chance to see him early on in the day. Spent a few minutes talking about his time with Robin Williams on the set of Flubber. Just a heads up for those seeing him today that Wil is the "no handshake" type of person. Nothing rude about it but stuff were saying "no touching" and people were sometimes ignoring this. Wil was happy to give out the odd fist bump. The "no touching" rule was in force for the photoshoot as well bur Wil was up for doing poses. In my photo were doing a double thumbs up / cheesy grin pose. Really chuffed with it. He mentioned this on his Twitter page. https://twitter.com/wilw/status/784824298527744000 Fair enough really. Some people are touchy feely and some aren't.

A word of appreciation for the crew member who moved on the two guys who thought they were going to stand in the aisle and chat during Shatner's World.

Thanks. Last train home was at 9:14 so I definitely would have missed it !

Few random thoughts on Saturday. I've mentioned the queuing in another thread. It wasn't ideal but I've endured much worse at other shows. Seems to be one of those things you just have to put up with at cons. I thought the convention area was a good size. Seemed larger than the one at the Excel, or maybe it's just that there were very few dealers stands this time ! I found the NEC easy to get to so I would definitely attend another event there. One drawback was the food. Main options seemed to be Cornish pasties or Subway. I survived for a day but I wouldn't want to attempt a whole weekend eating that stuff. The extraneous noise between panels wasn't too bad (although someone brought that bloody Klingon gong again !) but the sound at the back of the Enterprise stage was awful. I had to leave and queue up again after George Takei's panel. This meant I was right at the back for the DS9 panel and could hardly hear anything the guests were saying. Highlight of the day for me was the "two Daxes" panel. I am now a huge fan of Terry Farrell ! A guy at the end of the Q&A asked a frankly rather inappropriate question. Rather than be offended she used it as an opportunity to give an impassioned reply about how important the episode in question was in terms of diversity and equality. Big respect to her. I had to leave the Shatners World talk at 8:50 to get my train. He didn't seem to be winding down at all so I wonder what time it finished in the end.

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.

Yes, it does look smaller than the ones at Excel, at from least looking at the plan. With three stages so close to each other I fear sound problems coming in from other panels which has been a problem in the past.

Indeed. I thought for a while I might be the only one. I bought my tickets last week but it's a shame there wasn't any advance notice (that I saw anyway) that Saturday tickets were about to run out.

via Twitter : "@StarTrek_DST Tickets to #DSTE are selling at warp speed! Saturday day entry tickets have now SOLD OUT Other entry tickets are running low!" This is encouraging. If I'm honest, from the lack of updates until very recently I feared this event might be a bit of a damp squib...

You're going crazy http://destinationstartrek.com/visiting/timetables

I gather from a comment on Facebook that this now starts at 7:30pm and not 7pm. So I will probably end up having to leave half way through to catch my train.

I hope they make the talk a bit longer. I don't know if we'll ever get another chance to see him in the UK.

Talk tickets are up. Just bought a Saturday entry ticket and Wil Wheaton, DS9, George Takei and Shatners World talk tickets.

Shatner's World Show Tier 6 tickets showing as sold out. Will there be more added or do we have to go for the more expensive tickets instead ?

via Facebook "EVENT UPDATE We will be releasing all the Talk Tickets & final Photo Shoot tickets tomorrow. On Friday we will be releasing the full event schedule for talks and photo shoots."

Just a thought but maybe the late announcement is something Star Trek Discovery related, hence it's taking longer than expected to get the necessary approvals ?

You never know. He was a last minute announcement for Sherlocked so maybe that's why the DST schedules are being held back until the last minute ?

Already discussion of this in the Included Package Autographs & Talks thread but the answer seems to be that nothing is likely to be published until a week before the event which would be Friday or Saturday of next week. At this point I can only conclude that Showmasters take a very relaxed view about whether those of us who are waiting to see the talk schedule and tickets before buying a day ticket actually bother to come to the event or not. Maybe they've already sold enough weekend tickets that they aren't too bothered whether people buy day tickets or not.

For the past DST events they had John Barrowman and Jonathan Ross so Grunberg is more directly related to Trek than either of those !

Well I wasn't expecting any announcements this weekend because of the Sherlock convention so I'm pleasantly surprised that they are finally starting to come through.

The problem with this becoming a norm is that there will be a lot of people who will refuse to commit to an event if they do not know exactly what they are getting for their money. This in turn will effect the amount of money that the organisers will have available to attract more guests unless they pay for it out of their own pocket. The reason I bought my package early is I am tied down with buying and/or booking reasonably priced travel and accommodation months ahead of an event taking place. These costs, including the package ticket, are all tied to one another making the decision to attend an event a major one. I also had an expectation from the previous events I'd attended, that I'd have a similar good experience this time around too. If the event was local for me I'd seriously consider whether or not to lay out the cash upfront until I was certain what exactly was included in my package. From the posts I've read from others on this forum, I beleive that delayed package booking has already started to happen for those local enough to seriously consider it an option. Most of your events of this size are in the south of England requiring people like myself, who do not live that close, to consider whether it is worth the gamble. The organisers are not the only ones who like to plan for events ahead of time. For instance, I've split my photoshoots and the autographs I intend to get over the three days that I will be attending. I am hoping that there are no clashes with the photoshoots I've purchased or the talks I'll be allocated on any of the days. One week before an event is just not enough time to make these kind of decisions. If an attendee has a bad experience due to late announcements it may make them decide not to attend future events even if the event on the day itself was pretty good overall. I agree. Birmingham is couple of hours away for me so before I book I'd like to know what I'm booking for ! For previous Destination Star Treks the talk schedules were published in advance so you could plan your day. It's a shame that they're being left until the last minute this time. I understand the comment up thread about the LFCC schedules going up a week in advance but I think this is slightly different. DST has three stages. The free talks are a big part of what attracts people to a convention like this so they really need to tell people in advance what's happening on the stages. Even if they can' t tell us the exact schedule, just telling us who is speaking on which day and making paid talk tickets available would be a start. It's a shame that someone like me who is interested in attending is being put off from doing so by lack of any details around what is happening at the event.

Yes, I'm in the same position. Basically if the schedules and tickets aren't available next week then I won't be coming.