x2k

Thank you! Exactly my point :)

I attended DSTL today with my partner on the standard £29 tickets. Now, first and foremost, I'm not a greedy person. £29 in my eyes was going to buy a cheap and cheerful day out. We didn't expect a lot included, but we were hugely underwhelmed by what actually was. I've tried however to make this a balanced review. Importantly, I have to explain that I understand about the upselling, and that you can tailor an event like this to add on as much or as little as you like. I personally don't feel that the prices for things like autographs, photos, talks etc were entirely OTT. Particularly for a die hard fan. In fact I opted to have a photo taken with Kate Mulgrew for £25 which I'm extremely pleased with. So, why do I feel let down? Ok... other than the 1 photo shoot, I decided that I didn't want to rack up expenses on autographs, photoshoots, talks, bridge shoots, and stunt shows. That's fine, and completely my own decision based on what I wanted to spend. However, what else was there? I went in with an expectation that I'd be able to dip into some of the "free" talks. We got to the entrance of Stage B as Manu Intiraymi was finishing. The schedule of the website had shown us that Brent Spiner was next up and we'd been looking forward to this. So we joined the crowd of people gathered around the entrance. There were two blue-jacket staff blocking the entrance staring blankly into the crowd, but not engaging with anyone. Eventually, a whole load of people with green bits of paper filed in. I thought "Ok, now the rest of us can filter into the remaining standing space" but apparently no. So we just stood by the entrance trying to hear as best we could. More blue-jacket staff turned up and eventually there were so many, that we couldn't see past them. Eventually, one came out and finally formed us into some form of queue in preparation for John de Lancie. Great, I thought, we may not need a little slip for this one. But I thought I'd ask on the offchance. I was then told that all free talks needed a green slip, and that they were all gone - for the whole day! We were quite deflated at this point having realised we won't be able to get to see a single talk, unless we crowd around the exit each time trying to see over the blue tops. At this point we thought we'd have a look around the "museum". This was interesting, but not a museum by a long stretch of the imagination. There were between 15-20 costumes at most, and a small selection of props. So we tried going round the other stalls. Again, these were small, and there were very few of them. Other than that, there were a few merchandise stalls, and a tiny cramped branch of Forbidden Planet. After looking through the £10 programme my partner had bought, we came to the realisation that the floor space was about 80-90% filled with upsells or shops, leaving little space for anything else. Even the programme was about 80% adverts for other things we could pay for. So we went out onto the concourse and saw that the Scott Bakula talk was about to start on the main stage. We didn't have a ticket but thought it would be nice if we could catch a glimpse of him from the outside. But then they brought the metal shutters down! Now, I appreciate that we didn't have paid tickets, but that just felt really mean. We disappeared off for a spot of lunch, and returned so I could get my picture taken with Kate Mulgrew. I won't go into detail on the shambolic queuing system for that, as I see it as something I actually got to do When that was done, we just wanted to get out of there. I didn't even get a carrier bag or envelope with my photo - surely some of the photo fee or entry fee could've covered that? Likewise my partner didn't get a carrier bag with his programme. Tight! So... £29 buys you... entrance, access to a very small selection of costumes & props from a private collection, access to a few stalls manned by a handful of niche fanclubs, access to some shops, access to free talks if you're lucky to have arrived early enough to bagsy a green slip (or have paid for a higher priced ticket), and otherwise access to many upsell opportunities. I don't begrudge anyone who goes in and pays for more of the experience, but I'd have expected much much more included in the basic entry price, rather than just the chance to spend more.