RatedRVD

I attended DST 3 in London at the Excel a few years back, and it’s been my favourite con (mainly for the layout, guests, things to do and air con), followed closely by last year’s LFCC. I was hoping this would of eventually got a similar line up as the previous DST with a few captains attending the event, but I was happy enough with George Takei, Walter and Christopher Lloyd attending (esp with failing to get Christopher Lloyds autograph at LFCC because I didn’t have a diamond/gold pass). My main goal was to get 3 those autographs and have my photos with George and Walter (separately) . I was a bit worried about the photoshoots as they clashed and from my experience of previous SM events sometimes the photo line organisation is a mess. Anyway got to the venue at around 8am as the car park book emailed stated it opened at 8am. Went into the NEC and saw a queue of people in Star Trek costumes, went to join it and the steward told us to go back to the other hall to get our hand stamped. Then we went back to join the queue outside of Hall 4. Stood in the queue for about 20 minutes then the steward made another queue next to ours, so people that had just turned up were next to people that had been queuing for hours. It was a bit odd that they had the banner up with all the captains on but only 1 was attending. It came 9am the doors opened and every one moved forwards and similar to LFCC they had 1 or 2 people to check peoples hand stamps and quite a lot of people just walked past them without showing. So people could of got in for free. It was my 11st SM Con, so I went to straight to get the VQ tickets. I have to say even though I was possibly around the 300th person I the queue outside. I managed to get all under 50 VQ tickets for Walter, George and Christopher Lloyd. Then I went to get the photos for George and Walter to sign from the store. There was only 2 people serving with around 50 people trying to buy photos it was a bit manic Got both of the photos I wanted & joined the Walter autograph line. What a lovely guy, very kind and friendly. Joined the Christopher Lloyd line and got him to sign my Back to the Future picture, he shook my hand and said thank you. Joined the George Takei line which wasn’t moving much, but eventually I got my autograph off George Takei. Now it was around 10am and my photo shoot was around 4pm. There wasn’t a lot to do at the convention, compared to the last DST in London. There wasn’t many stalls and the museum had been cut down. The Chill out area was just playing some Star Trek promo on repeat, last time they showed Star Trek episodes. So skip ahead after 5 hours of wondering round inside and outside the NEC to pass the time. It was a pain having to get past the crowd of people that were taking photos of guests on the bridge, maybe have it not in the entrance next time? I went to the Walter photoshoot early, told the crew member and showed him my George Takei ticket and he put me in line behind the VIP/fast pass ticket holders with the other people that had clashed photoshoots. It went smoothly. I had my photo with Walter and headed over to the George Takei photoshoot There was a big crowd for his photoshoot, but the crew handled it perfectly. He kept the queuing area empty and called people in batches and only called the next batch number when the previous queue batch had gone down. Perfect. Overall a good con experience. TLDR: Pros: Good photoshoot queue management. It wasn't stupidly hot inside (possibly due to the weather or aircon). Cons: Lack of entrance ticket checking (same thing happened at LFCC) Stalls/shops Bridge crowds near the entrance.

He was a nice guy at LFCC, he personalised my autograph. Whilst I was in the queue for Edge. I saw someone with a child go up to Carl for a autograph. Carl got a jiffy bag from behind him and gave the child a Apollo Creed playing card (which I was abit jealous of).

Best LFCC I've been over the past 4 years. After the nightmare of the past 2 years, we expected the worst and got pleasantly surprised. The venue was very well spaced out and it was wasn't boiling. There wasn't a crush at the stalls area, so we could actually look at the stalls without someone constantly bumping into you. The only negative I have to say was the entrance queue. Whilst in the entrance queue before the show opened. A crew member came through the queue/crowd and started scanning peoples tickets, but she didn't go to everyone, so some people could of easily got in without anyone checking their tickets. She walked past us without scanning ours, it was only when we told her we hadn't had ours scanned that she came back to us to scan them. Other then that it was a 10/10 con. I got all my 5 autographs by 10:30am.

I dont suppose any of the mods know. At the last DST. We had to buy chips for autographs at a kiosk type thing. Then you'd hand these over at the autogtaph table, so no money was handed over at the actual autograph table. Is this going to be the same this time?

WOW. I managed to get a photo with Christopher at LFCC, but I missed out on Christopher autograph. Hopefully i can get it this time.

Even though they said no clues. Maybe the is a clue. So i'm going to say Michael B Jordan who played Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four reboot.

I met Kurt at a TNA event a few years back, really nice guy. Will pick up a autograph.

I predict : Carrie Fisher Mark Hamill Peter Mayhew John Boyega Daisy Ridley All Diamond Pass only I'd like to think they could get Harrison Ford if it was limited to say 300 Diamond passes only, and the only way you could have a picture or autograph was via diamond pass. Even though apparently he isn't fan friendly he'd only be at the venue a few hours and he'd walk away with a big pay.

Kate Mulgrew Avery Brooks Patrick Stewart Linda Hamilton Robert Patrick Carrie Fisher (Diamond) Mark Hamill (Diamond)

That's exactly the same as me. I didn't realize the power of the Diamond Pass Next time i'll get a diamond pass for who ever i want a autograph from.

Stuffing about 15 unknown guests in an unreachable room (Where was it anyway? I found the amount of guests less then I had expected already, but I thought I was dreaming, but missing out on a whole room would explain it...) on the 3rd level with little to no attention is not what I'd call a celebration I didn't even know how to get to the 3rd floor at LFCC.

Theres was some sort of speed dating event at Destinaton Star Trek last year. I thought it got cancelled due to lack of female interest

How or why have you booked a hotel room when you dont know when the event is on? Theres always a chance the dates could change at some point in the next year.

Christoper Lloyd, he was in high demand.

Lea thomspon - Adam, what a dream boat

I met him at DST last year in the after party in the Fox pub. He charged us a £5 charity donation for a picture. Geniune nice guy.

She's been one of the nicest guests I've met. She has been the only guest that actually asked us if we wanted a picture with her at her desk

Oh jesus. Its like Stan Lee all over again

Hopefully it'll be less packed tomorrow. I decided to go just Sunday this year because Saturday was really bad for me. I thought the same. So i'm going on tomorrow. Then Sunday tickets sold out aswell :no: I expect the same as today which sounds awful

Its like Stan Lee Fest all over again

I'm really not looking forward to tomorrow at all.

Go to the photoshoot area. The Crewe member is usually shouting out ticket numbers/batch numbers. If he's shouting for batch one then you'll have to wait till they shout for batch 2. If he's shouting for batch 3 or higher go and speak to them and the should let you in. Previous years you,ll have to show your ticket the Crewe member who is manning the queue, then usually just before you have your photo someone will take/scan your ticket. There should also be maps and schedules up and around the venue

Derby,driving down for Sunday

Yes, its next to the venue. You can pre book it via the Olympia website.

We're setting off from Derby at around 4:30am. After last year when we got there at 8:10 and the queue was already going round the arena.