one of vicky's bfs

As was mentioned yesterday, although you may have missed it, go to the organisers desk. Bad apple volunteers need weeding out as the majority are fantastic. I suggested it on a thread and Queen Sindel said the same. Hopefully he's calmed down now though.

You need to share forum duties with another mod QS because you've helped so many people over the past few months that it's now your turn to enjoy yourself. That's my thoughts anyway.

Queen Sindel has already said on another thread that everyone is in for at least an hour, so there is no queue!

I'm getting myself all muddled up, ignore me please

Go to the organiser's desk. It's on the first floor next to the Super Stage (or was yesterday).

I only attended the Friday with Vicky (that's her username on here) and so will tell you about our experience of the day, in particular mine as a newbie and a disabled attendee. We had looked at the plans and so knew which entrance we would likely need, got there and asked security (some were SIA licenced), they told us we were in the correct queue. Got chatting to a few other attendees who were really friendly (hi if you remember helping stand me up!). Some blue shirts came out and were issuing the Gold bands and directed told us where to collect the 'Helping Hand' slip. Then in we went! Couldn't find any lifts but as I'm on crutches, I slowly went up the stairs. Guests, VQ ticket for Christopher Lloyd which was confusing to find at the start, even some of the blue crew were confused, but we got there. Picked up Vicky's Diamond MJ Fox bits and Gold bag. Then we met some of the guests around the prop shoot end, some had a small queue, some none! Kristian Nairn does speak more than one word, Finn Jones is just mad about getting naked and Daniel Portman rides horses well and so had to learn how to ride in a clumsy manner for Pod. Then Keisha Castle-Hughes was lovely, I haven't seen all of the latest season but knew she's a Sand Snake, also found out who she played in Walking Dead, it was alongside Emily Kinney who I broke the news to her that Emily wasn't coming, I then confused her with Jessica Henwick regarding Star Wars and she told me that even though her and Ms Henwick are good friends, Ms Henwick won't let on about the new film. Met a few other people as well, Julian Glover who was really nice and thinks he'd give sage advice and Ray Park who was just so chatty to everyone. We met others, but those spring to mind. Prop shoots, we got the Clock, Delorean and Powerloader. Clock was ok, but I was wearing a dark blue top and so it didn't come out correctly. Delorean was good (only had 32205 on the clock as well, so barely run in), it is however very low getting in but photographer and Vicky helped me in and out and so if you have a physical disability ask first please. Powerloader was fine but it was not weight bearing at all and very flimsy, so it was hard getting a good shot I think. Photographers was both very good, with the Clock one he suggested come back today and stand in front of the white Clock face so that it would be much better, but I'm at home today. Crew, excellent and it didn't matter what colour their shirt was, they tried to help but if the blues couldn't solve it, they got a red straight away (or as good as). If it was talking about the suitability of the prop shoot for me, or helping me stand up (again!), giving directions to the best of their knowledge, they did it. We had a small problem with a photo shoot for Vicky (I didn't have any shoots), which I'll touch on later, but organiser's desk solved it within moments. So if someone from Showmasters reads this (or even a crew member), please pass on my thanks to them, they were all fab. I won't name names as to who really stood out, mainly because I'll miss someone and they'll feel bad about it. Sadly though, some of the crew were starting to get abuse towards the end of the day, could attendees please remember they are volunteers and do not deserve that. Venue, could have been better (you'd have known there would be bad bits). The lifts on the side of the cafe near the main signing area went out of action early on. Not too bad you'd think, but Olympia staff were actually debating in front of us whether to call an engineer in at the weekend or not due to cost, not a care in the world for me, the lady in a wheelchair nearby, other attendees or Showmasters, please could this be raised as an issue. The central staircase which Showmasters, I believe, spent a lot of money on was out bounds to people going down. In future, just have a sign on it saying 'keep left' please like the Underground does. Also some clearer signage to each Photo Shoot Area, like the arrows towards the central staircase would help so much and were probably the main questions being asked of crew all day and signs from the entrance to the lifts please. Photo Shoots, next year could there either be a 5 minute break between shoots or have a crew member walk down and say 'if you are queuing for Guest A stay on my left, if you want Guest B straight after, please stay on my right'. This was an issue for Vicky when she went for a shoot that was very short in time (10 minutes I think?) and so attendees were then queuing for the next guest, so Vicky assumed everyone was for her guest and that guest was really popular. It was only when she got to the front that she told 'tough, missed it' by a crew because it had gone onto the next guest. Luckily organiser's desk sorted it for her, but having that crew member go down the queue and split it means it should never happen again. Being a disabled attendee, you know something, it didn't matter to a guest, crew or attendee. Everyone was brilliant. There was space to move about, having crutches makes me wider than my skinny body looks like. Plus I was slow and couldn't carry things easily, no-one cared, not a single person that I took a few moments longer moving away from a guests desk or took ages on the stairs. So much so that I'll probably attend more than just the one day next year thanks to some ideas from another attendee over my hands hurting, even though I had gloves on. If you are disabled, please chat to Showmasters and see what they can do for you. Food after, we went to Pizza Express on site, we won't next year due to complete lack of service which meant our trains getting home were very late, I got home at almost midnight yet I only live near Gatwick. They wouldn't accept my booking of a table because they had a busy day, kinda why I booked! I would not recommend them on that basis, however food was good I suppose. Overall, I really enjoyed my day and would like to thank Showmasters, crew, guests and attendees for being great people. I look forward to seeing how other people's Friday, and even weekends, went. Oh and thanks for sticking to reading this thread until the end

Kristian Nairn and Finn Jones were sitting on Kristian's table together at one point yesterday.

I think this is what Shangel is talking about:

Jason, get some sleep! 2.45am is not a good time to be awake.

The Iron Throne is not coming. The Gibson one will be on their stand and being dealt with by them. Thanks for confirming TT, shame but such is life.

Thanks for the plan TT, but I can't see either the Iron Throne or the Gibson Throne. Mistakes or are they no longer coming? Also, any chance we can see what the shoots like AoS, Powerloader will look like please? Thanks

Here's something to think about, the £10 auto people will generally be quieter and so you may get a little chat in (no guarentee!). Would you get the chance to have a quick chat with MJF? Probably not, but you can with these people. They are people and they won't want to sit about bored and lonely. You might find something quite interesting happened while filming whatever they did, even if it didn't directly involve them. It could be that you are into the stunts (how they were done pre-CGI), the bloopers (think Storm Trooper who banged his head), or whatever. So you'll have a better day and so will the guest, sounds like a potential win-win to me.

Megabus is a bus, therefore I suspect any rail strikes will not affect it. East Midlands Parkway to London Kings Cross is run by East Midlands Trains, so nothing to worry about

It is happening but with Southern, c2c will be their usual useless self

As wrong name says, some get announced just before the event. I think Finn Jones was one last year.

The Twitter team will answer best during the day and early evening I've found. Which station would you be travelling from? Could you travel a little way to a bigger station via bus?

When I was one of three supervisors who ran a petrol station just over a decade ago, I know we didn't take them and I'll say why. When we did the banking of the previous days money, we had to pay a fee for each bundle of £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes. Separate from this we had to pay a fee for each Scottish note that we banked, so it just didn't make sense to accept them. This may have changed but to what degree I don't know.

I think may be you have miss read the original post ? NOT all trains will be effected as they will be running some just because they are on strike doesn't mean the Southern Network will come to a close all it means is instead of say running 4 trains a hour they will only run 1. You will have to check closer to Friday to get a idea of what trains are running. It will mean you might have to get a earlier train or even change your route ( if possible ) or worse case they may even do a replacement bus service. As I said check closer to the day I would phone National Rail Enquires on Weds they should know whats what by then. Its by no means a disaster it just means you will have to adjust your plans :) Another good idea is to ask Southern via Twitter as they can be helpful there. Plus it's free! Something to consider is that the trains may be shorter than normal due to no maintenance on some carriages, we just won't have a complete idea until the week as you say.

Underground will be fine, except that they may not run to Olympia so you'll have a short walk.

QS, could you (or StuartG) edit a post in another topic please http://showmastersonline.com/forums/index.php?s=c599bbd64258e4fe15f1339bfa0b7569&showtopic=87156 Reason being that I think StuartG has got a little tangled by mistake yesterday by posting: He is attending, the refunds refer to those who bought tickets for Friday (a day which he is not attending). Thanks I've edited, thanks. That's one of the problems with the same question popping up in 15 different threads 10 times each... things get muddled eventually. I know you are both human and volunteers, I am also human and volunteer. I get it in the neck and moaned about if I make a mistake just as yourselves, so it's only fair we help you to help Jason and his team

QS, could you (or StuartG) edit a post in another topic please http://showmastersonline.com/forums/index.php?s=c599bbd64258e4fe15f1339bfa0b7569&showtopic=87156 Reason being that I think StuartG has got a little tangled by mistake yesterday by posting: He is attending, the refunds refer to those who bought tickets for Friday (a day which he is not attending). Thanks

What vicky has written is correct, South West Trains will be fine.

As the strike is with engineers and not drivers or station staff, chances are it'll be shorter trains with a few changes but not much. Best thing is see how the first few days go I think.

Do you mean the train from Clapham Junction to Olympia? That's a London Overground train and so won't be affected. Hopefully...

It'll be Thameslink (First Capital Connect) who you are thinking of. Problem is that they are the same company now, Govia. The trains are still going to stay stickered as they are but they are now Govia. Confused? Welcome to the rail industry.