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Yesterday (Friday), I came out of the station and saw roughly where the entrance was, with a queue going along to the right and round the corner. I joined the end and asked if it was for LFCC. I was told "yes" and might have left it at that but with two of us, I was able to leave my daughter in the queue and go to the head and check.

I found a steward who informed me that the right hand queue was for ticketholders and there was another one going to the left for "pay on the day". HOW EASY IT WOULD HAVE BEEN FOR STAFF TO POST THIS INFORMATION IN ADVANCE!!! As the queue moved in, we saw some A3 notices behind people's heads and in the smoke shack (!) saying "Queue this way" without any direction indicated.

Nonetheless, inside, it was a good atmosphere - busy and relaxed and the stars were great.

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Seems pointless to have crew going up and down the 'snaking' bit of the pre paid queue shouting "shuffle up" if the crew then disappear and people fron all points just head to the doors. I haven't been to LFaCC for a few years, there was the same problem then. There's going to be bloodshed rather than the ineffective 'That's not fair!" shouts-all it needed were a couple of crew at the bends nearest the door.

Edited by sazzra
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A complete cockup from beginning to end. There was a massive queue which stretched from the entrance by the tube to the main road and back again and a second for those needing to get a ticket running parallel as positioned by security. Then some bloke on a hailer decided to move the main queue to the other side ending up with two queues going into one with new arrivals from the tube bobbing in too. Finally everyone walked up and down in rows until the door opened and it ended with a bun fight to the doors.

 

Security had no idea what was happening, (my mum could have done a better job!) and who should go where, no clear signs or barriers to direct paying customers and although I had an early bird ticket I could have quite easily walked through without even showing one. I do hope that show masters will learn and bob some more signs and barriers etc for star trek even though it will eat profits.

 

The show as always is excellent but this kind of thing always and will upset people as its the first impressions and all that.

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Any chances the queues will be sortd out bette for tomorrow? I hope there was no pushing in today because there's nothing more annoying than that in my opinion,

I hope so too. Been to quite a few events and never had any real problems. I guess waiting is just one of those things ....

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Oh there was pushing in, by members of this forum who are always complaining about every little thing, but coming out of the Tube and joining your mates, that's apparently fine. Even though there are 3 or 4 of you. Someone else tried tbe 'I thought this was the end' crap but seeing as 5 minutes later it was a free for all, they still probably got in before people who had waited. I've been to other events with larger queues, and they were managed properly. It's down to a lack of interest, why bother controlling them when you can stand inside and look shocked at the mob?

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Just to let people know there is a second pay on the door queue for standard entry along with the early bird queue. Was in the line for early bird and saw quite a few people wanting to buy standard early get turned away once they reached the desk.

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Was really busy today - didnt like it, as a fellow crew member from years ago I found it very disorganised :-( the photo shoot queues were really bad - 4 photo shoot areas is a nightmare!! as for clashes I had 4 at the same time and was told by the crew member involved to pick the one I mist wanted to meet - and leave the others and get a refund - which I was outraged at - especially as I know what I am doing and know that, that is not the case!!!!

 

I think the snaking of the queues inside for photo shoots was aweful - Adam Baldwin photoshoot being moved around and the crew not knowing where it was being held??? told 4 different places!!! then the free for all at the end of it was aweful!!!!

 

The guests were fantastic as always!!! I do wish no photo signs were put up though - before you ask a guest and then they shake there head and say NO!!!

 

I have been coming to collectormania since 2003 - thats collectormania 3 and been to every con since!! this was the most expensive and the worse with the amount of people attending - the queues were a nightmare and the crew disorganised and not knowing what they are doing!!!

 

Come christmas - if the cons have not sorted out the state of what is happening - I wont be coming back - I will sadly miss it and you will loose out on a very devoted and expensive attendee!!!

 

Today was just the end for me!!! ( lets hope tomorrow is better and can regain my faith and trust!!!

 

:-( xx

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I have to agree. The queues were a shambles and completely disorganised. Me and my partner were sent up and down the venue at least 3 times after queuing for periods of time, to be told it was the wrong queue, even though each time we followed the commands of the crew. It then descended into a free-for-all. People who must have waited hours were left to hang whilst people just arriving were ushered into a new line direct to the entrance by the crew

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Queuing in general was appalling today! I got there at 8.20am and in between that time and getting into the venue, I was told to go to 4 different places by 4 different people (twice after having queued for some time). And I was not the only one, there were scores and scores of us. Totally ridiculous and unecessary. This could have been easily managed with more people on the ground. Towards the end, a (very) long line of us queuing were told to go to the other end of the road but there were already other people queuing in the opposite direction. We were told to just feed in but that must have seemed very unfair to those behind us (we were hundreds in number) and no explanation was given to them - i.e. that we had been queuing for ages at the opposite end. A family behind me then got really shirty and were making lots of loud sarcastic comments once the snaking stopped and we were all (presumably) told to face one way. They then just charged in all holding hands and more or less pushed past the crew members who had been told to hold the queue at the door. I can understand their frustration but actions like that really don't help matters either :( And let's not talk about the queuing for the Gillan Anderson and Dredd talks (though to be fair, the latter was more to do with con attendees than the crew). I must admit, if I hadn't already paid for a talk tomorrow, I would be seriously considering not going despite having already paid for an Early Bird ticket and not getting all my autographs.

 

Having moaned about all that, kudos to the crew managing the Mitch Pileggi photo shoot. They did a great job and brilliantly managed things!

Edited by thefreckles
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It was a very big problem today, we got there before 8.15 and joined the queue for pre-booked tickets this quickly started to snake round and at just before 9 a guy with a megaphone told everyone at the back of the queue to move to a different area so they all rushed to the front and we only found out what was happening because we saw the mass of people who had arrived after us heading towards the front. All they needed to do was to go to the front of the queue and tell people at the front to move, then the rest would have followed , that didn't happen and ended up with most of the people who got there early to get VQ tickets ending up getting in at 9.30 and having really high ticket numbers.

 

It needs to be worked out better or a lot of people will stop going.

 

Sarah

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Was really busy today - didnt like it, as a fellow crew member from years ago I found it very disorganised :-( the photo shoot queues were really bad - 4 photo shoot areas is a nightmare!! as for clashes I had 4 at the same time and was told by the crew member involved to pick the one I mist wanted to meet - and leave the others and get a refund - which I was outraged at - especially as I know what I am doing and know that, that is not the case!!!!

 

I think the snaking of the queues inside for photo shoots was aweful - Adam Baldwin photoshoot being moved around and the crew not knowing where it was being held??? told 4 different places!!! then the free for all at the end of it was aweful!!!!

 

The guests were fantastic as always!!! I do wish no photo signs were put up though - before you ask a guest and then they shake there head and say NO!!!

 

I have been coming to collectormania since 2003 - thats collectormania 3 and been to every con since!! this was the most expensive and the worse with the amount of people attending - the queues were a nightmare and the crew disorganised and not knowing what they are doing!!!

 

Come christmas - if the cons have not sorted out the state of what is happening - I wont be coming back - I will sadly miss it and you will loose out on a very devoted and expensive attendee!!!

 

Today was just the end for me!!! ( lets hope tomorrow is better and can regain my faith and trust!!!

 

:-( xx

 

I agree about the photo op queues! I had an extra help pass and my son who is autistic was with me and was heading towards a meltdown and they asked me to go end of the gold pass holders queue (which was long) and I had to say no because my son would not wait that long. Luckily they let me after about 5 people had gone in. But it did not seemed organised at all, especially for those like me trying to get through quickly so avoid any problems!

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Have to agree with what others have said: The queues outside were a shambles. Firstly started off being 1 long queue for pay on the day but it was split into 2 queues, and for some strange reason those that were behind me were guided to go in front of me?

 

All hell then bloke loose and it was a mad dash to the entrance, all form of queuing ended and it became a free for all to get in (including those who just turned up getting in before those who gave queued!).

 

In fact here is a picture from that point;

20120707091808.th.jpg

Edited by Tanith
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The queue organisation was dreadful! My family and I waited for 5 hours to meet Hayden Panettiere due to the virtual queuing system, and when we got to the table, we were given literally 5 seconds to see her, during which she apologised for not being able to actually speak to us...and that was it! We didn't even get to say hello or thank you before being ushered on. Really disappointing!

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Yeah I was number 325 for Hayden and was about 2.15 before I got to see her and when I did we were put through so quickly I couldn't even shake her hand, I think she was quite embarrassed to be honest.

 

She was delayed for 45 mins at her photoshoot though, I'm assuming due to the queues

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Well as a family we have been attending this show for the last 3 years and this year was in some ways the best and the worst.

 

The guests were great and we all really liked Olympia, its a much nicer venue than earls court.

 

But the queue system outside the venue was close to dangerous. If I worked for the licensing authority I would question if I would allow this company to host an event of this size again.

 

Why do I say this ?

 

We we queued today for an hour and the queue was really long for the early bird entry. It snaked up and down outside the station and then went up the side of the building. Everything started well with lots of happy people talking as normal and it all generally friendly. When the queue started moving it started well with people snaking up and down and entering in an orderly fashion. But 5 mins after it started moving all the stewards vanished and all hell broke loose. The snake broke down along with the order and there we people coming out of the station or from the back of the queue and forcing their way through the people that had been in the queue for hours.

 

As you can imagine this did not go down well and it was close at some point to people actually fighting over this happening and the people pushing in.

 

Please whoever is in charge at show masters invest in some barriers for next year that forces the queue to stay in shape and to treat everybody fairly. It would not have taken much for a total disaster to have broken out and people to have got hurt and you have been lucky this time.

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This was my first con, and I had my kid with me. We got there about 8.25, queued perfectly nicely, then right at the last minute got completely shafted by someone bringing all the latecomers right to the front over us. Every time we went to a new spot, we were then told to go somewhere else. Even right at the end, the snaked line we were proceeding along collapsed, and the whole thing went nuts again.

 

The other con-goers around us were lovely, but it was still awful, and I don't think it was any audience fault, but the security staffs' fault.

 

To fix this, you need a post-office type queue - I heard someone call it a disney queue, with barriers that snake you round and that it's obvious if you jump it.

 

If barriers are impossible, either due to cost or because the venue won't allow them, then a system like the BBC use would be cheaper: as people join the pre-paid queue, a steward goes down the line giving them a numbered sticker on their ticket. When the doors finally open, the people are called in batches by number, eg 1-50 and so on. This also has the advantage that one person can't hold a place for 15 of their mates, because their mates may join them, but will still end up with higher-numbered stickers.

 

 

(Edited for a bunch of typos.)

Edited by Jumpyghostface
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Utterly disappointed with the queueing this morning. Was queuing in one spot from 8:30, all was well until the line behind us started moving - turns out someone with a loud speaker was telling the BACK of the line where to queue next, meaning that everyone who got there after me was then in front of me. This threw off my schedule for the entire day, as I was unable to get in line for Holly's photoshoot in time to make the first slot, and instead had to miss half of Hayden's paid talk by attending the second slot.

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And the same applies to the queue for photo/talk tickets inside: there were several long lines queueing, and then a crewmember opened up a new till, and immediately directed people who just got there to the front, while all the people who had been waiting patiently were all still having to wait. A post office/disney single queue, with whoever is at the front directed to the next free till, would have been much fairer and stopped a lot of muttering, especially since this was 5 mins after the getting-in scrum. Since this is inside the venue, I can't see a reason why barriers should not be possible.

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This sort of thing would never would happen if we didn't have to pay to get in and to be honest I still don't know why we have to pay to get in ? Don't you think we pay enough once inside ?

 

Having said all that I have a feeling this post will disappear as if by Magic :(

 

Actually, it probably would to some extent. The biggest problem was with the Early Bird pre-paid queue so, effectively, we weren't buying tickets at all. It was down to sheer numbers and utter lack of organization and that could have happened at any free event as well. The queues needed to be snaked and split due to the large numbers of attendees and it was the management of this that was frankly appalling.

 

I can understand in the past why they make you pay to get in (I imagine costs of hiring the venues are astronomical) but given that we now seem to be paying for so many of the talks (including ones I would not have expected to pay for), it does make you begin to ask what you are getting for your money. If more and more talks are going to be paid for (and more rows of Gold ticket holders added), I will just stop going :(

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Yeah I was number 325 for Hayden and was about 2.15 before I got to see her and when I did we were put through so quickly I couldn't even shake her hand, I think she was quite embarrassed to be honest.

 

She was delayed for 45 mins at her photoshoot though, I'm assuming due to the queues

 

I was number 460 for haydens autograph and i had to leave at 4.30 before my number came up :( I was number 400 for gillian and saw her at about lunchtime! Dont think i'll be going again - even the crew members were complainingnabout how crazy it was! Also photoshoot for hayden finished before 1 and my photo wasnt ready to pick up!

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