[darkened_one]

hiryuu97 said:

Try the hotels website. I believe I saw a layout map of the hotel there a short while ago. If you still can't find it, let me know, I'll send you a copy of the one I got.

I belive so also ... and if it doesnt just do what I did they have a map in the acen book you get when you get your ID and just study it

[Lordi]

yeah, theres maps in the program book

trust me, if you get lost at acen, theres thousands of people to ask for directions

[darkened_one]

Lordi said:

yeah, theres maps in the program book

trust me, if you get lost at acen, theres thousands of people to ask for directions

almost 10000 I belive :sweatdrop

[mmy-sama]

The most important thing is time managment. Acen only comes once a year, make good use of it. Every single second of the convention must be used to its fullest extent. If you ever find yourself with some "free" time, simply start talking to random people making friends and doing something your otaku borthers rarely do for 362 days of every year, social interaction. Most everyone there is an otaku and your friend, so you are NEVER left without someone to talk to.

Also, you should'nt just stick with the same group of people all weekend. Like, if you come with some of year friends, don't just hang out with them all day, go around meet new people, maybe go off by yourself sometimes but don't just stick with the same people.

[Lordi]

Public Service Annoucement


MAKE SURE YOU BATHE!!!!!!!


(and use deodorant plz) ^^()

[TheRabbi]

Now, now, Lordi. We expect that implicitly from our congoers.

Of course, we also expect implicitly that they yield to our suggestion they go bathe when we tell them to.

[Lordi]

yes yes, however the expectation is not always lived up to

[anime_blob_217]

wow this is going to be my first time going to an anime convention and this thread has been very helpful for me !!! now i know what to watch out at the convention!!! :3

[SFPrincess]

1. Is parking usually full? The reason I'm asking is because I'm debating on whether or not I will be able to drive there. I'm only about a 10-15 minute drive away and don't mind paying for parking if it's cheaper than a hotel, seeing as the Hyatt has it for $10.

2. If you choose to park, can you nap/sleep in your car? I want to be able to get the best experience I can out of the convention, but I can't be sure I'll be able to stay awake, and I don't really want to drive back home if I'm not going to be sleeping very long.

3. Is there any place to crash at the convention without getting a hotel room? Do they kick out bums who fall asleep somewhere, like a bench or something?

4. Is the price of stay at the Hyatt $124 a night? or for the weekend? And what is the maximum of people you can have in a room?

Thanks a lot for the help. Also, 9 pages of spuratic information and comments can be confusing to look through for a new con-goer. So if my questions have already been asked, then sorry. If possible, maybe the questions can be organized on the first page to reduce duplicates and confusions.

[TheRabbi]

SFPrincess said:

1.  Is parking usually full?  The reason I'm asking is because I'm debating on whether or not I will be able to drive there.  I'm only about a 10-15 minute drive away  and don't mind paying for parking if it's cheaper than a hotel, seeing as the Hyatt has it for $10.

I don't believe the Hyatt parking lot has ever been full. It's a gigantic garage.

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2.  If you choose to park, can you nap/sleep in your car?  I want to be able to get the best experience I can out of the convention, but I can't be sure I'll be able to stay awake, and I don't really want to drive back home if I'm not going to be sleeping very long.

You can do anything you want in your car. I wouldn't reccomend it, because cars aren't so wonderful. If you actually are 10 minutes away, you might want to consider driving home to sleep - though when we say the convention is a 24-hour convention, we mean it. There's always something going on. I live in Evanston and I got a hotel room the year I attended (note the staff tag now). Best advice: grab a bunch of friends and split a hotel room cost. It won't be that much if you have enough friends, and you can get an amazing amount of people in a small room. My personal record: 12. That was the year I slept in the bathtub for a night.

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3.  Is there any place to crash at the convention without getting a hotel room?  Do they kick out bums who fall asleep somewhere, like a bench or something?

Sorry, but as a Security Department ADH for Night Shift, I can tell you that we look for people trying to fall asleep on benches, under benches, in chairs in lobbies, in video rooms, and all over the place. We ask you to get up and get moving to where you're living for the weekend (translation: your hotel room). ACen rules prohibit sleeping in the convention area. We're usually quite nice about it, but if we find you sleeping in convention areas more than one or two times, we will take away your badge. This is a bad idea.

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4.  Is the price of stay at the Hyatt $124 a night?  or for the weekend?  And what is the maximum of people you can have in a room?

I can't help you with the prices off-hand because I'm not going to go to the ACen webpage and find them. There are rumors (the truth of which I cannot confirm) that the Hyatt is full. I would still call to see. There are tons of hotels in that area, all within walking distance of the convention. The aforementioned 12-person night was in the Doubletree hotel, not the Hyatt. As for the maximum number of people you can have in a room, there is none. ACen has no limit for this, and neither do most hotels if you can sneak it by them. We only ask that you keep the noise down if you're in the Hyatt. Then again, if you all are sleeping, that shouldn't be a problem, should it? ^^;;

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Thanks a lot for the help.  Also, 9 pages of spuratic information and comments can be confusing to look through for a new con-goer.  So if my questions have already been asked, then sorry.  If possible, maybe the questions can be organized on the first page to reduce duplicates and confusions.

Hey, no problem. That's why us staffers - and everyone else - cruise this thread. I'm glad I could help. If you have any more questions, go ahead and reply to this, and you'll get an answer to them - if not from me, then from some other forumite.

[TheRabbi]

Belldandy said:

Ok. I really wanna go to A-cen this year! But My Dad's alittle iffy on letting me go. None of my family will go there with me all three days, so he doesn't really want me to go. Thus, I have no one to go with. No friends, family or anyone.  :(  Help me please! @.@
Question 2: What's Acen like exactly? I've never been to a convention before, and hopefully this will be my first one. ^-^
Question 3: Do you have to stay at a nearby hotel to go to acen? I live a while away from the acen place. Is it just easier to stay at one? I wanna go for all 3 days, but I don't think anyone will wanna take me for all 3.

Tip one: Grab some friends! Though you'll meet a lot of people at the convention and (hopefully) see them year after year, going to a con alone can be a daunting proposition. (Plus, friends help share the hotel bill. ^^;;)

Tip two: I'd say yes to question three. Unless you live obscenely close, you'll want a place to unload your Dealer's Room stuff and to go crash when you've been up for 48 hours straight. Refer to Tip one for payment plans...

Tip three: Wow... describe ACen? I had better leave this one to the forumites. Um, can we give Belldandy some help, Regulars?

[SFPrincess]

Wow, thanks a lot for the detailed and prompt response Keitaro. I appreciate the suggestions.

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There's always something going on. I live in Evanston and I got a hotel room the year I attended (note the staff tag now). Best advice: grab a bunch of friends and split a hotel room cost. It won't be that much if you have enough friends, and you can get an amazing amount of people in a small room. My personal record: 12. That was the year I slept in the bathtub for a night.

Go figure, my hometown is Evanston, haha. I'm in Elmhurst for college though. I've debated back and forth about the hotel room with my friends, but there's only one other girl going with us and 5 other guys (one is my b/f). My parents aren't strict, just reasonable, and I respected their decision not to let me get a hotel room unless it was all girls. I'm not one to lie, and even though I'm old enough (20/21 by convention) to make those kinds of choices, and I have a sensible group of friends, and my parents will be out of town, and I don't live with them --they're helping pay for my college. If I could find a group of sensible, respectful girls, there's a slight possibility. But maybe I'd rather use the hotel money to spend on the convention, hehe, we'll just have to see how much peer pressure I'm going to get from my friends to go find other girls .

[TheRabbi]

No problem, SF. But if your parents aren't paying for the convention, what say do they have in your free-time activities (especially at 20-21)? Then again, if they're helping to pay, you have a decision to make. But I'll stop my proscriptive suggestions here.

My advice still stands. If you need a group of girls, find one - but try to go nonetheless. You probably can find a bunch of people to go with - your college's anime club, perhaps? (Every college has one - so don't say yours doesn't. You just have to find it, and that can be tricky.) Or maybe you can make ACen the first anime experience for some of your friends... *stifles maniacal laugh* Um, ahem...

Besides, there's not much time you'll be spending in your hotel room. I average around 5-8 hours a year. Then again, I don't need sleep. (That's lucky; I don't get much sleep...) Good luck! ^^

[Yume]

SF - if you don't want to pay full price for a convention hotel, or even an overflow hotel, try to find on an hour or so away where you can rent an inexpencive single or whatever, maybe get your friends to room in that hotel with you (but in a seperate room naturally) and drive to the convention. Generally, there's about 4 hours of dead time in the wee hours of the morning from about 2 until 6 or so, so you could go back to your hotel then and stash loot or catch some shuteye.

[Lordi]

theres some not too far away that are relatively inexpensive


however, sleeping in public areas is not a good idea - 1) as dilligent as we try to be as security, theres always the possibility of something happening to you while you slept and 2) both the hotel and acen frown upon it

[SFPrincess]

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No problem, SF. But if your parents aren't paying for the convention, what say do they have in your free-time activities (especially at 20-21)? Then again, if they're helping to pay, you have a decision to make. But I'll stop my proscriptive suggestions here.

My advice still stands. If you need a group of girls, find one - but try to go nonetheless. You probably can find a bunch of people to go with - your college's anime club, perhaps? (Every college has one - so don't say yours doesn't. You just have to find it, and that can be tricky.) Or maybe you can make ACen the first anime experience for some of your friends... *stifles maniacal laugh* Um, ahem...

@Keitaro: Well, my parents have a say because I'm not financially independent. Although I am paying for the convention and pay for other expenses, they pay for the most important aspect of my life. Which is school. It's not that they would take away my funding if I went and didn't tell them (or even tell them), but I have a very high respect for what they've done for me. They've worked hard to provide me with everything, and therefore I am willing to make sacrifices for certain things (like a hotel room) if they don't necessarily agree with it. I'll live if I don't get one , and by maintaining honesty, trust, and loyalty, I have secured myself of any potential conflict that would hurt their feelings or make them worry.

I'll be going, I'll just be paying for parking and driving back and forth . (Or occassionally napping in my car).

As for the college Anime Club, my school really doesn't have one. See For Yourself. I've met 3 people who even watch Anime at my school. It's smaller than my high school was. In fact, I don't really watch Anime myself, I just play video games (although I'm trying to watch as much Anime as possible before ACEN). Our video gaming clubs are also pretty weak. As for finding other girls to get them into it, I've been asking my residents, but I'm not sure they could survive a whole weekend with foreign materials, hehe. Thanks for the suggestions though.

@Yume: Thanks for the suggestion. I actually only live about 10 minutes away, so a further hotel wouldn't really benefit me =).

@Lordi: Thanks for the tips!

[HatoMichael]

This thread has been really helpful since I've never been to ACEN.

Gaming
I was wondering, I've been to one other smaller con this March in St. Louis, and the con included video game tournaments. Will there be any tournaments at ACEN?

Also, are people allowed to bring in their own pads/sticks to ACEN? (If there are fighting games, most of my friends and I play on our own hori sticks, that's why I ask)

Hotel

I called a bit ago - the Hyatt, right? They told me they were booked for that weekend, even after I mentioned ACEN, so unless the receptionist made a mistake, I suggest looking for overflow hotels. They're really helpful if you call and ask for nearby hotels.

I'm really really excited about this, I love seeing dealers too because I spend too much money, lately it's all on Naruto items.

[Lordi]

we will have video gaming rooms, not 100% sure on tournaments, however

as for dance mats, chances are we'll have the actual DDR machines - no mats needed

as for the hotel, i hadn't heard the hyatt was full

[TheRabbi]

Erg... too bad, Belldandy. Maybe next year indeed - start converting the masses now!

[wannabe_poser]

im a newbie and this helped me alot!! thanks!

[Sora]

O_o; I could have sworn I posted in here before..
But oh well. >>
Question one: At a con, you can buy various anime merchandise, watch anime, meet new people, find out more information about the anime/manga industry, and find out what new titles are coming out in the near future. And more. XD
Question 2:
The best way to spend time at a convention: The dealer room. XD. I can easily spend 2-3 hours in there.
Question 3:
What kind of things are for sale, and how much?
Manga, anime, art books, soundtracks, art, toys, cards, cels, cosplay acessories, cosplay items, doujinshi, pins, plushies, models, and more. XD. Prices can range anywhere from 3 dollars to 200 dollars.
Question 4: What kind of conduct or social guidelines are expected?
Be at least somewhat friendly, and don't mess around. >>
Quesiton 5: Survival tips.
Bring these things:
1. A gameboy/book/manga/CD Player/portable DVD player. Or something to keep you occupied during the long lines. They can, and will get boring.
2. A photo ID. You'll need it to pick up your badge if you pre-regestered.
3. A highliter*needs to take my own advice this year on that* XD
4. An emergancy cosplay kit(if you're cosplaying). Bring things like needles, thread, hair clips, and makeup.
5. anime CD's and lyrics(if you're going to karaoke)
6. medicine such as ibuprofen, tums, etc. Better safe than sorry ^^;
7. money! XD
8. Food(if you have a hotel room)
9. Friends! XDD. While they aren't necessary, it makes the con a bit more fun.
And here are the tips XD
1. Sleep! I know there's anime playing 24 hours a day, but resist the urge to watch it all. It helps you stay awake during events, AND it makes you less irratable. XD
2. Take baths. No one wants to be around someone who smells. >>
3. Take more money than you think you'll need. You never know what you may find in the dealer room. Or how much a meal may cost..X.x;

Wow, that was long..O.o;

[stinababe]

do u need ur id when u just register 4 one day and do u get a badge when u dont pre-reg?

[Sora]

stinababe said:

do u need ur id when u just register 4 one day and do u get a badge when u dont pre-reg?

Question one- Nope.
2: Yep. XD. Everyone gets one.

[stinababe]

tnx very much ^-^

[repeat2k]

This is a stupid question but I pre-registered last year and my friend didn't. It took him aboout 2 minutes altogether to get all his stuff and pre-reging with me took way longer. Will this be fixed or would it be faster to not pre-reg? It is only 5 bucks more....

Thanks
-repeat2k

[DJFLuFFKiNS]

I noticed that last year as well... what I will have to say is though many people may far less than 40 for prereg, but as for if anything is different? I'll leave reg to answer that question

[Tiresias79]

Last year after the con, we were promised that it would be better this year. That pre-reg lines wouldn't take nearly as long as they did. As for the price though, you can't really say that it'll only be $5 more since the at-con prices haven't been announced yet, and won't be until after pre-reg closes. I have no idea what they'll be, but they could be $50-$55 this year instead of $45 like last year. Again, I have no idea what they'll be, but we can't say for sure what it will be since it hasn't been announced yet.