LeakyCon Day 2: LineyCon

So, do you remember me telling you in part one that Brae and I cannot travel without there being problems and that LeakyCon was the exception? Well, that wasn't exactly true, but it has been the most trouble-free travel experience we've had to date.

You see, we woke up on Wednesday to go register and made our way over to Royal Pacific. When we entered the conference space, my jaw dropped after seeing a rather long line of people just inside the door. Surely this line wasn't for registration, right? Brae, Catherine, and I got in line without asking questions at first, then someone said something that didn't fit if this was the registration line, and we saw people with badges for the conference. So, we asked if this was the registration line and were told no; this was the conflict resolution line. I breathed a sigh of relief that we wouldn't have to wait in that line and found the correct lines around the corner. We each got in a different line since it was alphabetical. Catherine got her registration first, and we spent a while going through her bag which contained a few ads and an AWESOME program book:

Brae got his registration next, and all seemed to be going well. Then, I got to the front of my line and all went to wizard hell. I gave the girl at the desk my ID and she immediately adopted a look that didn't bode well. She asked before even checking the box behind her with badges if my registration might be under a different name. I said no, and she turned to look, but she appeared to just be doing it for my benefit. After a moment, she turned to face me and said my registration wasn't there and I'd have to get in the...dun dun dun...conflict resolution line.

Now, our original plan was to go to Royal Pacific, register, go to the WWoHP, and each lunch. Well, that didn't appear to be happening if I had to wait in the conflict resolution line, and I was starving. So, we went next door to Emeril's Tchoup Chop and had lunch. We were surprised by a themed menu just for LeakyCon! I ordered a phoenix sandwich and Amor-Colada (which I was later informed was non-alcoholic).

Then, it was back to the conference space to get in the conflict resolution line which hadn't moved an inch. Luckily, there was this awesome girl in front of me named Alex who I really bonded with that day over the course of four lines and five and a half hours.

(The line pictured above wrapped around the corner and up around the rest of the conference space.)

To make a long story short, LeakyCon's printers didn't make all the badges, and they didn't check properly since, according to the staff, 2,000 badges look a lot like 3,400 badges. We found a shorter line which we got through faster than our original line, but they didn't give us our Open at the Close tickets. So, after a brief celebration of being free from lines, Alex and I realized we had to get back in line. Another hour later, we had all our registration materials only to find out that our newly arrived other roommates (Jordan and Ashley) were in the conflict resolution line because one of them was one of the unlucky ones whose registration hadn't been printed.

Though the lines sucked royal hippogriff, I tried not to let them get me down, though I did have a few moments where awesome quotes issues from my mouth like “I give up! The dementor that is this line has sucked out my soul”. I even considered not getting back in line once I was officially registered for the con but didn't have my Open at the Close ticket and wristband and not going to Open at the Close at all. While this was probably an option since people who hadn't paid for Open at the Close weren't asked to leave when the park closed and many stayed for the entire event (it wasn't very well organized either), I'm glad I just went through it and got my wristband.

Another awesome quote from the line-waiting experience were from a group of passers-by (including Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills):

Girl: What's this line for? (referring to the conflict resolution line)

JFF: That? That's the line for...f*cked up stuff.

We ran back to the hotel to change for Open at the Close and return for the Opening Festivities at Royal Pacific. We barely made it; they had just started the ceremony when we got back from Portofino Bay (that water taxi ride takes a while since you have to switch boats at City Walk).

I must take a moment here to sing the praises of one LeakyCon staffer whose praises have not been sung, to my knowledge. There were a few that had their moments in the spotlight throughout the weekend, but one stood out for me. Her name is Stephanie, and she just plain rocks! She was my liaison for accommodations through the entire week. Every time Brae or I went to her to talk about how to work out seating for an event, she'd always start with “Well, what do you want? We'll make it happen” rather than just doing the bare minimum (naturally, that turned into endless jokes in our room about what I wanted like”I want to watch DH2 with Evanna Lynch and JKR after they pick me up in a party bus with all the rum I can drink”). Though she was always surrounded by a crowd of people demanding her attention or trying to coordinate her family's plans throughout the con and often had to escape to the quiet of her hotel room just to get a moment to relax, she always went out of her way to help me! I cannot thank her enough, even though we tried on Saturday with a small gift.

Anyway, Brae had stayed at Royal Pacific while three of us ran back to our room at Portofino Bay to change, and he kept calling frantically because Stephanie had found us seats in the front row for the Opening Festivities. That's how that all fit together in my mind.

The opening festivities were pretty sweet, despite some technical difficulties (the nargles seemed to plague every bit of technology that weekend). They called it a video yearbook, and it sort of was. It was basically a history of the fandom from when SS was first published to the start of wizard rock to Starkid and so on. As it got to each important part of the fandom, it cut to a live performance.

Oh, and we can't forget the cutest proposal ever that started off the opening festivities when Melissa pretended a girl had won a contest and called her to stage where her boyfriend was waiting.

After the opening festivities wrapped up, it was off to the park for Open at the Close! The majority of the conference-goers hadn't been yet since almost every group had one person that had been forced to wait in line all day. So, even though the Open at the Close tickets allowed us entrance into Islands of Adventure after 2pm, very few people I talked to got to take advantage of that which was sad because park tickets were awfully expensive and some people had only bought Open at the Close tickets and not additional days. Surprisingly, I didn't witness any riots from people who hadn't been to the park before and had to try to cram it all into five hours or so since the opening festivities had been pushed back because they wanted all the conference attendees to be present for them and had to wait until everyone had made it through the conflict resolution line.

I didn't end up taking many pictures at Open at the Close. There was a lot of confusion there that threw me off both within my group of friends and with the entire event itself. Last year, Infinitus had us leave the park at closing and re-enter after our event was set up. LeakyCon thought they could bypass this by letting us stay and having everyone wear a wristband so that those without them could be escorted out. As I said before, this didn't work out at all. Sure, there weren't any fans throwing hissy fits like at Infinitus because they missed half anh hour in the park and got to listen to the staff that worked on creating WWoHP, but we had to wait about an hour before our free food was set up and people who hadn't paid for the event got to stay because no one was really checking wristbands.

I spent the majority of the night with the other AccioLeakyCon girls at the Hog's Head which didn't appear any less crowded than usual, but that might have been because about ten billion people were trying to cram in there around our table because Starkid sat right next to us. I didn't end up getting a picture with the other AccioLeakyCon girls, though, because I had to catch up with my other friends after confusion happened there. Basically, we just tried to cram everything in because Brae and I weren't sure we'd get to return with our other day ticket (which we didn't get to). We ran to Forbidden Journey while snapping pictures of the live show with Evanna Lynch happening in front of Hogwarts, glanced at the Trwizard show on our way to Dragon Challenge (we only rode one of them because Brae said he didn't like the ride), ran back to Ollivanders because Brae wanted to go through the experience again, hoping he'd be chosen (which he wasn't), and bought a new wand for him before grabbing some free ice cream and watching them cleaning up the rest of the food that we hadn't had time to eat. Personally, I thought the peanut butter and strawberry ice cream was absolutely disgusting, but this might have been blown out of proportion by having just witnessed someone who had chugged butterbeer and then ridden Dragon Challenge hurl right next to me and having chugged pumpkin juice right before that (which I don't think tastes very good).

Then it was back to the room for more room service since we'd missed the free food at Open at the Close (Mm! Pizza!), showers, and an attempt to get four hours of sleep when no one in the room can stop giggling.

Look for our posts on days 3-6!