2011 Dragon*Con, Part 1

Part 1	The W Atlanta - Downtown	Around Dragon*Con	Part 2	Dragon*Con Parade

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On March 26, 2011 Jenny sends some e-mail asking me to consider going to Dragon*Con. (The "*" is silent.) On September 2, I was driving to Atlanta. It's something everyone has to do once, right? Right?

I've been to Origins and GenCon, and even to an extent Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, but I wasn't quite prepared for 'Cosplay'.

Cosplay is where someone dons costume and accessories to represent a character or an idea. At Dragon*Con, that someone numbers into the thousands. No, really, into the thousands. No matter where you turn, there's a ghostbuster or a storm trooper or a Jedi or a zombie or a very provocatively dressed female. (The latter was my personal favorite.) Wikipedia says it's a performance art, and it probably could be considered as such, but it's really a concentration of extreme fandom of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I understand ComicCon is the king of cosplay in the US, but Dragon*Con has to come in a close second.

The convention is more than just a bunch of geeks dressing up, but a good number of workshops and seminars based on science fiction and fantasy. The big draws are the stars and personalities of film and other media, where the line to get into the auditorium will go out the door and around the block, and not everyone will get in. So in order to see some of the events, you have to arrive hours before the event. There has to be a better way.

And don't ever tell me Disney has long lines. Heh.

The W Hotel

I suppose the first thing I have to mention is the lodging. Dragon*Con takes over four hotels in downtown Atlanta; the Hilton, Westin, Marriott and Hyatt. No rooms were available at any of those hotels 5 months out. We (okay, Jenny) reserved a room at the W Downtown Atlanta, about a third of a mile from the closest host hotel. There were supposed to be shuttle buses, but we only saw one during our entire stay, and even then it wasn't at a time we needed it...

Now, I'm probably not hip enough to get the W, but I think I stayed at the most bizarre room ever (for a "mainstream" hotel). I'm not really sure who the hotel is designed for.

From the time you walk into the door to the lamp in your room, the hotel is shiny. I mean stainless steel/chromium/mirror shiny. You were afraid to touch anything, because someone could lift your fingerprint, no problem.

The good and bad? Okay, things I liked about the W... Okay, I'm thinking...

Things I didn't like about the W.

No coffee maker in room. As a matter of fact, I don't remember seeing any pop or snack machines, either. But there were plenty of snacks and drinks and other various, sundry items for sale in your room, at highly inflated prices. The fridge in your room wasn't there for your stuff, it was filled with the drinks they want to sell you. In their defense, they do have free coffee in the bar off the hotel lobby, but do you really want to just wake up and have to go down to the first floor, though the lobby of a Downtown Atlanta hotel, just after you get your butt out of bed? Oh, they did have condoms for sale in the room. Read the box. Good for some yuks.

You had better be friendly with the person you're with, because the shower is made of glass. On both sides. And the doorless glass shower is the divider between the bathroom and the bed area. Now the glass on the bed side is frosted where the shower head is, but the other half and opposite side is just smoked glass. I'm sure the people in the office building across the courtyard have great views if all the rooms are like this, so pull the blinds at night...
Because the water control is on the far wall from the shower head, it takes quite a while for any temperature change to take effect.
The water control for the shower was odd, too. Twist it one way, and it works like a normal hotel shower control, but you could also twist it in the opposite direction, and you only get cold water.

The commode room (at least there was a door and wall you couldn't see through), was tiny. It was only wide enough for the door to open, inward. So you literally had to stand behind the toilet to close the door. If you were more than a few pounds overweight, you might not be able to close the door.

I know this is pretty common these days, but they only had valet parking for something like $30/day. In Chicago, you can end up paying $200, but I won't pay that either. I parked across the street in an open lot for $5/day. Of course, I have an older car...

Internet access. Not only did they want $14.95/day for HSIA, but they put a cookie on your machine, so if you try to connect a 2nd laptop, they want another $14.95. Unbelievable.

A strange bowl of a sink that a flat bottom and wasn't slanted toward the drain. So if you shaved, shaving cream would just sit on the far side of the sink, and you'd have to manually wash it down the drain.

Did I mention no coffee maker?

So overall, given the price and strangeness of this place, one star. I mean, I can deal with a lot of what the hotel industry does, but the HISA thing was just beyond the pale. But when an event like Dragon*Con is in town, you sometimes just have to deal with what you can get.

Moral of the story? Decide to go more than five months out and find a better hotel. Heh.

The W Atlanta - Downtown

2011 Dragon*Con

Dragon*Con supposedly hosts 40,000 people. Some estimate 50,000. Maybe 10-15% (or more) of the people there dress in costume. Here's a few of the more interesting ones.

Around Dragon*Con