Eurofurence Information > Feedback

Honest Opinion of EF 16

<< < (3/29) > >>

djem:
I'm also gonna give me + and - point for this EF :

+ The badge including key was really great ! Room key at the ringberg was really a pain in the ass !
+ Food choice, when at the ringberg you were almost forced to eat what the hotel was offering if you didin't want to drive 30mins, here at the Maritim you could get what ever you want in less then 10 mins walking.
+ Space ! Large fursuit longed, large artshow, large stage, just the dealers den was a bit small even if it was already way bigger then in the last year.
+ Even if the price were expensive for food and drink compare to the ringberg, they were all really tasty, and cocktail were really containing alcool :3
+ Ef is still a blast, the biggest European furry meeting :)

~ Room where okay, I would just not recommend the 3rd bed, for me they are equivalent to the ringberg.
~ Even if the elevators was sometimes long to come, I always used the stair to go down, a bit of exercise never have kill anyone.
~ The hotel staff was not really friendly, but perfectly doing there job.
~ For the first two day, I didn't like the general atmosphere of the con, but the night of the pawpet show and BBF dace did bring me back to what I like at EF !! I was really filling home again :)

- I didn't like the big chairs and glass table in the lobby, they were not offering enough sits, same for the big round table that were not offering any chairs. I would definitely prefer the normal table with bench like      the one at EF 14 and 15.
- I would also like a bit more light in the lobby during night, everything was a bit dark, just a few spots would do the job.
- The first day, I'm missing a night event, the BBQ was not really nice ( it was raining, no one fault ) but after 20H, nothing was going on.
- The fursuit parade at 12h was really hard, waking up and jump in suit is not really great ;D

It's the first year at the Maritim, and I haven't see any big problem that couldn't be solved, and I will definitely be back next year !

Lweek:
CONS
Yes, prices in hotel was definitely too high and it is the major problem. Well, I don't care about how much hotel earn from us however I think if They want to raise their income They shall lower prices. It is simple economic math. If there will be a beer for 2.80EUR I'll buy maybe two or more for a day, with 4.50EUR for one beer I bought none. Still, it is not my business so I don't care BUT this had a very sad side effect.

Yep, the side effect of this was that many crowd just leaved to city or setup their private room party which made EF quite empty. This is bad effect for whole EF as well as for hotel. Not only once I walk lobby looking for someone familiar to me but without result. From what I've seen and discussed with others I wasn't the only person having this problem. Calling my friends using cell phone always when such thing happened is too expensive for foreigns and also pretty annoying. Personally I'm thinking about some kind of "Information system" to share informations about room party or so, but this is difficult. Not just because We all are just too lazy beings to add such informations to a system. :3

Yet another annoying thing is daily visit of room service even if there was red card hanging. It made me at least one stressful morning when I had to wake up too early in fact I went to the bed about 5am. Well, room service was kind and We didn't messy our room. We even leaved a small tip everyday, but I prefer if I have possibility to avoid room service to wake me up after party. xD

PROS
Idea using con badges as room keys is price less!! This is real advance in compare to Ringberg hotel where We had to look for our room mates almost everytime We want to go at room.

Also even if hotel staff was quite "serious looking", they didn't make any trouble even when happened something unappropriate. Yes this is definitely very same as first time at Ringberg hotel.

Bratwurst for 2EUR at lobby was a good choice when random hunger come out. xD

IDEAS
What about to switch head less lounge with dealers den, or share this room?

Next idea is that one with information panel for "lost souls" I already mentioned above. If hotel will lower prices, it will probably solve this problem but if not, it is good idea to create some kind of publicly accessible board. This board would be a web application accessible trough wifi or public terminal in lobby. You'll put your ID into it and You'll be able setup a room party and put Your friends in an invite list as well as list a roomparties You are invited in. Actually this room parties aren't only about drinking alcohol but they can have some "topic" and be publicly opened for every EF member which will create unique possibility to meet people of same interest. If You'll like this idea, I can personally create this app till next EF.

Changer the Elder:
I hope I won't forget anything... so, from an artists's point of view:


Pros:
+ Large and well-equipped stage - it really did show
+ Pawpet show - on par with my most favorite so far, Dreamcatchers. You did a great job this year, guys
+ Dealers' Den - I have no "previous year feedback", since this was my first time, but kudos to Alpha_Ki and Gyroplast for trying their best and working themselves out of their minds to accomodate all the dealers the best they could
+ ConOps and Staff - Generally extremely helpful, very friendly and doing their best to make the con an experience
+ Artist Lounge - finally a separate, quiet room!
+ Lobby - instead of having to crawl through a series of narrow hallways, the central lobby made it easy to find other people and access stage/artshow
+ Schwip Schwap - 'nuff said :3

Cons:
- The price - the most noted and probably the most notable. I kinda got used to the fact that my salary is nowhere near German league (in fact, the price of this year's con alone, without any additional expenses like food or travel, IS my whole salary), but even German furs were complaining and that, I believe, should mean something.
- Bigger hotel - somehow it felt like some of the upsides the con could have had were left unused. Of course, every new field needs some time to get used to, I'm merely noting that the difference was quite obvious
- Elevators - ugh. And here I was, thinking that the waiting for PawPet show is the longest... There was only one stairway working both ways and I only discovered it kinda by accident.
- Art Auction delay - I know it probably couldn't have been prevented and being an art-show helper, I know how and why it occured, but it was very, very, very unpleasant.
- Art show - simply TOO BIG. We had about 1000 pieces of art for about 1000 attendees. And the problem is, no one has profit out of that. I mean, unless you're Dark Natasha, Blotch or Tani Da Real, you can't make anything that would count as a profit out of that. I count among the fortunate few that were at least able to sell everything, but the money got extremely dissolved and spread out, only a little percentage of art made it to the Auction which (together with the delay) caused lower attendance, lots of sales "going to the bidsheet" and therefore, lower possible income for both artists and charity.
- Not optional room service - you know, it was kinda creepy to wake up and find a maid rummaging through your room.
- Consite itself - Ringberg location made it feel special. Concrete jungle made it feel... well, crowded. It had its upsides, for example the ease of access to local store, but again, if I weren't forced to "hunt" for food outside the hotel by its prices, it wouldn't have been necessary.
- Parking prices - made me travel by train. Have you ever tried to travel by train (four trains in fact) with about 20 kilograms of fragile art?! o.o


All in all, EF is still an experience for me. A pleasant one, to it. So as far as I can afford it, I'll be going. It hasn't left me disappointed yet. But the downsides were a bit too apparent and turned out to be an annoyance when combined with the sky-high price.

Flinty:
Ive not been to a huge number of cons, and this was my first EF and by far the biggest con I've been to so i've little to compare it too. But I suppose that will make this a more honest review of the con!

PROS
Space - The hotel was very large and suitable to accomodate us all and every event going on. Particularly the art auction and pawpet show, there were plenty of seats and no worry about having to stand up. Also, it made for a wonderfully spacious BBF Dance on the sunday. Probably only the dealers den was slightly cramped for space but still acceptable.
Rooms - Very tidy and spacious again. I may not have had a fursuit taking up the corner of the room, but there was amples of room in the wardrobes and drawers, and a great comfy bed. bathroom was lovely too.
Staff - Enough about the venue, now for the guys who made it happen. Just one word: wow! I dont know how a con that big can be organised and run so well. You guys are amazing!
Security - I wasnt aware of any bad cases they had to take care of, but regarding the smaller things like crowd control and regulating whether people were drinking drinks from outside the hotel or not was good to see and very friendly too.
Pawpet Show - I was very excited to watch this cause EF was where the show was originally born in... and i wasnt disappointed! Ive seen the fun confuzzled pawpet shows but EF is another league!

CONS
Price - Now i totally understand why it was so expensive: Maritim is a BUSINESS hotel, therefore its there to make money. However that didnt stop me gasping when my boyfriend had to pay €3 for a glass of TAP WATER!!! Fair enough the hotel needs to pay the water bill, but come on! Thank goodness Kaufland was nearby to lighten the blow.
Art Collection - The queue to pick up your art after the auction was unbelievably inefficient. I realise there was a problem and it got delayed, but thats not my point. There were affectively 3 queues - members, sponser and supersponsers all bottle necked into the same cash desk, made worse by very few runners collecting the art. I do realise the sponsers have paid more so they are entitled to privalidges, but not to the expense of us regular members. I heard one suggestion which would have overcome this issue much much better: have different collection times rather than separate queues. In the same way the supersponsers can go in the dealers den first, have the supersponsers go collect their art first, then perhaps 45 mins later the sponsers, then another 45 mins the rest of us can go. I think that would have relieved the pressure and time spent queuing.
Video Games - I only went to this event once throughout the con but it kinda fell flat on its face when i had arrived. Not only was one room inhabited by 1 single person, but they were playing with Guitar Hero with very little song choice because none of the material had been previously unlocked, and made worse by none of the downloadable material working. If a video game is going to be brought to a con it should have most the datat unlocked for the variety, and perhaps some member of staff attending to it to encourage moe people to play. I doubt a single one of the 'competitions' occurred throughout the con. If it were better advertised and coorinated then it may have been a better hit.

Right, now that Ive finished moaning, im gonna sign off saying despite the nagatives, I had a blast! Wanna know how much of a good time I had?

I had a whopping great load of PCD afterwards, thats how good a time I had! =P

Fauho:
The hotel is build like many prisons in our country;

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page