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Eurofurence 28 — "Cyberpunk"
Sep 18 – 21, 2024
CCH — Congress Center Hamburg

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Author Topic: Honest Opinion of EF 16  (Read 103848 times)

Fairlight

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #45 on: 08.09.2010, 12:18:10 »

The guide was not in her conbook. We're not that daft ^.^
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Cheetah

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #46 on: 08.09.2010, 18:41:37 »


What makes me cringe is that the kid that was at EF (the purple bunny girl- sorry, never got her name) must have received the exact same conbook as all of us.. i just HOPE they thought about removing that add in her conbook *shudders*...

You DO know she was with her parents (who are very nice and dependable people we personally know and trust for years btw) all the time, don't you? :)
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Cheetah

drayygon

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #47 on: 08.09.2010, 22:50:04 »

Ok, time for Feedback, yay.

Drinks prices, done to death and such. It was a shock to see the prices BUT I knew as it was the first year the hotel would not have dropped prices for us lot. This may change next year, might not. Can only leave that to the talented EF Negotiator really.

The lifts were at times an annoyance, but I took the stairs down most times. Can't really change them so just gotta suck it up and deal with it.

The BBQ, ok first main critique here. The BBQ of the Ringberg worked in every sense of the word. All you can eat, set reasonable price etc. I personally do not think it would work again here at the Maritim, it didn't have that BBQ feel. They just served the food outside, it wasn't a BBQ in the end.

Art auction pick up, I think this could have gone quicker if the persons winning pieces were all put together. So the runner just went to the pile and not go searching the entire room for one or two pieces of art. The que system I didn't see in use by the time I came to collect my stuff, so can't comment on that.

The rooms were lovely as was how the hotel has it's conference space etc laid out, though the Dealer's Den might need moving as I found it kinda tight to get around as an attendee. More so when you got to account for your tail that's right behind you.

At looking at the events there was a nice spread, but sadly only 1 event per day grabbed me enough to attend (I actually forgot 2, curse you brain!) but the rest I felt weren't useful to me etc. I'm not a writer, major arty type, SL coder type etc. I did want to see Kage's Psuedoscience panel but the Motor meet was on and I was there taking photos, ogling cars and wishing I had one to show off.

To finish off, I really enjoyed the new location and the Convention was a blast, got to see new and old friends again nicely. Got to chat to some other people more and was pretty darn grateful for that, beginnings of further acquaintanceship/Friendship even, who knows aye. Being in the city was helpful, I was able to eat out a few times, get that joy I always have when you pass people and then hear their reaction from seeing a large dragon tail swaying behind me :)

All in all, a great Con once again guys and I hope I can attend again very soon.
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BluePaw

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #48 on: 08.09.2010, 23:54:14 »

well, I'll try to keep myself from repeating what others has said already, to much.

short note. high prices, yet thanks for allowing drinking on the room that i  remember being forbidden last year?

would be very nice to know you've noted the hotel to please learn to speak better English, it should not take 10min of conversation to get in to the receptions head "my room is number 380!" and then some more to get the actual message that "i need my room key remade".

bout the BBQ. needs a lot more info, what line goes were? i accidentally stood in the chicken-line, but way way to hungry to change it. i even managed to eat the things. I've never, ever tasted such dry and tasteless chicken before, and the rest neither looked fresh nor tasted it.
the hamburgers was exactly the same that you could get inside the con later, and i don't think they're supposed to taste sour? and try talking to them bout some fries to it? like last year was perfect.
also there needs more info on what bowl of red/yellow/white in the bowls are what?

also, for being such a big and fancy hotel, it was surprisingly cheap feeling bout it (and not the prices), like looking metal feeling plastic sort of way.
I heard more people had problems with the water, so had I, except that it switched between very hot and very cold. And I barely anything came out of the normal tap.
Also some remarks on the hygiene in the room. The shower-head, the sink, and inside of the cabins, just didn't look very nice. Yellow residues, spots and dust + Silverfish.

and then bout the random luck thing with the hotel-personal.
i could not get them to remove the items from my minibar, witch only took space in the room after I had moved it all out to be able to fit my breakfast/night-food, and half a pizza from pizza-hut. tho a friend managed to do it.
no free TAP-water here either, which i was not prepared for when i asked for it, since previous experiences with bars and pubs in general is that water is always free, even included ice and in most cases even some lemon-slices. that will say, not 3.10€.

Now what ”genius” came up with putting chilli-nuts on the pillow? Not myself, but lots of ppl really are allergic to nuts, and even more gets a really bad stomach from them. Regular chocolate or something lightly minty would be way preferable.

edit: adding to "genius", the thing bout turning off safterymeassures to the elevators?

I would've really appreciated the placement of more trashcans around the place. I don't like keeping trash in my pockets for nearest one, and I even more hate throwing it away somewhere else.

A suggestion from my side bout the art-show is that since it's confusing and I “lost myself” a few times, to add some sort of colors to the different group of panels, just a line of colored tape on bottom and top of each panel, cheap and very simple to be able to keep in mind what panels you've already looked at. Also being able to remember easier what you've looked at and not. And also try to keep it so that the numbers are more continuous. So that the first wall doesn't go “15-20” and the wall next to it says “80-86”, and then finding “21-26” in the other side of the room.

Then, to help the short said horribly stiff mood the hotel it self set, being a solid concrete block with golden edges. Is to put up more colors on the walls to. To cover the gray sterile look of it. Must not be intricate or such, just to be there to lighten up the mood a bit, like the lovely touch with the disco-ball and the huge EuroFurence banners.

And last but not least.
And then about the parking thing. Wow was I not ready for the price-tag on that one.
At least what was read on the sign on the way in to the parking was “18€/day 65€/week”, being 4 that shared the whole cost of everything with the car = awesome.
Except for the small detail bout the final cost of the parking still became all most 130€, even got a comment from the person behind us on his way out “that is way to expensive, you should go to the reception with this”. Well, we did not have the time for that, unfortunately.
So, please make all the parking signs way more clearer, and in English.
Think it's a bit late to call it in tho? and i don't know where the recite went.
« Last Edit: 09.09.2010, 11:35:30 by BluePaw »
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Cairyn

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #49 on: 09.09.2010, 00:08:00 »

Art auction pick up, I think this could have gone quicker if the persons winning pieces were all put together. So the runner just went to the pile and not go searching the entire room for one or two pieces of art. The que system I didn't see in use by the time I came to collect my stuff, so can't comment on that.

But putting together the winning pieces would also take time (granted, not the attendees'...) and would require additional space to put the stacks (we were short on tables). Some cons do it that way, but simply having more runners seems to be a better solution than introducing a completely new step in the process.
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ysegrim

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #50 on: 09.09.2010, 00:15:27 »

Art auction pick up, I think this could have gone quicker if the persons winning pieces were all put together. So the runner just went to the pile and not go searching the entire room for one or two pieces of art. The que system I didn't see in use by the time I came to collect my stuff, so can't comment on that.

But putting together the winning pieces would also take time (granted, not the attendees'...) and would require additional space to put the stacks (we were short on tables). Some cons do it that way, but simply having more runners seems to be a better solution than introducing a completely new step in the process.

Besides, the number of attendees served per hour would not change at all -- critical path (speed limiting factor) was looking up the badge number, and the actual payment. In the very second the runner starts to fetch your art, the cashier already started to take care of the next attendee. So the actual time saved for each attendee would have been around 30 seconds, out of a 30 minutes wait. Nevertheless, we see that we need to significantly optimize art show pickup -- we are working on it. Thanks for your feedback!
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drayygon

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #51 on: 09.09.2010, 00:33:35 »

Art auction pick up, I think this could have gone quicker if the persons winning pieces were all put together. So the runner just went to the pile and not go searching the entire room for one or two pieces of art. The que system I didn't see in use by the time I came to collect my stuff, so can't comment on that.

But putting together the winning pieces would also take time (granted, not the attendees'...) and would require additional space to put the stacks (we were short on tables). Some cons do it that way, but simply having more runners seems to be a better solution than introducing a completely new step in the process.

Besides, the number of attendees served per hour would not change at all -- critical path (speed limiting factor) was looking up the badge number, and the actual payment. In the very second the runner starts to fetch your art, the cashier already started to take care of the next attendee. So the actual time saved for each attendee would have been around 30 seconds, out of a 30 minutes wait. Nevertheless, we see that we need to significantly optimize art show pickup -- we are working on it. Thanks for your feedback!

Fully understand your views, and it does make sense too. Thanks for reading my feedback for sure :)
« Last Edit: 09.09.2010, 01:11:18 by drayygon »
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ANTIcarrot

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #52 on: 09.09.2010, 01:05:01 »

Some minor loose change:
*While I understand EF wants to reward sponsers, I found it frustrating to get to only find out long after the convention started how many things regular membership didn't cover. Though I've been busy the past few months and might have simply missed the announcements. Could this possibly be better advertised next year? Thinking of LSD & DOPE in particular, Could sponsers be given a half hour opertunity to get whatever seat they wanted, and then let the rest of us is?
*The two small panel rooms at the front of the hotel become almost unusable during the fursuit parade when every motorost on the road outside started to test their horn simultaniously. Just something to bare in mind for next year.
*One or two events were held up for lack of a data cable. Can panel organisers please remember to bring essential spares next time?
*Dark Natasha and Shinigamigirl were opposite each other in the dealers den this year. Both are popular artists and it made the issue of narrow isles worse. Given how furs tend to clump around popular artists, could high-throughput artists get a double wide isle nest year?
*While we were in a town centre, some things were still hard to find. Could you add locations of non-obvious essentials like the pharmacy/apothetek? That was a rather painful experience the first day.
*And another vote for removing that awful safe sex guide. Or alternatively add in some other guides, which also have nothing to do with the fandom. :)

And now some herasy...

The size of the room and stage the pawpet show were held in and on this year seemed to create some dificulties that DOPE and LSD hadn't encountered before. Dispite their best efforts I think there might be still have been some growing pains during the performance. I don't know if any of this affected other people, I can only speak for what I did and did not see.

Sadly, the biggest was the cave paintings. While I know these were hand painted by TaniDaReal, and therefore must have looked beautiful up close, from the back of the room, they looked about six inches high, and blurry. I found it very hard to see any detail. The video feed wasn't much better. While you had a better view, the camera had difficulty focusing, and never showed the whole picture. Without naration I would never have understood what I was looking at. If you are going to use illustrations as plot points in the future, could you please consider:
*Making them twice as big
*Filming them in advance under more ideal lighting conditions and angles.
*Use blue light sources in dark conditions carefully; especially when combined with fine detail. The human eye has difficulty focusing such.

It might also be time to start using makeup on the puppets; at least on the one off custom puppets. Furries like to give their characters facial markings for fun, but social animals have these for a reason. They magnify the location of the eyes, and general expression, and make it easier to track where an animal is looking. For the four core characters this wasn't a problem, but the lions and hyenas both had very dark fur, and at times the only reason I know who was talking was because the outline was moving.

Both are technical issues related to venue size. Or it could be both are related to me needing new glasses. As I said, I can only speak from personal experience.

[edit] Since Cheetah asked, from the first line of The Muppet Show. "It's time to put on makeup. It's time to light the lights..." Something which seemed appropiet given the multi tiered structure of the hotel. Or alternatively, from the dozens of fursuits which had highlights in their fur. You don't make a cheetah costume by sowing in hundreds of blackpatches, you use spotty fur or you 'paint' the spots on yourself. Which effectively amounts to makeup; whatever you want to call it.[/edit]
« Last Edit: 11.09.2010, 11:22:28 by ANTIcarrot »
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Cheetah

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #53 on: 09.09.2010, 02:54:36 »

It might also be time to start using makeup on the puppets

Seriously, dude, what have you been smoking?
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Cheetah

Jet_der_hund

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #54 on: 09.09.2010, 02:57:15 »

I am sorry Dhary Montecore. While I agree that parking for 18 Euro a day is not out of line for a 4 star hotel in the US, heck I have seen it as high as $60 a day. Being charged for tap water was mind blowing to me. I have stayed in more then a few 4 star hotels and even 5 star hotels in the US and never once been charged for tap water. 6.50 for a coke... again mind blowing to me, the most I have seen at a 5 star US hotel was $3.50 for a small glass. This was no 5 star hotel, heck I have been to fancier 4 star.

As for delays I worked stage crew in the past, there will be delays and it does happen. How ever 1+ hour delays are really poor planing for understanding how long it takes to do a strike and cut over. I am sure that will be worked on for next year. (though it did happen some last year too)

Over all I actually liked the hotel, the staff seemed to warm up to the event as time went on and I think next year will be in full swing of it. The food near by was great! Quick run to the market for beer and water solved the hotel's high price problem (sorry that the hotel lost out money wise on that, but lower the price and i would have not needed to exit the hotel to buy beer, soda, and water).  Cheetah, the con staff was great! You have one amazing team and any con would be proud to have such a fine working staff. All my dealings with the staff was top end.

I dont feel the drive to come back as I had w/ Ringberg. But it was a good US style larger con and I very much enjoyed myself. I did enjoy waking around the city and seeing the sites. I just feel it lost the intimacy of the Ringberg.
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ysegrim

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #55 on: 09.09.2010, 08:34:48 »

Being charged for tap water was mind blowing to me. I have stayed in more then a few 4 star hotels and even 5 star hotels in the US and never once been charged for tap water.

Well, to me, as a German, it is mind blowing that people think they could go to a restaurant and expect to get a drink for free.
It is absolutely unusual to order tap water in a German restaurant except for taking medicines, or for your dog (and fursuits don't count :) ) and even in these cases, I see no reason for a restaurant not to charge you for service, the ice, cleaning, and basically for the time you are blocking their seats for paying customers. I am actually surprised that some people
managed to persuade some patrons ... Personally, I consider this to be begging. I agree, though, that 3.50 is way too much (and that I generally expect a glass of water to be included in certain items, like espresso.)
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nifela

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #56 on: 09.09.2010, 12:24:51 »

Being charged for tap water was mind blowing to me. I have stayed in more then a few 4 star hotels and even 5 star hotels in the US and never once been charged for tap water.

Well, to me, as a German, it is mind blowing that people think they could go to a restaurant and expect to get a drink for free.
It is absolutely unusual to order tap water in a German restaurant except for taking medicines, or for your dog (and fursuits don't count :) ) and even in these cases, I see no reason for a restaurant not to charge you for service, the ice, cleaning, and basically for the time you are blocking their seats for paying customers. I am actually surprised that some people
managed to persuade some patrons ... Personally, I consider this to be begging. I agree, though, that 3.50 is way too much (and that I generally expect a glass of water to be included in certain items, like espresso.)
Ordering tap water in Austria has been a thing I've known for years now and it wasn't a problem at the restaurants in Magdeburg either. Only the hotel decided to charge absurd amounts of money for a glass of f-in tap water.
I mean, if they charge like 50 cents for the glass, I'm okay with that - but having regular drinks cost LESS than plain tap water? Seriously.
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Drift

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #57 on: 09.09.2010, 16:06:40 »

The hotel def. charges to much for tab water. But as we know that now, next year it should not be a problem to go to your room, take a glass from the mini bar and have a drink from yout tab in the bath room. For free! I actually filled my empty water bottle and carried it around in my back pack.
« Last Edit: 09.09.2010, 16:11:05 by Drift »
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Mooie

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #58 on: 09.09.2010, 16:53:39 »

Not overly much to say, really.

Some things I personally found a bit towards the negative side:
  • The con is larger.  Inevitable, but still... the cozy feeling is being reduced.
  • Lack of space for being simply social in.  Perhaps use one "function room" for that?  At least after the SIGs have ended.  The game rooms were brilliant in that sense.
  • Prices?  Not really.  Roughly the same prices I'd expect in bars and such here in Sweden.  But indeed, charging the weird amounts of tap water, even though I've been sat there drinking alcoholic drinks for a while, was a bit silly.  Oh well.  I guess I rather pay and get water, than skipping the water.  I do need to have something non-alcoholic in me every so often, when drinking alcohol.

And some more positive stuff:
  • Room keys.  Just lovely.  Even if I got a separate room key when I arrived, that was no problem changing it to my con badge.
  • Spacious rooms.  Great when having stupid amounts of things one don't really need with you. :P  Plus one does not have to be all over the one one share the room with.
  • Great location.  Easy access to facilities nearby, such as shops and whatnot.  But okay, the secludedness of Ringberg - just marvelous, that too.
  • Superb function rooms.  The 'main hall' was able to accommodate the larger part of the attendees, etc.  Maybe see if the full potential of all rooms were used, i.e. a room maybe was too large for its purpose while another too small.  I don't know, just a slight reflection.

Other than that - lovely con again.  Getting larger, though, so maybe is nearing when I might opt out, but that's not due to the con itself, rather the sheer amount of people.

I can also not see the problem with Zoe(?) being around.  She obviously loved the event and most loved having her around.  So, not an issue.  And for the morals?  Haha.  I shall probably not tell what I've grown up around, then.  So, nah.  Have a few more other kids her age around instead and it'd probably be even better.  Both people her own age and a theme she seems to love being involved in.

I also did not have any troubles with the hotel staff.  Probably it was a bit of a shock for them in the beginning, but they relaxed as the days passed. :-)  The mundanes were fun too, some more than the others.  Like the bloke and his boss who were sat in the Piano Bar as I recorded his boss nodding lots to himself.  Mmm.. poor drunk boss.  :P

Anyway, see you all, well, most of you anyway, next year!  Maybe even in suit... *hopes*
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krakendwaggin

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Re: Honest Opinion of EF 16
« Reply #59 on: 09.09.2010, 18:48:14 »

(whoever put up that 'Ordinary Smoker - Reekus Fumus' on the smokers lounge, you sir/madam are awesome)

*bows* Thank you :) I still try to get our board of directors to allow our security to have disinfectant sprayers with them :D



Well I was saying that we felt like a zoo exibit when people went in there for a smoke, then the next day the sign appeared, it was awesome and raised a smile from everyone ^_^

I met so many awesome people in there, it better be back next year hehe.
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