Anime USA 2014 – page 2
Context: the convention center has a nice big “Registration” desk which, obviously, was where they con had their reg stuff. They were also running a wee bit behind getting the place set up by the time Thursday night registration started, which is hardly out of the ordinary for this sort of thing. HOWEVER, as it happened, the most obvious doors through which to bring in most of that set-up stuff were directly across from the registration desk. Thus the line and the set-up efforts kind of got all tangled up.
Also, I absolutely believe that hotel was built to trap SOMETHING in its halls. Nothing else explains the labyrinthine layout.
(Historical Notes: It helps to understand that Wardman Park has had years and years and YEARS of new wings being built and old ones torn town to make room for even newer ones. As a result, its developed a sort of Winchester House-like decentralized sprawl that can make finding/organizing things needlessly confusing.)
Gotta say it was amusing to stand around waiting for badge pickup while the con was literally being assembled around us.
It’s experiences like this that teach a person how pointless it is to complain about a convention not doing a certain thing right. It’s already a miracle that the whole hotel doesn’t just burn down the night before.