By the power of alcohol, 5 hour energys, and techno we magically appeared at the Cincinnati convention, A&G!
Hotel
For this convention we stayed at the Holiday Inn (which just happens to be the location of the convention on the main floor :P). Small but very nice as far as our hotel experience goes, but being as that we stayed in a room with friends we didn’t have much interaction with the hotel staff. The few we did interact with were very nice and helpful. The hotel is conveniently located right off the interstate with plenty of food and stores for all your needs. The Holiday Inn is right across the street from the Eastgate Mall, which is a very short walk from the con, and has a large food court with plenty of options.
We ourselves sampled Buffalo: Wings and Rings on Friday in the mall (a slight knock off of Buffalo Wild Wings *though not as good*) but was still very yummy though sadly lacking enough Killians for the 2 of us…. but making it up with a Blue Moon for myself and yummy, boneless, parmesan garlic wings! We give them a B ^-^
Then for lunch on Saturday we took the ‘long’ trek to O’Charlies (right across the parking lot from the con). We had some interesting and fun looks from the costumers as we and a few cosplaying friends arrived but everyone was friendly and never actually said anything. Though lacking in the vegetarian food department for one of our friends, O’Charlies is a good place for those carnivores out there. For those who have never experience O’Charlies they are a restaurant much like T.G.I. Fridays, Logans, and Applebees.
Ok first things first- the good things about the Holiday Inn hotel/convention area =
- Hot tub- though small, it still felt amazing!
- Fancy, with a fountain, waterfall, bridge/river, and pond in the lobby; also a nice restaurant too
- Friendly staff and an easy check-in
- Convenient and easy parking
The bad things about the Holiday Inn hotel/convention area=
- Poorly stocked pop machines!
- Small main event rooms
Friday
When we arrived at the con we were greeted in the parking lot by a transformer of epic proportions! A fully functional, semi Decepticon! (pictures will be up lol) Made from a torn-up semi in a junk yard by Travis Lyon (www.DecepticonMotormaster.com).
Once we finally made it in the door (after getting side tracked by the Decepticon) we visited con ops for our badges and then began our random wandering of the convention. Happy to see familiar faces, we greeted those we knew before continuing on our mission to get lost, which we happily succeeded at till we finally made our scope of the terrain and stalked out our prey…. I mean subjects <.<
Also, we attended the Anime Cosplay Wrestling event that went over quite well. The staff was very creative when they created this event. It is both unique and original. The con rented an actual wrestling ring for the event that the staff seemed to enjoy playing on very much. Though the crowd was quiet most of the time (probably from the suspense ;P lol) it was fun to watch.
Saturday
After rolling out of the holes we slept in and exiting zombie mode, we stumbled downstairs and, lo and behold, to our surprise there were many more cosplayers and the energy had risen from the day before! We set up shop and began mini-photo shoots inside for friends and random cosplayers we managed to nab. The day went well since we made some new friends. We visited the dealers room and browsed for a short while before returning to the halls, but of course not before we said hi to John and his cohorts at the Fast Food Anime booth.
Of course with it being Saturday the main event of the day was the Cosplay Contest! Though short, there were many interesting costumes and amusing skits. The videos will be posted as soon as we can. ****Oh! AND A NOTE TO ALL COSPLAYERS WHO ENTER A COSTUME CONTEST!! When you walk across the stage for walk-ons, pause when you reach the center of that stage at least for 3-5 seconds so the photographers can grab a photo of your costume! You put a lot of work into your costume, I’m sure, so please let us see it and get a good photo of you rather than a picture of your back as you flee off stage!!!!***
Convention Overall
As a whole we enjoyed ourselves; it was great to see old friends and new friends alike. Con staff was very friendly and helpful even with being busy and stressed (and Jen’s duct tape dress was fantastic btw!) They seemed very organized, though as we have seen with other small cons they seemed to have issues with their sound systems too.
The con-goers were mostly younger (teens) in age and less cosplayed then we expected. It was very internet/troll-e…. many people holding cardboard signs, many free hugs, etc. :\ but it happens. Sadly when we arrived the energy of the con on Friday was very low; happily it was much better on Saturday (probably because people finally recovered from their trips to the con).
If you have any other questions about the con feel free to email either myself or Nick and we will get back to you as soon as we can!
