Monopoly Events - Comic Con Liverpool
Read all reviews for Monopoly Events - Comic Con Liverpool →
Amazing experience but chaotic due to organisation
Overall I have given 4 stars because at the end of the weekend I got everything I wanted, and I did have an amazing time meeting the LOTR guests. I take one star off for the organisation of the event. On Sunday one of the headline guests auto sessions ran late by about 40 mins, so their photo session started late. It started when it should've been finishing (started after 12.20 instead of at 11.40). I was told by staff to wait and get this photo before heading back to the ECL building for my other photo because that session was running from 12-1pm so I would get there in time for it. Meanwhile, in the ECL building that photo shoot ended before 12.30. I showed up a couple of mins after 12.30 (when the session was due to end at 1pm) and was told all the guests had left. I was absolutely devastated. This was the main photo I was wanting and I showed up in time for it but it had ended early. After explaining to staff what had happened, they told me they would speak to the guests' agents for me. The guests agreed to come back out and do the photo just for me! This was amazing. And in the end the photo came out perfectly and means more to me now than maybe it would've done in the first place! But the panic and worry of missing out on this shouldn't have happened. Communication between the two buildings should be better, and schedules should run on time. I understand there can be delays, but when this happens it should be communicated to attendees so that if they have a clash it can be sorted out. It was annoying to see a Facebook post saying that the headline guests schedules ran on time all weekend, when this was not the reality. But like I said, in the end, the staff were amazing, especially Georgina, as she went out of her way to get this sorted out for me. I am so grateful to her because it means the world to me that I was able to get this photo with my favourite actors after being a huge fan of their work for 25 years! The only other negative for the weekend was that I overheard some staff on the auto queues say that they were going to start alternating the queues (letting some general in before diamond) which should never happen, because people with diamond passes have paid so much more for that priority. Even if the general queue is big, it is not fair to let anybody from that queue in before the people in the diamond pass queue. Thankfully this did not happen to me, but I did overhear some staff say they were going to start doing it when half the diamond queue had gone through. This was in the auto queues. With the photo shoots, diamond always went in first. I spent 4 hours waiting in an auto queue for a guest on Saturday because I had a general ticket. I don't mind, because I shouldn't have been given priority over anyone with a diamond pass, and in the end the wait was worth it. Queuing up to meet a guest is in the nature of comic cons, so everyone should expect to wait a long time, especially for a huge guest who is only attending one day. Also, it seems that auto timeslots were not being followed at all, because these tickets were not being checked by staff on the queues and people with later timeslots were showing up early and then being given a raffle ticket to come back later, and getting in front of people with booked timeslots. What is the point of booking a timeslot in advance if you are not going to follow them on the day? But overall, yes, 4 stars because I did have an amazing experience (in the end). I just think some of these points about organisation need to be addressed for the future.