Loscon 50 Day One

Okay, so I’m finally not dead tired from Loscon, so here a review from day one.

New Hotel, new experience.  There is only one bad thing I have to say about the LAX Hilton, and it’s the same bad thing everyone has to say about it:  PARKING.  For the fan off the street, parking is $53.00.  As a convention attendee, you get the rate of $20.00 a day.  Not bad, BUT, try to FIND parking.  We went there Friday morning – typically the least attended day of the con, and couldn’t find parking on any of the three levels of self-parking.  Also, the parking levels are claustrophobic.  The ceilings are low, cars are packed in tight, and you have to be careful turning corners so you don’t hit a parked car or a wall.

We ended up having to use valet parking, which is $30.00 a day.  That does get a little troublesome when you have to get something out of your car in the middle of the day.  There are other options.  There’s the parking Spot next door, which has parking for $24.00 a day and an off-site parking lot with shuttle service for $20.00 a day.

But on to the good stuff – which is everything else.  First, the hotel staff were friendly and helpful, from the valet parking attendants who took me down to my car in the middle of the day to the assistant managers who checked in on our blood drive to make sure the Red Cross had everything they needed.

The convention space was huge.  The Art Show room was larger that at the LAX Marriott’s and it didn’t have to share the room with the Dealer’s Room.

This was the main program room, again bigger than the Marriott.  When this shot was taken, they were screening “Star Wars:  A New Hope”.  The screen might have been small, but the sound system was excellent.

The other meeting rooms were good-sized as well.  Some of the rooms at the Marriott were rather small.

We started the day with Kris setting up in the Art Show.  She had a total of 19 pieces.

In the afternoon, Kris taught a Peyote Stitch Beading Class in the Maker’s Room.  Again, a large room.  On one side, the droid builders had several tables of displays.  On the other side, SciFi Radio was set up to do a live broadcast.  In the middle, there were tables set up for various costuming classes.  While Kris did her beading class, there was a knitting class going on at the same time.  There was plenty of space for everyone.

Members of the convention committee had access to the Staff Lounge.  They made sure we were well-fed and hydrated.  They had Mountain Dew, so I was happy.  In the evening, there was a beautiful view of the sunset with the Marriott in the foreground.

In the evening, we had the Ice Cream Social in the main program room.  The only hitch was that the Hilton didn’t want us to scoop out ice cream, thinking that may be too messy, so they had ice cream bars instead.  But the bars they served were rather soft, so after two bites, my ice cream fell on the floor.  Because of that, I don’t know how less messy that actually ended up being.  Our hotel liaison will be working to renegotiate that for next year, and hopefully we can have our liquid nitrogen ice cream maker back with us as well.

With the blood drive the next day, Kris and I left after the Ice Cream Social. 

Next week, Loscon 50 Day Two.

Dennis

246th blog completed.

First Steampunk novel:  77,493 words.  <– Moving up again.  Past 76,000.  Goal:  80,000.

Second Steampunk novel: 783 words. 

Second Steampunk screenplay:  157 pages.

First Steampunk screenplay:  Need to update with notes from the novelization.

Third Steampunk screenplay:  38 pages.

This snack company – which I found in the hotel gift shop – should be sponsors of the con.