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[PRIME] First Time to PAX Prime? Have You First Timer Wisdom To Share? Inquire within...
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We used a cooler last year and left it in our hotel room. Filled it with ice once or twice a day. What exactly is the advice you are looking for? Definitely don't bring it into the expo hall if that's what you are hinting at....
See this
Keep in mind if you like drinking you'll buy more. I had at least 8 drinks that night. So assuming the high end of drinks, let's say $60-70 on drinks, $10-$20 in tips, $5 entry donation (if I recall correctly)....$100 would probably be a good place to start. Doesn't include any additional donations you may make or that "once it hits your lips" feeling causing you to buy more.
Otherwise, you'll be hunting for outlets
There are a bunch in the halls upstairs by where all the panels are held, the side rooms where table top is, band land, and some bathrooms have desk area/work stations nearby. Inside the expo hall itself, yes you will be hard pressed, but there are a lot of outlets throughout the building. If you find a pillar, chances are there is an outlet on one side of it.
Best bet is to invest in a USB power pak. We bought a Mophie for East and it was amazing. It can charge our phones 4 times before it needs charging and it fit in my husband pocket. One of our better investments for PAX.
Attendee: ♥ Prime '12, '13 ..♥ East '12
* For those who are not able to open the link at the moment of reading this, it's an universal wrist charger from ThinkGeek. It's a bit on the expensive side ($44.99USD), but truly worth it.
Your ever-awesome Frog-Backpack Girl.
:o
That thing is fucking awesome! *eyeballs the add to shopping cart button*
Yeah, a hundred is a good starting point. The ATMs in the area are of iffy functionality so if you plan on spending like...well...me (saying "a drunk sailor" just seems redundant), then you may wanna bring whatever your daily limit is, lol. A money belt would be a reaaaally good idea.
PAX 2013 STATUS - Badges: PURCHASED Hotel: RESERVED Vacation: Awaiting approval Plane Tickets: Waiting on vacation approval.
I'm leaving Tuesday from StL and this will be my first PAX.
Everyone says don't bring a huge camera, but I'm definitely bringing mine. If it's too much of a hassle I'll leave it at the hotel the other days and use a point-and-shoot. Not sure if I want to drag a flash, though.
I took my DSLR and a nice prime lens to PAX. Worked great, was lightweight and was never a bother. Highly recommend a f/1.8 35mm prime.
Attendee: ♥ Prime '12, '13 ..♥ East '12
Much of that is going to come down to "How fast are you." When it comes to using it (I assume when people say "Big Camera" they mean SLR.) If you use Shutter Priority (my favorite in Low Light situations without a tripod, which pretty much defines parts of the Expohall* and the panel rooms aren't exactly "photo lightening.) you might be able to squeeze off pics fast enough. The SLR I use still takes film, so I'm not bringing it, I'm also picky about my shots when I use it, so I just leave it to avoid the temptation to be picky..
But keep the point and shoot with you as well for a few reasons. 1) You may run into someone you want a pic with and have limited amounts of time to pull it off, (be kind to the mini-celebs!) and 2) even if you have a parnter with you the whole time to take said picture (I'm usually with my wife) they need to be speedy on the camera too, if you don't and you're askign someone else they may or may not be handy with an SLR.
Also, you'll be collecting swag like crazy, and SLRs can get heavy, and I'm lazy. I can stick my point 'n shoot in my pocket and not even notice it. Not so much for the SLR.
Us fellow StL-ians will see you there Wednesday!
*Some of the Expohall areas are just downright dark. So you will need a flash for certain situations, if you have a nice camera, I assume you know proper flash uses and when it's pointless anyway and such! (I just now realized my PAX pics are still on my camera, and will take me a bit to get off (my card reader is busted) so I can't show them to you to get an idea.) Of course the problem is Point and Shoots get pissy with their shutter team (leading to more than one blurry picture!)
watwatwat??
How much charge does it hold, how quickly does it charge an item, and how quickly does it charge itself?
To charge the actual wrist charger, all it takes is a USB port to do it.
Your ever-awesome Frog-Backpack Girl.
While this certainly has COOL factor its only 1500mAh which is not much (the iphone has a 1420mAh)and won't charge something like an iPad (11,666mAh) so great for a phone but otherwise check what you are going to use it for.
I shoot cropped (poor person body) so the 50mm f/1.8 I had was too tight in the expo hall but my 35mm f/1.8 should be just about right. I thought about dragging along my 24-70mm f/2.8 but it's so freaking heavy.
Attendee: ♥ Prime '12, '13 ..♥ East '12
I will be wearing shorts and running shoes since those should have good cushioning
-I will be bringing a backpack to carry everything since that seems the easiest. Need to buy one since I don't own one.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YIFKRM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
-Water bottle
-Things to snack on like granola bars
-light zip up hoodie in case it rains or is cold
-Pen, sharpie, small notebook (for what I am not sure?)
-Nintendo DS or PSP
-Hand sanitizer
-Empty paper towel roll (heard this is good for getting posters?)
-Camera (mid sized camera so it's not a simple one but not a full SLR so it shouldn't be too huge but still take decent pictures. Figured that would save my phone battery as well.)
-Obvious things like wallet, phone, chapstick, etc.
Should I bring that much cash to the convention? I rarely ever carry cash and am not sure if vendors would accept credit cards or if some or cash only.
I will be staying at the Hotel Seattle which appears to be 1/2 mile away from the convention center. The reviews on the hotel seem mediocre at best but I don't need luxury. The price wasn't terrible though.
I will be arriving on Wednesday and leaving the next Wednesday. I am going with someone else so that should be some good extra time to do a few other things while we are there at least.
(Sorry lots of snipping to keep it small)
Pen (reccomend sharpie) for possible Autographs. I don't think we ever used ours since we're not "Celebrity in the wild" type people* but YMMV (if there's an official signing they'll usually have at least a black Sharpie in my experience. If you need something odd like Silver to sign on black I'd bring that.)
On Paper Towel rolls, Our Posters were bigger than this, by a lot. And we got 3 of them. I guess you could bring multiple paper towl roles, but our smallest poster was an 18X24 I think? (16X20 at the smallest). And our largest (the DnD poster) was like 20X36 or something IIRC. In any case, bigger than 3 paper towel rolls shoved together. Got the UPS store (Fedex/Post office) and buy a poster tube (Medium size is what I got) and just pack it with you on the way up (unless your suitecase isn't big enough? Then..errg...hurry to get one at the FedEx store at the WSCC before they sell out.
Cash is a guessing game IMHO. How much do you tend to buy? Some merchants took credit card (I'd guess most?) Some took cash only. It'd really suck if the merchant you wanted tons of stuff from was Cash only. (FWIW, I think we carried $60 on us, total. The PAX merch booth took CC and so did our major sink hole, Steve Jackson Games.)
By the by, I snipped it, but I found DS's to be more common, but that may have been my bias.
I will make sure to bring a couple of sharpies just to make sure. That shouldn't be too difficult since they don't take up any room.
That's a smart idea with the poster tube! The only reason but that might be hard for me is because I am taking a plane there and will only be bringing a duffle bag along with a backpack so I would need to make sure they would fit. Paper towel rolls definitely could be harder but I was thinking I could at least flatten quite a few of them out and make them take up virtually no room before posters are in them.
For cash, I am not quite sure since I have never been to a convention before and don't know how much I would be interested in going. I was thinking about bringing at least $50 in cash just in case. I am sure there are ATM's there in case of an emergency.
I appreciate all the help though! I welcome any I can get. =D
If there are ATMs be prepared to walk, my guess is the ATM in the WSCC (which I presume has one) runs out fairly quickly and ATMs sometimes aren't filled on weekends (not to mention the fees!) My guess is $50 is fine plenty (but others can feel free to tell me why that's not true.) Although consider if you plan on going out with lots of people, cash makes bill splitting easier
On the paper towel tubs. Consider a few things. 1) If you flatten them, they aren't going to protect your posters from being bent anyway
PAX 2013 STATUS - Badges: PURCHASED Hotel: RESERVED Vacation: Awaiting approval Plane Tickets: Waiting on vacation approval.
Poster tubes generally count as a free carry on in my experience. It's kinda like how women get a purse, under seat carry on and a overhead carry on? Yeah, poster-tube is your purse
On the cash bit, I've never had an issue with the ATM machines in the WSCC (but if I remember correctly they're USBank, which is my primary). Other option is the USBank tower which is across the street. It has two Starbucks (not kidding) and a Jimmy Johns (best sandwiches EVER) inside, as well as several ATMs.
!Ravenclaw Deatheaters, represent!
http://www.giantrobotpanda.com
Nintendo ID: Optimusbry
I was going to say the same thing about carrying on the poster tube. My husband and I each carried on our usual travel bag packs and then our free personal item was our swag bags which he put the poster tube in. Worked great. Also know that if you buy a poster at the PAX merch booth they give you a shortened poster tube.
Attendee: ♥ Prime '12, '13 ..♥ East '12
Kudos to USBank and the WSCC then! (or we're just becoming that much more of a cashless society!) Hell round here, I've seen ATMs at stadiums run short on cash. I just tend to assume "somewhat captive audience+limited ATM inside said space=ATM runs out of money" See also: Cruise Ships.
But yeah, don't forget about he fees! Fees are evil! And it's good to know it's USBank so I know I don't want to use it
What is a "shortened poster tube?" Just out of curiosity. Does it have caps, which are good for not sliding out? I didn't buy posters at the PAX merch booth last year. (We were lucky enough to get all the arty-postery stuff we wanted for the St. Louis Book Signing, which incidently is what caused us to want to go to pax, so we didn't buy any of that at PAX this year and din't have to wait in the signing line!)
FWIW, I have 2 poster tubes (one from the FedEx Store, and one from an order of a poster that I saved) The Fedex one is bigger at ~25" (meaning it only fits in my wife's extra large 29" suitecase) The "Extra" one is about 22" meaning it won't fit in my tiny arse carry on but it will fit in my 25" travel bag (incidently, my wife's second suitecase, she travels a lot and all the luggage is hers.)
I just measured my biggest poster (the DND dragon from last year.) It's 24" long on it's smallest side, meanining it would only fit in the big tube. The other posters we got are 18" or so on their smallest side (and thus would be fine in either.)
File this in the lessons learned too. I tried to get all fancy and use rubberbands to hold my posters while I put them in the tubes. I now have some damged posters where the rubberbands pinched trying to get into said tube (thankfully it only damaged the outer ones, and my wife and I had 2 of each since, well we're two people.)
It kind of looked like they took a whole tube and cut it in half. It only had a cap on one side. A couple of the posters stuck out a couple inches but nothing got banged up or anything on the way home.
Attendee: ♥ Prime '12, '13 ..♥ East '12
A couple of tips I find helpful are 1) Bring cash! I find it to be easier to have money on you so you don't have to stop at an ATM. Also I don't think all vendors accept credit, even so it's better to be safe then sorry. Then 2) as soon as the schedule comes out list out all the panels and events you want to go to and then choose between the conflicting ones. You probably won't be able to see everything you want to, so pick ahead of time and line up early to your events. Popular panels and events have lines up to an hour or more in advance. If you get bored in lines bring a book or a ds something to help the time go by.
Being a bit of a foodie I know there are some great restaurants in the area. There is some great food at Pike Place like the brewery but that is a little further than I like to go from the convention (however it is still reasonably close). I generally go to the malls nearby for food. There is a nice Italian restaurant called Il Fornaio on Pine Street. Its connected to a mall with more sit down restaurants inside. If you're looking for stuff a bit cheaper than a sit down restaurant there is Westlake Center not to far away and it has a huge food court with a lot of options. Then if you're looking for nicer restaurants nearby I would recommend Tango for their Spanish tapas, but be warned it is a pricey place. I figure this will all be in the booklet they handout but thought it would be worth mentioning anyway.
On a side note try to thank an Enforcer or two while you're there. I've yet to have met one who isn't nice or helpful or overall awesome. They are the backbone of PAX and I'm sure any thanks would be much appreciated by them.
might be worth checking ebay for these as I just found one for £14.99 GBP (thats about $25USD)
shortened ebay link for UK based peoples - goo.gl/qVt3o (they have multiples on sale with a buy it now paypal price free delivery as well
@shadowscoutuk
POSTERS : Buy a real life, authentic, free-range PA poster at the merch booth (~$8) and they give you your very own poster tube! Then you're set to cram as many as you can in to take home and you get a sweet PA poster to adorn your walls.
FOOD : Westlake Center is your friend. Sure, if you have to have food RIGHT NOW so you can get to something else, it won't work. But really, it's a 5-10 minute walk (speed and light dependent) and has lots of normal priced food and a lot of variety. If you can take a 30 minute break away from PAX central, you can easily walk over and grab food, sit down to eat, and be back in it (sometimes even faster than if you'd waited in line at the WSCTC). Also, there is a super secret Subway that I'm even reluctant to make known to the greater populus, but...well, here goes: 8th & Olive.
THAT'S IT, I'VE RUINED IT! Seriously, if you want a tasty sandwich, GO TO THIS SUBWAY. Yes, there is a Subway in the convention center (roflines). There is even one on the street, which would surely be faster. NO, go to the super secret Subway! You can walk there (3 blocks), eat lunch and enjoy a conversation and still get back before most of the people in the CCSubway lines have even ordered.
BAGS : A normal backpack works fine. A plain, old-school backpack (Jansport much?) will not stick out that far off your back to have to worry about whacking fellow nerds. Personally, I carry a standard backpack with side pockets for water bottles, and wear a small messenger style bag. Put on messenger, put on backpack. Then you can stuff any swag into the little bag that sits at your side. If it starts to get too full, you just pull off to a quiet corner and unload into your backpack, load up and get back to business.
BUS : This is a little bit for north-end locals. Drive to the Northgate Mall P&R and catch a bus. It's maybe 20 minutes and drops you off two blocks from the convention center. @Chadzilla1983 and I do this every year, it's way cheaper than parking and you actually end up meeting a lot of other PAXers at the park and ride (came in handy once as I didn't have enough singles to ride down and back that day. A Link cosplayer and his friends helped me out, but I had to chastise Link as he tried to trade me rupees for my America moneys...silly Link, rupees are for Hyrule!).
As should be assumed of just about any tip: IMHO, YMMV, LOL, PAX, ETC.
Have fun and see you there!
3DS FC : 4270-0980-2372
Damnit man! That was one of my food haunts.
PAX 2013 STATUS - Badges: PURCHASED Hotel: RESERVED Vacation: Awaiting approval Plane Tickets: Waiting on vacation approval.
Pax Prime '11, '12, '13 - Cookie Brigadier
I tried to rely on Metro last year and was totally effed. I was coming from West Seattle then, though. Still, I wasn't transferring! I only needed ONE BUS. It left us stranded once (we seriously hailed a cab to get home because I wasn't going to wait at the stop for another hour with my 12 year old at 11pm) and then in the mornings we stood at the bus stop for 40 minutes each time despite going literally outside our door for a bus that should have been running every 20 minutes. I had/have so much rage for Metro I can't even with them.
That said ... maybe from the northside things are more reliable? We have since moved to Shoreline and I'm more than willing to give it a try driving to the Northgate P&R (from Aurora Village our only option may be the 358 which is the Notoriously Crazy Bus).
Lots of options to get downtown from Northgate by bus, but the 41 would be the best.
bring two pairs of comfortable shoes to alternate each day. IMO it helps my feet alot to have a freshly aired out pair of shoes to wear each day
Total newb question but the lines for panels go all the way outside?
Attendee: ♥ Prime '12, '13 ..♥ East '12
The MT line is actually located outside.
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Are there any others that are located outside? Or is that the only one?
Attendee: ♥ Prime '12, '13 ..♥ East '12