Complaints.

[Kokoro]

Also, all the guests seemed to be repeats of last year. So it seemed like no point to wait in a long line just to see them again.

This is why I chose not to attend this year. Guests are the main attraction for me, and I had already seen these guests, some of them twice. I'm sure it would have been fun to simply head down to wander around and hang out with people, but I decided saving my money for a different con would be the better choice.

To be fair, LittleKuriboh wasn't here last year, Wendy Powell wasn't (though LK and Wendy were here before), and Robert Axelrod wasn't. We will be, as always, looking to your suggestions as our attendees for guests. We absolutely loved our guests this year (and I realize that's not hard to tell since quite a few have been here before lol) but we know you guys want variety. We'll do our best to bring in some fresh faces. I know I personally would like to bring back Todd Haberkorn or Christopher Sabat. Those two are hilarious...buuuut we'll look at your guy's suggestions (someone suggest them for me! =D).

True, but both had been to Anime Milwaukee within the last 2 years, so as someone who has been attending for exactly 2 years, I had little incentive to go.

[Phreak]

Also, all the guests seemed to be repeats of last year. So it seemed like no point to wait in a long line just to see them again.

This is why I chose not to attend this year. Guests are the main attraction for me, and I had already seen these guests, some of them twice. I'm sure it would have been fun to simply head down to wander around and hang out with people, but I decided saving my money for a different con would be the better choice.

To be fair, LittleKuriboh wasn't here last year, Wendy Powell wasn't (though LK and Wendy were here before), and Robert Axelrod wasn't. We will be, as always, looking to your suggestions as our attendees for guests. We absolutely loved our guests this year (and I realize that's not hard to tell since quite a few have been here before lol) but we know you guys want variety. We'll do our best to bring in some fresh faces. I know I personally would like to bring back Todd Haberkorn or Christopher Sabat. Those two are hilarious...buuuut we'll look at your guy's suggestions (someone suggest them for me! =D).

True, but both had been to Anime Milwaukee within the last 2 years, so as someone who has been attending for exactly 2 years, I had little incentive to go.

Exactly! This is my 4th time going to Anime Milwaukee and they always seem the same (Or alternating/repeating). I honestly had to double check the guest list early February because I thought the website didn't update yet because of the same guests. Lol.

At least bring Sonny Strait back from AMKE's 2nd year. I remember buying him a Mountain Dew since he wanted one (back then when there were only 10 people in line for autographs haha) and he gave me a huuuge bear hug. :]

Otherwise I honestly have no idea for suggestions. I mean, I have no idea how you people try and schedule these things...

[AnimeGeek120]

Well a lot of it comes from who is available and willing to come. There are many variables that go into who comes to Anime Milwaukee.

I know people want variety (as do I) but at the same time there are also people who request that we bring back the same guests as before. (I know Vic Mignona and Todd Haberkorn have been said before and Todd has already been here, two years in a row in fact).

But keep the suggestions coming, this is how we make the con better.

[Kokoro]

Well a lot of it comes from who is available and willing to come. There are many variables that go into who comes to Anime Milwaukee.

I know people want variety (as do I) but at the same time there are also people who request that we bring back the same guests as before. (I know Vic Mignona and Todd Haberkorn have been said before and Todd has already been here, two years in a row in fact).

But keep the suggestions coming, this is how we make the con better.

I would personally like to see Todd Haberkorn again (was hoping he'd come last year), but yeah....people are going to request Vic Mignogna ALL THE TIME. You could invite him for 10 years in a row and people would still complain about how they didn't get a chance to see him and can't you bring him back one more time blahbleeblahbleeblahOMGEDWARDELRIC111bleeblah.

Most people I've seen are not requesting the same guests as the previous year. And frankly, if you see a handful of people on the forum clamoring for the exact same guests year after year, you have to remember that this forum is only a small sample of your attendees, and chances are most of us would like variety (although there's nothing wrong with bringing back an extremely popular guest). You've got to find a balance, basically.

If you're finding that the new guests you're pursuing consistently aren't willing to come...well...might wanna investigate why that is.

[AnimeGeek120]

Well a lot of it comes from who is available and willing to come. There are many variables that go into who comes to Anime Milwaukee.

I know people want variety (as do I) but at the same time there are also people who request that we bring back the same guests as before. (I know Vic Mignona and Todd Haberkorn have been said before and Todd has already been here, two years in a row in fact).

But keep the suggestions coming, this is how we make the con better.

I would personally like to see Todd Haberkorn again (was hoping he'd come last year), but yeah....people are going to request Vic Mignogna ALL THE TIME. You could invite him for 10 years in a row and people would still complain about how they didn't get a chance to see him and can't you bring him back one more time blahbleeblahbleeblahOMGEDWARDELRIC111bleeblah.

Most people I've seen are not requesting the same guests as the previous year. And frankly, if you see a handful of people on the forum clamoring for the exact same guests year after year, you have to remember that this forum is only a small sample of your attendees, and chances are most of us would like variety (although there's nothing wrong with bringing back an extremely popular guest). You've got to find a balance, basically.

If you're finding that the new guests you're pursuing consistently aren't willing to come...well...might wanna investigate why that is.

Remember it's not necessarily that guests aren't willing to come. There are a variety of reasons why a guest might not chose to go to a particular con.

Sometimes it's because another con go them first. Sometimes it's because they have to work, or may be they already went to 2 or 3 cons that month and are tired. I know in interviews some VAs say they can only do a con or 2 a month because it takes up so much energy. They need to be able to work come Monday like everyone else .

I can understand where you guys are coming from though. Guests are one of the big things that draw me to a con. That's actually why I joined staff, because I wanted to work with the guest department. I'm not there yet, but still.

Since a lot of people are bringing up this same issue, we'll definitely be talking about it.

[NinjaRaven007]

Over all this Anime Milwaukee was the best I have been to by far. Granted I went to the last two years and had some drama. And although I agree with some of the complaints, about the bags and defiantly the sky walk, the guests is a complete different area. I love littlekuriboh and was so happy he could show up (honestly he was the only guest I visited over the weekend, even if I saw him before, other than Uncle Yo who I love and also watched before) But the whole reason, which some people might not know, a lot of voice actors and other guests couldn’t come to the con was because they were in Florida on the exact same dates as AMKE for Mega Con. I know this because not only did I go on a few con websites but my friend went to it. So repeated guests wasn't a real problem for me because I knew that Mega-Con booked them far before AMKE did.

Since other people brought up the registration problem I wont again, but all I have to say is that I am so glad I Pre-Registered and then registered on Friday the moment it opened.

[urisco]

I only have a few things to complain about the first two aren't exactly the conventions fault but I think they should somehow be addressed. So first off When I first checked into my hotel me and my friends were paying with cash in full but I ended up getting there much earlier then everyone else by a few hours so I didn't happen to have all that cash on me I had enough to pay for one full day at the hotel including tax plus the 50 dollar deposit you had to pay on either a debit a credit card when your paying in cash. I argued with the lady for almost 30 minutes because for some reason she wouldn't let me do this even though I've done this at other conventions before also I asked if she could hold my bags until I waited for everyone else to come so we had the money they denied me and told me that they weren't holding bags because to many people were doing that. I saw one bag behind the counter this made no sense to me at all. So I basically ended up having to drive to the bank and withdraw extra money from my savings account to pay in full. This wasn't even the worst of it because I asked what would happen if I only paid for half at this moment and according to her they would charge me an extra 100 dollars nightly for some of cover fee, when I asked what this was and what the policy of this was she gave me an explanation that made no sense whatsoever so I asked to talk to someone else. The other person I talked to seemed very confused and was just agreeing with her but he seemed like he had no clue what the heck was going on finally I gave up because I was getting frustrated. drove to the bank and back got all my cash then I talked to someone else and oh apparently all of this stuff wasn't even true and they were looking at me very confused also. I complained and said that I wanted to talk to the manager about how rude the other employee was to me and i was asked who it was but the person wasn't there of coarse I couldn't remember her or his name and they apparently just switched shifts. I honestly feel like the hotel was staff was messing with me I'm not even kidding and that really just ruined my day. Also I heard from a few friends that hotel staff was being a rude but then other friends were telling me that hotel staff was being very amazingly nice. I had no issue's with hotel staff except for that they were actually very nice to me just not during that situation. I believe if anime Milwaukee wants this convention to stay at the hyatt they should make sure that the hotel is fully aware of what is going on and equipped for all situations and isn't going to do this since I happen to love the hyatt I think it's a wonderful spacious area for the convention.

My 2nd comment is the gymnastic kids can we get something to separate us further from them so we don't bother them and they don't bother us? Most of them were really nice and a few of them actually came up to me and asked me if they could touch my "soft big hands" because I was in a lugia gijinka costume. It was really cute since they were little kids and I believe they were just walking past us to get to their area and there parents seemed happy also. But at about 1-2am not sure of exact time me some friends and random people were just lounging around the convention center and they started yelling at us about "do we dress like this every day! Why do you look so weird" and one of the kids kept trying to come down the escalader. Most people were just ignoring them but I have to admit they were pretty annoying since everyone was just relaxing also the people sitting around were telling us that they had been doing that on and off for hours. I wonder where their parents where why were they even wandering around up there that late anyways? My point is somehow can we be separate further from them so it doesn't cause any issue's in the future.

The 3rd thing is the cosplay contest. The room was to small I'm a very short person and so is my friend if we sat down we actually couldn't even see what was going on even if we looked at the screen so we just stood in the back of the room. The room was actually just to small in general I would think about a bigger room for next year. It also got hot really fast and we were standing pretty close to the door and the hotter it for the smellier it got. Of coarse you can't control if people shower but the more ventilation you have the less of all that con funk is going to stay enclosed in there. I liked the masquerade last year because it was in a larger room and I could see what was going on sitting down. Though last year it did have other issue's of it's own. Also I noticed there were to many pokemon songs one pokemon song is nice but there were to many I believe I heard 3 play during the walk-on's. Also a pokemon wasn't even on stage when that happened. My last comment about the masquerade was uncle yo talks to much. He talked to much last year to and I remember last year before people had to walk-on we were just standing there very tired or hot depending on what sort of costume we were in waiting for him to finish his opening speech and people were getting irritated sort of. I wasn't in it this year so I have no idea what was going on back stage obviously. He is a funny person I've been to some of his panels and he does make you laugh but I felt like he didn't have to make everything so lengthy. It got sort of boring after awhile. Me and my friends actually ended up leaving part way through just because of the hottness etc. that was actually the first time I've left during the masquerade at any convention I always stay. Since that is one of my highlighted parts of the convention.

I know I had some big complaints but over all the convention was pretty good there's always room for improvement though. I also know a lot of work goes into putting these together so thanks so much for all of amke staff and volunteer's for putting the time and effort into this.

[ronpaullol]

I'm surprised no one has said anything about this:

Food.

Food.

Food.

The only place open 24 hours was George Webb's. Now, I didn't go because I knew that would happen so I brought my own food. But people left and right were complaining when it hit 10 o' clock and Grand Avenue shuts down..

Also, I got ripped off on the parking as well. I was told it was $15 a day. I arrived on Friday at approximately 5:00 PM, went to drop a friend off around 11:00 PM on Saturday and I knew street parking was free on Sunday so I figured why not.

Anyways, I went to go pay at the exit and guess what... $38 dollars for not even 48 hours. I was had!

[AnimeGeek120]

I agree with the hotel issue (sorry that was too long to quote).

While I didn't have that specific issue, I had issues with late check out.

The website stated it was 3 p.m, but I was told by hotel staff on Sunday that it was 2 p.m. And when I called the front desk around 2:30, I was told that they weren't doing late check due to the con. (At least I think that's what she said, it was hard to hear. But she did say it wasn't happening due to something going on).

Did anyone else have that problem?

[S-Config]

I'm surprised no one has said anything about this:

Food.

Food.

Food.

The only place open 24 hours was George Webb's. Now, I didn't go because I knew that would happen so I brought my own food. But people left and right were complaining when it hit 10 o' clock and Grand Avenue shuts down..

Also, I got ripped off on the parking as well. I was told it was $15 a day. I arrived on Friday at approximately 5:00 PM, went to drop a friend off around 11:00 PM on Saturday and I knew street parking was free on Sunday so I figured why not.

Anyways, I went to go pay at the exit and guess what... $38 dollars for not even 48 hours. I was had!

Hello!

Just an attendee here. But you are correct about parking. In downtown Milwaukee,It normally goes up in the evening because of events that are happening at either the US Cellular Arena, the Riverside, sometimes at one of the major parks of a band is playing. or depending on season at the summerfest grounds. Parking structures that are not owned by the city operate on moments of opportunity. If they know there's a major event happening in the city they will tend to adjust their rates accordingly because they know parking is a premium in downtown Milwaukee.

Cheap parking is something that has to be searched for in the downtown region. not something that is handed out. And often times it's based on proximity of event. I mentioned in my scenario where the boston store parking structure was only $5 for the whole day. where-as the parking lot right next door that was facing the south-east entrance to the FAC was $10 in morning and $15 at night. If you're willing to walk a few blocks then there is cheap parking. thankfully this February has been an unseasonably warm month so parking far wasn't painful at all!

As for food. you're right, not much for 24 hour restaurants. But I haven't been to a city outside of New York and Chicago that had lots of 24 hour places in the core of the downtown metro area. I've visited Detroit MI, Cinncinati and Columbus OH, St Louis MI and a lot of the chain restaurants (like at grand ave) shut down around the time you mentioned so this is rather normal. However food is still available until 2am at sit down restaurants that have liquor licenses like Major Golsby's, the king and i (i think) Safe House (7 blocks away) the only thing happening past 2am is either gaming or the rave/karaoke looking at the program book. after 2am there's 8 hours of silence before things re-open and some places in the grand ave like the chocolate factory in the eastern arcade wing of the mall open a little earlier. as well as the honeydip donuts close by the downtown milwaukee library.