Washington State Summer Con — Attraction in Puyallup

To start with this is not a bad con. It’s just a new con. There’s going to be a lot of hiccups and I completely understand that. But there was definitely a lot of disorganization happening with this con. I went on Saturday. there was just so much standing in line with very little organization or staff supervision. But I’ll start with the first hiccup. When we arrived, aside from the staff members checking my bag to make sure I didn’t have anything dangerous, nobody scanned the QR code sent to me for our tickets. There was nobody checking to see if anyone coming through the gate had tickets. We wandered around for a while until we realized oops we need a badge, so then we went back to the gate so they could scan our code and give us a badge. The next hiccup, there is nobody checking for badges going into any of the show buildings. Again, I think anyone could’ve just walked in off the street and gone to this convention with no one stopping them. We arrived not long after the gates had opened, and the first thing we ended up doing was standing in line to get Brent Spiner’s autograph. We got in line about a quarter after 10 AM, and at 11:40 AM. We were about three people away from meeting him, But then he was taken away to the Star Trek Trio photo op that was scheduled for 11:45 AM. We had paid in advance for that photo op, so we left as well and planned to come back to the line. Staff told everyone to just stay put he would be back soon. When we went to the photo op section, it was just as confused. Again nobody checked our tickets and nobody scanned our QR code for the pre-purchase of the photo op. They didn’t check anyone’s. This was another situation where you could’ve just walked in off the street and gotten a free photograph of you and a celebrity. It was very strange and very rushed. We received our hard copy of the photo, but when it came to getting the digital copy, they had kiosks set up where you were supposed to put your email address in and put the digital code into the kiosk so they could email you a copy. The machines were down. We came back several times throughout the day and they were still down. So I never got a digital copy of my photo. after the photoOp, we went back to Brent’s line, which was gone. completely empty. The staff member told me to come back in an hour because Brent was going to lunch. I set my alarm for an hour and when we came back, the line had doubled from what it was this morning. When I talked to the same staff member, he told me that I should’ve stayed in line because they gave everybody a sticky note with a number so they could come back and not have to stand in line again. I explained that I had paid for the photoOp that he had left to go do, so I had no choice, I had to leave too. And I was basically told I was SOL. so I stood in another 2 hour line to finally get Brent’s autograph. I have disabilities and it does make it very hard to stand in long lines for long periods of time. So altogether having to stand in line for this autograph for three hours was a lot. We ended up leaving after that because we were just exhausted from the whole situation. The whole thing was incredibly disorganized, and the few staff members I talked to seem confused and really didn’t seem to know what was going on. When I brought up some of my concerns about the line situation, etc., staff members told me to just come back on Sunday. Which I could not do, I only had a Saturday ticket. I would consider going to this con again, but things definitely need to change. Better organization, Pre-purchase options for autographs with times to come back to get the...

My family and I came from Texas and planned on this being our big family vacation for the summer, going to the con and visiting Washington.

We bought 3 day passes and the super fan package, we came to see the Sons of Anarchy and The Mayans cast. Everything from scheduling to maps to communication was poorly planned. Staff didn’t know what was going on and couldn't tell you who could help. There were technology failures left and right. No maps were available other than screenshots of the grounds which were missing stages for panels and key area. The schedules were not available in a timely manner while updates weren’t sent out until Sunday, most things overlapped like pictures and the panels for the same cast. If you wanted updates you did need to sign up for each person/ group separately.

The photo portion was basically a long central line, run by confused employees who had no clue what was going on or who the guests at the con were. The “panel” was horrific, with people just asking the guests questions which they were asked not to be asked or had already answered. There was not an interview or plan for the panel at all. We are still waiting on our digital photos because their technology didn’t work. We have reached out multiple times through different avenues and still no response.

Photographs and autographs were not able to be pre-purchased so we missed out on some of those opportunities and even missed one of our packages because the picture line was so poorly planned. They had photos overlapping with photos and panels and made it impossible for you to go or attend everything you wanted. Though we loved the guests we saw there were many areas for improvement. If coordination can be achieved to book top talent then the planning and organization should match that. We wasted a lot of time trying to find things and get information just to ensure we received everything we paid for.

I usually look forward to shopping with the vendors and purchasing items relating to the lineup but these vendors were very underwhelming. This was one of the poorer planned cons we have been to and witnessed other frustrated fans. I applaud the lineup for this con but I hope that this years mishaps were simply a hiccup and next years fans have a better experience.

Add more options for online sales, more signage and communication as...

We went a few years ago pre pandemic. It was great. Nothing fancy but it was cool. This year sucked. It was nothing more than shopping. They had multiple buildings filled with vendor booths. The buildings were way overfilled with people. You could hardly move without bumping into someone. When we went a few years ago they had some vendors and more spots to meet artists and talk to them. You could get pictures with impersonators as well. It was more family friendly. Now at $116 for 2 adults and 1 kid we won’t be going back. Just like the Puyallup Fair it’s way over priced and way underperformance. We also noticed they had meet and greats setup and massive lines of people waiting. But no...