This past weekend, I went to Star Wars Celebration Orlando. The first day saw some terribly mismanaged queue organization resulting in multi-hour waits. The organizers, ReedPOP, did respond and improved the line organization on Friday, leading to much smoother queues as the weekend went on. It seemed that the main reason was the last-minute addition of bag checks and a small number of metal detectors, creating a bottleneck of a single small entrance in a facility that usually offers dozens of entrances for attendees.
This was a record-setting event in terms of attendance, which is saying something considering the the Orange County Convention Center is the 2nd largest facility of it’s kind in the US. Massive crowds, but an amazing experience throughout. My only regret is not ordering tickets earlier and planning a full 4-day stay.
The list of guests was impressive, and a long list of high-demand panels made it a difficult event to take in all at once.
The next Celebration is tentatively scheduled for 2019, and hopefully for that one I’ll go all-in.