"Fall-In, Expectations" Topic

Attended Fall-In from Thursday till Sunday morning, my expectations were met.

On Thursday night arrived at around 1700hrs with what is normally a short drive from Baltimore but the route was plagued with several accidents and the rain was constant driving through the back roads of Amish country. When my wife and I arrived, check-in at the desk was a breeze and was givin' a great room location, RM413 right off the lobby. The room was a little on the dated side but clean except for the coffee mugs which had lipstick on them. (my wife checks that kind of stuff first). We then decided to grab a bite to eat at the hotel restaurant. I ordered the burger and French Onion soup she got the Cheese Burger soup and I cant remember what else. But the meal wasn't bad. After dinner I went to get registered, as per usual the line was long and the computer were acting stupid but I did get to watch the roof drip into a near overflowing bucket. After about 45minutes everything was done and decided it was time for bed.

Friday morning I woke up and the wife and I decided to hit up a local Amish market and grab a few things for Thankgiving in the way of jelly and jam and a "Chow-Chow"…had a great breakfast up the road at a small restaurant next to the Wind Mill pie shop on Rt30. Very good food. Headed back to the Host for the Flea Market, which seemed to be run well. I Made enough money to pay for the trip and a whatever I wanted to buy in the dealers hall. Friday night was dinner at the Host again, this time my wife and I split a large salad and pasta dish. Later on that night met up with a few friends and played a great game of "Old West" using Warhammer Historicals. This was played in the lobby of the Host just as you went up the front steps. D.M. had some great terrain and figures.

Saturday morning was lucky enough to get a morning session at the flea fest, sold some more stuff. Afterwards made my way to the dealers hall. This was truly my one area of complaint. It was freaking hot, not just warm, but damn miserable hot, so I thought. And it seemed a lot of space was vacant. Of course the old stand-buys were there. It was great to make purchases from Lon at "Brigade" and Steve from "Age of Glory" and Rick "The Flag Dude" and I wont forget Ernie Baker at "Architects of War" who got more then a few bucks out of me… Saturday night, you guessed it, ate at the Host again, food was alright (how can you really mess up a quesadilla?) We did have another issue with lipstick on the stem ware this time. Wife is sharp with these things. After dinner I met up with some friends and watched a few rounds of that awesome looking gangster game in the lobby, those cats should get an award for that layout. The main gaming area seemed a bit sparse with only a hand full of games being played at 2000hrs.

Woke up Sunday to not having any water, hot or cold. This really ed me off, I like a shower in the morning to get me going. So we packed up not bothering with one more lap around the dealer hall. Hit the Hershey Farm Restaurant on the way home, had a great meal and glided back to Baltimore an hour and a half later to the waiting arms of 4 kids jacked up on candies and cake. (grandmom watched them)…

So were my expectations met?

-Clean Room…check
-Prompt Service to deal with house keeping issues…check
-Food served at Restaurant which wasn't horrible…check
-Fall-In staff helpful…check
-Comfortable Temps in Dealer Hall…FAIL
-Good Location of Convention…check
-WiFi…FAIL
-Enough Dealers…Subjective. I got what wanted but others might not of.
-Ease of Convention Check-in…FAIL
-Flea Market…once again subjective, except the woman selling home made jewelry, That kinda bothered me. It's a wargameing flea market not a place to sell your homemade wares. They have convention of their own for that stuff. Maybe next year i'll bring is some old records or car parts and sell that stuff, we have lots of baby clothes too…this should be looked into.
-Lobby Bathroom…wasn't to bad this year.

so all-in-all, had a good time. A few bugs are to be expected so as long as there not bed bugs…

Thx for AAR
Clif

so, having water in the room upon awakening isn't an expectation?

different strokes for different folks.

But, I gave up on the Host a long time ago.

Excellent recap! I had very similar results!

Walt

I never stay at the host, I don't mind staying at the dump during the day but sleeping there is out of the question.

I felt sorry for the dealers, it was a sauna in the dealer hall on Saturday. I've been to this convention many times and I not remember it being like that. Unless my memory is fading with age.

My impressions of your review. What women still wear lipstick heavy enough to leave cofee mug stains?!
Maybe the jewelry lady was some wargamers wife. She didn't seem to be selling much.

Jewelry in the Flea Market. It might be nice to bring a little trinket home to the wonderful wife who struggled with the kids all weekend….just suggesting.
Cleo

Cleo may have hit a nerve, fellas: market the stuff as: "Wargame Widow's Weregild". BTW, that name is officially taken (by me)

The problem with the dealer hall is they shut the heat off at night as it was cold in there prior to opening Saturday AM, so they cranked the heat up to make up for it, not to mention it was warm all weekend long, at least for Lancaster in November.

It was very hot in there, that is for sure.

Most of the attendees were in the flea market on Saturday anyway, six hours of fleaing is overkill IMO, but hey, what do I know.

Are you saying "Cleo" hit a nerve with me? Nah, I'm a big boy I can handle it. I just think (I know, silly of me to do that),a wargame show should have something to do with wait for it…WARGAMES. A woman selling her homemade jewelry really doesn't have a place in that venue, IMHO. Where does it stop…the show allows her to sell jewelry, then someone else thinks its alright to sell furniture or clothing.

I thought it a bit strange seeing her sell her totally non wargame related items…

This is not the first year that some one was selling jewelry at the show. And, most of the time it is marketed as a gift a wargamer can bring home to their wife.

So HMGS has enough spare/empty tables to sell to people selling jewelry. So that means everyone got a table that wanted it during the shift, or is this more HMGS drift away from what it was intended to be? Next you'll be telling me a non-military game won best of show, and fantasy stuff was displayed in the painting competition cases.

Jewelry in Wally's Basement? What's next, a COSTCO booth in the dealer hall?

Oh wait….

Here is a secret that will address one of your FAIL concerns:

Preregister.

I went there thursday evening. I saw the long line of folks waiting to register.

There was no line for Preregister.

I had my badge and program in less than two minutes.

Looked around, had a Lager at the bar, read my program, when I left the same folks were still in line to register.

But remember, it's a secret. Shhhhhhh

On the Jewelry thing.

I was sad that the wife of the booth owner who has the Egyptian statuary and stuff was not there with her jewelry which is excellent stuff, well made at a good price by really qualified craft people. I always drop a few hundred there. Great presents for the wife, my best female friend, and several others, people at work etc. I checked out the woman selling the jewelry in the flea market but none of it impressed me.

In connection with this I have a story to tell. This was from a GEN-CON about twenty five years ago or so, sometime in the 90's.

I and two friends, call them Rob and Chris, flew out and in the hotel that night we were debating about reason and emotions and human society. Rob was taking the position that people are motivated by reason and that reason as civilization. I was taking the opposite tack and was asserting that mankind was largely bloody, murdering animals on which the veneer of civilization hung very lightly and insecurely.

Well all of these philosophical feats of legerdemain were forgotten the next day. We were in the dealer area, and one vendor was selling good quality cut semi-precious stones. The prices were good and all three of us were pick up a pile and I was saying how Dot will love the citrons (her favorite color is orande) and Rob said how Olivia loved
Amethysts and it's her birth stone, and Chris was describing the emeralds he was going to arrange in this grand necklace for Amy.

That's when I said "Hey Rob! Here we are -- just like savages, purchasing pretty trinkets to adorn the bodies of our women as emblems of our success and status! Real bloody reasonable and civilized." Rob paused for a moment and then shrugged and went back to picking out stones. It was good he paused, it allowed me to snatch a monstrously fine aquamarine he had his eye on.

OSchmidt--good thing Rob didn't hit you with his wildebeeste-thighbone club, the brute!