Just like the header suggests, I'm going to be sharing my experience with you lovely lot, including the experience I had at my hotel.
I made it. I actually made it this far without quitting on my cosplay, if you can call it that, as I thought I would be feeling stupid for wearing it or even being this sort of character. The days leading up to Saturday, I was feeling both scared and excited. Scared because I was worried about the ammount of people there and excited because I was going to be able to see people dressed up as characters. I love seeing people cosplay!
My own costume was based off a skirt and a White t-shirt with an added bow and collar and I was surprisingly comfortable wearing this the whole day. Go me. Though it's not exactly anime or manga correct, I think I can make it correct over time.
We decided to book a hotel room for two nights as I didn't want to turn up to the excel centre with bags, and rightly so as I will mention later the experience I saw with the cloakroom.
We stayed at Epsilon Hotel in Stratford. The reviews were good with the exception for a few things, noise and air circulation in the room. When we got there the people managing the check out seemed really disorientated. We mentioned that we requested a early check in and later check out which was confirmed twice over the phone and once via email, but they claimed they didn't know. It was soon sorted out, but still you don't really expect the hassle of this.
We got to our room that was on the third floor and to our joy (sarcasm) a front facing room. Where the hotel is situated, it is really a main road and is busy with cars and buses.
Immediately entering the room you could hear the outside traffic as clear as day, the window was a single pane of glass, and the added bonus of a stuffy small room. There was a fan but it o it really worked if you have it on at all times and it didn't cool the room down much which was a shame. Fuck knows how this is supposed to be an "Executive room".
Continuing with problems in our room, the drainage from both shower and skink was extremely slow. As in, washing your hands filled up the sink half way and it taking a while for the water to drain out. But hey, we got free breakfast each day so that's a consolation in itself (again sarcasm).
So it was the morning of Saturday, COMIC CON DAY! We had a really shit nights sleep to say the least but I was up at 6am getting ready. The shower drainage, like the sink, was really slow to the point where you really started to worry about causing a flood, also the body/hair wash dispenser gave you this vile smelling liquid which I could only describe as shit smelling. Just what I needed for the day's activities. To smell like literal shit. I managed to cover it up with lots of perfume, body spray and deodorant.
We left the hotel, wingy boyfriend in tow, got to Stratford station and there was so many people in costume! I loved it. I had one lady ask if comic con was on, which I confirmed as it was obvious (haha). I got my first compliment of the day too as the same woman said my wig colour suited me and that I should get it done to my natural hair. I also got a compliment on my eyebrows by "post apocalyptic Alice".
Shortly after we got to the excel just after opening time for us priority ticket holders. At this point everything seemed like a blur, I'm not going to lie, I was in my element.
I saw a lot of people but it didn't really seem as crammed as what people were saying on the mcm expo group on Facebook. Maybe this time they sorted out the space, or that's what I heard at least. Anyway, I couldn't believe I survived six hours of walking about and talking to friends. But leading up to the end of my visit, my feet were killing me. Thanks to my shitty primark shoes.
Only thing I felt sad about was the fact there was supposed to be a small sailor moon meet up but I only managed to see a few characters at the meeting place which I briefly said hi to and decided to go look around more on my own. Surprisingly there was quite a few sailor moon cosplayers. It's sad to see that they didn't want to meet up, but it was thrown together at the last minute so maybe that was the issue. I also didn't like how my feet started to hurt so much, so that made me feel sad too.
I'm going to just jump to the checking out part of the day after mcm. My boyfriend told the lady at the desk what issues we had with our room, but she didn't really seem bothered by it at all, she did try, but I still think it's bad making people pay £99 a night or more, for a shit room.
I would not recommend it to anyone as I saw the prices jumped up to over £300 for two nights. If you do go there, make sure you get ear plugs and maybe get a portable air conditioning unit.
Mcm however, I would definitely recommend to anyone who is into games, comic books, anime/manga, or dressing up in costume. Wear appropriate footwear though!
