First time coming to NDK? Start here!

[Lusha]

oh jeez, we did get off topic there.  well (even though i havent gone yet, just for the heck of it) my advice is: bring lots of money so you can buy and buy and et and buy!  lol.

[Kyuubi.is.a.frog]

Ya...money is a good thing to have at a con. And your cell phone charger. I went with 14 people in a group to NDK. 8 of them forgot their chargers. That made for an interesting day Sunday when everyone's cell was dead and we had no clue where each other was, trying to get to the car to load our stuff. Remember to bring your cell charger if you are planning on hanging with friend and stuff. You will not regret it. At all.

Also, if there is already ten people in an elevator: wait. You are not in THAT big of a hurry to break the elevator and further inconvenience yourself later by having to walk down/up 9 flights of stairs.

[Lusha]

 

Also, if there is already ten people in an elevator: wait. You are not in THAT big of a hurry to break the elevator and further inconvenience yourself later by having to walk down/up 9 flights of stairs.

(its picturing this...) as well as breaking some ones cardboard "Gurren Laggan" robot costume when you all plummit in the broken elevator...  (do i see final fanstasy?)

[allpowerfulbob]

Rest assured that there are more than enough safety mechanisms on the elevators that they will never "plummit."

However, what Kyuubi says is correct, if the elevator looks even remotely full, wait just a couple extra minutes for the next one to come for you. It'll make everyone's experience that much better.

[JoadJoVae]

i have to second this as well, the elevators have a very good reputation of breaking and we generally get down to one or two elevators for the whole weekend. My advice, wait for the next one. While they will not plummet, they do break and it isn't fun being on a freshly broken elevator in the process of it breaking, i've been there. We don't need one elevator too full to break it again
Other then the elevator scenario, my only other advice is to have fun. The con should be one that will stay memorable in your mind for years to come. It truly is a place to call home away from home. We all love it and hope you do too

[Greg Hines]

Cramming a bunch of people in an elevator car also seems to be what causes them to break down, so though the wait may be somewhat longer if you only fit eight to 10 people per car, there will be fewer frustrations over the course of the weekend. Eight people per car times three cars will actually carry more people in a given span of time than 12 people per car times two cars.

[Daft Punk]

True that, I was really bummed waiting all the time becaue of busted cars...so...much...waiting....

[Pestilence]

Stairs is where it's at.  Worth it in every aspect.  I typically made it up to my room before my friends when I took the stairs.

[Greg Hines]

Well, unless the elevators aren't working, the hotel generally keeps the doors to the stairwells locked from the inside (meaning you can't get onto a floor from the stairwell). They only seem to make the exception when a couple of elevators are busted.

Besides, if you end up on floor 9+, the stairs can be murder... especially if you also have to schlep stuff to and from your hotel room. (I guess that's more of a problem for some of us on staff, though...)

[Pestilence]

I could definitely see that.  I noticed that the outside stairs are typically available if you aren't in the atrium hotels.  I was on the third floor last year and the elevators were actually quite readily available almost every time I wanted on one.

[Kinomi-San]

wow so many useful infomation >o<.... i hope i dunt get lost ...har har..

[Lusha]

okay guys, yet anouther question...  this is me and mom's first anime con ever, and we wanted to get there as soon as we could for when the kan starts up again on saturday.  wait, now that i think about it, is there really any break from friday, or is it just a smooth transition over?

[theshadow]

okay guys, yet anouther question...  this is me and mom's first anime con ever, and we wanted to get there as soon as we could for when the kan starts up again on saturday.  wait, now that i think about it, is there really any break from friday, or is it just a smooth transition over?

Technically the Con is running 24 hours a day through the weekend. But most of the events end by about 10pm to midnight.

Unless someone can correct me the only official event that I'm aware of that continues to run are the video rooms.

[Lusha]

okay, ya, i figured that there would be some sort of a break.   greg has been filling me in on a lot of info lately.  all help is extremely appreciated.

[jswalk]

Karaoke goes till 2 or 3, the rave goes till whenever the DJ's decide to call it a night, and we've had late night panels till 2 some years.   Once there was one where after we had them clear the room at 2 the panelist and some of the people who attended continued it in a common area till 5 in the morning.

[Greg Hines]

The three video rooms run all night long (with one hour break each per night, so we can clean and air out the rooms), but the con runs roughly from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM on Friday; 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM on Saturday; and 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Sunday. We do have our dances (J-pop on Friday, Masquerave on Saturday) that I think start at 10:00 PM in the Main Events room. We sometimes also have some panels that run late, mostly for those that are of more adult subject matters. And, as jswalk mentioned, Karaoke often runs pretty late.

[allpowerfulbob]

Also, there are some age restricted panels that run after 11pm.

[Kyuubi.is.a.frog]

Mostly, if you're under 18, there isn't much to do besides Karaoke, Anime rooms, and the Dances after 10pm. But Stuff starts up the next day bright and early (aka, like, 7-8am).

As good advice, make sure you SLEEP over the weekend, even if its a catnap for 30 minutes at 4am. I didn't sleep my first year, and Sunday ended up as Hell on Crack for me. You get grumpy and your brain stops working, and that just makes it no fun for you or anyone around you.

[Neko]

 I'd have to agree on the sleep thing... I decided to stay up until about 3:30 on friday night in the karaoke room, and ended up missing the rave the next day from lack of sleep... If you managed to talk to me Saturday night you would've noticed I was having issues just standing there without almost falling over... xD I'm normally a person who can stay up all night and be fine the next day too, so I thing it was the extra energy of being at the con that drained me...
 Also, be sure to triple check to make sure you have everything, no matter what area of the con you're in... I made that mistake and left the book with all my artwork in it in one of the bathrooms, and didn't realize until I was on the complete opposite side of the hotel. Lucky for me, it was still there, but you never know. xP

[Shea Machost]

Best advice I can give is be careful on the road to and from the con. The past two years the roads have been terrible coming from the western slope and no matter how much you want to squeeze the con for every last moment of fun you can an accident on the road would not be worth it. If you are riding with others make sure your driver is fit to the task. As the man for my group of friends that has drove us 3 NDK's and 2 Wasabi cons I can tell you it may not seem like much but it can be hard on them especailly if you're like me and you work late night shifts, get out of work, gather your friends then hit the road.

I caution this extremly due to a group of friends who met with a car accident on the way to a con that not only delayed them until late that night but left one hospitalized and with ammneisa which caused him to loss his great grasp on the japanese language among other things.