You absolutely got what was advertised.
Background:
Portal Pass holders (Attended with my son)
I go to multiple conventions a year - eg: PAX east, west, unplugged, twitchcon, as well as work conventions.
Large pin collector.
Thursday:
Getting to (portal pass) badge pickup.
The portal pass pickup, was redirected away from the main convention center along Hotel Ave. to Katella Ave. While this was not well signposted, the method of determining the path was by looking for employees with orange umbrellas. It was a bit longer than just going through the natural security gates.
Also: Hotel Ave, requires crossing the road twice, and had narrow sidewalks…… Sorting the congoers at the main fountain, or where there were wider aisles, would have been a better choice.
Future changes:
Badge pickup -
I had ordered 2 badges. (1 for me, 1 for my son). My son was arriving later (after registration would close at 8PM).
I was only able to pick up the first badge, because both people needed to be there in person. This seems to be unnecessary, and is different than from past years, where I could pick up both. (There was no definitive reason why this needed to happen)
Future changes:
- The ticket owner should be able to pick up all badges / lanyards / wristbands, and distribute as needed. This will also help reduce complexity.
- Registration needs to be open longer hours.
- offer a method to Pre-ship tickets / lanyards to attendees (eg: PAX does this).
Friday
Police / line management was terrible
Anaheim Police were located near the main security checkpoint. They were not aware that there were normal and portal entrances. They kept insisting on people going into 1 line, even when the portal pass holders had their own line. They had not been made aware of there being two lines. They were aggressive and belligerent.
Future Changes:
- show management needs to do a better job of co-ordinating with security / police.
- explanations / handouts of what to do for security / police etc.
- police de-escalation. line management should not be a belligerent event, where you feel you may be arrested.
- Significant signposting of “General Admission” and “Portal Pass lines”
Anecdote: PAX has a group of volunteers - [E]nforcers, who are very adept at line management, and help co-ordinate the shows. They are able to keep people informed, arrange queues, and steer things well. From the few chats with staffers, it seemed that they had been poorly trained / poorly instructed.
Portal pass room
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- Getting into the room at 9:00am was fairly easy.
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- minimal issues.
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- it was unclear when we could get into the main show floor. Was it 9:15? Was it 10:00? Most of us left at ~9:40 and a door was opened onto the DMF.
Future Changes:
- Better communication.
- Continual staffing of the front desk. At entry time, there was no staff.
- By Mid-friday, this was better. The desk had staffing. TV monitors had times on them etc.
Pin trading pin board.
- The board was laid out in a new way from prior years.
- How pins were traded changed during the day.
- In the morning it was onyx for onyx. In the afternoon it was any gold for an onyx.
- In the morning there were 5 red murkys per board flip. In the afternoon it was ~60.
- The posted rules didnt match the instructions.
- The ability to trade older pins was a great addition! -(do not change this)
Future Changes:
- Better training for staffers.
- instructions to remove backs prior to walking up to the board.
- Add a way for the board to not be pushed open (this happened repeatedly).
Opening ceremonies:
- No ticket showed up in my AXS app.
- I’m still not sure if the portal pass was supposed to let me in. I did try, and security turned me away.
Future Changes:
- better communication about what the portal pass does.
- clearly marked lines.
Inclusion nexus:
A great area. However, access to it was blocked by the standby line for the main arena.
Future Changes:
- better access to the area.
- guaranteed pathways.
- once the arena line had gone, access worked well.
OWWC:
There were signs saying Reserved. It did not say “reserved for portal pass” etc. Having been to other OW events, reserved usually meant for teams, family, media. The “reserved” seating should have been more detailed as to what was allowed. Also, it’s not sure if the allowable seats changed from Friday to Saturday.
Future Changes:
- better signage (eg: “reserved for “X/Y/Z”)
OWWC Demo booth:
There were a total of 20 computers, which meant only 20 users could be serviced at a time. This created longer cycle times from Midday Friday onwards. It was not possible to get the set of 16 pins normally.
Future Changes:
- faster cycle times (shorter maps?), more PCs.
Diablo IV horadric reliquary area:
The horadric reliquary area, was the main place to buy books (and the pin!), but the lines were not clearly marked.
People entered from either the left or right side, and paid in the middle.
Future Changes:
- Optimize area by having areas for inspection/browsing, and multiple lines for payment.
Artist Alley.
There are lots of great artists /creators in the environment, but there was only a small section for artists. A larger artist alley would have been appreciated.
Friday Summary:
Overall, I left on Friday, with a poor opinion of the portal pass. It had been very low-value.
It had still been a good convention. I saw some of my friends, got to play a few demos etc.
Saturday:
Portal Pass - Entrance into the halls was seamless. A big improvement from Friday.
9:30 AM - Portal Pass members are told we can enter the DMF for ~30 minutes ahead of the rest of the show. Enter in at 9:30
9:40 AM - GA tickets are let in. (Issue with poor communication(?))
Hearthstone demo area:
Staffer noticed we had portal passes, and moved us to the (not-marked) portal pass entrance. This was a great change in value for the portal pass. (And a thank you to the staffer).
portal pass lounge
Portal pass lounge reveals that there are new features, where portal pass holders can use a priority line. This was not revealed until 60% through the con.
Future Changes:
- Decide on features of portal pass earlier, and communicate them clearly. This may also help to sell more passes.
Wow classic demo:
- I got the pin!
- It was not clear where to go for the portal pass entry, but was found after a few questions.
- Demo ran smoothly. Staff were very co-ordinated in helping sort things.
Future Changes:
- Better signposting needed for portal pass.
DMF Access:
- Hall D was trying to do too much. It had WOW, Classic WOW, Hearthstone, Rumble, and DMF.
- In prior years DMF had its own more spread out area, such as the north hall.
- Various line management techniques were needed.
- Queues for lines went into main traffic pathways.
Future Changes:
- Relocate and expand DMF (eg: basement of hall D, north hall etc.)
- Redo lines so that they do not overflow into major thoroughfares.
Portal pass room:
The meet and greets went really well. Staff were super friendly. I got to meet Wyatt, Rod Fergusson, Aaron Keller, Mike Ybarra, and others!
Future Changes:
- No changes for the staffers. I appreciate their time, and the conversation.
- Add rubber bands or poster tubes for people who got signed posters.
Community night:
There was no portal pass line. All attendees were forced into 1 line.
Future Changes:
- Relocate and expand DMF (eg: basement of hall D, north hall etc.)
- Redo lines so that they do not overflow into major thoroughfares.
Closing ceremonies:
We did not attempt to make it in there. (See community night debacle).
Other issues noted:
APP:
For a very technical conference, there was no APP.
The printed conference schedule was helpful, but didnt include things like the portal pass lounge.
The schedule on the website was somewhat clunky, and hard to build a unified view.
There was no way to build a tailored schedule.
Pax/Twitchcon / similar conventions with thousands of attendees have this solved, with custom apps, notifications, build a schedule etc.
- Future Changes:
- Bring back the convention App.
- personalized schedules.
- blink ordering
- push notifications.
- bluetooth beacons (eg: for direction finding)
- add an option for watching streaming content.
—
Blink shopping did not track inventory.
Multiple friends of mine have lamented that something that they had confirmed ordered, was no longer available for pickup and they were refunded.
This appears to be a inventory management problem, that should have been addressed.
Future changes:
- Realtime inventory management.
- Maintain a reserve capacity.
——
No discussion of older IP: eg: Starcraft / HoTS etc.
- Even a small demo area would have been a nod.
- At prior blizzcons there was a blizzard arcade that had older games available for play.
Future changes:
- bring back the blizzard arcade, or have a similar nostalgia area
———
Staff pins.
It was difficult to find staff with pins to trade. Very few people had lanyards. Few people knew if they could / would be able to trade pins.
Future changes:
- encourage staff to trade pins
- make larger runs of staff pins (eg: consumer products group usually only makes LE100)
- have people with lanyards cycle through the DMF / portal pass area.
Overall:
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Things from a show running perspective had deteriorated from prior years, and it felt like the show wasn’t up to blizzard quality. Things were rusty in running the show.
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Things got significantly better on Saturday, but the higher amount of attendees, caused a new set of capacity problems.
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The portal pass didnt show its value until ~2/3 of the way through the convention, and was still poorly signposted throughout.
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Better line management / communication is needed. Teams such as the [E]nforcers at PAX do this very well, and are able to smoothly run shows. More training is needed.
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There are also various certifications / event industry reverences that address line management and show running (eg: the CMP certification, MPI, Events Industry Council etc.) leveraging these may help as well.
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More staff pins / staff trading! (I need a bunch!)
With all that said, (and it was a lot), it was a good show. I had a lot of fun, and I will be back again, for my 6th blizzcon, but, instead of a good show, I want it to be the greatest show.
Thanks
-C
5 Likes
I really wish that they had announced meets and greets in advance. I would have loved to meet some people that you listed e.g. Ybarra. I still feel like I was scammed out of money that I had gotten for me and my mom.
2 Likes
This was done extremely last minute. 
very disappointed.
2 Likes
Yeah,
I think the info was only posted in the portal pass room.
And I think there was only 1 TV with the information on them.
It was very easy to miss… An App, with a calendar / panel reminder would have been great… I ended up using the notes app to keep track, and had to hope i remembered or didnt get too distracted. I certainly missed panels I wanted to attend.
2 Likes
I purchased two Portal Passes when the first wave of tickets went out so I could completely treat my mom with everything that BlizzCon had to offer since she had a really hard 12 months with being divorced and working overtime to be able to pay the bills on a teacher’s income. What I read was definitely not what happened here. Thursday, we flew in with my twin sister and her son. We went straight to the Marriott so we could do early check-in then headed over to BlizzCon to get our badges. What happened is something I will not forget, ever. My twin sister and son was directed to general and my mom & I went to the portal after we tried to ask for ADA registration and the people directing became rude even after pointing out I had a surgeon’s note and was told to follow the orange umbrellas. Since I had a rotator cuff surgery, I was wearing a sling and on meds. I was constantly avoiding people in order not to get bumped into. When we got to around the Hilton car park? With the tiny sidewalks, I was trying not to throw up because I had to watch my back & walking in roads since I’m deaf and can’t hear incoming cars. When we got to Katella and finally got in, I was in tears and shaking because I was in pain. My mom was also not happy. We went to ADA registration and my mom spoke for me since there weren’t any ASL interpreters. My twin sister was also there and she was also upset since she had similar experiences with her son. On the way back to the Marriott, we weren’t allowed to head there straightway from the center. We went the exact same reverse way that I came from. I twisted my ankle on those tiny sidewalks and limped the rest of the way.
Over the two days, we never got any notifications about meets and greets or even anything yesterday and today. We paid too much for just bottled water and strained our eyes at a too small television reading transparent background captions since I’m also deaf. We didn’t expect a lottery system so elected not to go to Opening Ceremony in case I couldn’t get in for ASL interpreters.
Nothing special and not even with food we bought there today during Deep Dive of Warcraft and I seriously feel like a chump because all I wanted was to have my mom experience an amazing BlizzCon and we didn’t even have that with all the confusion of ADA or not ADA and Portal redirections & not even additional special swag. We didn’t even experience any live events because we spent too much time trying to figure out lines and navigating Darkmoon Faire was a nightmare.
I could just cry right now as we are preparing to fly back to Texas. Nothing went the way we all expected.
The only absolute silver lining in this mess was our amazing Blizzard friends. I just love them - they were so kind and loving. I thank them so much along with some amazing Portal Passes attendees who helped me open a bottled drink and chatting on way to the lounge.
I have so much more to say too and it’s just so hard when I’m typing with one hand so I want to email so I can do this as a draft. The accessibility team will definitely get an email from me with my feedback and ideas.
I’m not going to purchase portal passes next time since all I got was nothing advertised.
7 Likes
Loved seeing you too friend. You and your sister are a delight.
3 Likes
Sorry to read about your experience. In hindsight thinking how my bf and I had to basically walk all along the right side of anaheim via how we were directed, I agree that is NOT ADA friendly/accessible. It was a trek that took us about 15 minutes to walk.
Sure those coming in to read may think that doesn’t sound like much, but if you’re ADA and going from one check point to the next not REALLY knowing where you are going it can be a night mare.
In 2019 I think portal and ADA had an entry into blizzcon that was located between the Anaheim hotel lobby and the convention center. Given what your experience is I think blizzard needs to open that entry point up again at least for ADA and not have them trek the perimeter of a multi block long building.
4 Likes
Thank you! 
I loved meeting you and everyone that I had interacted with since before covid. You guys are amazing. This is my third BlizzCon and I can say with full confidence that this year is the absolutely worst ran convention that I’ve had experienced in the 20 something years that I have been a convention goer to different conventions along with being a convention accessibility (ADA) coordinator for one of the biggest anime conventions for close to a decade. The absolute worst.
Exactly,
I was one of those mobility challenged people they sent on the longest path to badge pick up. They sent people down a street that did not even have a sidewalk the whole length. The non-ada path was vastly shorter. It was some kind of a joke. We arrive Thursday afternoon, the whole thing was very chaotic and un-organized.
2 Likes
I agree that Blizzard needs to open up more entry points closer to the convention center in a straightforward way and with clear signage. I second Fez. Some blue shirts with orange umbrellas were smirking and pointing when we asked where we were supposed to go, even when I was in tears and in noticeable pain.
My arm and hand took two whole days to get the swelling down (see this link: https://twitter.com/SasiahHochle/status/1720955450005623083 while I was in the Portal Lounge during Deep Dive in Warcraft & there’s more videos on there as well showing my swollen arm) and today I saw my surgeon. Thankfully no damage was done and I can get rid of my sling & slowly type with both hands.
It has been almost an entire week since we arrived to LAX for BlizzCon and I still feel like I was scammed out of extra money for Portal Pass holders and some staffers were so rude in terms of finding accessible lines on Day One, for example one at DMF snarkily said “We had an hour allotted to ADA!” when I had asked where I could go for purchasing a plushy with my Mom. I was like “How am I supposed to know that?” The other person who we requested to escort us was so nice. A big thank you to them!
A lot of communication definitely would have gone a long way along with a proper app updating schedules, especially for Portal Pass holders and advertising meets and greets and maybe even free water. I honestly feel like this was a scam because I didn’t see anything extra as I described in my original post. I couldn’t even use ASL interpreters at the ADA table because no interpreters were there on Thursday when I wanted to file a complaint with my twin sister and my mom. I know of one other deaf BlizzCon attendee who wanted to file a complaint but again, had no ASL interpreters on the same day. How is this equitable?
2 Likes
I purchased the Portal Pass and have been continuously let down. The only benefit has been having a place to sit and a less-crowded restroom. Not worth spending an extra $500.
The meet-and-greet schedule was not posted with specific information until Day 2. We knew what game but not who from the team. This needed to be posted and easily accessible prior to day 1.
No separate access at all to the Opening Ceremony. Really?
They are scrambling now to provide some worth to the pass but it’s not happening. Someone in charge at the Portal Pass said they were working on having separate lines and reserved seating for the Arena panels. Not sure if this is true because security outside the arena has no idea what I’m talking about when I ask.
The Lounge: gameplay demos include 10 couches for Overwatch on Xbox - no PCs or other games.
I love Blizzard and Blizzcon but the Portal Pass is a money-grab without any real thought or benefit to the ticket purchaser. I recommend that others follow suit and do not purchase the Portal Pass unless significant changes are made.
9 Likes
I agree the whole thing isn’t worth much.
Edit
To expand its chaos. The point of portal is less chaos.
3 Likes
I’d revamp the portal pass. They need to take a page out of Disneys book. If one thing Disney does right it’s giving you a good value if you pay them money.
Disney has been gradually increasing the prices of their in person experiences for ages. But it’s worth the money.
Right now portal pass doesn’t feel like it’s worth it. We need a separate line for the Dark Moon Faire, that line is far too long.
I think they should increase the experiences for the portal pass. Like you said guaranteed opening ceremony access, separate seating for all panels. I’d put a separate line for everything frankly. Demos, meet and greets, signings. Everything.
With these new features, I’d increase the price point of the portal pass to go along with the new features.
2 Likes
I agree with the content of your message but I feel that paying $500 more is high enough of a price point already. They need to act on what you suggested and keep the price in line.
5 Likes
Don’t have the data of the portal pass sales. But someone in line said they spoke with someone from the sales team and it was below expectations.
I think this is the second year with the portal pass? But if they added more features, I’m just assuming those come with price hikes.
Word on the street is that they’re adding this value right now.
It’s definitely late in the game for it, but I hear three current PP additions have been made
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Reserved arena seating
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Skipping demo lines
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Skipping DMF line
I can 100% confirm number 1 is true, and I’ve seen reports of number 2 from several sources as well. Dmf line I saw mentioned in a separate group post so it’s very much second hand.
If these additions had been made sooner, or communication was there… then the PP would feel worth it to me. As it stands….yeah, there needs to be a statement on this.
2 Likes
Yes I can confirm the reserved arena seating, I’m here now. But there is no dedicated PP line to wait in. You have to wait in the general line to get into the arena. I asked multiple security staff at the main arena entrance and that was the official word around 2 PM.
Skipping demo lines is important and I’m glad they figured this out. But implementing this on the second half of the second day is too late.
2 Likes
They did not add features. Or if they did they failed to communicate it with the people who bought the portal pass.
3 Likes
Talked a blizzard staff member and he said he heard something about closing ceremony for portal pass. Still first come first serve.
Other stuff he had not heard.