Arisia all gone...

[dalesql]

Was at arisia all weekend. Dealt blackjack for three four hour blocks in the game room over the weekend. Big winner was a young lady who started with a bankroll of 120 quatloos, and ended the evening with around 8000. (granted part of that was her last two bets were her entire bankroll, and she got a blackjack on one and beat the dealer on the other, but winning is winning. )

DaveC gave me lots of help with improving my skills at dealing, and my thanks to him for that. He also gave me some breaks to show me things. I'll be dealing blackjack again at boskone next month.

I'm very glad arisia is at the westin now. the new place has about twice as much function space and probably about twice as many rooms as the hyatt ziggaurat had. they still used all of the rooms and needed to overflow into other hotels for sleeping rooms. But the only place that really felt crowded was the con suite and the dealers row rooms that were along the hallway to the con suite.

the con suite was in a large suite on the top floor of the hotel, and the usual con elevator problems were encountered with it. But since this hotel had seven elevators, not just the three that the old place had, the elevator going offline on sunday was not a critical problem, just an inconvenience. I think that arisia would be better served by moving the con suite down into function space. Loss of that traffic would make dealers row a lot less desirable for the dealers. Not sure what to do for dealers row to make up for that loss of traffic.

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

It was good seeing you there, albeit briefly.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

Having been on Dealer's row as a vendor, I have to say the location was just not good. My sales were way down. Having it on the 16th floor made it difficult for people to get to it. I understand the reasoning of anchoring it witht he party rooms and con suite, but I honectly don't think it worked. People who go to the con suite to eat stale snacks in and overheated, overcrowded room with a sticky floor are not the people who have money to spend on a dealer's row. (Personally I rarely will go to a con suite if it means I have to find my way to a small suite on one of the upper floors. I don't need free food and can't stand the crowded, messy, and smelly space.)
Having the con suite upstairs with party rooms upstairs is a good idea, but the dealer's row should have been on a lower more easily accessible (via stairs) floor.

In talking with people in the dealer's room, many did not even know about a dealer's row. When they asked where it was and I told them 16th floor, their response was "Oh I'm not going all the way up there."

Anyway, my .02

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

The way Arisia's corkage was done, all food areas had to be in suites, so that's why con suite is an actual suite. And as the 16th floor was at least reachable by stairs (and the door wasn't locked), it made sense there from that perspective.