I appear to have survived SiliCon

[melchar]

For the 1st time in 4 years, I managed to get through SiliCon without getting sick [despite Spencer's ghastly food] - and was there on Sunday. Yay! I am usually -so- dropped by the 'virus of the week club' ... but maybe having been sick the week BEFORE and being in recovery-mode helped. I was still feverish, but sometimes I thing my physiology is happier that way. ^_^ I'm very sure I wasn't contagious, since the sore throat was long past.

SiliCon was nice. I stayed in Fanzine Lounge, took it easy, handed out tribbons [and watched the computer gear] for most of the con. Never did get to Dealer's room. [Sighs] I -did- do good party reviews for Fri/Sat - and when johnnyeponymous asked for poetry for SiWire to order, I think I did well.

The Doubletree is visibly rotting, old damage never repaired. $8 parking as the 'deal' rate sucked mightily. And the food was just awful. The non-coffee-shop [Leaves & Twigs ... Sprigs ... something like that ^_^] had a limited menu with nothing worth ordering and Spencer's. Spencer's! Every single item that I HAD liked on the menu was gone! They had some steaks - and a few ridiculously-priced sides. I ordered a salad = that was served with rotted lettuce - and '5-cheese mac and cheese' ... which tasted warm ... wet ... and not cheese-like at ALL. Ghastly. I like SiliCon, but the Doubletree is just so full of fail now.

Comments

[slrose.livejournal.com]

Write a letter to the corporation explaining what the problems were. That should help get the problems fixed for the future. Doubletree is owned by Hilton; I'm sure corporate headquarters won't like hearing what you have to say.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

We won't know for sure until after WFC later this month, FurCon next year, and Westercon the following year, but maybe SiliCon could move downtown? It does seem like the Doubletree has lost just about everything that made it a good place to hold a convention other than our familiarity with the layout. Besides, SiliCon is not big enough to use the space effectively -- it needs roughly twice as many members for that much space to be worthwhile. Maybe it's time for SiliCon to follow most of the other genre conventions to other sites.

It's not as though parking will be any more expensive downtown than it is at the Doubletree.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

You've got *that* right. The parking has gotten ridiculous. Sadly, this just goes along with the rest of the woes associated with the Doubletree. Makes me sad - because the Doubletree used to be a good venue ... and now it's just sucky. D: