Not exactly the East Coast, but closer than California!

MySerenity | January 10, 21:43 CET

Looks interesting... two questions I have after viewing that site:

How far from the DC-area is this con?

And how much is a membership? I see Full Adult and General memberships, and the price discrepancy is quite drastic. I would consider going if it were the $60 price... but $225 is far more than I could spare.

EDIT: found the answer I'll post here for others



[ edited by AnotherFireflyfan on 2006-01-10 19:57 ]

AnotherFireflyfan | January 10, 21:55 CET

I've made your headline a little bit more meaningful for the lovely people who subscribe to our RSS feed.

Simon | January 10, 22:35 CET

PA is, in fact, the east coast MySerenity.

And I've never seen a convention that costs so much money! O__O I live in the same state and I can't even afford to go.

Ginny | January 10, 22:40 CET

How far from the DC-area is this con?

It's about a 5 hour drive from DC.

Now that they are on the list, I'm definitely going (if I can manage to get the money together that is). Almost every convention in the northeast is expensive, unfortunately.
I guess I'll have to sell a lot of my belongings on Ebay! I'd have to bring 3 of my kids with me.

[ edited by Nebula1400 on 2006-01-10 20:56 ]

Nebula1400 | January 10, 22:53 CET

Ginny, see my post, actual general admission is only $60, similar to most other cons.

The expensive one includes autograph sessions and other things.

AnotherFireflyfan | January 10, 23:00 CET

Hope you have fun, to all those who go, but this is one con I am going to pass on. It's the same weekend as Wizard World Philly.

I'm not sure but General Admission doesn't include the Q&A's either, so basically GA gets you into the dealers room where some signing guest are located, and you can buy concert tickets.

[ edited by RavenU on 2006-01-10 21:16 ]

RavenU | January 10, 23:11 CET

Ginny, what I meant was that coming from RI, East Coast = New England and literally ON the coast, opposed to just the locational sense. I however stand corrected :)

MySerenity | January 10, 23:15 CET

It's odd place to have a convention that's for sure. I know where Bushkill is and I can't possibly imagine this place being big. Still though it's close enough to my home town that maybe I'll go and visit the folks.

war_machine | January 10, 23:17 CET

RavenU - are you sure about that? I haven't seen anything on the site that says General admission doesn't include Q&As... that would really make them kinda pointless, wouldn't it?

AnotherFireflyfan | January 10, 23:32 CET

Look at every other one they all say Q&A included on those, but GA doesn't. I do believe that has been the case at past events since all the seats in the hall are assigned.

[Diamond Membership ]
This ticket includes entry into entry into all panels, guest Q & A's, dealer room, autograph sessions, entry to cocktail party, banquet, dance, concert, photo shoot with full weekend headliner & one second tier guest & front row seating

[Premium Membership]
This ticket includes entry into entry into all panels, guest Q & A's, dealer room, autograph sessions, cocktail party, dance, concert, & a photo shoot with one full weekend headliner.

[Full Membership]
This ticket entitles entry into all panels, guest Q & A's, dealer room, and autograph sessions.

[General admission day ticket]
To avoid any confusion, we wish to make it clear that the $50.00 General Admission Memberships (Limited Access Memberships) do not include autographs from any of the guests. General Admission Members may purchase autographs from those guests who decide to sell them in the dealer’s rooms, but will not receive any autographs at the “official” autograph sessions. In addition, the only additional item that General Admission ticket holders will be permitted to purchase will be tickets to the concert. They may not purchase tickets to the dance, cocktail party or any other event.

[Moonlight Rising Saturday One Day Pass]
Saturday one day pass tickets entitle entry into all Sat. panels, guest Q & A's, dealer room, and autograph sessions.

[Moonlight Rising Sunday One Day Pass]
Sunday one day pass tickets entitle entry into all Sun. panels, guest Q & A's, dealer room, and autograph sessions.

General Admission will get you into the dealers room, fan panels and to buy autos from signing guest in the dealers room and concert tickets.

[ edited by RavenU on 2006-01-10 21:39 ]

RavenU | January 10, 23:34 CET

Well, if that's the case then... forget it. It's too pricey. I can't believe anyone would pay $60 just to get in the door of the dealer room though (where everything has to be purchased anyway!)

AnotherFireflyfan | January 10, 23:36 CET

I think I'll be skipping this one. Aside from MR being a bit out of the way - if you fly into Philly, you still have to drive an hour and a half to two hours just to get there - they have a history of cancelling guests at the last minute. IIRC, it was Clare, Andy and Mark last year and Tony Head the year before. Given, I don't know the reasons, but it's just too much of a risk considering the cost and the remote location.

jewel | January 10, 23:55 CET

I've attended one MR event in the past and suffice to say that I will not be attending another.

killinj | January 11, 00:28 CET

I went to one MR convention two years ago. It was a good experience overall. It is pricey, unfortunately, and you have to pay for EVERYTHING (unless you just hang out in the lounge in hopes that some of the celeb guests decide to hang out with you - which some of them will). I think the place it's in is beautiful, but its poshness is reflected in the price of admission. They've got us here, because conventions like this almost never happen in this neck of the woods, so it's our only chance to meet any Whedon cast members.

Who'll be at the Wizard World con in Philly?

Nebula1400 | January 11, 00:55 CET

Wizard World Philly should be announcing media guest in the next month or by the begining of March, but last year they had Seth Green and Clare Kramer, the year before that Eliza Dushku and Brian Thompson. So I cannot wait to see who they might have this year. Heck they even got Joss to appear at a con out side of LA when he appeared at the one in Chicago in 2004.

RavenU | January 11, 01:14 CET

I asked them about General Admission, and this is the response I got:

AnotherFireflyfan | January 11, 01:35 CET

Last year Wizard World Philly had the whole confusing thing... it was announced that Joss+cast would be there, but then they weren't ever announced by the convention. Ended up not being there of course, which was a disappointment to be sure.

AnotherFireflyfan | January 11, 01:38 CET

Last year it was the Universal board that announced Joss there, Wizard World cleared it up pretty quickly, and they ended up getting another multi-talented verse redhead that kept the crowd laughing. Everytime theie was a pause his partner from the comic book would say to him, "Wheren't you on Buffy?" then everyone would laugh when he would answer, a different answer everytime. That was the first east coast con Seth had ever done. He's not a big con guest - he's more a con goer.

As for the GA they might want to stipulate that in their description cause it wasn't always that way.

RavenU | January 11, 01:56 CET

Thanks for doing the leg-work and resolving the ambiguities, AnotherFireflyFan. And thanks to RavenU for raising the issue. More information is always better - so's you can all pay your money and take the con that suits you best.

SoddingNancyTribe | January 11, 02:18 CET

I went to MR two years ago, and had a very mixed experience. The cancelling of guests will keep me away in the future unless I go at the last minute. No matter what, I will never take their advice on alternate housing when the main place is full. I ended up paying more than the normal price of the room because it was through the main place. I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it. It really made me angry.

And RavenU is right, that is not how the day pass was advertised in the past. They changed things at the last minute two years ago to let cheaper tickets buy more things, so they may have just kept it that way. That actually bugged me too, as I might have gone that route if I'd known.

That was my first con since my friend and I went to a Star Trek convention on a day pass in the 70's, so I chaulked it up to education being expensive. It has not made me crazy to go to another one, though.

newcj | January 11, 02:21 CET

I got all excited that they were actually going to be on the east coast! And so close to little ol' me! Then I saw the prices. Oy.

But what's this about a Wizard World Con in Philly? Why do I never remember hearing of that one before...

zimshan | January 11, 02:22 CET

Well, maybe all of us Philly-area dwellers have to rent ourselves a house or crowd 20 of us in a room so we can stay someplace affordably. It seems tickets for any con in this area are outrageous. When I saw Nimoy and Shatner last year in Cherry Hill, that also cost me an arm and a leg - and it was just me going. I ran out of money, and even though I lived 2 miles from the place, resorted to using my feminine charms to get some kind guy to buy me dinner because I didn't want to leave the place for all the money I spent there!

One thing about Moonlight Rising, though, is even when you pay for good seats, people will take your seats and give you a hard time if you want them back, and when there is a concert, nobody pays attention to the seating at all, and you end up with all the people over 6 feet tall with big hair in front of you, pushing little kids out of the way and flirting with the security guards to get to the stage. For the high Full Membership admission prices, you get a lot of waiting in between sessions with little to nothing to do. The restaurant and movie theatre in the place is usually closed between sessions, and the snack bar has all the worst processed, adulterated, institutional, greasy, disgusting foods you can imagine.

Then when you do get to get your autograph, you are rudely rushed through and they kept telling James Marsters not to talk to any of the people...

The up side was that people like Stephanie Romanov and Danny Strong will sit next to you and your kids in the lounge late in the evening, and they'll even talk to you like normal people.

Nebula1400 | January 11, 02:50 CET

I don't know why zimshan - they had over 25,000 people there at Wizard World Philly last year. But you have to love Seth, he was smiling through it all signing autographs and doing photos with people. **Gosh, my fan girliness is starting to show.**

And Clare Kramer was also there and her normal charming self, signing autos, taking photos with people, and talking to them.

[ edited by RavenU on 2006-01-11 00:58 ]

RavenU | January 11, 02:55 CET

Over 25,000 people???

Where did they all park?

Nebula1400 | January 11, 03:57 CET

Nebula, 25,000 isn't unusual for a comic book convention, that is why the ticket price is so low (because the place is packed). Fan conventions like MR are designed to have mush smaller groups of people (around 600-800), but consequently they charge a lot more money. And I might mention they aren't using Split Rock (with the bad snack bar) again, this time they'll be at a different resort (which probably also has a bad snack bar, who knows?). I probably wouldn't sign up until the last minute either, because I would only go if I could meet both Nathan and Adam.

embers | January 11, 04:15 CET

There is an interesting site that went up on Livejournal last year discussing Cons run by Fans. The site itself is non-biased and tries to show all sides. The postings within each group however, can get a bit heated. Draw your own conclusions. Most of the info was posted in 2005, but there is a few new posts recently. (I am not connected in anyway with this site or MR)

For info specifically on Moonlight Rising Cons go to: http://www.livejournal.com/users/con_dom_wank/2663.html

For the complete site: http://www.livejournal.com/users/con_dom_wank/

secretobcession | January 11, 06:42 CET

embers - OK. It isn't Split Rock. I knew something was different! I bought my tickets last time from another con-goer who had to back out at the last minute - and that's probably the way I'd do it again if it looks like Nathan Fillion is going to be there and I get lots of summer courses to teach. On the other hand, if any of the Serenifly cast shows up in Philly, I'd rather go there anyway, as I wouldn't need a hotel room.

Nebula1400 | January 11, 07:35 CET

killinj said:



Yup. Not even for Nathan and Adam...*sigh* Fool me once and all that jazz.

chasa | January 11, 09:31 CET

"The site itself is non-biased and tries to show all sides"

Give me a break - condomwank was one of the most vicious and unpleasant sites I've ever read. Strangely, it lasted exactly long enough to damagingly slam MR and another Con in Sacramento and sweet talk the Booster one, and then it stopped happening.

I'm not saying that some of the things discussed there may not be accurate (reports I have heard of MR are also not good), but the anonymous vindictiveness on that lj left an unpleasant taste in my mouth, and I do know from experience that several posters made things up about other events that were discussed (I wasn't at any of these ones).

roadrunner | January 11, 15:12 CET