Traveling is usually a treat for me seeing how I don't get to travel as much as I would like, but this year it felt like I was being swept up in a whirlwind of delays, queues, and cancellations.
The week of Twitch con I traveled to San Jose, CA for Twitch Con ( you can see a previous post about Twitch Con here) I've never been to San Jose before so the fact that I was going to a large informational and networking convention paired with the fact that I've never been to San Jose before, I was excited.
But before we even left the city, transportation to the airport was delayed, we even left early so that there wouldn't be any issues.
That was the first delay into the trip.
The second delay happened with the airline, we arrived on time and just before the flight was to leave, but there was some issue (that was never explained) and we were shipped off to a later flight with another airline. Which there was no issue in the change, it gave the two of us to rest and sleep on the flight if we wanted to but the next issue was something that we were not prepared for.
We called the hotel to confirm the reservation and was told that that hotel room has been canceled! Canceled with only one call from the hotel, mind you the hotel had been reserved months in advance not at the last moment.
Needless to say, there was a mini-meltdown in the airport and a scramble to find a place to say because our flight was boarding soon. There was an attempt to reserve a room on Airbnb but it had been a scam and luckily the money had been refunded...
To break it down so far:
Initial transportation to the Airport: DELAYED
Initial Airlines Flight: REBOOKED
Hotel reserved months in advance: CANCELED
Attempt to reserve an Airbnb: SCAM (money refunded)
Six hours later, we arrived at the airport still without a place to stay, with a stroke of luck and help from friends we were able to find a place to stay but it wouldn't be available till the next day. Long story short, we slept in the airport, it wasn't my first time sleeping in the airport due to a delayed flight before.
After spending a night in the airport waiting for the newly found hotel room to be available, we finally made our way to the hotel, got checked in, ate, booked a uber/lyft and made our way to the convention center. There is one point I will mention here, we made an awesome friend with another streamer who was also going to Twitch con!
Once we arrived there, we were not prepared for the plethora of people that were waiting to get into the convention center. Myself, the beau and our new friends were outside waiting to obtain our badges for FOUR hours! Four hours of waiting to get our badges, to get inside the convention center.
Four Hours.
Another breakdown so far:
Initial transportation to the Airport: DELAYED
Initial Airlines Flight: REBOOKED
Hotel reserved months in advance: CANCELED
Attempt to reserve an Airbnb: SCAM (money refunded)
New hotel: BOOKED
Arrived at TwitchCon + Waited for Four hours.
Making the story short again, all of the educational panels that I was excited to attend had all passed, all of the motivation and drive that I had to attend TwitchCon had been slashed in half. It took less than five minutes to get the badge and to walk into the convention center.
It took less time for my friends and myself to get into the Convention center for Anime Expo LA 2018.
It took less time for myself and the beau to get into TwitchCon 2017.
This past TwitchCon had some serious issues that I hope that will be addressed for TwitchCon 2019. In the previous post - TwitchCon 2018 I stated how excited I was about attending TwitchCon 2018 because I was now an affiliate and was looking to learn from those who were partnered and apply some of those best practices to my channel.
I wanted to try my hand at networking (I'm really bad at this and is one of my goals to conquer this year) I wanted to try out the new games & features hosted at TwitchCon, etc, etc. The first day of the convention was waste in line and had almost set the tone for the rest of the convention but I digress.
Although the first day was ruined I did enjoy my time at TwitchCon 2018 but my desire to learn was dashed but I will make sure that I attend panels next TwitchCon 2019.
But before we even left the city, transportation to the airport was delayed, we even left early so that there wouldn't be any issues.
That was the first delay into the trip.
The second delay happened with the airline, we arrived on time and just before the flight was to leave, but there was some issue (that was never explained) and we were shipped off to a later flight with another airline. Which there was no issue in the change, it gave the two of us to rest and sleep on the flight if we wanted to but the next issue was something that we were not prepared for.
We called the hotel to confirm the reservation and was told that that hotel room has been canceled! Canceled with only one call from the hotel, mind you the hotel had been reserved months in advance not at the last moment.
Needless to say, there was a mini-meltdown in the airport and a scramble to find a place to say because our flight was boarding soon. There was an attempt to reserve a room on Airbnb but it had been a scam and luckily the money had been refunded...
To break it down so far:
Initial transportation to the Airport: DELAYED
Initial Airlines Flight: REBOOKED
Hotel reserved months in advance: CANCELED
Attempt to reserve an Airbnb: SCAM (money refunded)
Six hours later, we arrived at the airport still without a place to stay, with a stroke of luck and help from friends we were able to find a place to stay but it wouldn't be available till the next day. Long story short, we slept in the airport, it wasn't my first time sleeping in the airport due to a delayed flight before.
After spending a night in the airport waiting for the newly found hotel room to be available, we finally made our way to the hotel, got checked in, ate, booked a uber/lyft and made our way to the convention center. There is one point I will mention here, we made an awesome friend with another streamer who was also going to Twitch con!
Once we arrived there, we were not prepared for the plethora of people that were waiting to get into the convention center. Myself, the beau and our new friends were outside waiting to obtain our badges for FOUR hours! Four hours of waiting to get our badges, to get inside the convention center.
Four Hours.
Another breakdown so far:
Initial transportation to the Airport: DELAYED
Initial Airlines Flight: REBOOKED
Hotel reserved months in advance: CANCELED
Attempt to reserve an Airbnb: SCAM (money refunded)
New hotel: BOOKED
Arrived at TwitchCon + Waited for Four hours.
Making the story short again, all of the educational panels that I was excited to attend had all passed, all of the motivation and drive that I had to attend TwitchCon had been slashed in half. It took less than five minutes to get the badge and to walk into the convention center.
It took less time for my friends and myself to get into the Convention center for Anime Expo LA 2018.
It took less time for myself and the beau to get into TwitchCon 2017.
This past TwitchCon had some serious issues that I hope that will be addressed for TwitchCon 2019. In the previous post - TwitchCon 2018 I stated how excited I was about attending TwitchCon 2018 because I was now an affiliate and was looking to learn from those who were partnered and apply some of those best practices to my channel.
I wanted to try my hand at networking (I'm really bad at this and is one of my goals to conquer this year) I wanted to try out the new games & features hosted at TwitchCon, etc, etc. The first day of the convention was waste in line and had almost set the tone for the rest of the convention but I digress.
Although the first day was ruined I did enjoy my time at TwitchCon 2018 but my desire to learn was dashed but I will make sure that I attend panels next TwitchCon 2019.
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