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Posts tagged Anime USA
Anime USA '09: Courtyard, Marriott
Nov 24th
This Anime USA was a comfortable one, after getting a hotel deal at just under $90 a night. I stayed at the hotel immediately adjascent to the cons Hyatt, the Courtyard by Marriott. Not to be confused with any of the other many Marriott hotels in the area. I was rewarded with a room large enough to fit an air matress between the beds and the desk. Plus the desk hides an extra desk, with wheels, giving us more space for junk and laptops after it was rolled between the beds. I had no major issues with the hotel, was able to check in/out smoothly, but best of all, I didn’t have to play elevator games, dispite the hotel only having two. One elevator was actually put out of order late Saturday evening but it was fixed before check out Sunday morning.
- Pros:
- No wait for Elevators
- Extra towels and bedding on call
- TV Inputs available: Composite, S-Video, Component, HDMI, VGA
- Above Average sized room
- Extra Desk
- Power Outlets on the Desk Lamp and Bed Lamps
- Guest Only, Resonably Priced Parking with In/Out
- Cons:
- Smaller closet space
- No mirrors outside of bathroom
- Pillows flatten too easy, not as good as Hyatt
- No Towel rack in bathroom
- Does the Courtyard offer rooms with two queens?
Hotel Photos: 1 2 3 4 (Part of AUSA 09 Gallery)
Anime USA 2009 Report
Anime USA '08
Oct 16th
Anime USA is back for its second year at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City. It looks like the convention still has a few growing pains but for most issues were unnoticed. The Hyatt provides some big shoes to fill, previously hosting Otakon and Katsucon. Although, AUSA won’t be alone next year as Kastucon is making a return after stumbling around in D.C.
If you’re new to AnimeUSA, this was a great venue and there were no major problems. A few delays and a bit of traffic at cons these days are to be expected. Elevator access can get slow at certain times of the day and stair access is a little tricky, but its an improvement over the Sheraton Premiere. Sadly, parking isn’t free like the Sheraton, but it is more abundant. In addition, public transportation and nearby food is a lot better. Where else can you get a dunkin doughnuts, kebab place, two diners, McDonalds, Chilis, Legal Seafood, and overrated Japanese sushi and steak place all in the same square mile? If that doesn’t fit the bill, take the hotels free shuttle (which runs every 15 minutes) to the metro stop and ride to your choice of greater DC’s offerings.
Aside from the increased space of the new hotel, attendance seemed down. From the cosplay to the variety of panels it was noticable. Maybe it’s the economy? Or it could just be the weekend was bumped up over a month to October. For the past three years AUSA has had a good run with booking the weekend before Thanksgiving. Maybe this year they wanted to try something new. The variety of cosplayers didn’t take a hit and if you’re a gamer this only meant more access in the gamers room. On the other hand, a bonus from October provided excellent weather. Cosplayers could be seen in all hours of daylight out on the EPA’s lawn and on the Hyatt 2nd level balcony doing photoshoots.
I only have one critism. Why choose to continue an ignorant policy when it becomes detremental to your other policies? The con chose to check badges at the top of the escalator going down to many of the events. However, all of these events have badge checking as well. The only thing this may of inhibited was artist alley access. And only for a few minutes until you managed to get on an elevator or take the stairs. So maybe this is redundant, and you say, a lot of things they do are redundant… Well, this is a high traffic area that backs up when someone is missing their badge. It tends to conflict with the staff who yell at the people crowding the area.
Anyway, enough with the general pitch. Here are the photos.