JCCC2 – Post Mortem (Feedback Thread)
- This topic has 205 replies, 61 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
So while we’re all still dreaming of the fantastic memories that took place over the past week, I’d like to slip in and remind everyone that nothing is perfect. That’s not to say that any part of JCCC2 was particularly bad, but rather that there were certainly things that could have been better, and we should probably toss around our thoughts while they’re fresh in our memory. I’m sure not everyone got to put every one of their suggestions in the box, so let’s start a thread to get in as much as we can!
As a sea monkey with no authoritative status, I would like to start by saying that there is no correct way to respond to this thread. Organize your thoughts in a way that works best for you. I have however had a good amount of experience around the conference/convention volunteer circuit, so I can say with certainty that all feedback is valuable, regardless of viability, which is really just a fancy way of saying “please post here!”
Personally, I’m going to be processing and collecting my thoughts over the next few days and do a substantially larger post later, but I’d like to show a quick example of just one way feedback can be provided. I’m going to start by categorizing by the type of feedback: Highlights (I don’t want to say “Pros” because that list would have hundreds of items, so I’m going with “particularly good things that happened”), Cons (“Not good things that happened”), and Suggestions (“What I would like to see on JCCC3”). From there, I’m going to label each individual item with what it applies to: Events, Cruise Line, Twitt-arrr, Personal, etc. Here’s some quick ones I can pull off the top of my head:
Highlights
-(Events) The fact that we were able to give people like Blue and Scott their own shows outside of the official schedule did nothing but improve the already incredible lineup of events.
-(Cruise Line) Chocolate Seduction was awesome. Between the hot chocolate caffeine source (I personally hate coffee) and the fantastic alcoholic drinks, I gave them a lot of well earned money. The guy who worked there most of the time was really cool as well and really seemed to like us.Cons
-(Cruise Line) Limited hours on food and drink. It was baffling to see more than half of the buffet closed at 2PM, particularly when we don’t eat dinner until 8, and a substantial number of bars were also closed early into the night.
-(Scheduling) It was a hard week for someone who loves to sleep, and having events scheduled for 9:30AM didn’t help with that.Suggestions
-(Events) Better time slot for the mustache formal. That was one of my favorite events, but then we had to rush down to Open Mic Night almost immediately after the contests were concluded.
-(Scheduling) No official events before 11AM.
-(Personal) Do karaoke! I had plans for both nights, chickened out on both of them, and then regretted that decision after seeing a few performances. Next year, suck it up and get your name on that list!Again, that’s just a short example. I’m sure my full list will be ginormous, and I expect that each and every item will be of at least some value to someone. Have at it sea monkeys!
Edit: It occurred to me that “post mortem” might not be a commonly known term. Adjusted topic for clarity.
Just a few off the top of my head as well:
Highlights
-(Sea Monkeys) Meeting all the awesome sea monkeys during open dinner seating, sea monkey organized events, Twitt-arrr and the white boards in the game room, random hanging out!
-(Events) Plenty of interesting official events, with shows that really went the extra mile to give us well more than our money’s worth. The performers were also very friendly to the sea monkeys.
-(Game room) Having a 24 hour dedicated space for sea monkeys to hang out, play games, and keep up with events was wonderful.Cons
-(Cruise Line) Pool and hot tubs closed early, which meant we could not use them after dinner when we wanted to.
-(Cruise Line) We had to lodge numerous complaints about problems with our room being ill-kept, breakfast orders arriving incomplete, and most especially the cigarette smoke that permeated beyond the casino all the way to our third floor game room.I also agree with a lot of what has already been written. I think unfortunately scheduling can’t be helped since the snorks need their entertainment as well and we must schedule around them. But I wish that there weren’t any events so early in the morning and we could do more in the afternoon.
Agree regarding the cigarette smoke, which was especially irritating because the casino was on the way to things. I wonder what percentage of the passengers our group has to be to request a non-smoking ship from HAL? Or maybe we should sail on the Carnival Paradise (which used to be completely nonsmoking and is still mostly so) the next time? It seems to me that, by popular demand, future cruises should be on a ship that allows smoking only outdoors and possibly in one or two isolated and separately ventilated places indoors in case of inclement weather. That way, those who are addicted (and I’m not dissing anyone personally for being addicted; it happens) won’t harm others’ health.
Had this precise discussion, and the fact is we had smokers among our number. I’m not one, and in fact I typically go out of my way to avoid places that allow smoking – but we need to be considerate of those that do.
In fact (hearsay only), I believe Scarface was amongst those that do smoke.
I mean absolutely no disrespect to those that smoke. It is their right to do so. But smokers are the ones that need to be considerate of those that do not. They’re the ones filling the air we all need to breathe and smell with smoke, and they need to avoid smoking in places that we might be. (And we also had asthmatics among our number, and I know some people had to avoid the game room because of the smokiness).
The Westerdam is mainly to blame for having poor air circulation around the Casino. If they are going to allow smoking indoors they really need to take measures to prevent the smoke from escaping.
Highlights:
– Sea Monkeys, Sea Monkeys, and more Sea Monkeys! You guys were awesome and rocked my week!
– Official concerts were great. I think it would be good to mix up the musicians/non-musicians as much as possible (for example, have a musician for the first half of the concert and maybe a storyteller/comic for the other half).
– Game room was a great idea. I didn’t use it as much as I would have liked, but it was a great “home base” of operations for all of usCons:
– Lack of food availability. I’d rather eat at the Lido buffet than the main dining room (my ADHD won’t let me linger over a 2-hour meal for 7 nights in a row), but the buffet shut down at 8:00 PM and they began closing most of the lines by 7:00. On a few nights, hubby and I rushed straight from the concerts to dinner just so we could eat before they closed down the dinner line.
– Cruise Line – This cruise line is set up to cater to an older demographic. This manifested itself in the food availability, the pool/hot tub availability, and ship’s activities. Everything seemed to shut down by 11:00 PM. It might be worthwhile to look at a line (Royal Caribbean, for example) that caters more to a younger crowd.Suggestions:
– It would have been handy to have a booklet in the swag bag that listed each of the performers and some information about them. Yes, all the information was on the JCCC2 website, but internet access sadly disappears once we sail. We were not familiar with all of the performers (Chris Collingswood and Marian Call, for example) and it would have been neat to have a handy-dandy reference sheet.All in all, WONDERFUL vacation. Sea Monkeys and performers, please give yourselves a pat on the back for being generally AWESOME and making this past week one of the best ever.
Highlights:
– Entertainment– Sea Monkeys– Curacao– Organization of sea monkey activities– and more that has already been stated hereCons:– The Westerdam. Really disliked the ship. Cigarette smell was awful. And our stateroom was literally falling apart. Stained sheets were disgusting. Just… yuk. Food was also not the greatest. The Eurodam was much better overall.– Early morning shows with late night activities. I missed most of the early morning stuff because I was just too tired.Suggestions:– Please please do not take us on the Westerdam again! Really hated that ship.Highlights:
– In general, I thought the schedule was fantastic. Having to get up (extra) early for the Q/A and faux time change blew, but unfortunately there are limitations on the use of the theater.– The people were awesome. I didn’t meet a single disagreeable sea monkey and I had a ton of fun.– It was fantastic that the ship was so willing to allow us to use open spaces for non-official concerts.– The crew was excellent.– The setup of easels in Open Gaming made it relatively easy to keep track of the unofficial activities.– The performers in general were extremely kind to us non-famous people and were willing to sign things and be in pictures. John Hodgman was particularly kind and gracious.Cons:– As stated, the ship was really set up to cater to the snorks. While this is understandable, it really was irritating that the gym area closed at 9 along with the pools. It also blew that the dining hours were so limited. On a previous cruise, the cafeteria was open with some limited amount of food 24/7, which would have been really nice after 4am gaming sessions.– The smell of cigarette smoke was awful. It was particularly bad having to line up for concerts right through the casino.– The room really had some issues. When we arrived we found somebody’s gym shorts shoved into the bedside drawers and the hollow stool at the desk had dirty plates and silverware in it from who knows when.Suggestions:– I’d love to see this evolve into a 2 week cruise. It would be a lot less frenetic and give each performer an entire set rather than a very abbreviated one. It would also allow some sleep on occasion. 🙂While I’d love 2 weeks, I don’t know how easy it would be to take that much time off work (for me and many others I’m sure). Plus it’d probably be twice as expensive, and my girlfriend would be lost at sea. (Die of sea-sickness).
Something I spoke briefly to Storm about: the Norwegian Epic has cabins for single people. They seem to be trying a bit too hard to appeal to a younger crowd, but I could see it being useful for some Seamonkies.
http://www2.ncl.com/cruise-ship/epic/staterooms/2/inside#tab_detail (scroll down to the Studio)
Highlights:
-I love you, other Sea Monkeys!
-Great Shows. I especially love that I’ve discovered new unexpectedly amazing musicians both years (John Roderick last year and Marian Call this year)
-Food qualityCons:
-The smoking was just awful all over the ship. There were times I had to leave the gaming room because it was so disgusting. I also couldn’t wait in line and hang out with people before the shows because it was right next to that nasty casino. I had that same issue last year, but at least out was only before shows and not actually in the gaming room. People also didn’t seem to understand how rude it is to smoke 10 feet from a door that people have to use to get outside. I heard a lot of people with that same complaints as well. I don’t mind outdoor areas on the edge of the ship, but everyone else shouldn’t have to suffer for the smoking minority.
-I agree that the ship overall was in worse repair than last year, but didn’t have big issues other than a stained pillowcase that was quickly changed without us even needing to ask.
-Food schedule as already stated by others.Suggestions:
– Find a cruise line that only allows outdoor smoking away from places where people actually want to gather. Or at least one with a real ventilation system on their ships.
-Ditto on the preferences for big events to not be scheduled earlier in the morning, but then I’m not a morning person and I do understand the need to work around snork schedules and fit in all the awesome things for Sea Monkeys.Very glad to see this thread here. Just FYI, all feedback is taken very seriously by us here at the Home Office, so please feel free to keep chiming in and be as honest as possible.
We will have a similar feedback section in our exit poll (coming soon), so if anyone is worried about posting their opinions publicly (“Less Jonathan Coulton, please,” “Paul and Storm smell REALLY bad,” etc.), you are welcome to respond there privately.And we heartily encourage you to respond as honestly as possible, both here and in the exit poll. You cannot hurt our feelings, because we are all thick-skinned, cynical Famous People; and if there were any aspects of your JCCC2 experience that were unpleasant, we need to know about them if we’re to attempt to improve it for future events.So please keep going!Thanks,PThere! If you didn’t believe me when I mentioned the value of feedback, now Paul has said so too!
/ego
I do think the smoking was worse on this cruise than the last one. Could be random chance or worse ventilation. I know last year the piano bar was not smoky at all and this year it was hard to be in there.
@paulandstorm: I know getting the whole ship opens up crazy new problems (and advantages. “Here’s your cruise director, Paul Sabourin!”) but would access to the theater change if we had half the ship?
i had such an awesome time, you guys! thank you so much for everything–sea monkeys, performers, gamers, ship’s crew–everyone rocked it. i can’t wait until next year. in fact, i was bummed that the pre-reg foo wasn’t working when you guys first tried it out–i wanted to be the first one to pre-register for next time!
as an attendee from last year, it felt to me as though all performances were much more rushed than last time. were the shows actually shorter? or were you guys trying to get more content into each show?i loved the David Rees/Paul F. Tompkins dynamic–the karaoke show was great in particular.i was happy that there was a way for seamonkeys to book actual space to do stuff in together; pretty cool.the game room was FANTASTIC. my pals and i back home have a little nerdcon from time to time and we pile a table with all the games we bring ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/djpiebob/6696759069/ ) so it just ruled to see this writ large by seamonkeys. thank you for giving us a space to play 24/7!i didn’t notice any smoke in the game room, but it sucks that so many people did. i also waited in line outside the balcony, so i guess i didn’t notice the smoke from the casino there, either.thanks again!
- The topic ‘JCCC2 – Post Mortem (Feedback Thread)’ is closed to new replies.