My husband and I took our 6 year old to Minefaire on 10/6 at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Va. We purchased the VIP Enchanted passes. We drove an hour from Annapolis, MD, arrived at 8:40am for early sign-in for the VIP pass holders, the doors opened at 9am for VIP, and we left promptly at 11:20am. What does that tell you about the quality of the experience?
The only really cool thing about the con was the Diamond Stage. My son enjoyed watching several of the YouTube personalities on stage. We dropped in on OMGChad, StacyPlays, and TinatheTiger for a few minutes each. He thought it was neat to see them in person. Other than that, everything that was there could have been experienced for free or far less money somewhere else.
They had laptops set up to play Minecraft (my kindergartner couldn't operate the laptops as he uses either his tablet or Playstation for Minecraft). It was just like playing online with people at home. We had to skip this station. They had a VR area that would have been okay if not for the fact that the line was huge and I didn't see anyone wiping down their headsets. We chose to skip this experience. The official merchandise store was okay. They had more choices than you'd find at Target in one place, but everything could have easily been bought at a store or online. All the other booths were filler and expensive filler to boot. A free Lego area where the kids could build freely was no different than inviting some friends over, dumping Legos on the kitchen table and saying, "Enjoy!" Face painting starting at $15 with non Minecraft characters like, Elsa mixed in? A grid box you can let your kid color with half-dried out markers to make into something that almost looks like a character mask for $15? The lines for autographs were as bad as Disney World rides with at least 30 minute waits. The food situation was ridiculous. Typical nachos and frozen mini pizzas you stand in line for 30 minutes to order. All the overpriced merch that is readily available anywhere else for way less (Lego sets, posters, shirts, books, etc.) was just taking up space.
Hind sight is 20/20. If I could go back a month and tell myself not to purchase the tickets I would. I really feel ripped off having spent $74.99 each on three VIP passes that amounted to absolutely nothing. Sure, we got in a hour earlier. But that was the extent of the perks. There was no swag. There were no special experiences for VIP pass holders (i.e. front of line or special area for autographs, special meet and greets, even a rubber bracelet or a free plush would have been a nice added bonus to the cheap draw-string bag they handed us at the sign-in). Oh, you did get the privilege of sitting up front in the first two rows of diamond stage. Great. Except there were two giant columns placed just so that blocked your view of the center of the stage. Which meant my kindergartner had to lean over in his chair every time one of the speakers moved to the center. This was true from every seat in the first two rows.
Overall, not impressed and honestly a little pissed about the lameness of the VIP pass. I don't think I would even attend again if given free tickets. Drive an hour or more depending on traffic, pay expensive admission to have the privilege of buying expensive merchandise that can be found everywhere else? No thanks. read more