I figure I should crawl out of my hole to write a review of my experience this year...
When I was entering Stratford Station, a pigeon **** on me. This was to set a precedent for the rest of my day.
Last October, when I arrived at 8:00 AM, the line was relatively small and I was in the main area well before 9:30. This year, I arrived at the same time and the queue was absolutely huge! I didn't get in until some time between 9:30-10:00, I couldn't stand looking at my clock after waiting for so long. What is the point of selling so many early entry tickets when so few manage to get early entry?
Also, some bastard (for the lack of a lesser word) thought it would be funny to cover my back with Nanny McPhee stickers that were given to everybody in their free goody bags. Nobody behind me in the queue bothered to tell me about it, but they thought it was still worth laughing at anyway.
The expo itself was alright, though compared to the last two it was my least enjoyable. The Games Village had the most on offer with Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Transformers, and the Anime Village had its usual regulars with some great buys on smaller stalls. The rest of the expo, however, wasn't much of an interest to me and I decided to leave at around 2:20 PM. The main stage was always packed so I couldn't see anything worthwhile and events started to delay over the course of the day, so I gave up.
The crowds in the expo were hard to maneuver and the ratio of true fans to trolls and /b/tards was more level than I had ever seen before. It's a shame the behaviour of these people overshadow the great deal of work other cosplayers dedicate to their costumes. My favourites this year were the full suit Gizmo, the Thundercats, Zero Suit Samus and the increase in Tsunade cosplayers, which is always a good thing in my book.
I am hoping the next expo in October will be better managed with regards to the queue and misbehaviour. Maybe my view was tarnished with the pigeon incident at the start of the day, but this is how I feel.
And as a bonus, here is a picture of Gizmo waving to the queue!