Day 1 | Friday 9th June 2017
Our hopes haven't been set very high for this convention. We booked tickets months ago, with conventions you normally book tickets and guests get announced through the upcoming months. I'd never been to a convention before, this was my first one. Only 3 guests had been announced in January and that was all we was getting. None of the main characters were going which I was gutted about. We had Andrea Parker (Mary Drake/Jessica Dilaurentis), Ryan Merriman (Ian Thomas) and Huw Collins (Archer Dunhill/Dr Rollins). Obviously they were all lovely and it was lovely they came all the way to the UK to see us. They couldn't get any of the main cast as they couldn't afford them, but people didn't want to buy tickets unless they were confirmed so there wasn't much you could do about that one.
We booked 2 nights at the Renaissance hotel which the event was being held at. We checked in just after 3, then registered for the convention. We got a wristband, a leaflet and a sheet with all the timings on. We then couldn't decide what to do about getting a photo, it wasn't making much sense to us but then we asked and they explained it. We got a duo photo op with Andrea and Ryan for the following day. We wanted to be in a photo together because we both get shy!
We then went for some food, there wasn't much around but McDonalds was minutes away so we went there first. I think we'll be there all weekend! We went on a hunt for a Tesco, google maps lied to us! We were out for ages but least we eventually found a Tesco Express somewhere else and took some Snapchat selfies.
The Disco was at 8.30pm. They had a meet and greet lounge thing with the 3 guests at 7.45pm but we didn't go as it was £40. So the music was playing, and the lady running the event was running late, this was by an hour because of the previous event. I expected some welcome speech or something but she just arrived, turned the lights off and left. (Obviously there were disco lights) If you didn't know anyone there it was a bit awkward. We were just sat at a table with a cup of water, not fun at all.
Day 2 | Saturday 10th June 2017
We went for breakfast at 8.30am, we didn't even know this was included with our hotel room so that was a bonus as there was hot food too. The toast I had was lovely. The opening ceremony was at 9.15, that was a bit late too. Then Andrea, Ryan and Huw came on together to answer some of our questions. I get too shy to ask anything, I only had a couple questions in mind but they got asked luckily so I got my answers without asking.
Then Andrea stayed on stage and answered some questions by herself. She told us some backstage gossip, such as Ashley (Hannah Marin) being drunk on set for one of her and Tyler's (Caleb) last scenes. She got emotional talking about the final scene and that she stayed on set for many hours just to be there for the end. She also said Aria in season 7 was shady as shit which made me laugh. She was so lovely and down to earth, I love her personality!
Huw was next, he told us some funny stories about him and Sasha's (Alison) scenes and how she actually hit him in the face in one scene. For the windshield scene he had to stay there for a few hours, but lucky for him he had the company of the 4 girls.
Ryan was last to answer questions from us all. As he was only in the first season we started running out of questions. He got some really random questions from which characters he would take on a dessert island and his ideal dinner party guests.
Straight after the talks was the duo photo ops. We went in and there was a big queue, we assumed it was the one we were meant to join. I then heard a lady say "there's no one here for Ryan so should I just tell him not to come down yet?" I told her he was in our photo op, we were the only ones that had him in our duo. I honestly felt so bad for him. I guess people wanted someone from a more recent season in their duo. So we ended up going first. We was going to do a funny photo but that ended up changing, I quite like our photo though. Andrea said she felt like she was standing next to Lucy (Aria) because I was so small, which made my day I love lucy.
Straight after the photo op we went and got another for tomorrow for Andrea, she was lovely. We went back to the hotel room for a bit, and filmed some videos for youtube, we filmed guess the Disney song which was so much fun. Autographs started at 4.15, this was included in our package. We got our Ryan autograph first, then Andrea and then Huw. After that we went to McDonalds then chilled in the hotel room again.
The disco was much better this night. The staff came along and the music was much better. They played old school stuff like High school musical and the cha cha slide. We joined in of course! We left around 11 and I think Ryan ended up going around 11.30 but we were so tired and didn't know if any of them would show up.
Day 3 | Sunday 11th June 2017
Today was a more chilled out day, it was the last day of the convention so we didn't have as much to do as we did yesterday. We had breakfast, checked out of the hotel and then had our Andrea photo op between 10.45 and 11.15. We were so stuck on an idea for a pose, a lot of people were doing the "shh" pose as it sums up the show. Andrea walked in and she was wearing an Emison t-shirt, I couldn't believe it. When we walked up to her we told her we were stuck on a pose idea, she said a couple then I said "how's about we point at your shirt?" so we did that! When we left she said to me "that pose was a great shout".
We were sat outside after our photo, Ryan walked past and gave us a nod, then Andrea walked past and went "I'm so glad you girls are here" and then Huw came past and had a look at our photo with Andrea telling us she never told him she was wearing that t-shirt. I'd say we had a great weekend with the guests, if it wasn't for them being so lovely I think the weekend would have been awful.
I wouldn't go to a Rogue Events convention again unless more guests were announced first, obviously you can't expect all main guests to go but you do hope for at least one. They did try their best, but just so many things weren't organised well. So many bits on the schedule were late, even the last day they were running late and we was going to stay until 6pm but changed our mind and left around midday.
They did give us all a photo of the 3 guests and got them all to sign it as an extra gift which was lovely. I had a lovely time meeting the guests and hope I get to meet more of the cast soon!
- Shannon x
