I attended Minecon 2016 with my 8-yr old a couple of weeks ago. It was held in Anaheim California and there were 14,000 people in attendance. Prior to the event, I scoured the internet for parent tips, but couldn't really find anything. There were so many things about Minecon that it would have been helpful to have known ahead of time; so I created this blog to hopefully help others who will be shelling out major bucks to help make their kids' minecraft dreams come true. These tips are not in any particular order:
1. The opening and closing sessions happen in the main hall. There are enough seats in the main hall for everyone in attendance, but if you want to get a good seat (in the center area or towards the front) plan to line up at least an hour before the session starts. For the sessions with big names (like Stampy and Squid) come even earlier. If you don't, you'll basically be watching from large screens all over the auditorium.
2. You're going to be in line a lot, especially the first day. But the second day, lines in the exhibit hall were much much shorter. You need to line-up before every main session. Bring comfortable clothes to sit on the floor. Bring something to read or something to do. They had free wi-fi, so lots of smart phones and tablets everywhere. One woman I saw brought one of those lightweight foldable stools to sit on. Super smart.
3. The opening session is more of an intro to all of the various major Minecon partners and projects. Not totally kid-friendly. A few of the big names came on the stage too, including Stampy and Squid.
4. Getting tickets. There were 2 ticket batches. The first day we didn't get any, they sold out very quickly. The second day we had several computers out (5 to be exact) and we just kept refreshing. This little tutorial helped. https://hypixel.net/threads/minecon-guide-to-raise-your-chances-on-getting-a-ticket.287752/ The key thing is to not give up and to keep going because even though it says "sold out". Tickets get released if the purchase doesn't go through. So even if it's 10 minutes later, keep going. We did that and it was at least 10 or 15 minutes until 1 of us got in.
5. If you don't get tickets. About a week before Minecon, I got a notice that there were tickets available. I imagine some people wanted refunds and so those tickets were released. I was surprised, but those tickets stayed available for 2 or 3 days.
6. Minecon capes and swag. One thing that surprised me is that every one who attends Minecon gets an activation code for a free cape and a goodie bag of Minecon swag. Immediately after Minecon, I saw that these cape codes were selling for $150 or more on eBay. That could have paid the price of the ticket! Because the tickets were so expensive, only me and my younger son went. Had we known, our family of 4 would have bought tickets, just to get the cape code and swag bag would have paid for their admission. My young son was the only one who really cared about the cape code. We lived somewhat close to Minecon 2016 tho so I suppose this strategy wouldn't be as great if you had to buy plane tickets. Still, know that you can potentially get back the price of admission by saving your cape code.
7. Minecon merchandise. People stood in 2-3 hour lines to buy minecraft merchandise. By the end of the 2nd day, they were apparently sold out of a lot of the items so the line was much shorter. There were some limited edition plush toys (purple cows I think) that everyone had 3 of (which was the max that you could buy). I realize now that people were likely planning to sell these on eBay.
8. Minecon closing ceremonies started at 5pm on Sunday. At about 4:45, they started closing down the gaming arena and turning people away rom the exhibit hall. This wasn't advertised so I think a lot of people who planned to skip the closing ceremony and go to the exhibit hall or gaming arena were disappointed.
9. Autographs and meet and greets. At Minecon 2016, there were no official meet and greets. However while walking around, I saw hundreds of people waiting in line to get photos and autographs with famous youtubers. When I asked about it at the info desk, I was told that these were unofficial and that I should check out their twitter pages to get info. Sometimes a youtuber would show up somewhere and I would hear people calling others on the phone saying "so and so is over here!" My son happened to be walking by when he spotted Squaishy. And he jumped into a very short line that turned into a super long one as soon as word got out that she was there. (She was a very kind and lovely person, by the way!). He never got the chance to mee Stampy, but he got within 15 feet of him, after he came off a panel interview and we also had pretty good seats at 2 of the panels he was part of. That was pretty thrilling for him to be that close to his hero.
10. Minecon is extremely loud. Everywhere is loud. Bring Tylenol and drink a lot of water.
11. Panel discussions. We went to a couple of the panel discussions and discovered that they were really geared more towards adults so we left early. The large sessions on the main stage were great for kids, however. We went to the Stampy vs. Squid Showdown, youtubers vs 4J Studios Minigame Showdown, the costume show (which was fantastic) and the Minecraft 1.11 Change Log where Jeb and some of the software developers explains and introduces the newest minecraft features. The kids cheered, oohed and aahed the whole time. It was really fun.
12. The first night ended really late (at 9:30 pm). We took a 3 hour break in the afternoon to take a short rest and have dinner. I'm so glad we did that and didn't try to stand in the super long lines in the exhibit hall. All the stimuli was completely exhausting. And plus the lines were much shorter the next day.
13. If you think of Minecon like going to Disneyland on a super-crowded day, that's about right. You can either push through and try to see everything or just chose the things that are most important to you and focus on those. We chose the second option. I think it's because my son is younger. If I had teens who were going out on their own, we may have chosen differently. My son said that Minecon were the "best days of his life" and it was certainly fun for me to be able to be part of this world that is so important to him.
I will keep updating this page as I think of other tips that might be helpful to parents. If you have additional tips or questions, please add them below. Have fun!
