So, as many of you know, I went to FWA for the first time earlier this year. I was so excited, so enormously excited for this convention, because I'd never been to Atlanta (I've never been anywhere in the "south" other than Texas), I'd heard so many great things about the con, and I knew SO many people going, I had a lot of friends there, along with a ton of friends I've actually been dying to meet in person.

I can't tell you how much of a truly mixed bag this convention was, along with just how...disappointed I was overall. Firstly, I've NEVER been more excited for a convention hotel. The Westin Peachtree Plaza is 73 stories tall, with a simply beautiful interior lobby. Everything about that hotel is awesome. But it's not fit for a convention. Especially not a furry convention. At all. The "lobby" was on four different floors, which really spread everything across the hotel, which made it INCREDIBLY hard to meet up with people. On Saturday alone, after coming down from my room, I must've wandered around for an eternity, looking for ANY of my friends or anyone that I remotely knew. I literally can't remember the last time I've wandered around for hours alone at a furry convention, given how many people I know in the fandom, and given just HOW many of my friends were at the con.

But that brings me to one of the biggest issues about this con, specifically the hotel. The elevators. You've probably read from many other journals and heard from many other people what a nightmare the elevators were at this con. They're NOT fucking exaggerating. I've never had to wait so fucking long for an elevator. On two occasions, I ended up waiting for the elevators so long, that I actually fell asleep in my fursuit. I'm not even kidding. Friend of mine had to wake me up (he was waiting with me). Another time, a friend and I got so sick of waiting, that we decided to take the stairs. So, I had to climb up 21 flights of stairs. Again, in fursuit. I wasn't happy.

There were so many times where I wanted to head upstairs to my room, but I had to wait SO FUCKING LONG for the elevators, that I would just wander off to do something else instead.

And just to give you some real perspective on this issue, people, including me, had to wait an average of 20-40 minutes for elevators. Really. No joke.

The other big issue was the cell phone reception. There was NO RECEPTION in this hotel in our rooms, and only fluctuating reception down in the lobby areas, which just...fundamentally breaks the social aspect of a furry convention, especially one as big as FWA. Even more so when you compound it with the elevator issue.

Furthermore, I don't know what it is exactly, but that hotel is not fursuit friendly. There just isn't enough wide, spread open spaces throughout that hotel to really have any kind of fun fursuiting. Not like at FC or RF. The lobby area is gorgeous and fairly spread (on the bottom floor), but once you get away from there, every hallway or space is just...narrow and feels confined and enclosed. The hotel doesn't have that wide open feel, the kind of enormous breathing room you would expect from a convention hotel. On top of that, I've never been less enthused to fursuit at a con. Seriously. In addition to the fact that it's just not fursuit friendly, there were plenty of non-furs there who made me uncomfortable with all the glaring looks they gave to convention attendees.

Also, I had a shitload of trouble just trying to find where things were. The layout of where to find certain things was just...bad.

And I'm also not sure how I feel about downtown Atlanta as a location. Almost everytime some friends and I went out to eat, we ran into a shitload of homeless people or crackheads or whatever. It kinda made going to eat at (late at night) almost uncomfortable. I remember two of our party actually got held up by a homeless guy who was trying to tell them his life story before finally begging for money. This shit went on for almost 10 minutes before I came back outside and pulled them into the restaurant.

Also, I didn't get into the dance competition. Yeah.

And the hotel rooms are small. Kinda. When you walk into the room, the space between the wall and the CLOSET is so fucking narrow, it's ridiculous. I don't know why it was designed this way, but I've never seen a convention hotel room like...that.

And after all that, you'd think this was the worst con I'd ever been to. But it's not. Like I said, it's a mixed bag. There's definitely A LOT of good that came from this con, a lot. First, it's the people. I get to see  fluke again. Finally. I can't describe how much I've missed this guy since meeting him at my first con all the way back at FC 2011 (that feels like forever ago...). I spend an enormous time hanging out with him and his buddies. It felt like the perfect renunion with an old friend who I've missed so much. And he got me drunk as FUCK. We eventually left his room and did a little tour of Atlanta away from the hotel, which was awesome. Though I'm pretty sure I was stumbling around like a drunken idiot. Fluke told me he has video. :P And FWA was also the debut of his brand new fursuit, made by himself, of his actual fursona this time. And let me be the first to say, his furusit is amazing, and it looks COMPLETELY different from Valentine. Like, it's not even the same style. You wouldn't think it was made by the same person. But seriously, his suit is beautiful. I ran into him a few more times during the con, too. And really...seeing him was well-worth coming to this con. I would've come just for that, alone. It meant an awful lot to me, and that alone truly made my convention. Or redeemed it.

It wasn't all about Fluke, though, obviously. As I said, there were so many people I knew at this con, both familiar friends, and friends I've been wanting to meet in person. It was almost surreal. Two months ago, I was at Further Confusion (my 3rd time going), and had the most amazing convention experience of my life, because of everything I did, everything I saw, and everyone I hung out with. No joke, virtually EVERYONE I hung out with at FC came to FWA as well. It was insane. Hanging out with all those guys again, seeing them immediately after just two months felt like a special reunion of everyone who makes these cons so much fun.  skroy  doryuu  wolfpuptk  tibolf  fuzzyzf  phorphaux  tigon  darkshift  artie  deusexbestia  diggyroo  lupozewolf  ratherdashing1121  apollonighthusky  ebonywolf99  yippee  croc dantee, yawnilutrova, ausidogchance, utosa, hakukitty, rawkz0rz, reimeerkat, These guys are the majority of people I ended up hanging out with at FC and every single on of them came to FWA this year. All of them. Again, it was insane! And when a lot of us were in Tiger Paw's room, playing King's Cup, I just remember thinking...how lucky I am to be hanging out with these people, that I got to see them again, hang out with them again, that I get to call these guys my friends, etc, etc. It was something special. The game of King's sucked, because Kalypso can't run a game for shit (:P) but that was one of the PRIME moments when it truly felt like it was a reunion, boasted by Skroy proposing a toast when we all settled in.

It's moments like those. I've never had that kind of...reunion at a con before, and it was worth going to FWA just to hang with those guys again.

Moving on, the dances were pretty cool. A lot of the DJ's were kinda subpar, though. In fact, most of my favorite DJs didn't even get to play, with the exception of rawkz0rz who BLEW the place apart with his set, as he always does. I love his energy, his mixes, and just the way he energizes the crowd. it was the very same at FC as well. So the dances were cool, SOME of them were fucking awesome, and one thing that the hotel really has going for it is that is has an amazing ballroom. It's beautiful, elegant, spacious, with an AWESOME stage to dance on. I actually danced on stage MORE than I did at FC! Also, they have a headless lounge right in the main ballroom, like at RF, but I wish I'd known that immediately, because I initially kept leaving the ballroom and heading down TWO FLIGHTS OF STAIRS to get to the headless lounge on the bottom floor. It wasn't exactly...obvious that a headless lounge was even in the ballroom. Maybe I just suck. But the ballroom itself is great, and I had a ton of fun dancing. In some ways, I had more fun dancing at FWA than I did at FC, especially during Rawkz0rz's and tigon's sets. There were dance circles all over the place, too, which just made it all the more fun.

And I loooooove dancing with tibolf. Whether on stage, on the floor, or whatever, that dude is just so much fun, and he's always been one of my favorite fursuiters.

Also, Floor Wars was hella sick. Seeing it for myself and being there, cheering people on... I know why this is so loved by the other dancers. That was an experience that really took me by surprise. It was awesome, seriously

Moving on, what also made this con special is the people who I finally got to meet in person finally. Most of all  draco751. I have always looked up to that guy as a fursuiter, and he is one of the very reasons I wanted to get into fursuiting. He always made it look so fun, and he's such a great performer, and he's so...animated in Vincent, that I just can't help but want to do what he does. He's also the main person I go to for fursuiting advice, as he's been doing it for such a long time, and he's been to so many cons. He's always willing to give me advice and sort of...mentor me as a fursuiter, so meeting him was something I really looked forward to. I didn't get to hang out with him as much as I liked, but seeing him and spending as much time as I did with him meant an awful lot to me.

Also, frisbee, Celestialwolfen, coopertom, yummers, atsufawx, ikato, flipstalombax, camohusky, revit montyc, Kwik, Soboku, Sadie, Zoomba, along with many other people were all wonderful to meet in person finally. I look forward to Monty constantly forgetting who I am over and over next time we're at a con together.

And it was fucking awesome to finally see Ticer again. Absolutely love that guy. He's such an awesome roommate.

As well as Tobias who I hadn't seen since RF last year. Very glad to see him again as well.

So that's pretty much it. FWA was very much a mixed bag for me; some things good, some things bad. I would like to come to this con again, specifically because I know so many people that go, but I'm sorry to say I will not be returning if it's in the same hotel, which I'm fairly certain it will be. It really makes me wish I could've attended FWA when it was in the previous hotel. But we'll see what happens for this con in the future.