Monopoly Events - Comic Con Liverpool Anmeldelser 

Great event and great guest with slight downfalls.
Attended Liverpool comic con may 24 and had a great time meeting guests with slight downfalls.
First downfall was the time slotted system didn’t work. Was suppose to meet Andy serkis at 11:15 and didn’t see him until 15:00. This made me miss my Billy Boyd time lost at 14:20. Once I explained to staff they gave me a priority ticket for Billy Boyd.
Other downfall was when queuing for an autograph I noticed staff jumping queue to get signatures to then reappear with another item for another signature. This happened numerous of times throughout the day which I don’t agree with when you have paying customers in a queue. This then pushed paying customers back and extends the queues. It also meant I missed chances of deciding on extra photo shoots etc. I think customer in the venue should be the priority.

Other than that the staff managing queues were great and approachable even with how busy it was

So I have been to Liverpool comic con last year and honestly that was worthy for 5 stars. But this time it was pretty bad. I'll state the bad things first so that hopefully the good things make it sound happier.

Bad things:
The whole event seemed to be way oversold. The queues were atrocious on Saturday. I waited in the queue for Andy serkis for 3 hours and then I had to leave the even because it knocked me ill. So much so I had a panic attack in the car. And so I didn't end up getting my Andy serkis autograph unfortunately, but the staff did make up for this for me which I'll list further down.

The stalls were great, but it very notoriously difficult to get to buy anything because of it being too crowded.

It was difficult to navigate too, you go out of one door and then have to walk all the way around the building to get back in again. Which was a long walk, especially for those who are disabled. I felt for them. Moving around the event must have been challenging.

Time slots meant nothing. No checking. Pre paid meant nothing. People were allowed to pay on the day and get their autograph before those who pre paid online.

Good things:

Amazing guests. They were all rushed off their feet and oversold and they handled it great. Even coming out early from breaks to sign.

John Cleese was a legend. He was on his way to the photo op and my mum was in his way. She rushed out of his way and he laughed and said, "don't be scared", walked up to her and went "boo" and made her jump. Absolutely loved it.

The staff. Some say they were very rude. I have a different experience. They were all under a lot of pressure and were very overwhelmed. But as I fell ill on the Saturday and couldn't get Andy serkis' autograph, a staff member called Mike was totally understanding and an absolute diamond. He transfered my autograph to Sunday for John Cleese who I was gonna try and get anyway. So I was really happy with that and Mike was amazing.

Food was very tasty. Chips especially.

The cosplayers. They are so cool. Me and my sister were in stitches at watching someone dressed as saruman and the witch King dancing to the hobbies are going to isenguard. And someone dressed as Jack sparrow with the eyes on his face.

So overall, Sunday was the better day. Saturday was a bit of a shambles but Sunday definitely made up for it. I hope that the event organisers take the criticism as lesson and not an insult. They have a lot to be proud of and especially as this one was bigger than the last. It just needed some creases ironed out and some improvements on timeslots and stuff and it would have been great. Can't wait for the next one.

I have attended many conventions and in my opinion Monopoly run some of the best. I was at Liverpool last October and felt this time, it wasn't as good. There is no dispute that Monopoly get the guests that people request, where possible. They listen and it makes good business sense. I also get why the decided to expand the areas this time round, however, I feel it backfired a bit. The queues were horrendous, there was no organisation and no-one knew where the should be. I was in a lengthy queue for a timd photo and other people started queueing fo the next time slot for another guest at least 20mins early. No need. I have since heard that other people waited hours for pre booked slots and never got their autos. A one way system was also in place and that proved both annoying and useless. Arena security were not in the least bit helpful and some were downright rude. But, in the same token, so were some people. I am not sure if the event or certain guests were oversold, but, when people are paying a lot of money (and some guests were quite expensive) to get a photo or an autograph please allow a few mins for us to compose ourselves. One of my photos is awful due to being rushed. All that being said, the Monopoly team must be congratulated on pulling these events off. The workthey do that goes on before, during and after is amazing. Whilst I may not go back to Liverpool, I will attend Edinburgh (local) and hope that some of the issues are resolved.

Our experience as a family if 4 (2 kids under 9) was excellent.
Getting in early really helped get a feeling of the space and browse a few traders stalls before it got too busy. We only booked for 1 photo (hobbits) and made sure we did the earliest we could. The photo experience was wonderful, qued about an hour and half but it was well managed and guests were super lovely to my 9 yr old. We took part in a potions class which was a great activity for the kids. We loved the props and sets,so much to enjoy. The video gaming and simulators were wonderful too,plenty available,and for the kids it gave a nice welcome break from the crowds too. It was nice to have the arena seating available for a lunch break.
From other people's experiences I heard of, I'd be reluctant to book more than 1 or 2 photo sessions /autos seeing how oversold they were and how long queues were. It'd be hard to manage that with kids. I think perhaps being realistic with how many time slots can be offered would be good to forward , have accurate pre booked slots and pay on the day for extras only after the pre booked have gone through. As a family with kids having better managed pre booked slots would give much more confidence in future and would make it more likely to sign up. I think the overall numbers could be looked at,it was overcrowded at points (very dangerous at times on escalators,especially with limited routes to get in and out).
Overall we had a great day and really hope we can do it again.

Been go into this for years, missed last year but attended this year an I have to say it was fantastic!! Loved the increased amount of traders and especially loved the fact the arena area was open, loads of seats and the increased number of prop builds was immense, loved it from start to finish!!! Keep up the good work

We have been going to monopoly events for the past few years and it gets better each time but I have to say that this one was a let down. I attend with my husband who is a wheelchair users and the monopoly staff have always been brilliant with us. The main issues this year for us were surrounding the building, the arena staff and the amount of people who attended.

Gaining access was fine, the water cap issue was a new one for us and the reason surrounding it was surreal. I couldn’t hold an open bottle of water whilst pushing a wheelchair so it went in the bin.

We headed to the red building where we had our photos and all the panels organised timing wise, and the queues for us were well managed and the staff were helpful. I personally don’t like the red building as the lifts dont take us to every floor where we need access to the the big hall so it’s abit of a nightmare normally getting a lift up, then across and down again to the entry to the hall for wheelchair users.

Again as per usual, most of the lifts are not working, and we have been told previously that this is to help the flow and prevent a congregation around them but staff are told to say “we are just waiting on the engineer”. As if these were not checked prior to the start!

We watched the first panel, and asked the arena staff if we could just stay in our seats for the next one but were told no, which was fair enough but then I tried to find out which way I was to go to get back into the next panel. This is where the male staff member became very unhelpful, and frankly quite rude and patronising. He wanted me to exit the hall, go across the skybridge (which were not allowed to use previously) into the blue building. Then access the lift (which was out of order), go down three flights, out of the blue building, push the wheelchair up a hill, into the red building, queue for a lift to go up a level, round the corridors to the service lift to go down a level (again with queues) and then queue to go back into the hall I have just left in time for the next panel. This was complete madness and left me in near tears. The only thing I could do was take us back down to the ground floor and stay there for the day as I couldn’t risk doing this exercise after the panels and risk missing the photos we had booked. I had to miss the paid supernatural panel on the Sunday as the queues were horrendous.

I then tried to get to the seating in the green arena but again no one knew how to get us up to the food area and then into the seating in the arena. A staff member then agreed to help and it took us being in three separate corridors and then up a lift to get there. We would need escorting both up and down as was too complex for us to remember and we were near rooms that we were not allowed to be near. We ended up leaving out a door and tracking round and back into the red building as there was no one to escort us back down. So for both the green and red building, we were confined to one level which did not feel fair.

The escalators became unsafe with the crowds and we were sat near them for a while until we had to move as felt there would be a crush. Lifts were then being used by non disabled people and and there is nothing more frustrating than seeing able bodied people using the lift as they didn’t want to queue for the escalators when those in wheelchairs were made to wait. The disabled toilets were being used by people changing costumes and not caring.

I would like to see Andy Kleek pushed around in a wheelchair to see the point of view of wheelchair users, getting hit in the face by bags, having people walk backwards into you, seeing a gap in the queue and climbing over you, having to turn the wheelchair round as the doors have runners that are too big to push over. I know most of this is the venue and simple poor human behaviour but by having a “big booker” show the venue owners a life in a wheelchair would hold more sway than us. Everyone I spoke to in a wheelchair complained about the same thing, the best was when a woman said “I had to queue behind a Dalek and 3 people carrying a light sabre, the dalek had an excuse but why does a light sabre stop you from using the escalators”. The venue staff need to understand more about inclusion and just what is basic human kindness rather the saying no to a simple request.

It was my first time at Liverpool comic con and unless they have someone I have to see, I may give this one a miss. I’ve been to FLTOH many times and it’s always great there but the Saturday at Liverpool comic con was hectic.
1. The con announced that customers could bring water in the venue, I brought a sealed water and had the lid taken off me and my deodorant but I was aware of others who came in with cans and bottles and yet I had to fork out £2.50 for a 60p can of Pepsi. There was no air con or ventilation so I had to spend so much money to avoid dehydration.
2. It was a very confusing layout, for someone who’s never been to this venue before it was so confusing and when I asked the staff where certain places was even they didn’t know. There wasn’t enough signs to show you were to go for the QAs, the only signs would be the size of an iPad right outside the door.
3. I had a 3pm photo slot for Sean Astin and didn’t get the picture taken till 4.20pm. And in the meantime Sean then went for his group picture and the power rangers guests did their photo op in the section we were queuing for. By the time Sean came back we were ushered in like animals in a meat factory. It took me so long to save the money for the picture and I felt so rushed and so frustrated and the staff weren’t helpful and didn’t provide an update. One of the staff members even asked which queue I was in for and then when I asked if I was in the right queue, he didn’t know.
With the autograph tables and vendors, having the photograph sections A, B, C placed inbetween it was a navigation disaster. I don’t know why you’d have the biggest guests have their photo ops in the most packed space. The buildings were huge they should have had their own designated area like Orlando did.
4. It was definitely oversold, the stalls were so difficult to navigate due to the volume of people.
5. The one way system was a joke, so you’d go into one of the venues and leave through one of the many exit doors but then to come back in you have to walk to modor and go back through the main enterance so much time wasted.

Great expansion across the 3 sites this year. The arena was apt for all the exhibits and activities. Stalls didn’t have everything I wanted to this year and many things I felt were slightly overpriced ( who is buying a mini pokemon terrarium for £65?

Also Monopoly, I have an issue with the condiments available at the food stall? That ketchup? With all those additives? Aspartame, Sorbate and Xantham Gum? Ours kids don’t need all those horrible things on their chips. Please I implore you, provide Heinz or Hellmans ketchup next year. You won’t find any nasties in there.

For us adults, not all of us like drinking fizzy drinks and doughnuts. Could we have a proper coffee stall next year? With some pastries? I promise keeping us parents happy will allow a few better experience for everyone.

Overall a great event but I would like to see better choices for kids’ food and drink and adults refreshments next year .

Overall a great time

I paid to see Sean Astin which for everyone seeing these celebrities is a long dream coming true I was rushed by the staff to hurry up picture and out ! I mean I couldn speak more than hello to him anyway but still o feel like I wasn’t giving the choice to speak to him , the one way system drive me insane and there wasn’t many places to sit down sean Astin was like a piece of meat and we were on a conveyor belt. I felt it ruined my experience for once in A life time opportunity to see him ! This is why I’ve given this score

The convention was hugely oversold on autographs and photos. I had a 9:30 time slot booked with someone, and half of us in the queue didn’t get seen because they overbooked and got bounced around different other times throughout the day. I know many people who paid for autos didn’t get them at all because of this. One guest was supposed to leave at 5:30 and he cancelled his transport and stayed until 7 trying to fix their mess and signing things for people. The organisation of it and over booking was an absolute joke. I would be surprised if any of the LOTR guests ever want to work with them again after this.

Totally disappointed, angry and upset.
I pre booked 4 autographs with the Red Dwarf boys and only managed to get two. The autograph sessions were massively overbooked but they were still allowing people to pay on the day despite the 2/3 hour long queues from the start of the day. The auto sessions were always cut short because the photo sessions ran over by 30/40 minutes so the 1435 time slot turned into 10 mins before the boys left for the panel at 3pm and didn't return to the autograph tables until 1745hrs with over 200 people still without their prepaid autographs.

I personally queued from 1220hrs to 1800hrs without getting to the front of the queue couldn't get a drink or food and saw nothing of the rest of the event. The staff tried to say only pre paid would be allowed but this almost caused a riot and they quickly changed their minds and brought the card machine around the line of people grabbing even more cash.
The boys manager who was lovely and friendly was taken back by the sheer numbers of people and said they would do their best but Craig had to run off for the after party gig and was not back for Sunday.

I would have serious reservations before thinking of attending a Monopoly Events con again.

No apologies from Monopoly and no refunds thus far!!

My experience is mirrored by dozens and dozens of people this past weekend for both the red dwarf boys and the Hobbits / Andy Serkis.

Saturday was a disaster! Absolutely no queue control, especially in the Red Dwarf cast area!! I had a 9.30am timeslot for Craig Charles and despite queuing for well over an hour I got told I'd have to come back later, so I did TWICE, both times queuing yet again for over an hour only to never actually get my pre-paid autographs. I stayed until the very end of the day (6pm) but then we were told he had to leave to get ready for his dj set at the after party. I found out from his agent and one of the staff that they hadn't been told about either the fact he was sold out or about timeslots, so they were just letting anybody join the queue, even without pre-paid autographs. I have emailed and messaged both Monopoly Events and Ticket Quarter about a refund and I hope it gets sorted soon or this will certainly be my last Monopoly convention.

What an event, for sure the best and biggest I have been to so far with monopoly events. With the big names for May 2024, it was impossible to miss out on.
Celebrities from different films and movies to suit everyone.
Great panels and well organised, even though alot of phot shoots were sold out and did become slight chaotic. But all the staff handle it well and best they could.
Well done to the organasizer and to all the staff for ensuring everyone had a great time and making sure everyone was safe, not just the celebrities.
Such a shame on Bernard Hill passing.

I had an excellent weekend at Liverpool Comic Con: amazing guests, friendly staff, lots of seating when you're feeling tired and entertainment to watch on stage. Axe throwing and airsoft in the outdoor space was also really fun.

There were a few things that could be improved however:
Overselling guest tickets- time with guests at photo ops was even more rushed than at other cons I've attended and several were running late
Lack of food options- really poor selection of food available, especially for those on different diets
Lack of free water- I found some water fountains at the end of the last day but they weren't suitable for filling up a bottle

We have attended Comic Con Liverpool every year. The celebrities have been the best so far and we did all have a lovely weekend.

Only negatives are for me is comic con is all about the geeky, nerdy stalls. This year there wasn’t many Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, Magic The Gathering and other trading cards/games type of stores. Too many PoP stores instead rather than the original comic and game stores which our kids love to collect but unfortunately this year the stalls weren’t the best.

Also the bins were all over flowing so they definitely need to empty them more and the ACC was way to hot inside.

Normally I don't have any issues at a comic con. I had so many at this one.
This started from the first moment of entry when staff took the lid of the the bottle of water I brought which me. I was told bringing in an unbranded bottle of water was fine. This prevented me from taking my medication at my set time during the day. I didn't have the money for the extortionate prices at the venue.

Secondly was every photo op started later than advertised. If a photo op is meant to start at 10am it should be at 10am not at 10:30.

Thirdly the staff especially at the Hobbit photo queue had no idea what was going on. They were so rude and didn't care if you actually got your photo or not. The one in the photo
area was rolling her eyes all the time. So unprofessional.

Fourthly the red area was so overcrowded and so much of the con was overwhelming.

Honestly the best part of the con were the merch stalls.

First time attending Liverpool comic con with my partner, and what an awful experience it was.
Got in early at 8:20 but our caps to our water were taken away from us at the check in, leaving us with 4 bottles of open water which we ended up throwing away as we now had to carry them in our hands instead.
We had 6 guests pre-booked to meet for autographs; the first guest (Danny John-Jules) we were booked to meet arrived an hour after our pre-booked time slot. We only just managed to meet our fourth guest (Sean Astin) as the staff managed to squeeze us in before he had to go to a photo op.
Our fifth guest (Craig Charles) was way overbooked; we got to our timeslot 15 minutes early and the queue was insane - my partner ended up queueing to get his autograph for 4 hours and 45 minutes! I ended up having to leave my partner in the queue to go and get our last pre-booked autograph, which I got within 15 minutes of being in the queue.
The lack of organisation was stress-inducing, and the venue staff (in pink polo shirts) were rude and unhelpful, however, the only positive was that the Monopoly Events staff (in green t-shirts) were lovely.
We ended up not being able to see any of the props, set builds or traders due to the whole day being spent in queues.
We expected there to be queues but not to this extent, and the time slot system was rendered useless by the venue staff as they were allowing pay on the day attendees to get autographs before the pre-booked attendees - so what was the point in pre-booking?
We both feel that this event was massively oversold and this has caused us to not want to attend another Monopoly Events comic con.

It’s the fans who make it and the friendliest celeb guests who do great talks and signings. People are friendly and happy to have photographs of their costumes. Shame some pics and signings are really expensive to meet.
The hosts on stage for talks were really good, maybe one of them could present the costume competition? Needs more of a way with a crowd.
The majority of the staff were really helpful and friendly, a small few sadly were rude.
Much better space this time having the extra hall and more to see in between queues helped. Most sets were great, a few were poor -Jeremy Kyle especially. Surprised no one organising realised what a bad idea putting loud stage PA close to wrestling ring PA was, couldn’t hear the ring announcer.
Expected better selection of food and less queues after the announcements pre Comicon , but it was worse than the last one, less food trucks outside, awful quality high priced hall food and massive waits-poor all round. If you’re here both days it’s better to go to Albert dock for an hour.
Overall It’s really worth it as long as you know it’s going to be really busy on the Saturday and the food is pretty bad because despite this it’s a great experience

My main issues with the day were organisational. I tend to book a lot of photos and autos to make the most of the day. A lot of guests had conflicting schedules so I couldn’t meet them. Everything ran over time and started extremely late. Orlando Bloom’s time slot I’d booked was for 11:40 but no one went in until 12:20. Dominic Sherwood’s 14:45 didn’t begin until 15:20. Time slots and previously booked tickets were not prioritised over people paying on the day. My 15:30 photo op with Jared Padalecki started 20 minutes late and as stated, people who hadn’t paid or booked a slot got in before me and I missed my train home due to running over. A lot of staff I met seemed frustrated too. I enjoy Liverpool comic con every year but I found this particular visit unpleasant. It seemed that there was more focus on getting as many guests and customers as possible but not organising them or accommodating them.

This was my first Comic Con at Liverpool, there were positives and negatives like everything. A big negative was that the organisers definitely over sold autograph / photograph tickets for the guests (Andy Serkis, Sean Austin, Elijah Wood etc), there were very long queues for these guests, and it became very clear from the start tickets for the guests were oversold, dont promise what you cannot deliver, this was unfair for the guests who could see the frustrated people queuing for hours just for a quick 30 second natter. Constructively I feel there should be a limit on how many things should be signed, people were bringing 3+ things to sign which added further time delays on the queue, there should definitely be a limit (1 or 2, absolutely fine, but please no more as this adds time to those patiently waiting to see their idols). There needed to be more staff managing these queues as it became clear people were pushing in causing further delays for those waiting patiently.

More signage would have been very helpful, even having giant arrow floor stickers saying green zone this way, or red and blue this way, that would have been helpful, as even asking staff for directions some I felt didn't know the way to certain venues.

HOWEVER, on a positive note, there were lots to do, activities from watching the Wrestling, live music, to bands and cosplay competition, to being a wizard in a potion making class and playing VR in an F1 simulator. The props and sets were brilliant, from the XWing, to Storm Troopers to Monsters Inc and Jurassic Jeep and the Simpsons Sofa. It was great to have lots of picnic benches and fresh air to sit by the River Mersey too. Overall positive fun and enjoyable experience with constructive feedback to learn from.