The Megaplex 2024 After-con Report

At the turn of August into September, I found myself in Orlando, Florida, at Megaplex. It was both my first time at Megaplex and my first time in Florida, and I have some thoughts on both. We flew out and arrived on Thursday night.

To start, landing into Orlando International Airport (MCO): time for an airport review! The terminal structure for the airport comprises smaller bundles of gates with elevated people movers to move you from the gates to the main A/B terminal. Moving between sides would require exiting and re-entering through security, which must make this airport a nightmare for transfers.

The low-quality Canadian “Chinese-food” brand Manchu Wok also appears awkwardly in the food court for the gates near where I was. Manchu Wok is a common shopping mall food court option in Canada, and I’ve only seen them present in the United States in airports and the occasional casino. It’s very odd.

Manchu Wok, doing its low-quality food thing.

Getting out of the airport and to the pickup point for Uber/Lyft was an exercise in frustration, as multiple signs lead you to the wrong pickup location. You actually need to go outside at the baggage claim level and ignore the incorrect signage to go down another level.

As another aside, the lack of decent transit from the airport to International Boulevard is a massive oversight. One they seem to want to address in future years’ improvements to the airport, but it may be a decade or more before those happen. Until then, you’re stuck with a taxi or ride-hailing to get to the convention center area where the con hotel is.

After arriving from the airport, we settled into the Hyatt Regency hotel where the con is hosted. The staff at the front desk offered me an upgrade to a higher room with a balcony, which I accepted, and we then headed to our room in Tower 1. From the front door to the elevators, the hotel was already seeing a lot of obvious furries and fursuiters milling about! I was also happy to see a very heavy pup representation.

One note about this convention is that it’s 18+, and seems to be much more like a traditional comic-con style con that’s furry-themed. You see, a lot more cosplay, as well as folks being more openly horny than I’d normally see in traditional furcons like Anthrocon or even BLFC. I think the comic, sci-fi, and anime conventions nearby have a potent influence on this con.

After we got up to our room, a strong smell of cigarette smoke from a previous occupant hit us, so we had to call the front desk to have them move our room. To their credit, they made this process fast, and they brought keys up to us for the new room (although, the next day all of those keys stopped working and had to be re-issued).

After settling in, we grabbed dinner at the hotel’s Diner. It was typical, perfectly acceptable, but unremarkable diner fare. Afterward, we checked into Thursday registration and found the first of many long lines we saw at this con. The line crossed the entire convention lobby area and circled back on itself, which convinced us to try the next day instead.

This was the right call! We could line up about 15min early for the at-con registration the next morning and left with our badges about 20min after the line opened. Those who had pre-registered had to wait significantly longer. Because the registration desk prints both at-con and pre-reg badges when you sign in, pre-registration does not save any waiting time unless you opt for the VIP option. Perhaps in future years the con will better staff the reg desk, although I’d bet against that and would continue to opt for at-con reg.

The opening of the dealers' den was also a long line, but it moved quickly, and we waited less than 20 minutes to get inside. I picked up many gryphony and tigery things that I apparently had great need of.

On the note of it being my first time in Florida, I have to say I would never, ever come here in the summer months intending to spend any time outside. I likely spent less than 15 minutes the entire weekend outside of air conditioning. For those waiting outside in lines at amusement parks in Florida in summer… what’s wrong with you?

Some Orlando weather to enjoy. Even with the pelting rain, temps stayed in the mid to high 90s.

The con space was wonderful, and the dealer's den was really well filled out. It almost felt like they were running out of room and could go bigger. The convention provided many panel rooms, yet overcrowding in nearly every panel I attended indicated that organisers should enlarge these rooms in the coming years.

The dance space was enormous, with me never seeing the dance room get beyond 1/4 full. Surprisingly, given all the extra space, it was missing the back-of-room seating I’ve enjoyed at other cons. I like to be at the dance and enjoy the music, but I have no interest in actually dancing. I’m used to seeing seats and tables in a corner for those who also want to enjoy the music and maybe sketch with others as well. This was entirely missing at Megaplex and the room was void of any furniture. There was a “sensory-friendly” dance space that had chairs, but not good music… I feel like some bad choices and compromises got made here. At the least, put some tables in the dance room!

A last programming note was the night market; this was pretty disappointing given other night markets I’ve gotten to experience at other cons. Most I’ve seen allow a significant amount of fetish wear, and many allow for near-full nudity in the night market space. Megaplex wasn’t able to do that because of the very conservative hellhole legal landscape in Florida that disallowed any level or amount of exposure, which left the night market dance looking no different from the normal dance.

The vendors present were also the same vendors as in the 18+ section of the normal Dealer’s Den, making no real reason to go shopping either. Last, the line into the night market was an unwieldy mess, and required us to wait for over half an hour to get inside; others waited over an hour. Given that this added nothing over the standard dance and adult dealer’s den, this is an event that seems best not to return. Florida just won’t let you run a proper night market, so don’t try.

Overall, the con was large, in a great space, and minus a few obvious issues I noted above, it was a really fun time. If I go back again, I’ll likely try to run a room party as there were shockingly few of them. I saw two organized orgies (happy for them, but not what I was looking for), and two other minor room parties. Given the size of the con, this was surprising, and walking down to the party floor revealed most people who had rooms there either weren’t running parties at all or were having private parties only for their friends. This, to me, smacks of opportunity!

We tried the Italian steakhouse once; it was pricey with high-quality meat, but overall not worth the expense. We were there on Saturday night and were the only table until we were getting ready to leave, so it really wasn’t catering to the furries clientele.

Descend 21 was amazing, fantastic American-Asian food at fair prices with excellent portions. Everything was flavorful, well-presented, and quick. They also put in the effort to make some event-themed cocktails that were well-priced. This is the restaurant you should go to if you go to this con. The Diner has a fine enough breakfast, but Descend has super good food.

If you’re local to the area or can snag cheap flights like we did (~$500 round trip), I’d recommend going. Just give yourself lots of patience for lines and make sure you bring your own chair if you’re going to the dance!

Flying out was equally easy, even though it was one of the busiest travel days of the year. It was a case where I was very thankful to have Precheck and be able to breeze through.

Next con up on my list? Howloween! I’ll tell you all about that in November.

Meow.