Thanks to Mani for her review about the MegaCon.

It’s been a week since MegaCon, but like every con that I have attended; I’m still buzzing a bit from it. In my nearly nine years of living in Orlando, this was the first year that I ever attended the event and I’m so happy that I got to experience it with my lovely friends and fellow FeltForce members. There is never a truly dull moment when we all gather.

The event ran from Friday through Sunday and it was full of things to do and see. Between all the vendors, panels, pictures and autographs, you would be hard pressed to find something that wouldn’t entertain you from the moment the doors open each morning through when the doors closed each night.

Seriously, it was nothing like I had experienced at my first DragonCon; which I will be attended once again with my lovely and amazing friends. There were many costumes but as well all know I was there with my friends for a reason. That reason being one……..TOM FELTON.

This was the first time that Tom had attended the convention in Orlando and as always the FeltForce was there to support him as we do. Tom was there for all three days and held a panel on Saturday. My footage was unfortunately terrible and I was unable to upload it but if you would like to see footage of the panel, I would suggest you hit up the Feltbeats site. There are other goodies there as will and you will not be disappointed. Betsy and Lori did an amazing interview with Tom the last day of the convention and it’s a DEFINITE MUST-SEE.

As like most conventions, there were photos and autographs available. Tom was a huge crowd bringer and his lines for autographs were always a bit of a wait at time, but will worth it each and every time that I waited. He is one of the most genuine and sweetest guys that you will ever meet and if you are at all nervous meeting him, you have nothing to fear. He is nothing like some of the characters that he had portrayed in the past.

During the photo ops, he was nothing but nice and courteous to everyone. His lines were always pretty long as well, but again worth it. Tom was a doll the whole convention and I know that as an Orlandoian, I would love to see him back next year.

But enough with the generals and on to my personal experiences!

Even though I do live in Orlando, I was staying rather close to the venture for the weekend. The Peabody Orlando! This was the very first time that I have ever stayed in the hotel and I will tell you all that it will not be the last time. The views from our rooms were amazing and televisions in the mirrors were pretty cool as well. The hotel is located just across the street from the convention centre and it was a prime hotel to have. I checked in a day early with a fellow FeltForce member and took in the area the night before the con began and did find a very amusing pub within walking distance, but that is another story all together.

Friday morning, myself and my friend received our wristbands for the event and scoped out the convention centre as we were meeting up with the other members of the FeltForce later in the day. Me being a bit of a procrastinator, I had to purchase my photo ops that Friday for all three days. Upon getting my photo ops purchased, we headed to the autograph queues. By the time that we queued up, the line was short and we were perhaps ten or so people from the front. Just seeing the reaction that some people get with seeing Tom for the first time makes be giggle and all I could do was gush about just how nice he is. Once it was our time to get up to the front of the line, I had decided that I would get an autograph for a fellow FeltForce member that was unable to attend and I believe that I confused Tom when he asked me if my name was Justine. I explained to him that it was for another Feltgirl and I dare say that his eyes lit up and he smiled. He was aware that we were going to be there and I informed him that the rest of us would be there shortly. He smiled and said something to the effect that we were holding down the fort for the others and laughed. He was presh as always!

After getting our autographs, we headed back through the vendors and looked around a bit before meeting up with some more members of the FeltForce. By this time, it was nearly time to head over to the photo op. I shared my op with another member of the FeltForce (Ashley) and upon getting up to Tom, he recognized us and pulled us close for our picture. Ash and I have a tiny personal joke about this picture and it makes me giggle still.

After the photo op, we headed back to the autograph queue to give see Tom again and give him a little treat. He was looking a bit thin and like true fans, he gave him some sweets to keep his energy up and poked some fun at him. It was all in good fun and he took the teasing like a champ.

By the time were had made it through the line and spoken to Tom again (we might have held up the line), it was time to meet with the remaining members of the FeltForce and back to the autograph area to drop off a special gift bag from the FeltForce. I will not tell what was all in the bag, but Tom did call us deviously wicked ladies after he tried to pull all the contents out before Bets stopped him. I think he found it funny and he probably didn’t expect less from us after DragonCon. We did hold up his line again, but it was our last stop before we headed out for dinner that night. It was a pretty early night as Saturday was going to be a bit busy.

Waking up early, the three of us in our hotel room headed down to breakfast early and headed over to the convention centre to score us great seats for the panel that morning. If DragonCon was any indicator of how popular Tom was, we knew that we needed to be there early. Amongst all the waiting, we met some very nice fans of Tom and we handed out Rise of The Apes posters, Feltbeats stickers and flyers. That’s what we do after all.

I do have to send a shout out to Constance and her team for all the help that morning with the panel and all. Our whole FeltForce team and Tom Felton EU team were able to be seated front and centre for the panel. Again, I send you over to Feltbeats for the footage of the panel. I tried to have another member of our team film the panel as I was helping by tweeting for Harry Potter’s Page, but it was a lost cause as the footage would not load and the largest portion of my footage was the portion that wouldn’t load. Thank you to JJ for taping it though. I have a copy for my own enjoyment at least.

Once the panel was over, it was off to line up for our photos again. Being that it was Saturday, the con was extremely busy and the line was no different. Whilst in line we did manage to see the three actors from the Vampire Diaries that were at the event. One of us might have been asked to ‘Please don’t jump on my guests’. It was a fun time and being a team, Saturday was the day that we all wore our FeltForce shirts and Tom always seems to get a kick out of that. Each of us got our pictures and Tom smiled with his teeth. Once we all got our pictures, we headed back to the autograph area to drop off more gifts for time. There was a gift bag for Timber and a special gift for Tom. Again we met some great fans of Tom in line and by this time all the volunteers knew us. It was a good thing.

John, the man that is responsible for getting Tom to cons like this, joked with us about the pictures that we managed to find for Tom to sign and some of the articles in the magazines. He did mention how he liked the watches on the back cover of one of the magazine and I said that we would work on getting two for next time. Tom greeted us with a ‘hello lovelies’ and we all chatted for a bit as we presented him with the gift bag for Timber and he signed all our things again. Being that it was a big group of us we did hold up the line, but that was expected with three fansite (Feltbeats, Tom Felton EU, Tom Felton Colorado) present to give Tom a special award on behave of the whole Team Felton/Team Tom family for Favourite Actor under 25. It was cute to see Tom’s reaction to the award and that made it all the better. He is after all our favourite actor and we were all a bit more than upset with how the PCA had played out, but no more about that.

After finally leaving the autograph area, Tom and us girls do like to talk a lot; we headed out to play at WWoHP! An afternoon with the FeltForce in Hogsmeade and Hogwarts is always a fun time. In fact, we were remembered from our shirts we wore last month and got to cut the line. Funny pictures are our specialty and I’m sure the matching FeltForce tees helped. There was an early dinner at the Three Broomsticks, a ride of the Forbidden Journey, a wand experience at Ollivanders’ and riding dragons. In all it was a nice trip back to Hogsmeade and Hogwarts.

Sunday was a later start for us as we only had the photo op with Tom and maybe another stop or two to the autograph area. Sunday was also the day that we were sported our Draco Con tees from DragonCon. I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it. Bets comes up with the best tees and she takes the best pictures too and yes, I have said this to Tom on more than one occasion. Our first time of the day was again to the autograph area to say morning to Tom and get our pictures from the previous days sign. Seeing us again, Tom greeted us with high-fives and a ‘hello ladies’. Ash and I did manage to poke some fun at Tom for our Friday picture and I did laugh at his ponytail as I did promise Jess that I would do so. That ponytail does make me giggle, but it is killing me as well. He did mention talks about having to dye his hair blonde again. Which we were not too happy about, but no fear he was just having fun with us. He isn’t going blond again, a darker brown is needed for his new role. We did warn him that he should tease us so. He is just as deviously wick as well, I tell you.

After holding up the line again, most of us headed back to the photo op to get in line. It was Tom’s last photo op of the con and the line was a bit longer than before. We feared that we wouldn’t get in but like a boss, Tom made it through his line with ease and we got our last pictures with him. They were rushing him near the end, but he was just as courteous and nice as always. He gave us a great picture, greeted us with our names and even told me ‘I’ll see you later, Mani’ as I was leaving. Again, he was so presh!

Since it was a very busy day for Tom, he was very pressed for time; but he did manage to give a short little interview with Bets and Lori for Feltbeats/HarryPotter’sPage. You can check it out on Feltbeats. I’m telling you it is GREAT stuff and you will never be able to think of certain words without giggling. As we waited for our last day’s photos to be printed we took in the vendors again and took some pictures of all the costumes and what not. It was fun times and after going back for a quick bye and thanks to John, we waved bye to Tom and we were off back home.

Click here for the interview, here for the Panel and here for photos in our gallery.

By the way, here are two more videos of Tom at MegaCon. Thanks for the videos!

This video doesn’t work in Germany (Tom at 5:03):