Elevators, Fursuit Parade, Westin Hotel (Mostly Positive)
Greetings! I had a few things I wanted to give feedback on, most of which are positive.
-THANK YOU a hundred times over for making the fursuit parade double-file. I've been asking for this at every feedback session since 2006, to make the parade's length much more manageable, so I appreciate y'all finally doing it. And, I was still able to see every fursuit with ease in the hallway overlooking the convention halls.
-I also wanted to give a thank-you to the Dorsai for being more considerate of those with less-visible disabilities using the convention center's elevator to the skybridge. I have a bad ankle that makes the stairs a slow, difficult, and painful process, and in previous years, there were occasions where I was outright denied service on the elevator connecting the Westin and the DLCC. This year, the Dorsai seemed to take a more honour-system-based approach, and while there were numerous times where I heard a general announcement of "If you can walk, please take the stairs", I wasn't restricted from using the elevator. So, thank you, elevator-guards, I have nothing about your job to complain about this year 
-...Well, almost nothing. There was a point on Sunday evening where at least one (possibly two) of the Westin elevators had broken down, and the fursuit line filled up faster than it could be dispersed. So, for a period of time, the elevators were exclusively moving fursuiters without the "everyone else" line moving at all. I don't really know the behind-the-scenes details on who knew about the broken elevators, what the procedures are for this situation, and so forth, but I wanted to suggest that the elevator managers in the Westin have a little more flexibility in the "fursuiters get priority" rule to keep both lines moving. Fursuiters may need to get to their rooms rapidly, but a non-suiter standing in line for upwards of 40 minutes is a problematic situation as well. And with a 26-floor hotel, the stairs aren't a reasonable or realistic option for over half of the hotel guests.
-And a note directed at the guests of the Westin: If you need a bell cart, get a bellhop, don't just take the carts. My friends and I had a suite to check out of on Monday, with about 3 carts worth of heavy stuff to get to a truck (far too much to carry due to elevator traffic), and it took hours to get the bell staff to take care of us. It wasn't because of a lack of staff, either, it was because of a lack of carts, people kept taking them.
I thought I had more to say, but this is all that comes to mind. Thank you to everyone for a great con, and I look forward to next year
I actually heard Westin staff complaining about people taking the bell carts... Seriously. While checking out of the hotel, I heard an employee say: "I remember that guy. He took that cart up an hour and a half ago!" the other said to him, "It's been like that all weekend."
After the fursuit parade, the Westin elevator Dorsai were splitting it up, taking 4 suiters and 4 non suiters per elevator. So the procedure was in place, they just need a way to implement it when the regular line gets too slow and suiters keep showing up, as when the elevators were broken down.
[nods] I think security is in the habit of juggling things to some extent, ranging between 5 suiters to two "skins" and 3 suiters to 5 "skins". Where possible, it helps them to have 2 or 3 people running the elevators and a fourth checking the lines, pulling fursuiters and the disabled up to the front of the line, making sure the line moves forward when it needs to, and letting the elevator security know when one line or the other is too long and they need to change the mix.
Of course there will also always be tough times for traffic, most especially after the parade and at the end of every dance.
Some things i observed that furs could do to help the line move along faster:
--A fursuiter needs one handler, not (with some extremely rare exceptions) three. Respect the privilege accorded you.
--Please be patient if security needs to break up your friends for the elevator ride; they know whether there's room for one person or four, and the elevators all go the same places. Just tell your friends what floor you're going to and have them wait for you upstairs.
--If you're sick or injured and looking in horror at the lines, talk to one of the security folk there. The whole point of fursuiters going first is that they could get sick waiting and security can't send them to the stairs. If you have an injury or you're unwell and you're trying to go to your room to take care of yourself, security needs to know about it.
--Pay attention in line, and try to come forward quickly when security has a space ready for you. The faster they get you on an elevator, the faster they can take care of the folks behind you.
My experiences at the elevators while in suit were very positive and I had no issues.
The best was after me (in suit) and my mate got onto the elevator and there was room for 1 more person. The DI called out that there was room for 1 more mundane on the elevator and I heard the crowd outside start laughing. Uncle Kage then walked into the elevator. Never knew he was a mundane. 
I managed, upon encountering the first step inside the lobby of the Omni William Penn, to do something extremely painful to my right knee; while id didn't inhibit walking too much - I was able to hobble about, with varying degrees of pain at different times - it made bending that knee, kneeling, or or putting my entire weight upon it, extemely excruciating and at times unbearable. I _did_ try to use the stairs at the end of the skywalk, once - descending a step, bringing my otherleg down to that step, and attempting the next - and was nearly run down and once pushed by impatient fen, moving three abreast as they trotted or hopped down the stairs in an unending stream. I also seemed to be viewed as an impediment when the escalators froze, and heard complaints from those above and behind me, oblivious to my winces.
From that point on, I either used the elevator at the end of the skywalk (with all due deference to patient fursuiters waiting with me, getting first crack), damned the dirty looks or scowls, or simply walked the relatively level span outiside the convention center to the entrance, relying on working escalators for floor-to-floor travel there. I tried to avoid the Westin altogether, wherever that could be done. Fortunately - not a single Dorsai barked at me.
I believe that the hotels have been far more than reasonably tolerant about this issue; they are well within their rights to refuse allowing guests to use the carts, instead making them verboten to all except for bell staff. Those carts are a necessary part of their livelyhood as porters, and they (the bell staff) are the most efficient and expedient means for transporting all those goods up to a hotel room - for one thing, they have access to Freight Elevators, freeing up People Elevators for People. That someoneshould park a car in the driveway, grab a cart, and proceed to schlepp up several cases of pop, luggage, fursuits, a microwave, ice chest, groceries, enough networked computing power to make NORAD jealous, and essentially take a cart and the bellman who needs it out of commission (and tip-earning) for 40 minutes or more when battling elevator lines, all just to avoid an appropriate tip, is an insult and an outrage, and a self-administered black-eye on Furry Fandom. It inconveniences everybody else (as it did you, Natasha), and makes us look far worse than merely being parsimonious, it makes us look like thoughtless, inconsiderate, self-centered jerks.