As far as food and beverages, I did the same thing I've done for the DCC at the EW the past few years...packed a large cooler. I only ate a small pizza, which was $5.50, and wasn't bad. The "word on the street" was that the BBQ sandwiches at the snack bar upstairs by the action room were the best buy in the place. I never tried one, but they smelled pretty good every time I walked by.
The rooms were, well, rooms. I don't spend much time there, so as long as I have a place to crash for 4 hours per night/day, it's all good with me. The rooms were nice and clean. The bed was comfortable. It was a bit of a walk back to the rooms from the tourney area, but I considered it a few miles per day (after several trips per day) of good exercise. They had a golf cart running as a shuttle that would take you most of the way, plus part of the walk had escalator-like moving walkways.
The tournament/action room setups were a bit of a disappointment. I'm not taking a shot at the organizers as the venue was as new to them as it was to us spectators. I'm sure after some fine-tuning, things could be set up a bit better. The tournament tables were spread out in several rooms/balconies between (2) levels. The tables in the main tourney room were very close together and players routinely had to wait for players on the next table to complete a shot before taking a position for their next shot. There were a few tables upstairs that if you were shooting off the rail on one long side of the table, you were jacked up against a wall. I feel this is totally unacceptable for a table used in the tournament. As far as the action area goes, just when you thought it couldn't get any more cramped and smaller than the "bar" area of the EW, it did.
The repair/vendor areas were fine, as far as I was concerned. Maybe there could have been some additional signage to point people toward the vendors.
There were several vendors absent this year that have been there for the past few. I don't know if it was due to economics or the change of venue, but there looked to be available space for several more vendors if they had chosen to attend.
Once again, I'm not knocking Greg and his staff...they did a great job with what they had to work with. I'm not sure if this location is the solution, but I'm not sure of other locations that would be capable of hosting such an event within the locale it needs to be located to keep it close to the Diamond factory. I was pleased to see that spectator passes had not gone up this year. People suggest moving it to Vegas, etc., but imagine how much the registration fees, spectator fees, table fees, vendor fees, etc., would go up if Greg had to truck 60+ tables across the country, as well as his employees.
I'm not a big gambler and never even went into the casino, so I can't comment on that part of the venue.
Overall, I enjoyed it just as much as any previous DCC. No, it wasn't the same as at the EW....and it probably never will be. But, the fact that the event continues is a great thing for pool and I look forward to it every year.
Oh, I'd like to say thanks to all the great people I met, talked with, hung with, etc. at the event this year: Frankenstroke (my personal chauffer and roommate), Samiel, T, ChopStick, DirtyBobJr, JoeyA, JCIN (TAR ROCKS!), Rick S. (great pics, get a hold of Gabe), Pat Diveney (thanks for the butterfly/finish info), David Hodges (beautiful cue, can you post pics?), Jack Justis (best cases out there!), Steve Lomax, Jay (can't wait for the book), Steve Booth (thanks for the program), Mike Barnes (thanks for the PhatGuy shirt), John Schmidt (class act, congrats!), John Brumback (it couldn't happen to a nicer guy), Sarah Rousey(thanks for the friendly "flogging"), and everyone else I failed to mention....all the days/nights run together and these just happen to be the names I can recall....and I'm terrible with names.
