I went to ACEN as a Christmas present this year. Mom and dad helped with the cosplay- I was Schierke from Berserk for a day there. Had at least 20 or so people stop me for pictures, probably more.
Day one was spent in the autograph line trying to get a ticket for Vic Mignona. We managed to get one, and then went to see his behind the voice acting panel. He said his favorite character to play was Edward Elric (insert squeak of happy), and someone instantly popped up with "and he's short!". Me being me, proceeded to yell "who are you calling short?!" As loud as I could. Everyone laughed because it was awesome or something. I dunno. We shopped around a bit, got a Black Butler poster (it's one of the cool moving ones too), and waited in Vic's autograph booth line for an hour and a half before chaperone and co felt sick and we decided to leave because the line wasn't moving like at all. Didn't get to go to the Anime Dancing panel I wanted to see because we were all exhausted by then. We turned in at the hotel and ate pizza.
It was Little Caesar's if you were curious.
Day 2 was when we did our cosplays. My friends were Anastasia and Drossel for the day. We went to the Vic Q & A Panel, where I once again had to shout about shortness because someone had to bring it up. Vic thanked me. He also sat on my chaperones lap at one point and I think it broke her a little bit. I found three Guts cosplayers and a Griffith (who I spoke to for a good half hour. She was super nice- came to the con with a Guts cosplayer but he went back to the hotel because he was overheating). Casca and Puck were there too supposedly but I never found them. :(
All of their faces absolutely lit up when they saw me. I think that was my favorite part- the part where you make people's day by just being there.
After that we went to the hotel and prepared for the Soap Bubble. I feel bad for whoever got to clean our room. The bathroom was probably glitter covered. We got inside and ended up joining a ring of people surrounding a dance fight. (I yelled dance fight and some people complied) That isn't even the best part though, because once the first guy was defeated Spiderman challenged him. I didn't know Spidey could breakdance but now I do. And when they we're done, two dudes who were in inflatable dinosaur suits attempted to breakdance fight in the middle. Three other guys- one in a jurrasic park shirt- decided to dance (if you could even call it that) in the guys faces. My friend somehow caused a mosh pit, and then joined a conga line. It was a very eventful evening. Lee and Gai walked in as we walked out. I couldn't go to the Berserk panel because I am not yet 18 unfortunately.
Day 3 was filled with more autographs- Vic Mignona, Josh Grelle, and three of the Black Butler cast who signed my poster. I got hugs from some of them. It was great. We got Portillos on the way home, and enthused about anime with a couple of preteens who asked up if we were there (they really wanted to go then). Oh and there was a Link cosplay all three days who was wandering around playing an ocarina.
10/10 would go again. Not sure how to add pictures here though. I'll figure it out later.