New York NY

Nov. 18-20

At AnimeNYC 2022

For Traveling With Us!

AnimeNYC 2022 Tour

From concept to formation, it took all of spring and summer, but we launched ConExpress Tours at Q4.

The Anime NYC tour went without a hitch, scoring the perfect hotel placement at the Hyatt Place in Times Square, just short of a 5 minute walk to the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Which saved our attendees, especially those in cosplay, from the bitter twenty something degrees of bitter cold winds that only huge cities like New York can dish out.

At $250 per person for 3 nights in the Hyatt, the hotel accommodations we were able to secure for our tour attendees also saved them from going broke in NYC.

And having only about a dozen adventurous people signing up for our first convention tour made it a breeze to manage and coordinate social gatherings in and out of the convention center.

AnimeNYC, just as large scale events like comic cons were becoming a norm again, went from being around 46,000 in attendance before closing in 2019 during the pandemic, to over 53,000 when they opened again in November 2021. Gaining slightly more at 55,000 as their current peak of people attending in 2022.

However, besides the high energy of every major hallways of the Javits Center being packed by crowds of cosplayers, the overall intensity of AnimeNYC was a mixed bag when it came to features provided for the attendees of the popular anime convention.

Unlike the previous years, the exhibit halls of AnimeNYC 2022 occupied both gigantic rooms that separated the flashy industrial and media/entertainment booths from another large section dedicated for the Artist Alley, fast resembling the experience of attending New York Comic Con which is also held at the Jacob Javits Center.

But unlike NY Comic Con 2022 that had over 200,000 in attendance, AnimeNYC's 55,000 count were limited to a much fewer number of panel rooms secluded on the lower floors. So we pretty much had to entertain ourselves half the time with our own group activities.

The strongest value AnimeNYC has going for as a convention is the simple fact that it is located at the heart of New York City. And what is New York if not a hub of entertainment, site attractions, and most of all, a vast selection of venues to choose from to get really good food.

While our Tour originally scheduled 8 optional meals for us to eat as a group throughout the weekend, plans tend to change quickly when attendees are having fun going off separately to do what they like in the convention at their own pace. So we found that the best time, if not the only, to schedule we eat together as a group was during dinner. When everyone's feet are aching from all the walking during the day and just want to sit and relax among good company.

Our Tour's first group meal on Friday November 18th, was set for dinner at Kings of Kobe - an awesome Fine-Dining Burger Place located in Midtown West. Followed right after with some bar hopping late into the evening.

Just like any anime, comic, or gaming convention you travel to, it isn't so much what the con organizers offer in panels and events or the special celebrity guests they bring in that makes people enjoy conventions.

It's in the idea of spending the weekend having so much fun meeting up with old friends and making new ones that large gatherings of similar interests tend to provide huge potentials for.

After a late night of partying, Saturday came in with even more intensity as tour attendees along with our team members became more familiar with each other, it became second nature to shop together at the exhibit halls and artist alleys, then hopped around various eateries and cafes.

With limited spacing for panels and special event screenings, AnimeNYC had to deploy a lottery system of sort for random attendees to be given access to. Some of our tour group members were able to go, while many of us couldn't and simply made the most of our time at different areas of the convention.

Just like Friday night, we compensated for the day's hectic scheduling with another group dinner at a Japanese restaurant. As is most reputable gems of eatery in NYC, spacing is always limited but thankfully the quality of food more than made up for it.

Followed by doing our own improv tour around Times Square area of New York before settling in our hotel rooms with boxes of pizza and beverages as we talked the night away.

ConExpress Tours was created specifically to address this market for people of diverse backgrounds to find each other in a halfway controlled space of fun and laughter to make lasting memories together, unburdened by travel challenges while still giving enough room to enjoy each day of the convention at your own pace.

And with that, as the lazy cold Sunday afternoon settled and the closing ceremonies of the convention eased an ocean of cosplayers out of the Jacob Javits Center, ConExpress Tours ended our AnimeNYC 2022 tour on a high note.

Content with the wonderful times we just had, and eager to experience it all over again next year. And for some, looking forward to our next convention tour coming up just a month after AnimeNYC down in Orlando, Florida at HOLIDAY MATSURI.

Safe travels everyone!

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