Well my husband thinks it is well worth the price, despite last year's fiasco. He enjoys what is listed and is happy to get just that.  In fact he is so satisfied he wanted two tracks, both a and c. Clearly other people wanted these as well as they sold out fairly well. Thankfully i had his track c in my wishlist so he got it (i was at 1600 and he was way back in the 4500 range).  By the time it got to him only track a was left and it sold out immediately after he got his ticket.  

I'm happy to see the changes this year. Even better it moved to our hotel. So my husband is one happy camper now and it leaves me free to do whatever i want and not worry about him now. :)

Yeah, I've kind of changed my mind on this whole event despite the high price as it sounds like Baldman Games DOES make every effort to make this exclusive event really cool and have lots of perks.  Curious, what did you mean by "last year's fiasco"?  This will be my first time heading to the gaming Mecca that is GenCon.  I was actually trying to get a slot in Track B but despite being online and ready to submit the very second it went live, I got an error, had to refresh and ended up 4600 something in line... so got less than 1/2 of my events...  Sadly hearing that was all too common.

Aehrlon - in past years Wotc provided a lot of extra 'surprise' perks. In 2014 we gave everyone a PHB and then as a surprise super-perk we also gave them a MM about 45 days before it hit the store shelves. The problem is each year we kept giving more and more 'stuff' so people just bought a ticket because the stuff was always worth more then what they paid. So it was a real no-brainer. Obviously this was not sustainable and that came to a head in 2015. Book schedules shifted so we did not have a book to give as a surprise. Our space in Hall D shifted and we were not allowed to have a roped off side area for the program due to fire exits and clear paths. This also meant where we were planning on allocating marshalling space was basically marked as 'stay out'. All this came to a head in a record packed hall full of noise and ended up not being remotely up to the bar we had set previously. 

We took full responsibility for it and had several after-show surveys as well as mailing out copies of the Sword Coast book and video game to all those who had a ticket. 

With all that feedback we revamped the program and premiered it at Winter Fantasy in February. It was a smashing success. We tweaked it a little and it will be running again at Origins in June as well as Gen Con in August. The goals we have from all that feedback are (in the order of the feedback responses):

1. A special and continuous story arc we can play throughout the show. Something we could not get to play otherwise (something we had in 2013 but did not in 2014 or 2015)
   
2. A top notch play space where we can enjoy our games without all the crazy (something we had in 2013 & 2014 but not 2015)
   
3. The great DM's we have always had.
   

Wavester, thanks for the info.  Sherilyn, there are a bunch of factors that determine where you end up in the cue; Internet connection speed is certainly one of them.  The two of you might have hit at the same time but even milliseconds apart could split you that far apart with so many logging in at once.  Regardless, Hope you guys got tickets....

So, now that it is all done, what were the 'surprise' perks for the 2016 D&D Experience?

Gotcha. Any unique certs?

I heard that as a perk players got to rub the Bald Man's head for luck on one die roll per game.  

No real "special" perks beyond what was advertised...

- Same DM (mine was all around excellent. You could tell they put their quality guys in here)

- Same Group for continuity and easy marshaling (day one marshaling was painless, and everything after was just walk in and sit)

- Private ballroom (was very noisy, and combined with a DM that didn't have a loudly projecting voice, made it hard to hear. But the area was nice, and ice water on hand was handy).

- Exclusive Games (By running a different course than the rest of the con, I was able to essentially do two tracks; HULB and HILL. The mini-epic was fun.

The only non-advertised "perk" was a visit to Fai-Chen. Strangely enough, I would've rather this had NOT happened as opposed to happen when it did. It was right during the "epic", which was time sensitive, and it just threw a wrench in everything. I hope next year, if they do it again, they have Fai Chen show up during game 3. Would work much better. The Fai Chen table didn't have anything special compared to what it had when setup in the main convention hall. At least from what I saw.

And then finally yeah, notepads, hand sanitizers, etc. Nice simple additions but nothing major.

As I said in another thread...was it "worth" $150, as in I really felt like I got my money's worth. Not really. But it was "worth" it in the sense that I'd probably sign up again. It's kind of like things I'd see on the dealer hall...I don't WANT to spend that much money, I'm going to feel a little dumb for spending that much money after the fact, but I'm on vacation and this doesn't happen often so I'll probably overpay despite those issues. $100 would likely feel more reasonable, as it'd basically be paying double for the "perks" compared to a normal game. But there's no real reason for them to lower it, as I'm sure many...just like myself...will still pay the higher price despite there not being any "special" perks beyond the "quality of life" perks it offers.

It wasn't worth it. Even the unique adventure was canned and predictable. The DM we had was amazing but the experience was worse than the general gaming area at several times the price.