The only things that were even close to the price of admission were the two concerts. The rest of the experience was nothing but heartbreak and disappointment. When compared to FFest 2014 this was an utter failure. Square Enix failed at Scaling Up 101. The experiences inside the room were just nowhere close to the fun and enjoyment that were had at the previous FanFest @ the Rio.

The actual content we were given was very low in comparison to the previous experience. Last time we got the title, the cutscene, the announce the Dragonsong, Calloway/Nobou's involvement. We got info/lore on the new race. This time we got a cutscene with nothing but an unintentional(?) hint at a job we may or may not see. No song, no new information on anything substantial that effects gameplay. Just a few QoL announcements and no PS3 support. Its all fine and dandy to tell us we are getting more inventory space, but we deserved a job (if there are 3 one in each city was appropriate with the lack of a new race). The Keynote was merely mediocre. The battle panel was above board, the Q&A and the Live Letter which was merely another Q&A with mediocre/repetitive questions wasn't worth the time either. (Many people in my group left because they were so incredibly board by it. No real new information even regarding patch 3.45. Not even the patch date, which oh by the way they announced this morning. The Lore panel was an extended sales pitch for a book the vast majority of the audience couldn't buy because they oversold it during the day one merchandise debacle and were sold out. (Btw SE you owe me 20$ because now I had to pay your insane shipping price.)

The lack of shirts included in the price of entry was ridiculous. When combined with the merchandise debacle, we really should be getting some recompense from SE. The vast majority of people walked away from this fanfest without anything to show for it except a refrigerator magnet and a small usb drive.

Toss in the fact there was less FFXIV related activities to do on the show floor, which pushed the line for Trial Roulette longer and longer. The fact there were no more stations for the Roulette than last time even with the expanded attendee pool, was ridiculous. And the continued need to have PvP where the lines were often nonexistent because the pvp player pool is so low.
The concerts were the saving grace of the festival. Even if the Primals couldn't play either Shiva or Brute Justice. (Koji and Soken still are the best).

The Paris as the venue had a lot to be desired. Rooms were no where near as nice and much more expensive than the Rio. Being on the strip was very nice though (even if food/drink was a lot more expensive because of it.)

The merchandise line was just horrible. No communication between staff members. Staff members being extremely rude, threatening, being physical with attendees and the claims that some where soliciting cash bribes to put people in line. I know from personal experience that at least a few people were actually allowed past the bearded/pony tailed gatekeeper to cut 100s/1000+ people in line just because they were a pretty girl. The entire merchandise situation was poorly handled. I have no idea if this was a SE Merchandise issue or if it was the FFXIV team not planning well, but there really needs to be some sort of post fanfest solution to this. The lore book and odin went up on the store this morning. The book sold out in under 30minutes. A LOT of people were back at work this morning and probably missed their chance at picking it up. But the Lore Book was not all most of us were after in that line. T-Shirts were the huge thing because SE failed us and didn't include one/two in the price of admission as they had the last time. Not only were shirts not available in larger sizes, most all of them were quickly out of stock in most sizes. SE needs to figure out how they can sell those shirts online to attendees they failed to adequately service.

All in all I had fun at FanFest 2016. But not because of FanFest itself. Because of the wonderful community that has been created. The Social aspect of the convention was the real fun and we made that ourselves and had nothing to do with SE or the outright mismanaged event we received.