More Lessons Learned at Pokemon Go fest At Randall’s Island Park in New York (Part 2)

A Note from Dani: 2024 was our second year visiting PoGo Fest! Make sure to read Part 1 detailing our 2023 PoGo Fest experience and all the painful lessons we had to learn.

The moment Niantic announced PoGo Fest 2024 in March, Xak, Pablo, and I immediately scheduled a PoGo Fest Planning session. After such a wonderful time at last year’s PoGo fest, we wanted to ensure that we learned from our mistakes and make this year’s fest even better. The goal was to keep as much of the trip the same as possible while making quality tweaks to our itinerary. 

One of the big differences for this year was the addition of two people to our little Pokemon party: Xak’s cousin, Sidney, and his girlfriend, Brooklyn. Sidney is a huge Pokemon fan just like Xak. When they were kids, they would play Pokemon on their Gameboys, catch and trade excitedly, and get yelled at by Nonna to not play at the dining room table. 20 years later, they’re still doing the same thing playing Scarlet and Violet, Pokemon Sleep, and of course, Pokemon Go (only now it’s at their own dinner table).

Although Brooklyn did not grow up with the same Pokemon background as Sidney or Xak, she has impressively leveled up from 1-43 in a little over a year. Amazing! 

Although last year’s PoGo fest was in August, this year’s PoGo fest was scheduled for July 5th – July 7th. July 4th weekend is one of the biggest travel weekends in the United States. It’s also incredibly hot. We knew there would be a lot of planning to make this year’s fest even better than last, but we were definitely up to the challenge. I refused to leave New York without using every single raid pass.

The Bulba Buds’ PoGo Fest Itinerary and Goals

While Pablo, Xak, and I planned to stay in New York for the duration of our trip, Sidney and Brooklyn planned to arrive on the train each day to meet up with us. Since there was a lot of planning to do, we made a chat group (known as the Bulba Buds) to coordinate and make sure we did as much PoGo as possible

Starting with Friday afternoon, all of us planned to meet up to begin city raids and having afternoon tea (guess whose idea that was).

Since Saturday was our Randalls Island Park event experience day, it would be a completely jam packed day. Sidney and Brooklyn would arrive around 8:30 at the train station and then we would head to Central Park for raids, lunch and hydration with another one of Xak’s cousins, and then finally PoGo Fest!

For Sunday, we had another jam packed day planned since we had to do as many raids as possible in the morning before heading off to Prince Tea in Koreatown for afternoon tea (and actual jam) before jumping back on the Amtrak to head home.

All in all, we had a ton to do and we each had different goals for our trip:

• Sidney: Catch legendary shinies and hundos
• Brooklyn: Catch legendary shinies
• Xak: Level up to 48
• Pablo: Use up all raid passes + eat shrimp fried rice at Piggyback
• Me: Use up all raid passes on legendaries only (no stupid Grimers) and enjoy 2 afternoon teas (!)

We had a lot to accomplish.

What we Improved from Last Year

Since Xak, Pablo, and I had so much knowledge from last year’s experience, we knew there were certain quality of life improvements we could implement to take things up a notch and make sure that The Bulba Buds had the best experience ever.

Getting to PoGo Fest from DC

For last year’s trip, we took the Northeast Regional Amtrak train from Union Station in DC right into New York. Xak, Pablo, and I had managed to find seats near each other (to pass our train snacks), but it was a bit of a struggle. Since there’s no assigned seating on the Northeast Regional, you have to just keep walking through each car until you can find a place to sit which can be a little stressful.

One of the improvements we made this year was taking the Acela train instead. Instead of 14 stops, we only had 7, and instead of struggling and hoping to find seats together, we picked our seats in advance during the booking stage.

I ended up picking a table (2 seats facing 2 other seats) so that Pablo, Xak, and I could play “Pokermon” (aka playing Poker while betting Shiny Pokemon from your inventory…!) and eat train snacks. Since we still had a fourth seat, I just hoped the random person wouldn’t mind the sounds of anger coming from our game when someone inevitably bet a rare shiny and lost.

In order to prevent a repeat of the unfortunate Extra Cheesy Cheez-its incident, I took complete ownership of train snacks this year and made sure to buy a variety of sweet snacks like Air Head Extremes (a staple for all our trips) and salty snacks like Kettle chips, Popcorners, Bold Chex Mix, and REGULAR Cheez-its. (Yes, my snack bag was huge)

Unfortunately, I must have misread the train diagram because I ended up booking the seats for Xak and me facing in the wrong direction which is a nightmare for anyone who has motion sickness (me). Our “Pokermon” game was cut short, but Pablo managed to use this time to draw some Pokemon on his iPad while Xak caught up on some reading.

All in all, the train trip was pretty great and we arrived in New York in no time with no foul Extra Cheesy Cheez-It aftertaste in our mouth.

Raiding In New York City

The moment we stepped off the train, we knew from our prior experience that we would be inundated with New York Pokemon to catch and a ton of nearby gyms to do raids just outside the station.

This year we had all chosen to get the Raid Lover’s bonus again which meant 18 free raid passes each day of the event (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) with an additional 5k XP. Last year, we had the mistaken belief that this bonus was only active on our park fest day and neglected to use 25+ raid passes! 🤦🏻‍♀️

In order to correct the mistake that’s been keeping me up all night for a year, we made sure to arrive in New York earlier on Friday and leave later on Sunday. This would ensure that we would have plenty of time to complete our raids, even crappy Grimer raids if absolutely needed.

Once we figured out which train station exit was closest to our hotel, we stepped out and immediately saw 3 legendary raids. While last year, we mistakenly thought we should wait to use our raid passes until Saturday (our event day), luckily we learned DO NOT WAIT.

We immediately jumped in and did the train station raids with instantly full lobbies (Thank you PoGo Fest attendees) and then moved on as quickly as we could to check into our hotel.

During the entire weekend, we made sure to do this whenever possible. If we saw a legendary raid, we jumped in. If we saw a Joltik raid, Pablo jumped in. 🤣

All in all, we used up quite a lot, if not all, of our raid passes. Definitely an improvement from last year.

Planning a better route For City Play

Last year, because we didn’t know better, we made our way through Times Square, dodging lost tourists who weren’t there to play Pokemon Go (weird, right?), and unlicensed costumed characters who insisted on taking pictures with you.

For this year, Xak spent quite a bit of time planning a route from our hotel to the event that bypassed all of this and allowed us to spend much more time in Central Park, which we all enjoyed the most.

The Bulba Buds were also extremely grateful for Xak’s careful route planning since it included stops at places that he knew had bathrooms and outlets to charge our phones, if necessary. It also helped us get out of the heat for a bit and rehydrate. 

Highlights from PoGo fest 2024

If you attended PoGo Fest in previous years, you know what to expect. Large crowds of people, Pokemon themed music blasting out of large speakers, special timed research quests, free swag, limited shade, and the feeling of complete chaos and anxiety to get the most out of your PoGo Fest ticket.

Since we had attended last year, we didn’t feel the need to wait in line for some of the things we previously did such as take pictures with the inflatable Snorlax, getting a Pikachu visor or hanging out in our respective team tents to do trades on stage. Our priority was getting our pre-ordered shirts and doing the timed research quest because once the event was done, we wouldn’t be able to finish!

PoGo Fest Map

The quests required going to four different zones, which were in the same areas as last year but with different names.

At PoGo Fest 2023, we did not have access to a map online and had to search around the park and ask workers where to go which led to quite a bit of frustration. For this year, while we did find maps, we also had access to an interactive map in the Campfire app, which we were able to review in advance.

The quest forced you to walk to each region in the park, and naturally the quest was separated in a way that you couldn’t just walk from one zone to the one right next to it. 😒

It’s Pokemon Go, not Pokemon Sit.

–UNOWN UNKNOWN

There were several Niantic employees directing the flow of traffic to prevent any walking jams from the crowd walking in the wrong direction. It helped the attendees get from one area to another fairly smoothly.

Picking up Our pre-ordered Shirts

There were four regions this year, just like last. However the difference was that not all the regions this year had photo opportunities like the Ghostly Woods. The one I was most interested in was the Poolside Cabana… which everyone else was also apparently interested in. It featured a fake pool and a slide with some Pokemon themed floaties. Since the line was too long, I decided to forgo my photo op with a Snorlax pool float and just snap pics from the side.

As we walked around the park, we also needed to pick up our pre-ordered shirts which was located near the Brilliant Skies region, “conveniently” located at the opposite entrance we entered from. 😒

Luckily, the actual shirt pick up process was incredibly easy, and in no time I had acquired my special Necrozma shirt and a redeemable voucher for my in-game avatar to also have a special Necrozma shirt.

Special Pokemon at PoGo Fest

Just like every PoGo Fest, attendees have opportunities to catch region locked Pokemon during the Fest as well as a special research quest for a newly debuted Pokemon.

There are some Pokemon that debut during PoGo Fest in New York and then are made available during Global Fest next week such as scarf wearing Espeon and Umbreon and sun/moon crowned Pikachu. There are also a few Pokemon that are specific to attendees which make a nice incentive to actual travel to the festival.

This year’s special Pokemon included the French form of Furfrou, a European debuted Pokemon named Klefki (how does a keyring battle?), the Hawaiian version of Oricorio, and the new Marshadow.

As someone who rarely travels, I did not even know that Klefki existed and I had given hope of getting Furfrou and this Oriocorio, so this was a very nice surprise. I also made sure to catch as many as possible for trades with some of my local PoGo friends.

New Lessons Learned

While we certainly made improvements since our last trip, there were also new lessons we were forced to learn this year.

Inconsistent Raid Times

From our experience last year, legendary raids started popping up around 9 am every morning, right when city play started. Meeting with Sidney and Bridget required coordination with the train schedule so we tried to find a train that came in around 8:30 AM.

On Saturday, the day of our event, my excitement woke me up 2 hours before my alarm was set to go off at 8 AM and I picked up my phone to check the time and see what the Pogo situation was like at 6 am in New York.

To my surprise… legendary raids were already up and running all throughout New York, and the gym right outside of our hotel was already getting filled up!

I was shocked and immediately went back on the Niantic website to see if there was any mention of raids starting early. The site said that city play was from 9-7 AM, with no mention of when raids would start. The only other place that mentioned 5 AM raid start time was surprised users on Reddit.

Luckily, we had plenty of time to complete raids on our walk to Central Park, and we managed to finish them before 11:30 AM. However, it would have been great to know that we didn’t have to necessarily start at 9 AM to begin raiding. Sidney and Brooklyn could have come earlier into the city and we could have started our day much earlier before it got too hot.

Don’t Trust the Weather Report

Summer weather is widely unpredictable and I’ve learned to trust with my eyes and not my weather app. Heat is certainly guaranteed, but thunderstorms and rain can pop up at almost any time. While we were lucky last year with no random rain, this year we had some intense downpours on the first day of the event. We had the foresight to bring small ponchos with us, but unfortunately didn’t take them out in time and we got completely soaked as we tried to find cover. (Typical me luck)

The next day, when I woke up (at 6 AM), I saw that it was raining outside and made sure to put my poncho on before we exited the hotel. Of course, during the rest of the day it didn’t rain at all therefore my poncho was useless 😒 , but I still highly recommend bringing one with you just in case.

For all I know, maybe putting the poncho on for the whole day is the reason why it didn’t rain. 😄

Walking Has its Limits

Last year, Pablo, Xak, and I took an Uber from lunch to Randalls Island Park for the event. We cut out a few miles of walking by doing this. While Ubers can be costly, the alternative was to walk 6+ miles to get to PoGo Fest and also walk 1 mile across the bridge before even getting to the event.

In Xak’s original itinerary, we had planned to use an Uber to get from lunch to the event just like last year, however those plans changed after lunchtime. We met up with with another one of Xak’s cousins at a restaurant about 2 miles away from Randalls Island Park. All of us easily walk 2 miles daily, so at the time it didn’t seem that far.

Xak and I love to walk, but with excessive heat and humidity (and small water bottles), and an extra mile walking across the bridge just to get to the event… we definitely will go back to Ubering to the event again next year.

The Uber back to our hotel was pretty pricey, but none of us minded paying to avoid having to walk 6+ miles back on our very tired legs.

Staying Hydrated

At Pogo Fest 2023, hydration stations were self service spigots and easily accessible by any attendee to walk up, fill up their water bottle, and go along their way. 

This year’s Pogo Fest was incredibly hot and humid and by the time we walked the mile long walk across the bridge, our water bottles were practically empty. As we walked around looking for the water stations, we saw huge lines at a stand. 

The stand was actually a Pogo Fest employee who was controlling 10 spigots dripping out water like a slow leaky faucet into several different colored water bottles. I realized then that this line was full of people waiting to have their bottles filled up and there was absolutely no way to have the line move faster.

Although there was another hydration station on the other side of the park, you will have to walk quite a bit to get there and wait in a line. While the line does move faster on that side, there’s no guarantee.

I cannot stress hard enough how important it is to have plenty of water with you. Even if you plan on going to the food trucks to buy water, you will still have to stand in long lines just to purchase it.

Hopefully for future events, Niantic will improve the water situation since the hydration station was not a pleasant experience for anyone.

Changes for Next Year’s PoGo Fest

So, how did we do on our goals?

• Sidney: Catch legendary shinies and hundos – FAIL (Sidney only caught one Legendary shiny and exactly 0 hundos)
• Brooklyn: Catch legendary shinies – FAIL (Sadly, Brooklyn caught zero legendary shinies the entire trip)
• Xak: Level up to 48 – PASS! (Thanks to all our raids and the bonus XP, Xak easily leveled up during the trip)
• Pablo: Use up all raid passes + eat shrimp fried rice at Piggyback – PASS! (Pablo successfully used up all his raids passes while we were in New York and greatly enjoyed his fried rice)
• Me: Use up all raid passes on legendaries only (no stupid Grimers) and enjoy 2 afternoon teas (!) – PASS! (I totally got my money’s worth for the Raid Lover’s bonus and none of it was wasted on a Grimer)

Third time’s a charm is such a cliche, but in this case, we know exactly what we need to do for our third PoGo Fest trip. Yep, it’s already decided. Despite our first time visitors not achieving the goals, the Bulba Buds are going again!

If next year’s PoGo fest is in New York, one of the things we’re changing is choosing the morning timeframe for the event. We’ve attended two afternoon PoGo Fest sessions and while there’s no way to completely escape the heat, typically mornings are a bit cooler than afternoons. There’s not much shade or cover on the island, and the fest specific research quests require walking all around the island. It sounds much more pleasant to do that in a slightly cooler environment.

This still gives us plenty of time to do raids in Central Park which has plenty of shade and an abundant amount of PoGo players ready to fill up raid lobbies. There’s also plenty of restaurants and stores we can pop into to get more water instead of waiting about 30 minutes to fill up our bottles.

I’ll also take my advice of bringing a gigantic water bottle. My normal water bottle fits in my purse, which is convenient, but that also means it barely holds a few sips of water.

Bonus: Food in New York City

No trip is complete without a recap of the food I’ve eaten and believe me, I ate plenty. Here are a few of the calories I consumed and hopefully walked off thanks to PoGo 😄

Breakfast at Courtyard Marriott

It’s been a long time since we had 6 dish oatmeal, and one of the reasons we stayed at the exact same hotel is to make sure we had it for breakfast! (Yes, I know that’s weird).

I’ve stayed at other Courtyard Marriotts since last year’s PoGo Fest and have been sorely disappointed. Thank goodness the Chelsea Marriott did not fail me!

Lunch at Penrose

After doing several raids in Central Park, we met up with another one of Xak’s cousins (who lives in New York) at a place called The Penrose in Upper East Side, per her suggestion. She also had 3 other guests with her for a total of 10 at our crowded table.

Since it was the weekend, they were serving brunch only which disappointed me a little since my perusal of the lunch menu discovered Gruyere Macaroni and cheese (yum).

Still, the food was quite good! Pablo ended up ordering The Penrose Burger served on a brioche bun along with crispy herbed tater tots. Xak ordered the Hot Honey Fried Chicken and Biscuit, which was completely appropriate for celebrating National Fried Chicken Day. I ordered the Shrimp and Grits which was served with Andouille sausage and kale.

Since there were so many of us at the table, it was hard to see what everyone else was eating but everyone seemed quite happy with their meals. It also made me realize that I really should make shrimp and grits at home some time.

Dinner at Piggyback

One of the big reasons why we decided to stay at the Courtyard Marriott in Chelsea again (other than the 6 dish oatmeal) was because of how much of an impact the shrimp fried rice at Piggyback made on both Pablo and me last year.

After a long day at the Fest, our Uber dropped us off right in front of Piggyback and the Bulba Buds walked in for what we hoped would be another delicious dinner.

Since Pablo and I would not stop evangelizing about the fried rice the entire day, everyone else also decided to get the Shrimp Fried Rice as well. We also ordered Korean Honey Butter Wings and Lumpia (not pictured because I ate it so fast) which we got last year too.

Everything was SO delicious and it was hard to even pause to take any pics because of how good it was. Most of all, I’m just really relieved the fried rice was as good as I remembered!

Afternoon Tea at Tea and Sympathy

There is absolutely no way I would pass up an opportunity to try out tea in a new state. The first tea room was called Tea and Sympathy and featured lots of British classics (think Bangers and Mash, Treacle pudding, etc) including afternoon tea.

Brooklyn and Sidney decided on a bowl of custard with their own pots of tea and Pablo, Xak, and I ordered the full afternoon tea experience. This was particularly exciting since this was Pablo’s first actual afternoon tea experience! The closest thing he’s ever had is our Sheetz afternoon tea in his RV 🤣

So, how was it? Find out soon…. 😏

Afternoon Tea at Prince Tea

On our last day in New York, we finished all the raids and said a sad goodbye to Brooklyn and Sidney. While they would be hopping on the train to go home, Pablo, Xak, and I headed over to a tea place in Koreatown called Prince Tea.

There are actually several locations along the East Coast, including one in Virginia. However, I wanted to go here since it was pretty close to our hotel and there was NO way I would pass up another afternoon tea opportunity.

Find out more about how our tea experience is once I finish my review!