I have to agree that the autograph zone was badly laid out. I didn't know whether I was allowed to go in and just take pictures or whether I had to buy coupons to get that chance and at £5 per coupon with a minimum of 5 coupons, that'd have been £25 per picture and I wasn't ever going to pay that...even if I got an autograph with it! As it was quiet, I followed a bunch of people in and stood far back enough to show I wasn't queuing but unfortunately not close enough to take really good shots of the stars. I did see the Jabba puppeteers and they were being largely ignored - perhaps if I knew I could bend or break the rules a little bit more, I'd have gone over to say hello, but I did get a picture of the trio. I managed to get a couple of shots of Peter Mayhew (small anecdote: my dad actually worked with him when he was still doing hospital porterage in the 70s) and one of Ray Park, probably the most genial of the people there - he was smiling, chatting and generally posing for every camera that got stuck in his face. The queues for Anthony Daniels and Mark Hamill were horrendously long - when I left at 5pm, the queues were coming out of the autograph zone. Didn't see Mark Hamill, but Anthony Daniels was generally mincing about in his way.
The rest of the show? Well I didn't get a chance to get into the Fan Stage area. I should have gone in whilst it was quiet, but thought I'd go back later - BIG mistake as the queue for that went around the entire back wall of the hall! I saw the Steve Sansweet presentation of From The Vaults. He seems genuinely pleased to be able to do stuff for the fans and does a wicked impression of George Lucas during his anecdotes. Vader's Helmet exhibition was quite cool with various interpretations to celebrate 30 years. Artist Alley was quite good, but the prices for the limited run prints were very high - can't blame them, I guess, for wanting to make the most out of their opportunities and the rest was largely trader stands. The Tantive IV experience was ok - those walls ARE white!!! The Falcon lounge was a fan-made item (apparently) which had people queuing for photos with R2. There was a full-sized snowspeeder which had people climbing in and out, a speeder bike and an AT-AT.
Probably the best thing were the 501st Legion. They were willing to pose for any camera shot and even stole someone's camera for some more candid shots - quite funny.
So overall, and this was my first convention of any sort, it was a good day just to see what it was all about, but also a little strange to see how commercial it has all become. Everything had to be paid for otherwise you had nothing...