Just got back home last night, spending both Saturday and Sunday at the event with my wife and mother. As a background, I'm a middle-aged man (if 102 is full aged), and originally started playing POGO in 2016. Took a break for a while, but picked it up again a few years ago to have a shared activity with my wife after her disability. Mom, who is in her 70s, picked up the game in October, since she saw how much fun we had.

Here are our observations:

1. Aside from the system being overwhelmed on Saturday morning, game play went somewhat smoothly for us. We did sometimes need to turn the wi-fi off and reconnect or use phone data. Not sure what Niantic did to improve connectivity after the first rush, but if it was to boost their resources, why weren't they maxed at the beginning?
2. The temps were cool, but the shade was sparse. Eerie Mists and Verdant Earth had plenty of natural shade, with trees and structures, but Ancient Shores and Blistering Sands (lived up to its name). Some additional man made structures (pop-ups, etc) would have been nice.
3. We were instructed to limit the amount of water to bring in (plus, how much water can a trainer carry while playing?), and use the "hydration stations." Unfortunately, there were only two in the entire park, and they were placed in inconvenient areas.
   
4. On the subject of water, we felt that Niantic missed a revenue generator (which is rare for them) by not offering water for sale. They could have easily set up several stations throughout the park selling cold bottled water.
5. On the topic of missed revenue streams, why is the only merchandise available at the event the official event T-Shirt? And why only have two tables with mile long lines? For very little effort, a small section could have easily been created to rent space to vendors selling other Pokemon-related merch. Personally, I had money set aside to buy souvenirs, but couldn't spend it.
   
6. More food options would have been nice. As it was, there were only about 10 trucks, but they were arranged in a horseshoe, leading to a mass of humanity in the middle. The idea of joining that mass was daunting.
   
7. And don't think we could go to the local restaurants very easily. I wonder if they were given a heads-up about the event, because from my perspective, the restaurants I saw were understaffed and under-supplied for the number of potential customers they had.
8. Speaking of long lines, the Meet and Greets alternated between two characters. So if one wanted to have a pic with both Eevee and Pikachu, they would need to wait in line twice. This issue could have easily been remedied by having two costumes for each character.
9. Spinda Stops were great. They ensured we saw all parts of the park. I certainly wouldn't have put in 25KM during the two days without having to search for those stops.
10. Niantic missed the boat on another potential revenue channel: Special Trades. It was great getting six Special Trades while in the park, but even that many caused extreme planning, and inability to have spontaneous trades. For $15, I would have been happy to pay for unlimited (or at least additional) Special Trades.
11. Wife and I BOTH got Shiny Relicanths, which completed our Hoenn Pokedex!

Again, we all had a great time with the event, but feel it could have been even better with a few other features.