Well the Lily of the Elon is different

Here's what it looked like during the PoF betas:https://i.imgur.com/MoHSZfs.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/wsng2Rs.jpgBasically a pair of small reed boats in the river mouth, with all the standard services close together.

And here's what it looks like now:https://i.imgur.com/gQ4xhbS.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/J7YDRtW.jpg

It's massive and much more ornate and open, but also more spread out. The crafting stations are on the upper level (reached by using teleporters) and the Mystic Forge is on it's own platform off to one side. Other services are in a large ring around the outside.

Whilst I'm aware this is what many players asked for - especially to have more space and higher ceilings - I have to admit I'm slightly disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it looks very cool, but one thing I liked about the original version was that all the services were very close together - within a few steps of each other. Which IMO is ideal for a quick access mini-town. If you want to drop things off or pick things up or whatever you go there, if you want to hang around you use the pass then go into Amnoon or go to LA or any city of your choice.

I can't complain since when I bought the Ultimate edition I had no idea what this area would look like, and I'd actually decided I'd buy the (IMO inevitable) PoF pass anyway to act as a cheap, easy way to reach the desert maps. It just came as a shock after getting used to the idea of this little river boat with all the services close together.

I've never owned any passes to any of the other places before getting this one via the Ultimate Edition (I never felt the need to spend money on a minor convenience). I did find it kind of odd that everything was so spread out. I'm not sure if it'll end up being better than my usual go-to approach of popping in and out of WvW for a quick merchant stop.

I don't know. I may keep my Royal Terrace Pass and the Lily of the Elon pass both handy. One for convenience, and one for what the Terrace doesn't have, and quick travel to the Crystal Desert.

I, too, am a bit disappointed in the layout.

@Boysenberry.1869 said:I've never owned any passes to any of the other places before getting this one via the Ultimate Edition (I never felt the need to spend money on a minor convenience). I did find it kind of odd that everything was so spread out. I'm not sure if it'll end up being better than my usual go-to approach of popping in and out of WvW for a quick merchant stop.

I've never owned any of the passes before either, but you can see the Royal Terrace from outside and get an idea of the size and layout of the Captains Airship, Noble Ledges and Lava Lounge areas from the map icons. And I got a temporary Mistlock Sanctum pass from the 5th birthday gift so I was able to see that one - which is very spread out, but also has a teleport skill which enables you to move around it quickly.

I think a good compromise for the Lily of the Elon would be to 'reverse' the layout - at the moment the inner ring is taken up with NPC gamblers who don't actually do anything and the services are all spread around the outside of the circle. They could put the services into the inner ring where they would still be more spread out than in the original (and importantly the ceiling is much higher), but would also be easier to find and reach, and then put the NPCs around the outside.

I love it. The one in the beta weekends was rather disappointing, but this is definitely beautiful.

@Boysenberry.1869 said:being better than my usual go-to approach of popping in and out of WvW for a quick merchant stop.

When I tried it, I saw no way to return to where you were in-world. You could spend silver to waypoint somewhere, even the town cost silver. It could be launch issues but pressing the item again did not return me to where I was. I think I will be using WvW instead of this.

None of the open world passes (eg the DR Royal Terrace) can put you back where you came from, only the instanced ones. Consider it a free hop to Amnoon with some services available upon arrival rather than a pocket full of services.

@Hevoskuuri.3891 said:I love it. The one in the beta weekends was rather disappointing, but this is definitely beautiful.

I agree. This one seems like a posh club, not a cramped riverboat.

Now that we have mounts small areas are going to become painfully cramped, so havin a nicely spread area like this is actually something I am happy for because I can do without some big Charr parking his raptors butt in my face...

I have the Royal Terrace pass and like it because everything is close. Lily pass just seems too spread out but it is an interesting area. I was sort of hoping there would be something more unique to it. Since it was described as a place for the elite on a river boat casino I was sort of hoping there would be something a bit more fancy to it. Maybe some gambling games aside from the ecto gambling thing that is a copy from LA or something to entertain. I'd love to play some Blackjack, or what ever it might be called in Tyria, for straight gold while NPCs offered me a beverage. :)

I'm kind of sad about it because the pass was one of the few things that finally convinced me to purchase Ultimate. I'll probably just end up keeping both Royal Terrace and Lily in my shared slots and using Royal to do stuff and Lily to get to Crystal Desert. Seems kind of like a waste for what will more or less just be a portal scroll to CD for me. I guess I learned another lesson, one I thought I learned from HoT, and should have waited to get feedback before buying. But I got a bit buzzed the other night and thought what the heck. Haha.

It is downright beautiful! <3 Thank you so much for giving us this magical place instead of the flat houseboat (which I now realize was just a placeholder to not spoil the whole thing ;) ).

It's my first pass, and I really miss a "return" functionality so this will not replace the guild hall for those "I need a vendor NOW" moments. But it certainly looks gorgeous and I'm glad to have that access to everything in the expansion area.