San Diego Comic Con Survival Guide
If you are reading this, you have already gotten past the hurdle, the hassle, of securing your tickets for the San Diego Comic Con. This survival guide is made for people who are first timers and also for people who have been there before, I mean, no one had it perfect the first time right? Ok, so here we go:
1. Choose your hotel wisely.
If not locally based in the San Diego area, it would be wise to choose a hotel that is walking distance. One, parking around Downtown San Diego is really hard during SDCC (San Diego Comic Con), not to mention expensive and traffic is bad during the event (which should not be surprising). Secondly, taking the shuttle, while kinda convenient, will take off precious minutes from the time you would want to spend at the event itself.
If you use the map below as reference, the three closest would be the Hard Rock Hotel, The Hilton San Diego Bayfront and the Mariott Marquis San Diego Marina. When we attended SDCC back in 2011, we chose the Mariott Marquis San Diego Marina, its more on the expensive side but let me tell you the advantages of staying here.
For starters, it is the closest to the venue of the event (the San Diego Convention Center), the moment you exit the hotel front door, you just have to walk a few steps and you are there. Also, some of the must see people tend to stay at that hotel due to the close proximity to the venue. Want proof? well I just woke up ready for day 2, went down to get some coffee, and I just happen to bump into this guy at the hotel lobby.
So I went back to the room and showed the picture to Tsina, of course she got jealous and told me I should have called her up at once, but I told her we are staying in the same hotel so there will be more chances. So after day 2 was over and we were on our way back to our hotel room, look who we bumped into again.
And before you tell me you can always just line up for a picture at the event, let me tell you that costs some money, especially for someone like Stan Lee, as a matter of fact, here is some proof.
2. Download the Comic Con App so you can plan your day better.
Back when we attended SDCC , we were still using Blackberry Phones, so you know, we were forced to print a schedule at home before going to the event since our phones did not have access to the app. But now since almost everyone is either on ios or android, it is really a good idea to download the official app. Having a schedule allows you to easily plan you day out, so you have an idea of what events you can actually attend with the time you have, and I am telling you right now, it is impossible to attend every signing or panel that you want to go to (I mean unless you literally just have 1 panel or signing per day you want to attend).
With the Official Comic Con App you can:
1. Choose your hotel wisely.
If not locally based in the San Diego area, it would be wise to choose a hotel that is walking distance. One, parking around Downtown San Diego is really hard during SDCC (San Diego Comic Con), not to mention expensive and traffic is bad during the event (which should not be surprising). Secondly, taking the shuttle, while kinda convenient, will take off precious minutes from the time you would want to spend at the event itself.
If you use the map below as reference, the three closest would be the Hard Rock Hotel, The Hilton San Diego Bayfront and the Mariott Marquis San Diego Marina. When we attended SDCC back in 2011, we chose the Mariott Marquis San Diego Marina, its more on the expensive side but let me tell you the advantages of staying here.
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| The hotel on the map, SDCC is held at the Convention Center |
For starters, it is the closest to the venue of the event (the San Diego Convention Center), the moment you exit the hotel front door, you just have to walk a few steps and you are there. Also, some of the must see people tend to stay at that hotel due to the close proximity to the venue. Want proof? well I just woke up ready for day 2, went down to get some coffee, and I just happen to bump into this guy at the hotel lobby.
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| With Stan Lee , SDCC 2011 |
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| Tsina with Stan Lee , SDCC 2011 |
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| Stan Lee's rate SDCC 2011 |
Back when we attended SDCC , we were still using Blackberry Phones, so you know, we were forced to print a schedule at home before going to the event since our phones did not have access to the app. But now since almost everyone is either on ios or android, it is really a good idea to download the official app. Having a schedule allows you to easily plan you day out, so you have an idea of what events you can actually attend with the time you have, and I am telling you right now, it is impossible to attend every signing or panel that you want to go to (I mean unless you literally just have 1 panel or signing per day you want to attend).
With the Official Comic Con App you can:
- Get Up-to-date information offline after you download it
- Complete program schedule
- Maps to the Exhibit Hall, Convention Center and even hotel maps
- Mark favorite panels, events, guests, and exhibitors
3. Bring snacks and drinks
There might be food vendors around the area but it is really a good idea to bring you own drinks and snacks in the venue. Since saving time is a big thing if attending SDCC, having the ability to eat and/or drink while walking to the next panel/exhibit/signing, or even while lining up, is crucial.
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| Crowd early in the morning, SDCC 2011 |
It gets crowded and crazy inside the venue, it would be a waste of time getting in and out just to grab something to eat. This not only saves you time and money, it saves you some space in your stomach to try the different restaurants located the the Gaslamp Quarter
4. Getting to the line does not guarantee anything...but it might lead to something else.
So you barely made it to the line before they set the "end of the line" spot, a line for a signing or a panel, but does this mean you will get in the panel or get something signed? Nope, not if you are at the latter half of the line, but don't give up for this might lead to something else interesting.
So, if you somehow made it near to or are at the very end of the line for a panel, I am telling you now, there is practically no chance you are getting in the panel. But don't worry, there is a small chance for you to appear on TV or some form of media covering SDCC, for example:
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| Screengrab of a G4 feature on SDCC2011 |
Now, if you somehow made to a long line of a signing, don't be surprised if they suddenly announce the end of the signing the moment you are really near the front. But don't worry, there is a chance that there is a reason they are ending that signing early.
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| When you are this near, and they end the signing |
We were disappointed, especially Tsina, that we were this close to getting to meet Jason Momoa up close and then they ended the signing. Its a good thing we stuck around for a while in the line asking around why they ended the signing, soon enough we got our answer.
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| Meet and greet tickets |
When the clock turned 7 we were already at Bub's at the Ballpark, we ate some food and waited. Around 830pm, the event finally happened, there was actually a trivia game and whoever can answer correctly will get to meet Jason Momoa up close.
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| Jason Momoa with the host |
When they started the game I was not actually fully listening to the question, but I was like what the hell, I just blurted out a random answer. They did not actually hear me clearly and asked me to repeat what I said, what I did was I went up front and repeated it. The funniest thing was, my answer was wrong, but hey I was already in front, with the host , with Jason Momoa. Long story short, I called Tsina over and I got her what she had been waiting for all day, a picture with the great Khal Drogo AKA Jason Momoa. Moral lesson of this story: be confident and they will think you have the correct answer....lol.
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| Tsina with Jason Momoa |
5. Most important tip of all: Just enjoy
Trying to do too much, trying to see as much as you can and even just thinking about what to do next could be a little stressful, so just enjoy. Like I said, there is no way you can go to every single panel or signing that you want to go to, so make the most out of your weekend instead of trying to wait in line for a panel that has an extremely long line. There are various interesting things you can see around the venue, things like costumes from superheroes, set pieces from movies and even toys and souvenirs that you can purchase.
At the end of the Convention you will realize that you forgot to do something, did not have time to see someone or even fell short of getting into a panel or signing, but just think about this: not everybody is lucky enough to be able to go to Comic Con and you just experienced one, that in itself is more than enough.
-DINO
Trying to do too much, trying to see as much as you can and even just thinking about what to do next could be a little stressful, so just enjoy. Like I said, there is no way you can go to every single panel or signing that you want to go to, so make the most out of your weekend instead of trying to wait in line for a panel that has an extremely long line. There are various interesting things you can see around the venue, things like costumes from superheroes, set pieces from movies and even toys and souvenirs that you can purchase.
At the end of the Convention you will realize that you forgot to do something, did not have time to see someone or even fell short of getting into a panel or signing, but just think about this: not everybody is lucky enough to be able to go to Comic Con and you just experienced one, that in itself is more than enough.
-DINO
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