Keeping Up With The Cons- San Diego Comic Con 2013 Part 1

Comic-Con has come and gone. This was my first year at SDCC, so I didn't really know what to expect. I mean, I had been reading blog post after blog post about people's experiences at past Comic-Cons, what to bring, advice, any information I could get my hands on, and then added it to my own knowledge of other conventions like WonderCon. I thought I was prepared, but I wasn't.

The drive to San Diego was about four hours, which isn't too bad considering it was a Saturday. We made it to Petco Park around 10:30am, and managed to find a parking space in the Tailgater parking lot right before they closed it. Getting our badges was pretty quick, there were no lines. Right away we went to the Blizzard Entertainment booth, I was dead set on getting an Epic Purple Lanyard and Shadow Illidan figurine. Once there, we found out that to get a free EPL, you had to go on a bit of a scavenger hunt to other booths, take pictures, etc and then come back to the Blizzard booth during certain times to get your photos authenticated. It was a hassle and I was bummed because I had my kids with me, and I knew that they weren't going to be patient enough for it. We were getting ready to walk away when my husband started looking at the pricing board to see how much the Shadow Illidan I wanted was, and saw that they were selling the EPL as well. It made me super excited, especially since they didn't have anymore Shadow Illidans. While we were getting in line though, I had a girl literally push me and yell "Get out of my way!" because she was also trying to get into the Blizzard line for the Mini Sylvanas figures (they only had twenty left). I was shocked that someone would do that. And it didn't really help her, I still got in line before her, and we both got the Mini Sylvanas. I was also surprised that one of the Blizzard employees saw what this girl had done to me and said nothing. If I was manning a booth and saw someone acting like that, I wouldn't allow them entry in my line. They would've been able to sell that figurine to someone else so easily.

After that we went to check out the preview of Watchdogs. We already have the game pre-ordered, but it was nice to see an extended video of the game play, and it looks like a pretty nifty game. We wandered around a lot, trying to absorb everything. We walked by signings with the cast of the Simpsons and True Blood. And Tom Cruise and Bill Paxton were on the other side of the True Blood signing, but I'm not sure why. It was so cramped and crazy by those areas that I didn't get any pictures. And the security there yell so unnecessarily and are rude. But maybe its because they have so many crazy people trying to see the stars, I don't know. Eventually we ate the overpriced convention food, even though I had packed a ton of snacks (my kids plowed through their snacks). It wasn't that good. I wish we had tried one of the food trucks that was outside instead.

The last thing we did as badge holders was check out the Assassin's Creed pirate ship that was out in the harbor. TV Guide was having a party on a boat next to it, and as we were walking by some famous people were coming off the boat. I didn't recognize them, but the way people were mobbing them, I figured they were special. Later I found out that it was the cast of The Originals. Two of them were really rude to people who were trying to get photos with them or have them sign something, but one guy (Charles Michael Davis, thank you Internet) was really nice and took pictures with people and took the time to talk to his fans. Again, I was feeling a little overwhelmed, so I didn't join in the photo taking (that, and I didn't know who they were). The Assassin's Creed ship was awesome. We got to see a demo of the game and the graphics look amazing. We didn't get to play it though, as we were the last group allowed on the ship and they were trying to get us off of it.

While we walking away from Comic-Con, content with being done with our day, there was a massive stampede of people running towards the Hilton that's right there. Curious, we went over to see what all the fuss was about. We missed Tom Hiddleston by two minutes. Crazy. We heard that other famous people were being brought to the hotel, so we decided to wait it out a little bit. About ten minutes later, Bill Nye the Science Guy and Neil deGrasse Tyson emerge from the hotel and head to a limo. Bill came over and shook hands with a few fans near the limo (which I wasn't) before heading back, but Neil came all the way down the line. Just as he got to me, his publicist came over and told him to get in the limo, so I didn't get the picture with him that I wanted. But...I did get a high five from him! So that was pretty cool. We left not long after that, my kids were beyond tired and wanted to go back to the hotel room. Next year, my husband and I want to try and stay at that Hilton though :)

Stay tuned for SDCC Parts 2 and 3!