Is it worth going to SDCC anymore?

[dragonfly]

Or is it too sweaty and line-standy?
Still good times to be had, would you say?
I've never been there, always wanted to go, considering trying my luck with tickets this year.
Vets, what say you?

[Loa]

I think its one of those things someone has to do once!

[orangepeachmango]

i went a few years ago! i had a lot of fun but i probably won't go again. I'm used to animecons, and I think the fact that it was a COMIC con really shocked me in a way I wasn't prepared for. I didn't nearly buy anything there. but i had a lot of fun Being there. And its definitely one of those things I can brag about having done ; )

[kestral_kitsune]

I've not been to SDCC but I've been to DCC several years in a row, its smaller than SDCC but Lines are a thing as are crowds. But its a Comic Convention, so its too be expected. I've never experienced much waiting for anything other than the Photo Ops. That Has been the time sink, waiting in line to get photos with a celebrity. Panels had a decent wait time but mainly for the more popular ones.
Get a Speed Pass if available if you really want to cut down on lines

[kiwimlp]

This is something I would LOVE to do one day.  We have one event like this a year in our city/country and it's about a 5th of the size of SDCC, with nowhere near the amount of relevant celebrities.  I think you should definitely go, Dragonfly

[orangepeachmango]

I've not been to SDCC but I've been to DCC several years in a row, its smaller than SDCC but Lines are a thing as are crowds. But its a Comic Convention, so its too be expected. I've never experienced much waiting for anything other than the Photo Ops. That Has been the time sink, waiting in line to get photos with a celebrity. Panels had a decent wait time but mainly for the more popular ones.
Get a Speed Pass if available if you really want to cut down on lines

id only get a speedpass if there's panels and such you actually want to go see. ive never been interested in panels and i didnt' miss the pass just walking around having fun ; )

[Pokeyonekenobie]

I haven't exactly been to SDCC.  I went to San Diego last year during SDCC for NerdHQ, which is put on by Zachary Levi (star of "Chuck", voice of Flynn Rider in Tangled).  There's lots to do outside of SDCC, plenty to see and do without having to have a ticket. 

NerdHQ is FREE.  It's held in the Children's Museum near the Convention Center where they hold SDCC.  Last year they gave away boxes of Krave cereal and there were lots of unreleased video games to try out.  XBox was one of the sponsors last year.  If you want to pay $20 you can go to a panel or have a photo op or sometimes even get an autograph.  Last year Zach got Stephen Amell and the cast of Supernatural to do panels.  The panels go on sale online about a week before the event and they sell out fast.  One of the Supernatural panels literally sold out in three seconds.  All the money that NerdHQ makes goes to Operation Smile.  You can look up the panels from previous years on YouTube.  They're pretty funny. 

Spoiler

In one panel, Mischa Collins (Cas from Supernatural) told a story about farting on a plane and making the person behind him pass out.

I'm planning to go again this year. 

Though i would advise you to look for hotels sooner rather than later.  They fill up fast and last year my friend and I shared a room with 2 other girls in a somewhat scary part of town.  We're already planning to share a larger hotel room with more people closer to the Convention Center and it's still going to cost each of us at least $500 for about a week.

[kestral_kitsune]

I've not been to SDCC but I've been to DCC several years in a row, its smaller than SDCC but Lines are a thing as are crowds. But its a Comic Convention, so its too be expected. I've never experienced much waiting for anything other than the Photo Ops. That Has been the time sink, waiting in line to get photos with a celebrity. Panels had a decent wait time but mainly for the more popular ones.
Get a Speed Pass if available if you really want to cut down on lines

id only get a speedpass if there's panels and such you actually want to go see. ive never been interested in panels and i didnt' miss the pass just walking around having fun ; )

oh yeah that is a great point, we didn't have the speed pass last year and had some blast wandering about and waiting in line you get to see a bunch of shenanigans happening

[goddessofpeep]

I've gone to SDCC many, many times, both before and after it got out of control.  SDCC is not like any other convention.  It really isn't.  You can be a convention veteran at other cons and be completely unprepared for SDCC.  The last time I went, I heard attendance was over 150,000 people.  It takes over the entire area for the entire 4 day run.  It is unlike any convention you've ever attended.

It can be fun, and it can be exciting.  It can also be a total miserable slog if you're not careful.  How it is for you depends on a few things.  I apologize for the length of this post.  I do tend to ramble, but I do speak from A LOT of SDCC experience!

#1 - Do not offer to pick up anything for anyone.  Period.  It sounds terrible, but this right here is the easiest way to totally ruin your entire weekend, hands down.  I used to buy for other people every year, and the year I stopped was the year I started to actually have fun.  It's pretty much a guaranteed trip to misery town.  People who haven't been just don't know, and you'll get these laundry lists of items to get.  And you'll feel bad for each item you fail to get.  Each individual item is hours, up to a full day, out of YOUR time at the convention.

Every year I see the "I'm going to SDCC!!!! OMG!  Does anyone want anything?" posts, and every year I know at least one person is going to be getting a nasty reality check.  The toy lines - all of them - are horrific.  Some are worse than others, but they're all bad. And they're filled with dealers, so the good stuff sells out quickly.  My husband was once the 5th person in the Mattel line at opening.  Unfortunately the people in front of him were all dealers, and he watched them wheel out pallets filled with the item he wanted while he got told they were "just sold out for the day - try again tomorrow".  Funko's line is usually a 5-9 hour line to give you an idea of what a typical "big" line is like. Smaller lines can be 1-4 hours each.  The smallest lines can be a half hour to an hour, but those are rare.  If you offer to pick things up for people, you will have spent $300 for tickets - and however much you had to pay for travel/room costs - so you can stand in line and buy things for people who will complain if you charge them more than cost. 

*IF* you do manage to get the items, you're going to have to drag that stuff around the overcrowded floor for hours.  They say there's a locker/package storage system.  Don't count on it.  It fills up within an hour of the convention opening.  You'll be hauling other people's junk around until you can drop it off somewhere, and most of the affordable hotels are going to be too hard to get to in the middle of the day, and parking anywhere near the convention center just doesn't exist.  I one time carried a 20 pound, high end sculpture around the convention floor for 5 hours. It ruined my entire convention.  I pulled a muscle in my shoulder doing it, so I could barely walk without wincing the rest of the week.  Even small items start to add up, and those bags get *heavy* after a few hours of dragging them through the crowds.


#2 - Don't be tempted to try to buy from Hasbro's booth. You want something from Hasbro(or Mattel, or any of the really big booths really), buy it on ebay.  The Hasbro line is the 7th level of hell.  In order to even get into the line, you have to line up basically the night before in this line that wraps around the marina in the back.  This line is not the actual Hasbro line, it's a line to get a ticket stand in the Hasbro line.  They don't cap the ticket line, and they take their sweet time passing out the tickets in the morning, so it is extremely likely that you will have spent all night in line for a ticket to end up not only without a ticket, but also getting held up getting into the convention with the first wave of people(which is the best time to get to the exhibit floor - before the crowds really get going). 

And even if you do get a ticket, it's a ticket to get in the Hasbro line at a certain time of day.  You can't go early, and the dealers usually all get earliest tickets, so all the good stuff is sold out for the day by 1pm. If you get a late time, and what you want to buy is sold out, you're back in that all night ticket line all over again.  You don't get any kind of special treatment because you waited in line the  night before.  And the Hasbro line is run badly.  Really, really badly.  Most of the time, nobody knows what is going on. The last year I went, someone got stabbed and robbed of their brand new purchases as they left the line.  It's a free for all!

There is *1* exception to this rule.  On very, very rare occasions, the Hasbro line is clear.  It *rarely* happens, and is usually caused by the typical Hasbro inability to run the line correctly, or all the good stuff being sold out for the day.  This *sometimes* happens late in the day after all the good stuff is gone.  The only year ponies were considered "good stuff" was the year of the muffin pony.  That was the only year MLP sold out every day, so if you're only after ponies, you might be able to get into the Hasbro line without a ticket if your timing is really good.  But again it's rare, really really rare.


#3 - Don't expect to be able to do everything. You can't just show up 45 minutes before a panel and get in.  A lot of the biggest panels have lines that start the night before, sometimes the day before, and occasionally more than one day before.  Realistically, you can fit 1 large panel in per day, and maybe another small one if there's enough time between them.  You're not doing a 10am, 11:30am, 1pm, and 2pm panel day.  Pick your priorities, and plan ahead.  If you have a good grasp on how much time everything is going to take, you'll have a much better time.  A good rule of thumb is if it's in one of the big ballrooms, it's going to be several hours wait to have a hope of getting in.


If you stick to those three rules, you can actually have a fantastic time!  The entire downtown area is SDCC world, and the convention never really stops at night.  There's all sorts of stuff to see, particularly outside the convention.  It's a fun party atmosphere all night long for the entire weekend.  I've been to a lot of conventions, but SDCC is nothing like anything else I've ever been to.  The scale of it is just staggering.  The booths are amazing, and you can have an amazing time.  I personally love how all the local restaurants get taken over by the studios and "re-skinned".  One year the HUB network took over a breakfast place and turned it into a MLP themed diner(with free swag!).  Just stay away from the big toy lines and plan your weekend with the reality in mind and you'll have a great time:p

[orangepeachmango]

I've gone to SDCC many, many times, both before and after it got out of control.  SDCC is not like any other convention.  It really isn't.  You can be a convention veteran at other cons and be completely unprepared for SDCC.  The last time I went, I heard attendance was over 150,000 people.  It takes over the entire area for the entire 4 day run.  It is unlike any convention you've ever attended.

Yes, totally. I thought I knew cons but I wasn't ready for SDCC 

[PrincessTiffy]

Goddessofpeep pretty much has it down! I live in San Diego and have been lucky to go the last four years. But I really can't imagine how people from out of town do it. I've never been on a peak day Friday and Saturday. I've only been on Thursdays and Sunday's and the last two years have been on Sunday which is better with my son. Not so hectic since it is family day. But yes be prepared for lines after lines, especially for the good stuff. I won't even try the hasbro line. Unless I get to meet and greet someone famous I'm not waiting in any line over night lol, just for a chance to get in the actual line to try and buy something. I see why people charge so much for certain things. Trying to get into the Mattel line I've seen grown men pushing mothers and children out of the way when they open up the line. It's crazy and the security people can be very rude too. I don't know how she did it but my sister was able to get in and she got me my evil queen raven doll the one year. And there is so much going on outside the convention center to enjoy as well. And if there's someone you want to see but don't want to wait in line just wait around their booth, it's not as good but I got to see the cast of vampire diaries like a foot away while they signed autographs

[Jinxxy]

Goddessofpeep-That was a really informative read.. Thanks!

[StarSwirl05]

SDCC hasn't been my thing to begin with but reading what Goddessofpeep wrote makes me glad I don't go.

[Foxtale]

It's on my list to go to SDCC one year. I've gone to NYCC every year since it's inception. As the years have gone on and it has gotten more popular, I still go but my anticipation of what I can get out of it has changed. For example, i go in knowing there is a good chance I won't get into certain panels or i'll miss merchandise.

I think it will be worthwhile as long as you have the right frame of mind (for example don't go in thinking you'll see and do it all or get into any major panel). Goddessofpeep's description is spot on. I would heed the advice and still go.