Attended my first ever Comic Con yesterday -- Rhode Island Comic Con 2014. Originally, we were going to go both days and stay overnight at a nearby hotel Saturday night, so we bought Weekend Passes (not to be confused with "Freebie" marriage hall passes).
But we thought about it and cancelled the hotel reservation and planned to go just one day and that was quite enough for us. We didn't plan to attend any of the talks/sessions. Just wanted to see the celebs; get my picture taken with the 6th Doctor, Colin Baker; pick up some wrestling figures (our son's interest) and meet some wrestling celebs (again, son's request). Figured that could all fit into a day, if not a few hours.
Arrived at the Convention Center around 11:30 or so. The road that the Con was on -- Sabin Street -- was jam-packed with cars, so we parked in a nearby parking lot for local restaurants, which don't open until dinner, so that worked out quite well. Walked up a flight of stairs, down the street and poor, we were at the Convention Center. That turned out to be a very wise choice considering people were complaining later about parking at the Convention Center. We did get a bit soaked walking back to our car after, but we easily got out, so fine by me. And it was $13 for 3 hours -- a pittance compared to what it could have been.
We saw a huge line of people waiting to get in, but thought they hadn't bought tickets, so I walked straight up to the door -- and was told there was a line and to go to the end of it. Went to walk to the line around the corner when a worker came out and said that if anyone had Weekend Passes, they could enter. Sweet! So, we walked right in.
Waited in a very small line for Weekend Pass holders, and then handed our tickets to the workers there. Shockingly, they didn't scan them nor even look at them. They just took the tickets and tossed them into a trash bag and then put a paper bracelet on our wrists. Ookay.
Security consisted of making sure we had bracelets on -- no bag check. And then joining the masses going up the escalator. Once we got upstairs, there was one big cluster of people all heading towards the main convention rooms, so we followed the crowd. I'm not a big fan of crowds at all, so these crowds really tested my patience but I dealt with it. Was shocked that our son was completely fine with it -- I guess he had his mind set on getting more wrestling figures and meeting wrestlers, and nothing was getting past that. Impressive kid.
Once in the convention room, it was a mad house. Holy shit. The most people I've seen in one place in a long time and everyone was trying to get into all directions at the same time all at once. Yikes. My son's laser focus saw some wrestling figures, so we made our way over there. But he had those figures. So we walked on some more. We found an AJ Lee figure that he didn't have and purchased that and then found a John Cena figure.
As I had to head to my photo op with Colin Baker, we thought we would first locate the wrestlers. First spotted was Rob Van Dam and my son and husband had their picture taken with him after waiting behind just one person. As we turned around in the crowd, we saw Mick Foley sitting at his table with no one in front of him at that moment. So I walked up with my son and said hi and asked if we could take a picture. He said sure, but that there was a line. Oops. I had missed that part -- by walking up to the table, I had just cut off about 50 people waiting in line. Only me. Ha! We walked to the end of the line, and they got in line and I headed off to the photo op.
The photo op was on the upper level, so I took two escalators up -- one larger and then a mini one. The larger one was a debacle. Each time I was on it, the people just stopped completely short after stepping off the escalator, causing us all to smush up against each other. And the second time, there was a Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn in front of me and a girl and her mother in front of them. Just as we got to the top, I glanced down and saw that the girl's shoelace had come undone. (Anyone else just have a horror movie moment go through their head?) Somehow, and I still have no idea how, that dangling shoelace did not get caught in the escalator. Amazing because that was so dangerous.
Once upstairs, I saw a couple of lines, but no signs (par for the course here). After looking around, I spotted a guy dressed like the 6th Doctor at the end of a line. I went up to him and asked if by chance he was in the Colin Baker photo op line. He said he was and that it was just one big line for all of the 4 photo ops around that time. Yup, disorganized. So I waited behind him and took a selfie with the dude and listened to a band play "Star Wars" songs, while the guitarist kept walking over and smiling at me. Lesson learned: If you're a female and are reasonably cute and smile at the guys at Comic Con, you're a hot commodity.
Side note: I truly am a people person. I smile and talk to people and am interested in everyone I talk to, and to some, that comes across as flirting. It's not. And of course, it's something I learned after I got married. Murphy's Law. :)
Back to the photo op. Completely crazy mob scene. At one point, the one line became three lines that interconnected. They called Colin Baker's name for photos and I followed my 6th Doctor line buddy into the meeting room section. There was just one person ahead of us for the photo op and it was over quicker than anything else I've ever encountered. I stopped at the entrance to the room; the volunteer checked my ticket (e-ticket); and then I walked up to a line on the floor; saw my line buddy get his pic taken; walked up to Colin Baker; he shook my hand, said it was nice to meet such a young lady; put his arm around my shoulder; they snapped the pic; and I was walking out of the room. My very fleeting brush with fame. :) Then, I heard the pics would be ready in about 35 min on a table around the corner. Okay.
Called my husband to see where they were. In about 15 minutes, the line they were in to meet Mick Foley hadn't moved an inch, so they gave up and just walked around. I met up with them and we bought another wrestling figure and eyeballed the various celebs as we walked by, but couldn't really stop even if we wanted to as it was wall-to-wall people again going in all directions at once.
We decided after a while to head back upstairs to pick up my photo and then skedaddle. I went back into the meeting room area (and chatted with my line buddy who I found waiting for pics as well) about how disorganized this all was and how Boston Comic Con was better. Noted. The pics that were supposed to be done in 35 minutes instead took an hour. Eep. But I chatted with two other people while waiting -- one who needed to grab a train at 3 and hoped her pic would be ready by then, and one who was telling me about how Temple Con was much better and that I should check that one out. I couldn't tell if this person was flirting with me or not. It seemed that way, but I could be wrong.
Once I got my pic, I re-met up with my husband and son and we left, noticing that people were still lined up outside and that no one was being let in. I thought that was weird, and later found out that the show had been over sold and they weren't allowing people in due to capacity requirements. Understandable, because it was crazy enough as it was -- if a fire had broken out, we all would have been dead because there's no way anyone would have been able to move.
Did I have fun? Yes. Would I attend another one? Probably not unless it was organized a lot better.
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