Anyone get Comic-Con badges?
 

I managed to get a Thursday and Sunday badge, but am still pretty disappointed. I've been planning on this for months, following updates, and I clicked on their link the moment badges went on sale. It didn't work, and I had to try different things before finally getting in after about ten minutes. Unfortunately, I was 27,000th in line and just barely got these passes before they all sold out.

Anyone fare any better?

I'm going, but my friend who tried to get a badge today got shut out. They really know how to kill the fun of going to this convention.

I'll say. I know I was pretty diligent about doing everything correctly, and yet I don't feel like I was rewarded in any way for my attention to the details. I mean, I feel like I could have created a member ID at the last moment and strolled directly onto Comic-Con's website this morning and been just as good or better off than I was otherwise.

Yeah, I will paying attention to feedback on this, to see how things go for buying passes for next year. Hopefully I will be back then. But there were less passes online for this year than there will be for next year because a proportion of them were sold at last year's show. There will be NO at-show pass selling I believe in July, so there will be more available online.

On-site registration was a disaster last year, and they only sold a very small quantity that way. At most it would have made tickets available for 5 minutes longer than it took for them to sell out today.

I was under the impression it was around 5,000 per day, so 20,000 in total, in terms of the pre-sales for this year's show at last year's show. I could be wrong, just what I recall someone saying who was there in the lines. That's a good 20% in my books or so.

Having said that, you're probably right anyhow. Even with all the four day passes available, I suspect they would have been gone within 15 minutes or so.

I was kind of impressed with how smoothly the whole process went, but then...I managed to score a 4 night badge with preview night.

From what I understand one of the main complaints was that people clicking the link in the actual email weren't being connected to the site proper. I copied the link into my browser and went from there.

Managed to get access to the waiting room two minutes in, with a number under 10k. Thirty minutes after that my purchase went through.

Now to see if I can find a place to actually sleep during the con. That'll be fun. I was way more screwed by the hotel lottery system last year, so here's hoping they fixed that up.

I found the details:

http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_reg_2012.php

There was no specific number, but it was only 3 hours each day. It was ridiculous; people camped overnight to have the chance to register.

I do support con-goers having the first opportunity to by badges for the next year, but this ability is slowly being stripped away. (Previous years there were stations set up throughout the entire Con in the Sails Pavilion.)

That's the problem my friend had - the link wouldn't work. By the time she figured out the problem she was too far back in line. :/

I have a back-up hotel booked, but I hope to get into a regular Con hotel. If you need/want roommates and are willing to potentially have a 6-year-old roommate, PM me.

Is that actual age, or how they act? :twink:

Hah! No, that's actual age. Another friend who is still on the fence about going would be bringing her daughter if she did. They both went last year and except for a few grumpy moments, the girl did really well.

I have passes for this year (a friend bought them for me last year BY waiting in those lines!), but unless I find a job in the next month or so, I won't be able to afford to go. Still... if by some miracle I am able to get my ass over there, then the prospect of sharing a hotel room to save costs is definitely desirable. I suppose I'll update in here as I know...

Any pic of those badges, please???? :D:tgrin::tgrin::tgrin::tgrin: :tcool:

Fantastic. I only live a couple hours away from San Diego and I have a bad feeling about even trying to get a one-day pass.

Um, Google.

I'm not sure why you are asking about this. The physical badges for this year won't be issued until the Convention starts. There is nothing special about them; they just have your name and a bar code.

1-day passes also sold out on Saturday.

Yes, everything sold out Saturday within 90 minutes. The only possibilities now for people are blagging a press pass, or when the returns are made available, probably in June.

So for those who are going, I'm trying to figure out what hotel to stay at. Comic-Con's Early bird hotels are all in Mission Valley, and there are like 6 on their list. Yet if you go to the full list of participating hotels, there are dozens. When do those hotels go on sale through comic-con? Or do they never go on sale through comic-con? Do they just list them and you have to book them on your own?

I'm banking on another pro pass this year. Where to stay, worse comes to worst it turns out my cousin lives like two blocks from the convention center now and she'll let me crash.

But I don't know if that would be ideal.

The hotels will go on sale when Comic-Con decides to put them on sale. You'll have to be as quick with it as was required for the badges. I recommend getting as close to the convention center as you can afford.

One tip: try to get a hotel that's on a tram line that passes the convention centre if you're just a bit further than walking distance away. It's a lot quicker (although it costs a bit) than waiting for the shuttle route, especially in the mornings. The traffic can be killer in that area during rush hour.

I went to order the badges and they were already sold out :(
I really wanted to meet Kevin Eastman.

So I booked a flight to Boston comic con to see him there:)

Do you think it'd be a problem to get a place in Mission Valley? It's like 5 miles from the center, and a shuttle is provided.

Also, since you've gone before, what's it like getting into the expo? Are the lines just for panels, or is there a crazy line just to get into the door?

There's lines everywhere. Queueing is an art form at San Diego.

In the last few years, the organisers have at least made arrangements for people to get their passes on Wednesday at the Town & Country, so you don't have to queue on the show days to obtain passes and get in. It used to be that way, and it was tolerable (when I went in 2006). Now the place is maxed out, and this is a much better decision.

If you think a panel is going to be popular, there's pretty much two choices you have depending on where it's being held: queue very early before it starts, or get into the room way ahead of time during a less popular presentation. The rooms are NOT cleared in between presentations. If you need to leave the room for the toilet or similar, you get given a ticket at the exit to show the security at the entrance door to be let back in when you return, but it's only valid for up until the end of the current presentation I believe.

Essentially if something is held in Hall H, or Ballroom 20, it's going to be massive, and if you really want to be in there, allow plenty of time to line up and wait being ushered in if it's the first thing of the day.

I've tended to avoid the big presentations now for that reason. Far more things to be doing than spending two hours in a line to ended up seated far away from the stage, although there are screens mounted at various points for you to view instead if you're at the back. The events I tend to visit are moderately popular, but always fun, which is why I keep going to them, and only requires getting there half an hour, hour tops in advance to be sure of getting a good spot: Quick Draw (where comic artists draw random, wacky suggestions), Worst Cartoons Ever, and Cartoon Voice Artists (where they get the talent to read out a radio play in random voices heh).

I've usually gone to each SDCC with an itinerary. Things I'd like to do, details of any signings that have been listed pre-event, and the such. And then see what happens, what the best time to do each thing would be, like going to the autograph area for any signatures, or visiting an artist and asking for a commission (that's usually first thing each morning in many cases!). Play it by ear. Venture the convention floor, see what's on offer, discover new comics and talent. There are freebies EVERYWHERE! Something is bound to take your fancy.

Mayhem, thanks for the excellent response. When you say panel, I assume that it's something totally different from a booth. Am I correct in thinking that the convention space will be full of booths and that people like Eastman will have a booth and not necessarily only be accessible through a panel?

This is correct. The convention floor is where all the booths are. The panels are all upstairs in various rooms (except for Hall H, which is its own entity on the ground floor). But expect to still wait in lines at various booths, especially for autograph signings. Kevin's line never looks long, but he takes a long time with each person, so it goes slowly. You're best to go to his booth right in the morning.

You don't usually get one-on-one time with people during panels.

Rose, since you've been before, do you see any real disadvantage if I get a hotel in Mission Valley that has shuttle service to the center? I'm thinking about taking advantage of CC's "early bird" hotel sale, and the only hotels they have listed are in Mission Valley. I've never been to San Diego; is it fairly easy to get around on public transportation? I'm looking to check out Sea World (my beloved Sea World in Cleveland shut down about ten years ago and has since been demolished), maybe a baseball game, and certainly the zoo.

Thanks for whatever insight you have.

For Con purposes, the closer you are to the Convention Center, the better. If you stay in the Valley you're likely to be downtown all day, with no easy way of dropping off swag you've picked up, or just crashing for an hour or two in the middle of the day. I've never stayed in the Valley, so maybe it works out ok. I really don't know. When I started going to the Con (late 90s) we stayed at a hotel a couple blocks from the Convention Center, as things changed (that first hotel no longer exists) and the Con got more popular, we got pushed out farther to the edges of downtown and even though it's not *that* far, it's far enough to be annoying.

Oh, and if you have any early morning panels you want to see, there will be hundreds of people in line before the shuttles even start running, so walking distance is good.

Outside of the Con dates, you should definitely up and move to a cheaper hotel. PetCo Park is *right* downtown, but everything else is out a little bit. But don't expect to do any of that extra stuff during the Con. You'd have to be willing to give up an entire day at the Con. And, of course, baseball will depend on what the Padres schedule is. I think you can walk through it during the day when there isn't a game, though.

My wife and I will be there, got 4 night with preview when they went on sale. Excited to be going back for the second year in a row.

So did anyone else get in with Comic-Con's joke of a 2nd chance sale yesterday morning?

I didn't even know there was a second sale yesterday. I guess I should ask, why joke?

It was supposed to start at 8 AM PST. I made it a point to be free at that time (I'm not West Coast). I clicked their link, nothing. I kept trying and when it finally loaded, about 3 minutes later, they were sold out. I e-mailed Comic-Con to complain, and their response pinned blame on the media for posting and advertising the resale link, which was on a "secret" part of the website.

I submitted my hotel request right when it opened on Thursday and I ended up with my 15th choice, 5 miles from the convention center. :tgrumble:

Blimey... sorry to hear that. 15th choice though? I thought they asked you to submit up to ten. Unless it got expanded from two years ago. Least I got one of my higher up back then. You ended up in Mission Valley then?

Not Mission Valley, it's the backside of the airport.

Last year I got my first choice - guess I wasn't as quick this year. :/

They let us submit up to 20 choices - I submitted 18.

I've debated trying to go one day, but it seems like it's almost more trouble than it's worth...

What IS the parking situation like at Comic-Con? I am assuming its insane, but is their parking at the convention center? can you park near where a shuttle picks you up? any info would be helpful, Thanks!

There is parking at the convention centre, but it is quite limited and expensive from what someone told me. There is other parking around the city but the same applies. Basically the traffic around the convention centre is grid locked solid during rush hour for starters. Your best bet would be to park outside the vicinity at one of the tram stations to the north of the centre, and then use that to get into the convention centre.