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SDCC

Well, Guess I Won’t Be Going To San Diego Comic-Con After All

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If you missed the news, CCI announced on Friday that for the first time in 50 years, San Diego Comic-Con is cancelled.

For the first time in its 50-year history San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC), the organizers behind the annual pop culture celebration, announced today with deep regret that there will be no Comic-Con in 2020. The event will instead return to the San Diego Convention Center from July 22-25, 2021.

Recognizing that countless attendees save and plan for its conventions each year, and how many exhibitors and stakeholders rely upon its events for a major portion of their livelihood, they had hoped to delay this decision in anticipation that COVID-19 concerns might lessen by summer. Continuous monitoring of health advisories and recent statements by the Governor of California have made it clear that it would not be safe to move forward with plans for this year.

I’m not surprised at all. I think all of us who had plans to attend knew this was coming, it was just a matter of time. They had yet to put hotels on sale (minus Early Bird), guest announcements stalled, and I imagine that they started to receive requests for refunds. Those of us who had badges were worried about how everything would be handled though. Thankfully, we have the option of rolling over our badges to next year. I think that’s the road I’m going to take. Maybe if I had a day or two it would be different but I’m not going to give up Preview Night and 4 Day badges. I’d much rather hold onto them and try and make next year work than be 100% out. I have a lot going on next year but if I try hard enough I can make SDCC happen. As far as our condo goes, we were able to get a full refund which was really great. The owner we were working with was just really fantastic through this entire thing. She reached out a few times to see how we were doing and issued our refund the same day. If my group knew all of us were going to be able to attend next year, we might have tried to keep the place but at least two of us are out and there’s no way we could swing the extra money per person. That means back to the drawing board!

I’m not going to lie, it still stings to have to cancel reservations and flights. Again, I 100% understand and agree but to have something you’ve been planning for a year just taken away still hurts. No Disney. No Queen Mary. No hanging out with my friends. But I’m glad the cloud that was SDCC is now cleared away. The waiting was the hardest part, especially seeing how CCI isn’t always the best with communication.

Here’s to hopefully seeing everyone next year! Please stay safe out there and wash your hands!

San Diego, The Queen Mary, And Disney!

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That’s my summer plans summed up! I’m finally making my way back to San Diego Comic Con after taking a leave of absence for a few years. I’m very curious to see how things have changed. I lucked out and managed to score 5 day badges, and we’ve had our hotel situation taken care of for a few months now. I finally booked part of my flights as well. Slowly but surely it’s coming together. I might try and get back to the Zoo since it’s been a few years since I’ve been there. I know a lot of places have come and gone since my list trip out there, so I’ll have to sit down and see if there’s any new bars or restaurants I want to try. I always give myself a few extra days in town before SDCC starts to enjoy things like that. Once the crowds hit, it’s every man for themselves when it comes to finding a place to eat that doesn’t have hours long of a wait.

What I’m extra excited about though is driving up to Long Beach and staying a night on The Queen Mary. If there’s one thing I love, it’s spooky shit and it doesn’t get much spookier than this. The Queen Mary has been featured on numerous ghost/paranormal shows including Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters. There are plenty of stories out there about things going bump in the night, spirits wandering the halls, and other interesting encounters. Will I actually sleep when we stay there? Tune in later this summer to find out! But in all seriousness, I’m excited to stay somewhere new and scratch a place off my Bucket List. Plus I’m a sucker for boats/ships. I always find myself either touring some old war ship, or taking some sort of harbor boat tours when on vacation. We might check out Catalina Island too but we have plenty of time to figure out the details.

After a one night stay on the Queen Mary, it’s time for Disney! I’m a Disney Virgin. I’ve never been to the location in Florida or in California before. I’m not a huge Disney nerd like a lot of people out there but I figure why not. Plus Melinda, my travel buddy, is one of those people. You’ll find me looking for all the Marvel and Star Wars stuff, especially anything to do with Baby Yoda. I’m hoping by the time we visit, Avengers Campus will be open. The plan right now is to spend two days there and hoping between the parks. I’m honestly just along for the ride and letting Melinda plan all of the Disney related stuff. We already have our room booked for the stay and I’m getting more excited every second!

I’m really looking forward to having a solid summer vacation. It’ll be nice to combine a few things into one trip and just make the most of it. It’s pretty pricey flying out from the east coast, I need to try and make that money stretch. I have a wedding in the UK next year, which means I’m not sure I’ll have the time/funds and my dad mentioned something about another family vacation in the Fall. We’ll see what happens between now and then!

The Sacrifices Worked! I Secured SDCC Badges!

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I still can’t believe it happened but it did. Saturday I rolled into the office to purchase San Diego Comic Con badges and left victorious. My squad was six deep but between all of us we had around 11 codes thanks to friends who weren’t planning to attend. Personally I had three different browsers up and running. I entered the waiting room right at 11AM (EST) and then waited an hour for the sale to actually start. My group had a chat going and everyone was just sending stressful gifs back and forth, waiting for the claw to select someone. I was keeping an eye on the CCI Twitter account as they were tweeting out how sales were going. I noticed that Preview Night were almost gone according to them and then around 12:20PM the Con God’s smiled upon me and I was picked to purchase badges. Not only was I picked, but EVERY DAY WAS AVAILABLE. Yes, including Preview Night! I was shaking like a leaf in the wind but I managed to not panic and fill in all the info needed. Then with a few more clicks it was official. I had purchased badges for myself and two others in my group. Then another friend was picked and grabbed badges for two more who only wanted Thursday badges.

I still can’t get over the fact I was able to score every single day. And that I actually entered all the information correctly. We’ve already received the emails with our barcodes and now I feel like we can all let out a giant sigh of relief. This was my first time taking part in the wild west of badge sales. The first time I attended was 2010 and you could just go online and buy them, no issues. Then after that I attended as Press. The stress and nerves on Saturday were out of this world. Bodies are weird with how they react to things! I’m glad I made the choice to come into work though. I’d like to think having a business speed connection helped things, plus there’s no way I could have comfortably had three browsers open while on my laptop at home. Plus I just know the internet would have disconnected for some random ass reason, like a bird landed on a wire or something.

Now the only thing left I need to do is book airfare but I’m still waiting for Southwest to open their schedule. We’ve had our condo booked for a few months now. I still can’t believe how all of this has managed to come together! Did any of you take part in the badge sale on Saturday? Let me know below!

It’s Time To Prep For SDCC Badges

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Where thousands of nerds (maybe millions?) gather around their computers to try and purchase San Diego Comic Con badges. Confession, I’ve never had to take part in badge sales before. I’ve gone as Press or early enough (like 2010) where I could just log on and buy them without any fuss. I’ve always just watched from a distance as my fellow nerds tried to make the most out of a stressful situation. I’m actually looking forward to joining them on Saturday. There’s a bit of a rush that goes along with buying in demand tickets. Like back in the day when I’d camp out to buy tickets for Nsync. The nice thing is I can do everything from the comfort of an office and not outside in line at 3AM in the cold.

Right now we have a group of six of us trying to get badges for three of us. The one thing that we have going for us is we all signed up to be volunteers which means we can attend SDCC for “free” after we do our time, as long as we make our shifts. I am looking forward to volunteering but I’d like to have options as well which is why I’m still trying to get a badge for whatever pops up that day, if anything. Two friends in the group are just going with the volunteer angle to save money which makes a lot of sense. It never hurts to have options!

Saturday I’ll be going into the office to use my work laptop and their much better internet. I can’t risk the weather or anything else messing up my connection on Saturday morning! Imagine finally getting picked to make a purchase and then getting disconnected. I think I’d throw my laptop across the room. Are any of you trying to secure badges on Saturday? Let me know! And be sure to watch my Twitter that day as I most likely have a badge induced breakdown!