San Diego Comic Con 2011 was terrible. Worst con in the 11 years I've been attending. I did, however, get a 4-day pass for next year. As of now, there's no way that I'm going, but I wanted to get a pass just in case I change my mind. I believe I have until next June to return it for a refund. There's no way I'm going to go through the pass on-sale fiasco I went through this year again next year. No. Way. In. Hell. So yeah, I got my pass. Just to show you how retarded the people running the convention are, this is how they ran the pre-sales for next year:
What they said was going to happen - They published that they were going to sell the 2012 passes from 8am - 11am each day of the convention at a hotel just down the street from the convention center. In order to purchase a pass for next year, you needed to be holding a current pass for the day you planned on buying the pass for next year. For example, in order for me to buy my 2012 pass on Friday, I had to hold a valid "Friday 2011" badge. If I didn't have one, I couldn't buy the pass. That's all they posted (that I could find).
Reality - Without telling the public the exact details, SDCC only planned on selling a very limited number of passes each day, so in fact, they weren't going to be selling passes for three hours. The sale only lasted until the number of passes allocated for that day ran out. I think the number was 2,400 with a limit of 2 passes per person. They created the "panic" atmosphere that we all had to endure while standing in line. If people think passes are scarce, they freak out and that's exactly what happened. I didn't panic, but I could feel people around me going through it.
Effect - Because of the fiasco of the onsales for 2011 and the low number of passes being sold each day, the line to get next year's passes started forming overnight, every night, with the line going from the ballroom door, off the hotel property, around the shops / restaurants, down the breezeway and on to the little island across the way from the hotel. Attendees far back in line were usually turned away well before 8am. There were so many people in line for next year that the line for the 2012 passes rivaled the line to pick up badges for this year's convention! I got up early Friday (3:30am) to shower, change, pack and stow my stuff at the concierge desk for the day. Then I checked out of my hotel room and walked down to stand in line. I got there a bit past 5am and was probably # 1,000 in line. I kid you not. Even though I got there before 5:30am, I was so far back in line that I was way out on that little island and I didn't think I'd get a ticket.
If you look beyond the American Flag (behind the girl in the photo), that's the convention center waaaaay far away. I took this photo from where I was in line Thursday morning to pick up my badges to get in to this years convention. I was at about that same spot at 5:15am Friday morning to stand in line get the passes for 2012. The hotel is to the left of the convention center.
They had a guy at the door of the hotel ballroom who would ask each person who walked past him how many passes they were going to buy, and then hand them the appropriate number of tickets to hold. When he ran out of his tickets, they shut the door (keeping a couple of people outside in case some purchases were cancelled). Surprisingly, I was able to get in and it looked like I was about halfway back in the Disneyland line from hell.
Here is a photo of the line inside the ballroom. If you look to the back on the top of the right side, you can barely see a blue curtain. THAT'S where the computer terminals were to purchase your badges. I was about halfway back. Dig the guy sleeping in the foreground!
The mere fact that I was able to get in with this many people in front of me leads me to believe that most people were only getting one pass. Once they got everyone in the room, they announced that each of us were guaranteed to be able to purchase admission for four days for the 2012 convention..... BUT that those four days may be via 4-day pass with preview night (this one cost more than the regular 4-day for the first time ever), Regular 4-day pass, or single day passes. They only had a limited number of each to sell that day. Then we all hunkered down on the floor to wait. We were grouped in clusters of three lines each between cloth barriers, so you really got to know your neighbors. Get this, one of the more f-ed up things that they announced was about 2.5 hours into being inside the guy gets on the PA system and says that they will not be accepting Discover cards. Seriously! I expected fights to break out! You don't tell a bunch of sleep deprived nerds that their possible form of payment will not be accepted AFTER they've been in line for that long! At a little after 8am (late) they started calling people up to the computer terminals (I think there were about 50 of them). At 9:30am on the dot I received my receipt and walked out the door to go sit in room 6DE for the 2nd day in a row.
Keep in mind that, in years past, SDCC has been able to set up an unassuming booth in the main entrance causeway that people could walk up to and buy their passes for next year. I've never seen a line at that booth and the person manning it usually looked bored. You can see it in the background of this photo from 2009 (look for the banner at the center top of the picture). See? No line with thousands of people in it! I'd be willing to bet that the attendance numbers from 2009 aren't too far off from 2011 either.:
I have no idea why they changed everything this past year. Everything about their tickets / badges / passes was a nightmare from the get-go.
I wasted over FOUR HOURS standing in line. That's on top of the approximately SIX HOURS I spent online trying to get tickets for this years convention. They don't see a problem with that? Seriously?
The whole line situation cast a shadow over the convention, so I didn't do much. I sat in one room the whole time, room 6DE. Ah, two days in a row, from 9am (Thursday) and 9:45am (Fri) until 5:30pm I sat in that room. No bathroom breaks. No leaving to wander the convention floor. I was miserable. With the way they've been running it, you weren't guaranteed to get back in the room if you left and it was announced a few times that they had run out of passes to let you back in if you needed to leave to go to the bathroom. Luckily I brought water and fruit so I didn't die of starvation and thirst. :-)
I never got to the convention floor. I didn't go out to any bars as my best friend who was going to come down Thursday night ended up having to work late. I didn't go to any shows. No parties. No events. Nothing. When I left Friday night I was so disheartened that I (and I am loathe to admit this) cried part of the way home. The drive home that took me over THREE hours. It only took an hour and a half to get down there, but over THREE to get home? I still had a Sunday pass to use, but I knew that there was no way that I was driving back down just have a miserable time. I stayed home the rest of the weekend and sulked, pouted and felt sorry for myself.
Apart from a couple of interesting panels, the only nice thing that happened was when new Super Boy writer Scott Lobdell, who was bored before his panel started, commented that he liked my hair. Seriously. That's the high point of the convention for me. A writer telling me, from the dais, that I had nice, full hair. Gah. Thanks Scott Lobdell!!!! Shout out to you! Sadly, you were the bright spot of my convention experience!
I was planning on going to the Long Beach con in October, but I've cancelled everything. I know it's a low-rent convention, but it's usually fun because there's hardly anyone there and you never have to stand in line for anything. Anyway, I'm not going this year.
I dunno. Maybe it's time I put the comics down? Should I pack up the books, action figures, artwork, costume, nick knacks, shirts, watches, DVD's, etc and just grow up? I am a single 41 year-old woman, maybe I shouldn't be reading comics anymore. It's hard to imagine *not* reading them, they've been a part of my life since I was a little girl in the 70's. Maybe it's time. None of my friends read them, so I don't have anyone to talk to about them anymore and that's no fun. That was one of the best parts of reading comics and buying comic-related stuff. Showing everything to friends and discussing them. Sure, I can post stuff here, but that's not the same. Trashing or praising a writer here where I'm on my soapbox is one thing, having a back and forth discussion and an exchange of ideas is another. I like that back and forth.
Why do I feel weepy all of a sudden?
No comments:
Post a Comment