DragonCon 2012 - an overview
Sep. 5th, 2012 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
agt_spooky
So wow, I almost don't know where to start with my DragonCon stories. So much happened! Some of it good, some of it not so good.
I haven’t been to a non-Creation con in a long while, so it was interesting to see the differences. DC gets points for an extremely fast registration system. I think I was in line on Thursday for all of 10 minutes. It also gets points for friendly, knowledgeable volunteers. If they didn’t know something they were on their phone or walkie-talkie ASAP to help you out. The only really irritating thing was something that went on with their photo ops for Richard Dean Anderson that left a LOT of us standing in line for a long time that could have been avoided with some advanced planning on theirs, and Legends Canada’s part.
The other big difference between DC and Creation is that DC is spread out between FIVE hotels. Thankfully three of them are connected via skybridges but the other two you need to go outside and go up and down the street. You do a LOT of walking at DC. And in the heat of Atlanta in August it can tire you out.
I knew DC was big, and I’ve been to several Star Wars Celebration events, but even that didn’t prepare me for the 55,000 (that is NOT an exaggeration) people. It got to be very overwhelming, especially at the Marriott, where most people stay and that has most of the big Q&A panels, plus the photo ops and all of the dealer’s rooms.
It got so insane there on Saturday that the fire marshal came and basically shut things down because of the amount of people packed into the hotel. They didn’t let anyone in for a long time. The lines outside were crazy. Thankfully ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
charityflint and I were already inside or I would have missed my photo op with Connor Trinneer. As it was, poor Richard Dean Anderson was trapped over at the Hilton and couldn’t get in to the Marriott for his own photo op! I heard later that the Walk of Fame at the Hilton was also closed off by the fire marshal because of the amount of people packed in there. (The Walk of Fame is where all of the attending actors have tables for autographs).
Speaking of the Hilton, I want to thank my friend rivercritter for getting us a room there. At some point or another during the weekend Charity and I were at all of the other hotels and we agreed that the Hilton was the best. The entire staff there was fantastic. From housekeeping to the front desk to the valet to the bartenders. Especially the management and security teams. Because unfortunately we had major issues with the people in the room next to ours and the police ended up being called. In the end we got half off our room rate for the five days we were there in apology. The Hilton also had a nice Starbuck’s café, a fantastic restaurant and an outdoor pool. We’ve already made our reservations there for next year. The block of 1,200 rooms sold out in less than three hours! Yikes!
A big part of DC are the costumes. You cannot believe how amazing some of them are. You name the TV show, anime or movie and there was someone dressed up as a character from one of them. Charity and I stood on the balcony at the Hilton one night and simply people-watched for a good hour. We played the “what is that supposed to be?” game, trying to figure out what some people were dressed as. :-)
There are so many panels going on at every hour of every day (both actor Q&A’s and fan tracks) that if you can’t find something to do there’s something wrong with you. And if you find yourself too tired to leave the hotel room, there’s always DragonCon TV. This came in handy a few times for us. The lines for all of the main Q&A panels were staggering and not organized at all at the Marriott. It was a crush of thousands of people. The lines went outside the hotel and down the block for crying out loud. It was completely insane. So we ended up watching the Stargate panel and the Firefly panel on TV in the comfort of our hotel room. But DC TV had it’s issues, too. They were supposed to show the John Barrowman panel and they didn’t and then only 15 minutes into the Gillian Anderson one the channel completely stopped working. Grrr….
But overall our experience was very positive. We went into this blind but quickly learned the ropes. We counted ourselves lucky that we each got to meet every single actor we wanted (and there were a lot!) so that alone made it a successful convention.
If you’ve ever thought about going to DragonCon, do it. At least once. My friend Adam has wanted me to go for years and years and I was dumb not to have done it sooner. Make no mistake, it’s completely crazy, but it can also be a lot of fun. :-)
Tomorrow – meeting Richard Dean Anderson for the first time!
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Date: 2012-09-05 09:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-07 12:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-05 09:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-09-07 12:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-05 11:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-07 12:19 am (UTC)Holy crap, Saturday was indeed a clusterfuck. Chris made the comment that she saw so many people with day passes. I mean, c’mon, DC has been doing this for a long time. They should know better. It’s just greed that makes them keep selling and makes us miserable with the over-capacity crowd.
Ah, glad to know that it wasn’t just us who lost DCTV! I was so disappointed I missed John Barrowman’s panel. :-(
I still can’t believe that in that crowd we ran into you by the bathroom! So glad we did, though, so we knew about your panel. Standing room only! Loved the goodie bags you guys put together. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-05 11:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-07 12:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-06 12:11 am (UTC)Anyway, it's still on my list of things to do at some point! Although the other drawback for me is that it's almost impossible for me to get away from work around Labor Day.
What are the three hotels that have events in them? Hilton, Marriot, and what?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-07 12:18 am (UTC)Yeah, it was the humidity that really got to you. Plus the fact that even inside the hotels it was roasting. Just way too many people for the air conditioning to keep up. So I pretty much sweated for four days straight.
The multiple hotels and walking seem daunting,
At first it was, but by the second day it no longer seemed like a far distance to walk, when you could us the sky bridges. But if you had to go outside in the heat that’s when you really felt it.
Maybe there are more parties at venues there and less room parties, maybe? Or maybe everyone is out waiting in line for Hall H all night long!
LOL! The crowd isn’t even inside the hotels at ComicCon! There are actually a ton of official parties going on each night at DC, so our noisy group was an anomaly as the rest of the hotel was quiet. Figures we’d get lucky, eh? :-/
Anyway, it's still on my list of things to do at some point!
I hope you get a chance to go, at least once. With you being a ComicCon vet, you’d think this crowd was small!
What are the three hotels that have events in them? Hilton, Marriot, and what?
Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, Sheraton and Westin.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-06 01:02 am (UTC)You know? I love that the organizers at least let you to have a picture like you wanted it, cause I really don't like the picture like for example the sandwich J's picture that a lot of fans have, the one where they are sit in the chairs and you are just standing there in the middle like .... well I don't know I don't like those pic ... or in the cons where the organizers don't let you do anything like a girl said she wanted a pic with Jared hugging her and she said the organizers yelled at her: NO!
and you are paying a lot for the pictures ...
so awesome that in this con are more cool
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-07 12:18 am (UTC)Yep! This is the one!
You know? I love that the organizers at least let you to have a picture like you wanted it,
That was a huge difference between Creation and DC - they were totally cool with people asking for all sorts of poses. Which made for a really fun photo op line!
cause I really don't like the picture like for example the sandwich J's picture that a lot of fans have, the one where they are sit in the chairs and you are just standing there in the middle
You can always tell those poses are from a non-U.S. convention. For some reason at all the cons overseas the boys are always sitting. Like you said it looks stupid!
so awesome that in this con are more cool
Such a breath of fresh air after having dealt with the idiots at Creation for years and years, let me tell you!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-06 07:29 am (UTC)I remember one con in Glasgow where the staff in a cafe opposite the hotel saw people throwing glasses out of an upper storey window, and went to tell the hotel staff, who immediately suspected con attendees... only it wasn't. It was a group on a Saga tour, who were all (or should have been) old enough to know better.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-07 12:17 am (UTC)Glad to hear that it wasn’t con folk at Glasgow causing the ruckus. Sometimes it’s too easy to point the finger in the wrong direction!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-06 03:57 pm (UTC)Wish I can go there one day!!! Hope you help me to figure everything out at DC by that time ;)!
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Date: 2012-09-06 04:11 pm (UTC)Wish I can go there one day!!! Hope you help me to figure everything out at DC by that time ;)!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-07 11:44 pm (UTC)I think you would have a BLAST at DragonCon. Though I might never see you because you may never get out of the photo op line with all those different actors there! LOL!
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Date: 2012-09-06 05:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-07 11:42 pm (UTC)