My Comic Con Schedule

Yes, it's that glorious time of the year once again! COMIC CON is upon us!!

This will be my EIGTH San Diego Comic Con since I started attending with my family back in 2007. What started out as a high school graduation gift has become an annual family tradition that I look forward to each year. 

Here's my tentative Comic Con schedule for the next 4.5 days! If you're also going to the con, leave a comment or tweet me @winesosirius and say hi!

Wednesday - Preview Night!

Pick up our passes for the week

Explore the exhibit hall

SWAG time!

Meet one of my favorite cosplayers Yaya Han

Enchantment Under the Stars Party 

Thursday - Wildcard Day (I'll mostly be playing this day by ear)

Game of Thrones Survive the Realm 

Greendale Forever: Community panel (doubt I'll make it though)

Petco Park Interactive

Her Universe Fashion Show

MTV Fandom Awards

Blogger Meet Up Party

NERDHQ Fan Party

I'll probably only make it to one or two of the above four before lining up for Hall H alone :'( 

(because my family can't do the camping out thing)

Friday - Hall H Day

If all goes well, I'll be camped out inside Hall H all day and seeing panels for two of my favorite shows:

The Walking Dead

Game of Thrones

Crave Online VIP Party

Saturday - Smaller Panel Day

Kodanshi Comics (3 words: ATTACK ON TITAN)

Norman Reedus

Rulers of the Realm

American Horror Story: Coven

Might try to see the Masquerade in one of the overflow rooms

Sunday - NERDHQ Day

Conversation with the Cast of Supernatural NERDHQ panel

Cosplay photos in Exhibit Hall

Buy merchandise

Have you ever been to Comic Con?

CALITRIPPIN’ DAY 2: Preview Night!

With registration not starting until 3:30 and the Preview Night exhibit hall doors not opening until 6pm, my family and I had a bit of downtime today before all the impending Comic Con craziness.

I decided to record my July Ipsy Bag video on my hotel balcony. Oh, how I miss recording in natural light – so difficult to do in my NYC apartment because of how close all the buildings are together - they block out most sunlight from entering the apartment.

The view  of the bay outside my balcony

Afterwards, my family all headed down to a local coffee shop called Lion Coffee. We discovered this place and their amazing croissant breakfast sandwiches about 5 or 6 years ago and it’s become a tradition to eat here every Preview Night morning since. If you’re ever in San Diego, I highly recommend checking this place out. Although we come for the breakfast sandwiches, the smoothies are also really good (my sister and I shared a Passion Fruit, Mango, and Strawberry one) and I’ve heard their coffee is not to be missed either – if only I drank coffee. Plus, the service is great - my mother asked for onions and lettuce on her sandwich and when she told them it didn't have any, they offered to make her a whole new sandwich (which we passed, no use wasting food) and gave us a card for a free drink next time we were there. Thumbs up.

Lion Coffee - one of many Comic Con traditions

Next up was Ralph’s for groceries. This is another Preview Night tradition. We learned early on how pricey Comic Con snacks and food can be, so coming to Ralph’s for fruit, sandwich making materials, and whatever else has become an essential part of our SDCC routine.

Picking out snacks for Comic Con

Passing the convention center on our way back to our hotel after grocery shopping

We headed back to the hotel to drop off our groceries and relax. For the first time since I started attending Comic Con, I have free Wifi in my hotel room! They always have it down in the lobby, but NEVER in the rooms. We are only on the fifth floor so I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Either way, I’m not complaining. Being able to post on my blog during the con is something I’m definitely not going to take for granted.

Registration goes quite fast so we weren’t in too much of a hurry to rush over. A little after 4pm, my dad, sister, and I (my mom only had a 4 day pass – no Preview Night) made our way to Hall E and entered the convention center. Getting our badges was a piece of cake and took less than two minutes. Between the three of us, we also got the exact three bags we wanted which were Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, and The Big Bang Theory (for which I was propositioned twice as I waited for my dad and sister).

The line behind me to get into the exhibit hall

Just chilling with my Supernatural bag

Got all three bags we wanted - no swapping needed!

Then the waiting began to enter the Exhibit Hall. It really wasn’t all that bad though and before we knew it, we were already inside heading straight to our beloved WB booth. We picked up our usual Comic Con Exclusive TV Guide issues and what would be our biggest swag item of the night: a Batman iPhone 5 case.

Honestly, I was very underwhelmed with this year’s Preview Night. We made it into the very long and crazy Fox booth line so we did get plenty of posters and Bones coasters (ha, that rhymed), but WB stopped handing out anything but TV Guide issues very early. Also, the CBS booth which usually has fun bags and items for shows like The Big Bang Theoryand Dexter did not do any such thing this year. My sister and I barely even recognized the booth as being CBS. Each year, one of our favorite swag items to receive are t-shirts. My dad will usually pack only a few shirts in anticipation of receiving these shirts to wear during the con. Often times, we’ll go home with 20 shirts between all 4 family members. This year, we didn’t see anywhere that were handing shirts out.

In line for swag at the WB booth

The Big Bang Theory art gallery at the WB Booth

FOX booth craziness

I know this sounds like I’m being a bit greedy basing my opinion on how much free stuff was given out, but that’s why my family and I come to Preview Night. So we can go ahead and get all the cool free stuff early and enjoy the panels and events the rest of the week. If they’re holding or cutting items back to give out later in the week, it kind of defeats the purpose of why we do Preview Night. Aside from lack of freebies, the booths and displays seemed a step down from years past as well.

For the first time in seven years, I actually went back to my room early. After hitting up every booth that seemed to be giving away items, I separated from my dad and sister and walked from one end of the exhibit hall to the other, taking pictures, looking at merchandise, and even tried on a few pieces of a clothing (they actually had legit fitting rooms) at this super cute clothing booth for girl geeks called Her Universe. I didn’t buy anything at the time, but I may be back on Sunday…

Upon coming back to my room, I ate, downloaded my photos and vlogging footage from my camera and phone to my laptop, and began writing this post. My dad and sister returned shortly and we created a somewhat vague plan for the next day which seemed pretty underwhelming, as well. 

I'm staying optimistic though and know by the time Friday rolls around, things will kick into gear overtime so I'm just going to enjoy this quiet before the storm. Greatly looking forward to tomorrow's Visionaries panel with directors Alfonso Cuaron, Edgar Wright, and Marc Webb along with Comic Con's last Dexter panel!

I've always wanted to be behind the wheel of a pirate ship

Photo fun at the Black Sails display

Thor Display at the Marvel booth

Zombie at The Walking Dead booth

A couple Star Wars cosplayers

CALITRIPPIN’ DAY 1: Goodbye, NYC! Hello, San Diego!

Today’s the day I’ve been looking forward to since, well, since 51 weeks ago. The day I leave to meet up with the rest of my family in beautiful, perfect-weather San Diego for this year’s Comic Con International.

For those unfamiliar with Comic Con - what started in 1970 as a small comic book convention has turned into the largest multi genre fan convention of its kind AND the world's largest pop culture event. The number of attendees was recently capped at 130,000! Whether you’re into tv, movies, comics, science fiction, fantasy, video games, anime, toys, or cosplay – you’ll find it in excess at Comic Con. 

I’ve been going to Comic Con since I graduated high school seven years ago at 17. Every year I look forward to it. It’s nice to know that each year, no matter where I’m at in my life, my family will come together to attend this event.

Although Comic Con doesn’t officially start until Thursday, my family and I always make sure to snag Wednesday Preview Night tickets that give a limited number of attendees an early look at the convention’s grand exhibit hall. Movie studios, TV networks, video game and toy companies, etc all converge on the massive showroom floor. Along with getting enough free promotional items "swag" to fill two or three extra large suitcases, this is also where all the celebrity signings and cosplay sightings occur. Since the next four days are usually filled with attending panels, we like to use Preview Night as a way for us to go on and get all our swag and take pictures of booths, displays, and costumes early so we don’t need to worry about it later in the week.

We’ve realized arriving on Wednesday can be a little crazy so we usually arrive in San Diego on Tuesday to give ourselves a little time to get settled, buy groceries, and see the city a little bit before the Comic Con chaos begins.

Waking up today, I was still in shock that it was finally that time of year again to head out to the geek mecca. I hadn’t even packed when I woke up at 9am and my flight was at 12:30pm. I was bringing two large empty suitcases with me on the trip for my family to bring swag back to Florida and was only going to be able to bring back my little carry on. I’ve always been sort of an excessive packer so this task was especially difficult for me. I was doing pretty well until it got closer and closer to 10:30 and, in a panic, I threw some extra pairs of heels and clothing in one of the empty suitcases. Going to have to figure out a way to bring those things back to NYC. Oops.

After a 45-minute delay on the runway, my flight from NYC to my 2-hour layover in Houston was smooth and uneventful. I read, drank Cranapple juice, and watched two episodes of SVU (I really can’t stop watching that show). On the flight to San Diego, I watched more SVU…

Finally, I landed and was reunited with my family in the most beautiful city I have had the pleasure to visit each year. We took a taxi van (to accommodate our 8 suitcases) to our hotel – the Marriott Marina where we’ve stayed the last six years. Conveniently located, it’s attached to the convention center and near the bay, has an incredible view and breeze. We unpacked, ate, showered...I wrote this post...and now time for bed. 

Looking forward to what tomorrow's Preview Night holds in store! 

Here are a few pictures from last year's Comic Con.

With actress Lizzy Caplan

Doctor Who panel with cast and creators

With one of my favorite YouTubers, Joey Graceffa

Two of the most sweetest, genuine guys in Hollywood - Jared Padalecki and Zachary Levi