Author Topic: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses  (Read 4191 times)

Offline retired

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #15 on: August 02, 2019, 12:45:02 PM »
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... why do people need to leave Hall H to use the bathroom? There are bathrooms in there. Isn't there also food sold within that enclosed area? ...

The wait for the bathrooms inside hall H are sometimes too long for someone to be able to hold it. also they get pretty nasty as the day goes on and are not cleaned often enough. What i usually do it get a bathroom pass, go up the escalators above hall G and use the bathrooms up there.

Also the food lines inside hall H can sometimes be up to an hour wait meaning you miss a panel. Using a bathroom pass you can use starbucks stand or a nearby cookie/pretzel stand to grab a snack a lot faster.


With the line to get back into hall H with a bathroom pass sometimes taking 15-30 minutes it can be risky to use them so i dont feel there is as much abuse anymore.

Offline perc2100

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #16 on: August 02, 2019, 04:40:32 PM »
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Hall H Bathroom Tickets - I didn't get into Hall H during the big panels, but why do people need to leave Hall H to use the bathroom? There are bathrooms in there. Isn't there also food sold within that enclosed area? I feel like they should not give out return passes to hall H as it is widely abused. People see a morning panel, then come back every hour to "Renew" their pass, leaving hundreds of people stuck outside in line while they get to see the good panels AND get to walk the floor. Very unfair. To me, it should be once you leave, you're out, unless you get back in line. I could be wrong on my assumption of what is inside though, so please let me know if this wouldn't work.
I can only speak for guys, but in my experience:
* if you're using a urinal only, you're good to go: little/no waiting.  If you need a stall, it could be a HUGE line.  On Saturday morning this year, there was literally a Fire Marshal at one point freaking out about the line-up or the bathroom stalls & they were telling people to either "try again later" or "go into the convention to use the bathroom" while the Fire Marshal was coordinating with employees on how to make a better line.  While there were busier times and not-so busy times for the stall, it is (at least sometimes) absolutely less time to leave Hall H, b-line it upstairs, and hit a restroom upstairs. 
As for the food, it's absolutely horrible!  I wouldn't spend a dime buying food in Hall H, but I'm kinda cheap when it comes to Comic-Con and pack my only lunches and dinners; but I get why people would rather get a pass and get a pretzel or something else from another stand.  To be honest all the food at the Convention Center kind of sucks so IMO it's splitting hairs; but I get why people wouldn't be a fan of the stuff in Hall H

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Merch Pickup - the problem is that pre-sale people are allowed to buy more merch when they get up there. If it was just a "pickup" for prepaid, it would go much quicker. The way it is now, they go up, hmm and haaa over what they want, look at different sizes, and slow down everybody. Because of this, and because so many people preorder vs buy on site, buying on site was actually quicker than preorder! My fiancee preordered a shirt so we got in line Wednesday night. We were one before the last batch of people to be brought in before they shut the doors. I didn't want anything, so I didn't have a preorder, but I saw that the buy on site line was going much quicker than preorder. I decided to get a shirt afterall so I just walked over to the buy on site line. At the end, they merge together so the cashier has no idea if you are preorder or buying on the spot. She could have totally just came with me and we would have essentially "cut the line" but there would have been no way to enforce since the lines merge and prepayers can buy more on site. I bought my shirt and got back in line with her. It took another 90 minutes or so for her to finally get up to the front and get her shirt. So, prepaying is nice if you want to make sure they have something for you, but they really need to change their policy to not allow people to add more to their order and need 2 separate areas.
I 100% agree that Pre-order should be Pre-order only; that seems like an "easy fix" type of thing to alleviate line congestion a bit.

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Maybe it takes 51 years to perfect these kind of things  :D
Ha; exactly!!  :P ;D

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #17 on: Today at 04:32:36 AM »

Offline hikanteki

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #17 on: August 03, 2019, 11:50:45 AM »
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March Pickup - the problem is that pre-sale people are allowed to buy more merch when they get up there. If it was just a "pickup" for prepaid, it would go much quicker. The way it is now, they go up, hmm and haaa over what they want, look at different sizes, and slow down everybody. Because of this, and because so many people preorder vs buy on site, buying on site was actually quicker than preorder! My fiancee preordered a shirt so we got in line Wednesday night. We were one before the last batch of people to be brought in before they shut the doors. I didn't want anything, so I didn't have a preorder, but I saw that the buy on site line was going much quicker than preorder. I decided to get a shirt afterall so I just walked over to the buy on site line. At the end, they merge together so the cashier has no idea if you are preorder or buying on the spot. She could have totally just came with me and we would have essentially "cut the line" but there would have been no way to enforce since the lines merge and prepayers can buy more on site. I bought my shirt and got back in line with her. It took another 90 minutes or so for her to finally get up to the front and get her shirt. So, prepaying is nice if you want to make sure they have something for you, but they really need to change their policy to not allow people to add more to their order and need 2 separate areas.

Maybe it takes 51 years to perfect these kind of things  :D

On Wednesday afternoon, it was prepaid pickup only and the line was still 2+ hours.
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Offline lborgia88

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #18 on: August 03, 2019, 12:36:45 PM »
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A non-hyped gem has to be the 'Animation Show of Shows' panel Saturday.  I always love what that org. puts together, and this year was no different with an Oscar nominated short being a highlight (along with a nice short Q&A with the creators of said Oscar nominated short).

I agree -I first discovered the Animation Show of Shows years ago, as I do Hall H on Fridays and it used to always be in there on Friday mornings, or if it wasn't, I was still able to see it when/where it was.  Some of the shorts, I'd find myself still thinking about them days/weeks/months later, they were that good...  I'm glad I was able to see it at WonderCon this year, as I missed it at SDCC this year.

Offline sylent_asassin

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #19 on: August 06, 2019, 02:06:33 PM »
Hits -
The shuttles. We never had to wait for more than 10 minutes for a shuttle, although traffic in the morning was brutal, so it took longer than walking from Downtown. Drivers were friendly and cordial.
The weather. Thursday was perfect with the overcast clouds cooling it down. It heated up a bit over the weekend, but wasn’t too hot or humid.
Hotel hospitality. We received nothing but excellent customer service during the con, both at the Marriott Courtyard and the Hilton Bayfront.
Disney Disco Party. This was a great time out. Hopefully, they do something similar next year.

Misses -
The exclusive lottery. It’s horribly unbalanced. I’d prefer that they go back to the lines so everyone has a fair shot at prioritizing and obtaining what they really want. I would rather wait in a line and see my effort pay off rather than pushing a button and waiting for an algorithm to determine my fate.
Picking up paid merchandise. It shouldn’t take more than two hours to get what you already paid for. I spent a good chunk of Friday evening just to pick up two t-shirts.
Cosplay. It was lacking and this was the fewest amount of cosplayers that I’ve seen at a large-scale convention.
Mattel. The booth was an unorganized cluster the entire weekend and the male line monitors were quite rude and apathetic, probably from frustration. Out of all the booths, Mattel would have probably benefited the most from a lottery.
Hasbro. When you showed up at your designated time, the line monitors told you “the lines are capped!” and to "come back in 15 minutes!" I showed up an hour early. I walked around and returned to the booth five different times and was met with the same speil. I gave up as I couldn’t allow Hasbro to hijack my con. I returned a few hours later to the EXACT SAME situation, but fortunately, the line monitor recognized that several of us had been waiting for hours, so he sent a group of us directly to the booth without waiting in the wall line.
In general. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but with this being the 50th SDCC, I anticipated the con of all cons, a grandiose event; amazing giveaways, surprise appearances, announcements, fireworks, etc., but for me, this was just another SDCC, only with very few cosplayers. I had a good time as I do at all cons, but there didn't seem to be anything special or extraordinary about it.

Offline TossedSalad

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #20 on: August 06, 2019, 09:24:26 PM »
I’m guilt of no cosplaying. I brought 3 different ones and used none of them.  It wasn’t anything exotic but with getting to hall h lines and stuff early in the morning I got lazy. Wife even yelled at me for not using them lol
Fun isn’t something one considers when preparing for Comic-Con, but attending does put a smile on my face

Offline hikanteki

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #21 on: August 07, 2019, 11:55:30 AM »
Also guilty of no cosplay. I just don’t ever cosplay so I can’t complain too much about the lack...though I did also notice this may have been the lightest year yet.

But to be honest...if I was a cosplayer, I wouldn’t do it at SDCC. It is the most difficult to get into and among the most expensive and crowded. It also has the best programming and best exhibit hall.There’s no need to go though all those hoops and pay all that much to cosplay (especially since that makes it more difficult to enjoy the exhibit hall and panels) when you can do it anywhere else for much less drama.
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Offline TossedSalad

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #22 on: August 07, 2019, 01:10:07 PM »
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Also guilty of no cosplay. I just don’t ever cosplay so I can’t complain too much about the lack...though I did also notice this may have been the lightest year yet.

But to be honest...if I was a cosplayer, I wouldn’t do it at SDCC. It is the most difficult to get into and among the most expensive and crowded. It also has the best programming and best exhibit hall.There’s no need to go though all those hoops and pay all that much to cosplay (especially since that makes it more difficult to enjoy the exhibit hall and panels) when you can do it anywhere else for much less drama.

That’s why I opt for simple ones like Steve from Stranger Things(no scoops ahoy as I knew it would be over saturated and I was right.). I was going to do season 2 Steve with the members only jacket and everything. Had all the stuff but the wig wasn’t being cooperative and wasn’t fully what I wanted so I got upset and changed. I had Vincent Vega pulp fiction but the “dorks” outfit after The Wolf came and helped them out and then Johnny Lawrence. Nothing fancy but all screen accurate, just lazy
Fun isn’t something one considers when preparing for Comic-Con, but attending does put a smile on my face

Offline stl_ben

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #23 on: August 08, 2019, 07:52:38 AM »
So speaking of Cosplay...The dude that dresses up as silent bob every year and then just stands there for photos.
To me that is nuts....but props to him.
Can't imagine paying for a badge and then leaning against a poll on the floor the whole time.

Offline sylent_asassin

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #24 on: August 08, 2019, 08:45:48 AM »
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So speaking of Cosplay...The dude that dresses up as silent bob every year and then just stands there for photos.
To me that is nuts....but props to him.
Can't imagine paying for a badge and then leaning against a poll on the floor the whole time.

Hahaha! I've seen that dude at SDCC for the last 10 years... leaning on the same pillar in the exhibit hall, looking around with a blank stare on his face and wiggling that cigarette in his mouth. I captured him in one of my cosplay videos several years ago.

Speaking of videos, I'm in the process of finalizing one from this year and couldn't find more than 20 cosplayers on Sunday. Even in the footage I captured, there were no other cosplayers in the background. Past Sundays saw literally hundreds of cosplayers congregating along the wall in the lobby with the SDCC logo, many with elaborate costumes, but this year, not so much. Not even those annoying Deadpool's with Chuck Taylor shoes that photobomb people were around.

I didn't spend as much time cosplaying like I wanted mostly because I was exclusive-chasing and panel-hopping. I was NWA Ice Cube for a few hours on Friday and at the Mickey Mouse Disco Party, CW's Black Lightning on Saturday for a few hours and Morpheus from the Matrix on Sunday afternoon.

Offline semigeekgirl

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #25 on: August 08, 2019, 10:41:55 AM »
I cosplayed all day all 4 days, but I also went to a lot of panels and parties and events. So I wasn't really just hanging around in any of the photo-taking areas a lot of the time.

Offline tsnyder

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #26 on: August 09, 2019, 10:59:21 AM »
As you can see by the 1st post I stay pretty busy with panels and such but I actually tried cosplaying for the 1st time this year.  Granted I went very low key so as to not interfere with me moving around or waiting in lines.  I did a bruce willis theme of:
Thur : Korben Dallas from 5th element
Fri: David Dunn from Glass
Sat: Dr Malcolm Crane from Sixth Sense
Sun:  John McClane from Die Hard

Even though they were very low key and pretty easy to do I doubt I will ever cosplay again.  For me wasn't worth the effort or time and I am all over the place during the con.

Offline sefton42

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Re: SDCC 2019 Hits and Misses
« Reply #27 on: August 09, 2019, 11:14:55 AM »
In addition to the horribly inefficient Merch pickup line the Marvel line was also terrible.  I got a timed pass on Wednesday to come back at 8.  I came back at 8, and the line didn't move at all.  They gave us another timed pass to come back on Thursday, really any time just as long as it wasn't terribly late.  So I went back around noon, after the Terminator panel (and missed Tom Cruise as a result).  I finally checked out around 2:00.  It should not take 3+ hours to buy tshirts, especially when the line, once you're legitimately in it, isn't that long.

And then I made the mistake of going from Marvel to merch pickup, so I spent my entire Thursday afternoon in lines that took waaaay longer than they should have.