Today I had a fun new experience. Since 2013 they have had one of the most successful local comicon’s here in Salt Lake and I’ve wanted to attend but since I don’t read comic books I wasn’t sure it would be worth it. Well, this year it happened to fall on the week after my birthday so I thought why not? and I decided to go to Comicon.
It started today and it was a mixture of fun and not so much fun. Luckily I think next time I will know what not to do and have more fun. When I arrived I didn’t know which part of the Salt Palace Convention Center the Con was on so I parked on the West Side. Big mistake. I wish the organizers had put a sign or something because I had to walk to the very most East side through 3 other convention halls. I should have brought my cane but I figured I could rest. Big mistake.
Anyway, I got to the festivities and I had a good time shopping for about an hour and a half. I got some hair chalk, a necklace made of scrabble pieces and a t-shirt inked with a wood lithograph with a cool design of Elsa.
I also got a picture taken with the delorean from Back to the Future and got to donate to Parkinson’s research. Win-win.
I got my picture taken with R2D2 which was pretty cool
And a glitter tattoo
Then I headed over for my photo op with Carrie Fisher. It was $70 and I had paid for an autograph. The website had said to not arrive early. 15 minutes tops. I got there at 23 minutes before the session and the line was a mile long. It took me nearly 2 hours waiting. The whole thing was so disorganized and frustrating and then when I got there I had to take the photo on the floor with her dog.
I really don’t care that we were sitting on the floor or that her dog was there it was just the whole process was very frustrating. Why not give groups of people 10 minute windows to get their photos or make them more expensive so there is less interest. Anything rather than have me on my feet waiting in line for 2 hours. With my feet and knee problems standing like that is the worst thing and it was very frustrating. I also never got my autograph because we had to wait in another line for that. Forget it.
It was also incredibly hard to find any staff and just a general aura of confusion. I think there were only two small booths that were tough to find and I thought it was strange that nobody greeted me with a map and guide when I arrived. For the prices they are charging and attendance they are getting they need to step it up for next time.
Anyway, next time I will just save my money and go to the celebrity row they had and no lines and were much cheaper. I met lots of cool people including Ralph Macchio from Karate Kid. He was very nice.
Next time I go I will bring a lunch because the food concessions were small in number and long in lines. I got some pecans to hold me over (and luckily had eaten a fairly big breakfast).
Well, then I did a little more shopping and got to say hi to Olaf and Elsa.
Then the highlight of the day was a panel with Jess Arnell, Jim Cummings and Rob Paulsen. They are all amazing voice actors and they spent about an hour reading script from Harry Potter in tons of voices. It was hilarious and brilliant and amazing. It made the day! (Sorry it is shaky in spots).
I’m making it sound like I had a terrible time which isn’t true. I really did have fun and if I go again I will have way more fun because I will know what to avoid. As for the moment it’s late, my feet are killing and I am ready to zonk out. Happy Comicon!