Comic-Con International -- also known as CCI, Comic-Con, San Diego Comic-Con and even by the shorthand "San Diego" -- is the largest gathering of comics industry professionals and fans in North America. It is also a show of great importance to hundreds of pros in and fans of related publishing, merchandising and film businesses.
Comic-Con International features on its main floor a massive marketplace of vendors, creators and direct suppliers. You can buy old comics, new comics, original art, movies, t-shirts, toys, and licensed items from every walk of geek life at Comic-Con.
The upstairs rooms offer aggressive programming tracks in comics, film, television and a cornucopia of related activities.
There are opportunities all over the show to see and meet creators from any number of entertainment fields: actors, cartoonists, academics, voice-over talent, models and writers. There are chances in the convention center and all over San Diego on Comic-Con weekend to meet like-minded fans, to celebrate your favorite oddball things, and to network on a massive scale.
The show is also used as an event to facilitate news announcements, from comics publishing and all related entertainment media. Anyone with an interest in comics or related media with an intense fan component, even if they are not in San Diego on Comic-Con weekend, will likely pay at least some attention to the show. It is your window to the rest of 2014 in popular culture, much of 2015 and some of 2016.
It's Geek Vegas, Nerd Prom, Fan Cannes, Fandom Branson, the Grand Ol' Cosplay Opry, Four-Color Ground Zero.
It has spread its seed all over the country, in dozens of similar events and dozens of events that define themselves as different than CCI in one, two, three, four or more ways.
Comic-Con International is also an extraordinarily complicated vacation event.
That's where this guide comes in. I'm a 20-year veteran of attending the show as a professional and covering it as press. What follows is a list of observations, tips and insights from a comics-culture point of view that may help prepare you for your San Diego con-going experience.
Everyone's San Diego is different, but there are a few commonalities and shared experiences that we hope makes talking about some of them worthwhile. Several of them will be presented here in the form of tips, clustered by category.
This year's show is scheduled for July 24-27, with a preview night on July 23.
I hope to see you there.
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Tip #1. Stay Safe
In 2012, a woman with the intention of attending Comic-Con died after running into traffic and being struck by a car. Her name was Gisela Gagliardi. She was a fan. She didn't think she was going to die when she got up that morning.
Please be careful.
Don't do anything because you're at a show and in a different headspace that you would avoid back home for safety reasons.
Protect yourself.
Remember that San Diego is a city, and not some strange city from a fantasy book, but a real-life city with all that entails.
Accept help.
It's fine to complain about the police officers and what they have you do as far as crossing streets and waiting for trains. They drive me nuts, too. Do what they tell you anyway; they have your best interests in mind. Even the security inside the convention center has a job to do. Your day will go just fine making their days go a little easier by doing what they ask.
You look after you.
Nothing about Comic-Con is important if you don't come out of it on the other side at least as safe and as healthy and as happy as the moment you first set foot in San Diego County.
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Tip #2. Don't Have A Badge Yet? Stay Home.
The convention is sold out. Professional registration is completed. Exhibitors are set. Press registration is over.
If you don't have tickets for the show or aren't registered in another way, you're almost certainly screwed.
The current demand to attend Comic-Con outstrips the number of tickets available for the show. That's just the reality of things. That rise in demand came with such sudden force as to discombobulate -- if not snuff outright -- traditional avenues for securing tickets.
You have to pre-register as press now. You didn't use to. Being able to claim professional status in a hobby-related field, even comics, is no longer a guarantee of entry. Abuse of a one-time much more lax badge system by several parties and a general desire to allow for as many attendee badges as possible means you can't easily pick up an extra badge or two through an exhibitor pal, the kind of fakes that used to be commonplace. Even "Bruce Wayne," "Ned Stark" and "Sarah Manning" have a hard time getting badges these days.
I can't imagine anything sadder than someone showing up at the convention center expecting to score tickets like it's 1996. I've seen this: it's stab-yourself-in-the-eyes awful.
If you are badgeless, I'd suggest focusing on the 2015 Comic-Con, or on one of the many fine conventions all over the world where demand hasn't yet exceeded capacity.
Baltimore
Charlotte
Chicago
New York
San Francisco/Anaheim
Seattle
Toronto
and so many more.
Are there gray areas to work? Not really. Not anymore. The only thing I can think of is this: if you are a pro or celebrity whose presence would be so awesome as to kick a big exhibitor or convention player or participating agency into surreptitious action on your behalf, that might work. I've never heard of an A-list comics creator or movie headliner not being accomodated even at the last minute.
Beyond that… yikes.
There have been people that have put up for sale on eBay certain badges or groups of badges. I have no idea if this works. I would never recommend this. For all I know, security enhancement from the convention's side of things has eliminated this as an option.
You could conceivably go anyway.
There are things roughly comic-con like to do in the area of San Diego immediately surrounding the convention. About seven or eight years ago the film and television studios starting doing outside events and promotional set-ups, usually tied into a specific movie or event. I'm pretty sure there's been something where you can have zombies lurch at you. Last year outside of the Hilton was some sort of walk-through related to Ender's Game, which I'm guessing wasn't about managing on-line social media impressions of one's film. About two or three years ago there was another wave of significant investment in doing meetings, having lunches, restricted nighttime events and private parties. The last two years or so there has been what I would term almost competitive counter-programming, some of it quite boldly and semi-obnoxiously so.
I wouldn't do the show without a badge.
The first thing described above is really a supplement to the convention — a county fair of geekdom set up next to its Disney World, not something I'd think worth attending on its own. The second is for people who are powerful and rich enough, for the most part, to score badges, whether or not they're making use of them at all times. The only way this ever has an effect on my life is to keep me walking to find an open restaurant or bar from 2 PM to 8 PM. The third thing described is no more guaranteed than any seat in the actual show, and may cost you something extra besides.
There may come a day when a lot of people can cram into San Diego each day without badges and have a structured, quality, easy-to-negotiate entertainment experience. We are not there yet.
Me, I'd skip outright a badgeless San Diego. And I once slept outside at one of these things.
Tip #4: Protect That Badge
The con's organizers will charge you for lost badges. Period. They don't care how you lost it. You're paying up. If you're mugged for it by that nice-looking man playing Oliver Queen on Arrow, you pay up. If you lose it in a late-night poker game with the Image founders in the captain's quarters on Jim Lee's zeppelin, you pay up. If you allow a badge-less pal to "steal" it, you pay up. Take seriously where you keep your badge.
BONUS TIP ONE: A reader suggested taking a pin and securing your badge to your shirt as well as having it attached to the provided lanyard. It's worth considering. The nice thing here is you would also be one of the 11 percent of people on the floor whose badge wasn't flipped around.
Tip #5: Use The Show
Comic-Con is still an incredibly useful show for me as a journalist covering comics, and an enjoyable show for me as a fan of the medium. You have to use Comic-Con, though.
Comic-Con is too big. It's not going to sweep you off your feet, it's not going to stop and genuflect. It's not depending on you. This is a show where people worth half a billion dollars stand in line to wait for an autograph on a comic book and it's a show where someone is going to slip someone a mini-comic that's going to one day change both of their lives. It's not a show about you; it's a show about everybody. I think it's a positive thing to see comics in this cascading series of contexts.
If seeing movie trailers and being on hand for what people are going to be talking about the next 11 hours on twitter is your thing, Comic-Con provides that. It's also a high-functioning comics show and provides plenty of opportunities there. Last year was a laid-back year for comics at the show. That means I did about 30 quick meetings with publishers and related professionals; had about seven meal-meetings with key industry people; picked up the last Eisner for which we'll ever be nominated; got to see people at the Eisners talk about the late, great Kim Thompson; had drinks with Team Monkeybrain right after their first publishing anniversary; bought about 200 comics; watched David Brothers and Tucker Stone work their respective crowds; got to catch up with a variety of talented people including Ellen Forney and Tom Gauld; met a bunch of writing peers in TV and in comics; got to see the turnout for the John Lewis signing; got to see Dave McKean speak, and a ton more stuff. That's off the top of my head 48 weeks later. It was a great weekend, and I expect them to be great weekends for a while yet.
There will come a time when I won't attend CCI. I can feel it coming. I'm losing Wednesday and Sunday this year for a pair of professional conflicts. At some point in the next dozen years I'll become a Friday morning to Saturday night attendee and then, soon after, Comic-Con will be something I used to do.
Someone will have their first show this year. Someone will have their best. Someone will say goodbye. It's all good. Use what's in front of you; don't lament what's not.
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Tip #6. If You Don't Have Lodging By The Time You Read This, Stay Home
It's tough out there.
It used to be that just about every hotel in the lottery added rooms back to the grid between the lottery and the show, with a bunch of them showing up in dashes and darts all through late May and early June. This doesn't seem to be the case anymore.
Anecdotally a huge boon for other shows, AirBNB.com has not been super-helpful for con-goers in San Diego — at least from what I've been told — although experiences likely vary. What I hear, though, is that higher prices and scarcity have hit them, too, just like every other lodging option. I've also heard that some of the hosts are even stating a preference not to deal with anyone attending the convention.
At this moment, were I in the position of not having a place to stay, I would network with friends and professional contacts and shamelessly put myself out there for a room or a bed or whatever it is that I decided I minimally needed.
If that didn't work, I would consider a long commute. That's actually doable. I know people that have done Amtrak back and forth to LA, and I know people that have stayed in Oceanside and driven in. If my professional commitments sort themselves out, I may make a day trip of Wednesday and hit the Image Expo. I've done that before, the Wednesday round trip. Not the worst day.
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Tip #7: Remember: Closer Is Better, But Further Is Fine
I used to pretend that staying close by the convention center wasn't a big deal. I'm not going to do that anymore. I stayed three of the last four years in hotels right up near the convention center. It. Was. Awesome. The thought I could return to my room before the evening's activities and the thought I could run back over to me if I needed something? Amazing. It added like five hours of free time to my weekend, no joke.
I'm not staying in one of those hotels this year. I'm staying about six blocks away. I love those hotels, too, and I find myself enjoying the slight remove, the adjustment to getting out of con mode that takes place with a short walk. Picking up a spare phone charger or a bag of room snacks is easier when it's on your way to something as opposed to trudging completely out of your new-found comfort zone. Plus a lot of those hotels are individually amazing.
I've also stayed further away. I stayed more than once in a hotel in a further-away part of downtown San Diego, that long walk past bail-bondsmen and emtpy-seeming office buildings. That had its charms. Three years I've attended I've stayed out at the dreaded hotel circle some miles north of the city. One year I stayed a half-hour away by car. That was a great year!
I have no memories that one place to stay was so superior to another that any year stands out in negative fashion just for where I stayed.
Any hotel can work if you're willing to work it. If you make the attempt to enjoy where you're staying as opposed to fuming about where you're not, you'll likely have a pretty good weekend.
Or look at it like this: wherever you're saying, someone probably wishes they were staying there.
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Tip #8: Be Realistic About Staying Further Away
The primary problem staying further away from the convention center than you may like is getting to and from the show.
If you stay anywhere in downtown San Diego proper, you should be able to get away with a combination of walking, cabs, shuttle buses and public transportation. This is certainly true of any hotels within 10-12 blocks of the show.
At the Hotel Circle north of town and in some of the other San Diego neighborhoods, you're relegated to a combination of the extended shuttle-bus service, public transportation, cabs and, if you brought one, your own vehicle.
If you're staying at a hotel on or near the water, there may be water transportation from your hotel to the convention center. You should check with the hotel. There's something about crossing a body of water on your way to an event that would make installing a toilet or buying bread feel like glorious tasks, events worthy of a theme song. Note that water taxis are limited to a few hotels and may shut down earlier in the evening than you want to head back. That could mean you'll need to supplement your water taxi trips with a regular taxi ride or two. I still totally recommend doing this at least once if you're able. My dream show is nothing but water taxis and zip lines.
If you're someone who needs to transport equipment back and forth at Comic-Con, that should be okay, too — just make the extra time. You may be able to store some on-floor material or accrued crud with a friend at a better/closer hotel. Granted, that would take a heck of a friend. Build in enough time and give yourself the ability to make some concessions -- like jumping in a cab if the public transportation is delayed -- and you'll be more than fine.
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Tip #10: You Should Also Know By Now How You're Getting There, And Should Plan Accordingly
In case you haven't done this yet, briefly:
Plane tickets at this point are going to be a lot — but so is keeping your car at a hotel (two hotels in the San Diego downtown area are at $40+ a night; most are over $20). Make a decision based on all the costs involved. I like the Amtrak option from Los Angeles, particularly the off-hours (super-early on Wednesday or later on Thursday to the show; earlier on Sunday leaving the show) because the prime hours are brutally crowded. Most of the trains are pretty crowded. Get there and get in line early. It might also be worth upgrading to business class and a reserved seat option if that's a possibility for you.
It might also be worth taking the train from one of the stops south of LA — say Oceanside — just to not to have to deal with your car in San Diego proper. You'll be stepping onto a full train, though. I would never do a train further north than LA.
If you're coming in by car, in addition to making plans to pay for or work around parking, do build in time for driving in, both for the actual drive-in (it can be a nightmare on Friday afternoon) and for securing that parking and getting settled.
Tip #11. Time To Touch Base With Your Network
If you have a badge and a place to stay, I think you're going. If you haven't already, reach out to anyone in the next few days to those that you know are going to the show as well. It's not a bad thing if you don't know anyone — you'll likely meet a bunch of folks — but if you do, take advantage of it.
The thing you should do with that touch-base e-mail is to declare your intentions and to ask for any help or advice. Offer your help in return.
Not everyone will be helpful. Maybe no one will. Still, the number of people I've had tell me weeks after the show that there was a disappointing aspect to their Comic-Con weekend because of Reason X when I would have been able to easily provide them with Reason X had I only known is... well, it's about fifteen people. Still. That's 15 whole weekends I could have made better if the people involved had sent me a two-line e-mail. So reach out. Don't be a bother, but talk to your pals if you got 'em.
Tip #12. Put Together A Quick Run Of Bookmarks
The other great, recurrent skill in the con-goer's toolbox is research. At some point between now and the show start a folder and put everything related to the con into it, including the following web sites.A. This Guide -- if for no other reason than I'm going to spend time between now and Comic-Con obsessively slipping in more jokes.
B. Convention Web Site -- the source for tons of official information
C. Your Hotel's Web Site -- familiarize yourself with your surroundings, join the points club
D. Tripadvisor.com -- preview your hotel experience.
E. SDcommute.com -- commuting options.
F. VirtualGuideBooks.com -- see public areas before you visit them.
G. News From ME -- Mark Evanier has attended every single Comic-Con, and has logged about 63,000 hours of panel moderation time. He writes about his panels and the con itself with increasing frequency as the show dates approach.
H. The Beat -- Heidi MacDonald's purview is comics culture, and there's no single entity of greater importance within comics' culture than Comic-Con.
I. Yp.Yahoo.com -- nearby business scouting.
J. SignOnSanDiego.com -- a halfway decent baseline review place, particularly for restaurants.That may sound like a lot of sites, and you can tailor the folder for your specific intentions, but I still think it's a good idea in general to put together a little folder of bookmarks.
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HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON A CCI TRIP
Tip #12.5 As Much As You're Able To, Budget In Advance
I put aside as much money as I can conceive of spending. It just makes it easier. I even try to pay any nights that aren't covered by a deposit when I get there. I also budget a per diem for myself and anyone I have at the show with me, and carry that much in cash. I find if I'm really up front and over-estimate a bit on the actual expenses, it leaves me a lot more room to make any purchases I want to on the show floor, and to generally enjoy myself. I find that estimating how much I'd pay for dinner and multiplying it by three gives me enough run around money (cabs, tips, food, beer) per day for a convention weekend. But everyone is vastly different here. If you over-budget a bit, you'll feel like you're saving, and that can be helpful, too.
Tip #13. Consider Making Your Trip Shorter
I have friends that only go to Comic-Con if they can be there for five nights and six days, from Preview Night through Sunday's "dead-dog" parties. While I'm sure it's still a blast to have that whole summer-camp experience, stepping off the bus to final campfire, I work in comics and 2013 was only the second time I'd made it for more than three days and two nights since 1996. A four-day pass won't explode in your hand if you only use it for two or three days. As far as I know, a press or professional pass or your extra badge from an exhibitor can be picked up at any time.
The main savings you derive by going for only part of the show is not having to spend on that many extra days of hotels and meals. Remember that a lot of what people want to do at Comic-Con isn't tied into a specific panel or scheduled experience. If you plan well, it's more than possible to get 90 percent of what you want out of Comic-Con in, say, 33 percent of the time spent there. Plus, you avoid burnout. It's better to leave Comic-Con wanting more than to scurry away fervently praying you never see a comic book or anything related to a comic book ever again.
Tip #14. Consider Sharing A Room
I'm too old to do this now, if I can avoid it. I make an exception for family, but even then there's a four-day limit. Part of my personal San Diego routine as it's developed over the years seems to involve sitting in a fiercely air-conditioned room in my underwear for a couple of hours each day drinking Diet Mountain Dew, eating barbecue corn chips and watching Baseball Tonight with the volume all the way up. I'm a bad roommate.
That said, I shared a room with a near-stranger as recently as 2012. I survived the experience with a few hundred extra dollars in roommate savings I immediately spent on a full run of Dagar The Invincible. The right roommate can be a very good thing, even when you're old enough to know better.
Reach out to your network. You'd be surprised who might need a room or have an extra bed. Heck, it might have been you, just three or four tips ago.
BONUS TIP TWO: Stuffing people into your room like college kids on Spring Break can be easy or difficult depending on the hotel. Stay away from the Westgate when it comes to this practice unless you want to pay for each and every body. They're notoriously tough on this point. Other hotels might be, too. This is something that's been a much bigger deal when I travel generally, and I'm sure that's true of San Diego.
So don't count on any hotel letting you re-enact the linen closet scene from Night At The Opera. A new manager can make a traditional look-the-other-way establishment into a hard case.
I know that many hotels will deny rollaways to rooms that already have two beds out of "policy" -- a policy that I guess is becoming more of a thing just generally. The Westin Gaslamp and the Manchester Grand Hyatt used to offer them during San Diego Con for a modest fee, but damned if I could get either place to give me one in 2009 or 2012.
Tip #16. Consider "Temping," If The Opportunity Arises
Exhibitors from out of town will occasionally hire locals or people that have made their own plans to be at Comic-Con and put them to work at their booths. This way they save on flying in more people from the home office and still have time to leave someone else in charge of commerce and sneak off to see all their favorite showcase panels featuring inkers from the 1970s.
In many cases, these exhibitors may have the capability to secure you a badge, provide you with a discount on their stuff, or even pay you a small fee. This is the Comic-Con equivalent of standing on a street corner hoping a publisher pulls up in his pick-up truck and asks you to jump in, so I wouldn't make plans based on this. Still, it couldn't hurt to keep your eyes and ears open.
Tip #17. Consider Adjusting Your Plans To Include Commerce
People love buying original stuff and other unique items at Comic-Con, and they love buying stuff directly from creators. A great way to mitigate costs at a comics convention is sell enough stuff that it's a net positive for you to be there. This may sound like basic advice, but not every pro with this opportunity pursues it.
Definitely double-check with any sponsors you might have. One publisher might not want you selling another publisher's work or anything but the item they're having you sign. Another exhibitor may not have any room for a display of your work. If you are your own sponsor, you may secure permission from yourself.
You can also offer the opportunity for people to pick up books or art through social media and close the deal in person at Comic-Con. You should do that immediately, though.
Does commerce at Comic-Con work? It can. On the other hand, I've known plenty of people that have had terrible shows, including those that have failed to sell a single item -- although I'm not sure that wasn't just a line to get me to buy something. Still: some people have lousy weekends commercially. I wish I could tell you there's a pattern, but I've never been able to discern one. I've known cartoonists who sold thousands of dollars in prints and original art despite being placed at a far-off table surrounded by booths that sold nothing but ergonomic chairs and paintings of lions. I've also known comics-makers in what seemed to be prime-time areas near all that's good and beautiful in the art form fail to click with the crowd for whatever reason and leave the weekend pretty much as they arrived, although much grumpier.
I think we're past the days when a comics pro might show up at Comic-Con needing to make the money for their return ticket from what they can sell at their table (at least one prominent mainstream comics writer claims to have done this multiple times back in the day). At least I hope so. Consider sales a wild card, tamping down your expectations while still planning accordingly, and you should be fine.
BONUS TIP THREE: Assume personal responsibility for anything that will be sold on your behalf. If you are counting on a publisher bringing you books to sign or sell, talk to that publisher to make sure that's happening, and to see how many copies are coming down with them for you. Too few books/poster/prints or none at all is something that can rarely be fixed at the convention. There used to a few stories that might your stuff; these exhibitors are more rare than ever. If you're bringing stuff in yourself, consider making that your walk-on luggage, to keep it close.
Tip #18. Walk Everywhere
You're probably going to walk most places even if you're stuffed with cash, and we'll talk about that a bit later, but deciding in advance you're not spending a lick on cabs can keep you from jumping in that Hilton line post-Eisners or deciding you're too tired to wear your backpack the half mile from hotel to train station. Heck, it's only about an hour's walk from the Broadway hotels to the airport (I'm not sure there are sidewalks, though). Walking is also a nice way to see the city and gain a different perspective on things. I've known people that went to San Diego and never got in a cab, bus or train. It's worth thinking about, anyway.
Tip #19. Live Like A Cartoonist
The reason so many comics people are able show up at San Diego despite yearly incomes that would generate derisive, barking laughter from street folk is because they're really, really good at not spending money. You can be good that way, too. Trying your best to have other people feed you, shadowing your peers with expense accounts when it comes to getting cab rides or buying coffee, sleeping on a piece of spare carpet, taking public transit to and from the airport, walking everywhere during the show even when it's far away, not buying drinks but waiting to have them bought for you, leaving your wallet in the hotel room safe while you patrol the show... you might be surprised how freeing this is. It might be humliating, too. It's up to you.
Tip #20. Consider Eating In
You may horrify the local tourism bureau if you choose not to utilize one of San Diego's excellent restaurants for each and every meal. Bad, bad convention-goer! But let's face it: with the more comprehensive programming, various food allergies, the closure of some of the cheaper-menu restaurants in the neighborhoods near the convention center, the number of pros on deadline who suddenly have to stay in their hotel room to get some pages -- or a con report -- done and people spending enough days in the city that they may simply desire a non-restaurant meal, there shouldn't be any stigma about buying something from a grocery store or deli and returning to your hotel room to chow down. And if there is, what's one more stigma to a comics and geek culture fan?
Tip #21. Consider Shifting To A Chaper Motel Your First Or Last Night In The Region
Say you're staying Sunday and heading out of town early Monday. You maybe don't need to spend that last night in the same luxury downtown hotel you just spent the days of Comic-Con inhabiting. You may be able to find a cheaper hotel by the airport, perhaps, or up the highway a little bit if you're driving home. Ditto coming into the city, particularly if you're there Monday or Tuesday night before the show.
Tip #22. If You're Young And Able To Do So, Consider Saving A Night In A Hotel Room By Not Getting A Hotel Room
Actually, don't do this. This is insane, I can't believe I ever did it, and I'm told they closed the Denny's near the airport.
[lean in]
So: not a real tip, but if you travel frequently enough, you know you can probably check your luggage in at your hotel's front desk in the morning, stay out really late on that last night, pick up that luggage (while apologizing they had it so long and leaving a good tip), spend that 2-4 AM time period in an all-night diner of some sort, and then head to the airport so you can make an early morning flight.
Not recommended, though. It's not that kind of show anymore.
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PACKING AND PREPARATION
Tip #24. Get Your Pre-Convention Work Done At Least One Full Week In Advance
If you're preparing anything at all for the show -- resumes, business cards, art to sell, opening lines, books to sell, art to show, scripts to pass around, your camera, a freelance assignment you have to physically hand to an editor who threatened to kill you and your pets -- get everything done by July 16.
This gives you a day or two of cushion if something gets screwed up. It also means you won't be a basket case when you arrive on the convention floor because you stayed up for 37 hours straight stapling 11,000 copies of your Metamorpho spec script.
Forget entirely getting something done "when you get there." Whatever you're thinking of leaving of doing until you get to the hotel room? You will not get that thing done. It's not convenient, you'll find 10,000 excuses to skip it, and you'll end up feeling dumb as a rock having to carry the raw materials back home with you on the plane. Packing materials you never touched back into the bag you brought with you is the DIY Walk of Shame.
Tip #25. Consider Shipping To The Hotel, But Be Extremely Careful About Doing So
Shipping material to the convention center or hotel as major exhibitor is way, way advanced class and I wouldn't dare suggest to provide comment on any of it. Still, I know that some folks ship a box or two to the hotel where they're staying. I suggest two prerequisites: 1) A personal conversation with someone at the hotel to confirm that they do this, a person who can spell out in great detail for you how it will work, including your getting that person's name. 2) Speaking to or e-mailing with someone that's shipped to that specific hotel in the last two years (if it's you, even better). In addition to potential screw-ups and hassles, there may be a charge. Tread carefully.
Tip #26. Limit Your Physical Preparations To Fine-Tuning
I know that a lot of people drop a few pounds to fit into their Red Lantern pukesuits or simply to better show off their late-night cocktail wear. I know that others get some walking in during the days leading up to Comic-Con so as not to risk their feet falling off while they're standing in line to meet Eleanor Davis. That's all good.
Know your limits, though. Take the world of one who knows: if you really have to lose a bunch of weight just to walk around an air-conditioned building for a few days looking for old issues of Trigger, maybe this is the year you stay home and use your Comic-Con funds to buy a gym membership. In the long run, you'll attend more conventions. Don't be that person that starves themselves for ten days eating liquefied quinoa and then has to take a nap on the floor of Rei do Gado after being overcome by meat sweats. Your friends will never let you forget it, and the restaurant won't be too happy about it, either.
Tip #27. Scout The Programming
Comic-Con programming goes up on the official site shortly before the show begins. It's always worth a read even if you only attend one or two panels. If you plan on attending a lot of panels, it's like getting a detailed scouting report -- by nerds, for nerds.
Tip #28. Pack Something With Long Sleeves
San Diego tends to offer ridiculously fantastic weather, but there are two reasons to remember to pack at least one item with long sleeves. The first is that a lot of nighttime socializing is done outside, in rooftop bars and on beaches. The second is that some years the air conditioning in the convention center is really, really aggressive.
Tip #29. Check The Forecast
What you're looking for isn't so much the specific permutations of San Diego's ridiculous weather -- there's little advantage to finding out if it will be 71 or 73 degrees at night -- but we're way overdue one of those weird years when everything is slightly chilly or really, really hot. Almost every site has a ten-days-out forecast that should do the job. Who knows, you might find it a good idea to pack two long-sleeve shirts. And double-check close to the show.
Tip #30. Pack To Mail Stuff Back
Most years I'll buy a few things and then mail them back from a local post office rather than lug them on the plane with me. I do this mostly because I don't want my luggage to incur an additional fee, but I also hate carrying books around as much as little kids hate mean, neighborhood dogs. Luggage fees and regulations are more actively applied and more stringent than ever.
There are easy-to-access mail delivery or private shipping service offices up by the Broadway hotels about six or seven blocks away and in the convention center itself. On Saturday morning I hit the post office nestled up against the Westin Horton Plaza and shoot back everything I've received/bought so far. This can be even more important if you're taking a vacation after the show. No one wants to see your Flintstones animation cels burst out of your bag in the lobby of the Flamingo.
Another way to approach it is to pick up one of the post office's "stuff everything in this box for this prepaid price" which is even the kind of thing you can probably leave at a hotel front desk with appropriate postage affixed if you don't have time to visit a post office or Fed Ex hub on your last day. Double-check, but your hotel is full of jerks if they don't do that.
Tip #31. Pack To Sleep Defensively
I got this one from Sean T. Collins: If you're one of those folks sharing a room or not quite all the way sure where you're sleeping, pack earplugs and a sleep mask. You won't look cool putting them on, but you won't see or hear the people making fun of you, either.
Tip #32. Pack As If You'll Shake 1000 Hands
Because, well, you just might end up shaking 1000 hands. Hand sanitizer, breath mints, and aspirin are the three keys to happiness in any Comic-Con dop kit. Okay, those things won't make you happy by themselves or even together, but their absence is definitely a bus transfer to Sucktown, USA.
Tip #33. Pack For Power
Glenn Hauman reminded CR readers in 2011 that battery chargers for a phone and a camera and any related devices are a necessity for many folks, and that it may involve some individual effort to get them packed in addition to the devices they power. This seems rudimentary, but it seems like I'm always finding myself near someone who's spreading out their time on a device they can't recharge until Sunday evening.
I use a separate pocket on my suitcase for this stuff.
If you do get caught without device powering implements, your hotel's front desk or concierge should be able to direct you to the nearest store or even provide that service right there. Another thing to consider is to scan the walls of the convention center lobby or the seats on your train or plane for people using a similar device, with whom you can then bargain for access. I've seen this done, so I know it works -- in 2010, my brother traded a "Supernatural" bag for 30 minutes with a charger.
Tip #34. If It's Something You Do, Consider Eating Vitamins Or Performing Some Other Ameliorative Tasks Through The Show
One of my brothers likes to take a bunch of a certain vitamin before going on a trip, during the trip, and then five days after a trip. Some people believe in those travel booster things that other people tell me are an outright scam, like that one with art by a well-known cartoonist. I won't tell you what to do, but I will assure you that Comic-Con offers up enough changes in climate, enough people met, enough broken thermostats and enough in the way of crowded rooms that whatever your personal protect-yourself routine may be, you might put it on high alert.
My private palliative is to start every Comic-Con day by chugging three raw eggs dropped into a can of Captain America 2 tie-in malt liquor and then doing 45 squat thrusts while singing made-up lyrics to the songs in Joann Sfar's Serge Gainsbourg film in Klingon. I'm not sure it works, but I'm not sure it doesn't.
Did I mention I'm not the greatest roommate?
Tip #35. Pack Paranoid In Terms Of Anything You Need Professionally
If Comic-Con is a working weekend for you, be outright paranoid about getting your working materials there. Make that its own bag, or make it a bag within a bag. You may be cut off from home while you're on the trip, so be fiercely mindful of getting the stuff you need professionally -- from business cards to art samples to published material to laptops -- to your hotel room. If possible, carry rather than check this material.
Tip #37. Maybe Build In A Back-Home Fail-Safe Contact
A lot of people going to Comic-Con professionally shut down their studio or business for the weekend. And why not? They're not there. Having the lights and the computer on and the coffee going while you're hundreds of miles away is sort of weird.
Still, it might be worth having an intern/family member stop by and open things up for an hour on Thursday morning. You may need someone to Fed Ex something that you might suddenly need or simply forgot. I've never had anything sent to me overnight while at Comic-Con, but I've sure seen it done.
Tip #38. Pack Your Motherboxes
It's taken longer than a lot of us thought it would, but the convention utilizes Internet support to a much greater degree than it used to. So saddle up with your devices. You will want to supplement the information at your disposal with access to Twitter and Facebook and the comics coverage sites; you will want a place to scan/download and keep digital exclusives; you will want to text people to find out about dinner plans.
If like me you live a life that most Amish find overly distrustful of technology, try and at least fake some sort of gadget relevance. If you can't manage 2012, get yourself up to 1998. You need something to tell time (there are no clocks in the convention center) and for people with whom you're at the convention to call/text you. You probably need a lot more, but these two are still crucial.
Some sort of texting capacity is necessary for many folks because a) it can be done silently as you're doing something else like watching Tom Richmond discuss pen nibs on CCI's annual Pen Nibs Of The Reuben Winners panel, and b) people expect you have this capability because it's 2014 and you appear to have the body hair of an adult.
I know how silly this all sounds to your average, well-connected person. But the biggest change between, say, 2009, and the Comic-Con today is that social media and the Internet generally have been mainstreamed into the convention experience. Go to a panel early and see what the panelists are doing: they are checking their phones. That is a new thing, a new reality. Don't get caught having half a con because you don't want to play catch-up.
*****
GENERAL TRAVEL TIPS, YOUR FRONT DOOR TO HOTEL LOBBY
Getting there is nowhere near half the fun.
Tip #39. Remember Most Airlines Charge For Luggage Now
Double-check with your airline's web site or this page here. This can be a killer for Comic-Con because you may be taking stuff there to do business, or taking stuff home having done some collection-related impulse buying. Even if it's bad news, it's better to be prepared than to find out you've hit a bag limit and have no cash available to you.
Tip #40. You're Under No Obligation To Be The Ambassador Of Comics, But It's Sort Of Fun To Wear That Vibranium Crown
Travel chit-chat on either end of Comic-Con weekend can be fun because few of your fellow travelers are ever doing anything as odd and entertaining as spending a weekend digging around in boxes of Car-Toons magazine and giving Ernie Hudson walking directions to Athens Market Taverna. Plus, they've heard of it now!
If you'd prefer not to answer personal questions about your Comic-Con weekend, consider this classic conversation starter: "Hi, I'm Ed Brubaker."
Tip #41. Don't Wear Your Weekend's Costume On The Plane
Seriously, that's terrifying.
Tip #42. Easily Sidestep Your Intense Desire To Wear Your Weekend's Costume On The Plane
Pretend you're slipping into San Diego in your civilian guise.
Tip #45: If You're Taking Amtrak, Embrace Its Peculiarities
If you're doing the San Diego/LA trip, consider these six things.
First, realize you may get to ride with people going to or leaving from the Del Mar racetrack. That's not really a tip, it's just extremely amusing to see sunburned, tipsy women in hats and pasty guys with light sabers hanging out together.
Second, the stations on both ends are pretty cool looking, so enjoy that part of it as a bonus-add to your overall vacation/work weekend.
Third, you used to be afforded some leeway on when you made use of your Amtrak ticket within the day of your reservation, which meant you could schedule for a 4 PM departure and leave on the 8 PM train. I have no idea if they still do this, but it may be worth checking out. I used this once when I had the chance to do a post-con lunch one Sunday.
I've left Comic-Con on a train earlier than expected, too. No, I don't want to talk about it.
Fourth, be prepared for a reasonably involved brisk walk at both stations to get on and off the trains. You should be used to walking by that point of the weekend -- or you should get used to it if you're talking before the show -- but it can still be a shock. You're not going to be able to fake your bags onto the train or out to a cab, so make sure you can carry everything.
You should be able to check luggage and may have to if you have a lot of it -- Amtrak is limiting luggage now on most train trips, just like the airlines. Build a little time between your arrival and being picked up if you give your luggage away to be hauled to your destination in a different part of the train.
Fifth, there's a line-up fairly early on for the train from San Diego to L.A. and it's very much worth being towards the front of that line. There's also usually no way around that line, and as a result way more people try to circumvent it than succeed, to the jeers an contempt of the crowd they eventually join. One of the great joys of last day of Comic-Con is standing in the train line and see person after person ask an Amtrak employee if that line the rest of us are standing in is really the line they have to stand in. Yes. Yes, it is. We call that strategically-placed railroad worker "The Destroyer Of Dreams."
The line in San Diego is to the immediate west of the main sitting room. I'd get in it as soon as 10 minutes after the last train leaves. Also, if you see about five people in that line, you have about 90 seconds before it's 200 people. This is doubly important on Sunday, when they jam people on the trains in punishing fashion. Or you could buy the reserved ticket -- I'm told that works, too. I'd still show up reasonably early.
Sixth, recognize there's a good chance you're going to be late -- about 50 percent of the time, by my experience. So maybe make your ride in LA dependent on a phone call for someone to come get you rather than a set time pick-up, and coming down to the convention don't count on the train hitting San Diego the exact second you need to be there. Maybe even take the train before the train that fits your time schedule.
Tip #46. Realize Your Airport To Hotel Cab Experience May Depend On The Terminal Your Plane Uses
At the main San Diego airport (servicing most flights), it's easy to catch a cab, but you'll have some distance to walk to get to that island. At the shuttle-service airport (servicing small planes from Phoenix and LAX), the cabstand is very close to the adorable little terminal. However, since not as many cabs go to the secondary terminal as to the primary, it can be a longer wait.
Tip #47. Share A Cab
Consider asking people ahead of you in line to share a cab, especially if you're going to the same cluster of hotels. I'm guessing right now that with tip it tops out at about $20 from the airport to one of the downtown hotels, although it's been a couple of years. If the end result is two single people sharing the back of the cab, that would seem bearable to save ten bucks.
Tip #48. Call Ahead To See About An Airport Shuttle
Very few hotels have them now. You also may need to formally reserve a shuttle rather than summon it to attend your presence by waving your hands and thinking good thoughts in the direct of your hotel.
Tip #49. If Flying, Look Out The Window At Your Own Risk
The trip down or up the California coast can be very pretty as it frequently uses a travel corridor a few miles off the shoreline. Sit on the left-hand side if you want the best view. On the other hand, the San Diego airport is right smack in a northern corner of the city, so a lot of flights coming in take you near bunches of buildings.
Tip #50. Planes Are Good Places To Catch Comics Luminaries And Actual Celebrities
If staring at famous people is part of the fun you have at Comic-Con, open your eyes at least one travel segment early. Any leg of a trip to or from SD that requires a shuttle-type flight to or from LAX probably has one celebrity on it, or the comics equivalent. "Are you going to the con?" and "How was your show?" are not-scary opening questions for most non-asshole celebrities. Commiserating with anyone con-bound that's headed to the same place can be an awful lot of fun.
*****
YOUR HOME AWAY FROM HOME: HOTEL TIPS
I'm convinced that enjoying your hotel is 50 percent of what it takes to enjoy your convention-going experience. Then again, I have an unhealthy fixation on hotels. My road not taken? Hotel Management. My favorite movie of the 1990s? Barton Fink. It's a sickness.
Tip #51. Research Your Hotel
This is where you start to put your bookmarks to work. Find your hotel web site and bookmark it. Familiarize yourself with the information there. Learn if they have a pool, an exercise room, a restaurant that serves breakfast, the menu with prices that tells you if you can afford that breakfast. Then take a look at your hotel's listing on TripAdvisor.com. Don't worry about the reviews so much -- those people are like the short-lived 1990s hate-a-thon publication Crash Magazine; they rip into everything -- but the traveler photos are almost always great. Then do a location search on your hotel and see what's in the immediate neighborhood.
I know how obsessive this sounds, but trust me: spending that 10 minutes some Tuesday morning in June when you're bored out of your skull at work and you've already been to the restroom four times can save you an hour or more in July wandering around the Symphony Suites Sheraton in concentric circles looking for a place to buy a two-liter of soda and a lint brush.
Tip #52. Join the Points Club
If your hotel or hotel chain has a points club, join it. There are advantages even if you have no intention of ever again staying at that hotel. You may get a separate check-in and checkout line. You may get an instant reward, like a room upgrade. You may get to use points for free or discounted rooms if you attend Comic-Con for multiple years. If you go to a lot of shows in other cities, you may be able to build a string of point-gathering institutions for the highest, sustained return over time. (You can also do this at one show -- for instance, Starwood has multiple Comic-Con hotels, which makes it easier to build points and find a place to spend them.)
The most important thing about joining is that being in the points club is a hedge against something unfortunate happening during the trip, like a piece of luggage getting lost in the check room or people continuing to walk into your room just as you're squeezing into your B'wana Beast outfit. Hotels are much more likely to bring a manager out to talk to you if you're a member of the points club. Best of all, your ability to process points provides those managers with an easy way to say they're sorry.
Tip #53. Check In As Close As You Can To The Time Given
You already know the hotels are super-booked Comic-Con weekend. What you may not know is that according to most basic hotel reservation agreements, they can move you to a different hotel if they get totally booked up.
Overbooked folks at the Embassy Suites sometimes get moved up the coast to the Lodge at Torrey Pines, which would have been the greatest day in my hotel-obsessed life, but in almost every other case it's a severe downgrade in addition to being further away. So don't put off getting into your room until after dinner and multiple whiskey-fueled games of Strip Five Card Nancy with CCS alumni. Get to your hotel on time or even slightly before the stated check-in time.
Tip #54. Put Everyone's Name On The Room
Unless you're sneaking people into your room, consider putting everyone's name on the reservation. That way they can all get keys and check in at different times. I once burst into tears at the Westin Horton Plaza front desk when my co-workers left my name off the room (on purpose, I found out later). The manager gave me my own room, I think to stop me from blubbering. I later invited the person who didn't blackball me to share the room so they could have their own bed and they confessed that they were mad at me and it was a twenty-something workplace drama special coming-to-terms late-night discussion. I don't miss my twenties. Anyway, it was basically in the elevator shaft, but hey, free room. I'd recommend this as a strategy, but I don't think anyone has rooms to give away these days. Plus, I am freakishly adorable when weeping.
Tip #55. Consider Getting A Room On A Higher Floor
Take a look at the neighborhood you're in. If it looks like it could be noisy, consider asking for a room on a higher floor. I've had people tell me this is a good idea for all the hotels on Broadway (there's a bus station beneath the Sofia and across the street from the Bristol), the Hilton and the Omni.
Tip #56. Exploit Your Hotel's Services
Most convention-goers are naturally focused on the convention center. That's why they came. This makes Comic-Con a great weekend to sneak in some quality hotel time.
Use your research. If your hotel has a pool, it's not likely going to be used a whole lot. Ditto the gym. Ditto the spa. Sneaking away from the convention center for a late afternoon swim and gym workout and massage can be a wonderful way to break up one's schedule. Heck, meeting at the pool can even be an impromptu date if you've met somebody. If you're super-lucky, you might be able to network. I know a guy who scored a gig from a name-above-the-title comics personality by being the only other person at Westin Gaslamp pool at 3 PM on a Friday.
Tip #57. Don't Count On The Fridge
It used to be that you could empty your room's fridge of all that stuff they're trying to get you to buy for way too much money and stuff that cold box with chow and drinks you bought at Ralphs. This isn't always the case now. Some refrigerators are constructed in a way they no longer allow for the hotel items to be unloaded. Improvise with a trashcan, a trash bag and a lot of that sweet hotel ice. I think every hotel except the Westgate has some sort of ice machine. The Westgate actually brings the ice to you, which could severely limit your MacGyver-style temporary icebox creation options.
Tip #58. Befriend The Concierge
The concierge is the person in the lobby of a nice hotel that's there to help you that's not a hooker. They sometimes have their own desk: look around or ask. They are there to facilitate your tourism experience. Granted, you're likely to have 95 percent of your time reserved for activities where you'll know way more than the concierge does. But if you have a question about a place to eat, somewhere to shop, a service of some sort, a place to buy a new camera battery, it's a great first place to stop. If you're like me and you have nothing to ask the concierge, sometimes it's fun to make up stuff to ask them. I'm still looking for that Markovian grocery store.
Tip #59: Beware The Crappy Concierge
You can spot most lousy concierges by the way they fail to directly answer your questions. If you ask for a seafood restaurant and they mention the Asian place in the hotel also serves some pretty good seafood, start scanning their answers for bullshit. If to answer your question they're doing the kind of research on a computer you could have done yourself, consider the recommendation as being of that quality. That doesn't mean it's wrong, that just means they're not bringing any specific expertise to the issue. I wouldn't suggest getting mad, it's just that in the free advice industry you sometimes get what you pay for.
Tip #60: Tailor Your Concierge Questions
Advanced class: places like the Westin Horton have multiple people filling this role rotating at a desk. With that in mind, you might wait for the 30-year-old woman to ask after the dive bars, and save your question about the best traditional steakhouse downtown for the 67-year-old guy with the mane of silver hair.
Tip #61. If You Need To Have Full Computer Access While At Comic-Con, Check In Advance On Your Hotel's Specific Computer and On-Line Access Policies
I once got drunk in Las Vegas with a guy who sold hotels their Internet services. He told me that because hotels were so eager to provide these services at such an early date, a lot of chains got locked into strategies that may seem odd or outdated now. He said that in drunk, so there was a lot of slurring involved and a couple of high-five moments, but that was the gist of it.
That's the long way of saying that hotels are all over the place on what kind of Internet services they offer. It should be free and easily available by now throughout every hotel; it's not. If you imagine that in this day of wi-fi and handheld devices that no one could possibly be charging $17.99 a day for in-room access, there's a hotel out there ready to prove you wrong. Check ahead to see if you'll be paying to hook up to the Internet or if you'll be getting on for free and what's available to do so in your room, whether wireless connections are available or not and where in the hotel this may be.
Your hotel may also have a business center if things go wrong with your computer -- I think most of these are being phased out, but I could be wrong. I've used the Hilton's (it was good) and the Hyatt's (the opposite of good).
Another thing you might check is whether or not a laptop or mini can be stored in a room safe or with the front desk if you don't want to take that particular device to the show.
Tip #62. Leave Yourself Enough Time To Get Out Of There
If you're leaving on Sunday, make sure you give yourself enough time to get all the way out of your hotel. A lot of people are probably checking out that day, too, and lot of people are storing luggage until their flight leaves, and a lot of people are parked in each garage. I have had hotel staff lose my luggage, my reservation from their computer and, one year, my car. Be prepared. Consider using your in-room checkout or just building extra time into your schedule that day. In particular, get down early to check in your luggage -- mid-morning to late morning that can be an hour wait.
Tip #63. Don't Forget To Tip The Hotel Staff
The comics industry attracts a lot of Mr. Pinks. To those people I say, "Thanks for the grumpy service people I sometimes encounter at Comic-Con."
For the rest of you, please don't forget the various hotel people: the guy that calls you a cab, the young woman who brings you your ridiculous-looking car, whatever poor soul cleans your filthy, cheetos-and-cheap-ink stained room. A few dollars here and there can really make someone's day -- and reflects well on you, especially if you're one of the few people doing it. Enough people do it and it begins to reflect well on everybody. And definitely make it cash. Just because some people are crazy enough to leave Jack Chick tracts as tips and somehow manage to avoid perpetual beatings doesn't mean you can leave your mini-comic and expect it to end up anywhere but the trash.
*****
GETTING AROUND TOWN
San Diego is a reasonably easy town in which to get around. You'll be walking in the immediate convention center vicinity, with maybe a shuttle bus or short cab ride thrown in. Outside of the immediate vicinity you'll be taking a car, occasional cab and public transportation in and out of the immediate area, where you will then also be walking around.
Tip #64. Get Ready To Walk
You'll be walking at the show, sure, but in most cases you'll be walking outside of the show as well. Walking is still the best way to get around a wide space marked by the convention center to the south all the way up to Broadway going north and several blocks east and west: basically this map right here.
Tip #65. Memorize The Following Places For A Basic Lay Of The Comic-Con Land
I used to include a map that I stole and disfigured, and then I remembered that I'm an adult and I shouldn't do such things. So I'm going to include the descriptions and then a google map location and hope that I remember to commission an actual map of my own next year. Sorry!1. The Convention Center [location]
Where the convention takes place. There are entry points from 5th and 1st Avenue. There's a walkway past the 5th Avenue entry point near the big Hilton in case there's a train on the tracks.
2. The Marriott [location]
Traditional nearest hotel to the convention and a place for a lot of informal gatherings, pre-convention brunch meetings and sneak-away confabs at their Irish-themed bar.
3. The Hyatt [location]
This is the traditional comics industry late-night social hub. The Hilton has cut into it a bit, getting a chance to do so during some unfortunate advocacy by Hyatt owners on behalf of anti-gay marriage laws, but I think this has rallied to retain its hold as the busiest place. There's an upstairs bar where a slightly more cool, younger version of the comics crowd secures tables early, but most folks hang out downstairs and spill over to the outside or even use the sports bar at the other end of the lobby. If you're done with what you had planned for the evening or just want to see what it's like, stop by.
4. Seaport Village [location]
A set of restaurants and shops that people tend to forget about, just up the road a bit. If you're at the Hyatt, the Marriott or the Embassy Suites, you may be more oriented to these places than to their Gaslamp District equivalent.
5. Rail stop for Little Italy [location]
Gaslamp too crowded? Everyone in your group of friends mad at you? Hit a restaurant up here.
6. Horton Plaza [location]
Downtown shopping mall with tons of restaurants and more than a few shops.
7. Ralphs Supermarket [location]
The San Diego business MVP of every show. Get your late night snacks, your cheap lunches and your mixers all in one place. Worth getting a Ralphs card for this one weekend a year. They're in the same chain with Krogers, so if your card works there, it should also work at Ralphs.
8. Gaslamp Quarter [location]
Restaurants! Movie Theaters! Hotels! People willing to yell mean things at you from their cars!
9. Petco Park [location]
No games this year, but I'm told it's open to the public as a kind of sitting space.
10. Fed Ex/Kinkos (actually a block north, on C street) [location]
Get on-line; ship stuff home; make copies!
11. US Post Offices [location]
You probably know what a post office is. Media rate is your friend.
12. Omni Hotel [location]
One of the many newer hotels right up next to the convention center.
13. Hilton San Diego Bayfront [location]
This is actually a bit further south than my map allows -- the other side of the convention center, basically. It's a newer hotel that will be hosting some programming and the Eisners. It may also eventually replace the Hyatt as the late night place for comics people to hang out and try to talk to Marvel editors, but hasn't yet. I prefer the physical set-up here.Tip #66. If You're Driving Into San Diego, Consider The Traffic
If you're taking a car into San Diego for the weekend or for whatever day you're going, the first thing to consider is that there may be traffic -- con-related or just Southern California-related -- on the way in. I'm told Friday night can be extremely bad. Just build in some extra time.
Tip #67. If You're Driving Into The Show For The Day, Consider Going Early
Traditionally, it's been nearly impossible to find convenient parking later on in the day. In fact, a lot of my friends who drive in or drive over come in a couple of hours early, park in one of the city lots several blocks away and then go to breakfast.
Tip #68. Maybe Think North But Also East Of The Show For Public Parking
In 2010 I walked to the show along 8th and 9th about two blocks past Broadway. Even though I wasn't exactly hitting the show early -- it was about 11 AM -- there was still plenty of public parking to be had. It could be that I just witnessed a terrible aberration. Still, it was certainly really easy to find paid parking in those neighborhoods.
Tip #69. If You're An Exhibitor, Double-Check Your Parking Options
One thing that I heard happened last year is that there was apparently more parking at the convention center for exhibitors, and that this was in some way held for them. You should talk to your Comic-Con contact if this sounds like something you'd like to know but for whatever reason haven't heard a thing about it.
Tip #70. Check Out The CCI Site For Potential Advance Parking Options
According to several readers, the convention site has offered some limited advance parking through ACE. This was different than parking at the convention center for key exhibitors -- this was parking offered through ACE at various nearby hotels and lots that they own. You were not allowed to leave after parking, and you have to be out by midnight, but there was apparently a discount if you purchased this way and as one reader put it, "it was another thing not to have to worry about paying for when you got there."
Tip #71. Come To Terms With The Fact That Hotel Parking Is Expensive
It's likely you will pay a great deal for parking at any downtown hotel -- $18-$35 a day -- and it's 50/50 that you will pay a modest amount for parking at some of the hotels not in the downtown area. The one exception to parking at your hotel used to be Sunday, when it was a little easier to find a place to stash your car just for the day. I would also imagine you can still park east of downtown and walk back into that area, but I'm not sure if there are city rules that would lead to ticketing.
Tip #72. In Fact, Consider Paying Extra For Someone To Park Your Car For You
The two times I tried to park my own car at my hotel in San Diego I found the parking structures terrifying and would have at the moment paid $700 to switch places with one of the valets that offered to do it for me. I will never star in my own driving manga, that's for sure.
Tip #73. Be Careful Where You Park In Downtown San Diego
Three things to keep an eye on if you're driving into downtown for a day at the convention center.
The first is that if you need to p