San Diego Comic-Con - Anyone Been?

[NDallasRuss]

I'm going to try to get tickets (badges, I guess they call them) to take the daughter to San Diego Comic Con this summer. I know my chances of getting badges on my first try aren't great, but we'll see how it goes.

Has anyone here ever been? If so, what was it like? I've read that you spend a lot of time waiting in line if you want to see any of the trailer premiers, discussions, etc, that are going to be popular. So I'm prepared to do a lot of standing around. The kid digs a lot of the subject matter though, so it'll be worth it for me.

Also, if you've been, did you dress up a anything? Not judging or anything - it seems like it would be fun to loosen up and be goofy for a few days. I've told the kid that if we go, she's got to dress up as something (not Harley Quinn), and that I'd probably dress up too. Just to embarrass her as much as possible, I figure I can dress up as a My Little Pony character. I won't know anyone there except for her, so I figure it's my job as a dad to embarrass her in public when available, and when there's no lasting damage.

What else? Hotels - I heard they're reasonable if you can get them through Comic-Con, but expensive otherwise. Food - is there a lot available in the convention center, or do you have to leave to go find lunch/snacks?

And lastly - are there as many good-looking women dressed up as stormtroopers as I am expecting? My expectation is that there's going to be 100's of them all over the place.

Thanks in advance - both for the useful comments, and also for the other kinds of comments that I know this may subject me to.

 

[FSUTribe76]

I've never been to a Con unless you count going to the Celebration of Harry Potter at Universal which has a lot of the same things (celebrity panels, costume contests, expo hall selling and advertising nerd gear) but minus a few others (no autograph signings, no mouthbreathers trying to breed at furry/brony afterparties, etc...).

I did ALMOST go to DragonCon in Atlanta five or so years ago when they had almost all of the OS Star Trek actors there including BOTH Nimoy and Shatner which hadn't happened in decades as they HATED each other. But I literally forgot about it until the week of and then just said screw it and didn't go. I regret not going as Nimoy died a few years afterwards and I never got to see him.

My far less nerdy sister goes to various Florida cons so it's not nerdiness level as I'm on the high end. I've just never felt the real need to be amongst "my kind" other than for a year I met some friends weekly to play board games and drink (the only reason I stopped is the person hosting moved).