I owed my oldest a mother/child trip after taking my daughter to see Taylor Swift in Poland. What could top that? For my oldest – a lifelong wish – to attend San Diego Comic Con. I expected to go and see a bunch of Marvel and DC fans. What I discovered is that there is this whole world I never knew about. My oldest and I attended sessions on writing and creating comic book characters, met authors of some of our favorite books, checked out new comics and stories we knew nothing about, and learned more about each other in the process. Comic Con is not just for nerds. It’s a family affair that has something for everyone. Check out all about Comic Con and our experience.
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- What is Comic Con?
- How to Get Tickets
- Staying in San Diego
- In the Convention
- How We Did the Convention
- What to Bring
- Other Tips
What is Comic Con?
Comic Con started in 1970 as a means of showcasing comic books and science fiction media, it has grown into the largest convention of its kind in the world. (According to Forbes). Every July this convention takes over the San Diego Convention Center for one week. Here, if you like any kind of comics, science fiction, unique art, mainstream superhero movies, or niche anime you will find something for yourself here at the convention. There is a 615,000 square foot expo hall with vendors, hundreds of panels, and dozens of autograph sessions a day. Most everyone you see comes in some sort of cosplay and it’s a genuinely fun place to be in.
How to Get Tickets
Around late October, the queue opens for tickets. Before the ticket sale open, you want to go to the Comic Con Website, register, and create a Member ID for each person who needs a ticket. Each ticket needs a unique account. While one person can buy the tickets for everyone, they will need the Member ID of each person who is attending.
The morning the queue opened, we had two computers and four phones open and joined the queue. We were only in line for about an hour before one of the devices came up in the queue. I was able to log in under my adult account and purchase one adult and one junior ticket. We purchased Saturday and Sunday tickets. The more days you buy, the cheaper the per day price.
Staying in San Diego
As you can imagine, staying in San Diego is crazy during Comic Con! My Lyft driver told me that the city has an influx of over 100,000 people for the convention during the week! Booking accommodation early is key. Comic Con has deals with several hotels where you can book non-refundable stays for deep discounts. The closer you are to the convention center, the more expensive the lodging is. I never like non-refundable reservations, so I used points to book a Days Inn that was in the Hotel Circle.
Since there are so many people in town, transportation can be an issue. But Comic Con thought of that. They have six shuttle routes throughout the city that stop at several hotels and take people to the convention center. We lucked out and ended up in a hotel directly on the Red Route. The shuttles came every 15-30 minutes depending on the time, but we never waited more than 5 minutes for a shuttle. Don’t be afraid to book a little further out.
In the Convention
Once you get the tickets and find a hotel, you are set, you are ready for the best part, attending the convention. Get ready for full, immersive days that are tiring and exciting in the best ways.
Panels & Sessions
There are over 1,000 panels, sessions, and movies you can see while you are at the convention. Some of them are niche like learning about creating cover art for books. Some are fun and interactive like learning to draw Phineas and Ferb characters with the artists who created the graphic novels. Of course, there are the big panels you see all over the news: Kevin Feige announcing the new Marvel Movies, first releases of movies and trailers, etc.
Once you have a Member ID and tickets, you can then go into the site and explore the offerings before the convention. We went in and treated it like a shopping cart, adding anything that looked interesting onto our schedule. You had the ability to export them to your personal calendar, so you had them on your phone the day of. We had a few that we knew we were going to attend and made an effort to prioritize those. However, generally at the convention, we would look at the schedule and decide if we wanted to go into one or not.
For the really popular sessions, there were some that required you to come early and get a wrist band to be admitted. For some sessions, we saw people waiting in massive lines for hours to enter. While I’d love to see the latest Marvel announcement, I did not want to spend hours of my time waiting to enter, so we skipped those. But there are many sessions where there are smaller crowds and honestly, I found those to be the most interesting.
Autograph Sessions
My oldest is a huge Lee Ostertag Fan. He writes graphic novels including the Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Club books and the Witch Boy series. My oldest noticed that Lee would be at the con and brought several of the books they wanted signed. Then we went and bought two more at the Convention! We got in line early and had a fantastic signing with Lee where he signed all of my eldest’s books, talked with them about what he likes about them and what D&D character they are, and even drew a little drawing in each book. It was a cherished memory that is my favorite of the trip.
Later we discovered that Lee is married to ND Stevenson who wrote Nimona, a favorite of my daughter. We, of course, bought the book and later waited in line to have ND Stevenson sign the book.
For some of the more popular signings, people got in line early and had very long waits. Some even required morning wrist band registration. Others were quiet and small. There is an information desk by the autograph area, and they are always willing to help you figure out who is there, what times people are arriving, and give you an idea if the signing will be popular or not.
The Expo
The biggest part of the convention, and what you see most on social media is the Expo. This over 615,000 square meters of space is filled to the brim with vendors and exhibitions. There are of course the big names that have large exhibits and usually experiences that are free. We enjoyed the Lego build where we got to make a “booth” to potentially be added to their large Lego scaled model of the Convention and expo floor. The Marvel booth promoted the Fantastic Four and had costumes on display, as well as a personalized Canva experience, and pictures with Herbie. We enjoyed the X-Men and other Marvel cartoons they showed on the large screen when we wanted to rest and have a break. The Star Wars booth had cool art, costume exhibits, and characters to take pictures with.
But there are also unique and niche booths as well. My oldest is a huge fan of Glitch Productions and made sure we bee-lined to that booth so they could purchase some merch. I enjoyed seeing the smaller publishers and vendors and exploring the comic books and stories they had. I particularly enjoyed getting a free comic book from Sebastian A. Jones and Thuso Mbedu signed by the author and learning the story of a strong African woman warrior, Niobe. I was excited to hear that they are developing an animated series based on the character.
In addition, a lot of people like to check out Artist Alley. This is a section of the expo specifically dedicated to artists. You need to apply to be a part of it and then are offered space at a discounted rate. These are small, upstart artists. I loved browsing and seeing the different styles of art. We bought a beautiful piece from Denis Caron for my dancer daughter.
Many of the booths offer limited special addition items just for the conversion. While there are a few freebies, expect to spend more. It’s hard to pass up all the cool unique things you can only get there.
Cosplay
One of the most fun things about the convention is cosplay. I thought only a few people dressed up in elaborate costumes, specifically for a contest. I. Was. Wrong.
There were so many people there in huge, elaborate costumes every day. Not just full body spiderman suits, but wings and hats and wigs. There were the usual Marvel and DC characters. But there were also a huge number of people dressed up as Rumi from K-pop Demon Hunters which I was amazed at because the movie had JUST come out. And there were more niche characters such as Ralsei and Sans from Deltarune, which my oldest recognized.
But there were also a lot of people like us who went with more of an inspired by look. Or just wearing their favorite comic book character or Sci-Fi T-shirt. The key was to go with the theme and have fun. Don’t be afraid to dress up. You will actually look out of place if you don’t.
How We Did the Convention
We were up early every day and took the shuttle to the convention center first thing, so we had plenty of time to enjoy the convention. We were usually there until the expo closed. There are panels that are available outside the expo hours, but we didn’t go to any that started after that, we were too tired.
Both my oldest and I can get overwhelmed in crowds and sometimes find the expo overwhelming. We found that spending more than an hour or two in there and then heading up to a rest area or a panel was the best way for us. We mixed in different presentations and interesting talks with vising the expo and exploring different booths or parts.
We had a few that we knew we wanted to go to, but we tried to keep it flexible. We found it was actually hard, and we could really do a maximum of 3 a day due to the long walks between some sessions.
What to Bring
- Comfortable Shoes: I don’t care if the heels go with the costume, you will regret it. It’s not just that there are long distances between panels and the amount of walking you will do. The Expo floor is concrete. I had forgotten how much harder concrete is on your feet. Your feet will tire more quickly than usual because of that. And there are few places to sit in the expo hall. Wear shoes you can walk and stand all day in. Both of us wore our go-to Sketchers sneakers.
- A comfortable bag to carry things: You will be buying things at the Expo. Even if you don’t want to. We were given a free huge backpack bag, but it was not well constructed, and we found my red Cheruty backpack was easier to use.
- Snacks (And maybe even lunch): The hall is huge, and the food is expensive and decent at best or expensive and bad at worst. There are no rules about outside food, and a large number of people brought lunch from home to the convention center. I had my trusty granola bars with me, but I wish we had had more time to do a convenience store run and brought more lunch type food with us. We ended up buying food inside that was…adequate.
- Travel Seat: I saw several people bring these portable stools to use while waiting in line. I was super jealous of them as we stood in line on the concrete.
- Noise Canceling Headphones: My oldest has sensory issues. Often, they would take out their noise canceling headphones and listen to music while walking the expo. This helped them not feel so overwhelmed by the noise and crowds.
- Battery Back Ups: There are a few charging areas, and often security is moving people out of them for “loitering.” It’s a long day, be sure to bring a battery backup so you don’t lose access to your phone and the outside world.
- Patience: There are long lines everywhere. There are crowds and people everywhere. There are times you will have to wait. There are times when it’s too crowded to get into an area. Patience is incredibly important.
Other Tips
- I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Be prepared to walk. A. Lot. The shuttle drops you off half a mile from the convention hall. The Convention Hall itself is almost half a mile long and you will be walking back and forth, all over the Convention Hall every day. Then, if any of the panels you want to attend are in a neighboring hotel, expect another long walk. Just know you are walking a lot.
- Stay in a hotel that is close to the shuttle, not close to the convention center. I thought I wanted to be close to the convention center so I could walk back afterwards. I was wrong. Afterwards I didn’t want to walk anywhere. There is great public transit, but honestly the shuttle is free, often, and if you pick the right hotel, just steps from the stop. Hotels further out are cheaper, and the shuttle gets you there quicker than a bus or train.
- Don’t be afraid to ask strangers for pictures. Those who come in cosplay love to show off their elaborate costumes. I loved asking people to take pictures with them and never got a no. Many people put a ton of work into their costumes. Don’t be afraid to admire their work. Plus, it adds to the fun.
- Prioritize the panels and sessions you want to attend. Once in the convention, you can get overwhelmed with everything and forget. Read the schedule beforehand, see what you really want to do, and make sure you know where it is, and how long it will take you to get there. Never try a back-to-back session in different rooms. You’ll never make it in time.
- Take lots of breaks. It can be so overwhelming. Go to the hall or another quiet area. Go to a panel that has few people and sit in the back. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
- Follow the brands you want to visit on all their social media. Marvel was dropping the link to their virtual queues in their stories. They filled up so fast, we never got to join.
- Eat a good breakfast and dinner, cheap out on lunch. The convention food is at best decent and all of it is overpriced. We ate filling breakfasts and treated ourselves to nice dinners in the Gaslamp District afterwards. I saw many people bringing Tupperware full of meals for lunch into the convention center. Next time, I plan to hit up a supermarket and buy us some sandwiches to bring in.
- Make sure to explore the smaller artists and brands. Part of the fun was finding new stories and characters that you never knew about. This is the place to discover the niche. And there is something for everyone’s taste.
My oldest and I have done some great mother/child trips. But this was one of the most fun. From planning our outfits and sessions, to comparing our purchases, to exploring new things together we loved almost every minute. In the evenings, after dinner, we tended to go back to our hotel room and crash because we were so tired. But we came back excited at all we had done and couldn’t wait to tell everyone. We decided we need to bring the husband and daughter next time. Even if you are casual comic fan, you will find something that you can enjoy at this convention. This is a fantastic fun experience, and you should attend at least once.
Edited by: SKS