DragonCon 2014 and 2015 — Pink Glitter Pumpkins

I already kind of discussed DragonCon back in May when I was going over what Brad and I wear to it. I thought it might also be informative to discuss some of what we did at the last two DragonCons that we have attended. It is highly unlikely we will be attending DragonCon 2016 (primarily because we have a little one now, and we prefer she not get the ConCrud), but if you are and have never been, hopefully this will give you some idea of what to look forward to.

Again, the Con is held every Labor Day weekend, Friday-Monday. You can view their website here. They are constantly updating their website with the celebrity guests and panels that will be going on. They even have an app you can download and use both before and during the Con. You can use the app to rate the panels as well so that they have an idea of what people liked and didn't like. Below are some screenshots from the 2015 app:

Depending on what days you go, the prices vary. You can view all of this on their website, so I won't go into a lot of detail about that. I will say, we prefer Friday and Saturday the most if we had to pick days. The panels seem to be more up our alley on those days. In 2014, we only went on Friday. In 2015, we went each day. Monday is hit or miss. The panels on Monday are slim, but if you want to go purchase items from the vendors, the crowds are much smaller. However, the selection can be smaller to purchase from as well. The vendors will usually stay throughout the weekend, but most of their "good" stuff is already gone by Monday.

2014 DragonCon

Like I said above, in 2014 we only went to DragonCon on Friday. Ole Miss football opened their season in Atlanta on Thursday; then Alabama football opened their season in Atlanta on Saturday. It made perfect sense for us to give DragonCon a try in between! Since it was our first year and we were pretty clueless about how things would go, we didn't do a whole lot. Brad's biggest desire was to visit the vendors. The vendors can easily take a few hours to walk throughbecause there are SO many.

First off, we stayed at the Hyatt Place at Perimeter Center, so we were not at one of the 5 host hotels. In order to get to stay there, you have to book EARLY! We opted to drive downtown and just pay to park near one of the host hotels. We checked in at the Sheraton where we purchased our day pass. You will be given a badge to wear throughout the hotels. You must wear this and show it numerous times throughout the day, so don't misplace it! You can buy a lanyard if you want or you can bring your own if you are afraid of losing it. You are also given a book of the panels and events. Again, the app is more up-to-date, so I would stick with that however!

We decided to try out a panel and went to see the True Blood cast at the Westin. We had really good seats at this panel, but I am not sure if this was a mistake or not. We really didn't know where we were going or what we were doing, and I am most positive we probably broke in front of a lot of people because of this. It was by no means intentional, but since no one stopped us we didn't know any better.

The unfortunate part of this panel was it started late. I want to say it was about 30 minutes late. Each panel is usually only an hour long, so we only got 30 minutes of a panel since the room had to be cleared before the next one. It was neat though, and we enjoyed hearing what all the cast had to say. How these panels work is there are some of the cast from the shows as well as a moderator. They have microphones throughout the audience where people can get in line to ask the cast questions.

The True Blood panel was the main one we did that involved celebrities. The rest of the panels we attended were much smaller and had much more audience involvement. We went to one where we discussed Star Wars Clone Wars ending and Star Wars Rebels beginning. Brad really enjoyed it. We also did a lot of people watching and got some great photos of people in costume.

As I mentioned before, we went to the vendor hall and spent a few hours there as well. The big thing we learned in 2014 was to better prepare for food. We ate at the food court at the mall downtown. It was SUPER crowded, and we were forced to eat with strangers at a random table we were lucky to find. There are places to eat throughout the Con, but seating is VERY limited so beware! We thoroughly enjoyed DragonCon 2014, so much so we decided to go for the entire weekend in 2015.

DragonCon 2015

In 2015, we did not stay at a Con hotel simply because the decision to go for the entire weekend was not decided enough in advance. To get a room at a Con hotel, you basically need to book it the moment reservations open. We originally were going to try and stay at the Hyatt Place again because we loved the hotel so much, but there were not any rooms available. Instead, we opted to stay at the Wingate at the Atlanta Galleria Center off of I-75. The pictures online looked really nice and very similar to the Wingate we stay at in Tupelo, MS. We got a great rate, and we had planned to stay Thursday-Monday. We checked in late Thursday because we drove in after work. Let me tell you...whatever you do...do NOT stay here. The rooms were disgusting. The moment I walked into the room, I was already on my phone trying to find another hotel. If we had not already paid for the night and it wasn't so late, we would have left right then and there. Below are some of the awful pictures from this place.

Luckily, I was able to find a room at the Homewood Suites at Perimeter Center. The rate was cheaper than the Wingate, and it was brand new. Brad went and confirmed that we could get out of the rest of our stay at the Wingate, then we packed up and headed downstairs for the free breakfast. We figured we paid for it, so we might as well eat it. We headed over to the Homewood Suits hoping we would get lucky enough to check in since it was only like 9 am. Thankfully, they had a room ready, so we checked in, unloaded, and headed to the nearest MARTA station to head downtown. Below are some pictures of the MUCH nicer Homewood Suites.

We decided since we would be going downtown each day that we would ride the MARTA. It was a very easy ride and much cheaper than paying $20 to park a day downtown.

So since we did SO much while attending for the entire weekend, I am going to try to keep it semi-short and simple to not overwhelm you with all the little details. Below is a small breakdown of what we did each day:

Friday

We checked in at the Sheraton and got our badges.
We attended a Video Game Panel called "Designing Games for Mobile Platforms"
We attended a panel about the science of Back to the Future.
We ate Papa Johns Pizza at one of the hotels (we had to sit in the floor to eat).
We visited the vendors, and we even purchased some lanyards.
We people watched.
We went to the panel "Stephen Amell: Live".
We had Wendy's for dinner near our hotel.

Saturday

We were slightly late to a panel called "Disney's Tomorrowland" where the panel discussed the movie Tomorrowland. (We were late due to the parade route!)
We went to a panel called "Star Wars and Disney Parks". So much is happening now with Star Wars at Disney, and the panel as well as the audience discussed this and the impacts it would have in the future.
We grabbed more Pizza and sat in line for a Flash panel with the stars from the CW show The Flash. We got super lucky and we were one of the first in line, and we had second row seats!
We waited in line and then attended the panel for Arrow. Our seats were not as good, but it was still a lot of fun. We discovered our love for John Barrowman at this panel!
We stopped at Target after getting back to Sandy Springs and bought stuff to make Tacos and eat in our room so that we could watch the Alabama football game.

Sunday

We waited in an EXTREMELY long line to see another Arrow panel. We didn't even make it inside the room before the panel started which was disappointing.
We watched a Once Upon a Time panel.
We went to a small GI Joe vs. He-Man panel.
We went to a panel discussing Disney's The Haunted Mansion that was part of the Communicore Weekly Podcast.
We had dinner with Brad's family who lives in Atlanta at Morton's Steakhouse.

Monday

We went to a small Disney Theme Parks Tips and Tricks panel. It was ok, but as much as I have been to Disney, it wasn't as informative for me. They did discuss some Disneyland stuff which was neat.
We finished off by visiting the vendors one last time!

Here are some tips and tricks we learned from both trips:

Bring a backpack as if you were going to Disney World. This was much easier for us to carry all the other items I am going to mention below. It also allowed both of us to carry it instead of just me carrying my purse.

Pack snacks and water. You are going to get hungry and thirsty throughout the day. You will be doing a lot of walking and waiting. It will save you a lot of money and argument to have some bottled water and non-perishable snacks. We brought beef jerky with us.

Hand Sanitizer, Advil (or other pain medicine), Kleenex, Blister Cream (I use Band Aid Friction Block) - obvious reasons

Ponchos - The panels are in 5 different hotels and the vendors are in another building as well. It is much easier to have some ponchos in case of rain rather than toting a huge umbrella everywhere.

Cash, Credit Card, ID, and Insurance Cards - obvious reasons

Portable battery charger for your devices. We bought one from Amazon years ago when we first started traveling together. We both use our phones for everything and it is easy to run out of battery. Instead of trying to find an outlet somewhere and having to wait at it all day, this will save you a lot of time and headache!

Be prepared to wait in lines for the celebrity panels. Each panel lasts about an hour with a 30 minute break between panels. Do not expect to leave one celebrity panel that ended at 2 and be able to get a good seat for the next one at 2:30. It won't happen. You usually have to give up a panel if you want a good seat at a popular panel.

Be flexible and try to do some planning ahead using the app. You can always change your plans when you get there, but at least you have a base of where you may want to be. The app will even let you share schedules with friends.