Really the only thing to share about Sunday, for me was the Fringe panel. For my friend Jennifer it would be the Supernatural panel, which I left just before. For my friend Lisa it would be the Doctor Who panel, which Jennifer left just before. For Dana, it would be the Merlin panel happening WAAAAYYYY on the other side of the convention center. After a very emotional Fringe panel (where everyone except for Pacey, er, Joshua Jackson cried) I hit the convention floor one last time. Luckily for me, half the attendees were still in line for the Doctor Who panel so the floor wasn't so horrible. Usually Sundays are the worst because it's Kids' day and that usually equates to a packed convention floor with TOO MANY DANG STROLLERS! I hate strollers. In fact this year strollers were banned from the panel rooms, which was a start. Actually this is a good bridge to my overall thoughts about this year's con.
IT WASN'T GREAT. It wasn't awful but it wasn't great.
Last year was pretty great. Most people didn't know to get in line for a panel before the sun came up. Now they do. In fact now they get in line the night before when the sun hasn't bothered to go down quite yet.
Last year we got TONS of swag, which is pretty standard. This year, not so much. Studios are tightening their belts. Whatever. We paid tons of money to be there. They owe us. Ok, not really but sometimes it feels that way. Last year an attendee could walk up to a booth and get handed anything ranging from a set of full-sized posters to a tiny button. Sure, things would get a little crazy but it worked. This year if you wanted swag you had to go to some room, stand in line for over an hour, get a ticket, and go back to the booth to stand in line again to be handed a poster or button or whatever. It was obnoxious. The lines would wrap around the booth ensuring the losers without tickets couldn't actually walk into said booth. I came home with a suitcase only 1 lb. heavier than when I left. Wow, I sound really greedy. First world problems, y'all! Thank goodness for HBO and their love of giving things away. They rock. In fact this is what typical True Blood swag looks like. Game of Thrones stuff is almost identical but all to do with GoT and not TB, but you know what I meant.
The difference from last year to this was the presence of the original line buddies, Jennifer and Lisa. We met them two years ago in line for Psych and formed an immediate bond. They couldn't get tickets last year so we made sure that didn't happen again. We even stayed in the same hotel this time around. We love these girls and they made this year totally worth it. Plus we met a new couple, Tanya and Saad. I hope we get to see them next year because they were great too.
If you'd like to take a look at my crappy photos (most are out of focus and grainy), you can go to the google+ album I created just for you guys. You can see plenty of in focus and less crappy photos all over the web but they're so impersonal. Mine, however, evoke the image of me sitting way in the back of a room with a camera over my head just hoping the celebs would sit still so my slow shutter would catch them before they move.
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