anaheim convention center | I Dream In Travel

Part I – WonderCon: Day 1 – The Couple and the TARDIS

I have discovered that the effects of a two day hangover are somewhat nullified when I am excited about something.

Wondercon Day two brought a mild headache (my fault), rain, bitter cold, and lots of green. Yay St. Patrick’s day!

We woke up around 8:45/9:00 on Saturday. There were four of us who needed to shower and eat, and we had high hopes of making some panels at 10:30.

Nate wanted to learn how to build his own R2 unit, and I wanted to attend a panel called “Goal Setting for Creative Types.”

After a small continental breakfast (all of our stomachs were a little too effected by vodka to eat too much), we headed to the hotel lobby to call a cab. By SoCal standards, we were in a veritable downpour (but not by Florida standards). The shuttle driver for Disney was about to leave, however, and he offered to give us a lift to the convention. It was a good thing, too…

The rain made LA drivers idiots. It took us 45 minutes to get the 1.8 miles to the convention center. We could have walked faster, and the cab cost would have been exorbitant. Still, we tipped the nice driver ten bucks for his trouble.

We sloshed through the rain, and Nate and Kara decided to try for the R2 panel despite the fact that we were late. I, however, decided that showing up to a goal setting panel 15 minutes late probably showed a lack of planning. So Mark and I walked the floor.

Almost immediately I ran into a group of people with the seriously coolest Dr. Who costumes on. And the group also contained the last centurion.

After that, Mark and I pretty much decided to scour the place for food. We were both starving and the convention center food had failed to impress us the day before.

This is where I express my dismay Wondercon and the Anaheim convention center

The geniuses that run the Anaheim Convention center decided that since they have so much space they would book THREE events for the same weekend. THREE. And…the events did not really match.

1. Wondercon
2. State Ladies High School Volleyball Tournament
3. State Middle School Cheer-leading Tournament

WTF?

Because, ya know…Jocks, Nerds, and Cheerleaders always got along so well?

Honestly, that wasn’t the problem. While the cheerleaders were a bit daft (I overheard one who couldn’t figure out why everyone was wearing green….uh, really? St. Patrick’s day…no?) The volleyball girls were cool. Most were super excited to get photos taken with the awesome costumes at the Con.

The biggest problem is that the Anaheim convention center is situated around three hotels…and that’s it.

Comic con is in the Gas Light district in San Diego. At any given moment, there are like 150 choices for food, and drinks….and they always have a TON of food trucks lining the road.

However in Anaheim, you have the food at the convention center, and a few hotel food court options. That’s it. We had to wait 20 minutes to order, and then another 20 minutes for our food because there were sooooo many people between the con and the sporting events.

I was flat out angry by the time we ate. Just…don’t triple book the convention center if there are not enough places to eat. Really? And I blame the people at WonderCon for not setting up for some local food trucks. How hard would that have been? I mean really.

Grrrr.

Okay, so that was my rant. We ended up finally eating and hooking back up with Nate and Kara. Nate found another panel I might like, since I missed the first one.

It was pretty cool, actually.

It was called “Where Do Ideas Come From.” It was really about overcoming writers block and learning to meet deadlines. The speaker was Barbara Randall Kesel (New Teen Titans, Meridian, Hawk and Dove) and her advice was invaluable for this aspiring novelist.

After the panel, Nate was thrilled to meet Tom Servo (From MST3K)…but I think he liked me better.

St. Patrick’s day Chewbacca was maybe my favorite of the day. Check the little hat. Love him.

We wandered around the expo for a while after that. Nate and Kara ran off to another panel, this one on cartoon voice overs, but Mark and I have never had much of a problem just hanging out looking at stuff.

Its basically why we get along so well.

We love looking at stuff.

After a while though, I got a bit anxious to do some shopping, so Mark placated me with an early birthday gift.

Its an awesome TARDIS phone charm that flashes and spins. We dropped everything (literally) to figure out how to attach it to the phone. It makes me pretty happy.

The last few hours at the expo was just spent looking at stuff and taking pictures of the awesome costumes. Everyone went all out with the masquerade that night.

I even got to see Felicia Day signing autographs. She is so lovely and seemed so genuine and nice to all those around her. I love to see that.

We ended the expo for the day by getting to see the massive group from GI Joe that we had seen walking around separately all day. It was beyond awesome.

We headed back to the hotel early, around 5:30 to wash up, eat and nap before heading back out to the masquerade.

We walked back and by the time we got inside I was so cold it took a 20 minute super hot bath and a cup of tea to even begin to feel thawed out.

While I bathed, the boys went to taco bell for grub. Tacos are Irish, right?

After we ate, everyone else took naps, but I was too keyed up to sleep. So I finished reading “The Hunger Games.”

Right as I finished (totally epic right?) It was about time for everyone to wake up.

We had a few drinks while we got ready. Mark and I applied our star wars tattoos (gifts from Nate).

I’m sad to admit, the masquerade was a bust. I thought it would be this cool party where we all mingled and had refreshments and judges would roam around judging the costumes.

Eh, no. The “refreshments” advertised, turned out to just be water…that got knocked over early on and was not replaced.

The masquerade was a costume contest where people performed or just walked out in costumes. The room was black and quiet.

It was pretty lame as social gatherings go, though some of the costumes/performances were pretty cool. We missed most of it however, and left soon after the little short star wars film festival started.

I did get a pic with Optimus Prime (the coolest costume) before we left.

We headed downstairs to the hotel bar for St. Patty’s day foolishness where we found my good friend Cary, from Dungeon Master.

We all had a pretty good time, despite the lack of bar selection. It was nice to be with friends and at midnight we all gathered around to celebrate the official kick off to my birthday.