Road to SDCC - San Diego Comic Con - Hotels.. What the Hells?!
Hello Steemers!
I hope you are all doing fine this evening!? (maybe it is morning where you are.. Here it almost 01:00 midnight!)
I just finished going through a painful and elaborate process of picking hotels for exhibitors during the SDCC 2018 next year on 18-22 July!
As I mentioned in this post:
https://steemit.com/art/@beekart/sdcc-san-diego-comic-con-i-am-going
I managed to get on the list of Artists that is allowed to set up shop in the 'Artist Alley'!
I am still super honored to be going and as promised I will try to make a blog post every now and then to tell you/share how everything is going towards the event! I hope I can share that journey with you all.. and eventually maybe meet some of you guys there!? Or somewhere around the US .. As I'll be staying a bit longer to enjoy a vacation!
So about 2 weeks ago I got the email from the organisation that I was on the list! I was overjoyed!
I have been to 'comic-cons' here in The Netherlands and had mixed results (you can read about it in the previous post).
But as I registered for SDCC I knew it would be a different game.. I would be going for the experience.. But I also want it to be a success..
Not so much financially (would be great of course!) but in terms of getting my work out there, meet new people and make new friends!
These past 2 weeks I have been riding that pink cloud of feeling lucky... Now it is time to start making arrangements!
The organisation send out an email with a link to website that let's you pick hotels. I didn't realise Hotels are so extremely expensive in San Diego.. But I figured during the con and in July it is the summer holiday season so things just sky-rocket?!.. Like bitcoin does once in a while?
I managed to pick out some hotels that where not super closeby (30 min ride) because it just saves you about $100/$150 a night! per person!..
I knew it was going to be an expensive trip.. Flights about $1200 per person.. food and stay.. Even more it seems!
Oh well.. I'm sure it is a once in a lifetime experience and it might totally be worth the investment! ^^
The hotels I got to pick where:
Four Points by Sheraton:
Which looks really nice.. I don't entirely understand why the SDCC organisation only lets you pick these super expensive hotels! Or maybe I'm just too much of a normal folk guy :D
Holiday Inn San Diego Bay Side:
I have no idea what to say about this one.. I thought Holiday Inn didn't have such a great name... But it looks quite nice on the photos! :D
Hampton Inn San Diego - Mission Valley
No idea.. It was one of the cheapest.. Should be fine right?!
I figured that as long as there is a bed I'll be fine?.. The opening hours of SDCC are insanely long so I'm sure that as soon as I'll see a bed I will fall asleep! ;D
Now that I have this arranged there are a few more things to take care of:
- Flights
- Extra Attendee passes! (quite frankly harder to get than a hotel.. as someone told me :P)
- Permit to sell things in the state of California!
- Prints
- Merch
- New art to put on those prints and merch!
- Get my portfolio printed so I can show it to people other than the prints I sell
- Arrange to meet people and friends!
As you see.. Still a bunch of stuff to do before it is time to take flight and head over to SDCC!
I will try to keep you guys up to date and share the new works I think of getting printed.
Would love to hear your thoughts!
One of the new images I think I want to get printed is:
What do you guys think? I'm sure some of you have already seen it..
Love to hear if you think this would make a good print.. or shirt!
hahaha! :)
Thank you for reading!
If you want to help/support me get to SDCC please upvote or buy a print or shirt here in my shop:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Beekartdesigns
Thank you so much!
Cheers
-Rogier
I lived in San Diego for about a year in almost every hotel. It was a blast! Mission valley is a good center, about a 10 dollar uber ride to convention center where they will hold comiccon. It's also about a 10 dollar ride to the popular "Pacific Beach" and not far from sea world, and ocean beach. Any hotel on hotel circle I would suggest.
I hope you're super pumped! As you already know, it will be the experience of a lifetime!
Also, congratulations on being selected to exhibit. I look forward to seeing your booth on Steem!
hey @sether thanks for the tips! :) I sure am super pumped! ^^
I know it will be amazing! I'll try to keep you guys posted!.. so everyone is a little bit with me in this ;D
Seems less of daunting task then i guess ;D
ayy i'm gonna be at sdcc next yr too! (pro-badge, what whaaat). We stayed at the hampton inn in downtown san diego, which was great bc we got free breakfast every day! I think it was about $100/night/person tho T-T This year, we got on the ball early and actually did airbnb as soon as I got my guest badges confirmed. We managed to nab a place pretty close by (like 20-30 min walk) for $50/night/person (my friend is coming too, so we have 3 ppl instead of 2)
in terms of driving: i don't remember san diego traffic being that terrible, but mostly bc we were walking. however, even if the driving isn't bad, it was very congested near the convention center, and i have no idea how parking is, but I would assume not great. since you're an exhibitor, you might have the luxury of being able to get in much earlier than us regular convention goers, so I would deffo recommend that. sometimes there are buses too that travel to the sdcc sponsored hotels!
Ahh super cool ! So you are a bit of a veteran then!? Haha :)
I read about the shuttle busses that go to the convention centre, that is really quite cool! :)
I'm going with 3 people too,, which is quite hard to get a room for.. I hope I can arrange something with the hotels.. 250 per person per night.. 750 a night .. mannnnn! Ill live on the streets afterwards! :D
ahaha not so much a veteran. i've only gone once so far.
oh wow, 250/person/night? for 4?? oof. That's rough haha. Oh, another tip! I'm not sure what hotel you end up with, but definitely make sure you get there early! Last year we arrived very late, and even though we had no line to check in, we ended up with one of the last 2 rooms (we had made reservations, but the actual room you get is first come/first serve, at least for the hampton). Parking was also terrible even in the hampton parking lot, esp since we had a big truck!
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The one time I went to SDCC about 10 years ago, I stayed at the Holiday Inn on the bay. It was very nice, shuttle busses run constantly to the con, and it was even a walkable distance. I walked to and from the con a few times, as traffic during the con is crazy, it may be equally fast!
I believe as an exhibitor you’re getting a first shot at hotel booking. Otherwise room bookings open on a certain date and sell out within minutes.
Save some money aside for food! I had some amazing meals in San Diego.
Good luck prepping. I’ll be reading and living vicariously through you!
Hey Bryan, Thanks!
Yeah the shuttle busses sure are nice, though from what google maps tells me i'd also be totally fine with walking for 10 mins instead of a car! :D
I will have to save a bunch of money up to july thats for sure! WoW! :D maybe posts like these might help ;))
Yes! Love that new print. I lived down there for 10 years but couldn't tell you what it's like nowadays. This is going to be a great adventure for you. Best of luck!
Thanks! Yeah it sure is going to be an adventure! :D Much thing to learn, see and do! It'll be awesome!
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