July 23, 2016

When lines are beyond crazy long

When lines are beyond crazy long

The above may look like a bunch of people, but that’s Wednesday afternoon–the lightest and least trafficked time. I’ll have a report in detail after we return, but as I wait for Saturday’s Con Fun to begin, I thought I’d share the tale of what we’re not going to be doing and why.

Hall H holds over 7,000 people and is where the most popular panels and events are held. To get into any of them you have to wait in long lines. In 2010 to get in to Hall H, we had to wait in line maybe 3-4 hours. It was crazy–or so I thought…

Flash forward to now. Saturday’s Hall H line up is pretty amazing for Sci-Fi/Fantay/Superhero fans: Warner Brothers (Fantastic Creatures, Suicide Squad, Justice League, Wonder Woman, etc), 30th Anniversary of Alien, 50th Anniversary of Star Trek, Marvel Studios (Dr. Strange, Avengers, etc). A pretty amazing collection of panels promising stars, exclusive footage, engaging conversations, etc. We would have loved to go, but we assumed the line would be long, considering everyone there would want to go. But we went Friday at 4pm to see how long the line was:

Tents were set up. Chairs and grills and tarps. People had been there since Thursday in line. It was several thousand long, maybe even the full 7,000 already. I wasn’t sure; I spoke to four separate groups in four separate parts of the line and nobody was sure how far back it went or where the end was. It wrapped around San Diego marina multiple times.

Needless to say, we are going to enjoy the other comic and television panels today, not the Hall H programs. I would not want to spend the entire convention waiting in line–but I’m sure those willing to have a fun slate of stuff today!