However, as it turned out, Red Dot Diva's San Diego Comic-Con adventure began with an unfortunate 2-hr flight delay from Newark on Tuesday 10 July. As people waited impatiently to get on board so that they could get to be where they were supposed to, Red Dot Diva silently played "Spot the Nerds"... and she was right for most of them!
When she arrived at her San Diego hotel room about 9 pm, she found that it was already cozily filled with roomies - an international group consisting of a US West Coaster, a Kiwi, a (nice) Canadian, a token US East Coaster and a diva Red Dot Islander!
After a quick dinner downstairs, it was time to wind down and get ready for SDCC Preview Night. Before that happened, Red Dot Diva took some time to sync Thursday's plans with @eserei27. Trying to decide which Comic-Con activities to participate in has always been tough, but this year, it got even tougher!
Probably due to the fact that many fans were not able to snag SDCC tickets this year, studios and PR folks got smart and held many fringe events near and around the convention centre. This included WB's Extra events on a stage setup at the park between the Hilton Bayfront and the convention centre, the Waking Dead Escape at Petco Park, and fan favorite Nerd HQ by The Nerd Machine - all set to return to San Diego for more Viva La Nerdolution at a venue called Block No. 16 Union and Spirits. However, this also means that there were so many more things one wanted to do, but could not!
At the top of the list of things to do on Wednesday 11 July, Preview Night was to collect the Comic-Con passes. Except for @syellefan88, all of Red Dot Diva's roomies had Preview Night passes and were able to collect them at the convention centre at 3 pm. Poor @syellefan88 would have to travel to Town & Country Inn at Mission Valley to collect hers.
Preview Night morning started out with a yummy breakfast at a nearby cafe called the Broken Yolk. The food place specializes on breakfast food and had a menu with tons of options! Red Dot Diva settled for a Belgian waffle. But hey, some very hungry people might want to take the challenge for this!!
About an hour later, brekkie was done and the group ambled back to the convention centre to get in line for registration. On the way, @eserei27 and Red Dot Diva spotted some buggies and carts unloading boxes from a truck in front of a red-bricked warehouse. They all had the Nerd Machine stickers or logos on them! So this was where the current Nerd HQ was going to be!
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| A Nerd HQ cutie!! |
It was about noon time and there was already a line of about 80 people waiting for registration to open! Despite that, the convention centre was an unusual scene of anticipatory calmness. Red Dot Diva knew this was going to be a 180-degree change come the next day!
It was a really scorching summer's day. And as Red Dot Diva had a press pass, she did not need to wait in line. So she headed back to the hotel room to cool off while organizing her stuff for the next day as well as researching for interview questions. About an hour or so later, she heard that the line had moved and the organizers had opened registrations early - @eserei27 and the others have already got their passes and are waiting in line outside Ballroom 20 for the WB previews!
True enough, by the time Red Dot Diva returned to the convention centre at about 3pm to get her press pass, there was hardly anyone waiting in a line for passes! People could breeze right into the Sails area and got their passes in less than a minute before proceeding to wait in line for the exhibition hall doors to open, or head to Ballroom 20.
Don't believe it? Check this pic out, where there was no lines during registrations at about 3.30pm on Preview Night afternoon:
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| Registrations at about 330pm, 11 July |
Pretty impressive, huh? Comic-Con must have done something right regarding registrations this year.
After clearing the Sails, Red Dot Diva crossed over toward Ballroom 20 to find her other roomies who were in front of the line. And coincidentally, fellow Singaporean and ST journalist Nicholas aka @incoherentboy, was also waiting just a few folks down.
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| Singaporean Geeks unite! |
This year, the big Comic-Con banners placed above the walkaways were for "True Blood" and "Game of Thrones". Red Dot Diva was pervily glad to note that the group were waiting nearest to Eric Northman at one point. Om nom nom nom.
Comic-Con's doors were not set to open officially until 6 pm. Two more hours to go....
So, while patiently waiting for the officials to allow fans to enter Ballroom 20 for the WB preview screening, Red Dot Diva caught up with her best frenemy @eserei27, whom she hasn't seen since October last year.
She also decided to show off her "Fringe" giant WB Comic-Con swag bag to the folks back home. No need to do a bag swap this year. She's definitely keeping this one!
It was definitely starting out to be a really cool SDCC weekend!
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Want to know what Red Dot Diva thought of the 5 new TV shows that the WB screened that night? Check out for a blog coming up soon!
some day, some day. I definitely must go to this some day.
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