SDCC 2012 Recap: Before The Madcap Geekout Began

The epic geekout week of 2012 was finally here!

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!

SDCC and NYCC - Hotel Registrations

Already one of the lucky buggers who got a SDCC 2011 ticket?

Soon, it will be time to figure out where one will be staying during that weekend! And start gathering your choice roomies!

Comic Con's online hotel registration opens on March 9th at 9 am PST. One can read the information and instructions here at Comic Con's website. The organizer is also offering a sneak peak of the hotel list and the special room rates on the same link.

Unlike last year, Red Dot Diva noted that one can now attempt to reserve up to 20 hotels for the weekend. Also, once the reservation is confirmed, one has to foot a deposit for at least one night's room + tax for each room booked.

Comic Con 2011 Passes Sold Out!

Yep, Red Dot Diva nodded.
They have indeed been sold out.

And this all happened within 24 hours of the online ticketing process. The 4-day pass sold out in less than 3 hours after registration opened!

This is unprecedented in Comic Con history.

The process was wraught with problems from the start. Not that many were totally surprised due to the difficulties faced in previous attempts and a test-rehearsal. But Red Dot Diva guessed that many were still hoping that Comic Con and Ticketleap were truly able to iron out the server issues.

Comic Con 2011 Tickets On Sale - FINALLY!

After all the confusion and frustration regarding buying passes, SDCC 2011 tickets will finally be available for online registration on 5th February 2011, 9am PST. That's in about 12 hours folks!

A little bird (thanks @DarkStitch!) had already told Red Dot Diva about the ticket registration date and the news had leaked on the internet before the official announcement by the Comic Con organizers themselves.

5th February is a Saturday morning. So fans with usual work hours will have less complaints about needing to take time off to do the registration.

Testing, Testing!

After the two failed ticketing registrations with Epic, SDCC decided to have a so-called "test-run" on December 15th, 8 AM PST.

1,000 4-Day Comic Con tickets were offered up for sale online that day.

It seemed that Ticketleap - a social ticketing platform company - has also been pulled into the registration procedures together with Epic. And when you buy the SDCC tickets, funds will be paid to both companies for different types of charges. For the test-run, each registrant can only order for two tickets!

Angry Nerds??

It was Angry Nerds Day on November 22nd, 2010.

More registration frustrations abound when eager fans, geeks and nerds tried to buy their tickets for San Diego's Comic Con 2011.

After a previous failed attempt, SDCC re-scheduled registration for November 22nd at a super-early hour of 6 am PST. Red Dot Diva was aware that many fans disrupted their usual schedule to take a shot at getting the highly sought-after tickets. Especially since those 4-day + Preview ones were already sold out during this year's SDCC.

To their utter frustration, that second try at online registration was just as unsuccessful as the first one! No one was able to get onto the site due to "glitches" with the dreaded "The web system has encountered an error while attempting to service your registration process." error message appearing on their screens.

The company running the registration process is EPIC. More like EPIC Fail.

2.5 hours later, SDCC tweeted: “We are well aware that many people have taken time from work, school or other activities and others woke up very early. There really is no way to convey our level (of) regret for this turn of events. We are currently researching our registration options.”

SDCC had two weeks to work out this issue. Red Dot Diva strongly felt that if the system was simply not ready for the mega-volume of registrations, then they should have announced a postponement much earlier.

Too many EPIC egos at work?

Early Bird Gets The Worm?

So, does SDCC really think that opening online ticketing at 6am, Pacific time on November 22, 2010 will ease their technical issues??

Red Dot Diva thinks not.

The new timing causes a bunch of practical difficulties for those living in the East Coast. It is the time where they have to commute to their workplace or clock-in for their jobs. And West Coasters have to wake up extra early to get online for their tickets.

Hard core fans are still going to scramble for tickets regardless, perhaps even booking their passes through their friends.

For the sake of her friends who are eager to get to SDCC 2011, Red Dot Diva wishes them all the best though.

Convention Ticketing Woes

Red Dot Diva noted that ticketing woes had plagued two comic conventions lately. Ironically, one was a large and iconic convention in the States; and the other, a smaller newcomer in the Asian scene.

It was a disappointing ticket booking FAIL on November 1st with franticly-popular San Diego's Comic Con (SDCC) 2011. More mainstream pop-culture fans must have gotten wind of the gamut of A-list guests who appeared at this year's SDCC and were now making a play for next year's tickets.

One has to note that it has already been announced that the Preview Night tickets which were offered during SDCC 2010 itself were already sold out by the end of the convention!

Start Planning Early For Comic Con 2011

Red Dot Diva says No Kidding.

Comic Con was selling tickets for 2011 during this year's convention and before the event ended, the 4-day passes with Preview Night were already sold out. Red Dot Diva knew they were selling tickets that time but wanted to focus doing other stuff than standing in line for more hours.

The organizers have now officially announced that tickets for Comic Con 2011 will go on sale on their website on 1 November.

Comic Con 2011 will be held at San Diego on July 21 - 24. If you intend to go but still not 100% sure, Red Dot Diva strongly advises you to get the passes ANYWAY!! The tickets do sell out fast and early. You will still be able to get a refund about a month before the convention.