Every year, every year I rely on your photos in all their glory Michael. Sigh...another SDCC lived vicariously through this thread...
Thank you Michael!
Call me crazy, but I don't think going SDCC is all it's cracked up to be. I went in...2014, I think it was. And I'll say, I had a lot of fun, but I also was fortunate enough to have a good amount of expenses covered through travel rewards and frequent flyer points, which lightened the load greatly. Flew out to Cali Wednesday, left Sunday afternoon.
After the first day, you've seen the majority that the floor has to offer. Getting into the big panels amounts to a lot of standing in line after line, even camping out. If you're into Funko, who carries a big presence, you're not getting what you want because the lines are so long - it's easier to get the shared exclusives. In fact, since most people share exclusives now, so that isn't remotely as much of an incentive as it once was.
You'll get lucky and meet some random celebrities, I ended up looking at the NECA booth with Byran Fuller and talked collectibles for a bit. So that's kinda cool. The stuff outside the center is often more fun - that year they had the Assassin's Creed Unity obstacle course. But again, lots of line waiting.
Don't get me wrong, the experience is fun, and if you can spring it, it's worth a shot to go check it out at least once. I was very fortunate to go under the circumstances I was able to, and I'm extremely thankful for that experience. But in the end, I don't think you are missing as much as some of the hype leads you to believe. It's not necessarily this nerd pilgrimage that will change your life. So if you hold your expectations a bit, it'll probably be better. It's a case of "if you can go, definitely do it, but don't feel bad if you can't".
And even if you're there - you end up in your hotel at the end of the day, looking at Michael's photography of the con just the same as everyone else to recap haha.