I know that it has almost been a year since my first Dragon Con (2017) but I’ve finally found the time to write this post. Ok, ok fine….I kept forgetting to write the post. The one thing that reminded me is when I bought my tickets for Dragon Con this year and I saw the pictures when I was clearing out my phone. Hopefully I remember everything about my experience.
Let me start by saying I was very nervous and I had a lot of questions. This is not a good thing for an introvert but the membership was bought and I was not going to spend my 40th birthday doing nothing. I tried to put some feelers out on twitter, to see if I could meet up with other first timers or just anyone really but that didn’t work. My friends who were supposed to go but they were sick and couldn’t attend, so I was alone!
Lesson one: Don’t wait to buy your membership if you want to go all 4 days because the price goes up as time passes. The tickets start off at $95 and goes up to $160 right up until a few weeks before the event. I bought the 4 day membership, so that I could have access to all of the panels and every area because I did not want to have to figure out what I could and could not do each day. Listen out for specials because in one of the panels, they were running a special for $80 tickets for a few months right after the event. The Atlanta Comic Convention that is held several times a year does a giveaway as well, the tickets are $5 to attend. You can also purchases passes for each day, if you don’t want to go every day. After this year, I will definitely purchase my tickets earlier to get the lower price.
Lesson two: Plan your days. Download the Dragon Con app. I love this app because you can look at the program to see what panels and events you want to see and schedule them with the app. That way you can keep track of everything, instead of trying to commit it to memory. Go on their website, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or any other area to see what guess will be there and to find out general information.
Lesson three: Stay hydrated and bring snacks. I don’t know if this is an absolute truth but I think that the prices on food is marked up because of Dragon Con. There is a mall with a food court right above the train station. This leads me to my next lesson.
Lesson four: Ride Marta or use ride share. As you can imagine there are a lot of people downtown during that weekend and parking is limited or cost a great deal of money. I live by a train station, so I was able to park my car for free and ride Marta for $5 a day roundtrip. Side note: the parade is Saturday morning and many people who do not attend Dragon Con will attend the parade so the train is packed. I personally don’t have to see the parade because it was quite the ordeal last year, so if you are like me you can get there super early and attend one of the panels or wait until after the parade traffic on Marta dies down. You can find other transportation options here.
I would love to book a room at one of the hotels one year, so that I don’t have to do the back and forth and I will have easy access to everything I need. That will be the goal in a few years, but I must build up the stash first. Now this may sound strange to some people because I live in Atlanta but how convenient would it be to have a room right in the middle of the action, so that you can party day and night!
Lesson five: This should probably be one of the earlier lessons but if you can, go with friend(s). I braved the weekend by myself but I would have much rather been there with friends so we could share the moments and take each other’s pictures. I was afraid to ask people to take my picture (trust issues)… on another note I was also a little afraid to ask people if I could take picture of them but I did suck it up and take a few, that I will show you at the end of this post.
Lesson six: Bring a backpack; this will help you keep all of your belongings together. I brought my DSLR camera and the backpack was pretty helpful when I didn’t have it out. You can also store your water and snacks. If you don’t require a lot, you can also wear a fanny pack.
Lesson seven: Bring extra money. Doesn’t have to necessarily be cash but it makes transactions go smoothly. I made sure that I ate a hardy breakfast and brought snack, so the only thing I wanted to eat was dinner when I got home so I didn’t need much money. However, this year I plan to visit the store and comic and artist alley where there is plenty of merchandise to purchase. I want to bring home some goodies.
Lesson eight: If you are not a cosplayer make sure that you are comfortable. Wear tennis shoes and light clothing because you will be doing a great deal of walking, there are a lot of people on the sidewalk, and it is pretty hot that weekend.
Lesson nine: Use the smaller (not as busy) hotels to rest, charge your phone, and use the restroom. One of my biggest concerns last year was my phone dying and having no place to charge it. I was also concerned about the restroom situations because I have a public restroom phobia. With that many people in one place, I was sure the restrooms would be a nightmare! Well I found that the smaller hotels that hosted most of the smaller panels were a great place to take care of all of this. I was always able to find a place to sit and charge my phone, and the restrooms were being cleaned around the clock. The host hotels can be found here.
Lesson ten: Have fun! That weekend is all about connecting with like minded people who enjoy fandom. Don’t stress yourself about trying to get to all the panels and activities in one day. Look for panels that are happening on multiple days. I personally was disappointed because I didn’t get into any Nathan Fillion panels, but I enjoyed the panels that I did see.
Warning *Picture Heavy* Not my best work!
