My San Diego Comic-Con Prep

It is less than 30 days until San Diego Comic-Con! You’ve scored badges and have hopefully received them via mail by now or your trustful comrade that purchased for you has alerted you to their arrival. And you’ve secured your hotel, if not check the official OnPeak site for available rooms. Be quick! Discounted rates will expire soon or when rooms sell out. Purchase your airfare now if you are flying in from within the States. International flights were best purchased months ago for the best deals. If you plan on taking AMTRAK, purchase your seat now. For a reserved seat, purchase a business class ticket. On the Wednesday of Comic-Con, trains are packed with Con goers! Especially when boarding after the Los Angeles Union Station depot. If you will be driving to SDCC and need parking, Ace Parking has opened up the system to the public.

Now’s the time when social media outlets are flooded with SDCC offsite events, Exclusives, and panel news. So much so, it can be a bit overwhelming. This is the time to start adding attractions to your Con calendar. Remember, you will not be able to do it all but you will have a good time. Here are a few tips to make your Con, ‘your Con’:

Wonder Woman TM & © DC Comics Photo Courtesy: Comic Con International

Tip 1: Pre-order

Your SDCC budget account (Saving $25 bi-weekly for a year into a savings account will add up to a $600 bank.) should be lavish and bountiful by now. So, you’ve got the funds to pre-order most SDCC Exclusives that were announced within the last couple of weeks. Pre-ordering secures any exclusives you want, and sheds a bit of time off of having to run the Exhibition Floor to the booth in hopes of it being available. Not all Exclusives are available for pre-order and some are in limited quantity. Keep an eye out on Toucan the official Comic-Con blog for the Exclusives list. Mattycollector.com SDCC pre-orders ends soon.

And while you are at it, pre-order your official SDCC t-shirt here! Wonder Woman 75th Anniversary T-shirt is looking really sharp!

Tip 2: Phone alerts

Advance screenings, ticketed off sites, and booth giveaways are a favorite Con festivity. But you will need to be on ‘major alert’ to when some of the popular events are announced. For advanced movie screenings, follow and set phone alerts via Twitter. Keep in mind carrier charges for text messaging. Measure who to follow by what movies are rumored to premiere during SDCC.

For example, Trekkers/Trekkies SDCC attendees are following @ParamountPics @skydance and @StarTrekMovie to be first to learn how/when to score tickets for the advance screening of the Star Trek Beyond Red Carpet Premiere. A Sausage Party advance screening has been teased by Seth Rogen on Twitter so follow/set phone alerts for @sausage_party and @sethrogen:

@nvj29 maybe you’re getting one.

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) June 24, 2016

And while you are at it, follow/set phone alerts @SuicideSquadWB and @wbpictures for a possible Suicide Squad advance screening. Hey, you never know!

Follow/Set phone alerts for @GoFobo and @CAScreenings for San Diego SDCC advance screenings. This is how my Captain America: The First Avenger advance screening came about.

Follow/Set phone alerts for @teamcoco for news and info on when tickets for #ConanCon are available. Also, make sure you have opted in for CCI third party email alerts in your CCI Member ID account.

Follow/Set phone alerts for @NerdHQ for news and info on when tickets for Nerd HQ become available. The Nerd HQ schedule for Conversations for a Cause will be announced approximately 3 weeks prior to the Con and sometimes last minute panels are added during the Con.

With numerous phone alerts setup, the noise/light blinks can get really annoying fast. You can set silent mode and phone alerts scheduling so that you only receive the alerts during a certain period of time. This will take some time to adjust to your favor, but will be very resourceful in the end. Check with your phone model OS on how to properly manage phone alerts. And remember, choose which studios you want to receive alerts from. You do not have to follow all mentioned. Pick and choose your own adventure.

Tip 3: 10,000 steps a day

For weight management, studies suggest that walking 10,000 steps a day is the right activity ballpark to be in. The San Diego Convention Center is 460,000 square feet. That’s equivalent to 8 football fields! It is not too late to train for the massive amount of walking and standing there will be. CCI has posted the 2016 Exhibit Hall map. You wanna get to that free swag on aisle 4500 but you are at the game exhibit aisle 100? Just thinking about it is exhausting! Start by walking 30 minutes a day to help raise your stamina of walking and standing. If you have new shoes just for comic-com, start breaking them in now. Nothing hurts more than a new pair of shoes on the first day of comic-con. Twitter search #SDCCFit for some added motivation.

Take a look at the Shout! Factory and crazy4comiccon‘s YouTube channel ‘Comic-Con (SDCC) Survival Guide’ and watch for yours truly at the end of Episode 1.