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MegaCon Report
9 years ago
I'm a art and website consultant, colorist, and comic writer.
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Salutations all!
I must apologize for not updating this thread as of much. There's a reason for that, but before that, let me give you a break down of what happened...
Despite her best efforts and creativity, Socks (the cat in the image) could not come with me.
Yeah, that's my loyal cat Socks there. She was devastated whenever I told her that I was going on vacation to the point where she wouldn't get out of the bag. So I lifted up the bag and turned it upside down. After that, it was smooth sailing in regards to driving. Since I split the driving with my dad, I had some time to take pictures here and there.
For the most part, the drive was mostly country and forests since I was taking the Interstates. The images above were from the Texas area and Dallas. Fortunately, I didn't hit that much traffic since I took the Express Press for a fee of less than $5.
Louisiana was nothing but forests and swamp lands. I did stop at Monroe to visit Duck Commander. They had some newer stuff up there from last time as seen in the images below.
I kicked myself last time for not buying an autograph figurine there for $50, which I intended to remedy this time. Sadly, they no longer have them autographed. Fortunately, my luck turned around as they offered a grand tour of the warehouse where they tape the show, a view of the duck call building room, the opportunity to make your own duck call, and a hat and figurine all for $20. As for the proof, well, a picture is worth a thousand words...
The tour guide was quite nice and informative. He actually explained what the Duck Commander Crew has been doing all this time when not filming four times a week.
Mississippi was BORING! Again, because I took the Interstate, all we saw was forest areas and several small towns that caused the speed limit to drop down to 45 MPH.
Alabama was nothing more than a one hour drive. We came across an economically devastated community near Mobile.
We actually reached Florida on the first day. Thanks to a Waffle House employee, we managed to stay on Naval Air Station Pensacola. Sadly, because my dad decided to NOT CALL SOMEONE, we spent nearly an hour and a half looking for gate in the dark.
I DID IT!!! I FINALLY DID IT!!!
This was actually one of my life long goals: to go to the beach, swim in the ocean, and throw sand into it.
After a quick breakfast, my dad and I headed out and into another economically devastated area before finally driving onto the Interstate. I wasn't able to take that many photos as I was navigating the whole way. Plus, taking pictures of the forest over and over again is kind of boring. Nothing much interesting happened with the exception of Steak and Shake.
Driving...Driving...More Driving...And finally reached my grandmother's house. It was nice seeing her again as I haven't spoken to her in three years. My dad occasionally speaks to her once every two months or so. We took them out to a nice Italian restaurant before going the back way to our hotel. After complaining about the filth and decay, we got upgraded to a new room free of charge.
Okay, I must say a “My Bad” here as I’ve been awfully busy on the vacation. Heck, I had some phone issues to the point where I couldn’t update social media. Now that I’m back, it’s time to finish this.
Thursday started off pretty well actually. The hotel that I stayed at offered free continental breakfast. In fact, I pretty much had waffles sprinkled with chocolate chips for breakfast everyday as that was the one food that they couldn’t mess up. Don’t get me wrong; they did have like French toast, biscuits, gravy, sausage, and so much more. I just felt that waffles were a safe choice.
Anyway, the convention didn’t start until 2:00 PM (Really, it was 4:00 PM, but I could gain access to it as I was a Premium Member). I chilled in the room with my dad and prepared a special print for signatures. Fortunately, I found a local print shop and made a copy for of it.
I left the hotel around 11:45 AM and scouted the surrounding areas. The hotel was in the middle of all the major attractions like Universal Studios, Sea World, and Disney. Saying that the roads were busy would be a HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT!!! We did find the convention center. It was…rather large.
As you can see, this convention center spanned quite a bit of land; however, MegaCon itself was centralized in the West Section. Before I went there, I grabbed a quick hamburger from the world’s largest Checkers.
At 12:00 PM, I went to MegaCon. I planned it out in advance to have my father pick me up at a location a mile away from the actual convention itself just in case. Surprisingly, it was easy to travel to it on foot thanks to the elevated walkway. Side note aside, it took me 30 minutes to retrieve my ticket. It only took that long because I was pointed to 15 different locations for it. Once retrieved, I traveled another mile to finally reach the Premium Bag Pickup Area, which consisted of a new lunch box (not the old one mentioned in the ad), a Frank Miller Batman print, a lanyard, and a Civil War II comic book. I then proceeded to the MegaCon sales booth for a t-shirt. I normally buy a t-shirt; however, I expanded that into two comic books as they were MegaCon exclusive variant prints.
I had to wait until 2:00 PM to actually head into the convention area itself. I talked it up quite a bit with some friendly folks in line. Once inside the actual convention, I took my time to scout out all the areas, specifically the Celebrity Alley, Charity Alley, Cosplay Alley, Artist Alley, and Vendor Alley.
For fun and as an experiment, I did leave temporarily to try Sci-Fi Speed Dating. I did not though as (1) it was an additional $10 on top of the ticket price ($50 for Friday and Saturday) and (2) the ratio of men to women was 5 to 1 (10 to 1 on Friday and 15 to 1 on Saturday).
Yeah…I hate to be that guy, but it’s kind of a bad sign when the women hosting the panel are actually hotter than the women participating in the event. Also, the vast majority were kind of there for the attention.
After that fiasco, I decided to attend a screening of the first four episodes of Neo Genesis Evangelion. After that, I returned to Artist Alley and found Mastergodai and Nekonny’s booth. I hung with them for an hour or two before heading out at 7:00 PM to Perkins. On a side note, I would not recommend eating at Perkins due to poor management and waitress services.
I had waffles before heading to the convention at 9:30 AM. The first item on my agenda was to head to a Sketch Duel to see if I could win a sketch. I did not. I then spent the next five hours and thirty minutes walking up and down Artist Alley, checking out some cool prints, chatting it up with the artist, and collecting business cards. I found several amazing artist there that do some pretty sweet work. Plus, the vast majority of folks were as friendly as could be. Heck, I got two new Skype folks to chat with now. And before you ask why it took so long to walk through Artist Alley, check out the below image…
And don’t think that’s all I did that day; I also went down Celebrity Alley to add Adam West and Christopher Lloyd to my autograph collection. But those two were nothing to what I received from the very own…
At the end of the day, I took my dad out to eat with the Katbox crew. Unfortunately, due to a mix up with the addresses on my end, I went to the wrong Bahama Breeze.
Again, I had waffles. Again, I went to the convention at 9:30AM. That was a mistake as it was packed to the freaking wall! For those that don’t go to conventions, Saturday is the busiest day of any convention as (1) people are off from work, (2) it’s a weekend, and (3) it’s a fun activity to do with family and friends. I should note that conventions aren’t only for the youth. Conventions like these are open to all ages young and old. You’ll see that later.
Due to the fact it was packed to the walls, I decided to spend the day taking pictures of as many cosplayers as I could.
I also spent four hours going through Vendors Alley.
I did attend one panel featuring the creative team of Dark Knight. I originally went to the panel as they were doing some kind of raffle. I, along with several other people, picked the blue ticket and won a free autograph from the very own Frank Miller.
Look him up. I guarantee you’ll like it.
I had to forgo two additional panels and spend two and a half hours waiting in line to get an autograph from him. Unfortunately, I was unable to snag a picture of him due security. Seriously, security was not kind to anyone who tried to take of picture of him. Five people had their phones confiscated and broken on site. That’s why I read the legal agreement via the back of the stamp. I would’ve taken a picture of it, but I thought it best NOT to do that. You know, because of the broken phone threat and what not.
After that, I spent some more time going through Artist Alley and Venders Alley before heading on back to the Katbox Crew and making new dinner plans. This time I wrote the address down. I ate at the red lobster with my dad, Nekonny, Mastergodai, and his wife. Went back to the hotel and relaxed.
I forgot to mention this, but the primary reason I go to conventions is to meet new people and chat it up. I also enjoy my time at these events in Artist Alley and Venders Alley. I actually met some cool people there. Really, people will be nice to you if you’re nice to them in return. After chatting with a woman for nearly thirty minutes, she gave me a free Premium Ticket for my dad. It turns out that her mother couldn’t make it. So I called up my dad and invited him over. He always wanted to see one of these events. I showed him all over before taking him to the general area. He…he was confused as to why men were dressing up as hot women. He laughed here and there.
Yeah…I dropped him outside and got some last minute goodies from the Artist Alley and Venders alley. I met up with the guys one last time before I said my goodbyes at 1:30 PM.
You might be wondering why I left so soon. As much as I enjoyed the convention, I came down here to also spend some time with my grandma. I spent four hours with her Wednesday and decided to do the same for Sunday. I arrived at her house at 3:00 PM. She cooked us a great meal with her husband. We ate, laughed, and talked for four hours. We hit the road at 7:00 PM and drove for nearly two hours before heading off to bed.
MONDAY
Thanks to a combination of driving, eating at some fast food restaurants, and frappes, I made it home at 11:00 PM at night. I would NOT recommend doing that at all. I would also not recommend eating at Wards. You know a restaurant is bad when the advertisements have 80s characters on them.
Okay, I’m not going to lie, but conventions aren’t cheap, but if you plan ahead, you can cut some costs here and there. As evidence, I’ve provided the following tables.
Without any discounts, the grand total of the convention is $2,142.58.
With the credit card discounts of 3% on gas and 1% on all other, the discounted grand total of the convention is $2,124.10, a savings of $18.49.
With the promotional offers for the Chase Unlimited Credit Card and the Bank of America (I essentially had to spend $500 on each card to receive $100 or $150 cash back), the total out-of-pocket is $1,849.10!
I must apologize for not updating this thread as of much. There's a reason for that, but before that, let me give you a break down of what happened...
TUESDAYDespite her best efforts and creativity, Socks (the cat in the image) could not come with me.
Yeah, that's my loyal cat Socks there. She was devastated whenever I told her that I was going on vacation to the point where she wouldn't get out of the bag. So I lifted up the bag and turned it upside down. After that, it was smooth sailing in regards to driving. Since I split the driving with my dad, I had some time to take pictures here and there.
For the most part, the drive was mostly country and forests since I was taking the Interstates. The images above were from the Texas area and Dallas. Fortunately, I didn't hit that much traffic since I took the Express Press for a fee of less than $5.
Louisiana was nothing but forests and swamp lands. I did stop at Monroe to visit Duck Commander. They had some newer stuff up there from last time as seen in the images below.
I kicked myself last time for not buying an autograph figurine there for $50, which I intended to remedy this time. Sadly, they no longer have them autographed. Fortunately, my luck turned around as they offered a grand tour of the warehouse where they tape the show, a view of the duck call building room, the opportunity to make your own duck call, and a hat and figurine all for $20. As for the proof, well, a picture is worth a thousand words...
The tour guide was quite nice and informative. He actually explained what the Duck Commander Crew has been doing all this time when not filming four times a week.
Mississippi was BORING! Again, because I took the Interstate, all we saw was forest areas and several small towns that caused the speed limit to drop down to 45 MPH.
Alabama was nothing more than a one hour drive. We came across an economically devastated community near Mobile.
We actually reached Florida on the first day. Thanks to a Waffle House employee, we managed to stay on Naval Air Station Pensacola. Sadly, because my dad decided to NOT CALL SOMEONE, we spent nearly an hour and a half looking for gate in the dark.
WEDNESDAYI DID IT!!! I FINALLY DID IT!!!
This was actually one of my life long goals: to go to the beach, swim in the ocean, and throw sand into it.
After a quick breakfast, my dad and I headed out and into another economically devastated area before finally driving onto the Interstate. I wasn't able to take that many photos as I was navigating the whole way. Plus, taking pictures of the forest over and over again is kind of boring. Nothing much interesting happened with the exception of Steak and Shake.
Driving...Driving...More Driving...And finally reached my grandmother's house. It was nice seeing her again as I haven't spoken to her in three years. My dad occasionally speaks to her once every two months or so. We took them out to a nice Italian restaurant before going the back way to our hotel. After complaining about the filth and decay, we got upgraded to a new room free of charge.
Okay, I must say a “My Bad” here as I’ve been awfully busy on the vacation. Heck, I had some phone issues to the point where I couldn’t update social media. Now that I’m back, it’s time to finish this.
THURSDAYThursday started off pretty well actually. The hotel that I stayed at offered free continental breakfast. In fact, I pretty much had waffles sprinkled with chocolate chips for breakfast everyday as that was the one food that they couldn’t mess up. Don’t get me wrong; they did have like French toast, biscuits, gravy, sausage, and so much more. I just felt that waffles were a safe choice.
Anyway, the convention didn’t start until 2:00 PM (Really, it was 4:00 PM, but I could gain access to it as I was a Premium Member). I chilled in the room with my dad and prepared a special print for signatures. Fortunately, I found a local print shop and made a copy for of it.
I left the hotel around 11:45 AM and scouted the surrounding areas. The hotel was in the middle of all the major attractions like Universal Studios, Sea World, and Disney. Saying that the roads were busy would be a HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT!!! We did find the convention center. It was…rather large.
As you can see, this convention center spanned quite a bit of land; however, MegaCon itself was centralized in the West Section. Before I went there, I grabbed a quick hamburger from the world’s largest Checkers.
At 12:00 PM, I went to MegaCon. I planned it out in advance to have my father pick me up at a location a mile away from the actual convention itself just in case. Surprisingly, it was easy to travel to it on foot thanks to the elevated walkway. Side note aside, it took me 30 minutes to retrieve my ticket. It only took that long because I was pointed to 15 different locations for it. Once retrieved, I traveled another mile to finally reach the Premium Bag Pickup Area, which consisted of a new lunch box (not the old one mentioned in the ad), a Frank Miller Batman print, a lanyard, and a Civil War II comic book. I then proceeded to the MegaCon sales booth for a t-shirt. I normally buy a t-shirt; however, I expanded that into two comic books as they were MegaCon exclusive variant prints.
I had to wait until 2:00 PM to actually head into the convention area itself. I talked it up quite a bit with some friendly folks in line. Once inside the actual convention, I took my time to scout out all the areas, specifically the Celebrity Alley, Charity Alley, Cosplay Alley, Artist Alley, and Vendor Alley.
For fun and as an experiment, I did leave temporarily to try Sci-Fi Speed Dating. I did not though as (1) it was an additional $10 on top of the ticket price ($50 for Friday and Saturday) and (2) the ratio of men to women was 5 to 1 (10 to 1 on Friday and 15 to 1 on Saturday).
Yeah…I hate to be that guy, but it’s kind of a bad sign when the women hosting the panel are actually hotter than the women participating in the event. Also, the vast majority were kind of there for the attention.
After that fiasco, I decided to attend a screening of the first four episodes of Neo Genesis Evangelion. After that, I returned to Artist Alley and found Mastergodai and Nekonny’s booth. I hung with them for an hour or two before heading out at 7:00 PM to Perkins. On a side note, I would not recommend eating at Perkins due to poor management and waitress services.
FRIDAYI had waffles before heading to the convention at 9:30 AM. The first item on my agenda was to head to a Sketch Duel to see if I could win a sketch. I did not. I then spent the next five hours and thirty minutes walking up and down Artist Alley, checking out some cool prints, chatting it up with the artist, and collecting business cards. I found several amazing artist there that do some pretty sweet work. Plus, the vast majority of folks were as friendly as could be. Heck, I got two new Skype folks to chat with now. And before you ask why it took so long to walk through Artist Alley, check out the below image…
And don’t think that’s all I did that day; I also went down Celebrity Alley to add Adam West and Christopher Lloyd to my autograph collection. But those two were nothing to what I received from the very own…
STAN LEE
At the end of the day, I took my dad out to eat with the Katbox crew. Unfortunately, due to a mix up with the addresses on my end, I went to the wrong Bahama Breeze.
SATURDAYAgain, I had waffles. Again, I went to the convention at 9:30AM. That was a mistake as it was packed to the freaking wall! For those that don’t go to conventions, Saturday is the busiest day of any convention as (1) people are off from work, (2) it’s a weekend, and (3) it’s a fun activity to do with family and friends. I should note that conventions aren’t only for the youth. Conventions like these are open to all ages young and old. You’ll see that later.
Due to the fact it was packed to the walls, I decided to spend the day taking pictures of as many cosplayers as I could.
I also spent four hours going through Vendors Alley.
I did attend one panel featuring the creative team of Dark Knight. I originally went to the panel as they were doing some kind of raffle. I, along with several other people, picked the blue ticket and won a free autograph from the very own Frank Miller.
Look him up. I guarantee you’ll like it.
I had to forgo two additional panels and spend two and a half hours waiting in line to get an autograph from him. Unfortunately, I was unable to snag a picture of him due security. Seriously, security was not kind to anyone who tried to take of picture of him. Five people had their phones confiscated and broken on site. That’s why I read the legal agreement via the back of the stamp. I would’ve taken a picture of it, but I thought it best NOT to do that. You know, because of the broken phone threat and what not.
After that, I spent some more time going through Artist Alley and Venders Alley before heading on back to the Katbox Crew and making new dinner plans. This time I wrote the address down. I ate at the red lobster with my dad, Nekonny, Mastergodai, and his wife. Went back to the hotel and relaxed.
SUNDAYI forgot to mention this, but the primary reason I go to conventions is to meet new people and chat it up. I also enjoy my time at these events in Artist Alley and Venders Alley. I actually met some cool people there. Really, people will be nice to you if you’re nice to them in return. After chatting with a woman for nearly thirty minutes, she gave me a free Premium Ticket for my dad. It turns out that her mother couldn’t make it. So I called up my dad and invited him over. He always wanted to see one of these events. I showed him all over before taking him to the general area. He…he was confused as to why men were dressing up as hot women. He laughed here and there.
Yeah…I dropped him outside and got some last minute goodies from the Artist Alley and Venders alley. I met up with the guys one last time before I said my goodbyes at 1:30 PM.
You might be wondering why I left so soon. As much as I enjoyed the convention, I came down here to also spend some time with my grandma. I spent four hours with her Wednesday and decided to do the same for Sunday. I arrived at her house at 3:00 PM. She cooked us a great meal with her husband. We ate, laughed, and talked for four hours. We hit the road at 7:00 PM and drove for nearly two hours before heading off to bed.
MONDAY
Thanks to a combination of driving, eating at some fast food restaurants, and frappes, I made it home at 11:00 PM at night. I would NOT recommend doing that at all. I would also not recommend eating at Wards. You know a restaurant is bad when the advertisements have 80s characters on them.
COST
Okay, I’m not going to lie, but conventions aren’t cheap, but if you plan ahead, you can cut some costs here and there. As evidence, I’ve provided the following tables.
Without any discounts, the grand total of the convention is $2,142.58.
With the credit card discounts of 3% on gas and 1% on all other, the discounted grand total of the convention is $2,124.10, a savings of $18.49.
With the promotional offers for the Chase Unlimited Credit Card and the Bank of America (I essentially had to spend $500 on each card to receive $100 or $150 cash back), the total out-of-pocket is $1,849.10!
I should note I took over 1,350 pictures!