Posts tagged Dragon*Con

It was up in the air for a bit there because of my health, but hubby and I are officially definitely going to DragonCon again this year! My sister Jezunya just bought her first membership too, woot.

So now I just have to nail down my cosplay list. I’m definitely bringing River Song back, hopefully with a few new props, and steampunk Tinkerbell and my Daenerys costumes are there as a fallback, but I’d really love to do one or two new costumes this year. Maybe even something original, hmm hmm.

Anyone know of any Once Upon A Time groups forming up? One of Emma’s Tallahassee outfits is high on my list, maybe for the general meetup on Sunday if nothing else, but I’d love to be in a group, too. (Hint hint, in case anyone is looking for an Emma.)

I think Jez and I might do a low-key femme Winchesters during the day (though for once I got stuck being the younger sibling!), and I definitely need to wear Eli Wallace’s “You Are Here” shirt during the day at some point too (unless I do a full Ginn outfit, I suppose). Hubby has already said he’s bringing his Arthur Dent this year (again hopefully with a new accessory or two), so something Hitchhiker’s Guide could be cool too. And that original-something I mentioned is seriously tempting, though I’m not sure how well original stuff goes over at D*C generally. And hmm, anything happening in the Hannibal fandom at DragonCon?

So what do you guys think? Who should I be for DragonCon?

Definites:
-River Song
-femme Sam Winchester (with Jez as Dean)
-hubby’s Arthur Dent

Fallbacks:
-Steampunk Tinkerbell
-Pentos Daenerys
-Dothraki Daenerys

Possibles:
-Emma Swan, one of her Tallahassee outfits (any OUAT groups looking for an Emma?)
-Ginn (SGU)
-another River Song dress
-something from Hitchhiker’s Guide
-something from Hannibal?
-something original — high concept, very visual, hopefully people will “get” it

What do you guys think? Anyone looking to form a group? :D Any other costumes I should consider?

bubblessoc:

asatira:

elfgrove:

geekeryandhockey:

charmingpplincardigans:

bonestar:

SO PUMPED. 4 months 8 days 8 hours 58 minutes til my ultimate vacation begins!

BEST. WEEKEND.

Always.

Of course.

Yep.

Do you even need to ask?

Working on my costume list now!

(Source: programmergeek)

moonflowerlights:

I’ll be going through more of my wigs to see what else I have to sell, but to start here’s 4 wigs that are for sale.

White wig with bangs. worn once. $30+shipping

Long emerald green wig. Tried on but never worn. $35+shipping

Blonde pigtail wig. Never worn or tried on. Back looks the same as the yellow wig below. $35+shipping

Yellow Pigtail wig. Worn once. Front looks the same as the blonde wig above. $30+shipping.

you can message me here if you’re interested in any of these!! Thank you!!

bitchslap-barbie:

sheliesshattered replied to your post:sheliesshattered replied to your post: Really?!?…

Yeah, exactly. The Radius setup is the one thing that lets me do DragonCon at all. Not sure what I’d have done if I didn’t get a room this morning. :P

What was just weird to me (not that I shouldn’t have expected it) was that we called the MINUTE the block opened, and then spent the 18 minutes on hold (while trying to call via another phone at the same time) only to be told they were sold out. So it was “let me transfer you to reservations”, then a hold, then “sorry, we’re out”.

Oh, I wonder if that’s where you ran into trouble this time.  The email they sent out last week said they’d only be taking reservations online this year, no phone support at all.  I know a couple of people managed to snag rooms by calling the hotel directly, but that was the hotel’s mistake, honestly.  They need to pick a way to book and stick to it, and make sure they have enough people working on a Tuesday morning to handle the extra load.

If the other host hotel releasing its block doesn’t work out, I have a friend who may be able to help me out, but it’s not a perfect situation. Even though it’s expensive, I was hoping to get a room either just for myself or for myself and my friend G. Part of it is that I don’t want more than two people in the room if I can possibly pull it off, so that if I need to get out of all the noise and collapse facefirst onto a bed, I can. If I get a room and invite G to stay in it (he stays downtown every year), then that’s fine.

Yeah, totally with you there.  Hubby and I stay in the Radius Tower at the Hyatt every year, which are the smallest rooms at any host hotel and really only sleep two people who know each other really really well (the bathroom privacy really isn’t so great).  But it’s a great central location, right between the Hyatt bar and the food court, and there’s never a wait for the elevators, which is huge for me.  When I need to get up to my room, I physically cannot stand and wait in line for an elevator, and sitting in crowded elevator bays isn’t generally recommended (and just about as painful on my joints as standing, honestly).  But the hidden bonus is that we can’t have any roommates, the room is far too small for more than two people.  I love hanging out with friends at DragonCon, but when I need to faceplant into the bed, I need to get there quickly and not have tons of other people in the room.

I’d definitely recommend the Radius Tower for you next year (another bonus: they’re the slowest rooms to sell out, lasted a full 40 minutes this morning ;P ), with the caveat that you’d probably want to ask the hotel about ADA rooms in the Radius Tower.  The rooms are really small so the standard room might not be laid out right to handle a wheelchair.  But the elevators, location, lack of roommates, and slightly longer booking window are all really awesome.

(When I asked you if you’d had dinner, it would have been my treat, and I still will happily do that next year because you’re not an insane bitch like E!)

LOL!  I’m still bummed we didn’t get to go to dinner or hang out for longer.  For most of that conversation I had this sinking feeling of dread as I’d just realized that I took a double dose of pain meds to get me through the evening, one dose when I started getting ready and another just as I walked out the door, and both were hitting as we started talking.  It was intentional and for the best, really the only thing that kept me going that night, but I was suddenly realizing I should probably get within hand-holding distance of my husband before I was no longer able to navigate my own way around the con, lol.  Next year we’ll definitely have to plan on hanging out more.  ;)

So yeah. That’s Crazy Bitch E. I *almost* managed to get away without seeing her this year, but I only had to make nice for 30 seconds, since I was late for a panel. And by late for a panel I meant “ohshit, getting out of here NOW.”

I somehow manage to attract these kinds of people. I do much better now with cutting them off and kicking them out of my life (and pre-empting them when they start to show signs of insanity), but I figure it all works out in the end because I have the best, most fucked-up stories. LOL

LOL, she does sound like a crazy bitch, but hey, good stories.  ;)  I have a good decade-plus history of keeping people at arm’s length, and I’m crazy protective of my quiet spot to fall over when I need it, so I end up with very few fucked-up stories to tell, hehe.

I’m with you on sleeping until 11am, even at DragonCon, for what it’s worth.  This year a happy coincidence with my pain med schedule let me move my sleeping schedule back earlier and earlier, so by the time hubby and I flew out from the west coast for D*C, we were nearly on east coast time anyway.  So this year was the first year I was actually out of bed by the time the parade started, and even managed to be in-costume and at a meetup by 11:30.  Staying out until 2am Saturday night still trashed me for the rest of the weekend, but DragonCon is about nothing so much as having to pick which activities you want to see and which activities you can happily sleep through, and that’s true for healthy folks too.  ;)

moonflowerlights:

this will be my 6th dragon*con, and my 5th using a reservation from the passkey site (still don’t know how i got a room that first D*C because we reserved it in like.. march and got a spot at the hilton, but now that i think about it, i don’t think we were on the con rate), and i’ve never had problems with it. This is the first time seeing the MLOS option, but i think that was just a hyatt thing (the last 4 years i’ve been at the marriott). I think people are still going to try for the marriott, but it will be interesting to see what will happen with their “no transfer” policy this year.

Honestly, besides the panic that comes with possibly not getting a room, I don’t think the system is horrible. But i know a lot of people this year called in to hyatt instead of trying the website and got their rooms that way, so i think there needs to be a better rule on what ways are allowed to get rooms.

For the most part, everyone i’ve talked to that got a room at the hyatt is using it for themselves, though a few got two that I saw. But I did that last year for the marriott - me and a roommate both booked a room, and then we transfered one of them to a friend that didn’t have a room, so it worked out for everyone. 

This will be my fifth year at the Hyatt for DragonCon, fourth time using PassKey I think, and I don’t remember the LOS/MLOS options worded that way in previous years.  They still had options for 3 nights or 4+ nights, since the rate is higher for just 3 nights, but it was worded differently, and of course no early bird options.

I rarely hear about people grabbing more rooms than they need or think they and their friends will really be able to use, but I suppose if someone was hoarding rooms, they wouldn’t be very likely to talk about it.  ;)  I also saw a few conspiracy theories this morning that there are fewer con-rate rooms available for Friday and Saturday than for the rest of the weekend, so they can sell more rack-rate rooms to football fans, but I’m not sure I believe that one either way.

Getting a room in the Radius Tower is one of the things that lets me physically handle DragonCon, so I’m not sure what I’d do if I couldn’t get it.  Try for rack-rate, I suppose.  It seems like there’s a lot of stress and worry for everyone involved, but like I said, I’m not sure what else could be done to fix it.  I’m having flashbacks to bad college dorm landrush lotteries.  ;P

(Source: ageeksaga)

moonflowerlights:

sheliesshattered:

moonflowerlights:

ageeksaga:

used two computers at the same time because I was so worried that one of them would freeze

clicked the passkey link on the D*C website at like 9:59 on one computer and at 10 on the other

actually got into the site on both computers but one was saying no doubles left and the other gave me the option for a double room

was able to book said double for 4 nights (not early bird though, whatever)

though let’s be honest the page read “connecting” but didn’t load for several minutes after I gave my card information and I almost had a heart attack

still haven’t received an email but I printed my confirmation XD

the early bird wouldn’t have worked for you. the early bird was only for people that had checked out early and booked their room a few weeks ago. i think that threw a lot of people off because they went with that option instead of the regular reservation and it told them sold out right away.

That and all the other dropdown options — three night early bird, four night early bird, three night LOS, four night MLOS.  I had no idea what to choose, but the fact that the early birds only had ADA King rooms left clued me in on that one.  Four night MLOS wasn’t showing the room I wanted, so I went with the Three Night Stay option, then booked four nights (Thursday-Monday) no problem.  Still no idea what LOS/MLOS means.  The whole system is in desperate need of a redesign.  ;P

LOS/MLOS - Length of Stay/Minimum Length of Stay. It’s confusing to people for sure. they needed a better system with that, since i’ve never ever seen that on a D*C passkey before.i got my room for wednesday-monday, so i’m happy.

Oooh, that makes sense.  I never would have guessed it though, so thanks, hehe.  It’ll be interesting to see how the Marriott landrush goes next week, since they’re the last host hotel to open up, but are charging the first night up front, unlike the Hyatt.

Besides some basic UI upgrades and better communication from PassKey, I’m not sure what else can be done to fix the landrush situation.  Too many people trying to grab too few rooms all at the same time.  Opening the reservations at a pre-announced time makes everyone scramble, but the Sheraton and the Hilton did a slower roll out, and they’re both completely booked now too.  

I’m still curious how many of these rooms are the ones people are genuinely intending to use in 11 months (as mine is, and sounds like yours is) and how many are “oh crap, better grab an extra one just in case” that’ll later get dropped or transferred.

moonflowerlights:

ageeksaga:

used two computers at the same time because I was so worried that one of them would freeze

clicked the passkey link on the D*C website at like 9:59 on one computer and at 10 on the other

actually got into the site on both computers but one was saying no doubles left and the other gave me the option for a double room

was able to book said double for 4 nights (not early bird though, whatever)

though let’s be honest the page read “connecting” but didn’t load for several minutes after I gave my card information and I almost had a heart attack

still haven’t received an email but I printed my confirmation XD

the early bird wouldn’t have worked for you. the early bird was only for people that had checked out early and booked their room a few weeks ago. i think that threw a lot of people off because they went with that option instead of the regular reservation and it told them sold out right away.

That and all the other dropdown options — three night early bird, four night early bird, three night LOS, four night MLOS.  I had no idea what to choose, but the fact that the early birds only had ADA King rooms left clued me in on that one.  Four night MLOS wasn’t showing the room I wanted, so I went with the Three Night Stay option, then booked four nights (Thursday-Monday) no problem.  Still no idea what LOS/MLOS means.  The whole system is in desperate need of a redesign.  ;P

I managed to snag a one-queen room in the good old Radius Tower before the whole hotel sold out.  The Radius rooms are smaller and so do last longer (if you try to book for more than 2 people, the rooms won’t even show up), but by 10:40 eastern, it’s looking like everything is gone.  The landrush for a con that’s still 330+ days away is getting ridiculous.  ;P