Star Trek – Steve's Trips

For my second ticket, I wanted to go and hit as many panels as I could. I browsed over the schedule, but there wasn’t a lot of good panels on Sunday. All the really good ones were on Friday and Saturday, the 2 days I was not able to go. 🙁

I headed out rather early, at the bus stop before 8, when the convention doors wouldn’t open until 9:30. I just wanted to get a good spot in line.

Surprisingly, they had the doors open early, there were long lines inside for many of the panels. I don’t know which, all the 10:00 panels sounded boring, but I don’t know all the different artists, so maybe there was some really good comic or manga person I never heard of.

I headed straight to room 7A, which had no line, because the first panel was “Pop Culture and the Christian Church”. No, I hadn’t converted, I was there for the second panel, which was going to be about the plans for Star Trek in the next couple years. I just wanted to make sure I had a good seat.

I was actually the 4th person in the room, including the sound tech.

I chose a seat and started playing solitaire on my tablet, just to kill time. I didn’t even finish the game when a couple in the row behind me asked if I wanted to play Uno. Well, why not, it’s better than draining my battery.

They were local, but the lady had attended UCF and had some family in Tampa area.

We played Uno Flip, which I had not played before, but I did manage to pick up the variant rules and got a couple wins.

It was hard playing on the rows of chairs, I was kneeling on mine, while having to reach over the seatback to get or place cards.

After a few minutes, a group of young ladies sat in the following row and joined us. The time flew by, it didn’t seem like an hour.

The panel really wasn’t that bad. Each artist talked about there own recent project and how it came to be, with just a bit of preachiness. The last man didn’t even have a book to push, he talked about the latest Superman movie and how it was comparable to real life. I haven’t watched it yet, but wasn’t spoiled by anything he said either.

One man was named Robert Fuller, which is the same as an actor that was on “Wagontrain” which dad watches a lot, so it made me laugh when I realized that.

Apparently, halfway through, the AC kicked into high gear, it got cold, fast. I was thinking of going out to the hallway, but then I would loose my seat.

I enjoyed the Star Trek panel, but was shivering throughout, so I ended up going out near the end. The exit door was right next to a balcony. I figured the best way to warm up is to get into the sun.

The balcony was on the backside of the center, facing the bay, so there was a cool breeze blowing. Not what I wanted.

Wednesday I had walked back there and knew there were a bunch of television promotion events, Abbot Elementary, King of the Hill, and Adult Swim. I don’t care about the first, and the second had a 2 hour line, so I went to the Adult Swim promo. I haven’t watched Cartoon Network in several years, but I recognized most of the activities.

Unfortunately, several of the items had broken in the previous days, so there was only a giant inflated slide. It wasn’t too long of a wait and it was fun, but I had hoped for more. I didn’t even know what show it was supposed to be from.

Down around the corner, there was an Alien: Earth promo, but it also had a long wait. It is a show in the Alien movie universe.

Since it wasn’t any warmer down there, I went back up, heading to room 9. They had an all day panel, swapping out local film makers occasionally. It was called a “children’s film festival,” so I thought it was going to be a screening of kids movies, nope, it did have a few shorts shown, but it was mostly about talking with university students who make films for kids (as a school project).

I did get to quickly meet the star of one of the shorts, prior to coming in. It was called “Super Human Anxiety” and was about a girl who has super strength that gets stuck in an elevator and has a panic attack. Pretty much a PSA for mental health advocacy.

The actress was Alexis Jacquelyn Smith, who actually is in the IMDB, with a few roles in shorts, but also shows and movies.

I left after that, roaming around checking out the costumes.

By 1, my stomach was making noise, so I bit the bullet and decided to get an $17 burrito. As I approached the counter, I see Tim Russ, who played Vulcan Tuvok on ST: Voyager. I offered to let him cut in, but he just waved me off and said no. The talent doesn’t stand in line.

There were tables in a large area, but you couldn’t sit to eat as too many people were “resting” there, holding seats with there bags. I found a spot without anyone there, but also no chair, so I knelt down and ate.

Looking at the schedule again, I didn’t see anything worthwhile, so I went down to the exhibit hall. I had already seen nearly everything, but why not check it out more.

I spent a few hours until nearly closing, then went out towards the buses. On the way, I see the sign for the Marriott. They have events going on there also, so might as well go.

They didn’t have any signs or maps to know where to go, and I ended up in the game room. There was about a hundred people at consoles playing some game I didn’t recognize. I’m not even sure if they were all playing together or not.

Among the more interesting costumes I saw, the flower maiden from Midsommer, a seven year old Wednesday Adams, Galinda and Elphaba from Wicked, and the shrunken head man from Beetlejuice.

Walking count: Today, not much, maybe only 3 miles, but I am about to go to Denny’s, so that will double. Total: well over 30.

I went to the desk this morning, to ask about the convention center shuttle. The clerk didn’t know, as the hotel had not “partnered” with Comic-Con this year.

I had info that it was on a nearby street, but arriving there and walking down a block, I saw no signs indicating where. Also, no one else was standing anywhere, so no one to ask.

I still had time, and I was hungry, so I walked up to a Von grocery store, that I had seen the night before and bought a couple of bananas, that were eaten before I got back to the pick up street.

Again, I see no one around. I pull out my iPad and start a search, to verify. As I am doing this, a man comes up asking me about the bus, but also has knowledge of where a stop is.

It isn’t too far, about a mile, at another hotel. He even offers to give me a ride, since he is going anyway. Super!

We find the right spot and the bus comes in few moments.

This is the first pickup area, so we have to go through the rest of the route before passing right by the pickup again. Better than being the last to be picked up, only to have a full bus, I guess.

The bus drops us off rather far from the convention center, as the road in front is completely closed. I don’t know why the buses can’t go through. I guess I got more walking to do.

It is just after 9 and they open at 9:30, so I pick a doorway, with less of a crowd, and wait for the doors to be opened.

Even though I see attendees inside, they are not opening the doors, not until almost 10.

I was systematic, I went straight to the back and then to one end of the hall, then went front to back down each aisle. I stopped occasionally to browse the wares and to try to cross the river of people.

It took over 3 hours to make my way through to the far end of the hall, just once!

Spiderman costumes were popular, as well as various Harley Quinns, Fantastic 4, princesses, and Star Fleet uniforms. Some people just had store-bought masks (lame), while others had elaborate hand-made costumes and colored skin.

With the sheer number of people, it was impossible to even think about photographs.

It was now definitely time for lunch, so I went to the back aisle of the hall, where the food sellers were.

Well shit, every one of them had signs specifying they were cashless. I don’t want to pay interest on food, so I skipped them. Maybe something outside the hall would be ok.

I went upstairs, to where the panel rooms were. Everyone had a line. But I did see a large open area and there was food being sold.

I found a nacho/taco place that didn’t have the cashless sign, so I got in line. I ordered some nachos, as the tacos had onions already mixed in and I didn’t want to fart.

As I get to the end, I got to hand over my money, but the clerk stated they could not accept cash. I lied and said I was from Europe and my credit card wouldn’t work here. Surprisingly, he let me have it, even refusing my money. Wow, I thought I was screwed, but got free food.

Unfortunately, all the dining tables were full of attendees just resting, so I ended up just sitting on the floor against the wall and ate. It was quite good, but now I can’t go back. 🙁

I then headed over to the panel rooms, each had a schedule near the door, but nothing seemed interesting. Mostly a bunch of comic artists I had never heard of.

Getting tired and sore from walking, I went back to the hotel and crashed out for a couple of hours.

Upon returning, I went back up to the panel room, as there was one I wanted to check out, the Worst Cartoons. The room was full, so I got in line, hoping someone might leave. Maybe 5 minutes later, I was led into a very dark room where a large screen was showing some crap cartoon from the 60’s.

People laughed at the cartoons, just out of sheer idiocy of the story and dialog.

Others shown were a Popeye episode with Olive was a beatnik, and a truly low budget short, that didn’t even get “inked”, just the original pencil sketches.

There was another panel after this, in the same room, so many of us stayed in there. Which I think is one of the problems with getting into the panels, too many people are “squatting”.

The panel was called “Klingon Lifestyle Presentation”, which I thought was going to be about theoretical societal norms in the Klingon homes. Instead, it was a skit play on a fan-based storyline involving Klingons, Ferengi, Orions, and Star Fleet officers.

It started out as a video, onboard a couple of ships, but then it went “live” when the crews went to the planets surface.

It was rather funny, even if the acting was hammy, but then again, so was the original Trek.

Once it was over, the convention was basically over for the day, so I headed out and went back to my room.

As I reach it, I remembered I wanted to go back to the market to get more stuff, but it would have been a tight race to get there before closing. Never mind that, I had found a Denny’s on the map nearby, so I went there.

Unfortunately, I was near the shuttle stop, so I then had to back track. I saw there was a Ralph’s market across the street and someone I asked said they were open until 1am. Awesome.

I went to the Denny’s first, I was hungry, after all, but I went to the market after, to get a half gallon of milk and juice and some more bananas.

There is a mini fridge, but no microwave, so I can keep it cold, but can’t heat anything up.

Walking count: Hard to say really, but at least another 8 miles (mostly inside), total so far 14.