ComicCon Odyssey 2010
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Event Report & Photos
Wow! What a trip! 3 weeks, 4 cities and a million wonderful memories!
Where to begin? Well, I guess the beginning is a good place! Let’s start with the airport...
How many pieces of luggage can 10 geeks fit on a plane? A lot! Suitcases filled with nerd shirts, books, laptops, comfy shoes (aka Converses, the unofficial shoe of the trip) and everything you can think of surrounded us as we met at the airport ready to check in for our flight to Los Angeles. Excitement levels were high, as well as the nerves, as this was the first big overseas trip for many of the group. And who exactly was in the group?
Well first we had our fearless leaders, Carissa and Rand. Then there was newly wedded couple, Bek and Stu. Next we had newcomer Carissa, which added a whole level of confusion to the trip (“Which Carissa???”). International Man of Mystery, Davby was there. Katie, one of the infamous Kangaroo Killers, Ash (who we brought along just in case of evil spirit attack!) and Sarah, otherwise known as The Flush! And then there was me. The Filthy Assistant, who is sometimes known as Meg.
So we all checked in then sat down to eat some food while chatting away and getting to know each other before boarding our flight.
The flight was great. V Australia have a really good in-flight entertainment system that lets you watch movies and TV, play games, listen to music or chat between seats. So we all settled down and got comfy for the long flight ahead.
Now here's the weird thing. Our flight left Sydney at 8:30pm on Saturday night. We arrived at LAX at a little after 5pm.... Saturday night! That's right, we travelled back in time! Whoo-hoo! So we went through customs, where they took our fingerprints and asked us why we were there, before letting us through to collect our luggage (where I had a small fan-girl moment when I ran into the guys from Apocalyptica!) and then it was onto our shuttle.
"You're driving on the wrong side of the road!"
The shuttle ride to our hotel was very amusing, as we all giggled and pointed at the various signs and restaurants that we don't have here in Australia, as well as the obligatory comments of “We're driving on the wrong side of the road!” I think we took about a hundred photos just during the shuttle ride alone!
At last we reached our hotel, The Days Inn on Sunset, which is right in the middle of Hollywood. Once we had all checked in, we headed to our rooms to freshen up before hitting our first destination; Mel's Diner, location for the classic film, American Graffiti. The food there was great, the atmosphere is awesome, and nothing beats the Oreo milkshake. We had our first experience with the language barrier when one of the group ordered a lemonade, not realising that in the USA, lemonade is old school...as in lemon water with sugar. Luckily, the mistake was picked up and the order was corrected to a “Sprite”.
Then with bellies full and spirits high, everyone except for Carissa, Rand and Davby, who explored for a while, headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep in preparation for our first full day in LA.
We all met in the lobby at 8.15am and headed down to the station, where we caught the train to Universal Studios. First order of business for us at Universal (after the statue man at the fountain, of course) was the Studio Tour, which is a must-see for any movie fan and included the new King Kong 360 3D experience. Although I think for our group, the most exciting part was when we drove past the “Mule” from Serenity. Other people in our carriage kept looking at us and the Mule, trying to work out what we were so excited about!
After the tour, we all kind of split into smaller groups and went our separate ways, focusing on what we each wanted to see while we were there, be it rides, shows or character-hunting.
At the end of the day a small group of us then headed to the El Capitan Theatre to see Toy Story 3D, which was followed by a Toy Story-themed carnival, where we played sideshow games, watched the characters dance, and had photos with Buzz and Woody.
Day two saw us headed to the famous Kodak Theatre first for a tour, where we got a much better idea of how much time and effort is spent on making the Oscars such a spectacular event every year. Then there was some free time to explore Hollywood. Sarah and I decided to combine our need for food and the urge to do something touristy by heading to Hooters for lunch! The one we visited not only had great food and excellent staff, but also a really family friendly environment which surprised us. Definitely worth a visit if you ever have the chance.
Madame Tussaud's was high on everyone's list of places to visit and we all revelled in posing with our favourite "stars".
In the afternoon the group all met in front of Mann's Chinese Theatre ready to board our tour of the star's homes. The highlights of this tour included Graystone Manor, seeing our first squirrel (our driver was highly amused by our level of excitement about this) and Bella Lugosi's house...well, gate really, but it had some awesome grotesques on it!
Then after we freshened up it was off to The Ivy, one of the Hollywood hotspots, for dinner. No star sightings there, but the food was good and the company was great. Oh my god, the red velvet cake was to die for!
Tuesday was a very nerdy day for us all. First order of business was the Warner Bros studio. We took a tour of the back lot, went onto the sound stage for The Big Bang Theory, took a million photos of the Central Perk set from Friends, checked out their awesome Harry Potter museum collection, saw the Merlotte's bar exterior and just generally nerded out.
Then we had our own shuttle tour of LA. Carissa had planned it all to take us to the places we would recognise and care about. The Queen Mary, the “Jeffersonian”, and many other places, but I think the highlight for us all was visiting Torrance (aka Sunnydale) High School, “1630 Revello Drive” which you probably know better as Buffy's house and the Los Altos Apartments which was the location of Angel’s hotel. We finished the tour with a drive up to Griffith Observatory, which offered us spectacular views of the city. (And as an extra little bonus in my mind, on the drive up there you pass by what is a very familiar tunnel to Stargate fans!)
Then, very tired and very hungry we headed to In and Out Burger for dinner where we all got the Double Double and Animal fries (praise Carissa for knowing the secret menu). Most delicious!
Wednesday morning we all checked out of the Days Inn and left our luggage with the front desk to be collected later while we all headed out for breakfast at Cheebo. I can't recommend this place enough. Their breakfast menu is HUGE and all kinds of Yummy! The service is great and the tables are all covered in big sheets of paper and you're supplied with crayons so you can doodle to your heart’s content! And as luck would have it, right across the road was a big comic store called Meltdown, with all sorts of cool things to look at and buy. Hardly anyone resisted the urge to shop.
After shopping, it was off to Santa Monica Pier. Some of us played games (No Deal!), some rode the rides, some ate tacos (*cough* Stu *cough!*) and others just walked around, took photos and soaked up the atmosphere. It was a beautiful, sunny day with a light breeze, perfect weather and we all had a really great day until it was time to collect our luggage from the hotel and hop on a shuttle to Anaheim, where we would be staying for the next 3 nights.
Once we had checked in, we all met in the lobby before heading out to Medieval Times for dinner. Medieval Times is a great theatre restaurant type place where you are entertained by jousting and competitions on horseback, while eating with your hands. That’s right people, NO cutlery! We were in the Red Knight's section and he won, so that was brilliant and added to the excitement for us all (he was also quite easy on the eye, which was an added bonus for all us ladies).
Then the next day was Disneyland...ah, Disneyland...how can I explain it??? It's just too awesome for words. You walk into the place and all the staff are lining the streets, wearing big Mickey Mouse hands, waving at you and you just instantly regress to childhood. We spent two full days there (and when I say full, I mean full! From when they open first thing in the morning, till they shut after midnight) and we crammed in so much... My favourite rides would have to be a toss up between Splash Mountain (an awesome way to cool off as the mercury hit close to 40 while we were there), Soaring over California and The Indiana Jones ride. We made sure to see World of Color, which is a new attraction and is a spectacular light and sound show with music and images from all our favourite Disney flicks. We also saw the Fantasmic show and were blown away. Some of us decided to lash out and have lunch at the Blue Bayou and had an extra surprise when the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (which travels right past the restaurant) had to be shut down in the middle of our lunch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX8purpXHnY
I think my favourite part all up from Disneyland was meeting the characters, though. Getting my photo taken with Sully from Monsters Inc., Mickey and Minnie and so many other childhood (and adulthood) favourites was great, but having my photo taken with my all time favourite Eeyore and having him give me a big kiss was something I will treasure forever. With Carissa (aka the Disney Nazi) as our guide, we hit all the rides, attractions and characters with very little lines. Also, hello Pineapple Dole Whip and churros ... yummy!
Saturday morning heralded our time to move on, but not before having breakfast at the Grand Californian. The buffet was awesome, but it was having characters like Chip and Dale, Brer Bear and Terk walking around, interacting with the diners, that made it that something extra special. We managed to squeeze in some last minute shopping in Downtown Disney before heading off to catch our train to San Diego.
The train ride was a mini adventure in itself. Not only did we have a brilliant conductor who seemed to genuinely love her job and gave us a bit of info about each stop, but the views were amazing as we headed down the coast. Just miles and miles of beautiful beaches and ocean views.
Our arrival in San Diego was announced with a cheery “We are now arriving in San Diego... Yay!” which matched our sentiments perfectly.
Our hotel in San Diego, The Crowne Plaza, whilst a fair way out of the city, was lovely. Spacious rooms and exceptionally comfortable beds that boasted 7 pillows. It may sound like a silly thing to be excited about, but to a group of weary travellers it was a little slice of heaven.
Sunday meant The Old Town Trolley tour and a trip to the USS Midway. For those of you who don't know, the Midway is a massive Naval Aircraft carrier which has been turned into a museum for those who want to find out more about naval life, or just look in awe at the amazing planes they have on board. Then everyone was free to roam San Diego at their leisure and take in the sights, as well as enjoy a little shopping and noshing.
Monday was the day to visit one of San Diego's most famous tourist attractions, Sea World. Dolphins, polar bears, seals and every other aquatic life form you can think of. A personal highlight was feeding the bat rays in the touch tank, where they would just come right up to you and take the fish from your fingers and let you pat them. The Shamu show “Believe” was spectacular; however the sea lion shows won our hearts with their comedic turns and everyone in the group wanted to take an otter home.
Tuesday was a free day, however most of the group decided to head to the San Diego Zoo within the stunning Balboa Park, where surprisingly they spent most of their time at the Outback area hanging with the Australian wildlife!
And then came Wednesday. After a morning of shopping for some or hitting the cinema to see Inception, IT began; IT meaning registration and Preview Night for Comic-Con.
Comic-Con is also one of those things that is almost impossible to describe. 150,000 nerds, actors (both big names and small), people in costumes, signings, panels, give-aways, artists, writers, vendors and every cool shirt you've ever seen all in one place. It's five days of nerdy goodness. If I tried to tell you everything we did, I would have to write a novel. Plus, with everyone having their own interests, we all kind of split up and went our own ways so we could get what we each wanted out of the event. So I'm going to try to give you the highlights.
It may look empty here but it fills up fast with almost 150,000 attendees!
All the vendors, but especially Jason Palmer’s booth, where he was displaying some kick-ass new prints and the new range of Serenitee’s, including a T-shirt with Serenity soaring across it and a range of Hoodies and T’s featuring Jayne. It quickly became the meeting point for the entire event for us. As an extra bonus, it was very conveniently located right near the Fox booth and happily, the Gestalt Comics booth (with Wolfgang, Nicola, Tom, Royd, Justin and Colin), which was quickly dubbed “Aussie Corner”.
Big Bang Theory signing: As you guys may or may not know, we're all big fans of TBBT here at Hub Central, so we were very glad to make it into this signing. The cast were all great, very friendly (Kaley liked my shirt!) and loved Australians.
True Blood signing: Again, big fan, so I kind of bounced through this one lol. I told Alan that I liked what he was doing with the show, which he seemed to really appreciate, and I told Charlaine that for the three week trip the only reading material I had brought along were the Southern Vampire Mysteries, and she seemed to get a kick out of that. The cast were delightful and Kristin and Sam seemed to be genuinely excited about their upcoming trip to Australia for us in September.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEM7pf9yNh4
If you watch this vid you will hear me calling out "Yo Trevino!" and see Michael's response. (Vid belongs to Natalie and all appropriate credit goes to her along with a big thanks from me for capturing this moment!)
We managed to catch up with the guys from Vampire Diaries (although only Carissa managed to get into the signing for that) and they were very happy to see us. We may have made more than one fan girl jealous when they gave us big hugs and kisses. Sarah and I also managed to make it to their panel where we got to see a sneak peek of season 2.
Matthew Lillard, again at the WB booth (where we also hit up Tom Felton, cast of the Green Lantern and Supernatural cast while we were there) was very impressed when a big troop of us Aussies came through the Scooby Doo signing. “Wait, what? You're ALL from Australia??”
Um... let me think... I went through one of the Dollhouse signings, where I got to meet the delightful Jed and Maurissa. I found the Guild booth, where I picked myself up a Guild T-shirt as well as meeting the cast and having a chat to Sandeep and Tony from Legend of Neil.
Bek and Stu managed to get into the epic Dollhouse signing where they got to meet the man himself, Joss Whedon (uber jealous!) as well as make their fanboy/girl dreams come true whilst meeting the cast of Community.
I think Katie spent most her time in Ballroom 20 and Hall H watching all the panels (Comic-Con pretty much forces you to choose between attending panels or signings, it's almost impossible to do both in one day). Brett, camera man extraordinaire, who had joined us for the SDCC portion of the trip, got to meet and have his photo taken with Stan Lee, which I think he is still geeking out about.
Aside from official signings, we ran into a slew of actors just on the floor. Carissa and Rand were special guests of Bill Shatner’s on the US Midway, where they spent time with not only the big man himself, but Eddie McClintock, Joel Gretch, Mark Valley, Ryan Robbins, Robin Dunne and the always lovely Amanda Tapping. We also managed to catch up with some of our other past guests. Jim Beaver, Jason Palmer, Misha Collins, Christopher Judge, David Blue, Matt Seinrich and Tom Root (insert awkward, but amusing, moment of Tom and I not knowing whether to hug or shake hands here) and one of our favourite wolves, Booboo Stewart, who were all very pleased to see us.
As a surprise for Sarah, who had been nicknamed “The Flush” by the rest of the group, we pitched in and bought her a sketch from the awesomely talented JJ Kirby, who had a table at the event. It took much sneaking around and me leaving my camera with him for a day so he had a reference picture, but the result made for a wonderful and unique souvenir for her. Plus, much giggling for us when we saw the finished product.
There is so much more that happened at Comic Con, but like I said, it's just too much to write it all down. Plus we all had such different experiences...so I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking for this bit.
Monday morning meant time for us to leave San Diego and move onto the final leg of our journey... Vegas baby!!!
On arrival at the airport we had a limo pick us up (plus another van just for our luggage!) and we made our way to the Luxor Hotel and Casino, where we would be spending the remainder of our journey. The Luxor is shaped like a giant pyramid and it didn't have elevators, it had “inclinators” which basically means the lift travels up in a diagonal fashion, which is a very odd feeling! So after stuffing ourselves at the hotel's massive buffet and having a bit of a wander around we all fell into our beds, exhausted.
Tuesday morning was one of my favourite parts of the trip. The Gun Store. The Gun Store is, funnily enough, a gun store, but with a special twist. They have their own indoor shooting range where you can let loose with the gun or guns of your choice, while under the supervision of a trained professional. Having never shot anything that wasn't a little tin duck at a sideshow alley game, this was a very new experience for me and I wasn't about to let it go to waste, so I bought the “Zombie Package”. Not only did it come with four targets (a couple of zombie Nazis, a chick zombie and a clown zombie) but I got to shoot a handgun, a rifle, a shotgun and an Uzi. The shotgun was by far my favourite (soooo much power), but I've never heard anything so loud in my life. Even with the ear muffs it was quite shocking.
So all hyped up on adrenaline we headed back into the city and to the Paris Casino for a buffet lunch at La Village, before breaking off into groups and doing our own thing. Some played the many casino games available (it was hard to drag Carissa and Rand away from the poker table), others shopped and others checked out the Titanic and Bodies exhibits located at the Luxor. We met up again at the Mandalay Theatre that evening to see The Lion King. It was a brilliantly staged show with amazing costumes and make-up and we all left very impressed.
After the show, as an extra special treat from Rand and Carissa, we got to go for a ride in a stretch Hummer and do a tour of the famous Las Vegas strip, which we concluded with a stop at Freemont St, where we caught the famous overhead light show before heading back to the hotel.
Wednesday was another free day filled with shopping, gambling and taking in the sights. Sarah and I hit up the M&M store and the Coca-Cola store, but resisted lashing out too much on all the goodies they had on offer, although the wall of M&M's where you can get a bag full of just blue or just red or just yellow (or just about any colour for that matter) M&M's was VERY tempting.
That evening we went to see the Cirque du Soleil show “Ka”, which was simply amazing and left us all in awe. There was a bit of a scary moment when one of the performers almost fell from the top of a giant spinning wheel, but he recovered and the audience gave him an extra large round of applause.
Thursday was our last day. So after checking out and storing our luggage, we were free to do as we pleased and fit in any last minute shopping for souvenirs. I personally stocked up on armfuls of candy to bring back to my nephews.
Then it was time to pile into another limo and head to the airport for our journey home. First we had to fly back to LAX, though, which meant we all had to do a lot of re-arranging of the contents of our luggage to make sure they came in under the domestic weight limits. I think one parcel got shifted to about 5 different bags before it finally found a home! Once in LA we went straight to the V Australia terminal to check in and then board our plane to Sydney. The flight was fairly uneventful and we all managed to get in some much need sleep. Once we arrived at the airport there were lots of fond farewells and about a million hugs goodbye as we all parted ways and headed home.
All in all it was an amazing trip and I've probably left so much out, but while I may not remember every detail now, it is certainly something I will never forget.
So on that note I will leave you with what became our favourite saying on the trip, which pretty much sums up everything I have just written.
“That's what she said!”
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