Sherton La Jolla will be nice, we will get out of the city proper and away from to it all when we are ready to go back and relax. Plus now with the Comic Con, I was worried about which hotel would have convention goers.
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The property looks nice and relaxing!
It's great that you got a hotel booked! La Jolla is gorgeous and generally removed from the convention goer hot spots. (While SDCC attendees can and do stay all over the San Diego area, the
vast majority will be concentrated in the Gaslamp District, other parts of Downtown SD, Old Town, and Hotel Circle/Mission Valley). (If it wasn't already clear, I
am one of those attendees
)
)
ALSO.... Andy got SUPER excitied when I told him that it was Comic Con while we were there. So Thank You @CaptainMarvel for pointing it out! SO, now we are going to Comic Con one of the days.....
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Not sure which day we will do yet. they haven't announced stuff yet for it, so we will wait a bit to see what they announce. Everything on the site is still 2024. Not sure how long we should wait to choose a day. Does something like that sell out?
Okay, so, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Comic Con 2025 is unfortunately completely sold out
. CCI does two sales every year (a returning attendee sale for those who attended the previous year's convention and another that is open to everyone) and sells out within an hour or two each time. The 2025 sales actually happened back in September and October 2024.
The only official way to still get a badge for 2025 is to purchase a Comic-Con Museum Legend membership, which is $1900
and includes
one 4-Day with Preview Night badge. CCI officially bans reselling badges, so while badges may pop up on ticket resale sites, that is a high risk path to take as CCI can and does cancel/ban badges they know have been resold.
So all that said, there's actually still a ton of fun convention related stuff you can do without a badge!
(Nearly all of which is free as well!). SDCC is very unique in that it essentially takes over the entire area surrounding the convention center. While access to the convention center itself (as well as some areas of adjacent hotels) is restricted to badge holders, there are lots of off-site events/activations that do not require badges. Exactly what there is (and how long the lines for them are) varies from year to year, but there's generally a few different categories of off-site:
- Stand alone photo backdrops/set-ups promoting specific television shows or movies. For example, one year there was a Bob's Burger's photo op where it would look like you were sitting in the restaurant from the show. A few times a day they'd also give out free burgers.
- Larger television network or streamer set-ups promoting multiple shows or movies. These will usually have a variety of things to do once inside (often including giveaways). A good example of this sort of off-site is the Paramount+ Lodge, which last year had a Star Trek custom t-shirt station, an Ink Master themed temporary tattoo station, a SpongeBob bubble game/photo-op, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themed pizza "parlor" (it had free pizza slices), a Ghosts perfume station, an If photo op, a Criminal Minds evidence board, and a Tulsa King themed bar (with free alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks) and slot machine. (The slot machine did NOT give out anything ). (It generally wasn't possible to do everything inside, as the whole lodge ran on 50-minute timeslots, and some activities had longer lines than others, but it is was still a fun time).
- Larger semi-immersive to fully immersive single tv show/movie/video game/etc. activations. These are one of the rarer kinds of offsite (and also, usually, my favorite). Last year there was a Those About To Die (Peacock gladiator show) off-site where you'd enter, be assigned to a team, and, after a fully in character introduction/explanation from the actors/employees, go race mini-chariots in the coliseum. (This isn't the greatest explanation, so, if you're curious, this YouTube video shows the full experience).
- Themed pop-up shops and restaurants. These are pretty self-explanatory, with the shops usually having a variety of merchandise for whatever company/franchise took it over and the restaurants having themed food. There's usually a Peanuts pop-up shop across the street from the convention center (selling a mix of exclusive and non-exclusive Peanuts merch), the Gaslamp It's Sugar store almost always has a Tokidoki pop-up, and the last two years there's also been a Sonic the Hedgehog pop-up restaurant.
Beyond offsites, there's also lots of cosplayers walking around and hanging out, roving street teams promoting various shows, movies, video games, etc. (sometimes they will be giving away free stuff), as well as the usual assortment of street performers and vendors.
Finally, if you are at all interested in geek fashion, the annual Her Universe Fashion Show has historically NOT required a badge to attend, just lining up on Thursday morning for a wristband. (The show itself is on Thursday evening). It's a themed fashion show hosted by Ashley Eckstein (this year the theme is Universal Studios and their assorted properties) with a variety of contestants showing their designs and competing for the grand prize of designing a full collection for Her Universe. There's also goodie bags for attendees and raffles throughout the night.
I know you loved Eet and hope Andy gets his chance to eat there.
