So many nerds, so few hotel rooms
It was a struggle.
It sapped me of my will to live.
It nearly killed me.
It took me an hour and forty five minutes of hitting redial on my phone, while hitting refresh on three web browsers at once.
The end result - I got a hotel room at the Hyatt for Saturday night of Comic Con. Only Saturday night. And I'm GRATEFUL. Because I know how lucky I am that I was able to get that.
Interestingly enough, ten minutes in, there were NO Friday nights available in any of the hotels in downtown. Which makes me think that Comic Con must have already reserved EVERY ROOM in San Diego for the Hollywood types who come down from L.A. to party on Friday night - those powerful movers-and-shakers like CAA, the cast of Heroes, NBC/Universal/GE/Sheinhart Wigs, Disney, Thom Zahler.
Anyways, I'm annoyed that it's so difficult to get a hotel room for this thing. It's almost enough to make me not want to go to Comic Con. Then I remember how much I love seeing all my friends at Comic Con and how much fun I have every year - so I suck it up and I quit complaining.
But I really wonder if they shouldn't just move this thing to Las Vegas once and for all. They have a bunch of hotel rooms in Vegas, right? Then we can all complain, "I couldn't get a room at Circus Circus! Now I have to stay at Slots O'Fun!"
Oh man. Can you imagine what'd happen if you mixed Comic Con with Las Vegas-style buffets, Star Wars-themed slot machines, a cosplayer counting cards while dressed as Professor X, plus those guys who hand out those cards on the Strip? That would be awesome.
Sigh.
It sapped me of my will to live.
It nearly killed me.
It took me an hour and forty five minutes of hitting redial on my phone, while hitting refresh on three web browsers at once.
The end result - I got a hotel room at the Hyatt for Saturday night of Comic Con. Only Saturday night. And I'm GRATEFUL. Because I know how lucky I am that I was able to get that.
Interestingly enough, ten minutes in, there were NO Friday nights available in any of the hotels in downtown. Which makes me think that Comic Con must have already reserved EVERY ROOM in San Diego for the Hollywood types who come down from L.A. to party on Friday night - those powerful movers-and-shakers like CAA, the cast of Heroes, NBC/Universal/GE/Sheinhart Wigs, Disney, Thom Zahler.
Anyways, I'm annoyed that it's so difficult to get a hotel room for this thing. It's almost enough to make me not want to go to Comic Con. Then I remember how much I love seeing all my friends at Comic Con and how much fun I have every year - so I suck it up and I quit complaining.
But I really wonder if they shouldn't just move this thing to Las Vegas once and for all. They have a bunch of hotel rooms in Vegas, right? Then we can all complain, "I couldn't get a room at Circus Circus! Now I have to stay at Slots O'Fun!"
Oh man. Can you imagine what'd happen if you mixed Comic Con with Las Vegas-style buffets, Star Wars-themed slot machines, a cosplayer counting cards while dressed as Professor X, plus those guys who hand out those cards on the Strip? That would be awesome.
Sigh.
posted by Eugene at 11:21 AM
8 Comments:
Yeah, and at one point the site crashed from too much traffic! I finally went to work and got in on the super high speed Disney internet, and got Thurs-Sun at my traditional Sheraton Suites. But I was really worried there for a while...
N
Cool! Glad someone got their rooms!
It crashed a bunch of times on me. Once it even popped up with an error message - "No occupants" - which I'm pretty sure is the internet's way of mocking me...
Three browsers at once, Eugene??? So YOU'RE the one who was making their server too busy for me to get through! (Damn. Wish I'd thought of that. ;)
Took me a hour of hitting the refresh button as instructed on their server-too-busy error message page (the site never did load for me) while simultaneously hitting redial on the phone. (And frantically practicing guitar before my lesson at 11!) After 45 minutes of busy signal, finally got through... then listened to their hold message cycle through a million times or so. But eventually a human being did take my call... and I got 2 rooms at the Marriott (!) Wed-Sun. Score!
It's a Comic Con miracle. Con bless us, everyone.
Was thisclose to giving up. Many times. Sooo glad I hung in there! Whew.
PS. Ideally someone will comp us a room at the last minute, then our friends can fight to the death over one of these. Here's hoping! (Death fight!)
I believe the con is signed up for the convention center up until 2012. There was an article in the San Diego paper during the last comic con. :(
Charlotte-
NICE! Now I wish I hadn't given up on calling. Curse my lack of stick-to-itvness (sp?)!
Thedpq-
Thanks for reminding me of that. I recall Mark Evanier saying something about that, too. Which is too bad, since it's becoming pretty clear that San Diego doesn't have enough hotel rooms for the number of guests who show up for Comic Con.
Hopefully people smarter than I will figure out a way to make things better. Otherwise I'm willing to lead a homeless camp-in outside Hall D on Friday night. We'll just pitch tents and dare security to kick us out. :)
I grappled with the system for over an hour, and somehow ended up with a Wed-Sun room at the Hilton Gaslamp. I didn't even try the Omni or Marriott at that point, but anther friend got a room at the Omni a few minutes after I got mine. It was a very strange morning. For a while there I was seriously considering not going this year. MADNESS!!!
Mr. Zahler wishes you to know that he did not use his influence (or "juice" in the vernacular) to get his hotel room. He simply has people that take care of that for him.
Actually, thanks to Bob, we've had a hotel lined up for a while. It's getting to the point it's easier in effort and piece of mind to just book them before the con hotels go on sale.
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