Salt Lake Comic Con Day 1

What do I so far think of the 2014 Salt Lake Comic Con?

Not much.

It's 4 PM.

I'm still in line.

Literally.

So I might as well write about it . . .

Last April during the SLC Comic Con Fan X, I thought it was insane walking directly into the entry room around 2 PM first day Thursday, only to be greeted by a huge wrap around line.

This year?  We got here around 1:30 PM and the line was wrapping around the block, on the outside, around the Utah Symphony building.

Last April there was a second entry next to Energy Solutions, so we thought we would try to go there, but it's closed this year.  Only one entry.

So then my Mom called my Dad who was having lunch at City Creek what he was planning, and he heard that the Megaplex at the Gateway was doing registration thanks to the Con film fest.  A long walk later we discovered that that offer was only available on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A long walk back we joined my Dad and brother Steven, who have been in line since 1:45 PM.

And now we're in that giant room, finally, the registration room, and it's nothing but chaos.  No direction.  Lines everywhere splitting off every which way.  Surround sound confusion and complaining.

At 4:19 I'm still not sure we're where we're supposed to be.

None of the volunteers know what is going on.

I found out, via Facebook, that the Cary Elwes forum was at 3:00.  That was one of the events I would have liked to attend.

Oh well.

At least I can now see the taunting glimmer of lights passed the reception entrance, as I inch along.

When I first saw the line at 1:30 I guessed it would take 3 hours.

I might have been generous.

(4:33, far from entering, still in line.)

Terrible management and planning.

(Blogger wouldn't let me post this blog post while I was in the building.  It's 8:49, and my feet are tired.  Last time I didn't get to look at any booths, so I took that opportunity today, since no panels sounded particularly interesting.

BTW, the Hobbit booth is AWESOME.  Can I say how excited I am to finally see the end to the Hobbit trilogy?  Ex-ci-ted.

And the Evermore booth is fun this year.  FYI, if there's a unique small junk item you wouldn't mind getting rid of, you can trade it for a really cool Evermore Park coin, as long as the trader guy doesn't already have it.

And the Evermore Park booth is right next to a super fun LEGO booth.

And one last point, I finally got into the Con at 5:30, nearly a 4 hr. wait.  It took them almost 8 minutes to give us 7 wrist bands.  When we left after 8:00, there was still a super long line inside the registration room.  I feel bad for those people.  A long wait just for a wrist band.)