Hi all!
So on the up note, I just bought my tickets for the Labyrinth Masquerade Ball in Hollywood along with the preshow tickets for sat and I’m so excited! The new venue looks great and I’m beyond excited about the costumes I’m making for the ball! Last year we went as Prince Nuada and Princess Nuala and it was so much fun. Although I had nowhere to place a camera so we left it in the car which I really regret now because we ended up not taking one picture. Luckily there were a few pics of us out there from other people who I was able to get ahold of though. I still need to take our own pics at home of us in the costumes to show all the detail that went into them.
On the down side….I’m having the worst luck ever with comic con. This will be our first year and while I knew that comic con is a huge event and tickets and reservations would fill up fast I didn’t know it would be quite so unorganized. Mostly this is referring to the hotel reservation. I don’t know if anyone else is planning on going that reads this, but if you are I’m curious to know if you’ve had the same experience with the bad service regarding the hotels.
On March 18th at exactly 9am pacific time (like the website said) I began calling to make a reservation. I don’t always like doing it online because they always seem to get lost or not go through. After 20 min of not being able to get through on the phone line I finally made a reservation online just in case while I continued to try calling. (Might I add that the initial call ended up having either no hold button or all the hold buttons were full because I never got put on hold to wait my turn, the phone just kept getting cut off and I had to redial the number which sucked) At 9:20am I made the online reservation and around 9:40 I finally got through to someone who then said since I made the filled out the online reservation form that that was better and they’d get to that before my phone reservation so they’d stick to that one after assuring me that the online way of reserving was very good. The website said I’d be informed in 3 days if there was a hotel available for me and if there wasn’t theyd contact me with info regarding other hotels. Needless to say no one contacted me so after 4 days I called and was told about the abundance of calls and thousands of reservations in the first few minutes and how they were getting to everyone and not to worry because there was still hotels they were just having a hard time processing everything. So I made sure that my reservation form was still there which they said it was but just pending. So fine…..another few days go by and nothing so I call again and get told the same thing. This time they said I would hear by the end of the week on friday. I asked that if there were no hotels if I would get contacted by email or phone to try for the other hotels or at least informed that there were no hotels and I was told yes. Friday came and went and the next friday came when I finally called again. This time I found out that my reservation was now nowhere to be found and every single hotel is all booked up now and there is a waiting list. A waiting list that I never got put on and had to ask them to put me on it and am now at the bottom of. I tried to ask what happened to my reservation and how it could have been there for two weeks visible and now all of a sudden it’s vanished. The woman of course had no answers and gave me to a manager who called me back 2 days later. He basically said the same thing. They don’t know what happened and there’s nothing I can do about it and proceeded to explain to me what the wait list meant, basically trying to avoid my real questions. So I then contacted comic con and explained my situation and asked if this was happening a lot or if I just fell through the cracks and if there was any way I could maybe get parking comped to me or SOMETHING for this huge messed up affair and they haven’t gotten back to me and I don’t think they will. I mean I didn’t really expect them to do anything for me as I’m just one person in tens of thousands and I’m sure they could care less if I do or do not come to comic con. But some response would have been nice at least apologizing for the mess that this hotel thing has been.
Oh and I was also supposed to get an email from the waiting list department which was about 4 days ago explaining where I am on the list and that has yet to happen as well.
So now I’m stuck with no hotel and can’t afford to wait for one to maybe open up for me while all other cheaper hotels in the whole of san diego begin to fill up. On top of having a hotel most likely about 5 miles away from the convention (as anything closer starts going into the $300 a night range which is waaayyy beyond our budget) we also have to drive our car and pay for parking at comic con as there wont be any shuttles at any hotel I find. We’re debating whether or not taking a taxi back and forth is cheaper and less stress then driving ourselves and trying to park. Unfortunately for us as well we have to volunteer on sat because the sat tickets sold out around, what was it, nov of last year? I’ve entered the costume masquerade which means I have to be there sat and that was the only way. SIGH……I really want to go to comic con but I have to say that this whole experience has been exhausting and frustrating and really taken any joy at wanting to go. I only hope that when we get there, everything makes up for it and goes smoothly. But I think not as I know the first time to an event like this is usually hectic and spent trying to find your way ect.
So sorry about the rant lol…..it just needed to be said. I’m just amazed that within the first 15 min it seems every hotel room was booked out as that is what has to have happened since my reservation place holder was only about 25 min after reservations opened.
Ending on an up note here are some pics from last years ball!!
The hotel thing was a total nightmare this year!
Two years ago, I stayed much further away (at the Town and Country Resort) than I wanted, but the hotel was within walking distance from the trolley stop. It was not as convenient as having a car near the convention center, but it was much cheaper than parking every day and also not as much of a hassle.
Hehehe Im just glad Im not the only one who thought so! Thanks for mentioning the resort that you stayed in, Ill have to check them out since Im now having to find my own hotel. I don’t want to be to far out though mostly because I worry what others will think watching us walk/drive down the streets in our costumes say 10 miles away from the convention where no one else is probably dressed up lol!