For families that have been to Comic Con before, this is old news. For new families, we’ll try to cover some of the experiences/activities/challenges we faced as a family during our first year, and tips to make your life easier. If you have other tips, or things that worked for you, please feel free to share them in the comments section!
So you’ve decided to spend your family vacation at SDCC! Whoo! 4-5 days of fun packed into a convention center with 125,000 other excited, exhausted people by the last day. What have you gotten yourself into…
A lot of fun, actually. But a different experience than a group of adults has. So read on as we cover in this first segment getting to the convention, as well as pointers on where to stay once you arrive in San Diego.
Please note-this post assumes you've read over the Comic Con official website in at least enough detail that you know you're registered for the convention and are attending. If you are totally unfamiliar with SDCC, please check it out here before proceeding.
Getting to the Convention
If you are local to the area (or even if you're not-if you aren't renting a car), take advantage of the numerous public transportation venues San Diego has to get to the convention center-the trolley system, buses, even Metrolink or Amtrak from further north. But recognize that your child may be squished in with a million other people in the morning and afternoon on the days of the convention, so prepare for that.
If you are flying in, remember the time changes and how it will affect your child. Don’t expect to arrive on Wednesday in the afternoon from the East Coast and happily stand in line for your registration materials that evening without your child asleep on your arm standing up (trust me on this). This line moves remarkably fast for the number of people they process, but it is still exhausting to a child whose body thinks it is 3 hours later than it actually is. If you are traveling across several time zones and want to pick up your registration materials Wednesday night, plan on arriving to San Diego mid day Wednesday, get in a nap, and then go out.
Bring lots of entertainment for the plane and any layovers you might have. Books, a portable DVD player, iPod, art materials, and a small pillow for naps are always good.
While some people do not recommend driving to the convention, I did not have any problem with this last year. I think the key to this is pre-paying for parking at one of the garages close to the convention center, or the convention center garage, and mapping out your route the night before. We rented a car, prepaid for parking at the Hilton Garage (which is near the line up for Hall H), and mapped out the route from our hotel on the GPS. There was a little traffic coming into the city in the morning, but nothing unmanageable. You can pre-pay for parking on the Comic Con website. Plus having the car there was great for when we wanted to stash our stuff during the day.
Staying in San Diego
You can avoid some transportation woes downtown by staying in a downtown hotel. However, at this point, if you don’t have a room booked, it is very, very, very unlikely you will get one in that area. Look for hotel rooms within 10 miles of downtown on the shuttle line (Comic Con offers a shuttle service to various hotels), or on the trolley lines. These hotels are often less expensive and more family friendly, since they are near larger chain restaurants and activities.
When you research hotels, look for ones with a pool or other kid friendly activities. Although you may want to go all day and get your money’s worth, the kids may also need an afternoon to just relax and recharge, and you will be glad you have somewhere to take them.
The Weather
San Diego is BEAUTIFUL, with low humidity but surprisingly a little chilly and windy in the evening. Bring a small jacket with you (yes, you might actually need it even surrounded by that many people) for the different weather changes.
Let us know what other questions you have, or other tips you can share!
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