Con Review: Wizard World Philadelphia 2014

Wizard World Philadelphia

On Saturday, June 22, 2014, we made our way to Wizard World Philly.  There were four of us going: my husband and I, and his brother and his wife.  I had asked some friends earlier if this Con was child-friendly and was told it was probably a good idea to leave Wiggle with my parents.  He had a smashing good time with them, and I'm really glad that I did not bring him along because this convention was a huge boondoggle.  I'm pretty sure that he had at least as much fun as us, if not more.

Wiggle-- totally pooped out from too much fun!

Hubs and I got up extra early because we had planned to get on the road at 5:00 am.  Ugh.  If we ever plan to do something like that again, please kick me.  Our vehicle is not very conducive to in-seat napping.  I had finally managed to fall asleep when my arm slipped off of the door and jolted me awake.  I'm still in recovery from the strange positions I tried to get comfortable enough to sleep in.  We wound up making it into the convention around noon because we had done some rest stop for food and had some tire trouble on the edge of the city.  We had known that our pre-paid parking spot was about a half-mile from the convention center, but thought it would be easier to find our destination than it actually was.  For most of it we just followed other cosplayers if we could.  It would have been great if there had been signs up anywhere to point us in the right direction.  When we finally made it to the convention center, we were on the wrong side.  Not that we would have known if some nice guys hadn't told us that there was a business convention going on in that end of the building.  Eventually, we found a volunteer who helped to point us in the right direction after we'd walked through some places we would never want to go at night.

Redeeming our pre-paid tickets for wristbands was easy and quick, but I was surprised to see that staff members had to use their own mobile devices to scan them.  They also had to use their own phones to scan in the papers we had for pre-paid signatures.  The first thing on the agenda for Hubby and me was to get the four Walking Dead signatures that were the whole reason we made the trip.  The ones we had pre-paid for were Norman Reedus (Darryl Dixon) and Lauren Cohen (Maggie).  First up was Jon Bernthal (Shane), once we finally found where the celebs were....back behind all of the vendors.  We made it through his line in short order and even got a picture with him, but it would have been great if the staff member who took it had cared whether or not my eyes were actually open for this once-in-a-lifetime event.  Jon Bernthal was really nice and seemed to be very appreciative of his fans.

Me (as steampunk Ariel wearing Damsel in this Dress), Jon, and Hubs (as a Ghostbuster)

We wanted to get Sarah Wayne Callies' (Lori) signature next, but were informed by staff that she was elsewhere and to try back around 4:15, so we decided to jump into the massive failure that was the line for Norman Reedus.  Now, Wizard World had sold VIP experience passes with him.  With this pass, you were guaranteed a signature and a photo op, along with a shiny lanyard badge with his face on it for the not inconsiderable about of about $300, which included your entry for the entire duration of the con.  These passes were WAY oversold.  There were TONS of VIP's in line when we went over.  Now, you'd think that since we pre-paid for Mr. Reedus' signature that we'd get put in line after the VIP's.  Nope.  Pre-purchasing your signatures for Wizard World means absolutely NOTHING to them.  We were sent to the end of the line of anyone who wasn't a VIP.  At one point, the wonderful staff volunteers who were managing the back of the line (Seya and Justin) added another lane to it so it wasn't stretching back into infinity, just nearly-infinity.  Thank goodness we had some awesome people around us (like Gin and her son John!  Love you guys!).  Expect for the booger-picker guy who was up to his second knuckle and flicking his snot once he managed to extract his digit from his nostril; I had tissues, dude... all you had to do was ask.

After waiting about an hour, we decided to bust out our packed lunch of ham sandwiches and were quite happy that we had the forethought to bring them.  After another half-hour, I decided that I was going to go use my breast pump because ouch.  There was nowhere at the Con that I felt comfortable doing this except in the restroom.  Have you ever tried to pump in a small public toilet?  It's not easy, and it's not fun.  Since there are no lids on public toilets, I had to squat on the floor while I waited for it to get done and listen to the people going in and out, all the while hoping that I wasn't taking up a stall that someone desperately needed to get into for regular usage.  When I had finished, I came out to find a rather upset Hubby.  Mr. Reedus had to go to his photo op, so they were dispersing his line.  Yes, you read that right.  We had just wasted TWO HOURS in line for NOTHING.  Some security guys began to pass out numbered tickets to reassemble the line at 7:00 PM, after the con was closed.  They told us that NO ONE was guaranteed to get a signature, even if you came back at 7:00 and even though we had pre-paid.  Wizard World and it's employees seriously don't care one ounce that you pre-paid for signatures.  I will continue the saga in a little bit... I'm trying to keep this chronological so it makes sense.  Here is a picture of Mr. Reedus with a bowler hat for your trouble (...that's more than Wizard World will give you):

Norman is just dandy!

Once we were no longer in line for Norman, we decided to go try to get in Lauren Cohen's.  Hahahahaha.  Yes, that is the laughter of the deranged who just wasted two hours waiting for nothing trying to get into another line for nothing.  Lauren also had left her crazy que behind to go to her photo op and they had just passed out her numbered cards to get the line back together at 6:00.  No one would give us a card because we hadn't been in the line, even though we had pre-paid for this signature, too!  It was at this point that I needed caffeine to keep my head from exploding.  The bottled water I had brought was simply not cutting it.  I went and purchased a lovely warm Coke from the "nice" convention people for $3.50.  Yeah, really glad now that we had packed sandwiches.

Now it was time to try to slide back into the line for Sarah.  The volunteer who was running this line was AWESOME!  Thank you SO MUCH, Simone!  I really hope that you get put on regular staff and can be paid to organize this Con because you could do it.  They need you to do it or this sad history is going to repeat itself.  This line was well organized and Simone knew who was doing what at all times and kept everything together.  Sarah was super nice and she loved Hubby's Ghostbuster cosplay.

Me, Sarah Wayne Callies, and Hubby

It was at this point that we finally got to check out the con because cons aren't just about getting signatures, even though that was the big draw for us at this one.  For the fact that this was a COMIC CONVENTION, there was a surprisingly large lack of COMICS.  There were lots of people selling lots of cool prints and jewelry and other artwork.  Hubby got Greg Capullo to sign three comics for him right before he left.  We had wanted CGC to witness them to get a signature series CGC, but had no ideas where their booth was and no time to search for it.  Sorry, CGC, no money for you.  Maybe you should have had someone wandering around near where artists were signing?  Yeah, that probably could have gotten you some good cash.  After that, Hubs went out for a cigarette break (yes, I know, it's bad for him and I want him to quit, but seriously, after what we had dealt with, I kind of felt like I needed one, too, and I have never smoked.), and I was left to wander the rest of the Con floor by myself.  I actually say Nathan Fillion while he was doing his signings, but I wasn't allowed to even take a picture of him from a distance as proof.  I got to finally meet up with some online friends, which was super awesome!  I also got to talk with this cute girl who made her own Belle costume:

Me (steampunk Ariel in Damsel in the Dress) and Belle!  Her rose even lit up!  SO COOL!

Eventually, it was time to try to get into Lauren's line again.  It took us an hour to finally get to her and we were one of the last people to get the chance.  Once again, I'd like to reiterate: WIZARD WORLD DOES NOT CARE IF YOU PRE-PURCHASE A SIGNATURE!  THEY WILL TOTALLY THROW YOU UNDER THE BUS FOR A STICK OF GUM!  Lauren was only there on Saturday, so it wasn't a thing where we could just try to come back.  Nope.  It was now or never.  Thanks for being helpful, Wizard World.

Directly following Lauren's signature, we had to go down to jump into the reforming line for Norman Reedus.  This was the fun moment that we discovered that because we had voiced our displeasure to the security guards giving out the numbers for the line that we'd gotten shafted.  They had apparently pulled our number and the number for the lady in front of us from the bottom of their pile.  We were now 100 people behind where we should have been.  And we pre-paid.  Which, by now, I hope I've drilled into your head means nothing.  Please don't ever give your money to them weeks early.  There were still a bunch of VIPs waiting at the head of the line because they never got their signature.  I don't know why they didn't just have them do it during the photo op.  I wound up needing to pump again, so back to the restrooms I went.  There were fewer people there so I took a handicap stall so I'd have more room.  There was still another one available or I would not have done this; my sister is disabled, so I understand the need for these stalls.  It would have been nice to just find a nice quiet spot to go use, but I really didn't feel comfortable doing that after the way this Con had already treated us.

By the time we finally got our signature, it was 10:30.  Admittedly, I did get a lovely hug from Norman.  It would be nice if Wizard World would be so kind as to not oversell his VIPs and photo ops and signatures so the poor guy doesn't have to stay there until midnight.  They owe him as much of an apology as they do us.

Norman Reedus at our ridiculous late night signing session.

While we were waiting in line for our final signature, there was quite a ruckus going on over people getting their prints from photo ops.  Nothing was organized.  Celebs were all mixed in together, so you had to dig through and ruin other people's photos to find your own and hope that it was in good shape.  I am not joking when I say there was almost a riot.  One of my friends said that pics were all finger printed and scratched and bent.  The people who ran this convention had no respect for any of the attendees.

I have seen a lot of people railing against the con staff.  Please keep in mind that most of these people were volunteers.  I talked with some of them and they actually don't get anything for helping out.  Yes, you read that correctly.  They help save the convention thousands of dollars and don't get so much as a voucher for a free warm $3.50 Coke, much less a free day pass or complimentary autograph.  These people get no real training from Wizard World in convention management and have to use their own mobile devices to scan pre-paid tickets and autograph printouts.  I'm pretty sure they all thought that they'd be getting something for their efforts, but Wizard World just isn't nice enough for that.

Our passes for Saturday only were $75 apiece.  Hubby didn't even get to explore all of the vendors, and I only got to make one circuit of the show floor.  Sorry if your vendors don't come back because they didn't make enough money.  Time spent is epic lines equates to less money spent with them.  Neither of us got to attend any panels.  Just writing out this blog and reliving the day is seriously stressing me out because I'm still so upset over how poorly managed it was.  If you are looking to get multiple signatures, it seems like you really need to attend more than one day.  Unfortunately, that was not fiscally possible for us right now.  I am infinitely grateful to my parents for watching Wiggle because this convention is 100% not a place to bring small children and babies.  In fact, this isn't even a convention that I want to take myself to again.