San Diego Convention Center, July 24–27, 2025. This marks my 16th consecutive year attending SDCC, including the two years of Comic-Con at Home.
We arrived late Thursday morning and checked into our hotel. I managed to snag a last-minute reservation at Hotel Indigo Gaslamp, which felt like a small miracle. Getting a good downtown hotel this year was incredibly stressful. Our group tried during the Downtown Hotel Sale and came up empty-handed. Eventually, we pieced together a few one-night stays at different downtown hotels, but the thought of hotel-hopping every night sounded exhausting.
After hours of refreshing the Hotel Sale page EVERY. SINGLE. DAY, I finally secured a three-night stay at Hotel Indigo Gaslamp. You had to be lightning-fast. If you didn’t enter your information immediately, the hotel would sell out, since hundreds, if not thousands, of people were trying at the same time.
That created another problem. Hotel reservations are non-refundable, so we were suddenly stuck with four different bookings. I joined several Facebook groups to resell them, and my sister-in-law managed to sell the last one through Reddit.
I swear I lose a few days off my life every year dealing with SDCC badges and hotel reservations. And that’s not even counting the stress of securing off-site activation reservations. Huge thanks to @thegeekyhooker for saving us in that department. If you don’t get reservations or enough tickets for everyone, you are left bartering on Discord and hoping people respond.
Anyway, back to the good stuff. After checking in, we walked around the Gaslamp to take it all in. It’s always fun seeing the restaurants and bars fully decked out in fandom. We headed to the con floor and made a beeline for the LEGO booth, where we built our LEGO creations and picked up our exclusive LEGO pop badges, which are different each day. We also checked out the incredible LEGO replica of the Convention Center, complete with detailed interiors, exterior booths, and minifig con-goers, including a full Hall H line. After that, we went to a couple of private parties and events before calling it a night.
Friday was packed. We did the Fantastic Four off-site activation, walked the con floor, took photos with Herbie, and checked out the South Park activation, which was a bit of a disappointment. We also attended the Peacemaker party and met Eagly. We did not expect that at all, but one of the guys working the party overheard us fangirling over Eagly and told all five of us to go upstairs to meet him.
Saturday was packed. We built Gundam models, which was so cool, and thanks to David for telling us about it. We accidentally stumbled upon the Star Wars cosplay meetup, which was amazing to see. We walked through the maze at Clown in a Cornfield, attended the Magic: The Gathering Spider-Man Deck Swings Into MAGIC experience, visited Starr Park, which was incredibly fun and cool, and concluded the night by walking through Alien Earth After Dark. Took a photo with Lisa Ann Walter from Abbott Elementary inside the Hard Rock hotel lobby, and we rode the elevator with and spoke to Scott Eastwood while scouting the hotel for celebrities. However, I didn’t realize it was him until after he exited the elevator.
I had a four-day badge, but I always end up skipping Sunday. I take an early flight home to get back to my kids, and it also means beating the crowds, avoiding TSA lines, and skipping the lounge waits.
See you in 2026!
