Dragon Con 2015 - Friday

We usually head down to GA to go to Dragon Con fairly early on Thursday but this year we waited until Emily was out of school. Because we didn't get to my aunt and uncle's house until the evening, we didn't go down to the con at all until Friday.

Todd and I got up bright and early Friday morning to head downtown. I wore my Tightrope Girl costume and I actually got asked for my picture before we even got into the Peachtree Center. That was awesome because I rarely get asked for my picture.

Sheraton was our first stop to get our badges. Badge pick-up was a breeze again this year. It took us longer to walk into the building than it did to actually get our badges. I also had to pick up my parade bracelet as well as get the disability sticker on my badge.

Dragon Con offers a variety of disability services. Because of my migraines, I got a sticker on my badge that lets me sit in the disability area and then I get a seat at the end of the row. I didn't end up using it until Sunday, but it really is nice to be able to sit and wait for panels in a chair.

We went to the Peachtree Center after that and got some breakfast. We didn't have any issues getting a seat and the food court is a great place to relax, eat and people watch

From there, we headed off to the Hilton. I had signed up for a massive Disney photoshoot. We were a little early but there were a lot of people there already. I love Disney and it was fun to see everyone's costumes.

Todd wandered away for a bit while we were all herded outside. Because of the uniqueness of my costume, I was only in the big group photo. It took a bit to get everyone posed, and then lots of pictures were taken.

Once the big group picture was taken, Todd had wandered back and we headed over to the Marriott. Even though the Walk of Fame wasn't opening for another hour, we opted to join the line to get in. I found that sitting on the floor in a corset is not very comfortable.

When the doors opened, we walked around the Walk of Fame to see who were there and where everyone would be. I got my picture with the voice of Goofy, Bill Farmer, since I had gotten his autograph the year before. Then we joined the line for the voice of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, Caroll Spinney. 

The line wasn't took long long, but the people who had been in the front took at least 20 minutes to talk to Caroll and have him sign everything under the sun. It got really ridiculous after a while and rather rude because the line just kept growing and growing. It's fine to have a bit of a conversation with the guests, especially an icon like Caroll Spinney. But more than five minutes and you are being very rude to the people behind you.

Finally they left, and the people in front of Todd and I had better sense so it only took us a few minutes to get up to the front. We got an autograph that he signed to both me and Emily, plus I got a picture with him.

It was then time to head over to the Dealer's room. It took us a bit to figure out where it was since they had moved buildings and there was actually a line to get into the building itself. There were two floors of dealer's and the layout was so much better this year.

First stop was the BPAL booth where I got BPAL. I've known the owners for years, so I got a hug from Ted. I also got a hug from Beth and we stood and talked about our kids for a bit. It's a little weird talking about school and kids in the middle of the dealer's room at Dragon Con.

We had been planning on staying later but by this time I was starting to get worn out. Todd noticed and suggested we go back to my aunt and uncle's house in order to save energy for the parade in the morning. I agreed and off we went.

It was a pretty good first day of Dragon Con!

Up Next - Dragon Con Saturday

Dragon Con 2014 - Sunday

Me and Katie Cassidy (Laurel from Arrow)

This is the last post of my Dragon Con recaps - you can click the links to read about Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Sunday I planned on sleeping in but that didn't happen. About 6:30 in the morning, I was woken up by Emily losing her tooth. This was the first tooth she lost normally and not in the dentist's office.

We made sure to find the tooth and I put it in a small box I had been using for safety pins. I was awake at this point so we just hung out in the back bedroom for a bit to let Todd sleep.

Once everyone else was up, I got Emily dressed to go to church and I donned my Tightrope Girl costume again. We got downtown right around the time everything was opening up.

We went to the Walk of Fame first. We got autographs from the one Arrow guest we needed and John Ratzenberger (had him sign a Toy Story poster for Emily since he's the voice of Hamm). Bill Farmer, the voice of Goofy and other Disney characters, wasn't there yet so we headed off to the dealer's room.

At this point in the day, I had a migraine. I didn't really think much of it because of my chronic pain, but we soldiered on. Our first stop was at the BPAL booth. Beth and I talked about loosing teeth because I told her about Emily. It was fun! And I got another bottle of BPAL.

We found an Applejack that Emily requested and I bought some mystery box figures as well. It was time to meet Goofy Bill, so we headed back to the Walk of Fame.

Bill Farmer was awesome! I got his autograph and we talked to him for a bit and he even did the Goofy voice for us. It was one of the best meetings we had all con.

But at this point, my migraine was really bad and I was feeling woozy. We headed to the food court to get some food. Even after eating, I felt horrible. Even though I was suppose to be on a Kaleidoscope panel later that afternoon, I opted to email the track director and head back to my aunt and uncle's house.

It was a sucky way to end the con. I knew I had overdid it but I had hoped I could push through to make it through my last panel. I ended up passing out and sleeping for several hours once we got back. And it kicked off a couple of weeks of illness - I ended up at the doctor's last Friday because I wasn't getting any better and it was the flu.

Next year, I think I may either skip the Geek Girls Run fun run or wait until Sunday to give blood. Either way, despite how it ended, I had a great Dragon Con this year!

Disney Trip 2013 - Disney's Hollywood Studios

This is the 7th post of my Disney Trip report – click for  post #1, post #2, post #3, post #4, post #5, and post #6!

Even though I had had a long night before, we got up early for our last park today. We were heading to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We had to sit down reservations so Todd decided that we were going to rent a stroller in hopes Emily would nap there instead of going back to the room for nap time.

My in-laws met us in the lobby at 8:30 am and we took the bus to the park together. Emily was a little cranky today but was excited to have a stroller. The first thing we did was we went to see Pluto and Goofy. Emily decided that she didn’t really want pictures anymore just autographs. These two were the last we needed for because of the disappeared Chef Mickey’s pictures and we were able to convince her to take a picture.

From there, we went to Star Tours with my in laws. Emily hasn’t seen Star Wars yet because I’m paranoid

that she’s not going to like it. But she’s see the Lego Star Wars games and has a limited understanding of what Star Wars is.

I love Star Tours and was excited to ride it since I haven’t been since they upgraded it. Emily was a little unsure, especially since this was the wildest ride we had been on. She said she didn’t like it when we got out and we headed over to see the Muppets show.

The Muppets was good and Emily enjoyed herself, especially playing with the 3D glasses while we waited. Once we got out of the show, we went to meet Phineas and Ferb. They were really awesome and I got in the picture too because Emily was being shy. I also got a picture of myself with a Ducky MoMo statuesince I’m planning on making a Ducky MoMo costume for Dragon Con next year.

It was more characters after that. We went into the Animation Building to meet Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope. Emily wanted both Todd and I to come up with her so we did. That’s how we got our only full family pictures the entire vacation!

It was nearing the time of our first reservation so we headed over to Hollywood and Vine. Our reservation was at 11 when they started serving lunch. It was also a character meal with some of the Disney Junior characters. We were a bit early and got checked in. The cast member checking us in had chalk that she was giving to the kids, so Emily had

fun drawing on the ground. The characters also kept coming up to the windows and waved at the kids
waiting

Finally we were seated and June from the Little Einsteins came over right away. Emily was happy to get her

to autograph her book but wanted no part in the pictures. So Todd got his picture with June. Same thing with Jake, so I got my picture taken with him.

Oso came around next and Todd took one picture with me and Oso standing behind Emily’s chair. I was sad that it didn’t turn out because it was really blurry. I got in the picture with Handy Manny too, I actually photobombed the picture because I had been coming back from the buffet.

The food was excellent and the chef came out and advised me which foods were dangerous to me with my shellfish and tree nut allergy. Todd agreed the meal was very good though surmised it was partly because the food was fresh.

After we ate, we headed over to get in line to meet Sofia the First. She is the newest character available for meet and greets so the line was long. Todd left us since he didn’t care about meeting Sofia to go ride Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. We waited probably a half hour for Sophia. A couple of times she had to take a break – the cast members with her always said that she needed to go back and check on her winged horse, Minimus.

Emily got a kick out of that and still talks about how Minimus was just backstage.

Again Emily didn’t want to be in the picture by herself so I got in it with her. Sofia was very sweet and well worth the wait. I got Emily in her stroller and we went over to Star Tours where we were going to meet up with Todd. Emily didn’t nap or even get sleepy as I rolled her over there so I got us a snack to eat while we were waiting.

Once Todd joined us, Emily decided that she wanted to brave Star Tours again. This time she loved it and wanted to ride it again. Since there was very little waiting we rode it again. She wanted to keep riding it but there were other things we wanted to do.

I had Fastpass + for the Disney Junior Show and the Toy Story Mania ride. But they were both a little later in the afternoon. Even though the Toy Story Mania standby wait time was listed at two hours, we decided to get in line.

The queue had all kinds of different toys large sized and a giant Mr. Potato Head who sang songs and told jokes. Once we got past Mr. Potato Head the line moved pretty fast. The ride itself was a lot of fun. You put on 3D glasses and then get spun around to different scenes were you get to shoot at targets and earn points. It was fun and Emily really enjoyed it.

After that, we met up with my in-laws and we all decided to go to the next showing of the Disney Junior show. It had all of Emily’s favorite characters from her favorite shows in puppet form. There was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. The show was really cute and things would fall from the sky like bubbles and tissue paper gold doubloons.

There was time left so we all decided to go ride on the Great Movie Ride. I was little afraid that some of the scenes, like the one from Alien, would scare Emily but she loved the ride. I’m a big movie nut and have a degree in Broadcasting, so it’s one of my favorites.

From there decided to go to where we had dinner reservations early since our reservations were pretty late. We ate at 50’s Prime Time Café. We were seated pretty quickly and had a nice meal. Emily was excited because I got her a special class with a light up Ariel and our server also gave her a light up Tinkerbelle.

Once we were done, it was after 7 pm and we had been in the park for about 10 hours. Emily was getting tired and we were driving home the next day so we opted to skip the fireworks show and head back to the resort.

Up next post - Departure Day and Final Thoughts