SDCC 2008: T-minus 2 days

I'm officially out in California for Comic-Con. I've Twittered some of it, and from now until I return, my tweets and my blog posts will probably overlap. Can't really help that, but if you've been following the Twitter feed, I can promise improved spelling and capitalization when they're retold here.

My flight out was long and self-delayed. They oversold my original flight, and were asking for volunteers to take a later flight for a $250 travel voucher. I jumped on that. I fly enough that I know I can use it, and it'd delay me by three hours, so that's roughly $83 an hour. I figured that was worth it. I even got a meal voucher, too.

Then my 8:45 flight became a 9:15 flight and then a 9:45 flight. By the time we left, around 10:00pm, I figure I was making $50 an hour. Still not bad, but not what I hoped for. I managed to sleep on the flight and catch the last Disney shuttle bus to the Disneyland Hotel where I'm typing this from.

I slept in far less than I expected to. Between sleeping on the flight and the bus, and the time zone change, I had about eight hours by the time 7:30 rolled around, so I headed over to Disneyland.

I haven't been here since 2002, the year of the first Raider trade. This time I scored a parkhopper, so I could check out California Adventure, Disney's other park. And I was doing it with Bob Ingersoll and his son, who'd been here for a couple of days already. They went over earlier than I got up.

The first ride I checked out was the new Finding Nemo ride, a retheming of the previous submarine ride. It was pretty cool. I remember being on the Florida sub ride when I was a scant four years old and liking it a lot. It was cool to be back. The Nemo stuff (and hidden Atlantis stuff) was fun to see.

Oddly enough, I ran into Gail Simone, writer of Wonder Woman (and man, or should I say WOman, is she doing some great stuff on that title) who was also doing the pre-Comic-Con Disney trip. She also had some kind things to say about Love and Capes, which I appreciate all to pieces.

Even at Disney, I'm networking. Makes the whole thing deductible, I figure. Right?

I rode a bunch of rides, some of which have been tweaked since the last time I was here. Jack Sparrow is now part of Pirates of the Carribbean. Space Mountain has a new track and new cars.

And I'd not been to Disney's California Adventure before. It's a smallish park, which, while fun, I wouldn't pay full price for. It's got that Disney Animal Kingdom vibe to it. Sure, it's cool, but is it on a par with the Magic Kingdom? No.

Which isn't to say that it doesn't have it's moments. The coaster is a lot of fun. It's got a cool looking Ferris Wheel. And the Toy Story shooting gallery is a ton of fun. I beat Bob and his son handily in that one.

Unfortunately, when we did the similar Buzz Lightyear ride, the smaller Ingersoll did beat me by 10,000 points. We both beat Bob by something like a billion, though, so that was good. They take your photo and then e-mail it to you. You can see my oh-so-intense shooting face here.

We stayed a little past midnight, catching both Fantasmic, which wisely eliminated the show-stopping (in a bad way) Pocahontas number, as well as the main fireworks show. I even got to watch Tinkerbell fly to the castle, which I swear I've never seen before. I remember my first trip to Disney and the winds were too high or something and she didn't fly that day. I think I've missed it for the thirty years since, too. It's a little thing, I know, but still brought a smile to my face.

Doubly-oddly, I was called by ABC News which wanted me to record a video message about who I thought McCain's running mate should be. I don't know if I have the time, and I don't know if I can get my iSight to do that. It could be kind of fun, so we'll see how I feel in the morning.

Of course, I really don't know who he should pick, either.

Okay, so I've had my day of play. Tomorrow, Bob's son will head back to Ohio, and Bob and I will head to San Diego to set up the Love and Capes booth and get ready for the fun and frivolity that is Comic-Con.