Last year was our first year attending New York Comic Con, but we only had Thursday badges. It was a nice first taste of the convention, but we wanted to come back this year and experience more – and so we did, having successfully obtained badges for all 4 days of NYCC 2018, which took place October 3-7, 2018 at the Javits Convention Center in Hell’s Kitchen.
We didn’t have a concrete plan for Thursday, other than treating it as a Show Floor day. We slept in a bit, and caught the bus from our Secaucus, NJ hotel shortly after 9am. Of course, this being rush hour, it took nearly 45 minutes to get to Port Authority, thanks to all the traffic. (With no traffic it’s only about 15-20 minutes.) By the time we walked to the convention center and got through bag check and the metal detector, it was 10:08am. Which was fine, as the convention center opened at 10am.
Last year, we arrived Thursday morning a little before the convention center doors opened, and were trapped in a crowded tunnel area for awhile, then had to work our way through a crowd just to get in the doors. But this time, we were able to walk right in the wide open doors.
I hadn’t heard of very many activations this year like I had last year, but the ones I had heard of were for Good Omens and Harry Potter. We saw the Harry Potter one upon walking into the building, but the line already looked long, so we went in search of the Good Omens activation. The line looped around, but didn’t look too long, and we figured this was probably the shortest we’d see it, so we got in line. It took about 30 minutes.
When it was our turn, we stepped through some elevator doors, and an elevator operator greeted us. It was as if we had just died, and it was being decided whether we were going to Heaven or Hell. An arrow hovered between two destinations and ultimately stopped on Penthouse – aka Heaven. Elevator doors opened on the other side, and we were let out into a library area, where we had our picture taken. On the way out, we were each given a hardcover Good Omens notebook and an angel wings pin. So that was some pretty nice swag!
Then we decided to start our walk around the Show Floor, starting on the very left. There was a large booth for Glass, with a line that had already formed. On one side, it looked like people were in line for sending a photo op to themselves, on the other side was a much longer line, and in the front it looked like a comic book store. It wasn’t really clear what the photo op or purpose of the booth was, and we were more interested in continuing our walk of the Show Floor at that time, so we moved on. It was really crowded in this area, as the aisles were narrow.
We found the Fandom Fantasy Food Truck and saw that they were giving out something. According to the schedule, it would have been DragonballZ related, but since we don’t watch that, and saw that Doctor Who was on the list for later in the day, we decided to come back later.
We made it through about 1/3 of the Show Floor when we started getting hungry, so we went over to the food court area. Even though it was prime lunch time, it wasn’t too crazy. You just walk up to a food station, grab what you want, or request it if they don’t have it already available, then stand in line to pay. It moved really quickly. We got a burger, chicken tenders, and tater tots. Then we had to find some open wall space so that we could sit down and eat.
Having refueled, we went back over to the Fandom Fantasy Food Truck, but they weren’t handing out any free stuff. They were just playing a trivia game. We weren’t sure when or if they would start handing out stuff, so we went ahead and headed down to Room 1A06 to get in line for David Boreanaz’s panel, which was scheduled for 1:45pm-2:45pm (Click here for our recap and photos of the David Boreanaz panel). After this panel wrapped up, we headed over to 1A10, just down the hall, for the NatGeo Mars Season 2 panel that was scheduled for 3pm-4pm. Stay tuned for our recaps and photos of those panels!
After that, we headed outside to the American Gods activation, where we had heard there was some good swag to be had. The place looked like a diner. There was no line. Upon entering, you picked whether you wanted your photo op background to have the Old Gods or New Gods background. We picked New Gods. Then at the counter, you showed the booth workers that you had the Starz app on your phone, and they gave you a T-shirt. They only had size Small and Medium, which is fine for us. We also each got to pick one button from several choices.
Right next to this was the Outlander activation. This line was a bit long, but moved steadily. While we were waiting, it began to rain. Luckily, we had made it to the portion of the line which was covered by the time the rain started. Before actually entering the interior of the log cabin, you reached inside of a bag to see if you pulled out a piece of paper with “YES” on it. If so, then you would win an autograph signing with the cast. Apparently there was one “YES” in the bag. Josh and I both pulled out “NO” slips of paper, though. We were then each given a tote bag. Next, we went to a station where there were three scents you could choose from, which were made exclusively for the show. I chose the Rose Water scent. Finally, at the last station, you could stand in line to have a leather luggage tag customized with your initials in gold. So that was pretty cool.
By the time we finished up with the Outlander activation, the People’s Choice Awards trailer had already shut down for the day. So we headed back inside to finish up our stroll of the Show Floor. This time, we started at the very right side and worked our way back to where we left off earlier in the day.
Our last stop was the Funko booth around 6:45pm. At this point, the booth was no longer crazy, as it had been throughout the day. We wanted to say hi to our friend Sully, but he wasn’t there.
We started to head out, but then realized we had completely missed the DC booth! That’s because it was in a totally separate area from the main Show Floor. You had to go down some stairs to what looked like an exit, but actually was not. There they had Aquaman costumes on display, and also had on display our friend Tony Kim’s Superman 80th Anniversary blazer from his clothing company Hero Within. There were some other activities and things in this area, but most of it was shut down since the convention was about to close at 7pm.
By the time we walked through the exit doors, it was exactly 7pm. We had stayed at the convention center until closing time. Upon exiting, you had to go to a staff member to scan your badge to scan you out. I don’t think I mentioned that upon getting through security, there was a staff member waiting there to scan your badge to scan you in. Coming in, it wasn’t a problem because of how slowly you get through security anyway. But going out, it caused some slight congestion, as there were very few staff members scanning people out. It wasn’t a huge deal though, just a minor inconvenience.
Speaking of inconveniences, one major inconvenience throughout the day were the women’s restrooms. Every time I had to use the restroom, it was about a half hour wait. For some reason, it seemed that every restroom only had 3 stalls. Which is ridiculous. And it’s not like the restrooms were plentiful, because they were few and far between. So that was annoying, but not really anything you could do about it.
Anyway, so after finishing up at the convention center, we headed back to Port Authority and caught a bus back to our hotel. Friday was going to be an early morning for us.
To be continued…
In the meantime, you can view more of our photos from the New York Comic Con 2018 Show Floor below:
