The wait was finally over. After three long years, it was time to return to San Diego Comic-Con! SDCC 2022 took place at the San Diego Convention Center starting with Preview Night on Wednesday, July 20, and continuing through Sunday, July 24, 2022.
We bought our badges for San Diego Comic-Con 2020 back in 2019, then because of COVID-19, SDCC 2020 and then SDCC 2021 were canceled, each replaced with an “at home” virtual version instead. There was a smaller “Special Edition” held in November 2021, but we did not attend that. Our badges continued to roll over each year, until we were finally able to use them this year!
We live in Fullerton, Orange County, so it’s about a 2 hour drive to San Diego, more or less, depending on traffic. On Wednesday, we left our house right around noon and arrived at our hotel, the Westin Gaslamp, a little after 1:30pm. We had requested an early check-in at 1pm, and figured we would be able to go right into our hotel room.
Unfortunately, this was not the case. Our room was not ready when we arrived, and they did not have an estimate on when our room would be ready, but said they would call us when it was. So we waited in the hotel lobby waiting for the call. Although the normal check-in time was supposed to be 3pm, our room wasn’t ready until 4pm. We hadn’t even made it over to the con yet, and we had already experienced our first long wait!
So we finally made it into our room and briefly settled in, taking a look at the view from the 10th floor. If you look closely, you can kind of see the water on the very left.
COVID-19 Verification
We then headed over toward the convention center, which was about a half mile walk from our hotel. Comic-Con International had announced a few months ago that its COVID safety policies would include proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative COVID test, as well as requiring use of approved face coverings inside the convention. There were several different sites where you could do your Covid check, including the convention center itself, as well as downtown hotels such as the Marriott and the Omni, and even the non-downtown Town & Country hotel. Since the Marriott was a straight shot on the walk from our hotel, we headed over to the Covid check there.
It was about 5pm by the time we made it over there, but the line was not bad at all. There were actually two different lines, one for if you had the CLEAR app, and one for if you didn’t. We had already uploaded our info to the CLEAR app for Star Wars Celebration, and had been able to go into the app and change the event selection to Comic-Con 2022. You could use the CLEAR app to upload either your vaccination card or your negative test. If you did not have the CLEAR app, you would have to stand in the other line to actually show your vaccination card or proof of negative test in person.
We soon saw that the non-CLEAR app line was much longer, and looped throughout the roped off line. However, the CLEAR app line was much shorter, existing on the outside of the roped off line. It moved very quickly, taking us 5 minutes tops to get through the line and get our wristband. We just had to show our CLEAR app verification screen and our ID.
Books, Bags, and Lanyards
After getting our Covid wristbands, we headed over to the convention center. It was such a great feeling to see it again after so much time had passed! It felt good to be “home.”
Sadly, we had not been successful in securing Preview Night when we bought our badges back in 2019. We only had 4-day badges without Preview Night. So we would not be able to go onto the Exhibit Hall floor that evening, but we would be able to go ahead and pick up our books, bags, and lanyards.
We knew we would have to enter at G in order to get in to get our stuff, so we walked all the way down there, and then had to backtrack to find the end of the line! There were so many lines going on, so we wanted to make sure we got into the correct line. It was pretty long, but moved fast. Upon entering through the front doors, everyone had to be masked, as well as show their Covid wristband, and their badge. Then we had to scan our badge, the scanner lit up green, and we were good to go.
We went up the escalators, and at the top, there was a roped off crowd of people waiting to be let in for Preview Night. One person started waving, and we quickly realized it was our friend Joey! And standing next to him was our friend Corgi! It was just like old times and felt great to see our friends again that we hadn’t seen in so long. We quickly said our hellos, before we had to continue on our way.
Staff directed us to the Sails Pavilion where we could pick up our books, bags, and lanyards. Before getting our stuff, we had to scan our badges again.
There were only two bag designs this year, rather than the multiple different ones for the CW/WB shows like we had seen in the past. Other than the bag, we were also handed an Events Guide, a Quick Guide, and a Prime Video lanyard.
Offsites
Not having Preview Night, we wanted to just walk around the convention center and the Gaslamp, soaking in the SDCC vibe and checking out the wraps and various offsites. Unfortunately, offsites don’t actually open until Thursday (except a few might open early on Wednesday evening for Press previews, which we have never qualified for), so all we could do was take a look, but that was fine.
After exiting the convention center, we took a right and walked toward the Hilton Bayfront, which is always known for having a large wrap. This year, the wrap for was American Horror Stories — very creepy! Next to the Hilton was the FX offsite, which looked like a cool, scary maze.
Then we walked along the back of the convention center, where the Adult Swim offsite would usually be. However, this year it was just an open field — except for a pink box with an Adult Swim flag extending from it. The pink box had an arrow, directing you to look inside, so I did. It was basically just an advertisement for their festival that would be taking place in August!
We then continued our walk behind the convention center, where we saw a pirate ship! We continued our trek onto the “island” where we have spent so much time waiting in the Hall H line throughout the years. While there, we saw the new Rady Shell and all the renovations that went along with it. Everything looked so different!
Behind the Marriott was the Dragon Ball Z offsite, which actually looked like it might have been open. We looped around back to the front of the Marriott, where we passed by the COVID check we had done earlier. The line looked much longer than it had before, now extending down the sidewalk at the bottom of the stairs, rather than only at the top of the stairs.
We crossed the street back towards the Gaslamp, and took a closer look at Audible’s sand castle structures. Netflix’s The Gray Man offsite was just past those.
We walked along the pathway next to the train tracks, toward the Gaslamp Quarter arch. It seemed like usually there would be more set up here, but the only thing was saw was the Peanuts Armstrong Project. In the area next to the Hilton Gaslamp, where the Walking Dead offsite has previously been, and Assassin’s Creed before that, was now the House of the Dragon offsite. There was a Press preview going on there.
We walked a little further and made it to the Heart of the Gaslamp. The Hilton Gaslamp had Interview the Vampire and Walking Dead wraps, while the Hard Rock Hotel had several Severance wraps. Oddly, Mary Jane’s, the restaurant at Hard Rock where we like to eat at during SDCC sometimes, did not seem to be themed at all. Usually it takes on the theme of a show. I believe last time it was The Good Place. Outside of the Tin Fish restaurant across the street, there were several photo ops set up for shows such as Reginald the Vampire, Chucky, Quantum Leap, and La Brea.
We continued our journey towards the Omni, where there were some cool inflatables out on the lawn of Mecha Builders Cookie Monster and Ozzy Osbourne! It looked like they were still in the process of setting up a Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness offsite, as well as a Bob’s Burgers offsite over there as well. Just past that, at Petco Park, were wraps featuring The Rookie and its upcoming spin-off series The Rookie: Feds. Continuing on towards the Petco Interactive Zone, you could see Teen Wolf wraps on the Park 12 building. We passed by the Petco Interactive Zone as well, but it didn’t look like much was going on there, and that they still had a lot to set up.
We looped around the stadium and back up 5th Ave, where we saw wraps for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. We also saw the Star Trek offsite. The Starfleet Outpost was an outdoor bar area, where it was just a first come, first served situation. It was right next to 10 Forward, to which you had to have bought tickets in advance, which had sold out in advance.
That about ended our journey, and we just headed back toward our hotel. Along the way, we placed an online order for pickup at Chipotle, which was right across the street from our hotel, so we were able to swing over there and went back to our room for a bit to eat and relax for a few.
We ended our night by heading over to the “Corgi party” around 9pm that our friend Jason (aka @CorgiKohmander) was holding in the Manchester Grand Hyatt lobby bar. There we reunited with so many of our con friends that we hadn’t seen in years. I didn’t manage to take any pictures there, was too busy just catching up with everyone. Again, it was good to be home.
Stay tuned for more of our recaps and photos of our experience at San Diego Comic-Con 2022!
