How will San Diego Comic Con affect being in town?

bdiddy

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
I am SO mad at myself that I didn't realize we'll be in SD the same weekend. We could have easily reconfigured our trip but now it's too late.

I'm worried about the increase in people everywhere etc and affecting our weekend there in a negative way. How bad is it going to be?

I'm usually a really good planner and to make it worse we love going to comic cons and usually follow along with the SDCC happenings and it just never occurred to me to check! Ugh
 
did you get a room, that is the biggest issue. Other than that it is concentrated in the gas lamp district so outside of that area, if anything other tourist locations will be slow because no one can get a room that weekend. Its amazing fun, just being there even if you do not have a ticket.
 
We got an Airbnb a few months ago so we are good on that note.

I guess I'm worried about other things we wanted to do being impacted by heavier crowds but maybe it won't be that bad unless we are downtown.

And I'm guessing the drive from LA to SD on Friday morning will be a lot worse too even though we had planned on leaving after rush hour was over.
 
You should be fine at most locations (other than gaslamp/downtown) and since you've already booked lodging. Gaslamp/Downtown can get absolutely insane though, especially at night.
 


I've been going for more than 10 years. Downtown will be completely taken over and traffic will back up all the way to Hotel Circle which is typically gridlock for a lot of the day. On the plus side there's typically free stuff to do downtown Thursday through Saturday. If you're going to go to the zoo, safari park, Legoland, it's probably best to do those during the first few days of the convention. I know a lot of people stay around an extra day or do those when they can't get Saturday badges.
 
The only thing we are doing for sure (already have tickets for) is the Zoo. We'll have most of the day that Friday, Sat and Sunday then leaving to head to DL Monday morning. So we pretty much just have Saturday or Sunday for the Zoo. Do you think one day would be better over the other?

Thank you all!
 
I work a 10 minute walk from there. Basically hotel rates triple and are overbooked. Parking anywhere remotely close is $40-50 minimum. Restaurants around there and gaslamp may have 1-2 hour wait and may jack up prices. Hopefully on airbnb that you don't get bumped for someone willing to pay more. Has happened to friends of mine several times. I usually go thurs, sat, sun but not going this year. But may walk over and people watch on Fri on my lunch break
 


I work a 10 minute walk from there. Basically hotel rates triple and are overbooked. Parking anywhere remotely close is $40-50 minimum. Restaurants around there and gaslamp may have 1-2 hour wait and may jack up prices. Hopefully on airbnb that you don't get bumped for someone willing to pay more. Has happened to friends of mine several times. I usually go thurs, sat, sun but not going this year. But may walk over and people watch on Fri on my lunch break

Our Airbnb is actually in Encinitas so hopefully we'll be ok.
 
You will be fine if you avoid the general area. Were you planning on doing anything downtown?

Nothing concrete. The only thing we are doing for sure is the zoo. I have a list of stuff we are interested in but was going to just wing it.
 
Del Mar racetrack should be opening that weekend. That's also well north of SD.
 
If you are in encinitas, take the coaster down for the day. Its pretty amazing, they take over the entire area
 
The racetrack will impact you much more than Comic Con. Comic Con is isolated to the Convention Center and the surrounding Gaslamp District. I work downtown and might experience two or three extra minutes of traffic on Comic Con days. Of course, I'm going to Comic Con on these days, so I hardly notice it. Might be worth checking out for people watching. It's pretty cool.
 
The racetrack will impact you much more than Comic Con. Comic Con is isolated to the Convention Center and the surrounding Gaslamp District. I work downtown and might experience two or three extra minutes of traffic on Comic Con days. Of course, I'm going to Comic Con on these days, so I hardly notice it. Might be worth checking out for people watching. It's pretty cool.
I took the train to Comic Con once on Del Mar opening day. It was standing room only and people were both drunk and drinking right out of bottles before 10am. But I've also driven in and taken the shuttle from Solana Beach on many other days and not seen it anywhere near that crowded. The drinking, well, I've really only experienced it again in the infield and parking lots.
 

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