Supernatural Con Adventure Masterpost-- updated 01/12/15

[vyperdd]

ETA: this wonderful, amazing and brilliant birthday banner by the equally wonderful, amazing and brilliant milly_gal




November, 2015 and I'll be travelling all the way from little ol' Perth, Western Australia to the grand ol' US of A to attend not 1 but 2 SPN cons. I'll be meeting Jared and Jensen for panels and photos and autos (OH MY!!!!!) and the rest of the amazing cast (and hopefully some crew as well), hanging out with hundreds of other fans and generally having the time of my life.

First up will be Denver Nov 5-9 and then LA the following weekend, Nov 13-15. I'm also visiting Las Vegas for the first time and hope to squeeze in a quick trip to the Grand Canyon.

So I'll be using this masterpost to keep up to date with Con and travel related things and general squeeing which I'm sure will only get louder the closer I get to flying out.


Visited the local travel expo on Sunday the 15th Feb and grabbed a fantastic deal on my Perth-LA return flight. Just under $1500 including travel insurance. Will be flying with AirNewZealand on their 777 Dreamliner (travel agent said it's an amazing plane, one of the best in their fleet) with stop-overs in Auckland there and back. Have never been to NZ before and even though my stop-overs are only for a few hours, I plan on heading into the city to do a little sightseeing and maybe shopping if I have any left over spending money after 3 weeks in the US. Which means I'll have to get some NZ$. Plus, it'll also allow me to get an NZ stamp in my passport.

Still have internal flights between LA-Vegas-Denver and back LA to book but those can wait a few months. Hope to snag some good hotel & sightseeing packages then too.


Update 23/09 doing all my internal US travel by Greyhound bus in 3 sections, LA-Vegas, Vegas-Denver and Denver-LA. Have only 1 bus transfer and my longest lay-over is 3 hours in Salt Lake City on the Vegas-Denver leg. Most other layovers are only an hour or so.

Staying in Vegas for 4 days at the El Cortez Hotel so will have lots of time to explore The Strip and maybe even catch a show or two.



DENVER CON

I've purchased most of my tickets for DenverCon2015.

Gold Weekend Pass (seat D42)
2 Jared photo ops
2 1 Jensen photo op
1 J2 photo op

I do plan on buying more with the other cast once my poor credit card recovers but I wanted to get the Boys before they sell out.

Update 23/09 I'm selling 1 of my Jensen photo ops to 1 of my roomies so I can buy ops with other cast members. Hoping to get Mark Pellegrino, Seb Roche, Tahmoh Penikett and Gil McKinney.

**********

The Con hotel room has been booked and paid for. It's the Marriott Denver Tech Centre and from the website pics, it looks like a really nice venue.

I'll be looking for a couple of room-mates, not just to cut costs but also to share and relive all the good times with. For me, half the fun of going to conventions is being surrounded by hundreds of other devoted fans who love all the same things as I do. We can have awesome conversations without having to explain anything about the show because we all just KNOW and GET IT!!!

So if anyone on my f*list is going to either the Denver or LA cons (or both) and wants to share a room for the weekend/s, then please get in touch with me.


Update 23/09 Found 3 awesome ladies to share the hotel room (and bill) with. Have chatted on FB with 2 of them and they sound really cool. Can't wait to meet them all.




PASADENA CON

Hotel room booked for the 12th-16th Nov. Will be staying at the Sheraton Pasadena which is right behind the convention venue. At $144/night, it's pretty expensive but am hoping I can get a roomie or two to share costs. Unlike the Denver hotel, I couldn't find a room for cheaper than the Creation Con special rate.

Update 23/09 Found 3 roomies for this hotel so it'll only be about $144 each for the whole weekend.

Still waiting for con tickets to go on sale and for more con guests to be announced. Am crossing fingers that JDM will be with us in LA as I really, really want a J3 photo op.

Update 23/09

Con tickets bought:
1 Gold ticket (seat B6)
1 Jared photo op
1 Jensen photo op
1 J2 photo op
1 JDM photo op
1 JDM auto.

Unfortunately my wished-for J3 photo is just way out of my budget but I'm really happy with the ops I have managed to afford.

Comments

[firesign10.livejournal.com]

What an exciting trip!!!! I love that you're hitting two cons while you're here (and why not!!)

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

I am going to be doing something similar on my lj but I'm gonna really enjoy watching you squee and flail :D ♥

[matchboximpala.livejournal.com]

I'll be at the Denver Con, too, and I hope I have the chance to meet you there. I already have a roommate, but if I hear of anyone looking for one I will let you know.

[heavenli24.livejournal.com]

Cool - you'll really enjoy the cons :). Looking forward to hearing about your experience :).

I had been considering going to the LA con next year, but I ended up buying a ticket for Dallas 2015 again instead and unfortunately I can't afford two trips from the UK to the US in 2 months (plus I'm already going to 4 SPN cons next year) :P.

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

don't take this post off sticky until AFTER your birthday, okay? :D ♥

[vyperdd.livejournal.com]

Yes, ma'am!!!! :-) This will be my sticky post FORRRRRRRRRRRREVERRRRRRRRR!!!! It was literally the best 3 weeks of my whole life and I never want to forget it!!!

I do plan on doing a few posts detailing all my adventures. Just have to sort through all the photos and vids I took on my travels and get all my photo ops scanned and uploaded.

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to see the write ups I LOVE listening/reading about con adventures :D

[vyperdd.livejournal.com]

Thankfully I FB'd frequently during my travels so I'm using those updates to refresh my memory.

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

Again, that was why I took *The* notebook, lol!!! Poor thing was a ragged wreck by the time I got home and you should've SEEN the attempt at short hand, no one would ever have been able to translate it but me ;)

[supernutjapan.livejournal.com]

The current music is amusing :D
Beautiful banner milly_gal!!

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

*smooches* Thank you ♥

[ratfan.livejournal.com]

That trip looked amazing. I'm thinking of going over to the USA again and taking in an SPN con, but I sure can't manage it this year. Why is Perth such a long fricking way from everything?

I met (for about a second or two) Jim Beaver when he came here for Comic Con in Perth. My next goal is to meet Mark Sheppard and completely fail to make sense while talking. I'm sure I can achieve that one :-)

[vyperdd.livejournal.com]

I really must do a proper Con post. Just have to find the time and pics. A lot are on my facebook and camera still.

I'm hoping to do VegasCon in 2018. I loved the 4 days I spent in Vegas and want to explore the city more plus do a trip to the Grand Canyon. And I love LA so want to spend another week or so there. Plus really want to go to Disneyland again.

Just keep an eye out for sales fares. It cost me about $1250 with Air New Zealand via Auckland.

And of course , keeping my fingers crossed that Jared comes here for a con in the near future. Both times I spoke to him during autos he said he felt really bad at letting us Aussie fans down ( I tried to reassure him that we totally understood why he didn't make it and that we all supported him) and that he really does want to visit us again.

I was lucky enough to snag tickets to the OZCC dinner with Jim and Rachel Miner (Meg 2) and they were both amazing to sit and chat with for about 3 hours. Had photos ops with them both and really good chats during autos too.

Have met Mark a few times now (my fav was at last years AHBL con with Jensen) He's so charming and yet sarcastic at the same time. Love him!

[ratfan.livejournal.com]

I'm very envious!

I kicked myself for not finding out about Jim Beaver attending Comicon sooner, or I might have been in time to get to that dinner. Also did not get autograph, though have photo. I'd been sick right after Swancon and was only just on my feet, so not up to much planning or movement. Couldn't even make it all the way through Jim's Q and A session on Saturday.

Maybe next year.....

PS. Though come to think of it, I'd have still been ill at the time of the dinner.

[vyperdd.livejournal.com]

I follow both the main con groups (Supanova & OzCC) on twitter and FB to keep up to date with guests coming to Perth and interstate, so knew about Jim a few weeks in advance. Hope we do get more SPN guests here at future cons. Much prefer spending my money on photo ops and autos than airfares and hotels.

If you are interested and on FB, I run a local SPN group where we post upcoming SPN con guests and anything else SPN related.
Perth SPNFamily

[ratfan.livejournal.com]

Absolutely, thanks. Will check it out. I go by my actual name Alex Isle on FB.