I just went to a con yesterday after not going for about 8 years. Last one I went to was Celebration V in Florida, and hated that so I dunno what I was thinking.
Pretty bad experience. Awful parking situation, thousands more than when I went in the past, crappy vendors trying to peddle modern garbage that can be found in stores for triple the price (and you can't even haggle the guys with cool vintage stuff, even if it's an honest, fair offer), and tons and tons of cosplayers. The whole place smells like **** too with a ton of fatsos that smell like old farts and cafeteria food. I also noticed that the majority of the attendees were women (wasn't like that a decade ago), which I guess is cool except half of them were dressed up as ****ing Rey from the Force Awakens.
The highlight (I guess if you want to call it that) was going to the bathroom and taking a piss by the guy that played Napoleon Dynamite.
I didn't buy a single thing, I was actually proud of myself walking out. I went with $400 in my pocket and walked out with $400 in my pocket. I was in there for about an hour and a half and I come back to the parking lot only to find . . . . that my car was missing. My car got towed and they took it all the way into the middle of the city. Had to pay $225. Turns out in the past year, the retail stores implemented a new policy where they look for non-customers and aggressively tow them out of there. Good times!
Honestly, I can't think of a single vacation, concert, book signing, or any "special" event that has been worth going to. Even planning carefully ahead of time, trying to beat out other people in lines by going early isn't worth the suffering and aggravation that comes with crowds or crappy people trying to bleed others out of their money. Worst experience was probably when I went to Rome and it wasn't even tourist season.
