Of course, you should know by now that registration failed on this date and has recently been rescheduled for Saturday, February 5th, 2011 at 9am PT.
Remember when you could just go online and buy a membership to San Diego Comic-Con a mere 3 or 4 months before the event? Back in 2004, I bought my 4 day pass just weeks before the event. I even got my hotel in May, really cheap and without a struggle. Okay, so it was the odd “European Style” hotel out on Broadway, which was also under construction. It had shared bathrooms (ugh). And it had a twin bed in a room the size of a closet. But it was a room at $80/night. Plus, because of the construction, I got free parking all week at a spot that was missing a meter right below my window.
The days of leisurely snatching up a ticket and a hotel room to the biggest geek fest on the planet are long gone. Most of you already know how hard it is to nail down a hotel in San Diego the week of Comic-Con, but now the fight has spread to registration. The 4 day passes with Preview Night sold out on Sunday afternoon of the 2010 show. I don’t doubt that 2012’s 4 day passes (with Preview Night) will sell out by the end of San Diego Comic-Con Preview Night 2011.
Well, in an effort to lessen any potential frustration with purchasing the remaining 4 day passes (WITHOUT Preview Night), Comic-Con International has taken steps to instruct you in how to register. Just follow that link and you’ll know exactly what you need to have in hand when 6am Pacific time hits on Monday, November 22nd. As I’ve said in a previous post on November 7th, if you’re buying a pass for yourself or someone else, you have to be prepared! If you hesitate one iota or think you can just logon and pick up a pass without having your ducks in a row, there’s a good chance you’re one geek who won’t get a 4 day pass to San Diego Comic-Con.
Remember to:
- Block out some time – most likely an hour, especially if the servers are unresponsive or have to recover from the initial 6am crash. There’s no way to know yet if they have Ticketmaster level resources on hand to handle the load. If you’re one of the few Americans who still have a job, I’d take the day off or go in late, just in case.
- Have your information in hand (especially for anyone else you’re purchasing for) – you can only purchase one pass at a time, but once you’re logged into the system, you can go right back and purchase your next pass. See my Nov 7th post for exactly what you should have at that moment.
- Don’t click BACK! – they make this very clear in the instructions. If you click the back button on your browser, you’ll get knocked back to the beginning of the process. If you make a mistake and need to move back a page in the registration process (assuming that’s possible), use the provided buttons within the web page itself, NOT the browser buttons.
But what if payday is next week and you can’t afford the membership as of Monday morning? Well, even if you don’t have an available balance on your card, you can still use it to register for the event! How? Well, they’ll be processing the cards within 48 hours after you submit your registration information and if/when yours gets declined, they will ask you for an alternate means of payment via email, which you will have one week to provide. However, I do NOT suggest you do this as you’re taking an awfully big risk at losing that membership. And if they do sell out between Monday and a week from Monday, you won’t get a second chance. But it’s an iffy option if you need it…
Memberships go on sale at 6am Pacific time, Monday, November 22nd!
Also remember that only regular 4 Day Memberships (without Preview Night) and Single Day Memberships for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will be available for purchase.
And while this may sound like a lot of hyper panicky talk, you have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. 126,000 people get to go to San Diego Comic-Con. I have no idea how many passes are left, but you have to know that it’s a lot. Be patient, but be prepared. I don’t know how much the system can handle, but you can bet we’ll be pushing it to its limit come Monday morning. I honestly hope it’s not going to be that big of a hassle and that people will be able to purchase passes at their leisure throughout the day, but you have to know that no one believes that is the case, which is why they’ll all be logging on at once. Good luck to everyone and I hope to see you at San Diego Comic-Con 2011!
(if you’re lucky, here’s a peek at the madness that awaits you next July!)
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