griffin's BotCon 'blog'

[1orion2many]

He should be shorter and it wouldn't be a problem

[Deonasis]

Maybe have them in those dispensers like those Tomy Movie figures.

That is a good idea but probably wouldn't align with the goal from my above post. I envisioned completionists cursing your name after years of trying to complete their PCC collections, only to be missing a rare few drones that were only created after a casual chat you had with the Hasbro team. Ha, that would be the kind of fame people don't want

[Hursticon]

Cheers for the reports Griffin, a very interesting read and quite informative.

Have a safe trip home mate, take it easy and get some sleep.

[liegeprime]

He should be shorter and it wouldn't be a problem

too much protein Giant burger diet?

[Saintly]

Thanks for the "on-the-go" reports

[griffin]

Didnt end up getting much sleep last night, as it was such an early start, it wasn't worth the risk relying on an alarm.

About an hour into the TFs movie, I went to see if Rokdog was still around. I had his room number, and went over to the Swan hotel to see it (after all, that was the room I would have been staying in if I didn't get to share with the TFW2005 duo).
He was there, so we chatted for about an hour before he had to get ready to go out with his wife.
On my way back to my room, I picked up some Onion Rings from that place I got them the other night. The first dozen or so were yummy, but they got boring fast.

Around 10pm, I was just so tired, I decided to risk sleeping for a couple hours, and set 2 alarms to wake me. Fortunately Simon returned, at about midnight, and talking to him while he packed helped keep me away until I had to go at quarter to 2.

Down to the lobby with my luggage, and onto the shuttle bus at 2.10, I was at the airport by 2.45 - a lot earlier than I needed to be IF the flight had been at 5am as I had thought it was.

It wasn't until checkin began at 3.30am, that I realised that my flight was actually 6.15, not 5am.
Ah well, better to be an hour early than an hour late.

I waited at the gate and ended up being the last to board the flight because the flight was overbooked (fairly standard in America), and for some reason, I wasn't allocated a seat. They claimed that it has to do with when people book their flights. If that were true, everyone else on the flight must have bought their ticket before I did in April.

Fortunately, someone volunteered to go on a later flight, which allowed me to get this one.

Not that it mattered...
I had originally planned to spend most of the day in LA, shopping, but apparently, if your connecting flight is more than 12 hours after your preceding flight, they can't transfer it to the next flight - you have to collect it. And since V-Australia only has 3 flights in the evening, I would have to wait several hours at the airport because I couldn't really go anywhere while stuck with 4 large items of luggage.
This was something the Travel Agent should known, and told me when I was booking my flights, as I would have taken the other option, which was a late departure from Orlando and maybe spent the extra day at Disney instead.
The Travel agent also failed to book both flights on the one ticket, apparently, so it meant I wasn't eligible for 2 free items of luggage on Delta (the domestic US flight). Instead of a $25 fee for one extra item, I had to pay $185 for 3 (the rate goes up exponentially per item). I will be having stern words to the Travel agent when I get back, and hopefully get a refund of the difference.
And typically, the flight from Orlando got into LA 30 minutes early - something that would have been good if LA was my final destination. For me though, it meant having an extra 30 minutes to spend at the V-Australia check-in counter (which didn't open until 2.30pm - a total wait of almost 7 hours).
I spent that time going through about half of the several hundred photos I took in the last week.
When Check-in finally started, I got charged $200 for extra luggage. So as long as they arrive, and aren't damaged, it would cost me half what it would have cost me to use UPS to ship the boxes home.
With about 8 hours until my flight started boarding, I still wanted to go off and do something to fill in the time. I hopped into a cab, and told him the address of where the nearest ToysRUs should be. The guy sounded russian - and didn't appear to understand much of what I was saying.
The scouting mission didn't go so well, as he couldn't find the store, so we went to plan be and looked for another store - which we did find (a Target), but it didn't have any TFs I wanted in it.
I bought a couple WFC PC games they had, plus some American junk food, and left. The Target was withing 30-40 minutes walk of the Airport, so since I had about 5 hours, I went walking. I'd still need a cab to get into the airport, but at least it would be cheaper.
Aside from the excersise and saving money, the other reason for walking was to get to an 'In and Out Burger; which I saw on the way out from the Airport. I'd heard alot of people raving about that burger chain, and been meaning to try it for a few years now.
I wasn't impressed, but at least now I've tried it.
A quick ride back to the airport, I was through security and at the gate by about 6pm.
Waiting for several hours now is making it really difficult to stay awak.
The flight is still 3 hours away from boarding, and I'm trying to consume as much caffeine as I can (diet coke).

[1AZRAEL1]

If those PC games aren't spoken for, I would take one

Great reporting, sounds like you had a lot of hassles with the airline. Hopefully when I go (2012) it won't be as bad as that. And I will make sure I get the travel agent to book the travel arrangements properly.

[Deonasis]

I hope your next blog post can be about a pleasant flight home (and a refund you get from the travel agent).

[gamblor916]

Nice write ups. Shame about the luggage hassles, at least it serves as a warning to others.

I'm surprised you haven't been to In and Out, good stuff

[1AZRAEL1]

I'm surprised you haven't been to In and Out, good stuff

Always wanted to try them, as I heard of them in The Big Lebowski