some thoughts on dragon con

i ended up liking the the experience more than i thought i would. a small part would like to go again. (my brother thinks i'm crazy & i just might be) so, if anyone would ask me if it was worth it to go i'd say yes. it's a geek pilgrimage that every geek should make once.
true, it isn't cheap, (but what is these days?) but you can save some money. get your tickets (badges) early, the closer you get to the show the more it is. for a hotel you can get a con rate at the 4 host hotels & in the "overflow" ones. the hyatt, hilton & sheraton are taking 2010 reservations now. the marriott will on oct. 1st, it's best to call directly & say you're coming in for dragon con. if you get someone to split the cost, that helps too. but you have to be careful, i read on on the d-con livejournal that someone went in on a room expecting to have 6 people in the room & it ended up being 12!
you also have to weigh your options with the hotels. if you want parties & the convenience of being near your hotel room (except for the sheraton, which is a block away from the others) go with a host hotel. if you want quiet, go with an overflow. the westin was about a block away from the hyatt & was nice, but the beds were kind of hard and a bit short.
we didn't get any pictures or autographs so we saved big there. i think the autographs were $40 apeice. so getting the big 4, shatner, nimoy, stewart & mulgrew alone would've been $160!
you can save on food by bring peanut butter, jelly & bread. some bring raman(sp?) noodles or a cooler with lunch-meat. however these are only options if you drive down there.
flying & the travel in general is another thing. if you fly you can save some by going through priceline, expedia or one of those sites. unless you want to drive around the city, you don't have to rent a car, the MARTA goes to peachtree center, which is convenient to most of the hotels (both host & overflow) if you drive down you might find someone to share gas expenses with, but you have to park the car some where. most of the hotels charge about $28 per day for valet & $21 a day for self parking. there are several lots in the area (we walked by some) but at least 1 doubled the price for the con. (it was $20 a day during the first 3 days & $10 on the last day)

so weigh the pros & cons of going and make your choice. i'd go for the full 4 days, true monday is a slow day but there's less of a crowd all trying to check out at once. trying to go for one day doesn't work all that well. unless you're local & there's someone that you really want to see in the late afternoon. (expect at least a 2 hour wait in line for the badge)