USA Anaheim Holiday Day #3 - Blizzcon

I had an early start to the day - Pel told us to line up early so off went Lushnek and I at 5am to line up.  She and Xar had been there since 430am! There were still heaps of people lining up though.

The line soon turned into a swarm.  Heaps of cosplayers and costume contests entrants were walking up and down the line, posing for pictures.  You can see my pics of them here.

I met Fimlys, Rilandune and Zabine from the Twisted Nether Blogcast at the line, standing right next to me! They opened the doors at 930 or so, and we proceeded to bag check.  Hubby arrived with coffee and food and we had to quickly eat it so we could enter as no outside food was allowed.

You could see Blizzcon on the other side of the doors!  It was so exciting! Once we got through, however, people were RUNNING towards the main stage, and so of course I started running too!  It was scary though - it was dark, and there were so many people running, and bumping me as they ran past, that I was worried about being trampled!  Luckily that didn't happen and we found ourselves a seat in the main hall, with some view of the main stage.  The hall had big TV screens so you didn't miss much even if you sat in the back and sides though.  The capacity was MASSIVE.

Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizz, took the stage and made some announcements, a big welcome, and made us feel like us gamers were a really important part of the game itself.  He looked kinda nervous!

"BlizzCon is our way of saying THANK YOU!"

Dustin Browder then came and talked about Heroes of the Storm, the Blizzard All-stars game, and showed an awesome trailer of the game cinematic as well as some gameplay!  There were demo machines with Heroes of the storm here at Blizzcon for us to play!

"Heroes of the storm is Blizzard: The game."

Rob Pardo came to the stage, and talked about Hearthstone.  He talked about the surprising success of the game, despite some scepticism from within the company.  Personally, I am still not that excited about it because I didn't get a beta key, but he said we'll be getting open beta soon!  AND that it will be coming to iPad, iPhone and Android!

"Open Betas are coming next month - but in Blizzard speak that might be January."

Chris Metzen then took to the stage, and talked in his orc voice for what seemed to be his entire speech!  He announced the expansion was going to be Warlords of Draenor and we got to see the cinematic trailer, AND we could play it here at Blizzcon! LOL, he looked really PUMPED talking about the WoW expansion!

"To me, Blizzcon is about COMMUNITY."

The lines at the Blizzcon Store were insane!  Wished I had lined up and gotten the boys to mind our seats back at the main stage so I could check out the store since we sat there for 1.5 hours waiting for it to start. And these pics were the back of the line, there was the queue in front of the entire store still as well!

The consoles where we could play were amazing - row upon row of computers for each game for us to play.

Various statues decorated the halls - here are some when it was LESS crowded.

I spent a lot of my time watching arena tournaments.  Skill Capped, which had Sodah, Talbador and Chanimal in it, were the team that I was cheering for- Chanimal was Australian!  Here are some pics of the first arena match of the day, which was MiR (#1 ranked EU team) vs The Last Battle (#1 ranked China team).

I then watched Skill Capped smash MiR 3-0, and then I missed watching Skill Capped vs Flash Wolves (Taiwan's #1 ranked team) but they were also totally smashed!

Skill Capped with Soe

I went to the meeting stone and met Doobjanka, who was taking names for the pet giveaway, but I didn't want him to think I had turned up for a pet giveaway, so I shook his hand to tell him what a great site he had and then did some pet talk with some other pet enthusiasts about the Celestial Tournament.  Doobjanka said that he actually followed Quintessence's lineup but I think she has some hard to get pets in her lineup!  I did feel really awkward there - I wish people were a little more friendly.  If I was hosting a meetup I'd be friendly to everyone who turned up so they wouldn't feel left out, because I know how awkward that can be!

I went back for more arena and then some Starcraft WCS which was amazing to watch before I headed back to the stone to meet Apotheosis.  I saw Serrine, Tikari, Jasyla and Kaleri and it was really lovely to meet them in real life!  Their guild turned up in huge numbers, and I told Jas that I was sad she was now playing her hunter as main, and she told me that 25 man druid healing is rather bleh, because it's just aoe heal aoe heal aoe heal, but her hunter has really made the game exciting for her again.  Can't blame her for that! She takes her druid for alt 10s and she says she finds that much more enjoyable.  Serrinne gave me the biggest hug, and Kaleri was my size!  I had to laugh about that because I know she plays a bear tank! Tik was so different - he looked so gamer like in his Apotheosis shirt, whereas I'm used to him looking a little dressed up like in his picture.  He was very friendly and made me feel happy that I had turned up.  Jasyla is really quite attractive in real life, and a little reserved, but she was polite and friendly but Serrinne really DID give me a full on bear hug LOL.

I also managed to catch up with Elfindale, whom I was tweeting trying to find, only to find she was just 2m away from me leaning on the other wall!  She said she was enjoying Blizzcon and poor Elfi had to listen to me talking at top speed as my excitement from meeting her kicked in! Mataoka also came to see me and give me a big hug!  She turned up late for Blizzcon but she came in to say hi to me and we talked and she was even more bubbly in real life, and so excited that now I have met her, whenever she gushes at me online for stuff, I can actually imagine it!  Arv was there, and he was happy to meet Matty and I introduced her to Hubby and HK and then we had to go and do more Starcraft watching. That evening, I attended the contests, and had an awful seat, so I couldn't take any pictures of the costume contestants.  Here's a pic of the winners!

Epic costume and marriage proposal on stage!

Grand Prize winner - I had taken pics of her outside!

I had dinner with Xar and Pel at the Hilton, and then after that I headed over the Bowlmar Lanes at the Anaheim Garden walk to meet up with everyone at the Twisted Nether Blogcast Party.  I had a great time there, chatting to everyone!  I walked in a little dazed and Fimlys was waving frantically to me but I was in zombie land or something, and took me ages to head over to the party area LOL!  He told me I had just missed Beruthiel, and she was bummed that we'd missed each other.  I was bummed too!  However, it was made better because I walked in and was about to talk to Hasteur, when I bumped into someone and I didn't know who it was.  I said hello and introduced myself and she squealed "Navimie!" at me and gave me a hug and I said "Hi!  I'm sorry but I don't know who you are!" because her badge had her real name but not her toon name.  She laughed and turned it around, showing her TNB badge.  It was HYDRA!  I gave her another big hug and I started chatting at 100km an hour as Ril came along and I was telling her how impressed I was she got my name right when we met in person! Zabine gave me my epic loot bags and I won a T-shirt! Hasteur had realised I had arrived so he was waiting patiently for me to stop talking, and I quickly turned to him and hugged him and chatted about how I had missed talking to him at the World of Podcasts thing.  I went to buy him a drink where we waited for AAAAGES before someone noticed us.  I introduced myself to Nevik of Shattered Soulstone, whom I said was awesome because he has an N and a V and an I in his avatar.  LOL, I'm such a dork, he probably thought so too! Rho turned up too, and we chatted a little, and then Shawndra and I talked for a long time and she introduced me to one of the Jenny's that she brought with her :)  Vidyala also made an appearance and we chatted and then I let her talk to her fans, as I snuck off to shake Vosskah's hand, and ran into Kaleri AGAIN!  We laughed because in game I have never been able to catch her for a picture because she goes to bed so quickly after raid, but here in one day I had seen her TWICE! As I went to the bar to say some goodbyes, I ran into Jed who knew who I was because apparently I was the only one who replied to his Blizzcon schedule post!  We had a laugh about our own pageviews, and then I headed out. I fished up some courage to go and shake Medros' (All things Azeroth podcast) hand and introduce myself, but I felt a bit silly as he wouldn't know who I was, though he politely said he did.  As soon as he put his red hat on, I realised who he was. As I walked out I checked my Twitter and found that Khuruuk was on his way so I said I would wait for him.  We chatted back and forth on twitter as I tried to find him.  He had two of his guildies with him (Lush was with me being the photographer!) and we chatted about realm transfers for raiding, PvP, Blizzcon and I asked him about what it was like now, being in the biggest Alliance guild in the world (Covert to Raid). It was a really good evening, a fantastic end to an awesome day.  I have to say that party was really great because everyone was so friendly, it was smaller scale, and I just felt... comfortable.

Blizzcon was even better in real life that I thought it was going to be!

USA Anaheim holiday Day #2 - Pre-registration and parties

In the morning we went down to go look at the registration by daylight - to get a better look at the layout and get a pic when people weren't filling the place.

A few people were sitting around, clearly Blizzcon goers - some wearing Blizz related T-shirts, others talking about WoW stuff.  Grabbed a Starbucks - the Christmas drinks are out, so I could have a gingerbread latte - and then headed back to the hotel and decided to go shopping at South Coast Plaza for the day. Spent the ENTIRE afternoon shopping and eating.  We had lunch at Seasons 52, which prides themselves on serving seasonal fresh produce (and no dish is over 475 Calories - I wondered, is that so any meal would be ok for anyone doing the 5:2 diet?).

Grilled Garlic Pesto Chicken Flatbread

Dungeness Crab, Roasted Shrimp and Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms under Parmesan Panko crust

Cedar-plank roasted Pacific King Salmon and vegetables

Maple Glazed All Natural roasted half Chicken, autumn harvest vegetables, zesty chicken jus

Blackened Mahi Mahi, mashed Sweet potatoes, green vegies, red pepper salso

I spent a lot of time at Victoria's Secret and at the Lego shop.  I bought myself the Lego Red Five X-Wing and because I spent that much money we got to fill 2 boxes full of Lego bricks from the back wall.  HK got Tower of Orthanc and he got THREE boxes to fill for free.  That was fun!  Aunty S and her daughter B made it to the bus on time but B lost her purse so they had to go back and look for it, so the bus had to leave without them.  That meant that we had to line up for our tickets with the children.

By the time we got there, about 615pm, the queue was really long.  It stretched all the way out past the signs that told you where to line up and doubled back to the side of the Marriott, almost to the doors where you go into the convention centre to get your stuff.

Once you get past the doors and into the convention centre there was more lining up, but the line here went quite quickly.

We picked up our goody bags and our registration passes and were out of there! The poor kids had been lining up with us and were starving.  My son was very friendly with the people standing behind us, but they took it rather well.  It's actually really cool listening to people around you talking, and EVERYONE is talking about World of Warcraft.  My inner nerd was squealing! Then came the hard part.  There were two things I wanted to attend - the World of Podcasts thing, and the WoWInsider/Wowhead party.  I dropped into the World of Podcasts discussion panel just after 8pm (while we were waiting for a table at IHOP), missing out on my ticket and the prize draw, but I was happy to be there.  I said hi to Rho but couldn't get to Hasteur - you can see him there on the right side!

So after dinner with the kids, I headed out to the Annabella for the WoWinsider/WoWhead party, and it was packed to the rafters.   In the queue there was a guy in front of us who turned around and asked me and Lush if we were Aussies and we said we were.  He said he used to be in an Aussie guild - on Saurfang, no less!  How funny that he was from out server!  He said he now plays his tauren elemental shammy on Thrall. I should have asked him his toon name LOL.

We didn't stay long at the party, as I had some minor concerns with people drinking around a pool - I didn't really want to be a witness to any tragic drunken accidents, and Pel and Xar had already left the party and were having dinner.  I wanted to go back and see Hasteur, but by the time I got back to my hotel, the World of Podcasts thing was over, and Hasteur and Rho were gone.  I was a bit disappointed in myself for not committing myself fully to one thing or the other, as it felt like I had missed out on both things!  I didn't actually enjoy the WowInsider party - it wasn't particularly friendly and people seemed to be in their little groups - probably more fun for celebrities than for someone like myself.

USA Anaheim Holiday Day #1 - Welcome to the United States of America!

So exciting! I was planning to stay up all night to make my body clock switch to US times but that plan was foiled - I put the kids to bed at a really late time but I ended up falling asleep with them!  So I dragged them out of bed early hoping to make them tired so they would sleep on the plane - with mixed success!

I was pleased to be flying over an an A380 - much comfier and excellent inflight entertainment than a standard Boeing 747 - and I was pleased the kids were really well behaved.  My son slept for most of the flight, and was well behaved, watching TV or playing iPad the other times, and my daughter was very good watching TV quietly, and eating her airplane food politely without much fuss. 13 hours was going slow at first but by the end it was quick.  Apparently I managed to snatch some zzz's on the plane even though I felt like I didn't!  The plane wasn't very full, and we could spread out across 9 seats instead of just 7.  I was worried about long queues at LAX to but it wasn't that bad - we got fast tracked because we had children, which was pretty cool.  Not so cool for Lush and my friend and her daughter who had come to look after the kids for me whilst we're at Blizzcon - they got stuck in the long queue and we had to wait for them.

Getting to the hotel was pretty straightforward - we went to the green sign just under the terminal that was for shuttles and long distance buses and caught the Disneyland resort Express which was $36 return for adults and $28 return for the kids.  Took us about 45 minutes or so to get to our hotel.

A quick freshen up after 24 hours of travelling and we went out to get some lunch.  Around the corner we went to a place called Starburger which looked like it was run by Korean people.  I had a bulgogi burger which was ok, but hubby had a chilli burger which he didn't enjoy.  The place was full of people who were something to do with Blizzcon, wearing ESL lanyards and Blizzcon wristbands.  One of them looked like Corey Stockton to me, but I didn't think he'd be wearingan ESL lanyard! LOL.

What is weird is that the convenience stores sell alcohol!  I found that rather strange as I was trying to get milk, to see rows and rows of booze.  Oh, and the other thing - codeine is prescription in the US but over the counter in Australia, and melatonin is a health supplement here, so you can buy it over the counter, but in Australia it's prescription ($30 for 10) - go figure!

When we walked back to the hotel there was a girl with red hair sitting outside the hotel texting on her phone with a shirt emblazoned with rogue, and carrying a bag with the alliance emblem on it.  I smiled at her and she smiled back, but I was too chicken to start a conversation.  Makes you wonder if it was anyone I would know and would like to say hi to!

We lazed our afternoon away with a nap and then I messaged Arvash to say I was in LA, and so was he!  He was with Chewy, and so we decided to meet up for a quick coffee before dinner, only to find that all the Starbucks were closed.  We were outside the Anaheim Convention centre, and all the Blizzcon stuff was up - it was a bit dark for photos though, and I forgot to bring our new fancy schmancy camera.

They walked with us to our restaurant and then I invited them to stay for dinner. We were at Napa Rose, at the Grand Californian Hotel in Disneyland.  A pretty fancy hotel, and the meal was quite enjoyable though on the higher end side!

Lush and I had the 4 course tasting menu (excuse the poor photos taken from my phone!):

Citrus Seared Skuna Bay Salmon Carpaccio Shaved Radishes, Chives, Black Bread Croutons and Lemon Aioli

Cavatelli Pasta Tossed with Spigarello Broccoli and Fontina Cheese Housemade Lamb Meatballs and Rich Lamb Jus

Grilled "Red Deer' Venison Chop Sauteed Wild Mushrooms, Pumpkin Gnocchi and Huckleberry Essence

Milk Chocolate Creme Puffs Crunch Pumpkin Ice Cream and Vanilla Sugar

The others othered some of the a la carte dishes:

Slowly braised Angus Beef Short Rib Sweet Potato Tots, Orange Gremolata and Pomegranate-Zinfandel Jus

Grilled Black Angus Beef tenderloin Hazelnut Potato Gnocchi, Brussel Sprouts, Smoked Ham and Mustard Essence

Breast of Free Range Chicken stuffed with imported Truffle Butter Golden Chanterelle Mushrooms, Local Apples and Thyme Essence

Dark Chocolate Cake with Ice cream

Pumpkin Sorbet

Even the kids meals looked rather fancy!

Good food, probably a little pricey for what we got, but good service.  Not a fan of that dessert I had - the crunch things were like eating toasted bran - probably would have preferred one of the sorbets!  Even Lush ate his fish and all his vegetables and quite enjoyed the meal.  My son found himself quite attached to Arv and Chewy and they had turns taking pics holding my son who seemed quite content to snuggle up to them or ride on their shoulders. You know what else was cool about the hotel?  They had a bar called hearthstone! Exhausted, we went back to our hotel.  Everyone was falling asleep after the long day and full tummies, looking forward to registering and getting our passes for tomorrow!  I think I shall spend the morning shopping!