Yikes! It’s been ages since I wrote here… What today’s post will be is a combination of con reports for AWA in 2021 as well as last weekend’s 2022 edition.
2021
I wasn’t going to keep my hotel reservation until the Atlanta Braves made it to the World Series, which they eventually won. I’d initially booked Tuesday to Monday, which I was prepared to cancel; however, I used my Hilton Points to rebook the reservation to Thursday to Monday and paid the difference. This was very much a good thing as the room was “needed” a couple of times throughout the weekend.
I’m not going to go into details of the weekend except to say that my Saturday did not go anywhere near what I’d expected thanks to someone’s indiscretion with alcohol.
Despite that little blip, I had a decent enough of a time and got my badge for 2022 during the early bird sale immediately after the con.
2022
I had some financial issues early in 2022, so I was unable to book a hotel with my own resources when the hotel blocks opened, much to my disappointment. Thankfully, AWA eventually added the Early Start program as an available option to early bird badges, so I upgraded to that. The months went by, some stupid IRL stuff happened related to MomoCon and DragonCon, so after DragonCon I’d decided to just go on Saturday only to AWA and hang out with a friend and her group if I could. That would’ve been fine, I suppose, but thanks to work I had another option.
I’ve taken quite a lot of business trips in the last 12 months, several a full week in length, all of them in Hilton properties, so I’d accrued a not insignificant amount of Hilton points, so as the con approached and my badge arrived, I began looking around the Galleria area for hotels that I could use my points at for a room for the con.
Eventually, the beloved Embassy Suites Atlanta Galleria became available for points! I booked a reservation there on Monday of con week: how’s that for last minute?
With the hotel room secured, I actually put a bunch of my pins in my itabag for this year. Lots of FFXIV stuff is there, and I need to spend some time browsing Etsy or other places for cool enamel pins for it. Wednesday was prep day, and I checked into my hotel room that afternoon. I picked a room on the first floor, two doors down from where my group had been in 2019.
Thursday
I woke up Thursday morning to finish a little bit of work up then after I got the notification from the hotel that my room was ready to go, I set forth across town with my suitcase containing my clothes and toiletries, my travel laptop bag containing all the electronics, and my itabag containing my concert lighting and a USB battery to keep my phone topped up.
I arrived at the hotel about 40 minutes later as traffic was a bit heavy and used my Digital Key to open the parking gate as well as enter my room directly. I set the mini router up, verified the Internet was working well, then put my clothes away before heading over to the Waverly.
One of my college friends had sent me a message with her group’s room number in the Waverly, so I headed up to hang out with her and the rest of her group, who are all people I know and consider friends or friend adjacent. It was very good to catch up with them and all the changes in my life in the past few years. We planned to hit a panel later in the day, so I head back to my hotel to get my two free drinks then get dinner at the hotel bar like I did last year. If it’s just me that’s probably the simpest solution. If my usual group returns next year, we’ll go elsewhere, I’m sure.
After dinner I relax in my room for a bit and take my meds. Eventually I pick myself up and head back over to my friends’ room to meet up before the panel.
The panel was called “Queer Eye for the Anime Guy” and was quite fun.
After the panel I headed back to my room, changed into my PJs, and went to bed.
Friday
I just barely woke up in time for breakfast. Good start to the day. After I ate my usual ham and cheese omelette I headed back to my room to shower then get ready for the day.
I wandered back over just in time for the dealer room and artists alley to open and went right in. For some reason I went to artists alley first and encountered some major bottlenecked traffic there. Once I was done there, I headed over to the dealer aisles and began browsing, looking for something to strike my fancy. After a little while I checked in with my friends and one was in the area, so we met up outside near the food trucks. After a few minutes, we headed back to their room and one of their group headed over to Costco to fetch pizzas for us. Upon their return, I had a couple of slices and made my way back to the dealers room before heading back to my room to relax for a bit.
When the evening reception time came, I went there as usual, got my two drinks, then had food brought in from Schlotzsky’s via Doordash. It was decent enough, and after letting it settle for a bit and taking my meds, I headed back over to the con as I’d planned to hit a FF14 panel around 8:00 PM. It was pretty cool as it was about the game’s lore.
After the panel, I went back to my room and put a movie on before bed.
Saturday
It was far easier to wake up for breakfast today. After breakfast and getting ready, I headed back to the Galleria and grabbed lunch from Subway, probably a little early. I ate a good portion, and I was fine afterwards. I headed back to my hotel room and was just going to relax there for a while but decided to head back for the ASCA concert, which was good! I sat back in the crowd and didn’t get my lighting out for this one as I just wasn’t in the mood at this point in the weekend.
After that concert, it was drinks and dinner. After dinner I took my meds and headed back to the con to kill time before another FF14 panel at 10:30 PM. This one was 18+ and wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I quite enjoyed it, actually. I wanted to stay up for a panel at 1:15 AM but just wouldn’t be able to, so I went back to my room and got ready for bed.
Sunday
I skipped breakfast today as it was check out day. I packed everything up and after a triple check of the room I walked my suitcase and laptop bag to the car before heading back in to drop my keys off and check out. The front desk clerk said I only needed to press the “Assistance” button to get out of the parking lot when I returned later in the day to get my car. Total hotel cost: $36. God bless points.
After checking out of the hotel I headed back over to the con and did one “last” pass through the dealers room and ran into another friend I’d been keeping an eye out for all weekend. We exchanged pleasantries as we were going in opposite directions, and I finished my loop by finding the FF4 Celtic Moon CD and purchasing it.
Once I got bored enough, I walked over to Cumberland Mall for lunch and to check the Round 1 there for which Beatmania IIDX version they had for a friend. Two pizza slices later, I hiked back over to the Galleria and plopped down in Main Events as it is dark and cool to wait for the first of two concerts for the day: Voia. His show was pretty good, and it helped kill some time. After his show BPM15Q had their show. It got pretty high energy and I actually got my lighting out for it. It was a really good time, so I stepped back to the dealers room to let my ears recover a bit.
Once I was done there I wandered back over to Main Events for Closing Ceremonies as it was raining outside. After I heard the attendance numbers I decided I’d heard enough and walked back to the Embassy to get my car and head home.
Needless to say, it was a very different feeling to head straight home after I decided to leave the con vs. going back into a hotel to make dinner plans with friends or going to the airport.
I once again took advantage of the early bird pricing, and I have tentative plans from friends, so let’s see what the next year brings us!