Is the D23 Expo the new Comic-Con?

This was my first year crossing off both San Diego Comic-Con and D23 Expo from my bucket list. I couldn’t help but compare the two by the time I was walking out of the Anaheim Convention Center. I asked myself, “Is D23 actually better than Comic-Con?”

To give you background before starting this comparison, I was at D23 on Friday for part of the day as I was volunteering the other half. I spent Thursday through Saturday at Comic-Con (or SDCC as I’ll refer to it as), exploring the convention and it’s surroundings although I did have to step away and work for parts of that.

So, let’s break it down.

The Panels

At Comic-Con, people wait for the premiere Hall H for days. Yes, plural “days.” As a first-time goer of SDCC, I found the number of panels every single day completely daunting and overwhelming. I went to 3 panels and only 1 of those was truly worth it, DuckTales. A Disney one, shocker there. When asking around, it seemed like DuckTales was one of the only homerun hitters as far as panels go. This year DC didn’t have a big marque panel to promote The Joker or Wonder Woman or any other projects they’re working on.

Likely for the first time in their 10 year existence, I did see on Instagram that people did wait for the premiere D23 hall panels overnight. But for them, it would have been probably worth it.

It seemed like the D23 panels didn’t give away as much as Comic-Con’s did, BUT the special appearances by those at D23 makes this a winner. Just look at this small sampling of Instagram posts that I put together.

The Rock. Robert Downey Jr. Anna Kendrick. Emily Blunt. Chris Pratt. Tina Rey. Jaime Foxx. That’s just to name some of their headliners. Disney+ has probably changed the game for Disney-related events as the streaming app now has to compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime.

The most famous people at Comic-Con this year might have been Orlando Bloom and Chris Hemsworth. Meh.

Winner: D23

The Convention Hall

This was a tough one for me. I struggled with “way too much” vs “not enough for a weekend” debate.

The moment I stepped foot at Comic-Con…I was completely overwhelmed. I have a touch of claustrophobia and the SDCC exhibit hall is a sea of people. The hall is literally wall-to-wall crowded at most times of the day.

I loved that the major players at SDCC had big amazing booths. WB/DC had a massive structure that housed programming and celebrity signings. Nickelodeon had a human-sized Krusty Krab.

The Disney presence was very weak, they even reused the Star Wars Storm Trooper set-up, but they were saving the goods for D23 I realized.

D23 was much smaller than SDCC, but it was manageable. Listen, every popular convention will have lines for things. But I felt the lines seemed tolerable at D23. I LOVED that I could basically walk into any of their open exhibits on the floor and there were open panels that I stumbled upon. I actually walked up on one that featured the voice of Goofy!! If you know me, you know I love Goofy so this was the ultimate treat. At another point, I walked past the Jeff Goldblum Disney+ panel. My personal favorite was the “Imagining Tomorrow, Today” walkthrough exhibit that showcases the major renovations of Disney Parks across the globe.

Here were the two major downsides to D23: 1. If you wanted to walk through and see everything (see, not SHOP), you could do it in a day. I felt like they could have fit more stuff in the convention center. I would have loved a D23 exclusive Pop Up! event like Mickey’s 90th Celebration. I think there’s SO MUCH untapped potential with their throwbacks and doing pop ups. 2. The lines for shops. One word for it: WOOF. There were 3 main shops with lines: The Disney Store, The Disney Dreamstore, and Mickey’s of Glendale (Cast Member only store). The Disney Store and Mickey’s of Glendale were close to 90 minutes - 2 hour lines.

Winner: D23, but not by much. There was plenty more to do at SDCC, but sometimes the lines deter you from doing so.

Tickets

It’s no secret that SDCC tickets are some of the hardest tickets the general public can get as far as events go. I find the process a complete turn-off. Luckily, I had a friend that provided me with a connection to get a 4-day pass.

For D23, on the other hand, anyone can buy tickets. And they were still selling tickets almost up until the convention. I thought I was going to miss out by not getting Saturday tickets, but going Friday seemed like a huge win.

Winner: D23

Nightlife

I’ll keep this one short, no contest on this front. There’s always something to do at night in San Diego during Comic Con. Not everything will cost you money to get in, but I found that it was extremely beneficial to know people in the industry to get access to the exclusive events. While D23 is your average convention with no extra events outside the convention times.

Winner: SDCC

The Merchandise

Everyone loves a good convention exclusive, right?! The real question is… at what cost will you get a convention exclusive? As mentioned earlier, because it was so apparent, the lines for the shops at D23 were massive and unrelenting. I stood in the least intimidating line, the Disney Dreamstore. I had absolutely no clue was what in it, but it was the shortest line with less than 90 minutes left in the convention that day. I gotta say, I loved the convention exclusives. I bought 2 pairs of Disney Parks Designer Collection hats AND I got to use my Disneyland Annual Passholder Discount. HUGE win. I have to give a shoutout to BoxLunch too on their D23 presence. They had a pamphlet of exclusives at the front with a 25% your entire purchase discount code that could be used at the store.

What I was a little disappointed with was the amount of smaller vendors to shop in and freebies at D23. I know the freebies part sounds weird, but these conventions give out some awesome free stuff sometimes. With less booths comes less freebies, sort of makes sense. The small vendors that were present were either specializing in: pins, Funko Pop’s, art or vintage collectables. I did enjoy the Disney kitchenware store, but I was underwhelmed by my shopping options.

This was a hard comparison with SDCC. The official exclusive SDCC clothing was a bit lame, not a huge variety and very long line (see photo number 2 below for one of the best shirts they had). BUT, freebies were in abundance AND the small vendors took up more than a third of the convention hall. The area with the small vendors was considerably less crowded than other parts of the hall, but you could spend hours just going through some of the cool stuff everyone has to offer. I’m super proud of one of my purchases, the map from The Goofy Movie.

Winner: Push. Too close to call. While SDCC has a sheer abundance of free crap and small vendors, D23 has multiple official retailers with exclusives at the price of your time.

The Atmosphere

There’s great things to see inside the convention of SDCC, but there’s always really cool things to experience outside the convention center. For example, the FX compound was outside the convention center, IMDb has a yacht parked out back (which I was lucky enough to get on), NBC had a big activation at the front of the Gas Lamp District, and much more. The downside to having an event is the downtown area is absolutely crazy. Going to a bar in the Gaslamp District can be a challenge. Sticking to your hotel bar or event should be more the speed.

D23 has a different type of atmosphere that I really adored…everyone was nice. Might sound ridiculous, but it’s true. There’s more of a magical, less cut-throat aura to D23 that I found charming. There’s even a parade twice a day… and yes I walked in it on Friday as volunteer. I did enjoy the multiple areas where you can take photos with really cool backgrounds. I was upset that they advertised a Goofy Movie background, but everyone I asked couldn’t seem to find it. If you haven’t noticed a trend in this post, this was a huge bummer for me.

Winner: SDCC. All in all, San Diego is BUZZING when Comic-Con comes to town. Some townies and annual SDCC goers talk about foot traffic begrudgingly, but everyone is still stoked to be there.

My recommendation

If you have a connection or two, you might find SDCC a really enjoyable experience. But if you’re into Disney or even specifically Marvel, skip SDCC and set your sails on D23 for 2021. Saturday tickets for D23 sell out pretty quick to D23 Gold Members. So if you can’t get 2 tickets for Friday and Saturday, get a 1-day ticket for Friday, grab a friend or two, and conquer D23 as a team. Teamwork is KEY to conquering D23 in a day, which is possible. You’ll find your wallet will be hurting less, and you might walk away not loathing a convention center.