"Following a vampire and an archaeologist to London" Trip Report COMPLETE About This Page:

[Disneybine]

Originally Posted by OhToodles!

That was one tiny room! Did you have to crawl over the bed to get to things? It looks that way at least.

Sort of, yeah I certainly expected a bigger room in a 3-star hotel!

Originally Posted by orionchika

Whoa - what a small room and bed.... I hope that it was comfy enough for you to get a good night's sleep.....

Actually, the bed itself was fairly comfortable. I slept very well. Manuel, however, didn't like the fact that the bed was shorter than him, meaning that his feet dangled in the air (and with 5'11'' DH's not exceptionally tall or anything)

Originally Posted by hall0731

Too bad Robert or Taylor couldn't have been there.

Trust me, with the current popularity of Twilight, they wouldn't dare go anywhere near a convention! Robert has been a guest at an LFCC in the past, though (for his role as Cedrick Diggory in Harry Potter).

[pamcarey]

Great update! And thanks for the answer to the Twilight trivia question... I had a "duh, of course" moment when I read it!

[Disneybine]

Saturday, July 18 – Part one: What do you mean he couldn't find his passport???

The alarm woke us at 7:30am, and I felt a lot better after a good night’s sleep. We both took a shower in the tiny bathroom and were on our way about an hour later. We chose Mc Donald’s for breakfast as I was way too antsy to sit down for anything more than a quick bite! As we were waiting in line at Mc D’s, we spotted two girls dressed in SG-C army jackets. I got all giggly because I thought that was so cool! Yeah, I know, I’m a nerd! After breakfast, we walked to Earl’s Court Two, the convention hall where the LFCC took place. Along the way, I spotted the hotel I stayed at during my class trip to London in 2000! What a nice surprise, as I didn’t remember exactely where it was.

We approached the entrance to the convention a little after its official opening time, 9am. There were huge lines (I’m talking Disney during Easter break HUGE!) outside, and this was the first of many times that we were extremely thankful that we had splurged on Gold Passes. Between the pre-ordered tickets line on the left and the pay-on-the-day line on the right, there was the (empty) line for Gold Pass holders in the middle! We were able to walk straight in. However, it was when we approached the doors that I nearly had a stroke: A simple note stated that due to passport issues, Peter Facinelli would not be arriving until Sunday. WHAT??? Passport issues??? Are you kidding me??? Peter had been a guest at the TwiTour convention in Minneapolis on Friday and was supposed to take a plane straight from there to London to arrive at the LFCC just in time on Saturday. Apparently, though, as we found out later, the good Dr. Cullen couldn't find his passport and missed his flight. I was disappointed, of course, but I decided not to let it bother me since we’d still be there on Sunday and there’d be plenty of time to meet Peter.

Inside the building, there was a short line as we had to actually pick up our personalized Gold Passes at the organizer booth but that was nothing compared to the madness outside. As soon as we had our shiny passes in hand (we felt like V.I.P. with those dangling around our necks ), we turned to the other side of the booth and got in line to buy autograph vouchers. The way it works is that if you want to pay with credit card, you have to pick up vouchers here that you can then take to the individual guests signing at the convention. The line was awefully long already and moved very slowly. Note to self: Bring enough cash next time to avoid this! With cash, you can simply pay directly when in line for autographs. Manuel stayed in the line while I went to pick up our pre-paid photo session tickets. Originally, they were supposed to be sent to us before the event but since the organizers ran behind, they decided not to ship international orders but hold them to be picked up on location. I was able to switch some of my tickets around. I had bought the tickets before the schedule came out and some of them conflicted with the Stargate and Twilight talks.


This is the programme they gave out at the LFCC.

Everybody who ordered Gold Passes got to choose an autograph pack. We opted for the Stargate one, and in it, we found those three autographed pictures:


Gary Jones as Sgt. Walter Harriman


Carmen Argenziano as Jacob Carter (and the Tok’ra Selmak)


Jason Momoa as Ronon Dex (in Stargate Atlantis)

When we first decided to go on this trip, I joined the LFCC’s organizer’s message board. There, I met a very nice, fellow German Stargate fan, Petra, who happened to be a moderator on that board. We started emailing back and forth, and agreed beforehand to meet up by the end of the line for Michael Shanks’ autograph on Saturday morning. While waiting for Petra, I caught a first glimpse of my favorite member of SG-1:




These posters indicated which guest was signing autographs where.

I spotted Petra, and after a round of welcome hungs, we got in line for Michael. Perk number two for Gold Pass holders: We were able to join the end of every line without so-called virtual tickets (which work just like the Fast Pass system)! The actual line was never longer than a handful of people, then, which cut back on the time we had to wait considerably. When we got to the front of the line, I was majorly nervous! Luckily, Petra knew Michael personally from prior conventions (even working as his personal assistant for a day once). She introduced us and told him that we’d come all the way from Germany just to meet him. It was so much fun to finally meet Michael Shanks in person, and let me tell ya: He’s every bit as charming in person as he is on TV.


Here he is, signing my picture.


That’s the picture I chose (included in the price of the autograph).


And here I am with him!

By the way, Manuel enjoyed meeting Michael as well.

Afterwards, we headed over to Justin Chon’s autograph table.


My good friend Lisa who lives in Florida had sent me two Twilight t-shirts as a gift before we left for the convention (which was so sweet of her!). One of the t-shirts was white so I thought it’d be perfect to collect Twilight autographs on. Below is Justin Chon signing this t-shirt:


He is such a funny, easy-going guy! He asked me if he should write anything in particular.

Can anyone guess what I asked him to write (besides “To Sabine” and his autograph, obviously)?

I’ll post a close-up pic of the t-shirt in a later update of the trip report...




This is the free picture I picked up when I got the autograph (I didn’t get it signed as you pay by the autograph and I wanted the t-shirt signed instead)

After meeting Michael and Justin, we decided to look around the actual “convention” part of the LFCC. There were tons and tons of merchants selling all sorts of fan merchandise from sci-fi movies and tv-shows as well as comics. Loads of Star Trek, Star Wars, and Stargate pictures, trading cards, t-shirts etc.


Here I am in front of one of the stalls.

I bought a bunch of Twilight pictures (some of those I didn’t buy but get at Peter’s autograph table the next day but I don’t remember which ones so I decided to post them all together):



















At noon, it was time for my first photo shoot, this one with Jewel Staite. The convention staff did a great job of getting people in line organized. Gold Pass holders got to go to the front of the line This was one of the best features of those passes, and as we saw the endless masses of people lining up for photo shoots, we agreed that the money for our Gold Passes was very well spent!


That’s what the photo shoot tickets looked like.


This is me with Jewel Staite!

Afterwards, my back needed a break so we sat down on the upper level of the in-house cafeteria. We snatched a table by the windows and had an awesome view over the convention:








Me, enjoying the view!

Next up on the agenda: Photo shoot with Alex Meraz. I was first in line and actually worked up the courage to ask for a hug picture. He smiled and said he felt like at prom. I think this was one of Alex’s first conventions, so it was all still new to him. By the way, that is one seriously buff (as in: muscular) dude! Holy cow! Trust me, I can tell – I hugged him! Here’s proof:


(I had him sign the photo on Sunday.)

We went straight from there (photo shoot location B) to the other side of the convention hall to photo shoot location A, where both Manuel and I were gonna have our picture taken with Michael Shanks.


One of our photo shoot tickets for Michael.


I also asked Michael for a hug picture, and I sure did get one!


We thought it’d be funny to pose like this (even though Manuel’s expression turned out kind weird).

Around 2 pm, we did some more shopping at the stalls and then left the convention to take a break at our hotel and get lunch.


See my cool Gold Pass??? (yeah, again, I know - I'm such a nerd )


I bought a 1000-piece Twilight jigsaw puzzle (which I’m currently working on – the black and white is a challenge, but fun)...


... and a calendar.

Next: Front and center, baby!

[Wendyismyname]

Wow!! I'd LOVE to have that puzzle!! Looks like a big cluster, but it also looks like a ton of fun!! They're having one of those conventions or they did last week in LA I think and it made me think of you!

[Hugmonster]

Ok I hope I am not the only one drooling on Michael Shanks... The men are just to good looking...

[OhToodles!]

Looks like you're having a great time!

[KMB733]

Looks like you certainly are enjoying yourself at the convention!

[lauriep]

Love the "hug" photos! Those are seriously handsome young men!

[Nimros]

OMG girl - I am melting all over the floor, wishing I could have been there!!!!

I think you're right, those Golden Passes were as good as....uh, GOLD.

Were all the people on the cover of your programme there as well? Did that mean you got see Tom Baker and Eve Myles?

Sounds nice to have another friend to meet at the convention...and glad Manuel is not the jealous type.

I'll probably be looking at your post over and over again tonight....

[lauren-roxy]

What an awesome update Sabine!!! Those gold passes were fantastic!!! The photos are just wonderful and I'm going to start asking for hug photos too, well if I ever get to meet a lot of hunky guys!!

[chezp]

What an awesome time you're having - and you're right about those golden passes being worth the money you paid for them.

So were there any Doctor Who stars there? That's been my favourite for many, many years now.

[LouigiAnne]

You sure had fun !! Love the Hug photos, and you made good use of the Gold Passes, well worth the extra $$. LouigiAnne

[Disneybine]

Originally Posted by Hugmonster

Ok I hope I am not the only one drooling on Michael Shanks...

Believe me, I had a hard time not drooling on the guy when I met him!

Originally Posted by Nimros

Were all the people on the cover of your programme there as well? Did that mean you got see Tom Baker and Eve Myles?

Yes, all the actors displayed on the programme were there (plus many more). We could have gone to see the two people you mentioned but didn't because we don't know either one.

Originally Posted by Nimros

...and glad Manuel is not the jealous type.

He most certainly is not - which comes in very handy when meeting hot actors

Originally Posted by chezp

So were there any Doctor Who stars there?

Yes, quite a few actually. I had never heard of the show before, though, so I have no idea who those people were, sorry.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Disneybine

Originally Posted by chezp
So were there any Doctor Who stars there?

Yes, quite a few actually. I had never heard of the show before, though, so I have no idea who those people were, sorry.

The two mentioned - Tom Baker and Eve Myles - are Doctor Who. Tom was the fourth doctor from 1974 - 1981, the longest serving one, and Eve is from the Doctor Who spinoff show Torchwood. You learn something every day!

[Disneybine]

Ah ok, if you say so, Chez