My first day of SDCC 2014 started bright and early, with a 4:45am trek to Logan Airport for my 7am flight to San Diego. The day immediately started off great as Jet Blue was trying out some new TSA Pre✓ system which meant no removing of shoes or belts and nothing removed from bags (including laptops)—you just had to remove the metal from your pockets. It was the fastest I’ve ever been through the TSA screening in a very long time!

After a six hour flight, I landed in sunny San Diego, and hopped on a SuperShuttle to my hotel. Upon checking in to the Omni, I discovered this excellent view:

Not much is usually open yet on Wednesday, but I had a special VIP Pass to a Godzilla Movie exhibit that was supposed to be open from 8am-8pm behind Hall H, so I headed over there. When I arrived, they were still building and painting! However, they still gave me my swag bag, so I was happy:

From there, I headed to Ralph’s to pick up some caffeine-filled soda to help me get through the rest of the week. I walked back to the hotel, dropped that off, and headed off to meet up with some fellow bloggers and press folks to get some lunch at Bub’s at the Ballpark, where I had some pizza-style tater-tots called Totzones.

Afterwards, we headed to registration, where things moved very quickly, and I got my badge and WB Comic-Con bag:

I learned my lesson from two years ago, and immediately got in line for the Preview Night exhibition floor. Though I did stop along the way to snap a picture of this year’s fun Community-themed bathroom signs:

After 3 hours of waiting, we were unleashed onto the convention floor, and I headed in the direction of the FOX booth, where I grabbed a poster tube on my way to the AMC booth to get in line for The Walking Dead photo opp. I’ve learned from the past that this line gets insane unless you do it right away!

Once I got to the front, there was a re-creation of the train tracks/tunnel opening, with a trapped walker on the ground. I asked for the fake mouse to use as a prop, and got in position for the picture:

The booth was really well-done—they had people creepily dressed up as walkers grabbing and growling at you while waiting in line. And once you got your photo taken, you entered into a recreation of the creepy Terminus room.

Next door to The Walking Dead was the ABC castle. Monitors aired promos for all of ABC’s fall/midseason shows while we waited in line. The line moved extremely slowly, and it was probably at least 45 minutes before I made it into the castle. While waiting in line, I saw Greg Nicotero walk up to The Walking Dead booth to take a look at the Terminus recreation.

There were two guys dressed as knights in front of the castle, taking pictures with folks while we waited. Once we finally got in, a young woman dressed in a white gown, and speaking with a ‘horrible British accent, asked if any of us were heroes. When no one responded, the minstrel standing behind me pointed to me and said I think this one is.

We were shown a 2-minute ad for the new reality series The Quest. (They had some technical difficulties starting the video, but we were told that patience is a virtue of a good hero.) Afterwards were pointed towards 3 different stations. At the first you could record an audition video for season 2 of The Quest, but the “British” woman said none of us needed that since none of us were heroes. The second was a photo opp, where they took your picture and in front of a green screen and put you into an ad for the Tenth Anniversary of Lost—unfortunately the computer went down and they never emailed me my photo. And the final station was a small version of Mr. Gold’s shop (from Once Upon a Time). You went up to the counter and told Mr. Gold which item in his shop to search. He picked up the item and retrieved a pin. If you go back and do this several times and collect all 5 pins you can get a pass to one of the ABC cast signings. But at the speed of that line, it could literally take you all day!

After this I wandered around the show floor, looking for other TV-related booths. At the Teen Wolf booth, I picked up a free Bestiary (you need to design a beast on a tablet before they will give you one, but all this involves is selecting 4 items from a list). They also had a photo opp station.

At the Falling Skies booth there was a photo opp to make you look like you are trapped in a human cocoon:

I survived the @FallingSkiesTNT #HumanCocoon at #SDCC! pic.twitter.com/TsIvDOvHsH

— Kyle Nolan (@kyool) July 24, 2014

When I approached the Bates Motel booth, a young man introduced himself as Norman and welcomed me to his taxidermy workshop. He explained that as I walked through, “Mother” would help me get a photo. This guy looked and sounded just like the character from the show, and stayed in character the whole time, never cracking a smile! When I approached the table in the workshop, “Mother” told me to pick up the instruments and pretend to work on the dead bird lying there—if I touched anything else, Norman would be upset. This kind of dedication by the actors is what makes a lot of these booths so much fun!

Future taxidermist for the #BatesMotel. See my work for @InsideBates at @AETV’s booth at #SDCC. http://t.co/8Doh1LzoR2

— Kyle Nolan (@kyool) July 24, 2014

The Entertainment One booth had a lot of cool Haven props on display, as well as the box for the upcoming Season 4 Blu-ray.

I wandered around to a few more booths, including the Warner Bros booth, where they were giving away the 4 Comic-Con cover TV Guides and a Mike Tyson Mysteries swag bag. And then I decided to call it a night on my first day of SDCC 2014.