When I first arrived, I found out an exciting fact about Atlanta. The cabs here are the biggest goddamn ripoff I've encountered across any of my travels. Not only are the rates high to begin with, they charge a flat rate of $30 from the airport to downtown, a trip that takes about 10-15 minutes. In addition to the flat rate, there's a $2 extra charge per customer, as well as a $2 extra charge for gas, even if you were to travel 3 blocks. With that delightful $34 cab ride out of the way, the convention was ready to begin.

Dragon*Con was held across 4 hotels this year. My stay was at the Hyatt. Upon arriving, you could already tell Dragon*Con was huge. The promotional items welcoming you to the con were well laid out and the staff were completely prepared to welcome the thousands of people to the hotel. In fact, they seemed downright pleasant, as if they were really looking forward to the congoers. That's a bit of a strange feeling, since in roughly half of the other cons I attend, the hotel workers are downright annoyed that you're giving their hotel some money.

Something I noticed almost immediately was that the crowd attending Dragoncon is far older. Out of the thousands of people I saw, there were perhaps a few dozen teens. The attendees were primarily males, though there was a very healthy population of females as well. My first night attending (technically the night before the convention started) I was lucky enough to experience my first convention creep. He was, of course, only one of the many I would be meeting throughout the weekend. This man was going around giving arm massages, simply unwilling to take no for an answer. Between his assurance of his professional status (as proven by the button he was wearing that said "Trust me, I'm a pro!") and me not being my usual surly self at the time, I allowed him to massage my arm. Admittedly, it was all right. After me he attempted to massage everyone else's arms within a few hundred square feet, and then he attempted to slide that massaging arm of his around an attractive younger lady. The response, which involved a lot of yelling, was a pretty great one! Keep in mind: if you're an attractive younger lady, unless you really like old creepy dudes trying to touch you or take pictures of your ass, you'll want some sort of friends around for protection.

Ok so this one's asking for it BUT STILL.

The major events are telecast into your room (or at least this was the case in the Hyatt). Such a great feature, let me tell you. In the event that the masquerade is lame, which, let's face it, is almost guaranteed, you can sit around with your buddies in your room, drink, and have a good laugh. They also broadcast the panels, another nice touch if you go to those, since they often fill up. During downtime, the channel broadcasts fanfilms, little messages, highlights from the previous year’s masquerade, and whatever other Dragon*Con stuff they feel like. If nothing else, seeing last year's performance of the Hulk involved in interpretive dance with a tank, which ended in the Hulk accidently falling off the stage while trying to catch the tank, made the channel worth watching.

A slightly saucier version of the Hulk dance.

Events-wise, there's a ton to do: panels with decent guests and actual content. Dealer's rooms spread out across multiple hotels, exhibitors that aren't completely worthless -- an example of that being the R2D2 Builder's Club, along with the 501st. The R2D2 Builder's Club gives you free information on how to make full size operational droids, while the 501st lets you play dress-up with them. PLUS they were also giving out balloons. The cosplay parade is one of the most anticipated events of the con. The room I had gave me a perfect balcony view of it. I got to witness a giant inflatable Darth Vader, a truck pulling a pirate ship, a legion of Stormtroopers that were quite willing to quickly pose for pictures with kids, an awesome Mad Max group -- an all around fun time.

The booze flows freely during Dragon*Con. It's an enormous party in the evenings, where it's difficult to get anywhere both because of the amount of people and because even if you're not stumbling, everyone else will be. There's plenty of security around, but they're all fairly chill. You can carry around your Vodka bottle or Smirnoff Ice without worrying about concealing it. Though in the latter case, unless you're a woman, you might want to.

As far as cons go, it was incredible fun. It was the best con I've been to. Dragon*Con gets the official Cosfu thumbs up.