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Pensacon 2019 Intro Review

Way back in February of this year we attended Pensacon in Pensacola, Florida. Yes, it took forever to get this content out, but we’ve had some major growing pains in the meantime. For one thing, we were just a little ole fandom magazine, The Lemon Magazine, when we attended and now we’re a full-fledged news and media company, so… yeah. Anyway, we had an absolute blast, all of which will be outlined in the posts to follow, but we wanted to give a quick review-y type post for those interested in attending in the future.

The one thing you really want to know if you’re searching for this convention is whether or not you should fork over the money to attend, right? Well, we can definitely say it was worth it! Every single second was jam-packed with things to do and see. The entire town of Pensacola turns out for this thing and even nearby businesses and restaurants transform. For instance, most within walking distance will change their interiors for the entire weekend into something resembling The Enterprise or Platform 9 ¾. And if that’s not enough, the celebrities that attend every year are more than worth the ticket price.

Okay, so let’s get to it. First, we were given press passes, but we didn’t get to skip lines or anything like that, so we were treated to the true convention experience. Nothing fancy, which was just fine. We can’t exactly report on what it might be like for you to go if we get anything above and beyond what our readers might get. The only thing that was different was our check-in. It’s in a separate area and the lines for those with regular weekend passes had a pretty hefty line even earlier in the morning, so that’s something to keep in mind when you’re planning. The staff was amazing, though, so while the lines were long, they went fast. Also, if you don’t have parking passes, you will have to pay for something nearby. We suggest taking an Uber or Lyft instead. You’re not gonna want to leave, so it’s fine. You can also get a hotel downtown too, though those can sell out fast.

Day one is technically Friday afternoon (or Thursday night if you have VIP passes), so not a lot of people attend that day compared to Saturday and Sunday. However, we advise going all three days, if you can swing it. Being there on Friday, when it opened to the public, let us browse all the vendors before the huge crowds the next day. Getting all the shopping out of the way first was nice and allowed us to spend more time in panels and photo op lines the other two days.

Pensacon has a campus layout. This means that the entire convention is spaced out over several buildings. They’re all within walking distance of each other, as is downtown, so even without a car, everything is completely manageable. We went ahead and started in the main building, the Pensacola Bay Center, where all the vendors are located. This is also where some of the bigger stars are located, and while this place can be a maze, we didn’t have any trouble navigating. Just pay attention to the signage and you’ll be good.

Because it’s a smaller convention, you could easily walk right up to celebrities’ tables and get an autograph and picture for a fee without much wait. It varied depending on the celebrity and their status, but everyone that attends is pretty reasonable. There were a lot of Harry Potter stars this year, so that was especially fun for us. William Shatner was also there, and his line was pretty long, but even that wasn’t something you might see at the real big conventions, like SDCC or something. Oh, and don’t forget cash. If you didn’t pay for a staged photo op beforehand, cash was key. For most, that we noticed anyway, that was what they accepted. For the vendors, they were more set up to take cash and debit, so just keep that in mind.

For Saturday and Sunday, there was a lot of walking from one panel to the next. We go into further detail about those in the upcoming articles, but each was very well moderated. Everyone got to ask their questions and was respectful. I did hear of people getting in trouble for recording in the panels, even press, but it was made very clear that you weren’t to do that, so we’re not sure why people still tried it. Regardless, at all the panels we attended, we had zero issues. Everything ran smoothly and on time. We only heard of one panel being canceled, but from what we understand that was due to some outside triggered fanboy threats that, thankfully, never came to fruition.

Overall, we will be attending any way we can as many years as we can. It was intimate, professional, and had some awesome celebrities and panels. Pensacon even has its own film festival with an award ceremony, though we didn’t have time to attend this year. And before we forget, the cosplayers brought it. We were lucky enough to interview some lovely ladies that attended this year, and you’ll be able to read those later this week too, but every single person we saw cosplaying was incredible. The craftsmanship still has us freaking out! They were all so nice too, and very accommodating of every person who wanted to take a picture, as most cosplayers are.

Hopefully you’re not still on the fence because it’s definitely not a con you want to miss! And if you do decide to come in 2020, get your tickets early. They were announcing guests up until the last minute, so don’t wait for your favorites to be confirmed. It might be too late by then.