Me and a couple friends are going down, including a bunch of people here locally.
When I went to my first Botcon in 2011, also in Pasadena, there was a big group of us that ended up bumping into each other.
I suggest staying at one of the actual convention hotels. Its closer to the convention center, and makes things easier if you have to make several trips to unload stuff you bought. For 2011, I stayed at the Old Pasadena Inn with a friend. Its a couple blocks away from the convention center. Website:
http://www.oldpasadenainn.com/
The price was good, but hotel was ok. Their wifi hardly worked at all. And it was not fun lugging our botcon haul back to the hotel.
Sharing a room with someone is always a good idea. I'm sure there may be someone looking to split the cost with you here.
The other suggestion is to bring lots of money for the dealer room. You may go in with a budget, but as soon as you walk into the dealer room, your budget will not exist, lol. This is true, as its happened with me, and with my friends who told me they were only going to spend $400, and blew through $2k instead. Its not possible to be prepared for the amount of awesome stuff you'll find. Especially with this year, its going to be nuts in the dealer room.
As far as botcon itself goes, I suggest go for the Primus package, which gets you the main box set, access to almost everything at the show, early friday dealer room access, a freebie toy, and a special event on saturday night, that usually includes dinner. I highly suggest to register the first day registration goes up, as it also helps with when you can pickup your boxset and package on Thursday night.
Besides the show itself, there is the after party trading room event, that takes place in the main hotel. Basically, fans open up there rooms, with their own stuff for sale. You can find some amazing deals from regular fans here, who are just looking to unload stuff to get cash to re-spend in the dealer room. The best room is the Megamus room. He opens up on Tuesday evening, and its now my first place I visit once I get to the hotel. The only downside is, that the Sheraton, the main hotel next to the convention center, requires key cards to access the elevator. So if you try to go up to any of the rooms, you'll have to sneak in with people staying there, to use the elevators.
As far as which days to be down for Botcon, you need to by at the convention center by 5pm on Thursday. The show ends around 4pm on Sunday. So you can always fly back home Sunday night. I usually go Tuesday to Monday. If you plan to do sight seeing, then beware that Friday to Sunday is a write off for the show itself. Theres too much to do there, to make time to go out and explore.
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