The 6 best and 4 worst things about attending San Diego Comic-Con this year

The "House of the Dragon: The Dragon's Den" activation was a must-do for fans who were anticipating the new show's premiere on August 21.

Even Olivia, who's only seen bits and pieces of "GoT" thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

While waiting for our turn to enter the caverns of Dragonstone for a dragon-hatching experience, we were encouraged to interact with the actors who were on the grounds playing guards, merchants, and other residents of House Targaryen.

We were impressed with how committed the talent was to chatting us up and asking if we lived near "the wall." When two of them saw Kirsten's phone, they asked about the "fancy mirror box" and (much to our delight) said they had no idea what a smile was.

Entering the castle made us feel like we were in Westeros, rather than hot and sunny San Diego. The inside was dark and foggy, but refreshingly cool. We were taken to a room with a fire pit in the middle, surrounded by large "dragon" eggs. We were commanded to select our own egg, hold it tightly, and later place it in a hole for hatching.

But the best aspect of the experience was saved for the end.

The final room of the activation featured a new version of the famous Iron Throne and every participant got to ascend the chair for a photo opp. Musicians playing the "GoT" theme song in a corner of the room elevated the experience even more.

Kirsten headed to eight panels in SDCC's biggest and buzziest room, Hall H, over the weekend.

Though The Rock made an impressive entrance in DC's "Black Adam" panel on Saturday morning, Marvel Studios easily had the best panel of the convention that evening with multiple massive reveals about its upcoming slate of movie and TV projects through 2025.

They showed exclusive footage for the next "Ant-Man and the Wasp" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" films along with the Disney+ series "Secret Invasion."

They topped it all off with an impressive live-action performance from Baaba Maal, Massamba Diop, and dancers and drummers before director Ryan Coogler took the stage to reveal an emotional trailer for November's "Black Panther" sequel.

We haven't watched every episode of the show's first season yet, so we didn't really know what to expect from the immersive activation. After waiting for 40 minutes, even with a reservation, we were ushered into a room for orientation-day training.

We were blown away that the first room was a dead-ringer for the conference room seen in the show's pilot.

We were all given instruction handbooks for newly severed employees and an actor portraying a worker gave us new names. We also went into a Wellness Room, where Kirsten was picked out of the group for a hilarious session where she was told some pleasing facts about her outie's (her outside self's) life.

The experience also took us through eerily white hallways, a control room, and the office — where we participated in a cult-ish dance party with musical instruments.

The whole activation was interactive and exciting. If you were a super fan of the show, you got more out of the experience. At one point, two people in our group were taken away for a different experience in which they headed to a break room. If you knew where to look, you could put a token into a vending machine to get raisins or pretzels (similar to the show).

If curiosity got the best of you — as it did Kirsten — you could sneak into a security room filled with cameras.

Even if you didn't notice those things, you got to take home a Lumon tote bag with your own ID and branded office supplies like a sticky notepad, pen, and eraser.

On Friday night, AMC invited fans to celebrate the end of 11 seasons at a ticketed bash.

Attendees were greeted by stars Norman Reedus, Seth Gilliam, and executive producer Greg Nicotero who took time to briefly chat and snap photos with fans before welcoming everyone from on high to kick off a night filled with free drinks, snacks, and collectible "TWD" pins.

Fans who waited in line were able to choose one of several "TWD"-themed T-shirts and could look at memorabilia from the show.

While waiting in line for two-and-a-half hours on Sunday, Olivia questioned if this activation was even worth it. And yes, it definitely was.

Fans waiting for their turn to enter the school halls were treated to a lunchtime snack (a Hostess Twinkie) before being ushered inside for "new teacher disorientation."

The activation included a hallway designed to look like the show's elementary school. There were also nods to the show, like switches named after Boyz II Men songs and lockers for Janine Teagues, Gregory Eddie, and Barbara Howard.

Everyone got to sit in front of a cloud-pattern backdrop and take school pictures for their IDs before visiting a replica of principal Ava Coleman's office and posing for pictures at her desk.

Then, fans entered a classroom to take a personality test and see which Abbott Elementary teacher they're most like (Olivia got Janine).

The best part of the room was a wall filled with QR codes for Scholastic wish lists that fans could donate to, in order to support children and schools around the country. We also got to write words of encouragement on postcards, which would be mailed to schools.

Teacher disorientation concluded with a trip to the gym, where everyone got to take home their own Abbott step team duffle bags.

The Mighty Bowser was mighty indeed at SDCC's Nintendo booth.

It weighed 4 tons, was made from nearly 700,000 Lego bricks, and included movable parts. Additionally, 3,290 hours were spent bringing the iconic "Mario" character to life.

The large Bowser figure had different settings, which resulted in three combinations of sound effects, music, and movements.

The mosquitoes in San Diego are relentless and the bites are incredibly painful, which put a real damper on our trip experience. Apparently, there are 27 known species of mosquitoes in the county.

We didn't become aware of the insects until Friday when we found multiple itchy, bright-red welts on our skin. For the rest of SDCC, the number of bites we accrued increased exponentially — to more than 60 between the two of us — in part due to mosquitoes we kept finding (and trying to kill) in our hotel room.

We spent the biggest day of the con being physically uncomfortable. Our hands swelled from the irritation. And at night, our sleep was interrupted by the urge to itch the 20+ marks on our bodies despite sleeping in pants and long-sleeved shirts.

Spraying Off! on ourselves and Benadryl's extra strength itch-stopping cream that we bought from a nearby CVS was no match for these bites.

Olivia waited two-and-a-half hours to get into the "Abbott Elementary" experience. She overheard one of the employees tell fans that one day, the wait was four hours. No activation is worth a four-hour wait. Even two hours was pushing it.

These lined moved so slowly because groups of approximately 10 or so people were let in at a time, and immersive experiences usually lasted 20 minutes. If you didn't join the queue for your top-priority activation that morning when the experience opened, you'd probably have to wait over an hour because the lines became long quickly.

While the activations were fun, the time spent waiting took away from experiencing other aspects of the convention.

In order to attend SDCC this year, we needed to provide COVID vaccine cards or proof of a negative test in order to acquire a mandatory orange wristband to wear to enter the con.

Sounds simple enough. We figured we'd get a sturdy cloth wristband to wear like the one New York Comic Con provided to guests last fall. That wasn't the case.

SDCC provided everyone with flimsy paper wristbands that needed to be kept on for the duration of an attendee's time at the convention. With each day that passed, the wristbands got more crumpled and gross-looking. They were a huge inconvenience during showers, too, as we had to make sure we didn't tear the bracelet that was one of our tickets into the con.

One day, Kirsten witnessed a panelist who had a tough time getting back into the convention center because she wasn't wearing a bracelet. She claimed it disintegrated and came off in the shower. No surprise there.

We understand that safety measures are necessary to operate a large-scale event like this during the pandemic. But SDCC should have distributed cloth wristbands, like the ones used at NYCC or at music festivals.

There are two main options for arriving at the con. You can either cross some train tracks on Fifth Avenue, as most people do, to be directly in the center of the convention floor or you can trek a few more avenues over to a less traveled overpass bridge that will put you at the far end of the convention center.

If you're coming from farther down, you can cross way down at the opposite end of the convention center.

The limited options cause a lot of bottle-necking on Fifth Avenue throughout the convention. Often, a train passes through and you have to wait to cross, causing more of a backup at that central point. During a pandemic, it's not really an ideal situation to be squished in with a massive crowd.

Often, Kirsten opted for the longer, but maybe slightly safer option of walking out of the way down towards an overpass bridge to enter and leave the convention center.