We Nerded Out at a Vampire Diaries Convention!

The Good

Obviously the best part of going to a Vampire Diaries Convention was getting to meet our favorite actors!! Initial observations from our VIP Experience meet & greets: Ian Somerhalder is a total flirt, very charming and just as dreamy as you would imagine him to be in person. Paul Wesley is FUNNY. Like, SUPER FUNNY. Think, humanity off Stefan without all the blood and decapitations! Joseph Morgan – sigh! I love him. He could read the phone book and I’d listen. What a great presence and voice. He is also very easy to tease and I loved making him blush. Charles Michael Davis cannot take a bad photo like, AT. ALL. What a gorgeous man. And he, too is charming although he had zero clue that Brigham Young was a real person. Like, there is a literal university named after him but whatever. It was a weird conversation! David Alpay and Chris Brochu were late additions to the experience. Chris was nice enough although he wasn’t THE draw so it was like what do we talk to this guy about? Same goes for Micah Parker (who IS very nice). David Alpay was surprisingly cool and we really wish we had money left over to participate in his acting workshop. We found him fascinating and personable!  We met Michael Malarkey at the photo op and then at the autograph table… I was not expecting him to be as small as he was. I just imagined the guy who played just a big character like Enzo to be bigger than life in person. He wasn’t. He was also pretty quiet and reserved until he was up on stage with his guitar. It was obvious that behind a mic and his guitar is where he’s most comfortable. Matthew Davis was a talker, awkward joke teller and pacer while on stage for his Q&A. The weird hat that he was wearing was confusing. Part of me felt like he did it on purpose. He happily obliged when we asked him to do the “Utah Ute” salute for our photo. The University of Utah is his alma mater and that is where my daughter was headed after high school grad.

The Bad

At the VIP Meet & Greet (more about that below) a couple of the attendees actually argued over who was going to have to sit next to Chase Coleman when he came in. And they did this while he was coming into the room. It was super awkward and cringy.

Photo Ops… Some people will buy multiple photo ops. They will openly critique the pictures by sitting on the floor and spreading them out all around them and ragging about how gross they look. These are the same people who do wardrobe changes between photo ops so they don’t have the same outfit on twice in any given picture.

The Ugly

You don’t have to spend top drawer to get close to the celebrities but you’ll have to understand that there are some that do and that gets them certain privileges. It was obvious to us newbies – and most likely “one timers” – that there are people who go to EVERY. SINGLE. CONVENTION. In multiple cities. Every year. There is an aura of entitlement that is obnoxious at times. And it can be witnessed on the looks on these celebrities faces when there is an obvious encounter with a person who has shown up…AGAIN. They are often known by name. This is par for the course at a fan event and it doesn’t matter what kind of fan of event. We’ve met a few celebrities over the years and it’s the same for every one. The die hards show up every time. And there will be weird people around any time you are around celebrities. The best way to deal is to just roll with it. Observe and talk about them all after it is all over! 😀

How to Attend

Most Vampire Diaries related conventions are organized by Creation Entertainment. Tickets and information are found on their website here. They have general admission tickets that get you into the regular Q & A sessions. If you want autographs and/or photos with celebrities, be ready to pony up the big bucks. It’s not too terrible if you are only wanting a couple people but if you’re wanting to see all or most in attendance, then you’ll want to get out the calculators and add up the ala carte pricing to compare it to the package pricing. When we were planning to go, it was better for us to go for the package deal and since we knew this was a one and done event for us, we were going to make the most of it and do the GOLD WEEKEND PACKAGE that included in person autographs (not pre-autographed) for nearly all the big named celebrities. This package also included better seating at the Q&A sessions and access to exclusive sessions that were not open to General Admission. The Gold Package also gave first crack at the souvenir stand.

Is the extra cost for guaranteed front row worth it? 

No. We sat in the 2nd row center (as part of our Gold Package) literally mere inches behind the people who spent $500 more. That’s like the cost of TWO group photo op sessions. Save your money. Everything else those “front row people” get to do you get to do, too and you spend a lot less.

Photo Ops are Always Extra

While sometimes the packages will include autographs, the photo ops will always cost you no matter what package you buy so make sure you read all the fine print before you buy.

The Special Treatment

If you’re willing to endure the pressure of an auction, you can bid against other fans for VIP Experiences and Meet & Greets. When we went, it was limited to only 10 people. You met the celebrities individually (but as a group) – in our case it was Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, Joseph Morgan, Charles Michael Davis, David Alpay, Chris Brochu, Michah Parker and Chase Coleman. We sat around a table and talked. We could ask questions, talk about whatever really but THAT WAS IT. There were no selfies – not even a group photo was allowed. So, was the price we paid worth it? Not really. It was cool to sit down with these guys and shoot the breeze but it was literally for like 10-20 minutes max. It was cool hanging out with Ian, Paul, Joseph, Charles and David. But I wouldn’t pay that kind of money, for that type of setting to do it again. Also, note: the VIP Experience is where you encounter some of the “hard core regulars” mentioned earlier. It was here that I learned that I “knocked someone out of contention” during the VIP Auction and this person was in shock someone else was going to be there instead of them. I learned this from the person I out-bid and that person was there because someone else who won the auction gave up their seat so this person could go instead. Everyone knew each other. It was often times very awkward and weird. I definitely felt like an outsider.

There WERE other perks to the VIP Experience. We got to hang out in the VIP Lounge and when it was our turn to go get the autographs, we were escorted to the front of the lines. We literally waited in NO lines. We didn’t have to sit out where the non-VIP people were. While we waited, we had access to snacks. Waiting amongst the masses is never that fun and I do admit, that getting front of the line access was pretty cool. But you DO pay for it.

Bottom Line.

Are we glad we did it? ABSOLUTELY. This was the last activity that we got to do before the pandemic. So we hold these memories dear because like everyone else, we didn’t get to do much for quite a while after that. Meeting the celebrities was definitely a highlight. It’s why we went and they didn’t disappoint. They were all kind, gracious and just what we had hoped they would be. It made any of the nonsense from the other fans seem really small and insignificant – which it was. Those people were there for the same reasons, too. Would we do it again? Probably not for Vampire Diaries, although I would reconsider if it meant getting to meet some of the ladies from the show like Kat Graham or Candice King… I would definitely attend an event for a different show like Shadow and Bone!! That would be awesome. It would be interesting to see how a different company handles a similar event so we could compare. I get these types of events are tricky to organize. You can’t please all people and there needs to be rules. The VIP Experience should be re-evaluated for its value. Group pictures should be allowed at the very least.