Save this one to your bookmarks folks, because it’ll help you get into the most coveted panels in Hall H for San Diego Comic-Con 2019.

I had a lot of items on my to-do list for San Diego Comic-Con, but none so important as getting into Hall H for the WB Theatrical Panel (AKA The Panel of My Dreams).

However, in the process of doing my research and reading every single “guide to SDCC” article I could get my hands on, I began to see a frightening pattern emerge: It is apparently really, really difficult — not to mention incredibly tiring — to get into Hall H.

Still, I was undeterred, and after some more reading, lots of organization, a healthy amount of pushing myself out of my comfort zone and a fair amount of waiting in line, I found myself seated in Hall H on Saturday morning, surrounded by former strangers who had become friends and waiting for the WB/DC panel to begin.

So, rather than you having to read through endless amounts of articles, here’s an easy to follow guide for how I got into Hall H without waiting in line for the entire duration of San Diego Comic-Con.

Prior to the con

As soon as the schedule is released (two weeks before the start of the convention), you’ll need to do a few things:

Have all that? Ok, so here’s what I did.

My research told me that the best and easiest way to get into Hall H is by making full use of the line buddy system. The official CCI (Comic-Con International) rules state that one person can hold a spot in the Hall H line for five other people, which means there’s no need for anyone to spend their entire day (and night, if that’s how you wanna roll) standing in line.

Instead, I opted to work smarter, not harder. I decided to set up a line buddies group and arranged it so that everyone took shifts — meaning that everyone had a chance to experience comic-con, but when the time came, my whole group and I would get to witness all the Hall H goodness.

So, if you’re heading to comic-con as a group, set up a shift schedule and rotate out every few hours in whatever way is fair to you and your friends.

However, I was heading to San Diego Comic-Con solo; luckily, social media has made it really easy to set up a group.

The first thing I did was to make a general call out on Twitter for a line buddies group. I made sure to specifically say when it was I wanted get into Hall H and likewise made sure to both “at mention” the HallHLine Twitter and tag my tweet with #HallH #HallHLine and #linebuddies so that the right people would see it, like so:

You’ll notice that I didn’t tag it with #linebuddies, but the HallH Twitter was kind enough to retweet me and tag it for me. A tip is to tag specifically what you’re hoping to see in Hall H, that way the people that you end up spending time with in line are also in it for the same reasons that you are.

(Tip: If organization isn’t your strong suit, you can also search through the #hallHline and #linebuddies tag on Twitter and respond to anyone asking for line buddies and let someone else handle the logistics.)

From there, it was just about responding to the replies, dm’ing people who seemed genuinely excited, and finally bringing all my years of administrative experience to bear. I asked everyone for their availability and willingness to put in shifts and tried to get enough people so that no one would need to pull more than a three hour shift. Once I had all that, I dumped everyone in a group DM on Twitter and set up an Excel spreadsheet that highlighted people’s shifts.

At the con

Once I had everyone’s shift schedule worked out, my time at the con was mostly about enjoying the convention but making sure the shift schedule went as well as planned. Again, one person can hold a spot in line for five people, which means two can hold for 10, three for 15 and so on.

In terms of waiting in line, what we found was that it’s best to make friends with the groups around you. That way, you can let them know about how many people they can expect to show up for wristband distribution. It’s also best to leave more than one person in line if your group is big, but again — making friends with the people around us was the best thing.

The way the Hall H line works is that CCI will hand out wristbands to get into the first panel the night before. For the Saturday Hall H panel, wristband distribution was set to begin at 9:15 on Friday night. There are four groups — A, B, C, and D — with 1500 wristbands per group. Volunteers started asking everyone to take down their assorted furniture about an hour and a half before wristband distribution and made everyone start condensing, so a tip for you is to make sure your entire group returns around this time.

Once you get a wristband, you could leave, go home and sleep in your expensive hotel room and make sure that you’re back by 7:30. If you choose this route, you’re guaranteed a place in Hall H but you lose your spot in line. If all you care about is getting into the hall, then once you get your wristband, you’re golden.

However, if you decide that you want a relatively good seat, then some kind member(s) of your party will need to sleep out and hold your place in line. You’ll all need to rejoin these lovely sleepers by about 6:30 a.m., which is when they start condensing the lines.

From there, it’s just a waiting game — and, honestly, this wait ended up being a lot of fun. At this point, my group and I had been taking turns in line for nearly two days and had been communicating regularly even before then. We sat and chatted, played Heads Up! (superheroes edition, of course) and just relaxed with one another. We no longer had to be stressed about whether or not we were getting into Hall H, so we could just enjoy one another’s company — talking about what we were excited to see, but also just talking as the friends we now were.

At about 9:30 they started loading us into Hall H. At this point, you can decide whether or not you want to split off from your group and just lone wolf it to get the best seat possible. But, since I had just spent two days with my new friends, I wanted to enjoy what we’d all been waiting for together with them as well. We ended up taking almost an entire row just to ourselves and I had SUCH A BLAST in that panel (as my liveblog will attest to).

Frequently asked questions

Is the line buddies system allowed?

Yes, the CCI official rules clearly state the 1:5 line buddy system and it’s been used forever as far as I can tell.

Isn’t this just a fancy way of cutting people?

I’ve seen this complaint brought up a couple of times on the Hall H Twitter and it’s certainly debatable — but at the end of the day, it’s completely within the rules of the con. If you’re annoyed about it, then get your own line buddy system together so you don’t have to wait in line all day and night.

How early do I need to get in line?

That really depends on you and the panel(s) that you’re planning on getting into. Everything that I’ve read points to the fact that these Hall H lines were rather tame compared to previous years, and we still started lining up Thursday night. If Marvel, DC, HBO/Game of Thrones and/or Star Wars are all in Hall H next year, then you’ll have to take that into consideration. I read that people started lining up on Tuesday when Star Wars was at SDCC, and last year people who lined up two days beforehand for Marvel still didn’t get a wristband. I’d say monitor the HallHLine Twitter to see when you might need to start lining up.

What if I want to get into a Hall H panel that’s later in the day?

Again, it depends on how stacked the hall is that day. One thing to remember is that they don’t clear out rooms in between the panels, so you could get a wristband for the first panel and just stay in the room until the panel you want. There’s always the chance that you could walk in — but that depends on whether or not you want to risk it.

What should I bring with me to wait in line?

An umbrella, a camping chair, cold water and something to keep you occupied. It gets hot out there next to the marina and your butt very quickly gets numb on the concrete. Someone in our group eventually bought a pop up canopy (which many groups ended up having) and it was seriously a godsend.

What should I bring with me to sleep out?

If you’re sleeping out the night before, you’ll be on hard sidewalk next to the marina, which means it’ll be noisy, hard and cold. Bring at least a sleeping bag and a camping sleeping mat to put under that sleeping bag, earplugs, a pillow and maybe one of those eyemasks to block out the light. I saw a ton of people with those inflatable air loungers, which seriously looked like a such a dream for both waiting in line and sleeping out.

If you’re lucky enough — like our group was — to spend the night before underneath the tents, then you’ll be in a place that’s warmer, softer (it’s on grass) and much quieter. All the same supplies as sleeping next to the marina apply, but I’d for sure make sure you have at least a blanket with a waterproof bottom (like a picnic blanket) since the grass can get damp.

So, that’s how I got into Hall H as a first-time, solo attendee. I had a great time in the panel, but I also ended up having a great time waiting in line for the panel, which was probably the biggest surprise of the entire con for me. I’ll update this next year as procedures change (as I’m sure they’re bound to). See you all in 2019!