Orlando #MegaCon2016 Recap: Day 1, Friday

MegaCon! Wow! What an amazing experience it was! I was incredibly excited to go cover this con for Once Upon a Twilight, but being there was just something else entirely! It was HUGE and filled with amazing art displays, cosplayers, exhibits, and celebrities I most likely would’ve never ever seen otherwise (so you know the fangirl side of me was squeeing non-stop!). I am so grateful to have been given the chance to cover this con, and here I share my experience with you all...

 MegaCon actually started on Thursday May 26^th, but being from Miami (a 4 hour drive away from Orlando, where it was taking place) and having to work that day until 3 pm, made it impossible for us (Tairina, the photographer, and I) to get there on time to see the con. So, our first day was really Friday, which was also the first day of geeky mayhem and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Me dressed in my TARDIS gear (from head to tow) going up to our first panel

I had printed out the schedule for the weekend ahead of time and both Tairina and I had highlighted all the panels we wanted to see (and cover for you guys), so we had our whole day planned. Our very first panel was of James and Oliver Phelps, aka as Fred and George Weasley from the Harry Potter movie franchise. As hard core Potterheads, we were incredibly excited about this being our first panel, and boy we were NOT disappointed!!!

They were so awesome, sweet, humble, and funny.

They told us stories of all the pranks they pulled on set (and off), of their future projects, and how much they love doing cons.

 After the Phelp Twins, we had Tom Payne’s panel. If you don’t know who that is, he plays “Jesus” in The Walking Dead series. Both Tairina and myself are very into that series (we watch it loyally every Sunday when it is on) and so, being able to see at least one of the cast members in person, was super for us. Unfortunately we missed part of his panel due to it clashing with the end of the Phelp twins’ one, so we had to sit very far and didn’t get to catch much of what he said. I do remember him saying, though, that everyone on set is very nice and that it’s like a big family he was welcomed into.

Here are some of the pics from his panel:

After Tom’s panel, we had a quick lunch and then it was over to attend the panel of the legendary Christopher Lloyd!

He was in the biggest auditorium they had for panels at the con and it was filled to the brim. Mr. Lloyd is very loved and he was very lovely –and, of course, funny! It was an honor to have been in the same room as him, even if from afar, because he is a living legend! He has done so many iconic characters throughout his career: Uncle Fester in the “Addams Family” movies, Judge Doom in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, and, of course his most iconic character of all: “Doc” in the classic “Back to the Future” series.

He truly was a lot of fun and even did a short video requested by a fan saying one of his lines from Back to the Future!

Our day filled with panels concluded with one of the most epic ones of them all (just because we are HUGE Whovians): Billie Piper’s! We were so incredibly excited to be in this panel (and this time we got there way ahead of time and got 2^nd row seats!) because we love Billie. I personally have only seen her as Rose Tyler, but Tairina has seen her in both Doctor Who and Penny Dreadful, so her smile was from ear to ear!

Billie was sweet, funny, fun, and just plain awesome!

She answered every question with class and added humor as much as she could. She would even tell the fans it was an honor for her to speak to them! Swoon!

I was able to capture on video her answer to how it was working with David Tennant:

And that concludes our first day at MegaCon 2016! There were many, many more panels going on, but we simply couldn’t cover them all. It was just impossible. We wish we could split ourselves into multiple pieces so we could have attended them all, but we hope you are happy with the ones we attended and the pics.

Day 2 (the craziest day of them all) will be up soon!