Convention Travel Preparations

It's a chill episode this week! Adobe talks about his experience with traveling to conventions. He shares some tips and hidden fees you should be aware of to help you with your next furry convention!

Thanks for tuning in! Be sure to give us a download and let us know what you think! You can follow the podcast or either of the hosts at the links below.

Twitter: https://x.com/whatareweinfur
Ryuu: https://x.com/RyuuDerg
Adobe: https://www.youtube.com/@adobetheretriever

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Okay, alright, I got water. Lime, water, water, lime. Perfect. Hello everyone. Welcome back to What I Wean for Podcast. I'm Adobe and this is our podcast where we talk about anything related to the furry fandom. My buddy Ryu and I take turns into choosing topics each episode. Sometimes it is entirely about the fandom, or as you know, sometimes it's just not enough about it. But uh anyway, speaking of Ryu, he actually is not here today. Uh I we mentioned, I believe last episode that he is out from Duedding. And I think if I my memory serves me correct, he is, what do you call it, home honey, honeymoon. He's out on his honeymoon. So uh I'm just gonna cut right to the chase, not too much small talk today. As you guys probably see, this is a shorter episode, and it is just me today. This is really weird. I don't think I like this, but we're just gonna roll with it. Um, just gonna keep it shorter though. I want to talk about an easy and uh just more digestible topic, more related to convention specifically, which I'll dive into here in a moment. No guests, just wanted to still get something out for you guys. Um, as we mentioned, appreciate all the support. And I do want to mention that especially with this topic that's coming up, just real quick shout out to the fan mail. If you guys have any suggestions moving forward with um what we're gonna dive into today, just let me know down below and we can always revisit this idea. Um, but as you guys probably see in the title, what I wanted to go over today and to share my experience, as well as probably some tips you guys might not see or hear much of, or maybe even possibly forget about, is preparation and just kind of the experience with traveling to conventions. This is solely based off what I experienced, maybe some of my tips and kind of what I suggest when you're looking to go to a convention specifically. There's a lot to there's a lot to go over with conventions um in general. I wanted to dive into specifically the travel portion, prepping, you know, through what you can expect, what you're what you might be spending. Might just be more of a rambling today, but I just want to go over some stuff, make it more digestible, and nothing too long, because if this is something that people might want to re-watch before traveling to a convention, I wanted to be sure it wasn't too long or too drawn out. Uh, there are a lot of really, really good YouTube videos anyone can watch for a convention uh prep. Sometimes those can be long or filled with too much information. So that's why I want I wanted to specifically focus on traveling to a convention and what you can expect or might want to prepare for leading forward. But speaking of that, anyway, I wanted to make a quick notice. This is not about international travel. Uh, if you did click on this to listen to things about international travel, I just personally do not have much experience with that. I don't want to provide wrongful details. I'm sure there's a lot of easy things to look up, but even if I did that, I just don't want to accidentally provide something incorrect. So, as I mentioned before, we do have the fan mail. If you guys wanted to send us a message and share your experience with international travel, I really wouldn't be opposed revisiting convention preparation and bring that up maybe in a future episode. Like I said, I just don't have much experience with international travel. I don't want to wrongfully provide something. This is more for traveling me personally in the United States. A lot of this stuff could and will translate over to other countries, just not going across the country. It's not much I can provide there. Uh, I also want to go over that I will be talking about when you're traveling with fursuits, as well as if you're just traveling by yourself. Um, anything that I talk about that does handle a fursuit, you can kind of break that down into just easier subjects when it comes to traveling solo or without the fursuit. But I'll try to go over whatever I can. Again, I'm just gonna kind of be rambling here, whatever comes off the top of my head I want to talk about, and we'll just go from there. I actually have been recently traveling quite a bit. I've had some experience with traveling, um, and I've personally have flown to two and from conventions as well as driven to and from conventions, um, and some by myself while some are with people. And I wanted to first go over maybe the more stressful um genre of travel, which might be flying. I don't personally have an issue flying, so I will likely take the airport if it is cheaper and more convenient with my scheduling. Now, some people, again, might not might not take flying into consideration just due to how the airport is, with how TSA might be, whatever that might entail. Um, it's not bad for what it is. Now, there's a lot of downsides to airport travel, but it can be stressful. But once you start, it's not bad moving forward. However, what you can't do with convention and airport travel is going to cons impulsively or on short notice. That's where a car will come into play. And we'll we'll dive into that uh in quite in a little bit later. And with my experience, you plan enough in advance. Airport tickets and flight fees do increase over time. If you plan it too short ahead of time, you're gonna be looking at spending$600 plus dollars on a round flight. Now, if you plan enough in advance, you get your vacation days off, whatever that might be. Even if you're just going for a few days, you might only be spending a few hundred, if that, on travel in general. And that's not too bad. Now, getting to the airport is something I don't hear a lot of people talk about. There's fees you need to expect, and I'm not gonna go over specific pricing fees. I will go over what my experience is with fees, but it is it drastically varies from airport to airport, to state to state, to country to country. But when you drive to the airport, you need to expect one of two things. Are you gonna be dropping off a personal vehicle at the airport lot, or are you gonna be Ubering? If you're Ubering, you definitely want to take into account what that Ubering cost might be and how far out you are from the airport, as well as whatever that Uber cost might be on the way back. If you're dropping your car off at an airport, what I experience here at the Pittsburgh International Airport is there's a few different lot fees. You can look at an$8 lot fee if you're gonna park as far out as possible, but you'll take a shuttle bus into the terminal. But there are also varying fees that increase, I think up to$20 something dollars, possibly. I could be wrong on that, but there is, I think, a lot closer to the terminal itself. And I think there's a shared garage space as well. But the closer you get to the terminal, the more you're looking to pay. More for the sake of convenience. And if you're going for a short flight, a more convenient uh spot might not be too bad, but I'm always going the cheaper option because I don't mind having to arrive an extra 20 minutes earlier just for sake of a much cheaper drop-off for my vehicle. It is significantly cheaper, uh, but for example, with Ryu's wedding, when I had traveled there, granted it wasn't for a con, but I had dropped my uh vehicle off. I did the$8 shuttle parking lot fee. It made things much smoother and much cheaper than I would have to expect to Uber to and from the uh airport once I fly back. Ubers just cost quite a bit more. And I live a good ways away from uh the airport here. So that just made more sense for my personal budget, but it all depends on what you would want to prioritize when it comes to traveling. And with these lot fees as well, you also need to consider that this is a per night fee. Even though I was paying$8 for the shuttling, you're paying$8 for the overnight parking of your vehicle. It's not just a one-time flat fee. Now, I'm not sure how other airports vary, but I know at least with my experience, this is how the airport here is, and I I do believe it is a similar system across other airports and airlines. So you just have to take that into consideration with your budget and all that. Now, in tandem with that, when you do drive uh to and from the airport, whether it's again a personal vehicle or an Uber, you have to account for the time it takes to get there because TSA at least lately has been very busy at some airports. Uh but even if that's not the case, you always want to be cautious with TSA. And speaking of TSA, even though this is much later than when this uh whole ordeal was announced, real IDs. You absolutely 100% need a real ID to pass through TSA. Again, something that you do not want to forget. You don't want to plan everything out for your travel and then forget you need a real ID. Now, if you don't have a real ID, it's not the end of the world. You can go to a website, which I believe you can check on your own personal um or uh airport website, but it's something.gov. It's a government website where you can buy and purchase a temporary real ID. I think it lasts for about 10 days, it's valid for that long. Maybe a$40 USD fee, to my knowledge. I don't know if you can just buy it anywhere, but at least here in the US, that's what you have to do if you don't have a real ID. Because sometimes in order to get that real ID, whatever uh place you need to go to retrieve that could take up to a few weeks. So if you're like me and you kind of postpone travel and you're really worried about flying or traveling and you don't have the real ID, the temporary real ID is a very real option for you. Again, an extra added fee, but something you absolutely have to take into account and make sure you have with you. Otherwise, they're gonna deny you. And they could still deny you with the temporary real ID as well that you have to provide, but it's better, it's a better chance to get through. You don't want to have everything prepared, have all the money spent for the convention, and then you realize you can't refund anything and you also can't go. So, with all that being said, that's the initial airport uh experience. Now, in order to pack and go to the airport, I'm not gonna tell you everything you have to pack. Obviously, you need the priorities and whether you're packing, you know, whether it's towels, um, you're gonna use your own body wash or shampoo, and then you have your own clothes and however however often you furry shower. I know some of y'all don't shower enough or pack enough clothes and then wear them all during the convention. Nonetheless, that is entirely up to you on how how you want to pack. But I want to uh mention specifically bag fees that you need to consider with whatever airline you're taking. On top of that, fursuit traveling. Now, for those who haven't traveled to a convention or on an airline often, you are able to take your head as a carry-on bag. Now, when it comes to your bags and what you want to look for, fursuit versus non-fursuit, any of your priorities need to be taken directly on the plane with you, as the personal item you might have with you or your checked uh or uh your carry-on bag. Now, for the carry-on bags that get put in like the overhead of your airline seat, those compartments can fit a fursuit head. I highly recommend your carry-on bags having your fursuit head because that is always going to be with you the entire time during the trip. You can't lose that. If you pack anything in a checked bag, which, as for most people know, get put inside the plane and can sometimes get swapped around, as I have personally experienced. You could risk not having certain parts of your belongings not with you because your check bag might be misplaced, or in a rare scenario, lost completely. So a first suit head is good to have as a carry-on in the overhead space. If you just have a normal suitcase with you as a carry-on, pack your put your clothes in there because at the very least, you know you're going to always have your clothes and priority items with you. Put any pills or medications you guys might have, chargers, anything that's important to you, keep that stuff in your uh carry-on bag. First heads, as I mentioned, that would maybe take priority over anything else. Because then what you can do in a personal item, personal items, anything you could have under your under your airline seat or in your lap. I usually bring like a gym bag. Sometimes I will put stuff like socks and underwear in there. I'll put my chargers, anything phone related in there, headphones, travel supplies, even keeping travel stuff like your body wash and shampoo, like keeping that as a personal item sometimes isn't a bad choice because again, if a check bag gets lost, that kind of sucks. But if you can pack as light as possible, that's gonna be your most ideal case. If you're traveling with a fursuit, whether it's digi or plant T grade, you're going to likely have to put the majority of that suit, maybe like except at hand paws or maybe even tail, but the majority of your bodysuit will have to go in a checked bag. Now, again, this ad fees, and it's another thing you might have to prepare when flying uh with an airline. You need to account for the fact that this fursuit will take up much more space. And if you're trying to travel as light as possible, sometimes taking vacuum-sealed bags to your fursuit is not a bad choice. I've known people who will vacuum seal a lot of their fursuit parts, uh, especially like the bodysuit itself, because it helps keep the space much more minimum, and you can add more things to that check bag or keep that space available for things you might purchase while at the con, such as dealer's den supplies or anything like that, if that's something you're interested in. You want to make sure you have room in your check bag for the travel back so that anything you purchase, you can actually travel back with, and it doesn't create any issues or anything of that sort. It is it's hectic, and it can be quite a lot to try to remember when going to a con because you're also so focused on what you're gonna do at the con, keeping up with all those friends and keeping everyone off to date with what's going on. Sometimes travel does get left behind. I rambled on long enough about airports. There's a lot and intricate things that I personally have forgotten, and I'm sure some people can relate to as well. So take that as you will. Again, if you guys have any questions, you guys can always message us at our Twitter, which is uh what is our Twitter? What do we in for a podcast at Twitter slash X S or you like to say? You guys can always mess message us there if you have any questions because we both do have experience with traveling, especially to conventions. You guys can message us there, or like I said, just send us a message in your fan mail too, and then we can always respond to that in a future episode. So that wouldn't be an issue whatsoever. But I mean, overall with airport travel, it can add up when it comes to luggage, when it comes to Ubering slash parking a personal vehicle. If you best case scenario is you bring a personal item and the overhead bag, and then you have someone drive you to and from the airport. That is gonna be your cheapest scenario, which is very easy to make happen if you live close enough, but it just depends on your situation. And as I mentioned before, I'm not sure how international travel looks when it comes to uh flying uh airlines or even using a car. So take that as you will. If anyone has any suggestions, let us know. I have water here that has lime and ice in it. It is really quiet as well. I don't like this. Adobe, please edit this in a way that isn't awkward. This is so weird. So the other way to travel that's most commonly known uh to go to conventions is by car. Um, I feel like the car also has a lot of hidden fees and things you might not account for, at least initially. They might come up on you last minute or last second, uh something that has come out of your wallet. So I wanted to mention some of that stuff here, as well as just again, my experience with car traveling. Airline traveling is fine. I don't hate it, but because I travel with the fursuit, if I can take a car and it's an close enough drive, that is usually my personal go-to. Because I mentioned things like you know, your bags and stuff and whatnot getting lost. Um and there's just a lot of risk, and you just don't have the room and you have too much pressure to pack minimal. Cars, however, is an ideal way to go if you're not traveling super, super far. I'll travel maybe up to eight hours to convention in a car. If obviously anyone or myself has a good car, you're kind of shit out of luck if you don't have one. So I guess this section would be obsolete. But with car travel, there's a lot of things you have to take into account before you look at the benefits of car travel. So, with car travel, number one is gas. Whatever the gas prices are, like the time of the recording, are astronomical right now. So car travel might not be as ideal. The gas is gonna be very expensive, and you absolutely have to account for that depending on how far your trip is. If you're driving two, three, four hours, you're fine on gas. But if you're traveling seven, eight, nine plus, your gas fee is gonna be quite a bit more. Another fee you have to account for depends at the hotel or area, I guess I should say, that you're staying at. If you're staying at a hotel, unfortunately it's not uncommon for those hotels to have um, I believe what they might call like a lot fee. Meaning, at least with my experience that I had MFF one year, is you get thrown a vehicle fee to keep your car parked at the hotel that you're paying for. You know, because they're that just makes the most sense. They don't have a designated space designated space for free for residents. So, you know, you gotta pay 40 bucks a fucking night to do to bring your car. Um, while you're already paying them for a room and everything fucking else. But you know, that was a bad experience, not knowing that there was a parking fee for the hotel I was at. But check with your hotel or wherever you might be looking at going to see what the fee might be, like the overnight car fee might be. Because if you're planning to stay there, your car is gonna be stuck there for a little while. However, what can help alleviate those costs, and what I prefer to do, is at least traveling with one friend. Now, depending on the size of vehicle, that tells the limitations, especially if you both are fursuiters and are carrying multiple um bins and whatnot. But if you travel with a friend, you guys can also agree. And what I like to do is split the costs. Um, if you're able to split the time behind the wheel, split the cost of gas, split the cost of the parking fee. It makes this whole experience much more smoother. Granted, your travel time might be longer, but it just depends on what you're looking at and what you're most comfortable with, as well as if your convention that's coming up is super, super impulsive, or someone invites you last minute, but you have the availability to go, car is gonna be pretty much your only option, or getting picked up at least. So sharing these fees makes it easier on literally everyone. You're going for much cheaper, as well as allowing a friend to be able to come with you. It just makes the whole experience easier, less dull, especially if it's someone you enjoyed being around. Shout out to my buddy Furball, who I drove to MFF with. That was a very fun drive, and it uh we balanced things out and it was really, really nice. Of course, make sure your car is in good shape because the last thing you want to have is have a flat tire and not have a spare with you. I haven't had that happen before, not during a con travel, because I haven't gone a bunch in car, but it's nice. It's it's it's it's nice to have a good car to go with you, something that's good on mileage. Um, but I guess it's really whatever's the most ideal. You can maybe make up by having, you know, if you have a truck with you, at least split the space and then split the cost, that makes things a lot better for you. I personally like the car because there's a lot more freedom with your time and what you choose to do on how you get there. You can stop whenever you need to. And my big thing with going cons is your car is an extra storage space. I mentioned with flying on an airway, leaving room in a checked bag or some bag if you want to purchase things at a dealer's den or just anything extra in general. Make sure you have room for that. If you have a car, your car is a space for spare room. If you're buying anything, you need to set things in there, or sometimes what I like to do at conventions is parking a car next to the convention or near the convention at one of those lots, if obviously money is isn't too much of a problem then, or wherever that scene or wherever that area might be, depending on how parking looks. But if you have a car parked at a convention center, and that's what I like to do here at AnthroCon, even though it's my local con, that is just an immediate go-to. That is your safe space. If you don't have a hotel, it's connected to the convention. Some people have to uh have an Airbnb or have a hotel that's really not that close to a convention space. So having considering um having a car right next to the convention space is a space you can go to. You can keep a little bit of alcohol back there if you're having a little convention, but you didn't hear that from me. But you know, drop things off, having maybe spare water, spare cooler back there, some snacks, um, a place to set your fursuit, especially place set your fursuit as a uh space to let it rest so you don't have to carry it around the whole time or wear it the entire time. Again, but that's saying if you don't have a hotel directly connected to the con space. Again, it entirely depends on how far you are from things, what you have currently available, and how much time you have to prep for the convention. But I did just want to mention some of those, especially those hidden fees that you're not gonna think of if you're me. Uh, I could be explaining this whole thing from my point of view and some of my suggestions and realize that none of it matters because you guys are all are probably pretty smart and aren't a golden retriever. I hope. If you're a golden retriever, I am so sorry, but welcome to the family. It is great, great, great time. Except you just forget things a lot and you like to think about frisbees, but you know, whatever. What do I know? So traveling really can vary on what's the best and most comfortable for you. There isn't any right answer, and there's nothing that I can say that is an easy set fee. I I can't say set up set aside$400,$800. It just genuinely depends on when you plan the trip, uh, and you know, how far out it is, whether it's the car or airline. Uh depends on how much you're traveling with, who you're splitting the cost with. It all just depends. I would argue, no matter what, airlines are just going to be more expensive. There's convenience of the shorter flight, but what you need to take into consideration that adds to the travel time is driving to the airport, the TSA time, and how long the waits might be if you have a connecting flight. That's also another big one. Connecting flight, by the way, and again, for those who don't know, it leads to a higher risk of your luggage getting lost or at least temporarily lost. Because with the gentlemen or whomever work uh with the luggage with the airplanes, they have to transfer it from one airplane to another. And I've personally, granted, not during a con, but I've had my bag misplaced when I went down to Florida one time and I didn't get it for over 24 hours. Granted, they had it and they did bring it to me, but I didn't have my own personal set of clothes for 24 hours, and that really fucking sucked in Florida because it's humid, and I don't like humidity. Anyway, airline can be more convenient. But when you have connecting flights, TSA time, uh, and there's sometimes just a lot of unknowns and a lot of very valid anxieties when it's your first time. Car travel can be more ideal and a better impulse decision as well, and cheaper. But again, you have to be able to have a car that's suitable and more ideally a friend to come with you that's willing to go and help uh split the cost with you. But then you also have to take in account of gas and parking fees depending on where you go. There's just a lot of ifs, maybes, and but again, if you guys have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us, though. I have no problem answering anything you guys might have, and I'm more than happy to follow up this kind of topic. Or maybe just convention preparation as a separate topic as a whole. But I just wanted to nail down the travel itself, make it a more easy and digestible episode. So I again I do apologize, guys, for these short episodes of this week, but my main goal here as well as we use is just for us to do our best to provide what we can for you, and I do also just want to mention that we are gonna have to fold this up in our banners, thumbnails, features. Guys, thank you so much for the support. If you guys watch it, please do let us know. I don't know what else to shout out here, and I also know that usually it's my winning man who's shouting out the episode to talk about.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

I hope this was okay. I'm so sorry if this ends up just kind of being a ramble session. I will do the best I can. Future Dobie, please edit this in a way that actually makes sense. I would appreciate that. I love all you guys so much. Thank you guys so so much for everything.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

And thank you guys for understanding the shorter episode this week. I hope that's okay. Um honestly down the road, honestly not opposed to shorter episodes when needed. Or maybe it's episodes. I don't know. Who knows? Maybe, possibly, I don't know. Do you know? Let us know. Nonetheless, guys, thank you guys again so much for watching. Nope, not watching, you're listening. That's what you're doing. Uh Ryu is a dumb dirk, and I'm a dumb dog, and we will see you guys in the next episode. Thank you guys again. Bye bye.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Oh god, okay. Oh god.