UK Ponycon 2018 is, like, 75 days away · 11:26am Jul 28th, 2018
and I'm ready! Preparation, that's a thing.
I went to UK Ponycon last year and, despite being sick as a sick rabbit and dealing with some anxiety/depression issues, I really enjoyed it. Maybe this year will be even better. At any rate, it's apparently going to be the largest UK Ponycon so far.
I've made a slightly different travel arrangement this year; usually I'm a rail person, but when I saw that I'd be paying £70 for a journey that takes 3 hours, I was like "uh, no". So I looked at Megabus instead. Their coach journey takes a little longer, but the price is a far more agreeable £9, so I'm doing that instead.
I also decided to book my accomodation for 3 nights instead of 2, since I found that I'd otherwise have to leave early on the Sunday and that would suck. So, I'll be spending an extra day in Nottingham, which I don't mind because I don't think I've been there before. It actually costs basically the same to rent a Travelodge room for 3 nights as it does for 2, because economics is stupid.
Totalling up the cost of con ticket, travel, and accomodation, I've so far paid £216, which is a slight increase on last year (£197) even factoring in the money saved on not travelling by rail. The accomodation takes up the biggest chunk of that. But still, I think this is a reasonable price for a weekend con. Also I'm planning to spend less on merch this time. We'll see how that goes.
No schedule has been published for the con yet, so I don't know what panels or events to expect (aside from Elkia Deerling's, since he dropped a spoiler :) ), but I suspect it won't be all that different from last year. If they're running card gaming again, I'm planning to try to get involved in that if I can manage it.
