This year’s con was.....conflicting for me. On the one hand, I had a great time like always. This convention holds a special place in my heart, as I’ve been going for nearly 20 years now. It always provide me warmth & comfort, and I never have to travel far from my home to go. However, there was a wrench thrown into my little vacation. A fairly good sized wrench, if I’m being honest. Enough to the point where it ruined things for me a little. How much you might ask? Well, sit back, relax, and look at my review for Connecticon 2026. Let’s begin.
Good Points
The Dealer’s Room & Artist Alley remains a giant fixture of Connecticon, and while I do have some negative things to say, it’s still a massive maze of commerce. Just about anything you can think of that’s associated with con merch, it’s here. The once-a-day merchants also returned, and for the first time this year, I snagged a little bit of merchandise from one of the booths. It is a shame that they don’t set up shop in the main area, because many of they definitely rivals a few of the established booths with how good their stuff is.
I will always champion the Food Trucks that setup show just outside the convention center. They’ve been an absolute blessing since I started going to them in recent years: They’re not too far away, and are relatively inexpensive when compared to some of the local restaurants. The variety is also fantastic: poutine, pizza, chicken tenders & fries, and plenty of food from other cultures. Not only that, but there are still plenty of vegan options I mentioned about last year, and pricing still continues to be reasonable (Highest priced item I saw was $21.50), so they’re right there if you need them!
Cosplay Championship Wresting’s is a focal point for me when I come to Connecticon. This year is especially important for them, as 2026 marks half a decade since they’ve been coming to Hartford. Every single wrestler that performs for us is phenomenal for a smaller federation, and they also manage to embody the character they play that’s just delightful. They were doing shows the whole weekend (Save for Thursday for obvious reasons), and at no point did it look like they were tired, or if they were they didn’t show it.
Finally, the panels hosted this year were on game as always. As usual I didn’t have time to go to a horde of them, though this year I went to a few more than I normally do. The annual chicken eating contest was hilarious, the AMVs were wonderful, Jon St John’s Sexy Late Night Party is always a must, and the Cosplay Deathmatch provides a bloody good time. This year, I happened to go to a lot of drag queen events that were hosted. Drag Queen D&D, a Cabaret show, and Drag Queen Bingo. I did not know that they’ve been at the con since 2015, and I’m kicking myself for not going for so long!
Btw, this is the only year (so far) that I have not stayed at the Mariott for the convention. As to why.....just look a little further down.
Okay Points
This seems to been a pattern for the past 2 or 3 years (which is something I’ve talked about in the past 2 years I believe), but Connecticon’s dealers room didn’t have as much of an anime & manga selection. Otaku Joe’s was there, and they were fantastic like always, and there was the one normal manga seller & 18+ seller, but it has been odd seeing less of this kind of stuff to purchase. Even the size of the dealer’s room seems to have shrunken a little bit this year, but to play devil’s advocate, the artist’s alley was folded in, and because of that the space still feels pretty big, even if it doesn’t always have what someone is looking for.
Bad Points
This is one of the few times you’ll ever see my blood boil. Connecticon has always been phenomenal in my eyes despite the rating I might give. However, 2026 marks the first time that, to a certain extent, I gotta take a pound of flesh out, so here I go.....
2026 marks the first time that I did not stay in the Marriot. As usual once the rooms were available, everybody swarmed in like Ghengis Khan’s Mongolian Horde, and swiped out all the rooms. My buddy instead got a hotel about 10 minutes away (The name escapes me as I type this), which wasn’t that far away, so I had no issue. This past Wednesday or Thursday, quite frankly at the VERY last minute, they tell my buddy that due to a busted pipe, the room wasn’t available anymore. In a flash, my buddy managed to find one that was 18 minutes away, and required some bus travel. I confessed I huffed for a moment, but still thanked him profusely. However, that all kinda changed once we got there.
My buddy found the Capital hotel, and by god we all hated it by the end! For starters, it has no-where near as many amenities when compared to the Marriot. The room is smaller, the beds & pillows aren’t as comfortable, and the bathroom was more claustrophobic. This resulted in me having the worst f!@#ing sleep I’ve ever had since my first con in 2009, as I got only a little over 2 hours from Thursday going into Friday. It didn’t help the fact that a guy accidentally opened our room with his key a few hours prior, but thankfully that situation was fixed especially fast, and from Friday into Saturday & Saturday into Sunday, I had considerably better sleep (Probably because I had some liquor on both days). Even the free breakfast, as tasty as it was, did not compare to what the Mariott had. Fortunately, the staff at the Capital were wonderful, and at the very least didn’t make me want to scream. Hopefully when the rooms open up for 2027 at the Marriot, my buddy catches a lucky break.
Final Thoughts & Rating
Connecticon 2026 is one of the rare times I’ve been going for nearly 20 years where I didn’t have a completely great time. Make no mistake: while I was at the convention itself, I was having a great time! It was a blast to see everyone, it was a blast to participate as many events as I did, and it was a blast to escape the horrors of the world. However, what impacted this so much was the damn hotel. My time there was horrible for the most part, and if anyone sees this, then I beg you don’t go to the Capital hotel. Again, there’s good workers there, but even good workers can’t exactly save a busted ship. Still, more often than not, I was smiling the whole time, so I can’t complain too much.
Connecticon 2026 gets a 7.5 out of 10 because of the hotel. Taking the hotel out of the equation? Give it an 8.5 out of 10.
And that was my review for Connecticon 2026. More conflicted that most of the other times I came to Hartford, I still enjoyed the positive energy once I got to the convention center. I can only hope that 2027 & beyond will be fantastic. So with that done, I got 1 last look at Nirvana at the end of the month. See you all on the 31st!
***
If you’d like to see what I thought of last year’s con, click on the link below:
Convention Review: Connecticon 2025
No comments:
Post a Comment