This is the second year Paramount+’s The Lodge has been at San Diego Comic-Con, and it’s made a few changes for 2024.
One big change was evident about two weeks ago. Three hours after people signed up for the initial wave of tickets to the lodge, an email was sent out giving disabled people a means of contacting Paramount for accommodation at the Lodge. Not only is this refreshing to see, as it’s often exhausting and intimidating to speak up when one needs accommodations at an event, but it’s also a first. I have gotten tickets to and attended so many SDCC activations in the past, and many times when one gets to the venue the staff doesn’t even know if it’s accessible and someone has to ask.
There’s also more room to get around than in past years. The Spongebob room, where you catch jellyfish to win either a bottle of bubbles or glasses, is the only room where someone using a mobility device might have some trouble getting out.
Different areas also involve different senses, which of course makes sense—but it also means there’s less reliance on sight to enjoy the activation. Ghosts is all about scents, where you smell different perfumes based on the characters and then wind up with a small, TSA-friendly-sized perfume sample. The Tulsa King corner slot machines provide tactile feedback and sound as you try to win some quarters.
There’s even a small Criminal Minds area where you’re meant to solve a case, but since there’s not a lot of guidance and no prizes it’s mostly abandoned—meaning if someone in your party is overwhelmed by the crowding and sounds, you’ve got a place in the back (where the tattoo setup was last year) where you can retreat.
Paramount+’s The Lodge sets a new, easy minimum threshold for future activations and I hope we see others follow suit. However, another big change that doesn’t work as well is the shift in how the activities are arranged.
The biggest draw, as to be expected, is the portion where you can customize a Star Trek shirt. You get a grey t-shirt, three bubbles to fill in with various Star Trek symbols or ships (or Moopsy) that can go vertical or horizontal, and then on the back you can pick from several catchphrases. It’s fun. It’s neat! But the process of making the shirt itself is slow and prone to easy mistakes, so the front area gets very crowded very fast. The line also gets capped very quickly.
The second tangle is the pizza. The pizza itself is fine. It’s not as good as the burgers last year, but you can’t beat the price. The problem is that it’s also near the entrance, so there’s not much room for a line. Paramount extends it back toward the bar, but caps it as well, so you’ll have to watch for openings if you want your slice.
As far as drinks go, I can attest to the general being good and the lemonade being very lemony. I tried the spicy mango lemonade first and basically got a sour jalapeño flavor and no mango notes. When later I had a blueberry lemonade, it was all lemon with no hints of blueberry. They may shift the ratio as the week goes on, but on Wednesday night the fruit lemonade was a lot closer to lightly sweetened, slightly weakened lemon juice.
One last thing to note is that many people expected the perfume they got to be Ghosts-character-themed. Instead, you’ll get a vial that’s meant to evoke a certain mood, like ‘tranquility’ or ‘invigorate.’ They’re still interesting and smell good, but I know it’s not what many thought they’d be getting.
Even with the drink weaknesses and the crowded front area, Paramount+’s The Lodge is a great spot to grab a drink and a slice and enjoy participating in the various activities.
Stay tuned for more SDCC ’24 coverage from The Beat.
