I’ve read that the Opening Ceremony fills pretty fast, so I was wondering if anyone had some advice for how early to get there/get in line/whatever in order to ensure a seat. This is the top thing I want to see at BlizzCon, so I’m looking for any tips to ensure it happens!
If you want to sit in the main hall where the presenters are, be in line to enter the convention center like an hour before the place opens up (which is an hour or 2 before the ceremony starts).
First timer attending blizzcon so got a lot of bad vibes about opening ceremony after reading many fb and some discord posts that unless you start waiting in line at 4 am you have no chance of getting a seat for opening ceremony.
Truth or exaggeration ?
Also do let us bring water containers (like a Stanley) inside?
Yeah I was advised to get there at 6:00a so I would love some clarification. Do we really need to get there that early?
6:00 AM is when security plans to open the Grand Plaza and allow attendees to start forming in that area (between the Hilton and Marriot).
Attendees that arrive before 6:00 AM will be staged in the BlizzCon Entry Overflow Area in the Sheraton Park Hotel parking lot.
Honestly, we’ve seen people arrive and start lining up VERY EARLY for BlizzCon opening day. I cannot provide you with the correct time to arrive because I cannot guarantee that any specific time will definitely get you a seat in Hall D.
But I hope this information helps inform your decision making, and prepare you for where you’ll need to go Saturday morning.
On this topic, if we don’t get there early enough to get into the main hall to watch opening ceremonies, are there other places in the convention center to go to sit and watch the live stream or are we relegated to finding a corner and watch on our phones?
Usually they broadcast the opening ceremony to all of the other stages in the other halls, finding a screen showing it shouldn’t be a problem.
Yes, you can see all the stages that will have the Opening Ceremony on the schedule: Schedule - BlizzCon 
Thank you this! Replying to this Sunday, day two, with hindsight; I just wanted to thank you for this information. It turned out to be quite accurate by 5 AM we were behind at least 100 people.
The problem that I had with the experience was not lining up. I expected that but what really bummed me out is how the security line that we stood and didn’t have any relevance to getting into the opening ceremony. After getting up extremely early and waiting in that line, we ended up getting grouped in front of the convention center with no queue, and so there are many people who ended up pushing ahead of us essentially negating the dedication we put into getting and sitting in line. Kind of a bummer that people get rewarded for not being chill.
TLDR; Our spot in the main convention hall was not related to our spot in line and it was a bummer and something I wished I knew ahead of time.
Sorry that happened to you. Some people get frenzied on gates opening.
I hope your opening ceremony was fun and your blizzcon was fun too.
I feel security and staff have tried very hard to help lines stay fair. There’s only so much they can do against people pushing past others. I hope tho you didn’t have to deal with to much aggressive behavior outside opening ceremony.