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PAX East 2011 Hotel Discussion Thread and Poll
Posts
The amount of people in the room.
Oh. So if I wanted to have four people in a room I would have to choose "Quad"? The Compass Reservation System says that all of the rooms listed (1 single, 2 double, 1 triple, and 1 quad) fit the ocupancy requirement (I chose to book for four people). Would I still have to pick "quad"? Thanks.
Yeah, mainly hotels care about 3 things:
1. Money
2. Not trashing their stuff (see 1)
3. Not annoying other guests, who won't stay there in the future (see 1)
The worst they would do is charge you the extra fees. If they kick you out, they get no money.
I was initially only able to get 3 nights booked at my chosen hotel instead of the 4 I wanted, fearing that I'd have to switch hotels on the final day or pick another hotel altogether. Vigilant checking of the booking system one morning let me catch the final day open and I was able to cancel my booking and rebook for the exact time I wanted.
So if you've had to resort to plan B, keep an eye out and things might work out for you. Also sometimes it doesn't hurt to just call the hotel and they may be able to help you out, but make sure to be nice :lol:
yes but walking across that bridge in early March could possibly suck. remember last year? at the end of March, it snowed on the first day.
After time adrift among open stars
Among tides of light and to shoals of dust
I will return to where I began
PM me if you want the info and I'll put you in contact w/ the lady there.
You would need to ride the T from the Library station or grab a cab to get to BCEC from there.
I.E Go from airport to W. Waterfront. Drop off luggage. Then go to PAX Dinner (most likely). Sleep at W. Copley for the night, line up early for start of PAX then later in the day actually check in at the W. Waterfront.
I am a monster truck that walks like a man.
Anyone know if there's any cheaper lots around there? It's around $32 for self parking at the Westin. I can easily walk to the hotel if there's a lot that's not too far.
To be honest, most areas in boston are pretty expensive to park. I'm sure you could park somewhere cheaper, in the 10-20 dollar a night range, and take the T to the hotels. But you won't find a free garage anywhere.
It's going to be cold as balls in march. This really isn't recommended. Also you may get jacked/pranked by people if you park in the wrong area (even the safe areas will probably have shithead college kids). Look up youth hostels if you're really out of coin. For parking, just look at the MBTA maps and find the furthest stop out and park around there (as usually it's cheap), then ride in. After dropping off your stuff, anyway. I will say there are a ton of parking lots in the marina area, but the proximity to logan means you'll pay $15 a night (at least).
yeah, honestly, i'm surprised so many people are planning to drive in at all. parking in boston sucks. driving in boston sucks. if at all feasible, I STRONGLY recommend taking plane/train/bus here, then using the mbta and maybe an occasional cab. it might seem expensive, but it's worth it to avoid high parking costs and extreme frustration at driving in boston.
Agreed. I live 35 minutes north of Boston and even I'M staying in Boston. The MBTA's commuter rail schedule sucks for the weekends and it would be much easier to get to things if I was just in the city itself.
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We're coming from Detroit, where the train trip is just way too long for us all to take off of work. (Crunching the numbers, even with the parking fees, it's still cheaper as well.) Our current plan is to leave here around midnight-1am Wednesday night/Thursday morning, cut through Canada, and just drive like hell to the hotel. Is it really going to be that bad if we're not planning on driving around the city proper, just parking at the hotel and dealing with it?
You'll be fine just going to the hotel, as it's a pretty easy exit to do. The frustration comes from navigating Boston proper, as 75% of the city is a constant confusing clusterfuck if you don't know your way around. Oh, and everyone's super-aggressive driving-wise.
I live in Allston, and getting to the Con Center in the past has taken me up to 90min. Heading there in the morning, the T will be packed and I may have to wait for the next train (add 10-15min). Doing it three days in a row will already be a hassle. Coming back at 1-2am will require a cab ($20-25). I don't have a car.
Screw it, booked a room. I'm going to Pax to enjoy myself, not turn it into a weekend hassle.
PAX East '12 Team Totodile Gold - Professor
Hostels.
More specifically Hosteling International in Boston @ http://www.bostonhostel.org/ Prices range from $27.99-$44.99 per night per person for Dorm rooms. If you want a private room you are looking to run between $79.99-$129.99 per night. Shared bathrooms This place is close to the where the convention center was last year.
The other place I found was 40 Berkeley @ http://www.40berkeley.com/ This is more like student housing and it is cheaper. Rented a private room with 2 beds for only 75 bucks for a night. It is also about a mile and a half closer then the other one. Again it is shared bathrooms, but if you have a large group that can change depending on how much you want to pay.
These are just 2 options I found there are other. If you need a place to bunk down and don't care about the luxuries that hotels offer check these places out. They do have a 1 up on hotels though. They offer free wireless, and decent breakfasts for each day you stay there. They do lack shuttle services to PAX and room cleaning and what not as well so probably will need to learn about this "T" I keep hearing about.
If I find more deals Ill keep posting.
I am a monster truck that walks like a man.
I stayed at the Back Bay Hotel last year, and I'm really bummed that it's so far away from the venue there. I can't say enough good things about them, their accommodations, and their delicious house bar menu. I'm at the Renaissance this year, since I missed the announcement and as such, a chance at the Westin.
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If this were the 3rd International Conference on Fixed Combination in the Treatment of Hypertension, Dyslipidemia and Diabetes Mellitus, I would agree with you. But it's not - this is PAX. Despite the conference space shutting down each night, the games will go on (and on... and on....). If I were attending some boring work conference, yeah I'd want to get out as soon as possible, go explore the city, eat at great restaurants... But again, this is PAX - we never want to leave. We eat crappy overpriced burgers because they're served on-site.
So yeah - I want to stay where all my new potential friends will be. The way I see it, staying in Back Bay I would have to take a cab every day to get to the convention (and back). Staying at the convention, I only have to cab it if I decide to leave (and right now the only thing tempting me to leave the BCEC vicinity is the Extreme Beer Fest at the Cyclorama).
As a reminder the T stops running at midnight and PAX closes at 2:00am on Friday and Saturday
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I'm not coming to PAX to visit Boston, I'm going to Boston to be at PAX. I certainly don't want to go to a movie, go shopping, take a trolley ride, or rent a car. Are you sure that Sony or anyone is going to be holding demos away from the main convention center? I'm not saying it won't happen, but if they have something they want me to see, they'll have it in the exhibition hall at the BCEC.
I'm not trying to attack you, or even your reasons for staying in Back Bay - I'm just trying to point out that we aren't fools for staying at the Westin. I think we know what we're doing.
edit: I certainly wouldn't want to attempt walking anywhere after the Night of the Barrels at Extreme Beer Fest. Even little samplers add up when some of the beers are north of 15% alcohol.
Looks like MJ O'Connor's is relatively inexpensive (Boston prices, here).
http://www.mjoconnors.com/mjwaterfront/pdfs/MJWestFood6-18-10PRESS.pdf
http://www.mjoconnors.com/mjwaterfront/pdfs/MjWestinLate6.21.10.pdf
It's definitely about what one plans on doing while they go to PAX. I myself could not get enough of PAX, however my girlfriend appreciated the nice area and took a break or two during 2010.
Last year I learned that it was a bad idea for me to plan for both PAX and sight seeing. Experience now dictates that any actual free time one would have would be in the starting hours of the day, as not much is going on*. However there where many Extra Pax activities held by various companies, most of which had only a few days notice (not forgetting concerts like Freezepop), that there might be some intensives for leaving the Boston Convention Center area from time to time.
I went halfway myself. Coming over with a girlfriend does not like PAX as much as I do, it was cool to find a place that was in the middle of many interesting places to visit all the while close enough to the event. My hope is that the hybrid mix will pay off.
* Given that you did not trash yourself on the night before and expect to get up "early" by convention standards, that you did not plan on attending any events that require you waiting for two hours or that you can handle missing out on the starting hour of PAX. So yhea...
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Completely full that fast?
I think they were filled within the first week of availability =P
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"Double - 1 bed" means double occupancy (2 people) with one bed.