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[PRIME] PAX Prime 2012 Hotel Discussion
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This is actually my first time doing any significant traveling, so I'm at a complete loss.
[X] Passes - [] Airfare - [] Hotel - [X] Waiting impatiently.
I can't help you on the hotels (I have Grand Hyatt reservations and that's all I've done these last two years) but I can say, the last option isn't going to cut it. There aren't hotels as close that are going to have rooms, and much farther away in at least one dirction and you'll hit the Bumbershoot crowd.
You may also try the hotel room thread.
I've hard nice things about the W in passing, but someone who actually stayed there may want to weigh in.
Unless i'm missing something with the roosevelt, it doesn't tell you how many beds your room will have, which is why i skipped it. "oh i can pick double occupancy, but double occupancy what?!"
steam-taliosfalcon
XBL-AdeptPenguin
Try calling OnPeak, they may be able to tell you more detail over the phone.
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You can pick a set of preferences before finalizing the reservation, one of them is bed type. I don't think it's a guarantee, but it's something.
It depends on the hotel, some don't have those options.
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I called ahead and they told me just to deal with it when I got there, they seemed to have plenty, last year we checked in on Friday morning, as we stayed with friends, (namely @cybit, who loves forum shoutouts
Everyone seemed to get ME3 cards last year, we got them at the Hyatt as well as peeps at the Sheraton. I don't know if they've done similar in the past or what (although since gaming companies have figured out it's a neat way to inexpensively advertise, I expect to see it again.)
YMMV and all that (I assume the fridge rules will stay the same.)
The one thing I will say is they don't move the minibar, so the fridge got plooped down next to/in front of the desk. It didn't seem that awkward, but there were just 2 of us in the room (although the rooms are fairly wide with a pretty big enterance to accomadate the insanely large bathrooms, so I guess we could have moved it?) This year there are 3 of us (since we have another friend joining) so it may be a bit tighter with said fridge. (But there was also a big puffy lounge chair thing that could have been moved to.)
Edit: Also I forgot the electric shades. It's the little things like that that matter. Leaving the shades up and watching the late night crowds until bed then just flipping a switch to black out the room (We're midwestern hicks, sorry these things impress us
Pros: Nice, good views, not really that far from the convention center at all, Walgreen's type store across the street for essentials and snacks, comfy beds, not too many people per floor.
Cons: Loud with poor sound insulation, super expensive hotel bar.
Give the hotel (the hotel, not Coast Hotels central) a phone call and ask for the PAX discount.
Electric shades what? I'm also from the midwest, and am now intrigued
Worth pointing out people said that their rooms were canceled in the past for not using the block. I dunno if the Roosevelt is a offender on this, but you'd hate to find out that they over booked (and either be canceled or get the dreaded "walk down."
King size bed, baby!
I had issues with Roosevelt last year and we DID book through the block. This company PAX went through just took the order and dumps it on the hotels a few days prior. Roosevelt is a 'small' place and they had some issues sorting rooms.
Eh, sounds like a hotel problem from my standpoint, Roosevelt should put rooms into the block, if they put in too many that's not OnPeak's fault.
I emailed the sheraton about the in-room safe sizes and was told "Some rooms vary between two sizes of safe's in room:
1) 8x17x15
2) 12x18x14"
I was also told a mini fridge is $30.00 extra per night! Ouch. Maybe I'll just bring a cooler... I better ask if they charge for ice
Great. Nice short walk to the Convention centre (really no issue at all) and friendly staff w/ nice rooms. Staff had no issue accommodating our need for additional blankets and 4 towels. We (multi-room group) actually book the RL out of choice.
I think they may charge for the 3rd key, although the first two should be no issue.
I've only been in a couple of the sheraton rooms there, but I can't imagine trying to fit a rollaway in there...
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It was a hotel problem, they owned up to it. The problem was the occupancy of the rooms. They only had two or three days to figure out logistics. Fit a group of 4 into a two bed or a group of 2 into a two bed. So they stuffed me and my large buddy into a single bed with a cot that took up all available space in the room. We couldn't move it was so cramped. And we booked the day registration opened, so we felt we should have gotten what we signed up for. But the hotel can't see when we booked, just that we did, we had two people and requested a two bed. I sympathize, but I also didn't spend $180 a night to be the little spoon...
Frankly this is why I write $30 off the price of the Hyatt reletive to the Sheraton when I'm making my plans. That fridge was so darned useful last year, even setting aside the pre-pax grocery trip we went on, just with left overs and cans of soda/bottles of water we kept in there. The grocery trip only added to that usefulness (fair warning, we made the grocery stop with a friend prior to even arriving at PAX, I don't know if it would have been less useful if I had to carry it several blocks
I should probably start looking into the Homewood (which I hear have a little kitchenette?) Although that may be overkill for me (plus I like being really really close.)
Those bathrooms are half the reason the Hyatt is awesome. You could practically live in there.
PAX 2013 STATUS - Badges: PURCHASED Hotel: RESERVED Vacation: Awaiting approval Plane Tickets: Waiting on vacation approval.
It's actually almost a full kitchen, with stocked dishes. Also, it's the first to sell out almost every year
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IIRC, there were still rooms available this year when I made my Hyatt reservation. But the wife was dead set on the Hyatt so I didn't look real hard so I could be wrong.
It'll be a tough sell. The trade off is we eat on the bedbut we can fall out of our window into the Paramount line (figuratively of course!). Honestly I'm not sure which is better, the space or the locality. (I really like to save my walking energy for PAX itself, and we're going to go out to eat every night anyway.)
Oh well I have some 365ish days to consider that (First I need consider PAX III at all).
The homewood close to the convention center is 100% sold out, it was the first to go. There's a second homewood on the other side of town. unless someone drops their reservation, it will be tough to get into the close homewood.
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Attendee: ♥ Prime '12, '13 ..♥ East '12
Right Sorry, I should have clarified, I'm already thinking too far ahead. Stupid post on my part. (Don't mind the idiot in the corner constantly trying to refine his traveling even 18 months down the road.) Of course as fast as the Homewood goes I probably should start soliciting opinions now for PAX 2013 so I don't even have to think about it then, thinking wastes time and time is precious!
http://www.innatqueenanne.com/
I've read some mixed reviews on it, but it seems fairly close to the WSCC.
Eh, dont plan on being in my room/hotel much for stuff other than sleeping so the cons aren't that big of a deal actually. Sounds like I didnt pick too badly then.
The 6 blocks wont be much of an issue either. My group are all able bodied people who don't mind a little walk
I see Fairmont Executive King Suits available for at the Fairmont for $219 (Plus taxes) Considering it seems you can just switch the dropdown to "Exhibitor" I really doubt this is really the case as it doesn't seem like OnPeak is protecting any "Exhibitor only" prices or rooms., sounds like a miscomunication (I don't recally being able to actually book suites through the block at the Hyatt last year, my guess is the Hotels hold them to see what the best price they can get is, and when that falls through they start offering upgrades to try and free up rooms for walkups. At least that's why the hyatt did last year.)
Registered for PAX the day they went on sale
Tried to look for a suite a couple days later, found none
Called the hotel I wanted and was informed that every single room (suites and all) were blocked out by OnPeak, so had to go through them
Called OnPeak, told they can only help me via email...
Emailed back and forth a few times (They seem to only check emails in the early morning PST, and have only gotten 1 reply per day from them)
Their words were that suites are for exhibitors only, and if I tell them I'm an exhibitor apparently they can get me a suite in the hotel I want (Sheraton), even though it doesn't show up on the website.
I ended up booking at a nearby hotel on my own, but OnPeak has been pretty frustrating to deal with. Mostly I'm also pretty annoyed that they reserve every single suite for people who are (or I guess claim to be) exhibitors. Is it like that every year?
They couldn't help you over the phone until this week because the hotel system was technically not available until this week. They do help over the phone though, many people have called them and had success. As far as reserving suites for exhibitors, if that's the case it's likely not an OnPeak policy, but a PAX/Reed Expo policy. It makes sense though because exhibitors may need more space if they're conducting business out of their hotel room. Also, that being said, every room at the Homewood is a "suite" of a kind, some larger than others, and those were all available to attendees too.
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Dunno, I find it odd that they'd do it that way frankly. I will say this, last year the Hyatt was trying to get rid of Suites it seemed given the upgrade options (we got an email to trade 2 rooms for one suite for 0 cost, apparently we deleted it so I don't know how big of one they were offering plus we didn't have any friends staying in the Hyatt) just before check in. Either that or they were so overbooked they needed to free up regular rooms (but that still meant they had suites available), I can't say it'll be the same this year. I don't recall seeing suites in the block last year at the Sheraton, but I booked late and the Sheraton was all but sold out so I didn't pay much attention to it.
OnPeak only had rooms for Friday - Sunday left so had to do some magical booking.
Ended up booking rooms through Homewood's website as well as OnPeak to make up the whole weekend.
I *think* I booked the same room types so hopefully they'll just combine my reservations and we wont' have to move...
I'm pretty sure that they have a coffee maker. Not sure on the tea pot. Continental breakfast are included as well, though there were pretty long lines for it last year. And really tasty bacon which they ruined by covering in pepper.
Proclick: http://homewoodsuites1.hilton.com/en_US/hw/hotel/SEAHMHW-Homewood-Suites-by-Hilton-Seattle-Conv-Ctr-Pike-Street-Washington/index.do