Blargh. Is the Sheraton full-up now? Where are other people staying? I'll probably be going solo unless I can get some of my flaky friends to commit, taking the train and coming in on Thursday night. Sounds like I might have to take a walk over to the Sheraton to join in on the festivities.
If you booked through the PAX site, the booking agency has your reservation, not the hotel, the hotel only has a block reserved for hte booking agency and won't have your name until early march. But i did call the number in my confirmation e-mail and confirmed both my rooms since hte convention rate is sold out and the few rooms left at the Sheraton were booking up fast. My sister in law had to book another room since they waited too long and as of today a basic room at $227 through my other sister in law, who's a travel agent. I wanted the piece of mind and called to confirm. I'm too excited to let a hotel reservation get in my way of an awesome weekend
I've never thrown my own hotel part before, is it out of the question for people here to request rooms near each other? So as to take over a hallway or two rather than elevator around to competing shindigs?
It's been a while but no one's replied so i will. the other reason i called to confirm my rooms was to ask if they could be linked, because we made one under my name and one under my husband's name. They said if you were booked at hte same time, they should beon the same hall. in my case i was able to request an adjoining room. It doesn't guarantee anything, but if they can't get my adjoining request they'r emore likely to try to get the rooms near each other.
Is there really only one other person staying at the Holiday Inn Boston? It's going to be lonely over there!
I think most people aren't answering the poll (and there's also a post restriction on being able to vote I believe).
dardor on
I'll take a potato chip and eat it!
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OnmitsuI'm just a birdieCa-caw, ca-caw!Registered Userregular
edited December 2009
I'll be crashing at the Marriott Copley Place with a couple friends of mine. It's probably the most expensive place, but the bunch of us splitting it make it pretty reasonable. Even if it seems more costly, BOOK CLOSE TO THE CON. IT IS WORTH IT.
A little tale for those thinking of commuting from farther...
Over the summer I went to Anime Boston with several friends of mine, twas my first large geeky con. We'd planned to go fairly late, so the best we could end up booking was a Motel 6 in a town called Braintree about an hourish outside boston by train. Initially, I didn't think this was so bad. Get up early, head in, have the whole day in the con, with time to get dinner and catch the train in the evening. Best of all, it was only about 70 bucks per person for the hotel! Great, right?
Oh, so, so wrong.
First, the commute. I'd handily forgotten that trains run on times NOT of my choosing. Neither do my friends. On the first day of the con, I woke up bright and early, showered, and shimmied into my costume, white silk mage robes, ready for an awesome day of con-ness. Turns out I was the only one ready. I pulled back the curtain, and let the glaring rays of the morning sun do all the work in waking my friends up, and as they got ready, two realized they still needed to finish sewing their costumes, so they'd have to catch up with us later. So, one other friend and I worked our way to the train station, only to wait 20 minutes for the train in the sweltering summer heat. Let me tell you something, silk is WARM. It was a miracle I didn't bust through my deoderant. We ended up getting to the con near 12, plenty of time left in the day, but nearly as early as we'd hoped. My other friends didn't make it to the con until 3. The con itself was an utter blast, but turns out that needing to catch the train back by 12 much more constraining than I'd thought, especially with friends who like to get lots of sleep. We met tons of awesome folk, doing tons of awesome things... late at night. Late night panels, dances, and absurdities, missed since I was the only person who wanted to take the last train out, the midnight one. Even worse than that, the train was rife with drunken angry redsox fans because the mets had beaten the everloving crap out of their team, looking to take out their frustrations verbally on a bunch of cosplayers.
And that was just the first day!
I won't regale you with further woes of the commuting itself, because now I get to tell you how it didn't save us money! I'd forgotten to factor in commuter and parking costs! We had to park in Boston twice, once to pick up our badges, and once on the last day of the con since we had to check out of the hotel. Boston parking is *not* cheap. Pretty much, all in all, it ended up costing about the same if we'd booked one of the cheaper places in the city in advance.
Now, don't get me wrong, I had an awesome time at the con, and I don't regret it a minute. BUT, if you are going for the whole thing, do yourself a favor and get a room a few blocks away. There's so much you can miss if you need to leave early every night, lets you be flexible with what you do if you have friends who need more sleep than you, and the money saving is pretty trivial in the end.
Can any locals suggest the best way to take the T from the Hynes to Holiday Inn Brookline and vise versa? It's not really within walking distance like the other hotels and I'm hoping to avoid spending a lot of money taking a cab back and forth.
Nicole452 on
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mentok1982I could never leave you PAX baby.BaltimoreRegistered Userregular
mentok1982I could never leave you PAX baby.BaltimoreRegistered Userregular
edited December 2009
Here's an update for my Rock Band post (#21 of this thread).
Rock Band Party in mentok's room!
I got Rock Band 2 (for the 360) with a whole lot of downloaded songs and I also have Beatles Rock Band.
My instruments are:
Wired Mic
Rock Band Fender Prceision Bass
Rock Band 2 Wireless Guitar
Rock Band 1 Drums
Songs on my system include:
Rock Band 1 songs
AC/DC Live Songs
Rock Band 2 songs
Over 200 downloaded songs
Rock Band Lego Songs
Beatles Rock Band
Some additional downloaded Beatles Rock Band songs
If you want to bring your own instruments, that's cool with me.
Can any locals suggest the best way to take the T from the Hynes to Holiday Inn Brookline and vise versa? It's not really within walking distance like the other hotels and I'm hoping to avoid spending a lot of money taking a cab back and forth.
The T, there's a stop pretty much right at the hotel.
VisionOfClarity on
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GundabadPAX East & Unplugged Tabletop ManagerNJRegistered Userregular
edited December 2009
Mentok, I'm also in the Sheraton w/ 3 other guys who aren't on the forums, but all are Rock Band fans. Very impressed but the collection of songs! I have downloaded about 100 and thought that was a lot. I'm actually getting the precision bass for Christmas so hopefully it's as cool as it looks.
Anyways, it's too far from March to say what we'll be doing those nights but it's good to know there is a fun in-hotel option.
I'm staying at the Marriott, but only because I've got super-mega-elite status with them and can get a free room. :-D
I am extremely jealous of your super-mega-elite status. I put in about 20 nights a year at Marriott but not enough to bump me past silver. My group didn't want to drive up Thursday night and pay another hotel night, but I kinda want to be there first thing Friday morning.
My meager Silver Status can get me a free night at one of the smaller Marriott chain hotels though, so I'm thinking of convincing everyone to drive 80% of the way up on Thursday night, crash an hour outside of Boston then just wake up and go Friday morning.
Gundabad on
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Moe FwackyRight Here, Right NowDrives a BuickModeratormod
edited December 2009
PAX doesn't open up until 2pm on Friday. so you could show up early friday, check into your room and still be there in time. However, if you do that, you miss out on Pre-PAX events.
I stayed at The Sheraton this past summer and the rooms were tiny and kind of blah. :? I'm staying at The Colonnade this time accross the street and sharing a rooom with a couple of friends because I heard the rooms were pretty big. Anyone else staying there?
Bunkie on
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Moe FwackyRight Here, Right NowDrives a BuickModeratormod
edited December 2009
I'm staying there. I was going to get a spot at the Sheraton because it's attached to the convention center, but it filled up before I went to make a reservation, so I reserved at the Colonnade. I hope the rooms are worth the outdoor walk to get into PAX.
Moe Fwacky on
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whypick1PAX [E] Info Booth Manager~2' from an LCDRegistered Userregular
edited December 2009
If this one deal works out, I'll be staying for free in the Hyatt (2 miles away, but still, FREE). If that falls through, I have a reservation at the Colonnade.
The Lenox Hotel (61 Exeter Street), just a few blocks from the convention center, still has rooms as of today (early Wednesday on the US East Coast). Better yet, there is a promo code from TravelZoo that allows you to get rooms for as low as $129 USD per night. The hotel is rated AAA 4 Diamond and #1 from TripAdvisor. I just booked for PAX East and nabbed one of these sweet deals for myself.
The way I'm going on it makes it sound like I work for the hotel or a travel agency. I assure you (we're open) and I don't, but I thought this was too good of a deal to not pass on to the PAX massive.
Drdedalus on
Now these points of data make a beautiful line,
And we're out of beta, we're releasing on time.
The Lenox Hotel (61 Exeter Street), just a few blocks from the convention center, still has rooms as of today (early Wednesday on the US East Coast). Better yet, there is a promo code from TravelZoo that allows you to get rooms for as low as $129 USD per night. The hotel is rated AAA 4 Diamond and #1 from TripAdvisor. I just booked for PAX East and nabbed one of these sweet deals for myself.
The way I'm going on it makes it sound like I work for the hotel or a travel agency. I assure you (we're open) and I don't, but I thought this was too good of a deal to not pass on to the PAX massive.
how did you find that?!
that is a sick sick price.
TheGreat2nd on
I'm Jacob Wilson. | facebook | thegreat2nd | [url="aim:goim?screenname=TheGreatSecond&message=Hello+from+the+Penny+Arcade+Forums!"]aim[/url]
The Lenox Hotel (61 Exeter Street), just a few blocks from the convention center, still has rooms as of today (early Wednesday on the US East Coast). Better yet, there is a promo code from TravelZoo that allows you to get rooms for as low as $129 USD per night. The hotel is rated AAA 4 Diamond and #1 from TripAdvisor. I just booked for PAX East and nabbed one of these sweet deals for myself.
The way I'm going on it makes it sound like I work for the hotel or a travel agency. I assure you (we're open) and I don't, but I thought this was too good of a deal to not pass on to the PAX massive.
how did you find that?!
that is a sick sick price.
I Googled "lenox hotel discount codes" or "lenox hotel promo codes". I've had luck before hunting for codes on various traveller's forums or websites (TravelZoo, Flyertalk, RedFlagDeals for Canadianers like me). I always see the "Promo/Discount code" box when booking hotels online and figured that someone out there must post the codes...well, maybe not all the codes, but hopefully the ones I need.
Hope this helps -- good luck!
Drdedalus on
Now these points of data make a beautiful line,
And we're out of beta, we're releasing on time.
I don't suppose there are cheap motels near the convention center?
I'm talking like... Econolodge shit. $50 per night shit. Or less.
Hotel cost is going to be the killer on whether my family and I can go at all. $200 a night at the collonade is just... It's just not going to work. Period.
200 is like the max I can spend on hotel costs for the whole weekend.
JamesKeenan on
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Moe FwackyRight Here, Right NowDrives a BuickModeratormod
edited December 2009
I doubt you're going to find anything for $50/night without having to bus or train to the convention center every day. You should try splitting a room with multiple people. If you have 4 people in a 200/night room, then that's 50/night for you and you get to be close to the convention center.
I don't suppose there are cheap motels near the convention center?
I'm talking like... Econolodge shit. $50 per night shit. Or less.
Hotel cost is going to be the killer on whether my family and I can go at all. $200 a night at the collonade is just... It's just not going to work. Period.
200 is like the max I can spend on hotel costs for the whole weekend.
Closest Econolodge is 6.5 miles away, and its still $80 a night. What you're probably gonna save in lodging might be spent in transportation.
Staxeon on
Invisible nap is the best nap of all time!
No man should have that kind of power.(Twitter)
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Goose!That's me, honeyShow me the way home, honeyRegistered Userregular
edited December 2009
My pax east map in my sig has alternative lodging suggestions, but nothing that cheap. Its a major city.
Mrtheplague9224 year old Pax'er from PABethlehem PARegistered Userregular
edited December 2009
I just reserved a room at the Hilton! I wanted the Sheraton because its attached to the convention, but the Hilton does not require a deposit for a guaranteed room. Since i have so many friends on the fence about going this will probably work out better.
Anyone have any pre/after events planned at or around the Hilton? It would be cool to meet up with some people, and do some console gaming and/or boozing during our Boston stay!
My friends and I are all in the Hilton Back Bay. We'll have a ton of board games but none of us are bringing consoles/computers afaik. Well, I'll have a laptop but that's for internet instead of heavy gaming lol. The Sheraton is actually pretty close by, so we'll have access to those parties as long as someone lets us in Here's to meeting people at PAX East!
The Lenox Hotel (61 Exeter Street), just a few blocks from the convention center, still has rooms as of today (early Wednesday on the US East Coast). Better yet, there is a promo code from TravelZoo that allows you to get rooms for as low as $129 USD per night. The hotel is rated AAA 4 Diamond and #1 from TripAdvisor. I just booked for PAX East and nabbed one of these sweet deals for myself.
The way I'm going on it makes it sound like I work for the hotel or a travel agency. I assure you (we're open) and I don't, but I thought this was too good of a deal to not pass on to the PAX massive.
Oh my god, thank you for that. Just booked for that rate.
Mr Obersmith on
Battle.net - Obersmith#1709
Live - MrObersmith
PSN - Obersmith
Just got a priceline on the Sheraton for 85$ a night for PAX. With all the taxes and stuff worked out to $302.28 for 3 nights. Only catch is I don't know if I'm going to get a king or two doubles.
If I get two doubles I'm going to have space for a roommate >.>
Better rates might be available but I was pretty happy with that bid being accepted.
I just reserved a room at the Hilton! I wanted the Sheraton because its attached to the convention, but the Hilton does not require a deposit for a guaranteed room. Since i have so many friends on the fence about going this will probably work out better.
Anyone have any pre/after events planned at or around the Hilton? It would be cool to meet up with some people, and do some console gaming and/or boozing during our Boston stay!
Since when does the Sheraton require a deposit? They took my CC number, but unless I cancel less than 24 hours before check-in they don't take any money.
Liger on
CUSTOM LANYARDS FOR PAX
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mentok1982I could never leave you PAX baby.BaltimoreRegistered Userregular
edited January 2010
Listen up folks!
I just got a really nice PM from an employee of the Colonnade that includes some really good and important information. The most important thing here is that the hotel is giving PAX attendees free wired and wireless Internet access! Hurray for that I say!
Here is the information that I am adding to the first post:
-The hotel is only 1 block from the Convention Center. (It's actually just across the street.)
In addition to the HD DVD players, we offer over 60 HD channels and have 100% HD movies.
-The information on the overnight parking is correct - however, valet parking is not available.
-The hotel does offer both wired and wireless internet in the guest rooms and it is usually $13.95 per day, that is correct. HOWEVER, we will be waiving the internet fees for all guests booked with Penny Arcade.
FYI, I tried to book a few days ago and the Sheraton was not available, so I booked the Colonnade.
Something told me to look again today and the Sheraton was available again. So I booked Sheraton.
Just wanted to let you guys know just in case anyone was having issues with finding available rooms at the Sheraton... Keep checking. Maybe they had some technical snafu or are adding rooms, or something.
capnjack on
Q: "You are in the garden. You see a rose bush. You have a fishing rod. Exits are North, South and IN."
A: "What do you want from me?!?!?"
This is my first PAX and I'm super excited about it. I've convinced my job to send me to Boston for work, so they will be picking up my costs as long as they're reasonable. To that point, I have a quick question: Is there any reason other than cost to stay close to the Center? I was looking at the Embassy Suites at the Airport since that was more in line with my per diem, and since it's only 10 miles away. Is it difficult to find parking or is it difficult to find inexpensive/free parking? Is traffic a nightmare at 9am? If you remove costs as a factor, what else is there to contend with?
thanks dardor! Driving isn't a big deal for me, in Jacksonville "close" means less than a half hour. So if I allow myself enough lead time and leave the hotel early enough that should be fine, right? Will there be enough parking at the convention center? I realize it's probably a silly question, but this is my first Con ever and I don't want to end up circling the place screaming epithets for 20 minutes looking for a place to park, I'd rather save the epithets for inside.
Posts
I think most people aren't answering the poll (and there's also a post restriction on being able to vote I believe).
A little tale for those thinking of commuting from farther...
Over the summer I went to Anime Boston with several friends of mine, twas my first large geeky con. We'd planned to go fairly late, so the best we could end up booking was a Motel 6 in a town called Braintree about an hourish outside boston by train. Initially, I didn't think this was so bad. Get up early, head in, have the whole day in the con, with time to get dinner and catch the train in the evening. Best of all, it was only about 70 bucks per person for the hotel! Great, right?
Oh, so, so wrong.
First, the commute. I'd handily forgotten that trains run on times NOT of my choosing. Neither do my friends. On the first day of the con, I woke up bright and early, showered, and shimmied into my costume, white silk mage robes, ready for an awesome day of con-ness. Turns out I was the only one ready. I pulled back the curtain, and let the glaring rays of the morning sun do all the work in waking my friends up, and as they got ready, two realized they still needed to finish sewing their costumes, so they'd have to catch up with us later. So, one other friend and I worked our way to the train station, only to wait 20 minutes for the train in the sweltering summer heat. Let me tell you something, silk is WARM. It was a miracle I didn't bust through my deoderant. We ended up getting to the con near 12, plenty of time left in the day, but nearly as early as we'd hoped. My other friends didn't make it to the con until 3. The con itself was an utter blast, but turns out that needing to catch the train back by 12 much more constraining than I'd thought, especially with friends who like to get lots of sleep. We met tons of awesome folk, doing tons of awesome things... late at night. Late night panels, dances, and absurdities, missed since I was the only person who wanted to take the last train out, the midnight one. Even worse than that, the train was rife with drunken angry redsox fans because the mets had beaten the everloving crap out of their team, looking to take out their frustrations verbally on a bunch of cosplayers.
And that was just the first day!
I won't regale you with further woes of the commuting itself, because now I get to tell you how it didn't save us money! I'd forgotten to factor in commuter and parking costs! We had to park in Boston twice, once to pick up our badges, and once on the last day of the con since we had to check out of the hotel. Boston parking is *not* cheap. Pretty much, all in all, it ended up costing about the same if we'd booked one of the cheaper places in the city in advance.
Now, don't get me wrong, I had an awesome time at the con, and I don't regret it a minute. BUT, if you are going for the whole thing, do yourself a favor and get a room a few blocks away. There's so much you can miss if you need to leave early every night, lets you be flexible with what you do if you have friends who need more sleep than you, and the money saving is pretty trivial in the end.
Let me know when you find the correct orifice and don't forget to tell me how tight it was.
Also, does she let you enter from the rear? :winky:
PS3: Mentok || Steam: mentok1982 || Diablo 3: mentok1982#1212
Links: GPUReview.com My IGN activity My IGN Blog [H]ard|Forum
Rock Band Party in mentok's room!
I got Rock Band 2 (for the 360) with a whole lot of downloaded songs and I also have Beatles Rock Band.
My instruments are:
Wired Mic
Rock Band Fender Prceision Bass
Rock Band 2 Wireless Guitar
Rock Band 1 Drums
Songs on my system include:
Rock Band 1 songs
AC/DC Live Songs
Rock Band 2 songs
Over 200 downloaded songs
Rock Band Lego Songs
Beatles Rock Band
Some additional downloaded Beatles Rock Band songs
If you want to bring your own instruments, that's cool with me.
PS3: Mentok || Steam: mentok1982 || Diablo 3: mentok1982#1212
Links: GPUReview.com My IGN activity My IGN Blog [H]ard|Forum
The T, there's a stop pretty much right at the hotel.
Anyways, it's too far from March to say what we'll be doing those nights but it's good to know there is a fun in-hotel option.
My meager Silver Status can get me a free night at one of the smaller Marriott chain hotels though, so I'm thinking of convincing everyone to drive 80% of the way up on Thursday night, crash an hour outside of Boston then just wake up and go Friday morning.
The way I'm going on it makes it sound like I work for the hotel or a travel agency. I assure you (we're open) and I don't, but I thought this was too good of a deal to not pass on to the PAX massive.
And we're out of beta, we're releasing on time.
how did you find that?!
that is a sick sick price.
I'm Jacob Wilson. | facebook | thegreat2nd | [url="aim:goim?screenname=TheGreatSecond&message=Hello+from+the+Penny+Arcade+Forums!"]aim[/url]
I Googled "lenox hotel discount codes" or "lenox hotel promo codes". I've had luck before hunting for codes on various traveller's forums or websites (TravelZoo, Flyertalk, RedFlagDeals for Canadianers like me). I always see the "Promo/Discount code" box when booking hotels online and figured that someone out there must post the codes...well, maybe not all the codes, but hopefully the ones I need.
Hope this helps -- good luck!
And we're out of beta, we're releasing on time.
I'm talking like... Econolodge shit. $50 per night shit. Or less.
Hotel cost is going to be the killer on whether my family and I can go at all. $200 a night at the collonade is just... It's just not going to work. Period.
200 is like the max I can spend on hotel costs for the whole weekend.
Closest Econolodge is 6.5 miles away, and its still $80 a night. What you're probably gonna save in lodging might be spent in transportation.
No man should have that kind of power.(Twitter)
Anyone have any pre/after events planned at or around the Hilton? It would be cool to meet up with some people, and do some console gaming and/or boozing during our Boston stay!
Oh my god, thank you for that. Just booked for that rate.
Live - MrObersmith
PSN - Obersmith
If I get two doubles I'm going to have space for a roommate >.>
Better rates might be available but I was pretty happy with that bid being accepted.
Since when does the Sheraton require a deposit? They took my CC number, but unless I cancel less than 24 hours before check-in they don't take any money.
I just got a really nice PM from an employee of the Colonnade that includes some really good and important information. The most important thing here is that the hotel is giving PAX attendees free wired and wireless Internet access! Hurray for that I say!
Here is the information that I am adding to the first post:
-The hotel is only 1 block from the Convention Center. (It's actually just across the street.)
In addition to the HD DVD players, we offer over 60 HD channels and have 100% HD movies.
-The information on the overnight parking is correct - however, valet parking is not available.
-The hotel does offer both wired and wireless internet in the guest rooms and it is usually $13.95 per day, that is correct. HOWEVER, we will be waiving the internet fees for all guests booked with Penny Arcade.
PS3: Mentok || Steam: mentok1982 || Diablo 3: mentok1982#1212
Links: GPUReview.com My IGN activity My IGN Blog [H]ard|Forum
*Hyatt if a friend's friend comes through
*Lenox because the price was too good to ignore
*Colonnade if my party for some reason objects to the Lenox
Hopefully I remember to cancel one of those.
Something told me to look again today and the Sheraton was available again. So I booked Sheraton.
Just wanted to let you guys know just in case anyone was having issues with finding available rooms at the Sheraton... Keep checking. Maybe they had some technical snafu or are adding rooms, or something.
A: "What do you want from me?!?!?"
A: "What do you want from me?!?!?"