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Pax Prime Newbie 2015
Hello-this will be my sons first Pax experience. This trip will be Christmas,bday,etc. etc. so I want to make it great. From past attendees which hotels are connected or across from the event? Which hotels will block rooms? I'm already looking into flights (from FL) & wanted to get a budget idea...? Any advice appreciated. 
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http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/188202/pax-prime-2014-information-and-faq-read-this-first-then-ask-all-questions-here/p1
You should be able to get most of your questions answered there.
In my experience it can be 500 to 800 depending how you go about it( I'm assuming you'll get a 4 day). I'm from mid california and on my cheapest trip I drove and stayed at a hostel at 32 a night. So it would be 140 (assuming last year's price) for 4day, 130 at a hostel for 5 nights, gas was like 120, and like 100 for food.
If your flying and staying at a hotel with a room share it was 240 flying, 100 food, 240 roomshare with 6 people, and 140 for tickets. My costs for travel are cheaper because I'm on the west coast, but expect to pay (if you can even get tickets) at least 800 total.
Luckily at pax there is a lot of free swag, I've come home with a whole new wardrobe each time, and there are typically parties with free food(my grad student senses go off the chart) but the food budget assumes you don't get free food.
It also depends on what your comfortable with, not everyone is okay with the idea of a room share or hostel, so for that comfort of your own room you pay a higher price. If your sons underage or doesn't( or you don't) feel comfortable going to parties by themselves they miss out on the free food. Most all the hotels will be pre booked for PAX fyi.
If they can go with a group of friends it brings down a lot of these costs, like you could be at a hostel and just book the entire room for cheaper than a hotel, carpool, even food can be brought down if you just order a pizza every night.
The thought would be to get a hotel downtown (i'm pretty willing to pay extra since its just a one time thing), and use public transportation to get to/from PAX and also see some Seattle sights
If you have an idea of where you might want to check out, you can always look at the King County Metro Trip Planner to see what public transit options there are. Convention center is on 8th and Pike, a vast majority of your trips will probably start on 3rd/2nd and Pike, as a lot of buses go up/down those streets.
Getting a hotel a close as possible to the convention center may not be what you want. Everything is spread out between different hotels and the convention center. You will never be near everything. Only part of the panels, gaming, etc happen at the convention center. The rest happen at a handful of hotels around there. I think we probably spend about 50% of our time at the convention center and the rest at the different hotels. All of the hotels that get room blocks are within 10 minutes or less walking distance and the weather is always warm. Seattle is beautiful and you won't be disappointed no matter what hotel you are in.
Since you are also on EST, you may want to look at getting a hotel closer to Pike Place. My husband and I have stayed at the Westin the last couple times and it's been great! We are usually up by 6 or 7 am PST (9-10 am EST) and walk down to Pikes Place to have an amazing breakfast. It's one of my favorite parts of the trip.
As far as which hotels were available last year:
Crowne Plaza Seattle - $169
Fairmount Olymipic - $219
Grand Hyatt - $203
Hilton Seattle - $185
Homewood Suites - $205
Hotel Max - $199
Hyatt at Olive 8 - $203
Mayflower Park Hotel - $172
Red Lion Hotel 5th Ave - $186
Renaissance Seattle Hotel - $191
Roosevelt Hotel - $184
Sheraton - $184
Spring Hills Suites - $199
Westin - $180
W Seattle Hotel - $199
Prices do tend to go up a few dollars each year for hotels so except any price you see here to go up $5-$10 per night.
If you have other questions feel free to ask.
We never rent a car, even when my husband comes out for business. The light rail from the airport will take you to the downtown area for just a couple dollars and from there everything is within walking distance. If we do want to see something that's too far to walk (like the space and flight museum) we use Uber. Comes out way cheaper than a car rental with parking.
For PAX itself, there's zero need for a rental car. The light rail goes directly from the airport to downtown Seattle (where the Convention Center is). I did end up renting a car after PAX, and I remember the prices during PAX being almost 4 times more expensive than after it (though PAX also coincided with labor day, which probably affected prices as well).
I don't remember hotels being remotely as cheap as adias.angel posted, but I have friends in the region I crashed with, and only really glanced at hotel costs a few weeks ahead of PAX (at that time, ~$300/night appeared to be the norm...so I suppose that means you definitely want to get those reserved as early as possible). One thing I will note is that when you get in the ticket queue for PAX, you'll have the option to get in the queue for their preferred hotels. No idea on the pricing, as they were sold out by the time I got to the front of that queue.
Food in Seattle isn't any more/less expensive than most other cities. We splurged a ton here (by far the biggest expenditure for me during PAX), but you can certainly eat on the cheap as well. It's a city. There's a gazillion places to eat/drink on any budget.
There are concessions selling various things (games, dice, plushies, etc) within PAX, but it all seemed more expensive than buying elsewhere. No one in my group bought a thing in PAX (outside of the occasional soda). There's some free swag at a few booths, though that wasn't the norm.
Cell phone reception was very spotty. Relying on texting/calling each other was something we quickly realized wasn't going to be reliable, so we ended up coming up with pre-arranged times and places to meet instead.
Biggest regret was not participating in the numerous pre-events that attendees put together in the days leading up to PAX. My vacation was set up with PAX at the start, and a bunch of other things following it. This year, I plan on putting PAX at the end of my trip, partly due to being able to then participate in some of those pre-events, as well as not getting caught up in the labor day madness, assuming the dates that are floating around for PAX end up being true.
I'd definitely try to add more to the trip than just PAX. Probably my favorite non-PAX part of the trip was going up to the San Juan Islands for a few days (I love ferries), and kayaking/hiking there. I would kill to have a second home on Orcas Island. And a boat.
Lastly...tickets sold out super quick. Make sure whatever plans you put in place that cost money aren't the type of plans you can't get refunds for. I had a Twitter alert set up, got the alert at work, ran to my computer that was about a 100 yards away, got in the ticket queue, got to the front of the ticket queue, and the four day passes were already sold out. I know the unofficial PAX sell out date spreadsheet put it at ~14 minutes, but between getting the twitter alert and logging into the site on my computer...I doubt more than 2-3 minutes had passed.
As far as badges go, I had always hoped to get 2 4-day passes but planned for buying 2 sets of single day passes. Worst case scenario is you end up spending what you've allotted for badges.
I do a PDF print each year that lists all the hotel prices if you book through the PAX site so I know they are spot on.
This will be very dependent on your cell carrier. We have Verizon and never had a single issue with service (voice or data). Maybe some others can talk about other carriers but three years at PAX and never had an issue.
As far as the hotels go do you wait until tickets go on sale to try for a blocked off room? I've found a few hotels downtown and wonder if I should book one now or roll the dice for a Pax affiliated room?
Not Adias.angel but I say definitely wait for the blocked off rooms
They generally go on sale the same time as passes, but have huge discounts compared to the rates they will charge for the few rooms not blocked by PAX/OnPeak.
There's enough hotels in the immediate area around the convention center that you shouldn't have a problem getting one if you do it day one after you get passes, generally the Sheraton goes first because it's the closest but we're talking only a few blocks between hotels so it's not that big of a deal to most
Attendee: Prime 12,13,14 East 13
This year though I'm definitely dropping the $$ to get a downtown hotel though.
Agreeing with @brettpool. Wait for the room blocks. If I remember right the longest walk of any of the hotels is only a few blocks so no matter which one you get into you'll be happy plus there is a very nice discount if you wait.
We were all on AT&T. Sometimes it'd work, sometimes it wouldn't. Solid bars throughout, so presumably the network was simply overstressed.
Budget-wise, last year I flew alone from Miami and stayed in Homewood Suites. I paid $377.50 for round-trip airfare (including taxes/fees), $205/night hotel, breakfasts at the hotel were free. PAX takes place in downtown Seattle, and near a couple malls, so dining options have all price ranges (and there are a bazillion Starbucks around), and there's also a convenience store right by the convention center (great to get something to drink during the show). Other than flight, hotel, and food, there isn't much actual required spending, other than transportation from the airport - PAX itself, while split into a few different buildings, is all within easy walking distance. For optional expenses, there are things like PAX shirts and Pinny Arcade pins and a few other show-only merchandise, nothing too big.
I spent about $1k in hotels, food, airfare, and swag each year that I've been to East (I stay longer than the 3 day convention because I like to enjoy the city. Usually fly in 1-2 days before and leave a day after). Sharing costs with roomies cuts it way down, but you can do it cheaply if you play it right. Walking is usually key for success
Light rail fares range from $2 to $2.75 while bus fares within the city are usually $2.50. Riding the bus or light rail from the convention center to the International District only takes about 7 minutes.
One last note: currently the light rail line ends at Westlake Center which is about five blocks from the convention center. However, bus routes within the transit tunnel can take you to the Convention Place station which is only two blocks from the convention center.
Check these sites for more information:
King County Metro (buses)
Sound Transit (buses and light rail)
Love the light rail. Best way to get from the airport to Pikes St. All of the hotels and the WSCC are within a few blocks walking distance from the convention place station so we never end up using any of the buses.
One thing to note. There are 2 different trains/monorails (or whatever you want call them). One goes from the airport to the downtown area/pikes place. The other goes from the downtown area north to the area near the museums and space needle. Between the two plus a little walking we get everywhere we need to go.
One last thing of note about the Seattle Monorail: it isn't part of the Orca system yet. It's something that's still being negotiated with the operator of the monorail, but I haven't heard any other news about it since it was first mentioned several weeks ago. So even if you have an Orca card and use it to get around all fancy-like on the light rail line, you'll still have to spend $2.25 (one-way) for a monorail ticket.
Seattle Monorail
In short, you can always search now, book a non-restricted rate just to be safe and then try to book the blocks when they open up. If you get a block rate, you can cancel the previous booking and you're all set. Or if you can't get one, you already locked in a room OR you can keep shopping the whole time and cancel if you find a better deal. Also, because PAX is the week before labor day this year, I'm not sure that all hotels will be on the same page and may be "protecting" the wrong weekend. Just some tips!
I just looked at the Westin where we normally stay and the rates are still twice what they are with the PAX room block. Maybe rates will change later on?
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tl;dr: Do some serious research before booking (if you're on a budget), because a PAX trip is not all that cheap anymore.
Hey Adias! Yes, rates will always fluxuate as time goes on. It just might not be in the direction you want. Seattle has locked up the summer with rates pretty much starting around $309 anywhere in the dowtown area that is a somewhat reputable hotel. The only chance of it going down from where it's at is if that week starts to lag behind everyones projections or last years numbers. You can always try third party sites if you don't care where you stay and you are willing to prepay. By far, the PAX block deals are the best deals you can get being that close to WSCC. My advice is essentially F5 hotel rates. Forever. Well, at least until you get a good deal :biggrin:
Having never been to East, the only major difference that I know about is that Prime is spread out among a few different buildings within a few blocks of the convention center. For example, a few of the theaters as well as tabletop gaming being in a few different hotels.
The weather in Seattle at the time of PAX is unpredictable. In my 4 times going years it's been: cold, hot, wonderfuly temperate, and then rainy. It's been mostly consistent for the stretch of PAX though. So check what the weather is currently before you pack.
Tabletop at Prime is frankly, a mess. It's in a bunch of tiny rooms competing hard for space with boardgame vendors and exhibitors. And some of it is in other hotels. It gets the job done, but compared to the infinite spread at South (I've not been to East) it might as well be in a Starbucks.
There is a Target right in downtown within easy walking distance of all the hotels and the WSCC. It makes picking up essentials you forgot or didn't want to pack very easy. There's a lot of other stuff too, but that is pretty relevant for traveling.
WHAT. A grocery store within walking distance?!? I've been going to East and staying in Chinatown and I can say that I haven't found a good snack vendor (though Harvard has a bazillion fun ones) That makes me unreasonably happy.
Good question, I normally do hostel or roomshare so I've never reserved a hotel room myself through PAX, but I want to do that this year. Does anyone one know if we have to prepay? Also how quickly does the Sheraton sell out?
I've booked at the Hilton Doubletree twice now though the "system" so to speak and no, they did not charge me up front for my rooms... although that will depend on the hotel. Some will put a soft hold or a night's charge upfront, but I have never run into that since I've been booking hotels as an adult so I doubt that any of the Seattle hotels would. They will charge you when you check out - the FULL amount (emergency repair fees and all) and then I would have that charge reduced to the normal amount a few days later.
Note for people splitting room costs - hotels will typically let you do this but one person is going to be charged the full amount up front, typically the room booker, and then it will be split a few days later. This is generally so they don't run into fraud, but you'll have to watch out if you have a low credit limit and you're spending a lot. My friend didn't realize this and needed someone else to pay for her bag so she could leave!
Keep in mind, it all depends on hotel policy. You can call the hotels you're thinking about and always ask the desk if you're really wondering. I'm a big fan of calling places.
WHAT. A grocery store within walking distance?!? I've been going to East and staying in Chinatown and I can say that I haven't found a good snack vendor (though Harvard has a bazillion fun ones) That makes me unreasonably happy.[/quote]
Make sure if you want an actual grocery store you say supermarket. Apparently Americans misunderstand the meaning of grocery store, and end up sending you to a gas station sort of place. I've had this happen quite a few times, and only just found out that what Canadians think of as grocery stores are supermarkets in the states. Sharing my knowledge so that none of you make the same mistake I did.
Just a nerd into anything Nintendo, anime, MCU, Star Wars, and board games/card games.
Also a computer scientist and a streamer.
What do you mean by you had it changed to the normal amount later? Where they trying to over charge you?
WHAT. A grocery store within walking distance?!? I've been going to East and staying in Chinatown and I can say that I haven't found a good snack vendor (though Harvard has a bazillion fun ones) That makes me unreasonably happy.[/quote]
Make sure if you want an actual grocery store you say supermarket. Apparently Americans misunderstand the meaning of grocery store, and end up sending you to a gas station sort of place. I've had this happen quite a few times, and only just found out that what Canadians think of as grocery stores are supermarkets in the states. Sharing my knowledge so that none of you make the same mistake I did.
[/quote]
I can assure you that most Americans do draw a distinction between grocery stores and gas stations.
Just a nerd into anything Nintendo, anime, MCU, Star Wars, and board games/card games.
Also a computer scientist and a streamer.
Ah no harm, no foul. We're good.
Typically this happens just to reflect the price you were actually quoted. They charge you the regular room cost and change it to the Prime rate afterward. This all takes place after you check out though. Same thing happened to me at the Sheraton in 2013 I was shocked and then swiftly relieved.
I see, also how fast does Sheraton sell out? Do I need to run the badge que and hotel page in tandem to have a shot?
I think the Target on 2nd and Union might have groceries (I know the Target in Woodinville does), but there's definitely a grocery story at Uwajimaya in the International District. Just hop a bus going Downtown or catch the south-bound light rail and it'll get you right there.
Sheraton will fill up first.
There's an IGA Supermarket on 3rd and Pike, much closer than Uwajimaya.