ACEN 2013 Travel & Accommodations Thread

[Eightball]

This is the official planning & logistics thread for the BRB,U meetup at Anime Central on the weekend of May 17th, 2013 in Rosemont, IL. The purpose of this thread is to serve as the primary hub of information for transport, accommodations, and financing. Costumes, room parties, and general discussion will probably be in another thread. The OP will be updated with information as people register their information. In keeping with the referential nature of this thread, try to keep chaff posts to a minimum. Currently we have some sample entries until someone gets the ball rolling.

Rooms
This is the list of rooms available to the BRB,U community, as well as an approximation of room assignments. To register, we just need to know the hotel, suite, nights available, capacity, and cost. Feel free to also post room assignments. Overflow refers to your planned maximum occupancy, with people sleeping on floors and in closets.

Current Total Capacity - 42 (56 overflow)


Google Spreadsheet for Easy Viewing - All Current Assignments

Room: Hyatt VIP - "Party Cat 3: Partido gato"
Capacity: 10 (14 overflow)
Nights: TFS (Thursday, Friday, Saturday)
Cost: $750/night (~$75/night)
1. Caffeine
2. Karrde
3. Serain
4. RoseSpirit
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
(11.)
(12.)
(13.)
(14.)

Room: Hyatt VIP - unnamed
Capacity: 10 (14 overflow)
Nights: TFS
Cost: $740/night (~$74/night)
1. TOH
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
(11.)
(12.)
(13.)
(14.)

Room: Hyatt Panorama - "Old Balls 2: Older Balls"
Capacity: 6 (8 overflow)
Nights: TFS
Cost: $385/night (~$65/night)
1. at0m
2. at0m's ladyfriend (tentative)
3. Dtrain323i
4. MechaNick
5. MechaNick's ladyfriend
6.
(7.)
(8.)

Room: Hyatt Double - "Two Drink Minimum"
Capacity: 4
Nights: TFS
Cost: $200/night ($50/night)
1. Live-Free-Or-Pie
2.
3.
4.

Room: Hyatt Double - "The Garbage Can"
Capacity: 4 (8 overflow)
Nights: TFS
Cost: $200/night ($33-$50/night)
1. Eightball
2. Foodies
3. Claire
4. Dramatic Catastrophist
(5.)
(6.)

Room: Hyatt Double - "The Zoo"
Capacity: 4
Nights: TFS
Cost: $200/night ($50/night)
1. k0ala
2.
3.
4.

Room: Hyatt Double - "Canadian Bacon"
Capacity: 4 - Filled
Nights: TFS + Sunday
Cost: $200/night ($50/night)
1. HeK
2. Luinbariel
3. Rilnac
4. Litrecola

Unassigned
Backfire
Boney (might get in the garbage can)
Fonziebear
GenericName
Greatbacon
Kase
LAG
Marxist
Neptune
Neptune's Wife
Rob (Neptune's friend)
Senor Gasman
Versus
Whendilin
Whendilin's guyfriend
Zaneyard
3x Hello Morico Entourage



Attendees
This is a list of the confirmed and tentative attendees for the meetup. Feel free to post to confirm your intention to attend, and your arrival date if possible. It'd be good if people mention that they have reserved a room ®, or if they are in need of financial assistance (F) or transport to the convention (T). If you have any other considerations that other people should know, post them too. Also if you are driving and are receptive to forming a carpool, do post that information here as well.

Current Headcount: 41
At0m: Thursday-Sunday (R)
Caffeine: Thursday-Sunday (R)
Eightball: Thursday-Sunday (R)
HeK: Thursday-Sunday (R)
k0ala: Thursday-Sunday (R)
Live-Free-Or-Pie: Thursday-Sunday (R)
TOH: Thursday-Sunday (R)
At0m's ladyfriend: Thursday-Sunday
Claire: Thursday-Sunday
Dtrain: Thursday-Sunday
Fonziebear: Friday-Sunday
Foodies: Thursday-Sunday
Greatbacon: Thursday-Sunday
Litrecola: Thursday-Sunday
Luinbariel: Thursday-Sunday
MechaNick: Thursday-Sunday
Rilnac: Thursday-Sunday
Senor Gasman: Thursday-Sunday
Versus: Thursday-Sunday
Backfire: ??
Dramatic Catastrophist: ??
Karrde: ??
LAG: ??
Marxist: ??
MC Fartlett: ??
MechaNick's ladyfriend: ??
Neptune: ??
Neptune Wife: ??
Rob (Neptune's Friend): ??
Serain: ??
Whendilin: ??
Whendilin's guyfriend: ??
Zaneyard: ??
Boney: ?? (F?)
EvilCheese: ?? (T)
GenericName: Thursday-Sunday (T?)
Kase: Thursday-Sunday (T?)
RoseSpirit: ?? (F/T?)
3x Hello Morico Entourage



Carpool: Fuck Bitches, Get Money
Origin: Omaha, NE
Capacity: 3-5 depending on vehicle
Info: Departing Thursday afternoon, arriving late Thursday, taking I-80 through Iowa
1. Dtrain323i
2. MechaNick
3.

Carpool: "Are we there yet?"
Origin: Baltimore, MD
Capacity: 2-4 depending on cargo
Info: Departing Wednesday night/Thursday morning, arriving late Thursday, taking either I-70->I-65 or I-70->I-80 (haven't decided)
1. at0m
2. at0m's ladyfriend (tentative)
3. Evil Cheese
4. RoseSpirit (tentative)



Community Fund (working title)
Now, for something a bit new. This year, we will be establishing a community fund to get BRB,U members to ACEN who would be otherwise unable to attend due to financial constraints. At the moment, I'm planning to handle the funds personally (my paypal), but if you guys think a paypal account geared specifically to this would be wiser, I'll look into that. This fund will be fueled entirely by the contributions of BRB,U members, and to all, we are grateful. If you are interested in contributing to the fund, please PM me or contact me on Steam. If you think you will need financial aid, please post here or talk to me personally. It has not yet been decided if this will be done with transparency or behind the curtains.

Current Fund Balance - $300.00 - Thank you!

Contributors
Will be updating this with a Google document later.

*In the event that the fund is not depleted getting people to the convention, some money will be assigned to cover room/party/food/drink costs for the con. If enough of it remains, I'll try to return it to the donators.

[Eightball]

Room: Hyatt Double Room - "The Garbage Can"
Capacity: 4 (8 overflow)
Nights: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Cost: $50/night ($25/night)
1. Eightball
2. Foodies
3.
4.
(5.)
(6.)
(7.)
(8.)

I will be attending, arriving on Thursday and departing on Sunday. I'm in the Chicago area, and have a room registered.

[TOH]

I have a room booked:
Room: Hyatt VIP Suite - Yet to be named
Capacity: I believe it's 10? Need to confirm
Nights: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Cost: $74 a night if we're fitting 10 ($740 per night total)

I will be arriving Thursday and leaving Sunday, probably via plane from Newark, NJ to O'Hare (won't be booking for some time still). Will probably contribute to the fund at some point.

[Bonesinger]

I plan on going again this year??? I've only gotten three hours in the past three weeks for work though so we'll see.

[Eightball]

Updated. I think I'll have room reservers also share each other's phone numbers, if they're comfortable with that. More on that later though.

[CaffeinePowered]

People Listings Below are Tenative

Room: Hyatt Presidential Suite - "Party Cat"
Capacity: 10 (14 overflow)
Nights: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Cost: $75/night ($750/night - Assuming Taxes and the like)
1. Caffeine
2. RoseSpirit
3. Serain
4. Karrde
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
(11.)
(12.)
(13.)
(14.)

Edit: I can toss some scratch into the community fund as well, PM later

[TOH]

Updated. I think I'll have room reservers also share each other's phone numbers, if they're comfortable with that. More on that later though.

I'm cool with it. I would like to try to use a system like GroupMe again though, or just use that and have two different lists, one for important announcements only (event reminders, we're all eating ____, etc.) and one for chatter so people can do that if they want and if someone doesn't want to be in it they can be out of it.

[kaese]

I'm attending.
Need room to sleep in.
Thursday evening (right after last exams) - Sunday
Maaaaaybe need transport but hopefully not.
From Madison, WI ~5pm departure

Get me on the groupme thing as well.

[Serain]

Glad to see that this thread is coming up. I'm considering inviting some people from my team, if that's alright.

Looking forward to acen!

[backfire]

Count me in. Been there the last two times, wouldn't miss a third.

[Dtrain323i]

Carpool: Fuck Bitches, Get Money
Origin: Omaha, NE
Capacity: 3-5 depending on what car we take (i'm going to talk to my mother in law about taking her SUV so we could fit 5 plus everyones luggage)
Info: Departing Thursday afternoon, arriving late thursday, taking I-80 through Iowa
1. Dtrain323i
2. SilentEidolon
3.

[If-I-Die-Its-Lag]

I'm going.

[at0m]

It is worth noting that I will be driving from Baltimore to Chicago again on Thursday, and back Sunday night/Monday morning. Anyone mid-route is welcome to hitch a ride, although I may only have room for one or two passengers with luggage and all. To a limited extent, that means I can also bring boxes of stuff people ship to me, but it would be better to ship them directly to someone in Chicago.

Room: Hyatt Panorama Suite - "Old Balls 2: Older Balls"
Capacity: 6 (8 overflow)
Nights: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Cost: $65/night (~$385/night with tax)
1. at0m
2. at0m's ladyfriend (tentative)
3. Dtrain323i
4. Silenteidolon (Dtrain's friend)
5. Silenteidolon's ladyfriend (tentative)
6. Evil Cheese
(7.)
(8.)

Carpool: "Are we there yet?"
Origin: Baltimore, MD
Capacity: 2-4 depending on how much crap everyone has
Info: Departing Wednesday night/Thursday morning, arriving late thursday, taking either I-70->I-65 or I-70->I-80 (haven't decided)
1. at0m
2. at0m's ladyfriend (tentative)
3. Evil Cheese
4. RoseSpirit (tentative)

[Eightball]

Updated up to this point, I think. People please share your expected arrival dates, and if you do or do not need financial or transport assistance!

[RoseSpirit]

I am planning to go, but I want to wait to register/make travel plans until I register for next semester's classes. That should be happening soon, though.

At0m! I am in NJ now so could I possibly drive to you and then carpool? If so, then I should be able to cover my own ticket and gas contribution. If I need to fly out then I might need help with plane tickets. XP

[at0m]

At0m! I am in NJ now so could I possibly drive to you and then carpool? If so, then I should be able to cover my own ticket and gas contribution. If I need to fly out then I might need help with plane tickets. XP

Sure, just need to figure out who all else is getting a ride. If you are, and Cheese is, and my Ladyfriend comes, that's a full car. Ladyfriend is looking into when she can take vacation, but she's not sure she can take off Thurs/Fri/half of Mon like I had to last year.

[TOH]

[quote author=RoseSpirit link=topic=6603.msg256410#msg256410 date=1352238161]
At0m! I am in NJ now so could I possibly drive to you and then carpool? If so, then I should be able to cover my own ticket and gas contribution. If I need to fly out then I might need help with plane tickets. XP

Sure, just need to figure out who all else is getting a ride. If you are, and Cheese is, and my Ladyfriend comes, that's a full car. Ladyfriend is looking into when she can take vacation, but she's not sure she can take off Thurs/Fri/half of Mon like I had to last year.
[/quote]

If the ride doesn't work, I can keep an eye on plane ticket prices and let you know if you're cool with flying out of Newark Thursday morning. Same goes to anyone else traveling out of NJ, though I don't think there's anyone else here.

[Evil Cheese]

Yeah I need a ride. You mind picking me up again, At0m? Also, can I request a spot in Old Balls? I'll make sure to bring some dinosaur hats.

[Gasman]

Gasman reporting for duty. I should be arriving Thursday afternoon and am in need of a room. I'd prefer a smaller, quieter room, although I'm not very picky and will bunk with nearly anyone.

[kaese]

I have 3 AA (artists alley not alcoholics anonymous) friends who may need a room for acen. They were trying to get a room in the Hyatt but of course those were all booked a while ago.
Here's their site: http://hellomorico.com/
They are all fairly mature (graduated uni, med school, etc.) and I've known one of them for about 13 years now.

If someone is ok with possibly having them in their room that would be awesome. Something in the Hyatt might free up later but I wanted to ask just in case.