Last Saturday I’d decided I wasn’t going to go to the Denver WorldCon. This was not a decision which seems to have taken well. On Sunday I was talking to CHARLES, and made a just-in-case room reservation because all of the hotels for WorldCon are filling up. On Tuesday I decided I’d go. There are lots of reasons, but it became a very good idea all of a sudden. This morning I booked and paid for my flights, in what seems to me to be unprecedentedly short period of time. Maybe it was last year’s experience of booking without a travel agent, but I’m done. I fly into Denver with the Locus crew just after lunch time on Tuesday 5 August and fly out just around dinner time on Monda 11 August. All I need to do now is buy my membership, and I’m done (though I wouldn’t mind switching my room res. for one in the main hotel). I’m actually a little shell-shocked. If you’re going to be in Denver for the big crazy fest, drop me a line and we can try to get together. I’m eager to see as many people as possible.
I will be there and woild like to meet up.
Cool.
See you in the bar. Hopefully I won’t be spending the entire con rushing around like crazy.
It’s rather hard to say what “Main Hotel” means this year. There’s a hotel that’s adjacent to the convention center, but that’s not where the evening parties are. Personally, I was hovering over my computer the day reservations opened so I could get rooms at the Crowne Plaza, which is in between both of those two and cheaper to boot. Recent word was that a small number of rooms had opened up in that hotel, but I expect they filled within hours of the announcement. One person told me that the web site showed nothing, but he was able to get rooms at the con rate by calling the hotel.
This year’s Worldcon’s hotel situation is more like that faced when we’re outside the USA — lots of hotels and more spread out than most Americans are accustomed to dealing with. I’ve heard it said that what fans really want is a 5000-room all-suite hotel with Motel 6 rates, connected to the convention center, with all rooms on the same level (no elevators or stairs), no room more than 100 steps from the main hall, and all rooms simultaneously “party” and “quiet” and smoking and non-smoking.
Well, okay, maybe people aren’t quite that bad, but when you organize these things, you get accustomed to having to deal with irresolvable conflicts. It doesn’t mean you’re ever happy about it, though.
Cheryl: Of course we’re going to spend the entire con rushing around like crazy. Isn’t that what we do every WorldCon? – J
Kevin: I guess by ‘main hotel’ I meant the Hyatt Regency, which is where some of my cohort are staying. I’ve got a reservation at the Grand Hyatt, and lord knows the walk won’t kill me, but I’ll keep an eye out for something closer. — J