Interestingly, the lady at the Hotel Monaco sounded like she might be willing to bargain on the price of the hotel rooms...
Oooh. I like the sound of that. That one looked so purty.
Mal: There's plenty orders of mine that she didn't obey. Wash: Name one! Mal: She married you!
'War Stories'
F2F5: I forget that everyone isn't us
Plan what to do, what to wear (you can never go wrong with a corset), and get ready for the next BuffistaCon.
megan walker - Mar 30, 2009 1:35:19 pm PDT #841 of 12685
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
Matt the Bruins fan - Mar 30, 2009 2:35:12 pm PDT #842 of 12685
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
If you're staying near Michigan Avenue (or travel there to see Millenium Park) be sure to stop in at The Gage Restaurant. I had the best hamburger of my life at that place, and have had to talk myself out of driving to Chicago just to buy another one on a couple of occasions.
brenda m - Mar 30, 2009 5:13:14 pm PDT #843 of 12685
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
I'll second that. Nom.
Laga - Mar 31, 2009 10:14:28 am PDT #844 of 12685
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.
If you want to do a Chicago Architecture Foundation river tour, call early. They fill up fast.
omnis_audis - Mar 31, 2009 1:01:44 pm PDT #845 of 12685
omnis, pursue. That's an order from a shy woman who can use M-16. - Shir
It seems I must take nearly 2 weeks of vacation time from May 18th to end of July. Thankfully F2F falls in those dates. That's one more hurdle cleared. Now I just gotta pay off the credit cards so I can afford the trip. Eeek!
meara - Mar 31, 2009 2:48:41 pm PDT #846 of 12685
OK, Pete and I checked out the Crowne Plaza today, and were pleasantly surprised!!
The basic rooms are really nice (decently sized, nice not gross comforters). Internet is $10/day, though.
The room that would/could be the hospitality suite? Super! ($300/day) (She showed us two, but we thought the second one would be way better). It's off next to...the bar (which is next to the restaurant). :) They could haul up some furniture to put in it, and we'd have it all the time. I'm a little wary--she was kinda saying we could bring in some food (like bags of chips/nuts she mentioned?) but would want to cater real food? I'm suspecting we could probably do OK though, as long as we didn't really have a buffet sitting out or anything.
And there's two options for Prom--one of the standard hotel ballroom area place, v. basic. OR, having it in a tented area on their outdoor patio (tented just in case of rain--if it's warm, the sides roll up, if it's cold out the sides roll down and they have heater things). That seemed like it would be a pretty neat option to me. (Free with $2000 food/drink minimum total)
They also seemed a little desperate, so she's going to "consider" things, and email me and Juliana with some final prices (and food options).
Definitely a possibility, but Pete and I both think we shall reserve judgment until we've seen the Hotel Monaco on Thursday, and can really compare TOTAL prices across the board.
Pete, Husband of Jilli - Mar 31, 2009 3:21:27 pm PDT #847 of 12685
"I've got a gun! I've got a mother-flippin' gun!" - Moss, The IT Crowd
Yup, the Crowne Plaza really was a nice surprise. The rooms were good and we also saw a King room which was a corner that was spectacular. We also saw a studio suite which was an extra $50 for those of you who just have to.
The potential Hospitality suite next to the bar and restaurant was also great; one big room about 50% larger than the combined rooms from SF that they could populate with sofas. Also, this whole thing was on the second or third floor so easy to get back and forth from the lobby if people are being rounded up. Yeah, only snacks aloud. They'd even have to cater coffee. Still, it'd be nice to always know there'd be coffee ready for us.
The open area with the tent would really work for the Prom and would mean the smokers didn't have too far to go. The most important thing was that we could go as late as we wanted and noise issues were never brought up. The interior option is fine, thought the ceiling is standard height so the room feels smaller than it is.
SailAweigh - Mar 31, 2009 3:30:07 pm PDT #848 of 12685
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb
What about booze, Pete? Pay them or bring our own for the hospitality suite? As for snacks, that's about all anyone needed this past time. I bought party platters that just kinda lay there and got limp. The big hit was the chips and other inappropriate starches.
brenda m - Mar 31, 2009 3:35:59 pm PDT #849 of 12685
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
Yeah, snacks are fine for the hosp suite. Would we be able to bring in soda, wine, beer, though?
meara - Mar 31, 2009 3:45:04 pm PDT #850 of 12685
She mentioned something about the same sort of option (the banquet license thing?) for the hospitality suite that the Nexxus had mentioned for Prom. I did kind of wonder about sodas and things, or if people were wandering in with the remains of a sandwich that they'd grabbed, or what have you. But I'm also wondering how much the hotel staff would really be walking in and out, y'know? For some stuff. I suspect if we bought a few things, and shooed them out, we could keep the rest of it quiet.
(And the hosp suite is next to the bar, so I *think* people could walk over to the bar and get stuff, and bring it in, if they wanted beer/wine?)