calculusman
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Posts posted by calculusman
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Along the scheduling line...is there a reason for the huge holes in the Hall D schedule? Like, nothing before 11am on Friday, nothing before 1pm or between 6:30PM and 10:00PM Saturday, and nothing before noon on Sunday?
Is this just a sign that those times haven't been scheduled yet, or are those "secret" things that we'll find out about when we arrive, or is Hall D actually not having anything going on in it during those times?
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Long story short, I'm going to start out near the airport too but I'm switching to another hotel later and would much rather to park near the first hotel...which is by the airport...and...the North Linthicum station has free parking? And is overnight? I won't get towed? 0.0 That'll totally solve my problem if what you say is true....!Take the light rail:http://www.mtamaryland.com/services/lightrail/
Both the Patapsco and North Linthicum stations have large (and free!) parking lots, it only costs $3.50 for a day pass, and there is a station just across the street from the Convention Center. The only minus is that the last train going south from the convention center goes by at about midnight, so you won't be able to attend any of the really late stuff unless you drive or take a cab.
I stayed around the airport last year (and doing so again this year) and it worked really well for me. It only takes about 10 or 15 minutes to ride up or down, depending on which station you're leaving from/heading too. If I recall, i preferred the Patapso station, but it's kinda hazy since it was more than a year ago now.
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I've been hearing that you can park at the Camden Yards parking lot overnight for a i think 20-30 dollar fee. I don't know for sure but i'm sort of in a bind on what to do for parking because the hotel that i'm staying at is near the airport so i have to drive to the convention center, so yeah this sucks.
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Well, like pretty much everyone here,I am very excited about Otakon 2008. And I was wondering ((just to let my excitment out)) What are somethings you are doing to pass the long 3-4 weeks until otakon. How are you preparing for otakon?
Me, I find myself making lists and lists. Like list of food to buy, lists of anime to catch up on...and *heehee* I have to list my manga, that way I dont buy doubles......I have over 400 manga..... -.-;; ...
yea.
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Ok....I know I have a-lot of manga......
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I don't even have to tell everyone how long that pre-reg pickup line is, and without a doubt we'll have some huge guests this year, Mr. Kappei being one of them, and JAMproject is bound to have a monstrous turnout, so I have to ask you, my crazy yet patient otaku. Since lines are bound to be abundant and lenghty, what do you do to pass the time?
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there's going to be fireworks friday night?!
WOAH!!! What time will the fireworks be?!?!
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I just picked up a brand new MTA Light Rail schedule effective June 15, 2008, for everyone's convenience, the latest the light rail runs from the Camden Yards stop (the closest stop listed in the schedule near the Baltimore Convention Center stop) to the BWI Thurgood Marshall stop on weekdays (Thursday and Friday) is 12:04 AM and on Saturday is also at 12:04 AM, on Sunday is 8:04 PM.
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Hmm, This has been an interesting and relatively informative thread. My main thing about parking is that there may be panels rather late (aka after 11pm or so) which I might want to attend, but since my main mode of transportation is the light rail, I have to catch the lightrail by no later than midnight or so it looks like by the schedule.
This basically gives me three options:
1) skip any late night stuff, like I did last year (this is my 2nd year going)
2) park on the days there is late stuff going on
3) take a taxi back to the hotel (or at least the light rail stop where I parked)
I think someone said that the Arena parking garage on Howard street cost about $20 a day, which is good. They said it locked down, though, but the link one of the people provided says it's open 24/7. I'm assuming we're talking about the same parking garage here...
The big map also seems to show a parking garage directly across the street from the convention center between Pratt and Lombard, near the Courthouse (mapquest appears to show that it's on Hanover Street). I'm not sure I've seen this on any of the lists and it doesn't look obviously connected to a hotel. Anyone know what this garage is, how much it is, and when it closes?
This may all be academic, since there many not be anything that late I'll want to go to that much, but it's good to know ahead of time in any case.
PS, someone mentioned parking at the light rail. I believe the light rail stop that I parked at last year was the Patapsco station (south of Baltimore). The webpage for it says it has 216 parking spaces. There is also the North Linthicum lot with almost 350 spaces. Looks like Warren Road and Timonium have large parking lots north of the city as well.
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I hope this helps.
I know this has been mentioned somewhere else, but you do know that you don't pay the whole price at the time of booking the hotel, right? You would just pay a cancellation fee if you don't end up going and forget to cancel your room early. I paid at checkout last year (if I remember correctly). The hotel did want my credit card up front for incidentals (damage the room, room service, mini bar, etc.)
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I would LOOOOVE to see Death Note, especially Misa or maybe even just the "L" symbol.
Some throwbacks to older anime would always please us twenty-somethings. I would jump through many hoops to get a "NERV" logo badge.
Original logo, please. No upside-down apples for this curmudgeon. =0
I support the throwbacks 100%! Since it is the 15th Otakon they ought to do some retro anime for the tags this year. Personally, I'd love to have the original GITS logo for my badge.
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I've a problem, Are the rates at the Otakon Hotel info page per day or for the whole weekend? X_x because I checked with Tremont and the whole weekend was about $800 .. totally freaked me out!! let me know T___T I'm on a budget x_x
Thanks
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Did you try travelocity? That's how I got my room. It might not be an "Otakon" discount but it's still a discount.
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Well, last year on Thursday, after getting my badge, I went and ate and watched a movie at Arundel Mills (Harry Potter!), since I was staying in the BWI hotel district (taking the light rail up to the BCC). I'm staying the hotel district this year again (finally decided on where to stay) so I may be doing something similar again, unless someone organizes something which seem interesting enough to go to.
Though watching a 2 1/2 hour movie that started at like 9:30 or 10 was a bad idea the day before Otakon started...
That's one thing I learned from last year. Either manage my sleep better, or get an alarm clock which is so annoying that I can't just slap it and go back to sleep lol.
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They better have a Nice Boat one this year....
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Maybe if Otakon doesn't cancel tons of panels and has working knowledge of what's going on, I might stay at the con instead of playing around at the hotel, but the hotel was the highlight, not the con, because otakon's staff is a bunch of no good, take the current website upddates with hotels. Everyone knows the hotels are full, but they won't update their site, it also seems they didn't really negotiate the discounts well with any of the hotels, as no one knew what was going on.
People who love otakon, look at anime expo's website, it's better. Their con runs smoothly, and has better known guests. So, until otakon is like AX, expect fun to happen elsewhere.
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One possible alternative for those who may not mind hiking to and from the convention center is the Baltimore Hostel. It's about 7 blocks from the center (and about a half mile from the nearest light rail station) on Mulberry Street. Parking is only $5 a night and it is apparently $28 a night for a dorm room (4, 8, or 12 beds a room) or $63 for a private room if you don't have a hostel membership.
Has TV, air conditioning, WiFi, etc.
http://www.baltimorehostel.org/
7 blocks seems a little far to me to walk at night with a good walk from the light rail to boot to me, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
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Twas my first convention as well. I think my Thursday basically went:
- woke up around 9 AM
- Left between 11 and noon
- Drove for about 6 hours (was supposed to be five, but rain and traffic delayed me. if you can do the math, I hit Baltimore just about at rush hour)
- checked into the BWI Microtel and hauled my stuff to my room
- took light rail to the BCC, got my badge (only about a 30 minute wait here I think), went back to hotel (luckily the weather was fine when I got mine)
- Went to Arundel Mills mall, ate at Chevy's (mmmm...) and watched the 5th Harry Potter movie (probably a bad idea since it got out at midnight and I had to get to the BCC early the next morning to get into the ridiculously long line).
I basically didn't know anyone else who was going, so I largely just did my thing last year. Maybe I can find some stuff to do this year, though if I stay in the BWI area, that means I have to either leave by the time the light rail stops or pay for the $25 cab ride down there.
Ah, well '07 was my first year but I can tell my story:- Woke up @ 8 PM
- Prepared for a 3 hour car ride
- Dropped my Grandmother at my Aunt's house
- Continued to the Radisson where we arrived around 1pm
- Got in line just when it started to drizzle
- 2.5 hours later, got my badge
- Stayed at the hotel overlooking the activities book
- Slept
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Last, last year hotel was probably approaching half my cost (my guess is a little over $300 of around $800 total I spent on the trip), so budget for other things was a little bit looser in comparison to that.
I guess the only places at the convention itself that I really set any sort of mental spending limit was in the dealers room since one can go crazy in there. I think I tried to offset that by bringing a wad of cash with me and, with one exception, basically told myself that once the cash runs out, then that's it.
As far as food and stuff, I brought breakfast stuff with me to the hotel so I didn't have to spend extra on that, and I made sure to eat at places which I knew weren't ridiculously expensive (I usually ate at Arundel Mills mall after I came back via the light rail since my hotel was at BWI. The only real exception was when I hit the Hard Rock).
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OK, I have 3 questions in regards to hotels. This is going to be my 2nd time going to Otakon, but since I'm going by myself and I'm not the richest person on earth, I couldn't sign up for one of the convention hotels in downtown myself. This leads to my first question (or actually pair of questions).
One, when do people usually start looking for people to fill out their hotel rooms in downtown, and what is the typical arrangement (does it usually end up being packed rooms with 8, 10, 15, whatever people in it, for example),
And two, if I was looking at something like staying in a room with only 4 other people or so within a couple blocks of the BCC, what is usually the asking price for that?
The second question is whether people know how long it takes for hotels around BWI to usually sell out (or whether they do) in a situation like this year where Otakon and baseball games are going on at the same time. I'm just wondering whether I should get something now or wait to see if any deals come up. (Last year I was able to grab a 30% off deal at the Microtel in Linthicum a month or so before the convention, for example. But if everything will be gone by then, then obviously I don't want to hold off).
Third, and this has less to do with Otakon than a general hotel reservation question, but has anyone used a service like hotwire to reserve a hotel around BWI, and if so, what hotels do you usually end up getting. I'm just wondering since you can't see what hotel you get until after you reserve (and you can't cancel the reservation). I can take an educated guess, but if anyone already knows, then that's cool.
Thanks.
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So, when should one start looking out for those looking for additional roomies? I probably wouldn't settle on anything yet, just because websites like Travelocity and Hotels.com wont even let one search that far in the future, so I can't even find out what hotels outside of Baltimore look like yet. I just didn't know when people start collecting others to share in a room lol.
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often hotels that are cheap are that way for a reason too.
IIRC, the place in question is known as a bit of a dive. Unless they've cleaned the place up some recently, you might want to look elsewhere.
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However, I did see that the "America's Best Value Inn" in Towson, MD looked fairly inexpensive, but I haven't seen any reviews of it online or anything. I was just wondering if anyone stayed there or if they've heard anything about it. I like cheap hotels because they're inexpensive, but then again, often hotels that are cheap are that way for a reason too.
Give me an address, and I'll drive by and see how seedy the joint looks.
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So, is this the "I want to stay downtown but I'm too lazy to organize a room myself, so I'm looking for people who have already booked and are looking for roommates" thread too?
Edit: I was also looking at hotels around the city too, just cause I want to keep my options open, and there doesn't look like there is much that a single person can get without paying over $100 a night (this past year I got lucky by catching the Microtel in Linthicum while they had a 30% off sale on hotels.com).
However, I did see that the "America's Best Value Inn" in Towson, MD looked fairly inexpensive, but I haven't seen any reviews of it online or anything. I was just wondering if anyone stayed there or if they've heard anything about it. I like cheap hotels because they're inexpensive, but then again, often hotels that are cheap are that way for a reason too.
Schedule up, what now?
in Otakon 2008
Posted
I really want to see Girl Who Leapt Through Time (even though I've already seen it), but it's at the same time as the Media Blasters panel (and I wanted to hit all the big industry panels if I could), though (with all respect to Media Blasters) I suppose if there was an industry panel to skip, that might be it (no way I'm skipping Kadokawa, Funimation, or ADV, for example).
There doesn't seem to be as many anime shows being screened that I'm very interested in this year than there was last year, so I'm not sure how much I'll be doing that. It seems this year will definitely be big on the panels for me. And I'm sure I can stick in the JAM Project concert as well since it finishes before the light rails stop running.