DUBLIN 2019: An Irish Worldcon August 15-19 2019

[Filippa Eilhart]

we booked Camden Court hotel.

[DaveAx]

Hilton was not available as of the moment booking opened, so I went for the Maldron. Just like San Jose -- ended up with my second choice, a bit further away and more expensive. 

I'm hoping that this doesn't happen for Eurocon as well.

[Lil Red Head]

On 1/9/2019 at 4:59 PM, mormont said:

Did you fill out the participant survey?

(I'd link but the website is busy today, for some reason. :p)

I did. I figure they're looping back to programming later. I'm running a con the week before and I'm just getting to programming stuff myself, aiming for February to get that rolling. It's a hugely different scale, the two cons, but the timeline makes sense. 

[Xray the Enforcer]

On 1/7/2019 at 12:35 AM, Toft said:

Any word yet of a BwB party?

Not as of yet. Still working on logistics.

[Werthead]

On 1/10/2019 at 5:14 AM, DaveAx said:

Hilton was not available as of the moment booking opened, so I went for the Maldron. Just like San Jose -- ended up with my second choice, a bit further away and more expensive. 

I'm hoping that this doesn't happen for Eurocon as well.

EuroCon is very unlikely to have these kind of problems. Dublin has a bizarrely small number of hotels for the size of the city (which is causing the problems) and has just changed the laws relating to AirBnBs (which is massively exasperating those problems), whilst Belfast has quite a lot of hotels relative to its size and backpacker hostels and doesn't have the AirBnB limitation (yet).

[DaveAx]

26 minutes ago, Werthead said:

On 1/10/2019 at 12:14 AM, DaveAx said:

Hilton was not available as of the moment booking opened, so I went for the Maldron. Just like San Jose -- ended up with my second choice, a bit further away and more expensive. 

I'm hoping that this doesn't happen for Eurocon as well.

EuroCon is very unlikely to have these kind of problems.

The Titancon website says they have "...secured 100 rooms in the Hilton...." Eleven of them, we're told, are accessible rooms, which leaves only 89 for con-goers w/o accessibility issues.

In comparison, the Hilton in Dublin had 70 rooms set aside for con-goers.

While I know the overall attendance -- and thus competition for rooms -- at Titancon will be less than that at Worldcon, this appears to me to be essentially the same basic situation: my first choice hotel, at least in terms of convenience, has an extremely limited number of rooms, and my chances of getting one are thus equally limited. 

Since the con has yet to announce anything about alternative lodging options, I can't tell whether or not I'll be spending more or less if I don't get that choice.

They also have not indicated whether full advance payment will be required, which would be nice to know for budgetary purposes.

[Werthead]

59 minutes ago, DaveAx said:

The Titancon website says they have "...secured 100 rooms in the Hilton...." Eleven of them, we're told, are accessible rooms, which leaves only 89 for con-goers w/o accessibility issues.

In comparison, the Hilton in Dublin had 70 rooms set aside for con-goers.

While I know the overall attendance -- and thus competition for rooms -- at Titancon will be less than that at Worldcon, this appears to me to be essentially the same basic situation: my first choice hotel, at least in terms of convenience, has an extremely limited number of rooms, and my chances of getting one are thus equally limited. 

Since the con has yet to announce anything about alternative lodging options, I can't tell whether or not I'll be spending more or less if I don't get that choice.

They also have not indicated whether full advance payment will be required, which would be nice to know for budgetary purposes.

I've passed all of that onto the accommodation team. This is something that's literally been worked on this week (EuroCon has undergone a change of team leadership which meant a brief delay as new team-members we brought up to speed) and I know the plan is to get all of that information up and running over the next fortnight or so.

[Toft]

On 1/12/2019 at 9:56 AM, Xray the Enforcer said:

Not as of yet. Still working on logistics.

I am very happy to help with all aspects of the party.

[Werthead]

The EuroCon hotel situation and memberships should be sorted out this week. Still waiting for an official date when we'll be announcing the GoH.

[Lil Red Head]

For Dublin, we have a reservation for Wednesday night through Monday morning. It's at the Jurys Inn Parnell Street, and we got a triple occupancy room, so we have room for one more if anyone is looking to split a room. I'd rather share with someone I know or someone known by those we know, so any BWB pretty much qualify. Bonus points if you're a con volunteer (Worldcon or TitanCon).

 

 

[Pebble thats Stubby]

For those also going to TitanCon I am organising depending on demand 2 group trips for the HBO Game of Thrones Touring exhibition will be in Belfast at the Titanic Expedition Center

The group rate is £14 per person instead of £17.50 for Adults and those over the age of 13.

1 group for early arrivers on Wednesday 21st at approx 3pm,  and a 2nd group for Thursday morning before TitanCon officially starts at about 10am.

 

If you are interested please send me an E-mail   on  wendyduly @ outlook DOT com  and let me know what day you want to go on.

(this is a specially created E-mail for this purpose only)  - I will not be taking money until I have enough people for the group rates

[DaveAx]

6 hours ago, Pebble said:

The group rate is £14 per person instead of £17.50 for Adults and those over the age of 13.

Are there discounted rates for seniors?

[Pebble thats Stubby]

9 hours ago, DaveAx said:

Are there discounted rates for seniors?

Unfortunately not.    Children under 13 get a discount.   Children cost £12.50 under 5 are free.

they do say the exhibits are not suitable for children though so bring them at your own risk.

 

[williamjm]

On 1/12/2019 at 8:00 PM, DaveAx said:

The Titancon website says they have "...secured 100 rooms in the Hilton...." Eleven of them, we're told, are accessible rooms, which leaves only 89 for con-goers w/o accessibility issues.

In comparison, the Hilton in Dublin had 70 rooms set aside for con-goers.

While I know the overall attendance -- and thus competition for rooms -- at Titancon will be less than that at Worldcon, this appears to me to be essentially the same basic situation: my first choice hotel, at least in terms of convenience, has an extremely limited number of rooms, and my chances of getting one are thus equally limited. 

Since the con has yet to announce anything about alternative lodging options, I can't tell whether or not I'll be spending more or less if I don't get that choice.

They also have not indicated whether full advance payment will be required, which would be nice to know for budgetary purposes.

The hotel booking page is now up on the website:

http://titancon.com/2019/hotels.php?fbclid=IwAR0srmCfKmEBsrN9MTAVyYo_cBzHyv48jAuI6MdDp4l0eZYLjKtoi0SNavs

 

[Fragile Bird]

On 1/12/2019 at 3:00 PM, DaveAx said:

The Titancon website says they have "...secured 100 rooms in the Hilton...." Eleven of them, we're told, are accessible rooms, which leaves only 89 for con-goers w/o accessibility issues.

In comparison, the Hilton in Dublin had 70 rooms set aside for con-goers.

While I know the overall attendance -- and thus competition for rooms -- at Titancon will be less than that at Worldcon, this appears to me to be essentially the same basic situation: my first choice hotel, at least in terms of convenience, has an extremely limited number of rooms, and my chances of getting one are thus equally limited. 

Since the con has yet to announce anything about alternative lodging options, I can't tell whether or not I'll be spending more or less if I don't get that choice.

They also have not indicated whether full advance payment will be required, which would be nice to know for budgetary purposes.

Did you book your room, Dave? I had no problem booking 4 nights, a room with twin beds. And yes, they required payment in full.

[DaveAx]

I just successfully booked a room at the Hilton. And, yes, paid in advance.
Arriving on the 21st, departing on the 26th -- 5 nights in Belfast.

I then immediately booked my flight via Orbitz, and managed to score a decent R/T fare of $840 on American with non-stop flights both ways. 

The inbound flight is a red-eye, putting me at Dublin airport at 9 AM. So now I can contact my hotel there to see about early checkin. I had thought to take Aer Lingus, which is about $100 cheaper, but their PHL-DUB flight arrives at 5 AM, which would make for much too long a wait before a room might be available. I'm deliberately arriving on the 13th, so that I have some jet-lag recovery time before things get interesting.

My departing flight is leaving at 11:20 from Dublin, so I'll have to wake up early in order to hop a bus from Belfast to the airport. But that shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

(Of course, if anyone's driving Belfast->Dublin that morning, or wants to team up for a hire car, I'm happy to discuss it. Now that the basics are complete, there's time to work on such details.

[Pebble thats Stubby]

For those interested I have a twin room booked in Belfast from Tuesday 20th check out Mon 26th.

 

If someone would like to share that room please PM me

[Fragile Bird]

2 hours ago, Pebble said:

For those interested I have a twin room booked in Belfast from Tuesday 20th check out Mon 26th.

 

If someone would like to share that room please PM me

What have you done about Dublin? Are you allowed to keep the air b&b?

[Pebble thats Stubby]

5 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

What have you done about Dublin? Are you allowed to keep the air b&b?

There is no problem with my Airbnb as far as I know.  why would I not be allowed to keep it?

[Fragile Bird]

4 minutes ago, Pebble said:

There is no problem with my Airbnb as far as I know.  why would I not be allowed to keep it?

Because the Irish government has disallowed air b&bs? I thought that's what I read, am I wrong?

And do you have any space available?