BotCon 2010 date and location announced

[Paulbot]

TransformersClub members (such as myself) have been sent an email about BotCon 2010


We have been working very hard getting information ready for BotCon 2010. We will be announcing before Christmas the date and place for next year so that you can make your vacation plans. - Watch BotCon.com for future info!

[Paulbot]

The Transformers Collectors' Club is happy to bring you this Christmas wish:* *
Join us at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel and Convention Center for
BotCon 2010 June 24-27, 2010!

You can now make your hotel arrangements. Don't delay as the block will fill up fast!* Our special BotCon convention rate is $134 per night.* This breaks down as $124 per night for your room + a $10 Resort Services fee per room per day.* The Resort Services fee includes unlimited high speed internet, bottled water (replenished daily), unlimited local calls, 60 minutes of 800 number calls, and 20 minutes of domestic long distance calls each day.* In addition, parking at the hotel will be $5 per day.

Additional information will be available around the first of February including available Convention Packages, Shuttle information and discounted Walt Disney World Park ticketsTime to start planning.

[pheonix83]

oh im sooo jealous :(

[Sleeve]

Time to start planning.

I still haven't recovered financially from this year's trip. Though, could try start saving again.......

[griffin]

For those wondering which Disney 'place' (there are 2 in America), it is the one in Florida.
http://www.botcon.com/BotCon10/

Interesting to see that they are calling it a 4-day event this year, probably see the need after having a packed 3-day schedule in 2009 and had to extend the hours of the final day just to cope with all the people that had showed up from the local area.

I'm having trouble trying to decide on what days to book at the hotel, to give myself enough time too explore the local area and do the Disney World park (which may need a couple days).
QLD School holidays start June 26th, which might make it difficult to get time off work (the parents at work apply for holiday leave, up to a year beforehand for school holidays).

Just remember, if you are contemplating going, and is still too far away to decide, book a room or pair up with someone who has a 2-bed room and wants to split the costs. Check the cancellation conditions, but usually if you cancel at least 2 days before hand, you won't be charged anything. Therefore, it is best to secure a room early, and when you decide later for sure if you are going to be needing it, it will be there.

Be aware that the above discount rate is for 7 days - Monday 21st to Sunday 27th (checking out Monday 28th). And that quoted rate above will be before tax, which is 12.5%.

[griffin]

Looks like additional persons are charged $25, but I wonder how strict they are on finding out who's got more people in a room than they have booked.

[optimus1]

Botcon 2010 is really starting to tempt me now! I'd love to see DisneyWorld :D

I'm starting to contemplate....hmmmmmm

[loophole]

so if i do a reservation now will i get charged straight away or would it happen a few days beforehand or whenever?, never done this sort of stuff before so not sure how this stuff works

[Sleeve]

so if i do a reservation now will i get charged straight away or would it happen a few days beforehand or whenever?, never done this sort of stuff before so not sure how this stuff works

Generally you don't pay until you check out of the hotel. They'll ask for a credit card number now but it's just for security, and you can cancel at anytime but like griffin said you may want to check their cancellation conditions.

Edit:

Cancellation policy - "Should you need to cancel this reservation, your individual deposit is refundable if notice is received at least five (5) days prior to arrival and a cancellation number is obtained. Cancellations must be made by email at grouprez@swandolphin.com."

And considering I'm still contemplating going, I just reserved four nights. Just in case. :p

[loophole]

Generally you don't pay until you check out of the hotel. They'll ask for a credit card number now but it's just for security, and you can cancel at anytime but like griffin said you may want to check their cancellation conditions.

cheers thats all i needed to know :D

[dirge]

Cool, Orlando. Nice & close to Tiger Woods...

There's an NBA team in town, sadly it's the offseason.

[Sleeve]

Received my confirmation email. I'm booked to check in at the Swan on the 23rd and check out on the 27th.

EDIT:

Saw this on TFW2005 -

"Response has been incredible! In less than 24 hours the room block is at 185% of capacity. The hotel will continue to take reservations until there is no availability left and then we will look at overflow properties outside of the Swan and Dolphin complex.

Currently there is availability at the Dolphin for every night except Wednesday the 23rd and Thursday the 24th. HOWEVER, there is plenty of space still available at the Swan for all nights. The Swan hotel is about 100 yards from the Dolphin and they share the same swimming pool complex. So, if the reservationist needs to put you in the Swan, don't worry, they are right next to each other and it will only take about 2 minutes longer to walk to the convention center."


Anyone thinking of going should book fast unless they want to wait until the next rund of hotel offers or make alternative accomodation plans.

[SeishinKibou]

ooOOoOOOO I might be able to come along to this one! But it really does depends on how much the flight and accom will cost. I'll have to go around my contacts and see where people are staying and suchhhh Disneyworllld Eyyyayy

[griffin]

Got a confirmation email as well (at 2.13am this morning), for the full 7 days, but I wonder how 'confirmed' it really is if they have an extra 85% reservations for the pre-arranged allotment.

I also think that these recent years of over-whelming first-day reservations, is from people like me who are just holding a room in case they go - and probably many of those original reservations are cancelled over the many months leading up to the convention. So I think it could be misleading to have all those rooms pre-booked, but we'll still see a record turnout.

[Sleeve]

ooOOoOOOO I might be able to come along to this one! But it really does depends on how much the flight and accom will cost. I'll have to go around my contacts and see where people are staying and suchhhh Disneyworllld Eyyyayy

So far my four nights accomodation is US$536. I made sure to request two beds for the purpose of having someone stay with me, and it's $25 extra each night for another person. Should I have someone stay with me, which is ideally what I'd like as it becomes a lot cheaper, the total cost is $636, so US$318 for each person. Depending on how the dollar sits, it's going to be a hell of a lot cheaper for me than this year.



Got a confirmation email as well (at 2.13am this morning), for the full 7 days, but I wonder how 'confirmed' it really is if they have an extra 85% reservations for the pre-arranged allotment.

I received a second email this morning after I rang them to rectify a mistake they'd made. They'd only booked me three nights, not four. About 15 minutes after I got off the phone from them the email came through and it was a different format to the first, with all the details about check-in and check-out and the extras I requested, costs, charges and everything.

[SeishinKibou]

So far my four nights accomodation is US$536. I made sure to request two beds for the purpose of having someone stay with me, and it's $25 extra each night for another person. Should I have someone stay with me, which is ideally what I'd like as it becomes a lot cheaper, the total cost is $636, so US$318 for each person. Depending on how the dollar sits, it's going to be a hell of a lot cheaper for me than this year.


Awese~ I'll have to do some budgeting calculations to see if I can afford the trip and still have money for SDCC 2011. Also the price of the flights will be another thing. But I think I can make the event. I just need to see if my career job gets a take off. Though I'm sure a weekend away isnt really going to cut into it too much. Save a seat~ =D

[Sleeve]

It's settled, I'm going back to Botcon. :D

[griffin]

I still only have the original reservation request. Maybe I should ring up and get another email sent like you did sleeve.

[Sleeve]

I still only have the original reservation request. Maybe I should ring up and get another email sent like you did sleeve.

I'd recommend it. Leaves a safe state of mind knowing you've definitely got the reservation. The Hilton buggered up my on the first hit this year as well, and along with all the problems I had getting the details right for my Primus package, I've learnt that when attending Botcon it's best to make a phonecall to ensure everything is in order. Knowing my luck I'll still end up having 'Mooloolava' as my location on my pass again. :p

[griffin]

An update shows a photo of where the two hotels (Dolphin and Swan) are located in relation to the convention centre - for anyone yet to book, or have already missed out on the closer (Dolphin) hotel.

http://www.botcon.com/BotCon10/

It is certainly a massive complex, and that's just the hotel side of things.
I just don't understand the point of having fancy, expensive hotels at Theme-parks, if you are only there for the theme-park. You won't be spending much 'awake-time' in the hotel, or using its features, and the only reason you are staying there is because it is the closest hotel to the theme-park (which you'd be spending most of your time at anyway). A theme-park hotel should be the cheapest, no-frills type of hotel imaginable, because its not like someone would stay at the hotel, just for the hotel itself and not be there for the theme-park.

[Kyle]

I wonder if they picked this location to coincide with the promotion of the new Disney produced TF cartoon...

[Sleeve]

Just changed my reservation. I'd originally reserved to leave on the 27th, but as my flight home was from LA at 11:30pm, I realised I'd never to be able to get from Orlando to there in time. Now my return flight is on the 29th, so I'm staying an extra night in Florida (the 27th) and crashing at a friend's place in LA on the 28th.

[griffin]

You already booked flights?
I was going to wait a few weeks to see if any sales popped up. And if not, some of the current flight options were still okay for me. And even if by chance the flights I want sell out, I should be more flexable this year with time before and after the convention.

[Sleeve]

I'm doing the same as last year, whereby I visit my friend in Illinois for a couple of weeks before I head to Botcon, so wanted to plan early. Whereas last year I flew return to LA, this year I'm flying direct to Chicago but then home from LA, and the price of the flight worked out the same as the last year's return added with a domestic. So I figured same price, better dollar, why not?

The itinerary I have planned I can't see going on sale as such, and even if it does I won't be too fazed.

[Mecheon]

Man I am tempted to go. Just the whole America thing

Anyone up for being a meatshield/doubling up on costs or something? :p

[griffin]

Disney are offering discounted tickets into their Florida themeparks for BotCOn attendees, but the savings they are quoting look to be way off.
They say that the BotCon rate themepark tickets are up to 10% off, but only look to be about 4% saving. And even if it really was 10% off, I was hoping it would be like half price or something significant. For me, with the amount of money I'll be blowing on toys, a saving of $10-20 for a themepark ticket is rather negligable....

Link to the BotCon discounts - http://www.disneyconventionear.com/BOT

Link to the regular pricing - http://tickets.disney.go.com/buy/TicketTrans

And I think I'll be deciding closer to the event, how many days I have available for checking out the themeparks, and probably buy the tickets later or while there.

[Sleeve]

Oh, how it pains me to do this. Due to a few personal and a lot of financial issues, I've had to cancel my trip. No Botcon for me this year. :(

[griffin]

Update from the Convention organisors - pre-registration has been delayed another month to early March. Blaming it on setting up online registration (and still not guaranteeing it will be happening), which was what delayed it last year as well. Something they should have been working on earlier so that it was ready for the February pre-registration date.

Even though I might end up being the only one going this year, this is still news for those looking to buy non-attendee packs.

[griffin]

Despite all the claims that registration would be up by February...
Now that the deadline for this year's membership toy has passed, we'll probably see registration forms on the botcon website any day now. Demonac suggested that the delay was more likely intentional, to make sure the majority of people who registered last year had their membership expire to prevent them getting 2 convention discounts from the one membership payment.
Makes sense if true, but why have us believing in the first place that registration would be up in February...