OK, so I have lots of details for this already as I've actually been planning both trips for the last couple of weeks. One of the reasons I thought this one would be better is that I think it will be easier for us to find things to do together.

That said, by Friday you can contact this Hilton and make reservations under our group rate with the group name VSFest (I don't know when online reservations will work).

The dates are Check-in July 17 and Check-out July 20.

1. Rooms per night are going to run about $130 per night (This is up to quad occupency, so if you want to share a room with two double beds you may be able to cut costs that way.)
   
2. Parking is $15 self park, or $19 valet (unlimited daily removal)
   
3. I was planning on reserving us a meeting room at the hotel with a TV so that we can hook up Rock Band in the evenings. This is going to cost about 160 per day for Fri/Sat/Sun. We will have the room and the TV for the full day, so we should be able to take laptops down and have a LAN party or whatever we want.
   (I will probably just divide that up among the number of folks coming but it shouldn't be more than about $30 per person for the weekend.)
   
4. Transportation: This is a bit tricky and I don’t have it completely worked out yet, but here’s what I was thinking…
   
   
   • We will probably have enough cars to get us around carpool-style during the day.
     
   • We would likely still have enough cars to get us around carpool-style in the evenings, but then we run into the problems of needing a DD and the possibility of getting lost.
     
   • So my alternative is to get a charter service to take us to and from dinner. That would probably run about $55-$80 per person depending on how many people end up coming. (this assumes needing the ride from from about 7pm until 2am so price may change if we decide we can manage with different time constraints).
     
   • Keep in mind this is something we can discuss for a bit and make a decision a little bit later, but in order to get my desired mode of transport we probably need to act fast.
   
   
5. The agenda (or at least that which I can think of so far):
   
   
   • Friday
     
     
     • Arrival and hotel check in.
       
     • Dinner (try to leave the hotel around 7 location tbd)
       
     • City museum and bar
       
       
     
     
   • Saturday
     
     
     • Six Flags (this will likely be all day)
       
       
       • roller coasters or water park they’re side by side, so it’s your choice
         
       • keep in mind if we decide to stay for the concert series that may affect our need for the bus as well
       
       
     • Back to the hotel to get ready for dinner
       
     • Dinner to be determined followed by…
       
     • Karaoke bar or Rock band back at the hotel in the conference room.
     
     
   • Sunday (River boat and the Arch)
     I figured some folks may be needing to head out on Sunday, so my thought was to break it up into smaller things so that people could leave when and if they needed to. If we have a bunch leaving on Sunday we may decide we don’t need the bus for dinner, so that may also affect the bus pricing. Just let me know.
     
     
     • There are options on the river boat, one is Sunday brunch which may be cool another is just going for an hour if you want and hanging out.
       
     • The arch is pretty neat, I think the experience of going up and coming down was very cool unless you’re claustrophobic.
       
     • Depending on when we get started and what exactly we do, this may only half the day, so I am working on something else as well. There are a lot of neat things in St. Louis, so let me know if you have any ideas. If we don’t do brunch or lunch on the boat we may want to plan some food related thing, but I’ll update this.
       
     • Dinner (still tbd)
       
     • Rock band at the hotel, or more karaoke or find another bar somewhere…
     
     
   • Monday:
     
     
     • Breakfast at the hotel maybe?
       
     • Or sleep in until the last possible second and check out?
       
     • Go home when you need to.
       
     • I’m leaving Monday open for people who need to get the heck out of dodge or whatever.
   
   
6. Things you will need to pay for…
   
   
   • Hotel room (duh-pricing above)
   
   
   • Bus transport if we decide to use it for the evening. Pricing really depends on how many of us there are, but I think it’s a good idea. This can still be vetoed in part or whole (for instance we may decide we aren’t going to go out drinking one night and won’t need the bus for the return trip). But if we use it all three nights it would be between $55-$80 depending on the final number of us, (if we decide to use it only two days it brings the price to $40-60)
   
   
   • The split fee for the meeting room rental is about $20-30 per person for the weekend (if we decided to cut a day of usage out that brings the price down to $15-20).
   
   
   • Food and Liquor (also duh)
   
   
   • City museum is $12 but its only $8 for groups of 15 or more, so we should have that going for us.
   
   
   • I am not paying for Torrin’s hookers—so he will have to cover that himself.
   
   
   • Six Flags (tickets are about $30-$45 for single day (depending on specials) or you can get a season pass for $65 which is good at all of the Six Flags (which may be good if you live near one and need an excuse to go).
     
   • River boat—this depends on what we do on the boat… (all prices are per person)
     
     
     • $13 gets you a 1-hour guided boat tour
       
     • $38 gets you Sunday brunch on the boat from 12:30-3:00pm and includes the ride itself, brunch and live “Dixieland” music.
       
     • $46 gets you a tour of the Mississippi river loch system that lasts from 10:30am to 3:30pm and includes the ride, a buffet lunch, and live “Dixieland” music. (There’s a $2 group rate discount here if we have enough making it $44)
   
   
   • The arch costs about $7-10 (I think they cost us $10 at the door but you can get them in advance for $7)
   
   
   • Airfare, or whatever means you need to use to make your way to St. Louis (duh)
     
   • I’m sure I’m missing something here…
     so, let me know if you can think of anything.
   If there is something you want to do in St. Louis in addition or instead of anything here, let me know. If you know of any great restaurants that you think everyone would enjoy, then by all means let me know, this is your trip too!
   
   
   
   Any other problems, questions, concerns, let me know!
   More info as I get it.
   

Wow, I'm impressed, thanks for organizing all this, Hom!!! Time to start planning travel...

Um, which weekend in July?

Um, which weekend in July?

I can't believe I forgot that... lol... its updated above...
Check-in July 17 and Check-out July 20.

With regards to getting lost... wouldn't rentals have GPS available?

With regards to getting lost... wouldn't rentals have GPS available?

Not intending to shoot you down here, my biggest concern is really to have everyone being safe.

Most of the rental companies will rent you a GPS... but the GPS seldom helps drunk drivers...
and are sometimes hard to follow if your the one sober person in a car full of drunk riders...
(Ask Arachne, she had to follow the GPS back to my aunt's house in Annapolis from inner city Baltimore while my drunk ass aunt and mom sat in the back seat yelling at each other and the GPS... it was a bit rocky)

I'm certainly not saying this couldn't be done, I'm just think having 20-30 people split into 5-7 cars trying to find their way though the streets of St. Louis with whatever construction and other obstacles my be in the way may be troublesome...

That said, we may still need a couple people who are willing to rent a car. For getting around during the day and helping to get folks to the airport.

Plus: Did you look at the bus?!?

No..... I was just curious about the gps because there are likely some that aren't heavy drinkers. Not a big deal though. Right now I'm trying to figure out my transportation options because the airfare is around $500 CAD. Throw in rental costs and it is not a pretty sight...

I am also not a heavy drinker on most occasions so if a DD is needed I can take care of that.

I am also not a heavy drinker on most occasions so if a DD is needed I can take care of that.

Isn't one Demondoodle more than enough???

N
Most of the rental companies will rent you a GPS... but the GPS seldom helps drunk drivers...


For serious. One time I got in a car - I dunno who it belonged to- It was after closing and I was WASTED. I was cold and it was unlocked. I tried to call up a 24 hour liquor store but the stupid thing couldn't FIND one. Dumb thing even gave me directions that wound up wrecking me into a tree. Last time I use a GPS.

No..... I was just curious about the gps because there are likely some that aren't heavy drinkers.

Like I said, if we have enough willing to drive we can go that route.

Also, keep in mind that the room rates are up to quad occupancy. So, if you want a roommate, PM me and maybe I can put people together to help you defer the costs of rooms a bit.

Don't immediately grab a rental car either, because if we have enough folks driving you may decide you don't need one.

This brings me to another thing...

If you are planning on driving up, send me a PM including the number of empty seats in your vehicle.
If you are willing to be a DD for one or any or all nights, send me a PM telling me the number of nights (and any preference you have about which ones).
If you are bringing your car, not willing to be a DD, but willing to let a DD drive your car... let me know that as well...

I will put a spreadsheet of all of this together and see what I can come up with. I know I will have my truck and Arachne doesn't drink so she can DD every night (so that would cover 4-5 of us).

From the hotel to six flags, it's estimated $63.39 for a cab. Split between 3/4 per load and it's not bad.

If there are some willing to not get hammered, what about a van rental rather than a chartered one?

From the hotel to six flags, it's estimated $63.39 for a cab. Split between 3/4 per load and it's not bad.

If there are some willing to not get hammered, what about a van rental rather than a chartered one?

For six flags I had planned on us taking people's cars.
We probably won't get hammered at Six Flags.

As far as Van rental, that is a possibility I will look into. A 12 passenger van goes for about $500-550 (depending on the car rental place) for the weekend which means if we needed two we would be pretty close to the charter price anyway... if we can keep it to one and drivers of cars we could probably keep cost down more.

Again, though, let me find out how many we have that are willing to drive and we will go from there.
Prices don't fluctuate too much on rental cars/vans, so we can wait a few weeks.

But that is a good idea.

Sorry for double posts, but I thought this needed to be separate.

The rooms are set up as of now (yeah that was fast) so just call the hotel and mention VSFest (they should be $127 per night). Again, if you want to share a room PM me and I will try to find you a roommate, I know we have some singles who this may be particularly good for.

I also have the meeting room reserved for Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a nice flat screen TV.
(The price on that came down a bit, too).

I thought we could use the TV to play Rock Band, or have a LAN party or whatever.

If we decide we don't want the room for all of the time, let me know and I will cancel a day or two.

I kind of think it would be nice to have it Friday because I really wasn't going to set up too much for before Dinner.
I thought I would likely be ferrying airport runs and that room would give us a good location for meet and greet.

Other than that, if we decide we will be out of the hotel too much to get use out of the room let me know and I will cancel the other days (or one of the other days if that's what is needed.)

(Just FYI--The room is costing $100 per day and the TV is about $45 per day, with about a 21% sales tax--so when we divide it by 20-30 people its really not that expensive to keep it. But if we don't need it for all three days, we may want to ditch it.)

I just calculated from the hotel to six flags thinking that would probably be the longest trip.

I just calculated from the hotel to six flags thinking that would probably be the longest trip.

Yes, likely your right it will be. Six Flags is a bit far off from the Hotel.
I think we will probably have 5 to 7 cars in St. Louis (I personally could bring both of mine if need be) so sober driving should be easy.

Also, if we find a good bar/karaoke place within walking distance of the hotel (or very reasonable cab distance) that would help out a lot too. I'm still working on that...

In short, Torrin makes a really good point here.
I will compare taxi prices for the night life for everything and post that as I get it.
I'm still trying to get information about a karaoke bar, so that is my biggest hold-up.
There are several bars in walking distance, but I karaoke may be farther...

OK, more info:
I haven't heard anything from the hotel yet, but these are some I've found.

Karaoke bars:
Bar 101--
http://www.bar101stl.com/soulardnews/djs-and-entertainment.html
The Ugly Fish Pub and Grill--
http://uglyfishbar.com/Upcoming_Events.php
Tom's Bar and Grill--
http://stlouis.citysearch.com/profile/5736840/st_louis_mo/tom_s_bar_grill.html
Novak's Bar and Grill--
http://stlouis.citysearch.com/profile/11501988/st_louis_mo/novak_s_bar_grill.html
Johnny Gitto's Restaurant--
http://www.stlouis.com/nightlife/karaoke-bars.html

OMG I have missed so much today! Stupid work...

I am fairly certain I am in for this. And I'll see if I can drag Fox into it too. :) You can count us in as "drinkers" not "drivers" and we will have no means of transportation. I think the taxi-when-we-need-it route will work out nicely, rather than committing to expensive means of transportation that we won't necessarily need. And that allows more spending money for... booze! Oh, and I'd of course be willing to pitch in for gas or a rental car if needed.

I'm moving in May, so will have to see how much money I have left!

Wow, that is some amazing organization!

Although I would love to get to know some of you (even though my computer has been FUBAR for a while now and many of you don't know me that well), on July 20th I will be moving from Korea, putting some stuff in a backpack, and well... getting lost!

Have a great time! It sounds like a BLAST!

I don't think my Deathgrip reaches that far.

Anyway, uh.. I can't totally commit to the plan yet since I HAVE to move in May so money may be an issue but providing I can make it, I'll split a room with someone. I snore, prefer to be naked and tend to hump in my sleep. Any takers?

I snore, prefer to be naked and tend to hump in my sleep. Any takers?

We'll let you share a room with Eulz... You'll probably be dead in the morning, but hey: You'll only have to pay for half the room... lol...

BTW:
I sort of jumped the gun on the hotel reservation thing.
Probably you won't be able to make the reservations as part of the block until Monday.
I have to sign the contract and get it back in first and then there is a wait before it will go in.

Hom - I'm going to talk to your brother and see if he'd be willing to drive up to St. Louis for this. That should give us 2-3 more car seating spaces depending on which vehicle we bring.

Hom - I'm going to talk to your brother and see if he'd be willing to drive up to St. Louis for this. That should give us 2-3 more car seating spaces depending on which vehicle we bring.

You realize that its a long drive, right?
Your looking at about 12 hours at least
(and that's knocking 3 hours off Google's estimate...)

I plan to drive up. I will be in a pick-up so that would only be driver +2.

Yeah but you can haul passed out people in the back!