OK I know it's early (not really) but there's no hotel at the actual convention site of SWW so I guess I would like to get a consensus of which hotel you plan on staying. I would hate to be the only one at the XYZ hotel when everybody else is staying at the ABC hotel. The afore mentioned hotels they are only for the purpose of discussion and are in fact fictional hotels. I guess I just want to be with all the other gee.... UH users!
I probably won't be going, but it's being held in the same hotel where they held the one in 2000. It's on the edge of the French Quarter and there are a lot of nice little hotels within walking distance that are (or were in 2000) a lot less expensive and much more charming. I can't remember the name of the one I stayed at, but there are any number of them. As an example, I found the Royal St. Charles which is about 5 blocks further away than the Hilton and is only $129 a night instead of $199.
Actually, now that I look at the site, it looks like it will be held in the Convention Center, not in the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. If that is true, then it puts it about a half a mile further from the nice little hotels. Still not too far to walk, so I would go for one of the little hotels.
On the other hand, I don't remember bumping into anyone else in my small hotel who was going to SWW, so you might be a lot happier in one of the featured hotels, unless you work it out ahead of time with some of your newsgroup buddies..
Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"
When they started New Orleans, they naturally enough put it on land that didn't flood too easily. I doubt that the French Quarter and the area around it where the hotels are sustained much damage. It might even be nicer next year if there aren't quite so many tourists around as there were in 2000. Not that I objected that much to having a drink or two in the bar while we waited for a table to open up.
Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"
If you stay anywhere near the conference center, you won't know that anything had occurred with the exception of the odd malfunctioning signal light.
If you go, make it a point to ride out to New Orleans east, or Gentilly, or the vaulted "Lower 9th Ward". You have never and will never see anything like this again in a developed country. Words and pictures simply cannot convey the magnitude of what you will see. Don't think that because the French Quarter survived more or less intact that everything is okay. It's not and won't be for a long, long time.
You are correct, the tourists are few and far between. So getting in bars, restaurants and other popular venues is much easier. Parking is much less difficult as well.
Please be very mindful when you come. The National Guard was brought in a couple of months ago because the street crime had gotten out of hand. They are supposed to leave in December. Couple this with the cessation of FEMA financial supplements for the evacuees will create an interesting situation regarding the ability of these individuals to "support" themselves.
Cheers,
=========================================================================== Chris
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