Air / Hotel deals for DEMA

[Bob3]

Just booked air & hotel for DEMA; got a pretty decent deal from Southwest's vacation packages, many more hotels available plus you can pick the number of days you want to stay.

http://www.swavacations.com/specials/fs0056.asp

[Ted S]

Thanks for the link, I'm sure others will find it useful.

We look forward to meeting everyone who will be attending the show in a few weeks (ScubaBoard will be at booth #4206 near the concession area and retailer resource center).

[oxyhacker]

Not to many deals in Vegas this time. Steve's favorite hotel, the Algiers (last 50's cinderblock motel on the strip, $32 a night) has been torn down. And no $54 rooms at the Luxor. Pretty shabby that the official DEMA accomodations is down to only CircusCircus, Riviera and Hilton (also means no handy free shuttles everywhere) but now that the monorail is extended you have a lot more choices of non-Dema hotels.

We have booked at the Boardwalk which Trip Advisor says is a bit shabby (though I doubt as bad as CC) but a good value, and right in the middle of everything, think we are paying about $60 a night. Got a $10 a day rental car on the Southwest website though when they added the tax etc it was a whopping $16!

[Vickie In Vegas]

Lady Luck downtown has some deals...

[Otter]

I am staying in Circus Circus. Is there a shuttle for monorail over to the convention center? Or am I hoofing it like I did in '02?

[Bob3]

I am staying in Circus Circus. Is there a shuttle for monorail over to the convention center? Or am I hoofing it like I did in '02?
http://www.lvmonorail.com is the monorail site w/map. It looks like Circus Circus' closest monorail terminal is the Sahara, heck of a hike.
I was at the CC once, that was 'nuff for me. Got stuck across the road with no close access to food, etc. Cheezy rooms, too.
It'll be interesting to check out the 'rail & see what new frontiers it opens up.
I like the Sahara & Stratosphere 'cuz they're at the fringe of the strip, out of the congestion.
I used to rent a car except I wound up walking more, now I just use a cab & rent a day or 2 if I have some chasing around to do.

[Vickie In Vegas]

I wouldn't trust the monorail... It's down more than it runs some weeks. CC is a short jaunt to the convention center. It's about a miles to get there. The weather is beautiful now so it's not a bad walk. Plus you'll get to some of the local Vegas freaks.

[Ted S]

The strip is always a fun walk and as Vickie mentioned, it's not a particurly long one (unless it's mid-summer). Of course there is always a cab ride for a few bucks or the hotel bus that costs even less.

[friscuba]

I wouldn't trust the monorail... It's down more than it runs some weeks. CC is a short jaunt to the convention center. It's about a miles to get there. The weather is beautiful now so it's not a bad walk. Plus you'll get to some of the local Vegas freaks.

Vickie.... You're killin' me. I'm stying at the Tropicana figuring I could walk to the MGM and hop on the monorail. Hopefully it's working all week or I'll get a bit more of a workout than planned. Not that I can't use it.

Gonna be fun either way.

[Vickie In Vegas]

Vickie.... You're killin' me. I'm stying at the Tropicana figuring I could walk to the MGM and hop on the monorail. Hopefully it's working all week or I'll get a bit more of a workout than planned. Not that I can't use it.

Gonna be fun either way.

It's been up for 3-4 weeks, that's pretty good. Not to many want to justify the $3 ride each time you get on it. They originally planned for 50K people a day using it, they barely get 20K. Now the managing company is being investigated for how they got tax free status...

Trop is nice, but will be disapearing from the strip soon, so save a chip!

[oxyhacker]

DEMA in the past has always run shuttle buses to the official hotels. Last LV DEMA they had enough hotels (Luxor, etc) at the other end of the strip that there were 3 or 4 shuttle routes, and you could get almost anywhere using the shuttles. This time they just have Riviera and CC, which are the closet strip hotels, and in walking distance, so the utility of the shuttles will be greatly reduced.

There's a cheap ($2?) bus that goes up and down the strip, so once you make it to the strip you can get anywhere on the strip fairly easily, even if the monorail is down.

The official DEMA hotels this year seem pretty limited, and expensive. Last LV DEMA I was riding the same shuttle as the CC people, and they seemed to think it was pretty shabby. And its a lot more expensive this time around. There are a lot of better alternatives if you don't book through DEMA.

[Bob3]

CC sticks conventioneers in the rooms across the street from the main building, they want to save the "good" rooms for gamblers. It's almost as long a walk to get to CC's main hotel as it is to get to the Convention Center.
My poor feet & knees will be exceeding their "daily use allotment" at the show so I'm not going to want to do any warmup/cooldown treks hoofing it to & from the hotel. I tried that once at a COMDEX show & I wound up pretty toasted.
BTW, after getting the tickets from the deal mentioned at the top, the small print saya the deal can't be used for attending conventions. I hope the Trip Police don't catch me!
Another BTW; the Hilton was only an extra $90 for the week, & some of the other posh hotels were well within a penny pincher's budget. ;)

[rcontrera]

Yeah ... I don't go with DEMA anymore for booking. I don't know what commission they get, but I was able to get air and room for a week through Alaska Airlines vacations for what DEMA wanted for room alone.