I keep trying to book the presidential suite, but I think it was just a one time deal. :[

I posted in the DFW Group, asking Ed and/or Paul. Non refundable deposits a year in advance seems highly... dumb. I'd rather make the pennies on my hundred and seventy bucks over the next year and not give them to Hilton...

If the deposit really is required, and Josh ends up not being able to get the days off work (which he won't know until mid-December, FFS...), I'm selling the room for profit. >

Ed replied on Facebook. Thanks to a handful of douchenozzles, we all have to pay a stupid deposit this year. He's checking on the parking fees.

.... Frax and I are booked. Completely serious about the selling the room if I need to. *shakes fist*

https://www.facebook.com/groups/dfwpinballclub/permalink/1439116502806416/

I'm not sure how there was little to no parking, anytime I glanced outside the hotel room window on Saturday the top of the parking deck was empty (like, literally, there was maybe six cars out there). There was overflow parking for trucks at the ballfield, and plenty of parking right across the street in addition to the parking deck at the hotel.

Also... The show is basically at capacity right now, size wise. The room we used at the Grapevine Hilton is 14.4k square feet. The last year the show was held there (2012) it was overflowing, and the lines at peak time were eight folks deep per machine. There was little to no room to actually walk around, and heaven help you if you happened to be chasing around a three year old at the time...

The Anatole is the winner in terms of size, with 45k being their largest single hall. Problem there was they nickle and dimed EVERYBODY... I still want to choke a bitch remembering loadout, watching the hotel workers pull the water containers along the walls the minute the show closed, filling up water bottles in the bathroom, and them screaming that we had to vacate the premises as fast as we could as they were already setting up for another show. Huge mehhhhh. (And there were no perks like parking, or alcohol, or proximity to shopping/eateries. No, Medieval Times didn't count...) One of the organizers would have to chime in for a definitive answer, but it sure sounded like here the name of the game was pay early, often, and more than you wanted to pay. Parking the truck on a side street and fighting some homeless guys for the space was just bonus points?

The current hall we're using in Frisco is 41760 square feet. The hotel from what I've heard talking to Ed and Kim is a lot easier to work with in terms of packages and what they're able to negotiate, and has the advantages of proximity to retail shopping/restaurants (and that's ignoring the food trucks that they've been able to pull in). My fear at this point is that within the next few years we're going to outgrow it to the point that we're going to have to move somewhere else. :[

edit - In case anyone wants to fact check: http://texaspinball.com/tpf/previous-shows/

2014- 2018 - Embassy Suites Frisco
2013 - Hilton Anatole
2007-2012 - Grapevine Hilton
2003-2006 - Holiday Inn Irving
2005 - Arlington

I left about 7am and got back about 9am on Saturday and was able to park about five spots away from where I'd left at. Admittedly, around lunch time I wasn't anywhere near the room - it sucks that you weren't able to find anywhere to park.

What's amusing to me is that without the TPF negotiated free parking, the hotel charges guests ten dollars a day to park - but it was all open for five dollar parking both Saturday and Sunday.

Wait, I thought some of those were mine.

Would rather have Tetris.

Ignoring the pinball logo, you'd fit right in most of Texas with that hat...

Colors didn't even enter my train of thought. It was the condition. You forget where I grew up at. o.o

I haven't even opened page seven yet, and there's an awful lot of folks here that need more happy hour.