WC2007 - August 1-7+, 2007 - Vancouver
 

Here's a thread for you to discuss how much fun you're going to have without me.

I don't have any flight details or anything, but I might need to catch a ride from Seattle. Depends on stuff and things.

Also, an arcade is a fun place to hang out, does anyone know of a good arcade with a DDR game in walking/skytrain distance of the hotel?

More also, should I bring board games, card games, wii games, computer games and/or unique games that will be different but have a chance of flopping?

Even more also, could we maybe set up a paypal or something where those of us who have a bit of spare change could pitch in and help the poor folks who have little money make it to the meeting?

Last also, a huge thanks to Trafton for putting this all together!

Just as a small update.. I might not be able to go.

So, iCeD: I hope you have a back-up plan. Sorry.

It will be hard for me to determine whether or not it is feasible for me to go for several more months. I honestly have no idea at this point whether or not it will be possible. I know that that complicates figuring out rooms and costs and transportation, but I just can't say at this point.

If I do go, however, I will certainly be taking a plane to and from either Seattle-Tacoma or Vancouver Int, probably whichever turns out to be the cheapest and/or most convenient depending on which direction I'm headed.

I was looking at flight costs, and it would actually be cheaper for me to fly to Seattle through Vancouver than to fly directly to Vancouver. I have no idea how that works. Direct flights to Seattle from Calgary are also cheaper than direct flights to Vancouver. So money-wise, it might end up working better for me to fly to Seattle. And a road trip might be kind of fun :-).

I'll have to see, though. My summer plans aren't confirmed yet so I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to come. Put me down as "Likely" for status and "Maybe" for Seattle.

There's an arcade with DDR and ITG right on the SkyTrain line in Burnaby. Should be about a 12 minute ride from Columbia station (it's at Metrotown mall). And yes, bring games :-).

That could work on the way there, but I don't know about the way back. I'll keep an eye on flight costs, because there are often sales as the dates approach. I'm also considering the option of driving there—I can easily do it in a day.

Do the rooms have fridges or microwaves or anything? That might help with some of the food costs and fast food fatigue.

That went out of business ages ago. As far as I know there aren't any arcades left in Metrotown, at least not in the parts of the mall I regularly visit. Not that I'd know the location of any good ones, arcades really aren't my thing.

I'm quite certain that Command HQ (CHQ) in Metrotown is still in business.^[1][2]

So, I got the time off work, now I am just watching for tickets.

A note about using Amtrak, most likely you'll be using their bus service. The train service schedule isn't very convenient for flights on the same day.

So, yeah, you can update my status as "Confirmed" and I won't need to go through Seattle and in my notes you can add that e^(i*pi)=-1

It's become rather unlikely that I will be able to make it. I won't go into reasons why here, but I am in a crappy situation and it looks like visiting Vancouver won't be feasible in early August. I'm extremely disappointed, but I have to be realistic. If somehow it becomes in any way possible for me to make it, though, I'll come.

Just a quick note - I might be staying at Gabu's place in Victoria for part of the time that I am in the area in order to conserve funds. Hopefully that won't inconvenience anyone.

You'll be inconveniencing yourself more than anything. Victoria is a few hours away from vancouver.

When I've tried mailing the hotel at the above address it's bounced -- the address that worked for me was themethotel@shaw.ca.

I had written to them asking if they had wireless internet or DSL in the hotel rooms, and got this reply today:

There are two locations for a wireless signal. One is up on the 4th floor (our own signal), or, alot of our guests come to the lobby to use the signal provided by a games store next to our building.

Is this going to be like last year, where you got a block of rooms (if so, it sounds like they should be on the 4th floor, though Me/Elliot might prefer staying in the games store :-)) and then other people had to call and give credit-card info for them, or like the years before that where we had to call and reserve rooms ourselves? Another issue besides the 4th-floor business is that we would like to get one of the rooms with refrigerator and microwave.

I had the impression that Trafton already reserved our rooms, but I'm not sure if they still need a deposit or credit card or anything.

You can put me down as "Confirmed", and "No" for Seattle. I'm able to get the time off work, so I'm just waiting for cheap plane tickets.

I'm willing to handle credit card and reservation stuff for one room (preferably mine), but I will be arriving a bit late on the 1st (9 PM at the latest).

Edit: I've booked my tickets. My flight gets into Vancouver at 6:37 PM on August 1, and leaves at 8:00 AM on August 7.

Right, so I've been asked to post a list of things to do. Ideas have been floating around my head since like february, but this is the first time I've bothered to write anything down. I am NOT going to post a schedule yet (leave that for next month), and this list isn't complete either. I'll be adding to it. You'll notice most of my activities are fairly general things that don't require too much money to be spent.

In no particular oder:

Stanley Park
Easy to get to (it's bascially downtown), very big, lots of stuff do to. Can easily spend a day just walking around, doing whatever you do in parks. There's also an excellent aquarium located in the park, it costs money to get in though. There's probably enough here to spend 2 days, if you wanted to.

Granville Island
Located underneath a bridge, near downtown vancouver. It's a weird mix of general counterculture things, artsy places, and factories. Fun to walk around, go in all the weird stores, enjoy the street performers, and so on.

Downtown Vancouver
I would seriously advocate just dedicating a day to seeing the city itself. The downtown area is not very large geographically, since everything is so close together. There's a lot to see and do, and even the bad/infamous parts of the city aren't dangerous. A general list of things to see downtown, off the top of my head: gastown (historic street, lots of touristy stuff), chinatown, vancouver public library (not suggesting we go inside, but it's a neat area and there's a bunch of stuff around there), granville mall (outdoor mall, not a shopping mall), blah blah. There's too much stuff to list, but you get the idea. Again, more than 1 day can be spent with this.

Capilano Suspension bridge
It costs an admission fee, but it's a fun place to go in the summer. It's basically just this really big bridge over a valley, and it swings a lot and you always get these freaked out tourists who are afraid of crossing it. Lots of walking trails and stuff. There's also a thing where you can go up in the trees and walk around these platforms they put up there. Could spend half a day here.

Playland
Our local crappy amusement park. It's not great, but it's cheap. Really the main attraction of the place is the PNE, our annual fair. But that doesn't start until late august, and they jack up prices during the time when its on. It's not a very big amusement park, but it's still a good enough way to spend a day. And last time I was there, it didn't cost much at all, and lineups were virtually nonexistent. Though that might not be the case in august.

Victoria
I wouldn't recommend this, since it will take a few hours to get there (have to take a ferry). Would have to leave early, and get back late to make it worth it. It's a neat city though.

Metrotown Shopping Mall
This place is boring. It's a big shopping mall in Burnaby, which I live close to. Maybe I find it boring because I have been there so many times. But anyway, some people might like the idea of shopping or just seeing random stores, so whatever. Second biggest mall in canada, I believe.

Clubbing
Local clubs generally will not let you in unless you are 19+, so this won't work for everyone. Also "all ages clubs" are probably full of teenagers (that's what they are for!!) and would not be very fun unless you are into 15 year old girls. In any case, vancouver has a lot of good clubs, and there are always good bands in town if you want to see a show. Could probably do this one night or something, but any more than that and it will be a bit too exclusionary, since not all of us would be able to go.

My house
The thought of this makes me cringe.

Book store
Oh please, no.

Science World
Do we really need to spend another 3 hours watching iced try to be funny by reading all the french language signs at the exhibits?




Ok, that's all for now. Hopefully this will hold off trafton for about a week.

Vancouver is relatively close to the ocean—are there any nice accessible beaches? What about bowling? I thought that was kind of fun last year.

Metrotown mall is where the arcade (CHQ) is, so we could probably have a combined mall/arcade trip. There's a movie theatre there too, right?

When I went to Vancouver last year I went to a night market in Chinatown. That was pretty neat.

Also, hiking—it didn't really work out in Seattle, but maybe we could try to get a hike in for those who want to?

Is anyone going to have a vehicle this time?

I'm not going to put in things like bowling, movies, arcades, etc, because frankly that kind of stuff can be done in any city, and I'd prefer to focus on more unique things. We can still do those activities, it's just that I don't think I need to list them at the moment. Suffice to say, the mall has everything you would expect a mall to have. There are two movie theatres, and it looks like that arcade you mentioned is in buisiness, though I don't go to arcades so I have never seen it myself.

We have a number of good beaches. Spanish banks is probably the best one, at least for everyone here...

The night markets are always fun. There's a big one in richmond, that's one of the things I forgot to add to the list.

Hiking didn't work out for seattle because there's no good hiking within an hour of the city. In Vancouver you just need to head up to the mountains, which are very close to the city itself.

I almost certainly have a car with me when I'm there.

oh boy I look forward to people recording every single inconsequential event that occurs and then never uploading any of it

So who else has confirmed travel and arrival arrangements? What time will you be arriving, and what time will you be leaving?

We should start thinking about a specific schedule.

Unfortunately my original travel plans died thanks to deficient planning and inadequate knowledge of the general region. Right now it seems that I shall be flying into Seattle/Tacoma Airport at approximately 11:10AM on August 1st (unless my plane is delayed), then attempting to find transportation via Greyhound into Vancouver. I am currently on the 12:30PM bus, but I requested to switch buses since the likelihood of magically getting downtown before my bus leaves is extremely low. Assuming that Greyhound complies, I shall take the 3:15PM bus into Vancouver and arrive at the bus depot around 7:30PM. I will then take a bus into New Westminster and should arrive sometime after 8PM.

I am thinking about leaving for Victoria on August 3rd at around 11:30AM and will return to Vancouver on August 6th. Basically I will visit Lucas in Victoria from August 3-6 and I will stay in the hotel on August 1-2 and 6-7. I currently doubt that he will come to Vancouver, so hopefully that won't screw up hotel arrangements. If someone else has a problem with that, you are always welcome to contact him yourself.

Finally, I will leave on August 8th; my flight departs from SeaTac at around 5PM so I am looking for the earliest possible bus to ensure that I don't miss the plane.

If anyone has any questions (for me) then you know where to find me. If you don't like IRC, then send me a private message or something. If for some reason anyone has questions for Lucas, my advice is to speak with him directly.

Ani is living under a rock right now and only has access to a cell phone, she text'd me "I'm honestly not sure. It's not looking good." when I asked her.

I will restate Trafton's confirmation deadline: July 15, 2007. You must give him your travel details (arrival and departure times) by then, or post them in this thread, or else you won't be considered in room assignments and will not be guaranteed a spot in the hotel.

If you know that you are definitely not attending, please let us know as soon as possible.

We also need to make a contact list. If you are bringing a mobile phone, please give the number to Trafton and confirm with your provider that it will work in Vancouver.

I will be ariving at YVR around noon on 8/1/07, and my flight home leaves at 12:55pm on 8/7/07. I am looking up the service area of my phone and will PM Tarfton the number if it works in Vancouver.

-=edit=-
Coverage looks poor at best, I will only give my cell number out if I get up there and it magicly works.

Well, I guess you could put me down as possibly attending. I'm a little uncertain of my ability to afford it at the moment. I'll post again later.

Yay FoD for considering!

I'm confirmed for the 1st through the 7th.

We have tickets in hand, and will supposedly (=most likely some hours later) be arriving at the Vancouver Amtrak station at 12:35 am on August 2, and departing the Vancouver Amtrak station at 5:30 am on August 8.

Again, we want to get a room with refrigerator and microwave.

Now if only Elliot's and Blackfire's passports would show up ...

Note: Anyone who is under 18 and planning to take the Amtrak bus from Seattle to Vancouver should take note of this policy from the Amtrak site:

Passengers under 18 years old (if not traveling with both parents) must carry a notarized letter from any parent or legal guardian not present which gives permission for the child to cross the border. This letter must include the address and telephone number of the parent or parents not present.

Violet has one, but as far as I know hasn't checked yet on what the story would be with it in Canada.

Hey, I was looking around the BC area and I found a good church, I was wondering if a couple of you would like to join me across the river on August 5th at 10 am, and if someone with a car would be coming or if I should look into public transportation?

`n0

On a vaguely similar note, would anyone else be interested in getting up relatively early on Saturday or Sunday and going for a day hike and/or other exciting outdoor activities? (e.g. sea kayaking)

I'd be up for it.

That's way out in cloverdale, which is basically farmland and tiny suburbs, and other typical stuff you find on the outskirts of any city. I'm not that interested in going either way, I just thought I would point out that this particular church is not very close.

Looking at their website, it seems this particular church is an evangelical protestant one. That kind isn't very popular over here, so I suppose if that's what you want then the only option is to head all the way out there.

I really recommend you go to something that is more nearby. United Church of Canada is fairly common, and open to everyone. It's sort of the catchall protestant denomination in this country, since the vast majority of canadian protestants are either anglican (which is highly traditional) or united church.

Aside from being easier to get to, it's also a lot more down-to-earth and open in terms of its theology and beliefs, which means more people will be comfortable with attending it.

OK, so I'm confirmed. I'll be arriving in Vancouver at 11:50 AM on August 1st, then taking a bus to the hotel. I'll be leaving on August 7th at 2:45 PM.

Yay FoD!

Verizon/all CDMA cell phones work fine in Canada right?

Technically yes. There's plenty of CDMA and GSM coverage in Vancouver. However, your phone provider might prevent international roaming (especially if you use prepaid airtime instead of a monthly plan) or charge outrageous fees for it. That's why it's best to check with your phone company. When I go to the US, I switch to a special temporary plan that charges a flat rate instead of per-minute roaming fees.

Apparently our plan is not supportive of going to Canada, no. Cross me off the list of cellphoners. Elliot, Tachyon and blackfire do not have cellphones at all.

I don't have a cell phone either.