RTG

Travis,

If you went, I hope you had a good time and get out safely. I have not missed other than Katrina in 16 years and it is always a blast but chickened out this year with Gustav. If you went and did not have a good time, make sure you go next year - it is always a great time.

SDCA

Well, my two best friends from here in San Diego left for MSY on thursday. They wanted me to come with them to the Big Easy and have fun. I told them no as i have no desire to go.

I called them that day to wish them a safe and fun trip to Southern Decadence(it's there 2nd time visiting). Their phone went directly to voice mail and have not heard from them since then.

Called them every day since then and still have not heard from them yet.

holtju2

They must be having great time in New Orleans!

TravisMT81

Thank you!!! I had a blast and met some great people! I will be going again next year for sure!

JCinNYC

We got back to EWR a couple of hours ago. MSY was really crowded at 5am but cleared pretty quickly, very organized and national guards all over. It was like gayland too


Ditto. It was totally worth it, even if the trip was shorter than expected, less attended and on top of that, having to deal with our hotel that closed yesterday and kicked us out of our room

Regardless, we met great new FTers (and fun too!) and got to see old friends. Definitely coming back next year.

All the best for Nola now, hoping Gustav doesn't make too much damage.

saint82

Doesn't it strike any self respecting gay as a bit irresponsible, if not crazy, that the event organizers were saying "business as usual", while the Mayor was calling for the evacuation of the city? As the blog Joe My God reported
"Gustav At Category 4, Mayor Orders Tourists Out, Southern Decadence Says "Business As Usual"

I understand that they need the business, but to put thousands of people at risk while increasing the emergency work of the city, the police and the national guard, only furthers any sterotype that gay people are little fairies bent on partying and have nothing better to do.

In the past, I have been at SD nine times and always had a great time. But I was truly shocked when at the same time I was seeing statements calling for the mandatory evacuation, while the organizers where saying in effect that there could possible maybe even be some minor inconveniences after Sunday afternoon after this little storm hits, and we will adjust our plans at that time.

Are they crazy?

I will be particularly reluctant to patronize anyone who puts their profit over the well being of their patrons.

The Mayor of Ne Orleans had to ASK them to cancel the event. They didn't have either enough common decency or intelligence to do so themselves.

This was happening after one of the greatest disasters to hit any American City in history and at the same time that the routes out of town where backed up for days as people were trying to escape,

Sometimes our worst enemies or our own people!

If straight people had treated us in this fashion, we could not contain our furry!

bigguyinpasadena

Unlike my fellow FT'er I am probably not going to attend future Decadence events.
This is the second time my trip to New Orleans for Decadence has had to been cut short because of storms.The other time was in 2005 and I missed Katrina by 2 days.
I love New Orleans.It is my favorite city in the US.But I will visit Her in less stressful times.

And yes-I also am disgusted by my gay brothers looking to make a buck while disregarding the safety and well being of others-but am quite used to that sort of avarice now.

btowndude

This was my first SD and I had a great time. I am glad that I came early on Wednesday and had three days of fun before leaving on Saturday afternoon.

I agree with Saint that the "party must go on" attitude was alarming. For me, the warning bells were going off, when the colleges / universities cancelled classes and closed their dorms on Thursday. By Friday, the museums were closed and many shops were boarding up their windows. Fortunately, Delta brought in extra flights and waived any fees when I moved up my departure from Monday to Saturday. Of course, my nonstop MSY-LAX became MSY-ATL-LAX.

Not surprisingly, the "official website" and forum for Southern Decadence, sponsored by the Bourbon Pub / Parade, has not been updated and still has no word of the cancellation. While the "maligned" bankrupt OZ's website was one of the first to announce the cancellation of Sunday's parade along with Ambush magazine's website.

I was impressed with the Omni. I came with the gay social group - the Decadent Ducks - and paid a discounted rate for a standard king room. Yet, they still honored my Select Guest membership and upgraded my room to a deluxe king corner room with a large jacuzzi bathtub. I also received a free newspaper, OJ, and a bagel each morning. They sent out timely letters on the status of Gustav and a possible evacuation. IMHO, the front desk staff and the concierge were helpful in explaining my options on getting out of town as well as to the airport.

I left for the airport three hours ahead of my 1:10 PM departure, because of the reports of traffic. I had a great taxi driver; he didn't take the usual airport exit and we missed all of the traffic congestion.

My only negative was not having any sausage/red beans and rice on this trip. The Acme Oyster House restaurant at the airport was the only one open on Saturday and they were closing down at 4 pm that day. They were only serving hamburgers / chicken. I felt bad for the travelers who were departing on Sunday.

To bigguy, it was a pleasure seeing you again, amidst the wonderful eye candy at the CP.

bigguyinpasadena

Now I know I told y'all"What happens in NoLa,,,,,,,,"so I will have to make this rather discreet.
It seems that some of the younger members of FT were having a gay ol' time of it all and stayed up all night on friday night at the bars and then resumed the party at a hotel suite till the hotel kicked them out
Dear ol' auntie Bert was back in his room at the Hilton by midnight arranging planes trains and automobiles(as well as hotel rooms)and tying to get a few hours sleep.
I am sorry I missed the fun-but loved hearing about it all later

DFWSkylink

I wish they had been open. We got there at 11:37am only to be told (as people were still in line) that they were closed
We were starving, ended up eating lunch from the hudson news stand as that was all that was open on the other side of security.

Also good to see the other FTers this past weekend. I was only there 2 days but had a blast

WBurcham

As a Tulane grad, I don't find that particularly alarming. The attitude of New Orleans is "laissez les bon temps rouler" (let the good times roll). If it'd been a CAT2 on Friday, everyone would be partying still.

Tulane canceled classes because many of our students are from out of town and unfortunately those Northerners just don't understand that a Cat 1/2 hurricane isn't that big of a deal. That and our campus got effed up by Katrina so everyone was running around a bit scared.

Jonnyrock

I put off finding a new flight til sat afternoon.
I was put on the 6 am flight Sunday AM
My hotel (Crowne Plaza) kicked me out at noon, but they seemed to be picking favorites who could stay and who couldn't. (based on wispers I was hearing)
I parked my bags at my friends hotel (Le Pavon) and had lunch at Clover Grill.
I heckled the religious nuts on bourbon til one got threatening
Then I mostly hung out at corner pocket until 11, grabbed my bag and cabed it to the airport.
Nothing was open, and somehow I was out of $1 bills so I couldn't get food from the machine, not sure what happened to all of them
I wish I had cut it a bit closer, but the corner pocket suggested they might close at 12 and it was getting dead.
At least I got FC upgrades
Hope everyone got out ok.
John

itsaboutthejourney