I would appreciate if everyone sent me e-mails at [email protected] giving their arrival and depature flights, the days they will be in Venice (not necessarily the same as they might be travelling through Italy) and the hotel they will be staying at.

I will update the first post about once each day.

Sharing a water taxi is a great idea
 

I highly recommend sharing a water taxi from the airport. IMHO it is well worth it, particularly if splitting the cost. This is the most remarkable introduction to VCE and Ai Mori is just across the lagoon from the airport. So, yes it is definitely more expensive than the options Dov discussed, but the watertaxi driver will take you and your baggage right to the front door of the hotel. This ride will take about 20 minutes. Remember! Water taxi drivers are not tipped.

OK, we can share. There may be 2 of us.

Water taxi share
 

Maybe more of us?

Water taxi will accomodate 4 pax plus luggage.

excerpt from e-mail received today from Marco
 

"I hope you and the*Flyertalks*will feel the athmosphere during your stay we are preparing a warm welcome."

Love
Marco

Marco (the Ai Mori manager) told O2K that he has received 15 e-mails from Flyer Talkers so far.

This leaves me a bit confused as we only have 12 people on our "definite list" and as many are couples, they would account for 7 rooms. In addition, 2 "Possibles" have also reserved.

So we have 9 of those 15 e-mails accounted for. Folks, if you are coming, please let us know.

I sent him 3, trying to find out about single vs. double room.

I sent him an email mentioning possibility of bringing mr. dedehans....which probably won't happen....

I must be making this too hard. I've searched and searched for the hotel, preferring a site where I don't have to fully prepay - since I'm only intrigued at this point and not fully committed.

These sites require full prepayment:

www.hotels.com
www.11hotels.com
www.hotelclub.com

The hotel is not currently available on Expedia for Nov 19 or Nov 20.

I searched www.travelaxe.com which goes to a number of hotel sites. Same as above, although it found orbitz at $250/night.

Arghhh.

Hotels.com may require prepayment, but apparently all but $25 of it will be returned if you cancel.

From the website: "Bookings are subject to a 25 USD fee for any CANCELLATION/CHANGE. If cancellation occurs within the Cancellation Policy period, a one-night charge will be assessed. Property Cancellation Policy: 24 HOURS"

They are asking for $121 per night for a double but "Rates do not include applicable tax recovery charges or our service fees."

Now it is US$122.00 per night and heading upwards...

When I first saw it there it was $103.

Obviously, we are all competing with each other and the earlier you book the better the rate you will get.

Some sites have sold out already and, I believe, that will eventually be the case with all of them -- and you will have to go to the hotel's own site and pay the full fare.

Of course, there are plenty of other hotels in Venice and this being the off season, there should be a number of bargains.

SanDiego1K, I was in the same situation. I'm not 100% sure I can go and I didn't want to go to a site that required prepayment so I used Orbitz. It was a little bit more (120 Euros) but I can cancel w/o penalty and do not have to prepay. The prepay sites have low cancel penalties, but it's just a hassle (sp?) for me to prepay and then wait for a refund on my credit card.

(I can't speel today.)

Little More Info on DL Discount
 

It looks like our group discount on DL is a done deal. They just need to activate it, which should happen tomorrow. Originally we thought the discount would be 5%, now it seems to be a sliding discount - the more you spend, the larger your discount.

TxLobo will post the info here as soon as he can, hopefully tonight. He was on a cell phone @ work with poor reception, I was driving, so he will post the real info.