I am booked, arriving Thurs night shortly before 10pm, and leaving Mon night/Tues morning at 12:30 am (ouch).

Monitor +1 are arriving late Wednesday, Seeya is arriving late Thursday. I'm not sure when I will accomplish the kidnapping of Missydarlin & Angel (I may need some help with that one;) ) I'll host dinner at my place Friday night. Everyone is welcome. Anyone who knows me knows I love to offer up the "Pile O Wine" for the ANC events.

Vysean, please add this Friday night dinner to the event listing.

Bob and I will kidnap you in the cult van if you're not here... :D

On the subject of cult vans, I can arrange the very reasonable rental of up to three (depending on availability) 12-passenger vans in Anchorage if a group decides to brave the drive to Seward and/or Homer. Technically, to get the special, I have to actually drive one of the vans, in which case I might be able to make it ludicrously cheap (think $2.50 per person per day plus gas if the van is full) using my wiles and magic, but it looks like I'll be out of the Tuesday/Wednesday south-of-Anchorage ideas. Should still be able to make it a fair price, though.

Minivans (7 passengers) are an option, too.

I may have connections for something similar (though doubtfully quite as good a deal) in Fairbanks and should know more tomorrow.

Here are ideas or things I might be able to help with:

Anchorage

• The hotel near Benihana that vysean was thinking about is the Hawthorn Suites.
  
• I may have connections with the three Midtown Hilton properties (HGI, Homewood Suites, and Hampton), as our business partners extensively with them. They have airport and downtown shuttles, or we can also do the cult van rental if people are arriving early and want to do a group activity on Friday.

Fairbanks

• I'm sure between us locals we can work on the Chena Hot Springs Resort local discount.
  
• Former coworkers run the Minnie Street B&B in Fairbanks. Not sure how it would work, but the option exists to ask them what kind of deal they can make for a large group to basically take over their B&B for the weekend! ;) No hotel points, though... :p

Before I talk to any of these contacts, though, I need to have some realistic numbers of participants so I can get realistic quotes and discounts. Who needs hotel accommodations in ANC (and who's couch surfing? ;))? Right now vysean needs a hotel room--I'm not sure about the rest of the confirmed participants, but it appears we're not going to be booking the entire north wing of the Homewood. (I can still talk to the GM even if it's only two or three rooms and see what they can do for us.) I see 8 confirmed people needing accommodations in FAI, though some will likely be sharing rooms (at least monitor and franny, and I'm up for splitting costs, too), and hopefully that number increases substantially!

I'm off from classes from March 9-15, but I work March 11-14. I *may* be able to make a deal with coworkers and trade to get Friday and Saturday off, but I won't be able to commit to that for a bit. The earlier return from Fairbanks on Monday works for me; the later one likely won't (but may be negotiable). I will, unfortunately, be unable to participate in the out-of-town trips on the 16th and 17th, as I have classes I can't miss (I originally thought they were the preceding Tuesday/Wednesday), but I'll see what I can do about the ultra-discounted cult van rate.

I have hotel reservations set up in ANC and FAI, but if there is a better group rate, I'd be all for that.
About the AS flight FAI-ANC, how many are planning on the 5pm flight vs the later one?
I have a reservation on hold, but would hate to miss out on the 'party flight'. ;)

I "am" thinking about flying up early to FAI on Tuesday to see the ice carvings, then back to ANC Tues night... but I have to be up ungodly early for the Gold Breakfast on Wednesday morning, followed by the lunch. So I'd be free around 2:30. My arriving any earlier would be contingent on finances and workload...so don't count on it ;)

If I'm there, and if Bob W will open his house again on Wednesday, I can guarantee there would be risotto involved :)

Sadly though, I think I'll miss most of the other out of town contingent.

Mi casa es su casa (sp?) especially if there is risotto involved. Count on it!!!

Deleted because I got my days mixed up. It appears that missydarlin is not coming in at any time that we will be there.

If we are voting on this, I'd much prefer to take the 5pm flight & then spend 4 hrs in an Anchorage restaurant waiting for my 00:30 flight, instead of 2 hrs in Fairbanks, then a potentially delayed flight FAI-ANC, followed by pacing the ANC airport for 2 hrs trying to find something open.
Does anyone else have an opinion on this?

I agree with SeeYa. IIRC there are a couple of decent restaurants not too far from ANC (and there is always BOB W's soup kitchen).

Completely agree with you. I think timing wise we'll have plenty of time to get back from Chena, enjoy lunch, and visit the museum at UA-Fairbanks or possibly do a short tour and still catch the 5pm.

It's a pretty small airport and there's not too much to do as I recall while waiting for boarding (though if the weather is decent, you get a nice view of Mt. McKinley/Denali off in the distance).

Everyone okay with the 5pm flight? Or rather, everyone okay with being dumped at the airport in FAI in time for the 5pm flight (so around 3:45pm/4pm)?

Hi All - I've updated the DO info through the most recent posts I believe - please post/PM if I've missed something.

No repsonse yet from the Springhill Suites - I'll call them in the morning.

Can each of you who intends to come please let me know:

1. Will you be attending BOB W's pre-DO dinner Friday, March 13 in ANC?
2. Will you be attending the Farewell dinner Monday, March 16 in ANC?
3. Will you be attending the post-DO dinner Wednesday, March 18 in ANC?
4. Will the 5pm FAI-ANC flight work for you?
5. For those leaving Monday night/Tuesday morning, when do you need to be back to the airport by?
6. Will you be going to Chena?
7. Will you be participating in any of the activities while at Chena (e.g. aurora tour/sleddogs/etc.)?

I'm going to call the Turtle Club to see if we can get a reservation for lunch coming back from Chena. It occurs to me now that the last time I tried for a lunch reservation I was told they serve dinner only, so that might cause a change of venue for lunch Monday.

Pizza, wine & beer?
 

Wouldn't have time to cook, but there is always papa Murphy's on the way to my house.

A taxi to the airport is running about $30.00. Not bad if the trip is shared.

Isn't Papa Murphy's that place where they dish up something that you need to cook anyway?IIRC the Regal is not too far from the airport and the restaurant there was not bad (but that was a while ago).

Yeah, it is, but all you do is heat up the oven & drink wine while it cooks ;)

Doesn't sound all bad.