10:05 am
If you're feeling bleak about your hotel room prospects after today, I'd advise looking around on your own. Airbnb, friends of friends, etc. Hotel Z has rooms available Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday right now, though I expect they'll be snapped up quickly.
Don't give up hope completely on a CCI room - but it's always good to have a backup plan. I'll post more about that later.
9:36 am
You knew this sale seemed too smooth to be true: apparently some people completed the form and then got sent back to do it again. Ouch. Hopefully their original timestamp holds.
Anyone have any other problems?
9:27 am
I've heard from 22 people right now; 15 of them say they got in right away or almost right away, and some went straight to the form. This sale moved fast.
9:12 am
Well, that was fast. I think by now almost everyone has gotten in. If you were managing multiple sessions, the little man in the green bar was really helpful - you knew what to focus on.
Question: did everyone get that bar with the advancing attendee? (Who, I must say, was so much better than the spinning blue circle. Please bring him to all badge sales, CCI.) Or did some people get right in?
I got in pretty quickly - but as bitter experience has taught me, that doesn't always mean much. So I don't have much of a feeling one way or the other about how I did. How about you? Confident? Gloomy? Unsure?
Right now we all have Schrodinger's hotel room for the next few days. Try to stay positive. Remember - you will find a room somewhere.
8:49 am
I want to reiterate not to rush. Probably you're a calmer, steadier person than I am, but I know that when I rush through the form (as in years past) I've inevitably messed something up, like picking my hotels in the wrong order or forgetting a number in my address, etc. Once you're in, take a breath and make sure you pick the right hotels and do everything correctly. That's actually faster than having to go back and change something.
8:25 am
If you've never done the hotel sale before, it's much faster than a badge sale. You won't be spending an hour in the waiting room. Usually it's only people who get picked in the first 2 minutes who get a room and 20 minutes in, it's mostly over.
That said, anything is possible. The sale may be slower this year.
8:01 am
It's here: the day you roll the dice across the cityscape of San Diego's hotels. If you've done this before, you know the odds aren't great in terms of getting a downtown hotel - but that you will get something, eventually.
Today will be more nerve-wracking than devastating, since we won't get our results until 1 May at the earliest. If you don't get in right away, it's probably not good, but you should still hope for the best and see what room trades you can make if you dislike where you end up.
A few final words:
Member IDs are optional. I'd err on the side of entering - why not.
Requests are allegedly processed based on when you access the form, not when you submit it. So don't rush, but I wouldn't dawdle either.
Watch out and make sure you don't enter duplicate information.
You don't need your credit card today - that comes later.
Good luck. Let's hope the lottery goes smoothly and the form doesn't mutate into some alternative universe oddity like it has in the past.
I submitted at 9:04. What would you say I got?
ReplyDeleteWhat did you request? Depends on if you picked downtown only, upgrade me to a more expensive room, etc. 9:04 wouldn't get you 1 of the top 6 last year, but it's not bad by any means.
DeleteI went in at 9:00:57 and used all 12 picks. Think I got my first pick?
ReplyDeleteYou're in good shape for sure. Normally that would set you up for a downtown hotel. But because the process has changed so much this year, I hesitate to make a solid prediction.
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