190 replies to this topic

[R. Kasahara]

Old stuff -

Spoiler

Getting it started off a bit earlier this year

Anyway, PAX Prime! Registration is currently up, but broken (ETA: It's fixed now! Go go go!). A few CAGs managed to meet up last year, but going to aim for something bigger (and better organized) this time around.

In addition to a possible CAG meetup, this thread can be used to discuss panels, games being shown, transportation/hotel/food/etc. deals, and basically all things PAX.

Links, etc. coming soon. In the meantime:

Old meetup stuff -

Spoiler

Official Site

CAG MEETUP INFO:
Most people seemed to like the idea of meeting up Sunday after the Closing Ceremony, so that's what we'll do.

The meeting place is in front of the Free Play room at 6-6:20 PM on Sunday. From there, we'll go out to eat. Last year we went to Gordon Biersch, but if anyone has other suggestions, they're welcome

Note that, unfortunately, Gordon Biersch is not taking reservations the weekend of PAX, so we might have a wait ahead of us. Again, alternate restaurant suggestions are welcome!

Additional CAG Meetup Notes:
If you get to the meeting spot late and no one's around, come to the restaurant and look/ask for us! The address is in the link above.

NO NEW RSVP REQUESTS ARE BEING ACCEPTED!

RSVD'd:
- blueshinra
- bitprophet
- io (+1)
- pete5883
- zenprime
- metaly
- ThreeRandomWords (probably?)
- soulvengeance (+1)
- CheapyD (pre-dinner)
- shipwreck
- mrs. shipwreck
- kube00 (probably not)
- EvilIA
- sobjw (+2)

Thanks to everyone who came to the meetup, and to those who weren't able to make it, hope to see you next year!

Let's keep this thread going for a little while Post your PAX impressions, stories, and photos. I'll get mine up soon, promise

Edited by blueshinra, 04 September 2012 - 03:37 PM.

[R. Kasahara]

Schedule

This year's PAX Prime takes place from Friday, August 31st to Sunday, September 2nd.
ALL passes are SOLD OUT.

The schedule's up! Here's the link - http://prime.paxsite.com/schedule

Accommodations and Transportation

Hotel registration

PAX Train
This is an annual event where PAX goers ride the same Amtrak train (the Coast Starlight from LA) up to Seattle. I can't find any information for this year's yet, but with the way the passes sold out, I'm guessing it's fully booked by now. The PAX Train Twitter seems to be down for the time being A map of the route is here (PDF).

Flights / Rental Cars
- Hipmunk is a handy tool for airplane ticket price comparisons.
- The hotel registration link above also has sections for flights and cars, along with discount codes. Here they are:

• American Airlines - 5% discount - Code: 6882AW
• Delta - 2-7% discount - Code: NM8EH
• Avis - 5% dscount - Code: D629073

- Note that if you're coming in from out of town by plane or train, you should not need a rental car. Downtown Seattle is very walkable, especially if you're in a hotel close to the convention center, and there is public transit both from the airport and close to Amtrak.

Food
- The convention center's food is expensive, of course. One of the more reasonable places there is the Juicy Cafe.
- True cheapasses may want to bring their own drinks and snacks for the day. There's a supermarket downtown that's pretty decent.
- For breakfast last year, my husband and I (and a lot of other PAX-goers) hit up Specialty's quite a bit. There's also the option of buying muffins, etc. at the supermarket
- As for any other restaurants, suggestions welcome

Parties
- For the latest info, there's the PAX Parties Twitter account.
- zenprime also suggests the following two links for par-tay information: http://www.sidequest...rties-and-more/ and http://forums.penny-...2012-parties/p1

Other Events

- CAG Meetup! Tentatively scheduled for after the closing ceremonies. See the OP for info.
- PAX Pokemon League
- Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Event: Aug. 31 (Friday), 1-9 PM at the ACT Theater (700 Union Street). Timed to coincide with a similar event in Tokyo.

Useful Twitter Accounts

- PAX - official account with updates and such. Highly recommended.
- PAX Lines - information about lines for panels, concerts, etc. Probably the most helpful PAX-related Twitter after the official account.
- PAX Parties - party and meetup information.
- PAX Tourney - tournament information.
- PAX Pokemon League - see above.

Edited by blueshinra, 25 August 2012 - 12:46 AM.

[zenprime]

Weeee! PAX Prime is coming. Time to get my feet back into shape.

[bitprophet]

yeah!

[kube00]

I'm in

[WalkinPneumonia]

I have my passes. I'm so ready for September.

[R. Kasahara]

After today's technical difficulties, looks like registration is set to open again next week.

[creid]

Eek, just saw that last year's sold out of 3-day passes in 2 weeks. Guess I'm going to have to think fast.

[R. Kasahara]

Hope you do decide to come! No pressure, of course

Second post updated. I'm always open to additions/suggestions.

[creid]

Hope you do decide to come! No pressure, of course

Definitely want to go, it's a matter of figuring out if anyone's flying/staying with me.

[metaly]

At least you have some extra time to think while they get their act together. D:

That'll teach me to be responsible and wait till lunch to register.

[io]

My son really wanted to go to this last year. He was just mentioning it today in fact.

Now, if he behaves a little better (he just got himself banned from the game room for the next 3 days) I might take him there. We live pretty close so transportation is not an issue.

[JEKKI]

I wanna go~!!!!

I'ma gonna be coming from California!!

so then would any1 here be interested in room sharing?? I have no issues sleeping on the floor =P

[heavyd853]

Depending on where I'm living by then you'd probably be able to stay with me fool! I live like 3 miles away from the convention center. I also go every year

[JEKKI]

whaaaaaat?!?! dat's sum party on shyt rite there~!!! thanks a lot mang!!

[R. Kasahara]

Registration opened again! Just got three-day passes for me and the husband.

The hotel registration system is also live.

[io]

Registration opened again! Just got three-day passes for me and the husband.

The hotel registration system is also live.

Thanks, just got mine too for me and my son. Looking into hotels now...

[R. Kasahara]

Three-day passes are now sold out. Holy shit, that was fast.

[JEKKI]

the fukk?!?!?! I jus got home and that already... what a piss >_<

-edit- jus picked up Friday n Saturday.

$5 more, one day less, eh whateverz...

guess I'll take advantage of that and spend sunday exploring seattle

[kube00]

I'll get a 2 day for now.

[creid]

Ughhhhhhhh. I feel like a sucker paying $105, but...

[kube00]

eh maybe I'll snag the Sunday pass as well.

[CtrlAltDft]

Just finished booking my hotel and found out the three day passes are sold out. Won't be buying passes until Friday, hoping none of the one day passes will be sold out by then.

[heavyd853]

I just got Friday and Saturday passes, usually sunday is my recover-from-drunken-stupor-and-go-like-1-hour day anyways.

[metaly]

Got my 3-day. The whole mix-up last week with the registration was the only reason I didn't wait till the end of the day, and wow, good thing. Kind of a mess this year, huh?

[R. Kasahara]

Kind of a mess this year, huh?

It really is.

Booked the hotel and flight this evening, so we're ready to go here.

[io]

Three-day passes are now sold out. Holy shit, that was fast.

Booked the hotel and flight this evening, so we're ready to go here.

Holy hell! I'm glad I saw this and pounced when I did. And here I thought I might wait till my son gets back tomorrow afternoon. I thought it took 2-3 weeks for them to sell out last year? I guess that was for all the individual ones too.

Well, makes up for all the CAG deals I miss .

I guess I should pounce on a hotel soon and maybe airfare. I'm trying to decide between flying and driving. Driving is no problem from where I am but those downtown hotels have limited parking and it costs an arm and a leg (looks like $30-$40 per night!). I figured I wouldn't be using the car anyway the entire time except when we leave. So maybe flying is better. Is it easy to get the train/rail thing from the airport to the Convention Center area?

I can get airfare for just under $200. So say $400 total with baggage fees for the 2 of us. Driving is 170 miles each way. That comes out to about $60 with $4 gas (plus whatever wear and tear on the car)... Hmmm... Still seems cheaper (and more flexible) to drive. I'll have to think on that. But I should probably book a hotel soon.

[Gosha]

If you park at the convention center parking its about 26-28 bucks a night. Still expensive.

[io]

Wow, Saturday-only badges are also sold out now. So just Friday and Sunday are left which is pretty useless for anyone who isn't local.

I decided to look into hotels and about half the lower rates via PAX are gone already so I grabbed something just to be sure. Looks like that is fully-refundable if we change our minds. But even with the cheaper rate (and I picked one of the cheaper ones they had too) it adds up to $700+ for 4 nights. I figured we'd stay Sunday night so we could spend Monday doing other stuff in Seattle. But, man, that is not very cheapassed! And I need to take my other son to Disneyland some time soon, too. We promised him that as a Christmas present last year and I've been too busy to go this Winter/Spring and now I'm taking his older brother (who has already been to Disneyland) to PAX. So I'm on the hook for something big for the younger one . I may have to do Disneyworld instead.

[creid]

For some stupid reason I thought I'd wait until this morning to make my final decision. I sprung out of bed half an hour early ready to spend, and Saturdays are long gone