Recent content by acraven

Greensboro isn't a major market, and I don't remember exorbitant fees for the years we were there. I`m traveling now and can't check my files to verify that. I do wish something could be done about the TicketMaster fee situation.

I've bought all-event tickets to Nationals almost every year since 1980. Historically, visible fees have usually been reasonable, and I think a big part of that may have been order processing by the LOC or by arena staff rather than a high-cost ticket agency. I remember being appalled by the...

The email said the sale starts at noon Central (Daylight) Time on Monday.

Or Riga. Or Vilnius. If they'd schedule the event between June and September.

It depends on what nights you want and whether you need a room with two beds.

My Westin reservation doesn't show a destination fee, and one of the Boston reps in Columbus assured me they were negotiating away any destination fee the hotels usually charge. My Westin reservation isn't yet showing in my Bonvoy account, so I can't check there. I'm pretty confident there...

Call the Residence Inn and ask for the Sales Office; they may do the booking for you.

I believe the hotel rates posted on the Worlds website do not include taxes. I'd be very pleased to be proven wrong.

It's still a bit early for booking most Boston hotels since Worlds ends more than a year from now.

I asked AI-driven CoPilot which Midwest US arenas have a seating capacity around 12,000 and are in cities with a population around 100,000. It didn't go well. I got three responses; the arenas are in Hampton (Virginia), Seattle and Bridgeport (Connecticut). CoPilot is more geographically...

I've never had to resort to this after the first day of an event, but I may have to do it in Boston: The rules say nothing about what you can carry into the arena in your hands. You need to organize the contents of your normal-size, lightweigt tote in such a way that you can carry them up to...

I think it may come down to whether you interpret "other skaters" to mean "other than myself [Gracie]" or "other than Ashley and others who have gone public". I haven't read the book yet, so I don't know the context of her comment.

By handling the ticketing themselves, the LOC is keeping us out of the clutches of TicketMaster, which has horribly high ticketing fees.

The pins at the USFS booth were not Nationals pins; they were "Team USA" pins. The Worlds booth was giving out pins for that event, though I suspect the ones sold in Boston next year will be different; the freebies don't look as expensive as the pins usually sold.

There was a USFS booth tucked away in a dark corner beyond the sales table. There were some giveaways like pins and narrow rubber (?) bracelets. It seemed they had a bit of this and that, not necessarily in very large quantities. I know they ran out of "Skating" magazines before the end of...