SWC19 Star Wars Celebration 2019 Hotels

I took it. For the extra money I got an extra bed, which is nice. I'm going with my fiancé and my mom, so having more than one bed is appreciated.

 

Cool. I'm splitting my room with my parents. They love Chicago, so when I told them I was going, we decided to split a room and they are going to vacation around while I do Celebration.

 

It was definitely there on Tuesday, but it was strange, never said sold out, just check back later for availability, every room type I tried said not available and now then it vanished from the website. I know people managed to get it so not sure what's going on.

 

The fact that so many people bought tickets early this year had to be a factor with hotel availability.

 

Yeah, definitely. Then add on the people who will have booked rooms with the intention of buying tickets later (maybe after pay day or nearer to the event).

Demand seems extremely high this year.

 

I had heard that the 5-day passes wouldn't sell out for months if they were the same as last year, so I ignored ticket sales and went straight for hotels the minute they were released.

To anyone still looking for hotels, keep checking the official hotels.
SWCC keeps adding more official hotels, and on top of that, many fans booked multiple hotels "just in case" and will remove the extras they don't need over time, releasing them back to the public. Here's the direct link I believe: https://compass.onpeak.com/e/012605262

 

They've added some hotels in the loop area if anyone is interested.

 

Can you tell me where exactly the Loop Area is? Is it close or around McCormick? My hotel is called The South Loop Hotel, so I keep getting confused. Is this the same area? What is South Loop versus North Loop, or is it all considered the "Loop Area"?

 

It's different from where you are. It's about three miles north. I guess these hotels are Magnificent Mile which is north of the river. The loop is just south. Transportation shouldn't be too hard from this area.

If you've seen The Dark Knight, a lot of that movie was filmed in that area. In fact, the one other time I was in Chicago was when they were shooting that. My brother and I got escorted off the police rooftop headquarters set.

 

Now that's pretty cool!

 

Okay, I had kind of gathered that the Loop Area was a distinct area that is located away from where McCormick is. My confusion was in the fact that my hotel is called South Loop, which is a half mile away from McCormick. So I wasn't connecting the dots. Even looking it up on Google Maps doesn't help much if you don't know what your looking at.

 

Yeah, I'm certainly not an expert on the area, but Batman is my other huge fandom (I cosplay as Christian Bale Batman at non-SW cons) and I followed the shooting of that film closely.

 

Nice. Batman Begins is one of my favorite movies of all time and a huge source of inspiration for me just in my life.

 

Yes! Part of that is Chicago too (notably the Batmobile chase on Lower Wacker). When I got my hotel that far away, I said to myself "at least I'll be in Gotham".

 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/C...9c0c8118eb74b2!8m2!3d41.8786351!4d-87.6250549

"The Loop" is a specific area, defined by the train tracks that make a loop around the downtown area.

Things get fuzzy once you start calling things "south loop" or "west loop," because those are neighborhoods outside of the loop, and the south loop goes much souther than the west loop goes west. North loop doesn't exist, what would be north loop is River North, Magnificent Mile, Streeterville areas. East loop also doesn't exist, what would be east loop is Grant Park/the lake.

 

The Loop is more like a business district. You can take a 15 to 25minute Green Line (subway, but elevated ) to the Con, depending on the wait as trains come roughly every 10 minutes. There is also a quick bus route, but I’m less familiar with that mode.

 

Thank you for that explanation. And for the Google Map image. Really clears up a lot.

 

First I would like to say "thank you" to ChrisLyne for posting the article: Have a quick read of this that a Chicago local posted on Reddit. I copied all of the information (8 pages) and was glad I did.
Had all the problems in booking reservations from On Peak like everyone else. Tick . . tick . . . Oops, time ran out! I immediately, on Tuesday, made reservations at an hotel 2.2 miles away; got all five days; purchased 5 - day ticket the hour before; booked train reservations from my hometown right into Chicago. All within 22 minutes. That experience taught me a lesson for future cons. Paying for a cab, Uber, Green Line or shuttle is a no brainer for me. Once tix and hotel were nabbed, I was pretty sure the rest would be successful because I perceive the glass being half full no matter the circumstances. Yes, indeed, I lost my mind too. However, if there's a will there's a way.
But I did find something interesting. I wanted to add an extra day (Tuesday). My present rate is $245/night. If I wanted an extra day, the person over the phone asked what event I was planning on attending in 2019. She then said, "Oh! If you add on Tuesday, all of your rates will be $330/$360 per day." Uh . . . no thanks! I'll keep it the way it is.
I'm not saying that all hotels are doing that. But my hotel is. Actually, I got a pretty good deal considering.

 

Yeah, I'm not staying in one of the official hotels. I made a reservation early last week at a hotel down the road before things went on sale for what I presume was their normal rates. I'm guessing this was before they figured out just what was going on that weekend because now suddenly I went back to look out of curiosity, they've tacked on an extra $80/night for new reservations. Ah, the joys of supply and demand.

 

That's digusting.

 

The officialhotels pretty much have the same price as before...

 

My boss came through and got me reservations at the Marriott Marquis. He is Super Platinum Elite with Marriott. It's pricey, but I'm stuffing three other people in the room and it saves alot of money on transportation.

 

If only I could be so lucky...

 

What a kind person!

 

Wherever the next convention in the USA is held, I will just go ahead and book my room near the convention center independently...