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Daytona 2007

ArpeggioAngel

ArpeggioAngel

Around Here Somewhere....
Vinny started a thread on this on the other site so thought I would post one here as well....

It is a little early in the year still, but we are checking to see who is or might be attending the National Breeders Expo in Daytona Beach this August.

Last year a bunch of us met up at the show and went to dinner afterwards. It was a lot of fun for all and also very educational to sit at dinner and listen to people like Kathy Love, Chuck and Connie and Don Soderberg talk shop.

(FYI - Don Soderberg mentioned in chat the other night that unless something really drastic were to happen he will be joining us again this year!! WOO HOO!!)

Regardless if you are a breeder, vendor, hobbyist or just have one or two snakes as pets it is a great time. Both the show (which is just amazing in and of itself) and dinner.

I know there are a few people in particular who I would love to see make it this year (you know who you are :rolleyes: ) but I think the more the merrier!!!
 
Everything Katie said!!! Lol. It was so much fun we've decided to put it on our yearly calendar of things we'll try not to miss.

Just a thought... maybe we could get some kind of shirt made up to commemorate the event... meaning the show and the dinner. Maybe?
 
I thought I would add this here for anyone thinking of coming to Daytona...



I work as a corporate travel agent so I just did some checking for a member here on flight options to come to Daytona. Thought it might be beneficial to share some of this information for anyone else considering flying.



Daytona Beach Airport is not a large airport so depending on where you are traveling from, you may not have the best flight options in/out of Daytona and fares may be a little higher.



If you are flexible and can get a rental car, another airport to consider is Orlando - it is only about an hour and a half from Daytona, but since it is a bigger airport, there are more flight options and a lot of times the fares are lower.



The best fares are always going to be available with a minimum purchase of 21days in advance of your trip. Where Florida is concerned, the sooner you can book your flights, the better chance you will have of getting a lower fare. Florida is always popular year round.



There is not much along the lines of fare sales or fare wars anymore where the fares that are available today will drastically change between now and then.



Also, if you can be flexible with your dates and times you might be able to find lower fares. Basically, if you can fly odd times (early AM, really late PM, redeye flights) you might find cheaper seats still available on those types of flights. If you start out looking at Fri-Sun and fares are high, try flying out on Thurs. night or coming back on Monday morning.



If you do fly to Orlando and want to rent a car keep in mind that the minimum rental age for almost all car companies is 25yrs old. If you are under 25, some car companies will rent to you but with an extra "underage" charge per day.



Hotels are pretty straight forward - there are some listed for the show on their website with discount rates. If those are sold out, there are a ton of other hotels right there on the beach, but you might find that if you move a few miles inland the rates tend to be a little cheaper.

Joe and I stay at a Residence Inn Hotel (owned by Marriott) about 5miles from the convention center. Residence Inn is nice because it is an extended stay hotel so all of the rooms come with a full kitchen (fridge, stove, dishes, pots, pans etc...). If you are going to stay in town longer than just one or two nights an extended stay hotel is a great idea. They usually offer lower rates based on length of stay (ie one night might be $99 but if you stay four or more nights it might be $79 per night instead). They usually do not have a restaurant on site, but with the fridge you can bring your leftovers (or dessert) back with you!!



If anyone has any questions about travel arrangements to come to the show just let me know. I am more than willing to impart any knowledge I have and/or try to help people find flights/cars/hotels.

Unfortunately, the way my company is structured, if I book any travel for you we have to charge a service fee. But if I can find the info in my system, I might be able to direct you to an airline website or whatnot to be able to purchase without any service fees.



Katie
 
WE WILL BE THERE!!!!
I got the room reservation, but I still have no idea about flight.
my son will we here all summer and needs to go back to Co around that time so I am going to try to get a flight to Denver then to Daytona.
Can't wait to meet every one,
TIM
 
Bill and I will be there as always. The dinner last year was great! Hope we can do it again.
 
Jonathan and I will be there again and my sister will be joining us (which reminds me that I need to go e-mail Wayne). Haven't booked a hotel yet as I was waiting on confirmation from my sister. Gotta figure out where we'll stay - can't remember where we were last year but it wasn't bad. Not sure about the Hilton across the street since they threw a fit about animals last year if I remember correctly. Anywho, hopefully we'll be on the main floor this year. I can't wait for dinner again either - it was a blast! And I'm all for the t-shirt idea.

~Katie
 
I'm sure I'll be going, as a spectator! Daytona, last year, even though I didn't go, (because I was afraid of impulse buying!!) was what pushed me over the edge from being a single snake owner to having five, soon to be seven. A friend went, bought three snakes, decided he only wanted tri-colors so gave me Choco, the love of my life snake, for free! (Which is also when I got more involved with cs.com- trying to figure out if I wanted a Cali King, and then what he was...) (Same friend also gave me the non-feeding Eastern Hoggy and the pneumonia Florida Box!) I'm de-sensitizing myself to shows though, first with Orlando, and now with Tampa, so I should have good resistance built up by Daytona!

Nanci
 
I'll be going again this year. I had just joined cs.com right before the daytona show last year, and I didn't meet with anyone, or talk to anyone I recognized from here. I'll definately be there sunday, and if I have two employees by the time august comes around (i'm the ONLY employee right now), I may make it saturday. Hopefully I can get the weekend off, I wasn't able to last year. I've been working here for over a year though now and I haven't asked for a day off yet. It would be nice to drive down and stay in a hotel. I know I'm not far away, but I'd be too lazy to drive down, drive back home, drive back down, and drive back, lol.
 
I'm de-sensitizing myself to shows though, first with Orlando, and now with Tampa, so I should have good resistance built up by Daytona!
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Oh yeah - good luck!!! We hit a few shows in Tampa and Orlando last year before going to Daytona. I had been good only buying one or two snakes max at any of those earlier shows. But Daytona puts every other show around here to shame. The place is huge, the selection is unbelievable...it is in a league by itself for reptile shows. I ended up coming home from Daytona with I believe 4 maybe even 5 snakes last year. And I told myself after last years show that I was going to have to start saving early for this year so I can really spend/get what I want. If I would've had more money last year I probably would have come home with more like 10 new snakes!!

I actually wish we had a show like Daytona more than once a year, but then again, if we did, I would be really broke!!!!

I'll be going again this year. I had just joined cs.com right before the daytona show last year, and I didn't meet with anyone, or talk to anyone I recognized from here. I'll definately be there sunday, and if I have two employees by the time august comes around (i'm the ONLY employee right now), I may make it saturday. Hopefully I can get the weekend off, I wasn't able to last year. I've been working here for over a year though now and I haven't asked for a day off yet. It would be nice to drive down and stay in a hotel. I know I'm not far away, but I'd be too lazy to drive down, drive back home, drive back down, and drive back, lol.
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Definately! We would love to meet you (of course still hoping you make it to Tampa this Sunday). There are certainly plenty of hotels in the area to meet a wide variety of budgets - just plan on booking in advance (as soon as you know if you have the time off) because a lot of that area will sell out.
 
My flight's already booked. :) A couple of us are going down Thurs-Mon. I would love to meet up with everyone and talk shop! I believe there is a Leopard Gecko community dinner planned, but I'd much rather prefer meeting with cs.com members! What day were you thinking?

As far as T-Shirts commerating the event, it's an asweme idea I'd be happy to design one! I can handle getting them ordered (everyone will need to send funds to me 6 weeks prior) and then give them out at the dinner. So with that, let's start a list on who wants a T-Shirt and what size!
 
What day were you thinking?
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Last year we went out to dinner on Saturday night since people vending will have to pack up everything after the show on Sunday night and some people will be heading out of town that evening towards home.
I would imagine that will probably be the preferred evening this year as well.

I think if we get enough people interested in the t-shirts that it would be a great idea.
 
I'll be purchasing two XL shirts. Maybe there could be a contest for shirt design? :shrugs: If we do a shirt I'd like to pay for shipping so I can have it to wear to the show on Saturday. That way you could easily pick out the cornsnake people and say hi during the show. Just a couple thoughts.
 
I don't think a contest would be a good idea. A professionally designed T-Shirt would be much better. I will have a few ideas laid out here by the end of the month (if not sooner).

That is a very good idea to have them recieved at the show so we know who's who! I will double check with my printer to pin point a time frame from order to delivery since I'd like to do one bulk order (it's cheaper).

Shirt List
VinnyJ - XLG (2)
Blckkat - XLG (1) MD (1)
ArpeggioAngel - XLG (1)
PtDnsr - XLG (2) MD (1)
MohrSnakes - L (1) MD (1)
Nanci - L (1)
westexherps - MD (1)
Traci1 - XL (1)
 
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Definately sign me up for a shirt. XLG if that is the largest...if they have 2XLG that would be even better! I like my shirts big and baggy!!
 
Ohhh...shirts. Put me down for one of each 2XL, XL, M (but two XL's if there's no 2XL). I'll have to check on the M to make sure that's what my sister would want. Saturday really would be best for meeting for dinner. It worked well last year and then we didn't have to worry about packing up. I know we'll be leaving Thursday to arrive on Friday and we'll probably leave on Sunday night or early Monday morning. Haven't quite worked out the details yet.

~Katie
 
Here's a question. What is the situition with taking purchased animal on planes. Do they even allow it? I have heard that many hotels do not allow reptiles or other pets in their rooms, so people have to sneak them in. Is it the same kind of thing with the airports? I am trying to convince my mom to take me there this summer, and if we can go, we are trying to make a plan of everything and find out anything we need to know. Thanks.
 
You have to ship the animals to yourself via an approved courier. You can't just take them on the plane with you.

We should also make it a point to notify Rich about this well before the show date! ;) I'm PMing him now!
 
I wouldn't suggest trying to sneak ANYTHING on a plane that isn't allowed. If caught, "snakes on a plane" would really give the media something to make a big deal about and give the herp community a black mark in the public eye. Lol.... I said snakes on a plane. :grin01:

Usually the person you buy from can ship you your snake/s on the following Monday at a cost of about $40-$60 depending on where you live. It really hurts when you make 4 separate purchases and you have to pay for 4 separate next day shipments. Ouch!!! We tried to get one of the 4 vendors to ship all our snakes to us in one shipment but none of them wanted to be responsible for snakes that weren't purchased from them. Can't blame them really but it still bites... the wallet.
 
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