Marauderville 6 - Hotel Info - Book Your Room

[Yo Vic]

MV-VI Latest as of 29 May 08

Hello all in Marauderville, USA from St. Louis.

1. MV-6 will be from Wednesday, 17 September through Sunday, 21 September.

2. Rooms have been held for our group at the Drury Inn & Suites Westport.

To make reservations, please click on the link below.
https://reservations.druryhotels.com/GroupReservationConfirmation.a spx?GroupNo=2038528

The hotel offers great amenities, such as:

·FREE! HOT! QUIKSTART ® Breakfast- Enjoy scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits & gravy, Belgian waffles & more!
·FREE! Evening Beverages and Snacks now served daily from 5:30-7:00pm
·FREE! High-Speed Internet Access in Every Room
·FREE! NEW! Free Long Distance - One Hour Every Room, Every Night!

Please make your reservations by Sunday, August 17, 2008 to receive our group rate. Reservations made after this date will be subject to prevailing rate and availability.



3. If an agreement can be reached for drag racing at Gateway Speedway (hope to know within a week or two), the only day open will be Thursday. The following day (Friday) is the start of the Mopar Monster Weekend. The reason for the delay is pricing. Gateway wants $150 per car. Yo Vic is trying to convince the track management that $75/car is what we need.

4. Thursday is still fluid in determining schedule. A group member suggested that we take a poll giving members a choice between A&B brewery tour, Grants Farm, The Arch & Museum, etc. The more I thought about it tonight, we need to keep logistics of distance, rush hour traffic and bad weather by grouping close proximity events at times/directions of minimal traffic and have backup places not affected by rain (although late September is usually a dry, low-humidity month for STL).

Example:
9:00 a.m., depart hotel for Fast Lane Classic Cars, west on I-70, east on I-370 (all opposite rush hour traffic). (Can be rain or shine)
10:00 a.m., depart for National Museum of Transportation. (Most can be rain or shine)
12:30 p.m., depart for Queeny Park for picnic lunch (4 miles). (If rain, large selection of restaurants in area)
3:00 p.m., depart for hotel
6:00 p.m. depart for dinner at Ameristar (2 miles), 6 restaurants, buffet for $17.99 (rain or shine, valet parking available if you dare!)

or, if 1/4 mile track is secured, leave for track at 2:30 p.m. for those participating.

5. Friday.
9:00 a.m. depart for the St. Louis Zoo in Forest Park. Picnic spot close to Zoo entrance needs to be secured. Zoo is free and one of the best in the world. Marlin Perkins from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom was once a curator there (also born in Missouri). There is a train that makes a refreshing trek around the zoo grounds with about 4 stops. The huge bird cage was built for the 1904 World's Fair. I would imagine some of us would stay at the picnic site watching over things.

1:30 p.m. depart picnic, cruise around Forest Park, site of the 1904 World's Fair and which meets Washington University on its western edge. Forest Park is larger than Central Park.

2:00 p.m. depart for the St. Louis Arch

3:00 p.m. go up to top of Arch (630 feet)

4:30 p.m. set-up for group photo at base of Arch steps (will also need avolunteer to take photo from top of Arch of group below)

6:00 p.m. depart for hotel/dinner at Side Pockets Sports Cafe or Little Hills Winery Restaurant in Old St. Charles.

Saturday:
10:30 a.m. depart for car show (highest probability will be at Sinclair Lincoln-Mercury, St. Peters, 5 minutes from hotel). Yo Vic visited with owner, James Sinclair. He was very interested in helping out (car show, providing close shop service for any members requiring service. There is a large church parking lot next door to the dealership that we were discussing as being the site for the car show. Also discussed using it for burnout/doughnut demos. Mr. Sinclair was excited about the event! I expect to know level of sponsorship within a few weeks.

Will try and get Bandana's BBQ (St. Louis favorite) to bring mobile unit for lunch. Hoping to get TV/radio coverage. With Mr. Sinclair's help, we may get more than that.

1-2 p.m., depart for road cruise enjoying the country side!

4:30 p.m., return to hotel

6:30 p.m. Group dinner and awards ceremony! Drawing of prizes

Sunday:
whenever all awake, breakfast buffet at Ameristar Casino, hand out DVD's edited and copied during the night, and all say their goodbyes!



Remaining Actions:
1. Need Gateway logo approved and posted with MV-6 Announcement, hotels name, reservation phone number, rates, and websites of interest specific to St. Louis so members can plan their trips.
2. Post volunteers needed request for reception Wednesday and Thursday.
3. Need info from members on what has been included in previous welcome bags (trinkets, etc)
4. Need announcement on site to make reservations ASAP. We are under no minimum room contract, so only risk of reserving now is a no show or not canceling by 6:00 p.m. of night of arrival.
5. Need to know status of raffle. John Nolan has taken that action.
6. Yo Vic is going to call the oil companies to donate gas cards (OK, OK, fat chance, but I'm gonna try!)

More specifics coming soon.

Cheers for now,
"Yo Vic"
Vic Baruzzini

[Pops]

Thanks for the post Vic! You have taken on a lot of work and I want to thank you in advance for it. Anyone who can help Vic with this should step up and let him know. I will do what ever I can so please let me know what you need.

John

[Yo Vic]

Thanks John!

I MUST make one HUGE correction...... I said welcome to Marauderville USA........ my apologies to all of the Canadian members!!!!! Have I forgotten from where my car's root came?

So, Welcome Marauderville North America! (hmmmm wonder if any members have Marauders in other parts of the world.......I would love to one day take mine and travel the European highways for vacation......

Cheers,

Yo Vic

[TooManyFords]

When I was down for the World Street Challenge a couple weeks ago, the locals preferred a different track than Gateway Intl. I don't remember what one now but I will find out. Might be worth looking into.

Also, if we do have a day of racing, allow time for those of us who trailer to/from the hotel to the track so we have time to take the truck/trailers back to the hotel before heading to the next location. Otherwise be sure to include good address info for our GPS's.

Looks like a lot of fun!

BuhWAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

[Vortex]

Just called the hotel and there must be a glitch because they said they dont know anything about it yet (and regular rates are waaay higher than the above) . Vic, can you check to see if there is some code or group or whatever we are supposed to tell them? Thanks!

[Bluerauder]

I just happened to pick up a couple brochures on my recent trip to St Louis 2 weeks ago. Here are the links to:

Fast Lane Classic Cars >>>> http://www.fastlanecars.com

Gateway Arch Riverfront >>>> http://www.gatewayarch.com

[Yo Vic]

Hey Vortex, thanks for the finding the glitch so quick. I am on the phone with group sales. They said they would have the issue corrected in a matter of minutes.

So I ask all to wait about an hour (until 5:30 pm CST) before trying to reserve a room.

It will be under "Mercury Marauder Owners"

Could you also email me @ victor.baruzzini@boeing.com as I will be leaving the office. When I receive confirmation all is clear, I will ask you to send out an update that all is clear if you can.

Thanks!

[Vortex]

Vic, Thanks for the quick work, Im making reservations later tonight though, have to go out. See you in September.

[Vortex]

Tried again at 7pm cst and still no luck, the group rate hasnt gone thru yet I guess, they never heard of us.

[my_rodder]

just tried to book and they said no rooms for the marauders yet. They keep bankers hours so no need to try untill Friday morning.

[Yo Vic]

Turns out I must sign a contract.

They can give 30 days for members to make reservations at the $65/$75/night group rate (Thursday-Sunday) upon signing the contract.

They said they couldn't give anything but $124/room for Wednesday night since not a weekend rate. Go figure.

After 30 days (that all can make their reservations), they would release any unused rooms.

Then a two week cut off for cancellations after those 30 days. Meaning if anyone cancels after that date, they will be charged one night of room and tax.

If anyone tries to book after the cut off, they are subject to pay whatever the hotel is selling.

I don't like how the rules have been changed. But not sure if we have much other choice.

So, I still say get your vacation days with work for 17-21 September ASAP.

I will stop by two other hotels today near this one to see if I can get any better deal.

DO NOT CALL the hotel at this time. I will have an email out saying when.

Yo Vic

[Ken]

Any Hampton Inns nearby? They have always treated us well. Seymour IN, Louisville & Horse Cave KY, Madison Heights MI(? MV3), Carlisle PA, Brecksville OH.

Ken

[Vortex]

Appreciate the hard work Vic, Ill just check back here to see if there are any updates!

[Roodaddy]

Yo Vic,
I fully appreciate the work necessary to organize events (done some myself in the past). So I hope not to stir things up with this...

If getting hotels to be accomodating enough for you and the group is a problem, attendees can organize their rooms themselves. I just got back from Chicago and St. Louis on a Baseball Vacation. Booking through Priceline I got the Conrad Hilton in downtown Chicago for $105/night and the Hyatt Regency in downtown St. Louis for $45/night. These rates were 60% off the hotel web sites. Of course, you have the priceline "pay in advance" and "limited cancellation" factors, but if you can't please everyone, there are other affordable ways to book a block of rooms.


Have Fun,
Bill

[whd507]

any luck with the Hotel? a quick look in that zipcode brings up the Best Western, it seems upscale, and has a 300 person conference room.
BestWesternAirportPlazaInn & ConferenceCenter
4530 N Lindbergh Boulevard, Bridgeton, Missouri, 63044
Phone: 314-731-3800 Fax: 314-731-3530



just a suggestion if the Marriot falls through.