Arisia environment questions

[drwex]

My recollection from last year is that the lobby seating area tended to be quite cold, mostly due to the large amount of glass and the constantly opening doors, and the rest of the hotel tended to be over-warm. Anyone remember differently?

My recollection was that guest rooms were comfortable, but panel rooms tended to be warm, particularly when packed with bodies. Yes/no?

Anyone know the status of the hotel's restaurant(s)? My recollection is that one was ludicrous (in price and lack of selection) and the other was mostly unavailable last year. Has that changed? Anyone have an up-to-date local eateries list?

Comments

[nchanter.livejournal.com]

Your recollection of the lobby temperatures is correct, however it will be adjusted this year. This was not actually a failure on the part of the hotel, but actually of Arisia staff members insisting they knew best based on *other* hotel designs, and not the special challenges that go with climate control in a space like The Westin's Lobby.

[dcltdw]

Agree on lobby; don't remember that for the rest of the hotel.

Wasn't in guest rooms for very long (read: vendor's alley). The two panels I was at weren't particularly packed or uncomfy.

Agreed on ludicrous hotel restaurant, which I ignored. Don't recall the other one. :p No idea about current status.

[taura-g.livejournal.com]

The Pub style restaurant was closed for a Private Party on Saturday of 2011. But the food was pretty good and the staff was just caught unawares by the volume of people for Arisia. Unsure if/how they plan to rectify that.

The Bar that was next to that was rather packed when the Pub was closed. And yes the main one was ludicrous.

The smaller panel rooms did get rather warm when they were full.

[meadmaker.livejournal.com]

I didn't actually go into the restaurants last year, and I'm happy for that - I heard a couple of months later that the pub lost (had stolen) the credit card numbers of its customers for a period of a couple of months, which included the Arisia weekend. It seems that their parent company, The Briar Group, had lax security around their computer systems - including shared passwords, default usernames and passwords, and more. Whee!

[persis.livejournal.com]

The available in hotel options are listed here: http://2012.arisia.org/food.

[c1.livejournal.com]

nchanter probably knows more about current issues relating to the HVAC system than I do, but last year was the first Arisia since mine that I didn't wear a kilt the whole weekend. It was just too damn cold anywhere I went.
However... last year, it was freakishly cold that weekend, and this year, the forecast (so far) seems to show expected temps in the freakishly warm end of the scale. YMMV. I'm fully expecting a tornado to descend in the middle of the lobby whereupon a torrent of clown cars will be unleashed, each filled to bursting with duckbilled platapusses jumping up and down on pogo sticks. Because New England weather is just that unpredictable.