I thought the Palace Station was good, no complaints! Going from room to parking lot and back was very quick, for the distance. It was nice meeting people from this forum in person finally. The Red Rock was some great breath taking views as was the Valley of Fire.

For those of you that have not ever been out of state to participate in a car meet you don't realize how good this one was. I've been to many and some are so disorganized and accomadations are terrible. For the Sin City MINI Club to attempt this and pull it off they deserve a big hand and thanks. Not too bad for first timers and I'm looking forward to next year!

 

Oh I definitely agree with you on the Sahara!!!!

Re: Paper MINI Prize
Awww, that's a good idea. We were short on T-shirts, and thanks to me, I even left the ones we screened for the event organizers back at my house!

This was really our first major event, much the same as SCMC's AMVIV II event, and we learned a lot!! While I think we all left with mixed feelings about doing this next year, I think we'll be back.

Richard

 

OHhhh... LOL

 

Uhm, let me clarify. We'll PROBABLY be BACK to do an event, but not necessarily be back at the SAME venue.

 

That case we can save all crayons we purchased for AMVIV2
I think paper MINI idea is FUN FUN FUN!

 

Definitely!!! We bought school packs of crayons--800!!! and scissors too! We couldn't find a sponsor for this activity so we made it happen ourselves. It was fun, and now that I've got the artwork---took me a couple days of drawing it out, we'll have to find a way to take it to the next level!!!

Richard

 

Not to drag on about this as it seems clear that the Tower rooms were really the place to be...I just feel I need to get the point across that you avoid the Garden rooms at all costs. If you decide on choosing the same hotel, I wouldn't recommend you suggest the Garden rooms - they are that bad.

I live in hotels. If you follow my location in my profile up above my post it changes once or twice a week. I'm home about 4-6 days a month. I've seen a good amount of rubbish along the way, but I'm sitting here thinking to myself if I'm being too hard on the Palace Station..."was it really that bad?" I asked myself today while stuck in traffic.

Yes. It really was.

I honestly have just not come across a hotel room in that poor of a condition. It's really unfortunate b/c even though you're in Vegas and you literally do spend so little time in your room, it puts a damper on things. I appreciate others coming forward to express their opinions since for a second there I thought I was going crazy.

Listen, I had a BLAST! I really did have a lot of fun. I got hammered, I went dancing, I hung out with MINI friends, went on fun runs...didn't sleep much! It was a true Vegas-style vacation! I certainly was NOT complaining the entire time I was there. What you have with this AMVIV thing is a great experience and I think now that the 2nd year has proved to be more successful than the first, you should run with it! Turn this into a business and provide a package to sell to people that has EVERYTHING arranged for them: Hotel, food, outings....all in one price, and we don't have do a thing but give you a check and you take care of the rest. We have a nice room, good parking, and everything lined up. (and apparently parking is the big sell according to the majority of posts in this thread)

**PEOPLE REALLY DO PAY MONEY FOR THIS CONVENIENCE**

It's what makes the travel industry a multi-billion dollar enterprise. The money can go right into getting more things going for the event. The icing on the cake if you will....and then, once you have the formula down, you can expand it to other parts of the country. (Imagine the possibilities!!!!)

I mean, look at the Dragon, and look at how well it's promoted on NAM. People start talking about it right after they drive off from the previous year's event! I'd love to go this year but can't...one day I will. It just seems like such a great event. AMVIV although still in its infancy has a great road ahead of it. You've got the mass influence of California...us here in AZ have your back, and for anyone else this side of the Mississippi, you can still drive out here in less than two days....ok, three.

All I ask is start planning now, and build this thing into a truly magical experience. It's Vegas! It's big! It's shocking! It's FUN!!! Take advantage of that.

Best of luck down the road and we'll see you next year!

haf

 

BTW - I realized I sounded less than grateful in my previous posts. I had a good time. Who couldn't, hanging out with that many Minis and their owners. I'll go next year even if I'm not in the same hotel. I'm not jaded to Vegas yet and want to stay on the strip. Thanks for organizing it.

 

I got your back Hafid. Our room was noisy (thin walls) and kinda scumy. We stayed in the courtyard and talked to people who stayed in the Tower and they liked it fine, so maybe that is where I saved 30 bucks??
Hmm not sure the lack of decent sleep made up for it.

However, the Security at the Palace Station ROCKS!! They helped us with a mean sleazy Limo driver who wanted to charge us $250 for a lil mess. They had us just sit down and argued for us. Big time thanks to them. So all in all I would go back...(it was that nice of an experience, made up for the crappy rooms)

Cheers

 

Well I got there without my MCS .

After waiting a year to come to AMVIN 2 my MCS threw the #1 plug out of the head about 20 miles from my house. I had already met up with Jenn and Marty so we had my MINI towed to the dealer and I rode up with Jenn. Did more hanging around then ever planned since I could not drive. Got a ride back from Jim.

I stayed in the Garden Room and I thought it was OK. The worst part was the shower was so small I could not believe it. It was like 2 1/2' by 2 1/2'. It wasn't really clean but not really dirty. Since I only slept, showered, and shaved there it wasn't that bad.

Enjoyed the dinner and won a shirt .

Got back home and got a truck and trailer and picked my MCS up from the dealer that wanted in the neighborhood of $2,800.00 to fix it and got it fixed for $335.00 plus I have to buy a new set of wires from Randy Webb as they don't sell just one wire.

The person I took it to to get it fixed said, when I called to see if it was ready, "Fixed it, took it for a test drive, now I have to buy one."

Earl

 

Wait a minute, Earl! You got it fixed for $335?? What was the actual problem? Was it a matter of not torquing down the spark plugs after changing them out? Please give a bit more detail about this! And I am SO relieved for you!

Hafid, one of the reasons the Dragon is so popular, I think, is that it is NOT commercial. It is completely planned by MINI enthusiasts, it is in a lovely remote area in the Smokey Mountains, and it is like our own little MINI world. Vegas is such a HUGELY commercial destination, I can only thank all our Sin City MINI friends, who are not professional commercial event organizers, for all their fun plans and good spirits!

The parking and easy access to everything from Palace Station made it a fun location for me. I'd never rent a Garden Room after seeing one. It is well-worth the extra $$ to book a Tower Room. :smile:


Clover

 

I had a blast at AMVIV. Loved being among all those wonderful minis and miniacs. Thought the whole event was very well organized (especially considering it was run by volunteers). Enjoyed the Dam run and the parking lot jammed full of MINIs (and one huge RV)--did you manage to get (and keep) any pics of the parking lot, Dominic? Had fun exploring Vegas on our own (we parked at the Hilton and rode the monorail around).

I'll definitely be talking it up to the other MINI owners I know, and I hope to make it to another AMVIV some year soon.

Of course there were a few things I would have changed... such as

• The (garden room) accomodations, which were a bit run-down, although I appreciated the low price. Maybe next time I'll spring for a tower room -- as long as they can guarantee me a room with a parking lot view!
• I couldn't stand the Palace Station casino for very long because of the smoke and poor ventilation. I guess that would be a mixed blessing!
• A hospitality room or other organized "mixer" event would have been nice (especially for us basically shy types). While the dinner was fun, it was hard to meet anyone other than the folks we were seated with.
• Nametags with both our real names and "handles".

But on the whole, it was a wonderful mini vacation. Maybe next year, Lot 15, you can tear yourself away from your winter wonderland long enough for a brief thaw-out in Vegas!

 

It blew a plug as they were not retorqued after being put in on 2-6-04 it blew out on 3-3-05. Since I have NEVER retorqued a sparkplug in my life I didn't do it in the MINI either. The closest dealer (Not to be named) is where I had it towed to be "checked out". They said it blew the #1 plug (duh, I knew that) so I asked them to check all the others and they said they were fine. The person that fixed it changed the other three and told me, "Did you know all three of the other ones were loose too?"

Earl

 

Hubby said spark plugs always need re-torquing after replacement! Just glad you got it fixed at such a reasonable rate, Earl. Take care, sweetie. :smile:

Clover

 

Yep!

 

ok I skimmed through this thread and noticed a lot of hubub about the hotel. I know I'm really late on adding my opinion but I'm going to anyway. some of it's bad and some of it's good and not to be taken personally, I thought you guys did a wonderfull job with AMVIV my only beef is with the hotel it was litterally almost every few minutes while being inside one of us would chime up with "oh my god" or "what the....?" or "you wouldn't believe this", I am in no way a hotel snob but the courtyard area of the hotel rooms were rediculous, here are my thoughts if you care;

1. the location to the strip and funruns was GREAT the location being in the ghetto and watching numerous fellows in pimp-daddy outfits staring at me or my car was BAD.
2.Our first hotel room smelled like a stink bomb, so bad so that we requested a new room because there was a force field at the door you could cut with a knife.
3. the new room smelled like farts with perfume sprayed. yes I was in a courtyard room and it was so tiny I couldn't move without stepping on my luggage. the TV didn't work, the showerhead was about 3 feet shorter than me and leaked all over the floor soaking my socks everytime I went to the bathroom. the cleaning people went in our room 2 times even though there was a do not disturb sign on our door which also happened when we went back for a room check before departing but she had stripped the whole room of everything including my toothbrush and the hotel didn't do anything about it when the issue was brought up, all I got was a blank stare and the response "I think the housekeepers speak english, I'll let management know". there was no elevator to take us to our floor so we had to carry our luggage up and down stairs. the walls were so thin that normally when you here the people getting it on in the next room you don't get to hear the dirty talk involved...I got to hear lots of interesting animal noises numerous times through the weekend....be forwarned if you were in the room to the left of 2511 I HEARD YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4. Tarrance the security gaurd was really COOL and helpful, especially when he advised us to remove all valuables from our cars before going to bed.
5. The rates were decent I suppose but I recall staying at the golden nugget on the old strip which is a very good hotel for something like $45 or $65 a night in a nice tower room, I don't know what there parking was like
6. the parking deck was fenominal! I loved it, I would have rathered sleep out there if it hadn't been so chilly at night. it was fun to be able to hang out up there and look over the edge and pull out chairs and drink with my friends...other than the food at the hoffbrowhouse (sp?) it was my favorite part. I don't think a lot of other hotels would have put up with the e-brake slides and loud engines all weekend so I will deffinately give them kudos on that.
7. the little cafe downstairs had awesome breakfast and was cheap! I also liked that there was a Starshmucks downstairs as well.

I had a good time and I'm deffinately glad I went despite my dislike for the hotel.

 

Hey Emis,

Glad to hear you enjoyed the HofBrauHaus dinner!! You know it took me 3 months to figure out how to spell their name!

I'm curious for all those in the Garden room and had the housekeepers ignore the Do Not Disturb signs. In my tower room I had a top lock and a push button above the door ****. The note by the push button said that this disabled the housekeeping keys. Did you guys not have this button??

 

We had those buttons in the courtyard (cross apply Hafid's thoughts on the courtyard here), but I gather the buttons only work if someone is in the room. From what I gather housecleaning came in while they were out, but the do not disturb sign was on the door.

 

that's exactly what happened. We would put the sign up because we didn't trust them judging the look of the place. I wanted to strangle someone when it happened a second time. When leaving a hotel room your final room check is the most importantpart because if you leave something it's nobodies fault but your own. I litterally took my suitcase to the car and came right back, that's how fast she swooped in. When we showed back up she claimed to have found nothing left in the room. I have yet to unload my stuff but I'm feeling lucky all I lost was my toothbrush and conditioner (atleast that I know of)...right now there is a small mexican woman who speaks broken english with sparkling teeth and silky hair compliments of me!

as for the HofBrauHaus I'm mostly German and haven't experienced a lot of good German cooking but man, as much as I've always disliked Vegas I might have to make a funrun there just for dinner. We've been talking about that food ever since....mmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

I don't know the time frame of the Sin City club organizing the event but I know us c3 people only started planning our dinner in Jan! It was a crazy experience but with 4 officers and a little help from I think 2 others we managed to pull it off in under 2 months!

I think with the experience we gained and having 11 months to plan instead of 2 our dinner next year (should we accept the mission) will be off the charts! I bet the same thing is true for Sin City and their planning.

I really didn't think much about my room - I thought it was fine tho I got lots of exercise hiking the 1/2 mile to it and then up a flight of stairs but now that you all have pointed out things I agree. The halls were dirty and the room a bit shabby, the shower was at a very strange level and my tv only partially worked. I guess I was lucky cuz I left my "do not disturb" sign on the door all weekend and never saw a maid at all!

The parking was the best and seeing all those MINI's lined up in the parking lot to head out on runs was priceless. I wish I had gotten a tower room so I had a good view of them! Oh I loved all the food we had at the hotel too.

Overall I had an amazing time - huge thanks to Sin City and especially to all the incredible volunteers who helped us out with the dinner and really made it a success!

I plan on being back year after year despite a the Vegas shabby “garden” room!

 

Just throwing in my .02 cents.

Let's just say, I got a nice cold from my trip to Vegas. I truly think it was from the moldy fan in my garden room at the Palace. By the second night, it was worse. And I feel stupid for not moving out immediately; just took it from that place another night.



We moved into the Luxor on Sunday night (helps that it was much cheaper than Fri/Sat nights, tho) and enjoyed the oppulence of room service as I was too sick to see any shows or go out in the nice weather, that finally came.

So saying, the Palace was not a great place to stay as the smoke just walking in was enough to begin a healthy person, hacking. Garden or Tower, you had to suffer that smell there. (After checking out a few other hotels before getting too sick, nothing compared to the smoke at the Palace)


I just don't want you all to feel that I'm ungrateful for all the hard work it was to get this shin-dig going. I am SOOOOO appreciative of all the hard work you guys did!!!!!! Parking, getting us all signed in, everything. However, there just must be bargaining power for getting a better hotel based on how many of us showed. (Seems obvious of the hotels rep if so many others stayed elsewhere, too)


As my 87 yr old grandfather says, "If you can't go first class, don't go at all."

I think I'll stay somewhere else next time if the choice is the Palace. Sorry guys

 

While I cannot speak for SCMC, I can say from experience with the Kickoff Dinner that one thing that can help tremendously in securing a better location is getting a firm commitment by those planning on attending months in advance and not in the last 2 weeks.

Things got pretty stressful for us when we only had around 50 RSVPs for the dinner with 2 weeks to go, and we had committed to 200. This number was based in part on the attendance of last years dinner turnout and everyone expecting this year to be larger than last.

Not knowing how many were going to be attending this year, and hearing from many of last years attendees that they weren't going this year only made it more difficult to gauge the turnout and use that as a bargaining tool.

:smile:

Just my 2 cents

Richard

 

Garden room or Tower room, I too plan to be back next year

 

Hmmmm, I wonder if I'll be back?

Of course!! I wouldn't miss it!!! I'll be back too--in the Towers!

 

These are REAL good ideas :smile::smile: I had a blast and would do it again even with my complaints.
I think a mixer would be cool cause I did not get to meet enough of you at the dinner. Well Cheers!