Roomies

[Grytherin]

First off, I'm not entirely sure I'll be going, but I'm hoping, and roomates save monies.

Ok, my name's Jessie, I'm going to be 20 when Portus occurs, and I'm pretty much a dork, and I'm really easy to get along with. I Luuuuurve Harry Potter, so yeah, I guess that'd be pretty obvious, huh?

Anyway, I don't mind males or females, preferably 17-28 age range, but no big deal eather way. I REALLY am wanting to go, it's just money is my problem. So anyone interested? :D

[TheSilverDoe]

Hey Jessie! I'll also be 20 when Portus occurs, and I'm a dork too. ;-) I'm definitely going but I am just a poor college student so I'm definitely looking for roommates. I don't know anyone else going so I'm hoping to find some people through these message boards. Maybe something could work out for us.

[Moaning_Myrtle]

Hey, there!

At this point, I'm about 80% sure that I'm going. Money is a major factor for me as well. As it's only a weekend long retreat, I'm sure I'll be able to get the time off work, but the money is my cause for worry at the moment. So, yea, it would be great to have someone to room with. Much like SilverDoe, I'm a poor college student, so I'm definetely looking for any means to save money.

I'll be 19 (5 months shy of being 20) by the time Portus rolls around. I'm a total dork as well. I don't snore, sleep walk, or do any crazy things in my sleep. I marginally well-organized, so I won't be a messy room mate. But yea, I'm travelling alone, so on top of the money-saving factor, it'd be really nice to be able to have someone that I knew when I got to the hotel.

Feel free to chat with me, my myspace is www.myspace.com/chrispystine and I think my profile has most of my contact info. Even if we don't end up being roomies, we may still bump into eachother if we both do attend the event.

Good luck finding a roomate. :D

[Grytherin]

Haha, yeah, it's mainly money, but I'm hoping VERY much to go. Thank you both for replying! I can say I'm about 40% sure I'm going, so yeah. It's still almost a year away, so money might be OK, it's just I'm going on a HP cruise next October, and that's some money, but I should be about to go. If either of you have AIM, you should add me, I'm Jebbles19 on it ^_^

[Moaning_Myrtle]

Haha, yeah, it's mainly money, but I'm hoping VERY much to go. Thank you both for replying! I can say I'm about 40% sure I'm going, so yeah. It's still almost a year away, so money might be OK, it's just I'm going on a HP cruise next October, and that's some money, but I should be about to go. If either of you have AIM, you should add me, I'm Jebbles19 on it ^_^

Yea, with the actual event being so far in the future, if I start saving a portion of my paycheck I'll have enough money.

You're going on Wrock the Boat? Soooo jealous. It's enough that I'm able to go to one HP event, but the cruise sounds really, really awesome. It should be loads of fun.

My screename on AIM is BookWorm2188, I'm hardly on considering my work/school schedule but you may be able to catch me on there every once and a while.

[abstracted]

Hey guys!
I'm looking for a roommate too...as a fellow poor college student, anything that helps save galleons is game for me!
I'm definitely going, although there's always that 1% chance that something can happen between now and July 2008.

My name's Shivani...I'll be 19 by the time Portus comes around, three months shy of 20. I'm from Plano, TX, which is about 30 minutes north of Dallas.
I've been reading Harry Potter since 1999, and my love for the series has reached the point where I have my own Potter website. =P

I'm totally open and flexible. I don't drink or smoke, though. I'm pretty organized, though I don't mind if someone else is messy. I promise I'm a pretty easy roomie to get along with. :)

I'm a proud dork as well, so if this all works out, I suppose all four of us dorks will have a grand time at Portus. =D

My AIM, by the way, is sheeveez. I don't get on too often nowadays with classes and such, but if I am on, it'll be at nights.
You might catch me on my website too, I'm there more often than I am on AIM (just because I have to manage things). It's Plano Hogwarts, and my username is HMShivz, so feel free to drop by a PM! I'd love to get to know some people who will be at Portus, even if we can't room together.

[Grytherin]

Well, this would be quite nice, there's 4 of us. Yeah, I'm going on Wrock the Boat, and Wrockstock the end of next month, lol. But I shoulld be going, and this would be cool. ^_^ I'm excited now, lol.

[Moaning_Myrtle]

Well, this would be quite nice, there's 4 of us. Yeah, I'm going on Wrock the Boat, and Wrockstock the end of next month, lol. But I shoulld be going, and this would be cool. ^_^ I'm excited now, lol.

That'd be really cool if there was four of us in the room. I imagine that it would never get boring. lol.

You're going to Wrockstock as well? I'm even more jealous now. :p

[abstracted]

I've just gotten into wizard rock...you're so lucky to be going to Wrock the Boat! I've never been on a cruise before, and a Potter-ized one sounds just unbelievably awesome!

Yes, if all four of us do room together, I imagine it'd always be a party. :D Have any of you been to another con before this one? Portus is my first.

[TheSilverDoe]

That'd be really cool if there was four of us in the room. I imagine that it would never get boring. lol.


Plus having four of us would certainly help in the financial department for us poor college kids. This does seem like an awesome group. When do you guys think you'll know for sure if you're going?

[abstracted]

I know for sure, already. If all four of us can do this, it'd definitely help with the galleons issue. So, without that as a problem, I'm almost 100% sure I can go.

I'm wondering, though, since this is my first (and I've never reserved a hotel room on my own before)...how would we go about reserving our room, since we're splitting the cost?

[TheSilverDoe]

Then shall you and I tentatively decide to room together? And then later on we can see when everyone else decides if they're definitely going or not.

I've reserved hotel rooms before. But I suppose one of us would have to reserve the room and the others would pay them back. Hopefully everything could work out, though it does seem a little uneasy what with the internet and knowing who to trust and all that. I suppose whoever reserves the room could print out the confirmation and send it to the others (to show the room is definitely reserved) and then the others could mail that person money, or a check, in advance of the conference to make sure they won't back out. That, at least, is the most reliable thing I can think of.

If anyone else knows a better way to do this it would probably be helpful.

[abstracted]

That seems like the best way to do it.

I'm up for rooming with you. :) I guess we can wait until about January to see if everyone else becomes sure they can go. Do you know how soon we need to reserve a room?

[TheSilverDoe]

That sounds good to me. :-)

I know that you can reserve rooms until June 7th, or "whenever they run out." So I assume it's best to do it as soon as possible. Maybe I'll make another thread asking people at other conferences when a good time to book a room is.

[Grytherin]

Well, I can say I'm about 68% sure? Haha, yeah. Well, we could possible PayPal to one person to reserve maybe? I dunno, that's what people were doing for Wrockstock. Anyway, yeah, I will know before January, that's when the price goes up, so I'll wanna make sure before then. It's not so much the price of the con, it's more traveling and whatnot. The rooms at the hotel are I think $155 for the cheaper ones, so do you guys know if that's per person or split? And is that each night? See, that's the stuff that gets expensive, lol, but I'm hoping to go, I mean, it's still awhile till I need all the money :p Should we hope/plan for everyone knowing for sure by January? :D

[abstracted]

I can pay through PayPal. I like that better than sending a check through the mail because it's far faster and a little safer. If you have a credit card, you can get a PayPal account for free.

Anyway, I just went through the booking process, up to the checkout screen.
It's $155 per night for any of the standard rooms (regardless of number of people or beds). The total for the whole stay comes to $534.75 (including tax), which, divided among four people, is about $134 per person.

So...a bit more than I expected....which means I should really start saving up.

The special rate ($155 for a standard room, $195 for an executive level room) is available until June 7th, so we won't have to worry about the price changing. But, we should still plan early and maybe book the room by January in case the rooms are sold-out.

[TheSilverDoe]

Yeah, a little bit more than I expected too, but oh well. That's about a month's worth of tutoring for me, so as long as I don't spend too much on the side it shouldn't be too bad.

And PayPal sounds like a good option. I don't have an account but I do have a credit card, so that could work. Plus my mom has an account so she can explain to me how it works, lol.

[Moaning_Myrtle]

Plus having four of us would certainly help in the financial department for us poor college kids. This does seem like an awesome group. When do you guys think you'll know for sure if you're going?

At this point, I'm about 90% sure. I just have to work out a couple things with my mom (she still doesn't quite understand my draw to this event. she's trying to urge me to spend my hard-earned cash on less "silly" things.), and if I continue getting the same amount of hours every week, I should be more than able to save the proper amount of money.

This definetely sounds like we may be shaping up towards a plan. So yea, keep me updated. :D

[Grytherin]

OK, well, that's not too bad, the plane ticket will suck a bit, but, oh well. Yeah, I think this will work out nicely :D January should be plenty of time (perhaps?) for us all to have decided if we're able to go, and we have until June to reserve the room, so this should be OK. PayPal seems to be the best thing, it's really easy to get if you don't have it, and easy to use. Ohh, this will be great fun :p

[abstracted]

Great, this is working out pretty well...I'm excited! :D Especially since we have this much sorted out almost a year in advance. It gives us plenty of leg-room to plan other things to make Portus as awesome as possible.

I hope I can get a job next semester....my mom is (reluctantly) willing to pay for the hotel, but since this is a complete guilty pleasure of mine, I'd rather earn this money up on my own, of course.

Are you all planning on going to any of the keynote luncheons or the afternoon teas? I'm assuming the ball is a given...:D That will be SO much fun!


Edit: Okay, I just read Bekki's response to Becky's question (lol) about reserving a room. Basically, it's okay to reserve a room now. You can add in roommates later, and if things don't work out, you can can cancel your reservation without penalty (as long as it's 3 days in advance).
So....shall we do this?

[TheSilverDoe]

I think that if at least one of us is willing to reserve a room now, we should. They won't charge you til after the stay (right?) So then once everyone's a definite they can pay.

[Moaning_Myrtle]

Great, this is working out pretty well...I'm excited! :D Especially since we have this much sorted out almost a year in advance. It gives us plenty of leg-room to plan other things to make Portus as awesome as possible.

I hope I can get a job next semester....my mom is (reluctantly) willing to pay for the hotel, but since this is a complete guilty pleasure of mine, I'd rather earn this money up on my own, of course.

Are you all planning on going to any of the keynote luncheons or the afternoon teas? I'm assuming the ball is a given...:D That will be SO much fun!


Edit: Okay, I just read Bekki's response to Becky's question (lol) about reserving a room. Basically, it's okay to reserve a room now. You can add in roommates later, and if things don't work out, you can can cancel your reservation without penalty (as long as it's 3 days in advance).
So....shall we do this?

Yea, this really is working out great.

I have much the same situation. My mom would probably put off most of the money for this trip, but she thinks spending money on going to a Harry Potter convention for a weekend is ludicrous. Oh well, I don't expect everyone to understand my excessive love of Harry Potter :D. So, yea, I really want to earn most, if not all, the money myself as well.

I'm definitely going to the ball. Since the luncheons and teas are a daily fee, I'm not too sure about those yet. I may go to one each, just to see what they are all about, but I doubt I'll go both days.

I'm reallyyyy excited! :D

[TheSilverDoe]

I'm definitely going to the ball as well, but probably not the luncheons and teas because of the $$.

And if you guys want, I could reserve the room. Just let me know what you think.

[Moaning_Myrtle]

I'm definitely going to the ball as well, but probably not the luncheons and teas because of the $$.

And if you guys want, I could reserve the room. Just let me know what you think.

I just read the 'when to reserve' thread and Bekki's response, so it really doesn't seem like there's any risk at all in reserving a room right now, so I would say that we should go for it. I'd also volunteer to get a room for us, but as of right now, I don't have a credit card (I've only had my job for a little over a month now, and even then, I don't need the added stress of paying a credit bill every month). But if you're willing to get the room now, I won't object. Plus, it'd give us a more solid estimation of how much each of us has to divy up in terms of our room if it works out and the four of us end up rooming together. Whatever works best for anyone else, I'm fine with. :)

[abstracted]

If you can reserve the room, I think that would be a good idea. I would do it, only I don't have a credit card (only debit), and my mom would want me to wait a bit before reserving a room....she doesn't get that I could back out without penalty if I had to...but then again she doesn't understand HP conferences in general either. =P

If I can get the money, I'd like to go to the keynote luncheon with Steve Vander Ark, because I hear he's a really great presenter. They haven't picked a speaker for the second luncheon either, so I don't know about that one.
Anyone know anything about afternoon teas? Is it just an extra meal, or is it some kind of event?

[Grytherin]

I'm definitely going to the ball as well, but probably not the luncheons and teas because of the $$.

And if you guys want, I could reserve the room. Just let me know what you think.

Yeah, I don't see why not, if we can cancel and whot not if we can't go, then we should! So is it not taken off your card until you go? I'll definately know whether or not I can go by January! Oh, and I'd definately go to the ball, perhaps one or more of the luncheons or teas, dunno yet. Wow, we're really getting this together, huh? Yay! :D

[Moaning_Myrtle]

Wow, we're really getting this together, huh? Yay! :D

Haha, yea. I thought the same thing. When I started replying to threads for roomies, I really didn't think I'd stumble upon something that may actually work out so easily. :D

[TheSilverDoe]

Me neither, I thought it would take awhile.

I will try to reserve a room soon, though I want to talk it over with my parents first. But I will probably do it within two weeks, if that's cool with everyone.

The second thing I was thinking about is starting a small forum somewhere else so we could all chat and really get to know each other. My friend did that when we all graduated high school, she signed up for a free forum and there were only a few of us on it but it was a good way to get connected. I would love to talk more in depth to you three and I don't want to clog up the Portus forums. So let me know what you think about that. :-)

[Moaning_Myrtle]

Me neither, I thought it would take awhile.

I will try to reserve a room soon, though I want to talk it over with my parents first. But I will probably do it within two weeks, if that's cool with everyone.

The second thing I was thinking about is starting a small forum somewhere else so we could all chat and really get to know each other. My friend did that when we all graduated high school, she signed up for a free forum and there were only a few of us on it but it was a good way to get connected. I would love to talk more in depth to you three and I don't want to clog up the Portus forums. So let me know what you think about that. :-)

That's fine with me. Take your time, as long as there's still rooms available, there's no rush.

I was thinking the same thing. I would definitely love to get to know you all better, seeing as we're going to be spending a weekend in such close quarters. :D

[abstracted]

I love the idea of a forum for us. =) I can make that, if you like. I've had plenty of experience with managing invisionfree forums, so it'll be really easy/fast.

Maybe we can chat online occasionally too. Do we all have AIM?

[TheSilverDoe]

I love the idea of a forum for us. =) I can make that, if you like. I've had plenty of experience with managing invisionfree forums, so it'll be really easy/fast.

Maybe we can chat online occasionally too. Do we all have AIM?

Sure, my friend used boardnation when she did it, I think, but if you're familiar with invisionfree then go for it!

I am on AIM, and while I am always "on" with an away message I'm very rarely actually there, and when I am it's pretty sporadic. But I'll give you my screenname anyway and maybe you'll catch me on sometime:

TheGreeneLight

[Moaning_Myrtle]

I love the idea of a forum for us. =) I can make that, if you like. I've had plenty of experience with managing invisionfree forums, so it'll be really easy/fast.

Maybe we can chat online occasionally too. Do we all have AIM?

That'd be awesome, because I, being terribly technologically inept, would have no idea how to start a forum. But I think that'd be really cool.

I think I may have mentioned it already, but I have AIM, BookWorm2188, and I'd actually make an attempt to sign on once in a while :P.

[Grytherin]

Ohh, I was thinking the same thing about us chatting, I have AIM, Jebbles19, and our own forum sounds awesome. Yeah, this is coming together WAY faster than I imagined, it's quite awesome, lol. :p

[Moaning_Myrtle]

Ohh, I was thinking the same thing about us chatting, I have AIM, Jebbles19, and our own forum sounds awesome. Yeah, this is coming together WAY faster than I imagined, it's quite awesome, lol. :p


It really is quite awesome. :D :D :D

If anyone sees this, I'm actually signed onto AIM if anyone's up for a chat.

[abstracted]

Yay, I'm on. :D Mine is sheeveez, by the way.

I love how our roomies topic has the most posts in the entire room-sharing forum....4 pages worth!

I'll probably put together our little forum this Friday afternoon. The way classes are this week, I won't have a chance until then. :(

[Grytherin]

Ah, you both left before I noticed you were on, poo. Ah well, some other time, lol. A forum would be cool, I dunno how to put one together, so I'm glad we got someone not technologically(sp?) impaired, lol. :D

[abstracted]

Okay, here's our forum :D
http://z3.invisionfree.com/PortusRoomies/index.php

I just quickly put a few forums together...let me know what you want, or if we should change any of them. I don't know how few forums we need, since there are just four of us. I'm used to managing a forum of some 900 members, which is quite a bit different. :P

My username is Shivani. I figured I should use my real name instead of a username, but that's just me. :)

See you there!


Edit: By the way, I'll make you all moderators once you sign up...that way, you're free to create topics wherever you want, whenever you want. You can delete them, edit them, close/open them, and pin/unpin them.

[TheSilverDoe]

How awesome! I just signed up. I used my real name too (Becky). The forum looks fantastic, by the way.

[Moaning_Myrtle]

Awesome! I'll go sign up right now. :D
Thanks for setting this up for us.
This is seriously all so amazing.

-Christine

[Grytherin]

Haha, awesome, I just signed up too, as Jessie :D This was really awesome of you!

[nicole_hp90210]

hey! my name is nicole, and i'll be about two months shy of 20 when portus rolls around, and i'm looking for some roomies, i'm pretty easy to get along with and am open to meeting new people, if your still intersted my e-mail is nicole_hp90210@yahoo.com

[TheSilverDoe]

Hi Nicole! Right now we have a tentative 4 people, but nobody's really definite yet. So if there's an opening, we'll let you know!

[TheSilverDoe]

Well Nicole, as of right now we're looking for a 4th person, so I sent you an email! Hope you can join us!