This will be my first time at WPPI and decided to start looking into reservations. I read on some Vegas site that when Valentines Day falls on a Sat. - you better make plans early especially since there's a spike in couples going to Vegas to get married!! How cool is that with all the photogs in for WPPI?!

I like to plan ahead and after several searches to see what's available I ended up making our reservations today, booked our flights, and even got our rental car!!

Here are a few friendly reasons why to make reservations now:

We're staying from Feb 11-18 and I couldn't believe the MGM Grand was already booked for those dates on Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. I then went to: http://www.visitlasvegas.com/vegas/stay/hotels/index.jsp
and was able make reservations at the MGM Grand plus it only required one nights deposit to hold it.

**So, after that I decided to check into flights............I quickly discovered after some due diligence that I better book our flights due to the whole "gas thing"............so I booked that through Travelocity today from Huntsville to Las Vegas.

***Now I was determined to go ahead and get our car and Hotwire is already sold out for those dates....I tried the other sites and ended up getting the best deal through Priceline for the week.

This just seems sooooooooo early to make reservations (even for me!) but I couldn't believe how many times the "sold out" or "sorry, no rooms available" popped up.
I'm putting my wallet away now and wish everyone luck!!
See you in '09!

WPPI always has a special rate for hotels, and they have a huge block of rooms set aside at MGM. That's probably a big reason why the travel sites all say it's booked.

Don't know about flights ... I'll check into Southwest at some point.

But for hotel, just wait for WPPI to announce their room rates, then make reservations then.

I started to go into panic mode - haha!
I'll keep my current reservations until WPPI announces their room rates....thanks for the information!

WOOHOO! I was never really able to make it because it fell on weekdays- But this is also President's day weekend and we have the 16 and 17 off!!!

OMG- valentines and presidents day weekend- vegas will be packed.

Chelo - I agree that it will be packed to boot!! When I was putting my search requests in for air+hotel packages there were other big hotel names that gave me the "sorry no rooms for your requested dates" besides the MGM Grand. BTW (off-topic).....I must admit I have high hopes that My Mr. Big will be getting us tickets for Valentines Day & dinner to see Cher! ya-ya!!

That's great you'll be able to make it!!

Last year WPPI had some good rates for Paris/Bally's (I think they were announced in October if memory serves) so I'm sure they will do the same again. If MGM really is full of other people then we'll be doing some serious walking that week! The one thing I am SO glad I did was stay there (I was in Paris). I heard so many people that stayed off site to save a buck or two say that was one of the dumber moves they made that week. So that's my tip - stay where the action is.

Oh and go to the piano bar in Paris.

I'm sure the WPPI officials have very good reasons for the date change, but Valentine's on a SATURDAY... won't EVERY decent-and-better photographer have a wedding that day (maybe NOT Friday the 13th)? I would be disappointed not to see all my friends from around the US and globe (that's for you, Sofie) because they're booked

Won't spouses of WPPI attending photographers be bummed they won't be celebrating with their honey's?

Yeah I stayed way off the strip (not complaining, it was free) and it made it really hard to get places.Well, classes start on the 14th but the tradeshow isn't until the 16th so most people might not get there till then.

Hey Corey Ann!
This is just some friendly advice.........if WPPI waits until October and the
rooms they reserved get booked up - it's going to be hard to find a room
nearby IMO. I only think that because of when I made our reservations awhile
back and it was quite obvious that other people were booking hotels for a Valentines Day weekend get-away. Also, if you need a rental car - I'd suggest to reserve that now........I swear I'm not exagerating a bit on what I wrote in my very first post.

I'm the type that likes to have a Plan A, Plan B, and even a Plan C in place "just in case" - if you can make reservations without a penalty to cancel I'd suggest that in a heartbeat.

It's always easier to cancel existing reservations
if we can get a better rate when WPPI makes their announcements.

Best places to stay for WPPI are by far Ballys & Paris. The next best though is the overlooked Imperial Palace - it was a great place, cheapest rates I could find, and a *short* walk to Paris, not like staying at MGM which is ridiculous. You don't want to stay at MGM, Tropicana, NY NY = anything that end of the strip is insane. Caesars, Bellagio, Imperial, Ballys, Paris, those are good. Anything going out the other way toward that Egyptian place is also insane.