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[Tungro]

Hi Cheetah, thanks for addressing some of the concerns! Tanks doco too!

Out of 400 attendees at EF12, only 250 attended the meals at all. The rest not only paid for a meal they didn't want, they obviously spent extra money to eat elsewhere. So, when deciding which part of the increased cost to offload from the con fee, food was the obvious choice.

I never realised that. I presumed that with the odd exception when someone misses a meal, or decides to go out for a meal elsewhere as a one-off, everyone attended the meals. I understand that decision now then.

Oh, come on. There will be 400-500 furries around. People will go shopping in groups, and people will also most likely be going out for dinner in groups. There's always someone with a car you can go with. And unlike Nuremberg, you CAN park you car right outside the front door.

Point taken. Will there be some way of organising things like this? At EF12 there was the flipchart in the reception that was used for delivering important messages (such as which radio channels not to use) - can there be some sort of a system where people that have cars that want to drive down can be contacted by those without? The reason I say this is because as I am sure you've noticed, there seem to be subgroups within the main furry group. Not everyone may know someone with a car there (especially those who travel from further afield). The problem I see with using this though is that the hotel may not be too keen to have something like a flipchart viewable that would take custom "away" from their main restaurant and the buffet too.

You're wildly exaggerating. In town, you can get a kebap for 3€, and some buns and a cup of coffee for about 4€. Or a Big Mac Menu at McDonalds for €4.50. Calm down

I am quite calm really, I just don't fancy kebabs or McD meals for every meal there Can't be good for the waistline!

Oh and by the way, the rooms actually do have a little fridge. (It usually serves as a minibar, but they won't be stocked for Eurofurence, so it's free for you to use and store cold food.)

Ah good! This is good news! Remove the temptation for people to spend €1000 per 10ml bottle of alcohol And it gives us a place to store food. Nothing worse than cheese that has started to sweat in the heat! And cool drinks too!

And by the way, the restaurant also serves snacks for less than the buffet price.

Aha! A useful little tip, thanks! I presumed that the buffet would be cheaper than the restaurant a la carte meals (as I presume it's at a discounted rate for EF for the buffet). Of course it'd be snack food, but that's all that might be needed

Sorry if I seem very budget conscious - I'm merely trying to work out how much money I need to save, and how much I'll need to keep to one side and not to end up going hungry simply to buy art from the art show

Oh, and speaking from past experiences - at morning buffets in hotels, I eat about three meals' worth to last the whole day! Heh

[ANTIcarrot]

As someone who LIVED in a hotel for a while (in rooms not to dissimilar to these) you can get by without spending lots of money. As long as there is something like a tesco/asda/sainsburies in the town we can get to, you might not need to spend more than 20 euros on food. Just bring a toaster[1] with you and buy bread and contiments in town.

If you want to do it cheaply, you can do it like that, but if you want to eat well, you may have to end up paying the price.

And to play devil's advocate: Yes the it is easy to think the con staff are being a little sneaky about the slight price increase, but the food at EF has almost always been a little M.R.E.ish - and people have always gone and spent money off site as a result. The only difference between EF12 and EF13 is you don't have to walk 400m up and down a big hill to find a good restaurant.



[1] Oh yes - and don't tell the hotel.

[Tungro]

Just bring a toaster with you and buy bread and contiments in town.

And to play devil's advocate: Yes the it is easy to think the con staff are being a little sneaky about the slight price increase, but the food at EF has almost always been a little M.R.E.ish - and people have always gone and spent money off site as a result. The only difference between EF12 and EF13 is you don't have to walk 400m up and down a big hill to find a good restaurant.

I'd be too worried to set off the fire alarm, as toasters have a tendency to do

I do not think the staff are being sneaky at all. Since the venue seems a lot nicer, I did expect a price increase and don't have any problems with that aspect of things! I merely voiced some concerns, because if people eat at the consite it works out as a €100 or so increase over last year, and it seemed due to the location of the venue that it'd be very difficult for people without cars to go elsewhere for food. So I'm glad that in this thread these issues have been addressed. And of course, this still ends up cheaper than other cons such as AC (curse room tax!)

On a side note, Cheetah or other members of EF staff - any idea if there will be kettles in the hotel rooms? My German isn't too bad but I couldn't find any references to it on websites for the hotel itself.

[Loewi]

As someone who LIVED in a hotel for a while (in rooms not to dissimilar to these) you can get by without spending lots of money. As long as there is something like a tesco/asda/sainsburies in the town we can get to, you might not need to spend more than 20 euros on food. Just bring a toaster[1] with you and buy bread and contiments in town.

If you want to do it cheaply, you can do it like that, but if you want to eat well, you may have to end up paying the price.

And to play devil's advocate: Yes the it is easy to think the con staff are being a little sneaky about the slight price increase, but the food at EF has almost always been a little M.R.E.ish - and people have always gone and spent money off site as a result. The only difference between EF12 and EF13 is you don't have to walk 400m up and down a big hill to find a good restaurant.



[1] Oh yes - and don't tell the hotel.

The two meals you are calling at EF13 are Dinner Buffets - all you can eat. If you lived in a Hotel for a While you should know what that means.

We were in the Hotel already and i can tell you what the dinner-buffet there was like:

4 different sorts of Meat
2 different sorts of Fish
2 different soups
different sorts of vegetables
Rice, noodles or croquettes
vegetarian food
Salad bar with different topics
Dessert Bar

AND (!!!)
during the Dinner, Beer, wine, juices and water are inclusive! (!!)

so... would you please tell me where 10-15 Euro is expensive???

[Loewi]

On a side note, Cheetah or other members of EF staff - any idea if there will be kettles in the hotel rooms? My German isn't too bad but I couldn't find any references to it on websites for the hotel itself.

No, im afraid there arent kettles in hotel rooms. You should bring your own if you need one.
I think, a Kettle is what "Wasserkocher" is in german.

The only electrical thing the hotel rooms provide is a hair-blower and a TV.

[DarkRacoon]

YAY! You went with my casino idea ^_^

Thank yooooou! ^^

[Wawik]

No, im afraid there arent kettles in hotel rooms. You should bring your own if you need one.
I think, a Kettle is what "Wasserkocher" is in german.

Normally electric cooking appliances including kettles are forbidden for fire protection reasons, unless they are provided by the hotel... that is something that definitely should be discussed with the hotel first.

[Wardy]

Sure, you're free to do that, but unless you know a better possibility (and would be willing to share it with us), it's rather pointless, because there's nothing we can do about it.

Furs will complain even if you bent over backwards to fulfil all their needs down to personally paying for everyone.  Sad fact of life.

Personally my response would be "Can't afford it, don't come!" but then again I'm not the one worrying wether enough people are going to turn up. 

Looking at the website, I think everything is reasonably priced and before anyone asks, no I'm not laoded.  I'm currently temping for £6 an hour!

On the topic of cars, I have been asked wether I would consider driving there and my answer is no.  I get bugged for rides often enough without getting it there too! Oops...something else for people to complain about!

"Wasserkocher" - Water cooker.  I like that.  I hardly know any German at all, maybe I should start learning! 

[Cairyn]

Sure it is. But you can't deny that it's not the same as in the past, either, where all meals were included.

True, true. And looky at the yummy quality of the average youth hostel food you got for your money (EF12 was already worth a positive mention; I'm not sure whether standards went up, or whether they just liked us). I do remember some Eurofurences in them olden times where congoers went to the next McDonald's to avoid dinner. Now that is desperation

Maybe it's 15 bucks per (attended) buffet, but I expect a significant quality improvement. Compared with the current fast food prices, even happy-meal wise, this is not all that much (and if those buffets are anything like those I remember from my last hotel, you will not need to attend two each day...). Let's see, it's nine months until EF, so if I save an extra ten bucks a month, I'll be good for 6 buffets...

Now, the only thing better than a full warm multi-selection buffet was the experience of calorie-overloaded food cooked communally as a special event, but who wants to cook for 400 people... and who's going to do the dishes? 

[Conti]

And you don't have to order the "all you can eat" thing, the hotel still has "a a la carte" restaurant where you can order normal food for normal prices.

Might be a good idea to mention this on the EF page. Currently it reads like there's only the choice between "all you can eat" and "bring your own food".

[Schneelocke]

True, true. And looky at the yummy quality of the average youth hostel food you got for your money (EF12 was already worth a positive mention; I'm not sure whether standards went up, or whether they just liked us). I do remember some Eurofurences in them olden times where congoers went to the next McDonald's to avoid dinner. Now that is desperation

Maybe it's 15 bucks per (attended) buffet, but I expect a significant quality improvement. Compared with the current fast food prices, even happy-meal wise, this is not all that much (and if those buffets are anything like those I remember from my last hotel, you will not need to attend two each day...). Let's see, it's nine months until EF, so if I save an extra ten bucks a month, I'll be good for 6 buffets...

Oh, yes - the part about quality's certainly true. I actually don't remember much of the food at most EFs, but I still have memories of rather inedible stuff from EF5.

[ANTIcarrot]

vegetarian food

Um, no offense, but I've heard that from restaurants before.
"Oh yes sir! All vegitarian! Contains only fish!"
"Oh yes sir! Finest cucumber ice cream! Always plenty in stock in case of vegitarian guests!"
Personally I always get a little concerned when the chips are not marked as vegitarian. I mean how much gelatin do you really need to cook a sliced potato? Oh well. I'm sure we'll all find a way to cope when we get there.

[Cheetah]

vegetarian food

Um, no offense, but I've heard that from restaurants before.
"Oh yes sir! All vegitarian! Contains only fish!"

Um, no offense, but this is not the UK

(SCNR)

[K9Primate]

Some grocery stores in Suhl, there are more.
The distance shown is from the Ringberg Hotel.
As been said before, just team up with someone who has a car.

Rewe-markt Glock Ilmenauer Str. 2, distance: 4.0 km (about 6 minutes)
Penny-markt Rimbachstr. 53, distance: 5.7 km (about 10 minutes)
Lidl Rennsteigstr. 20, distance: 6.6 km (about 11 minutes)
Aldi Rennsteigstr. 15, distance: 6.8 km (about 12 minutes)
Then Quachdai. Gothaer Str. 4, distance: 5.1 km (about 8 minutes)

Maybe this information is useful to some, by the way found using Google Earth.

[SouthPaw]

vegetarian food

Um, no offense, but I've heard that from restaurants before.
"Oh yes sir! All vegitarian! Contains only fish!"
"Oh yes sir! Finest cucumber ice cream! Always plenty in stock in case of vegitarian guests!"
Personally I always get a little concerned when the chips are not marked as vegitarian. I mean how much gelatin do you really need to cook a sliced potato? Oh well. I'm sure we'll all find a way to cope when we get there.

The reason why chips/fries don't tend to be marked as Vegetarian is due to the fact that some places cook them in the same oil they use for meat. Good eh?

Cheers,

Southie