Cali Kid Corals

MACNA Sept 7-9 2018 Las Vegas

I never bring a checked bag to Vegas anyway. I know at some point I'm going to loss the clothes I'm wearing somewhere so I just plan on buying more while I'm there anyway.
 
I think I'd rather shoot myself than take a bus that long, SF to LV is $48, leaves at 12:30am arrives at 6:30pm... hell f*!@&@ing no. I seriously would rather drive, or pay like $20-40 more and get there in just over an hour.

Talked to my wife this morning though, she might let me go alone... as long as she gets a kid free weekend at some point in the future :D
 
I think I'd rather shoot myself than take a bus that long, SF to LV is $48, leaves at 12:30am arrives at 6:30pm... hell f*!@&@ing no. I seriously would rather drive, or pay like $20-40 more and get there in just over an hour.

Talked to my wife this morning though, she might let me go alone... as long as she gets a kid free weekend at some point in the future :D
That's more than a fair trade. We need to get our wives and kids to hang out so they can entertain each other while we are gone!
 
Most likely I'll be driving down ( 2 of my kids live there ) so I'll be driving home sunday. If anyone needs me to bring stuff home for them I can. Its not in stone but very very close to going. I love Vegas
 
Question - Anybody been to reception and banquet? Just food and socializing or is there an amazing lecture or something going on then?
 
Question - Anybody been to reception and banquet? Just food and socializing or is there an amazing lecture or something going on then?

Yes, a talk, some awards, and a grand prize raffle normally during the banquet. Reception just some drinks outside until the hall opens up. No one else stayed for banquet so I sat with Felicia and her Reef to Reef buddies. You need to find your own seating, so better to organize before hand. Otherwise you could sit with folks you don't know. This was the one in SD last time I went.
 
I'd hate to garner the system too but if all you care about is looking at all the booths & goodies on the floor you can buy a family pass for $5 less than a day pass ($30 vs $35) and the family pass is good for 2 adults and 5 children, but you don't get access to the workshops nor speakers. But how important that is to you... well I haven't seen a speaker list, but in San Diego I don't remember any workshops and only saw 1 speaker, spend a couple minutes at each booth... that adds up in a hurry, first day there I think I had gone through about 2/3rds of the floor on the first day only but a good number of vendors did talk my ear off on their products though.
 
That's more than a fair trade. We need to get our wives and kids to hang out so they can entertain each other while we are gone!
Yeah, also considering there really isn't a whole lot to do there for a toddler, I mean only so much of seeing the big fish tank at the XXXX resort you can do. In San Diego I had family there and they had plenty to do during the day time. Just hope she won't want to cash in her coupon too soon, currently he has some big sleep issues in that mommy is the only one who's allowed to put him asleep.

Either way I need to wait until I get closer to see what my room situation will be before I buy plane tickets (or use the plane ticket cost to dictate room stay), as mentioned do have nice time share resorts there which are closer to condos/apts than hotel rooms but they aren't exactly on the strip so would require a rental car. I think next semester I'm not scheduled to work Fri or Mon either, so I definitely can parlay the hell out of that weekend.
 
If anyone wants to buy a full conference pass (all days, all events), I know of someone who cannot attend and is offering the ticket at a nice discount. The transfer is allowed and done through MACNA. PM me if you are interested.
 
Ok rehashing this thread... so some knocks of MACNA... first it's Labor Day weekend, now I know they do this so they can pull it into 3 day affair, but that's also a getaway weekend and makes it hard to fine insane deals (either flights or hotel), second it's also my wife's birthday weekend (funny how it happens around labor day every year!!!), third I hope to have my tank wet by that date (yup, I'm putting a timeline on this!) but not sure if it will be fully cycled/what so.

That said looking at airline fares, I think the only reasonable thing to do would be to just leave Saturday morning and come back Saturday evening, I don't have to worry about the cost of a hotel, the flights are cheaper coming back then, and a single day pass is only $35 ($20 if I forgo the talks), so could realistically do it for $200(ish), if I did Saturday & Sunday it would be nearly double, and if I tacked on Friday as well it'd be about 50% more than that even. But basically it will be $200 just to walk around and see all the reef goodies (which I absolutely love to do!!) and maybe come home with some sample/swag but I definitely would not be able to take my time, I think me just strolling around San Diego I did roughly 1/2 to 2/3rds the booths with Arnold (lunch was in there too) the first day, but I did talk in depth to quite a few vendors.

That or wait for the next MACNA in a more family friendly location so I can go with my wife & kid too and they can have something to do while I'm there.
 
That or wait for the next MACNA in a more family friendly location so I can go with my wife & kid too and they can have something to do while I'm there.

There's nowhere more family friendly than Vegas. At home you just have one wife -- in Vegas there are literally thousands of women who will spend time with you as your "wife."
 
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