Home sweet home!
With over 4 months to go until the Summer NABC in Toronto, hotel room availability at the three ACBL booked hotels has just been updated from completely “Unavailable” to “Up to 95 rooms” available at the Fairmont Royal York. The “Intercontinental Toronto Centre” and the “Westin Harbour Castle” remain “unavailable”. Rooms at all three were listed at $164 per night. Parking at the Fairmont Royal York is $53 per night. Entry fees range from $19 to $32.50 per session. Add to this the cost of meals, and you’re looking at over $300 per day. Visitors from the USA will receive a premium on their $US, with $20 US = $25 CDN. The unavailability of rooms seems to apply to the KC Spring NABC as well, as when reservations were opened on January 16, 2017, all the rooms at the host hotels were already sold out. Hopefully people will have found other accommodations, and attendance will meet expectations. In any event, tournament bridge now seems to be priced out of the range of the “common man”, and into the range of the well-off or rich. Add to this the ever-increasing average ACBL player age, and the disinclination of older people to drive at night or in bad weather and… the future of tournament bridge does not look bright. Except perhaps for “Regionals At Sea”, where you can play for 7 days for $1400 US, get three great meals a day, and see interesting places.
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This post by Paul Cronin has been re-created. The associated comments were not lost, but re-creating them is difficult, so I have simply listed them all below (except for one that looked like SPAM). … JRG
Comment: Paul Cronin March 9th, 2017 at 1:43 pm
The Intercontinental Toronto Centre now has one room available at $224 per night.
Comment: Judy Kay-Wolff March 9th, 2017 at 6:17 pm
Paul,
I had to re-read your article to assure myself I had not misunderstood your remarks. Sad indeed, it has come to this. Back in Philadelphia, I would count the minutes until the plane took off and now, it is a relief that Bobby and I have bypassed all non-Vegas NABC for several years. Understand .. rare consideration is the out-of sight-costs .. but rather the inconvenience of travel, certainly mandatory security checks, etc. It is not that we love the game less .. but we are content with our marvelous memories of the past.
Despite the stumbling blocks, hope it goes well!
Comment: Paul Cronin March 10th, 2017 at 2:01 am
Hi Judy,
You are spot on about the inconvenience of travel – airport security, having to get there 2 hours ahead of time, increasingly cramped seating on the planes, more and more “add-on” charges, no real meal, ………..
In spite of the all the above, I have booked a little sojourn in Laughlin, Nevada, for April 24th – 28th . Will be staying at Harrah’s, and am looking forward to seeing the area. From what I can see, it’s on the Colorado River, with Arizona on the other side of the river. Was really surprised to see that the projected daytime temperatures there will be 90F – a far cry from spring time temps in Canada.
Comment: Judy Kay-Wolff March 10th, 2017 at 6:09 am
Hi again Paul,
I was in touch with my close friend Larry Cohen and cited your reference to ‘Regionals at Sea.’ You were sooo on target. I hear the ‘Bridgers’ make their reservations well in advance .. before they get totally booked. Who would ever dream?
You will enjoy Nevada. In our traveling days, we were in Laughlin for a tournament and also stayed at Harrah’s, It is a gorgeous area. What’s not to like!! Have a wonderful time and keep up your refreshingly candid blogs.