toliverair

I started bidding at $65 Continued in $2 increments until $85 then jumped to $89 then $95 The rate posted on their website is $199 I feel I got a great rate even though the past won rate of $65 is much better!

Tried resort .....$45 rejected 3*....$40 rejected 2.5*....$35 rejected Any other ideas?

After doing some research, I think I would like to try and get the Chateau on the Lake. All the reviews that I could find were a couple of years old so they may not be doing Priceline anymore...Does anyone know? I read three and they all won bids around $40 to $45. It makes it hard b/c you don't have any rebids in the Branson Area.

No, I haven't tried for these dates. I don't have a back-up reservation....I am a procrastinator! My max would be around $50 preferably lower, of course. If I'm not successful, I'll search the internet for hours until I find something else.

None in the last 72 hours. I have tried in times past and never was able to win anything. I can't remember the star levels and prices. Sorry.

Hello Everyone ~ I'm needing some advice on getting hotels in Branson on Priceline. I have never had any luck and have tried several times. I need three nights 11/25 checking out on 11/28. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I would like a 2.5 star or above. A friend of mine got the Chateau on the Lake a couple of years ago for $40!! Has anyone else had any luck getting a night here? Thanks, Narissa

This is a Fabulous Hotel! Check-In Date: Sat, Nov 13, 2004 Check-In Time: After 03:00 PM Check-Out Date: Sun, Nov 14, 2004 Check-Out Time: 12:00 PM Your Offer Price: $46.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $46.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $12.96 Total Charges: $58.96

I was a little concerned after looking at the hotel's website but was pleasantly surprised upon arrival. I am very, very Picky when it comes to hotels. This one could have been a little cleaner but it wasn't bad enough to complain about. For $35 this was a steal. If you are going to KC to shop, this is a great location! Check-In Date: Friday, November 12, 2004 Check-Out Date: Saturday, November 13, 2004 Hotel Name: Holiday Inn Hotel And Suites Overland Park West 8787 Reeder Road Overland Park, Kansas 66214 Your Offer Price: $35.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $35.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $12.31 Total Charges: $47.31

We went through Chinatown and Little Italy by bus only. I know that you had recommended for us to walk through here Sunday Night but after seeing it, several of us agreed that we would have been a little leary to do that. Out of all the areas we were in, this looked to be the most creepy part of the city. Oh, we did see some pretty funky places while taking the Subway out to JFK. The most memorable was the thousand year old cemetary! Have any of you guys seen that? Honestly, there were at least a million tombstones......they were neck and neck, literally......out in overgrown swampy fields right in the middle of town. This had to be some movie set or something, it was unbelievable! I'll definitely let you know when I return...........makes me feel good that you would want me to.......after the nuisance that I've been! :) Just makes me know that you guys really are the greatest!

Hello Everyone! We arrived home Sunday from the best trip we have ever taken! Guys, New York City is ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!! I have to admit, I was beginning to think that I would not enjoy NYC very much....Man, was I wrong! Every time I would turn around I would be thinking about how much the advice I received on this website was helping me out! I honestly don't think my trip would have been the same without it! When we arrived at Penn Station on Sunday, we purchased Unlimited MetroCards and went straight to the Westin New York in Times Square. We didn't want to leave! This hotel is beyond words! I can't say enough good about it....The staff, the decor, the HEAVENLY BEDS are ALL that! When we finally came back to the hotel that night, we were SOOOO Tired from all of that walking and those beds were a very welcoming sight! I'm sure there are other places as good in NYC to stay...but I can assure you there are none that are better. I would recommend this hotel to anyone! We went to Brooklyn Tabernacle for the 12:00 service and was blown away by the choir! Then to Juniors for Dinner. We thought about Grimaldis but we were all too hungry for just pizza so we decided, after asking several people, that we would try Juniors. The food was excellent and the cheesecake was DIVINE! Then we walked the Brooklyn Bridge in heels! We had dressed up for the church service and we shouldn't have. My feet had never know such pain! Next time I'll either dress down or at least take an extra pair of shoes for changing into afterwards. We then took the Staten Island Ferry round trip so we could see Lady Liberty. She was Gorgeous! Then we went to Ground Zero at night. We were a little dissappointed in what you could see here. They have the fences so far back that you really don't get a 'feel' for anything here. Wouldn't have missed it though. Then took the subway back to hotel. The subways were great. Never once did we fell unsafe anywhere in New York City. This was a huge surprise to me! Tuesday we checked out of the hotel and let them watch our luggage while we ate breakfast around the corner at the Europa Cafe. I wanted to go try Essa Bagel but was out voted! When you're with 11 other people, you don't get to do everything you want. The Europa Cafe was really, really good. I had a bagel with strawberry cream cheese on half and vegetable cream cheese on the other half. We also had a Ham, egg and cheese croissant that was delicious. We then went back and retrieved our luggage and walked to Comfort Inn Midtown to check in. This hotel was okay if you hadn't have seen the Westin! After staying at the Westin, this hotel was JUNK. I would have paid the extra $300 (for 2 nights) in a heartbeat. But there were two (and maybe three) other couples that wouldn't have. They thought, since we weren't going to be in the rooms that much, that the Comfort Inn would do nicely. The other Three couples (did I mention that I was included in this number?!) would have gladly paid the difference. Anyway, we then went to Central Park. This was Awesome! We loved the walk through this park. We took some great Pictures here. One of the guys with us is a professional photographer. He had a heyday in Central Park! We then took a Subway to TRY to find Catz Deli! This was an adventure! I didn't have an address so I ask a million people if they knew where it was....NO ONE had ever heard of it! So I was thinking that it was down by the south seaport area. We ended up there and couldn't find it anywhere. I finally went in the body shop and found a guy that thought it was on Houston st. (pronounced House-ton street by New Yorkers!) SOOOOOOOO......we took a bus to Houston st. When we got off, we said something to the driver about it taking us so long to find it.....He said, "Well, it's worth the wait!" So then we knew we were on the right track. It was one of our favorite places in NYC! The butcher that waited on us was Fabulous! It was an experience that none of us would take anything for. Thanks for telling us about it, Thereuare! BYW, I had a Rueben with Pastrami! It was to die for! We then went to Canal street. Now, I'm wondering why in the world you guys failed to tell us about Canal Street? We meet some people at the hotel that told us about Canal Street or we would have never know about it. I'm not scolding you guys, I just think from now on you might want to mention it when you are giving advice about the city. We had an absolute ball here. We bought purses, watches, perfume, great things for the kids, hats, hoodies, t-shirts, scarves, etc...... But the funnest part was the 'dealing'. We ended up coming back on Tuesday b/c we didn't get finished on Monday. After this, we went back to the hotel to drop off our packages and then to Carmines for our dinner reservation. Carmines was our Very Favorite Restaurant in NYC. The food was good but the restaurant was outstanding! We had a round table for twelve and had wonderful time. Some of our fondest memories were made here. We arrived at 8:00 and were seated immediately....no wait at all. After this, we walked to Fox news and then to democracy square and on to the Empire State Building. It was Gorgeous to see at night and no wait at all. We then took a Limo back to the hotel b/c our feet were once again in excruciating pain and agony! I said if I ever move to NYC, I'll put in the most comfortable shoe store ever on several busy corners and I'll make bookoos of Moolah! I would have paid big bucks for some! Tuesday we ate breakfast at the hotel and then spent some time at Grand Central Station before going back to Canal street and Century 21. We ate at Bubba Gumps before going to see Fiddler on the Roof. This was a great experience! It was a wonderful show and none of us were disappointed. Thanks, Katiesmom, for recommending this one to us. We then walked through Times Square to check out the street entertainers and went for dessert and coffee before going back to the hotel. We had to leave early Wednesday morning for JFK. We took the Subway to Rockaway Beach and then took the Air train from there. It was an easy trip out to the airport. BYW, the subway was a breeze to figure out. We had no problem at all except the doors closed extremely fast and one of our guys actually got caught in one, or rather, his bags were caught! He had some people help him and he finally got loose! The People in NYC were extremely friendly....I don't know why they have such a bad rap about being unfriendly.....we didn't meet anyone that was rude and unkind. We also got to ride the Subway on the 100th Anniversary! We thought that was kinda cool! I know this is detailed but I wanted to let you guys know what all that we did while we were in your great City! I can't wait to get back! We are already trying to decide when we can schedule another trip! If you have any additional questions, please feel free to ask! Again, 'Thanks' just seems pathetic after all of the help you guys gave me. You'll never know how much I appreciated it! Narissa

Oh my Goodness! You are a lifesaver! Thank you, thank you, thank you for the Subway info. Hopefully, after Sunday we will get the hang of it.......the Subway is extremely intimidating to me but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it (a little!) I'm planning on keeping a journal so I won't forget the important stuff that I need to report on here when I get home. That's the least that I can do after you guys have helped me so much. We're leaving tomorrow so I won't be talking to you guys for a few days. I'll check in when I can. :)

I just thought of another question....imagine that.... We are arriving Penn station at 9:45, if our train is on time. We have to go to Westin Times Square and drop off luggage and then to Brooklyn Tabernacle. We need to be at Brooklyn Tab by 11:00. I would really, really appreciate it if you could tell me which subway to take to times square (or do we need a cab, since we will have luggage?) and then which one to take to Brooklyn Tab from Times Square. We are going to buy Unlimited metrocards as soon as we arrive at Penn Station. We won't have much time to figure out anything so if I have the route down it will help us out bookoos. Thanks a MILLION!

Okay.....You guys got me laughing on that one! ;-0 I will most definitely take your advice on meeting them after dinner! Yes, Sylvia's and Blue Smoke are still in the running (I think we are going to be eating a lot!) Syvia's just sounds soooooo good. I did post something about it on chowhound but I only got one response and he said it had been several years and he wasn't impressed. I don't really want to veto it on one response. Blue Smoke would be great, I think. BTW, how much do you think it is going to cost (average) for these places? I read somewhere that applebees was $75 for 2.........that's about double what it is at applebees most places. thereuare, you told me where to eat in chinatown but not little italy. Since we are eating at Carmines on Monday night, we don't want to overdue it on Sunday night in Little Italy but I don't want to walk through there and not eat anything......that would be a disgrace. Pray I get my packing done in time to catch my plane.........It's not looking too promising. Hopefully Century 21 will have really good buys!

Thanks guys! I'm sorry I haven't replied sooner but yesterday and today have been CRAZY! Hope that's not an indication of how the rest of the week will turn out! Thereuare, as usual, your Subway/Street info was brilliant! I love the info about the white/black bullets.....I wouldn't have figured that out except the hard way! Thanks! I think I'll leave the reservations at Carmines for Monday night.....I don't want to be rushed at a fun place to eat! Audreydoll.....Thanks for the link to the Fiddler! That gave us great insight to the show! I really think we will enjoy this one. One lady going w/ us has suggested 'White Chocolate' but after doing some reviews on it, I don't really think it would be too great......what's your opinion? Since this is probably a one and only trip, I would like to see the best one for us.....considering the fact that we don't like nudity, vulgar language, sex scenes/talk, etc.....we probably don't have a lot of choices! The seating info has helped a lot. I think they charge a $3 fee anyway, so the $6.50 fee isn't too bad. I'm sure that we could get better tix now instead of waiting the day of. Also, have any of you eaten at Bubba Gumps? One in our group is wanting to eat there and I was wanting some reviews on it. Once again, you guys are great! I think we will have a laptop along.....I might be bugging you all during the trip! And you thought you would be rid of me by Thursday.........:-P

audreydoll.....thanks so much for the great theater information! We are leaning more towards the 'Fiddler On The Roof'. That sounds like one that we could relate to! The only show that we would be able to see would be the show at 7:00 Tuesday. It last 3 hours. Should we wait and it at Carmines Tuesday evening before the show? We were thinking of eating at Blue Smoke one night. It is on 27th Street. Should we do Blue Smoke Monday Night and Carmines on Tuesday? We were also wanting to eat at Sylvia's......but that's pretty far....we may not get to do this. Thereuare....Should I stress myself out over this Subway Map or can I just ask the best way to get to wherever when we get to NYC? I just don't do real good with directions, especially on a map! The way I see it 5th ave and 8th ave are your main streets going north and south. The numbered streets (42nd st.) get larger as you go north and run east and west. Am I getting the hang of it, or not? I live in Tulsa and the streets here going east and west are numbered the streets going north and south are named. Makes is pretty easy to figure out so I thought it might work with NYC. Am I dreaming?? :~P Also, do we need to go to the Century 21 in Brooklyn or the one on Cortlandt St.? We are flying out on Thursday the 21st. (We are going to Virginia for a few days) So I'm going to need to get all of this wrapped up pretty soon so I can start packing my duds! Can't wait, really, we are all sooooooo excited!!

Thanks, Thereuare! That itinerary helped immensely! I have called Carmines and have reservations at 8:00 on Monday night. They only had a 5:30 and 8:00 so I took the later. Not knowing what time the broadway shows are, it was a little hard for me to pick a time for reservations. After looking at playbill.com, I see that most shows don't have a perfomance at all on Monday. I haven't looked at the site in detail but as of now here are the ones that I think we would be interested in: Fiddler on the roof The Lion King Little Women Mamma Mia Wonderful Town Have any of you guys seen any of these? I would love some feedback on these, if you've seem them. We will probably have to take whatever is available at the TKTS booth. I think I have Sunday Down. After churh, eat at Grimaldis>>Walk Bridge back to Manhattan (although we were wanting to do this after dark....It may not be possible with everything else)>>Century 21 and/or Ground Zero>>Staten Island Ferry. After returning from the ferry, walk through Chinatown and Little Italy, eating as we go....>>Walk through Times Square, on the way back to our Hotel. I'm still working on Monday and Tuesday.....But as least Sunday is DONE! :~) Is there a website where I can go and plan out my subway itinerary? I know that I saw something like this for Washington, DC. I want to have the Subway system figured out to some degree before we get there, Or I'm afraid I'll be greatly intimidated by it! Also, we would like to up the Empire State Building after Dark. Anyway, this is what was recommended to me. Thanks again for all of the help!

Woo........If I tell the guys about the steak, they'll veto me on everything else! Thanks for the info.......I have about 7 or 8 places already and we only have three days.......Too much to eat....not enough time! Someone told me I HAD to try the street vendors...said they had great authentic, ethnic foods. I see I'm going to have to do some choosing!

KatiesMom....Have you ever eaten at Sylvia's? Also, if you had one choice in NYC, which restaurant would you pick? (Thereuare, you too, which restaurant would you pick, if you had only one choice!) Thereuare......Blue Smoke looks great! I sent the menu to a friend of mine and told him not to Drool! :~) I forgot to mention that we would like to go to Ellis Island. I'm trying to figure out this map that I received with my NYC info packet. Although it is a "little" intimidating! If we get out of Brooklyn Tabernacle at 2:30 would we have enough time to go to Ellis Island, Staten Island Ferry(timing this at dusk), Walk across Brooklyn Bridge (is this what you call the Promenade?), Ground Zero, Century 21, Chinatown, and Katz's Deli? This sounds like a lot in one afternoon. We still have Monday and Tuesday but I wanted to get as much done in that 'area' as we could before we went back to the times square area and on to other things. If we want to do all of this, will we have to come back on Monday? If we do Grimald's Pizza, we probably won't want to do Straten Island Pizza, too. Is it much, much better than Grimald's? Carmine's sounds like a go. Do you have a website or number for reservations. We will do it on the night that we do Times Square. Again, Thank you guys sooooooooo much. I don't know what I would do w/o you!

Thanks KatiesMom! I will be sure and go to the other two websites you gave me. And.....There's Sylvia's! I think we might want to try that.....unless someone has eaten there and it was not up to par......I just remember reading about it in a magazine somewhere and it sounded like really awesome food. I forgot to mention that we love seafood. I've been seeing something about south seaport street? Is this worth going to? We will check out St. Johns the Divine. If we have time, that sounds like it would be great. I don't know how people took trips before there was "an Internet"? I bet they didn't have near the Fun!! I'll check out Playbill.com too. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Sorry.....I forgot to tell you that we are leaving NYC from JFK on Wednesday morning at 9:30 am going to Niagara Falls, Canada for a couple of days. Then back to Washington, D.C. for the final two days of our trip. Yes, three days before the election. Are we crazy, or what?

Thanks guys! I appreciate all of the input.......both for and against! Hey, we do need both sides of the coin to make informed decisions! As of right now, we have the Comfort Inn Midtown reserved for $149.99 a night. No king beds......that's not too good but we might have to live with it. After staying Sunday night at the Westin Times Square in those 'Heavenly Beds', we are going to be too spoiled! I still am looking. So if anyone sees anything come up, I would love to hear about it. As of now, I am needing some additional help planning an itinerary for NYC. We are arriving at Penn Station Sunday Morning at 9:45 am. We will have to take our luggage to Westin Times Square and then we would like to be at Brooklyn Tabernacle as close to 11:00 am as possible for the 12:00 service. Depending on several things we may decide to go back for the 4:00 service (I think the 12:00 service last about 2 hours) but most in our group are not wanting to spend that much time in one place. We would like to walk across the Brooklyn bridge at night so we need to do this on Sunday night, right? So what else is there in Brooklyn area to do Sunday evening? Some other things that we definitely want to do: Ground Zero Take the Staten Island Ferry to see Lady Liberty ( I wouldn't have known about this time saver if it wasn't for this board....Thanks!) Would like to come back about the time the City is lighting up. Empire State Building at night Eat, Eat, and Eat again!! We are really "southern eaters!" In other words, we like Country cooking, bar-b-q, Soul cooking (I've read- years ago- about a place called Sylia's Soul cooking, or something like that....has anyone heard of it?), Mexican, Italian, Chinese (limited number of us like chinese, some do not), Not really into Thai (I know, we would probably like it if we tried it!), Pizza, Deli food, I think you get it. Please help in this area. I don't want to eat where other tourist are (from what I've read on here) I want to go where the "good, authentic grub" is. We would probably enjoy looking at that one church that is so amazing...I can't remember the name of it. (oh, it's St Patricks) Times Square......We would like to go to some live TV show if it was Conservative! Like America's Funniest Home Videos or something like that. We are pretty much Conservatives. We would like to see a "good conservative" Broadway Play. Nothing off color, as we will have one pastor and one preacher with us who have very conservative values.....we all do, actually. Maybe a "little" shopping Can't think of anything else right now. Please post your opinions and ideas. I will be forever grateful. I am a wonderful cook (not bragging ~ I just had good training....My mom and granny were the best!) I wish I could bake you guys an awesome pie or cake for all of the help you have given me!

okay.....I'll try to answer your questions. I have been up all night doing my taxes, yes, I'm a procrastinator! So I'm not all together "Here". I added downtown/Soho area because I thought that everything was a lot more expensive in that area and it essentially would be a free rebid. I knew that this wasn't my official rebid zone. I was going to leave that one open for after I posted my bids on here. In case I should try something else. Was I wrong in thinking that? The reason that I lowered my bid at the end on a 3* is b/c I was afraid that I would get the Metropolitan in ME and I really didn't want it b/c of bad reviews. I figured since everything was almost sold out, I would get the junkiest ones in the area. I was willing to pay $150 for the Belvedere (MW) and the Courtyard (ME) but since I had a back up at the comfort inn, I really didn't think it would be worth too much more for these two hotels. The Paramount, Shoreham, and Sheraton Manhattan all had really bad reviews. The Club Quarters wasn't much better. And no, I didn't think about being upgraded. Is my thinking totally warped? Maybe it was b/c I was doing it at 3:30 in the morning....... If I could get a 4* for around $200, I would be thrilled. I would take a UM/CPS 3* or ME (as long as it's not the Metropolitan) for around $175. You can let me know if you think i'm a total geek. I won't be offended ~ much! :~)

Okay.....It's been 72 hours.......Here's what I tried: 4* UM/CPS and... bid $150, rejected added MW and... bid $160, rejected added ME and... bid $170, added DT/SOHO and.... bid $180........No Go.......... Opened new browser thru Savingsbarn.com 3* UM/CPS and..... bid $145, rejected added DT/SOHO and... bid $155, rejected added ME and.... bid $150.........No Go (I decided after doing considerable amounts of reviews that I didn't want to take a chance on getting a 3* in MW) Opened new browser thru Savingsbarn.com 2.5* ME and..... bid $150, rejected added MW and.... bid $150.......No Go We finally made back up reservations thru two places (Cancellation policy okay.) We reserved the Comfort Inn Midtown for $149.99 (6 rooms ~ 2 nights) and those with AAA get $15.00 off a night. Also, we reserved the Park Central for $199.00. I looked at this hotel on the travelzoo lodging specials. The rooms looked Awesome! After reserving, I did some additional research on tripadvisor. I found other rooms that didn't look too hot and some pretty bad reviews. I called the hotel and we would have to upgrade to Concierge Level at $229.00 for the better rooms and free breakfast. I would love some of you experienced traveler's opinion here. Since I am reserving this for 6 couples, I want to make the right decision. I feel most of them are more worried about price. I, on the other hand, am more worried about staying some place nice and comfortable and I don't care to pay a little more to do it! Please post your opinions.....As soon as I get this settled, I would love some help planning an itinerary. I have some ideas that I'll throw out and then maybe I can get some feedback from you guys. Thanks again, Narissa

Thanks for your input, MichaelBei. I will check w/ the hotel and see if they can shuttle us to the metrorail. If they can't, we will go ahead and rent a couple of cars.

Just to let you know......I got the Sheraton College Park for $70.....10/28 and 10/29. We booked 6 rooms. I wonder if I might could have booked it for less. I tried Hyattville area first and was rejected.........then I tried Silver Springs/College Park for the same amount. Afterwards, I saw where this has went for less in times past. Has anyone on this board ever stayed at this hotel? I would like to get some feedback on it. I only found one review on it. Also, We are flying in to BWI on the 28th. Can someone help me out on the best form of Transportation. We really don't want a car. We would like to take the metrorail into Washington. We will be site seeing the 29th and 30th. There are some in our group leaving Friday night, some leaving Sat. morning and some leaving Sat. Evening. We don't want to have to run them back and forth to the airport. What would be the best way for them to get there? Any help would be appreciated. Narissa