So you’re coming to Midwest FurFest for the first time? Hey, that’s great! Here’s some insider tips from someone who has spent far too much time in and around the Woodfield Hyatt over the past few years:

• The weather is going to be a wee bit changeable. Where it looked like it would be seasonably mild at the beginning of the week, it’s now looking like it’ll start out around 50 on Thursday and by Monday it’ll not get out of the 30’s, with a chance of the season’s first snow flurries on Sunday.
• The hotel shuttle will be happy to take you anywhere within a 1.5-mile radius of the hotel, for free. This includes Woodfield Mall (the largest mall in the Chicago area, and the world’s largest non-Euclidian mall!) as well as dozens of restaurants.
• Need a quick bite, but don’t want to deal with Tre Cena, the hotel’s restaurant? Knuckles, a sports bar, is located right around the corner from Tre Cena and offers pretty much the same menu before 10 PM. They allow smoking in part of the bar, too (a plus for some, a minus for others).
• Feeling sluggish and don’t want to go out at all? Check out Johnny D’s Koko Cafe – they deliver to the hotel, and I’ve found their staff to be very friendly. I highly recommend their pizzas, pastas, and desserts, and if you go to the restaurant (it’s just a few miles down the Golf Road), they have boozy ice cream drinks to die for. Plus, they offer a shuttle after 6 PM that will come pick you up! They’ve promised us 200 menus to put on our freebie table – keep an eye out for them!
• There’s a Restaurant and Services Guide in every registration bag with contact info, descriptions, and reviews of restaurants within an 8 mile radius of the hotel. Use, enjoy it, treasure it. We worked hard on it this year, and it’s the best it’s ever been, I think.
• The rightmost elevator as you face the main elevator bank goes all the way down to the first floor, opening right behind MFF Registration. There’s also the Super-Secret Elevator that runs between the first, second, and third floors, but if I told you where that was, I’d have to kill you.
• You will be able to get wireless Internet access anywhere in the hotel. BUT: it’s going to cost you $10/day for the privilege. Yes, it sucks, and yes, I think the Hyatt is being a butthead about it. But it’s there if you need it.
• There’s an Ikea directly behind the hotel, within easy walking distance. Great when you need your Swedish meatball fix, or if you want a nice dinner table to put in your hotel room.
• Remember that sushi bar in the lobby that they weren’t smart enough to open after Thursday night last year? It’s gone, vanished without a trace.
• The hotel recently painted all the hotel room doors. DO NOT put any tape on your hotel room door – masking, duct, Scotch, or any kind of tape. Any damage to the paint will incur an additional $50 charge on your room bill. Yes, the hotel is being a butthead about this too. Not much we can do. Also, as last year, no fursuit heads in the windows around the atrium, because heaven forbid anyone think there’s strange people in the hotel (like they won’t notice otherwise…) You want to put them in your window around the courtyard or facing outside, have a great time!
• The sponsor brunch has been extended to 90 minutes (11:30 AM – 1:00 PM on Saturday), so even if you have any schedule conflicts with programming, you should be able to get there at some point in that span.

Well, that’s a good start. Anyone else have a tip or suggestion they’d like to add?