Welcome to Tips and Tricks for Midwest FurFest! This is a collection of useful tidbits that will make your trip to Midwest FurFest and your experience there even better! If anyone has anything to add to these, by all means feel free to chime in.

• The weather is going to be chilly for the rest of the week and into the weekend is going to be on the chilly side, with highs in the 40’s and lows near 30 F. Good news for fursuiters! We’ll have a nice cool-down area – all you need to do is step outside the hotel 🙂 Right now there is a slight chance of light snow showers Thursday night and Friday, but no accumulation is expected. For the latest weather forecast, you can always consult http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ifps/MapClick.php?CityName=Schaumburg&state=IL&site=LOT
• Going to be driving in? We have some good news and bad news. The good news is that the Illinois Tollway system now accepts EZ-Pass transponders as well as their own I-Pass; this may help some of our east-coast friends. More good news is that the Illinois Tollway system is working to make their toll plazas easier to get through if you have a transponder, putting in high-speed express lanes. The bad news is that this means that a LOT of the toll plazas are under construction right now, and that is leading to heavy delays in rush hours. The worst right now are the 82nd Street and Cermak Road toll plazas on I-294 (Tri-State Tollway) – expect delays around rush hour and exercise some patience. As mentioned on our Driving Directions page (http://furfest.org/hotel.html), traffic reports are available every ten minutes (on the 8’s) on WBBM-AM (780 AM) and continuously on Channel 151 on Sirius and Channel 217 on XM.
• 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).
• Not sure where to go for dinner? There’s a Restaurant and Services Guide in every registration bag. You’ll find contact info, descriptions, and reviews of over 160 restaurants. We’ve expanded the services section as well, with more listings for discount stores, banks, and other useful places near the hotel. And new this year: maps! Use, enjoy it, treasure it.
• 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. Of course, the Internet Room is always available as well.
• 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.
• As usual, 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. There’s not much we can do. Also, as in past years, 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 is a full 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.
• Registration will be in the Mayoral Foyer (area at the foot of the stairs near the Dealers Room and Gaming) Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We’ll also be open until 9 PM on Friday night to accommodate any latecomers.
• There is an ATM in the hotel lobby just to the left of the concierge desk. If that runs empty, there are two banks right across the street, a LaSalle Bank and a Harris Bank.
• Going to have a whole slew of people staying in your hotel room? While the hotel tries to provide towels for everyone, anything past four is really pushing it. Encourage everyone to bring their own towel (and their own pillows and blankets, while they’re at it!).
• Do try to tip the service staff at the hotel, even if it’s just a few bucks. They work hard to make sure that you have a pleasant weekend, so a little extra helps them look forward to when we return next year.
• The fish in the koi ponds are lovely, but please do not taunt, bother, poke, swear at, or otherwise disturb them. And for heaven’s sake don’t throw anything in the water! The front desk does have food that you can give them, though.
• Artists Alley is getting a much larger room this year! It’s going to be in the Terrace Room, a huge room that we have never been able to get for the full weekend before this year. That’s great, right? Well, it comes with the price that it’s a bit harder to find. All you need to do is walk through the lobby like you’re going out the front doors, but at the last minute, turn left. Walk down past Knuckles (the sports bar) and the Terrace Room will be on the left. It’ll be open late, so be sure to stop by and throw money at the nice artists!