DCI Finals in Bloomington

[shostahoosier]

I lived there for 8 years sweetheart. It is the best pizza if you are a fan of NYC style pizza only. You obviously need to broden your horizons kid.

You're BOTH wrong...everyone knows that CHICAGO has the BEST pizza!!!!!!

We're the 2nd City to NO ONE when it comes to that.

As for Mother Bears....liked the pizza....LOVED the "Hairy Bears"

[Peel Paint]

I booked a hotel room through DCI this year. Does anyone know if they will move us to Bloomington (or close by) or keep us in Indy? I wasn't planning on getting a rental car since the hotel is within walking distance of Lucas Oil Stadium, but if I have to drive now, then I have no choice. And that sucks cause now my money will go towards a rental car and gas instead of supporting the corps by buying their souvies.

No, nobody knows this stuff yet. It's too soon. Logic suggests-- and we all know what that's likely worth-- that DCI will not be moving people they booked in Indy hotels to Bloomington hotels, because they didn't block Bloomington hotels out for DCI the way they did Indy hotels, and fans have been booking Bloomington rooms themselves, and Bloomington never had as many hotel rooms as Indy downtown has, anyway. They may give you the option of canceling your Indy room (or your 2008 championship tickets), especially if you explain that you can't move to Bloomington so easily. They may work out a shuttle bus operation between Indy and Bloomington, or not, or if they do, it may not be free. Higher priced rooms in Indy + paid shuttle option may make staying in Indy more expensive than a Bloomington room with a rental car, and much less convenient, time-wise. It takes about an hour to drive between Indy and Bloomington. If you have to make that drive by shuttle, it may use up 90 minutes or more each way, plus, you'll have to travel on their schedule, not yours. You may want to book your own Bloomington room, without putting down a deposit, right now, that you could always cancel later if something better came along or if you decided not to stay there. If you wait much longer, or if you wait for DCI to act, my guess is that there likely will not be rooms in Bloomington available. I bet that most drum corps fans who were booked for Indy still haven't heard about the change, but word will spread, and soon, I think Bloomington will be booked solid.

Edited April 6, 2008 by Peel Paint

[Liam]

Okay ... here's my thing ...

I get that this wasn't DCI's doing ... I get that they did the right thing by having a back-up ready .... I get that it wasn't DCI's fault that the news leaked out before they were aware of it .... But they know now and I have not gotten an email from them yet ... even though I have paid for my tickets already (without knowing where the seats would have been, of course) and even though I have already booked my hotel room through the DCI site. I know they have my email address becaue they are always quick to email me when there is an opportunity to sell me something. Now it is already too late for me to get a decent room in Bloomington and the few available (at less than top star hotels) is already more expensive than the room I booked in Indy (at the downtown Hyatt Regency!!!). So I'm going to stay put since I was driving to Indy anyway, so commuting to Bloomington isn't that big of a deal.

But DCI should have communicated SOMETHING to me by now. If they planned for this contingency, then they should have been at the ready with a communication plan. And a contingency hotel plan. Even if they didn't have all the answers, a simple "Hey this happened, sorry for the inconvenience, we'll keep in touch with updates" would have been appropriate. I have put out a lot of money to DCI over the years and will likely continue to do so, but the way that DCI is incapable of the most basic customer service continues to astound me.

(Also, since I haven't heard anything from DCI, I'm left to speculate about this, too: The fancy-dancy new stadium was used as a partial excuse to raise ticket prices. Fine. I was looking forward to the brand spanking new stadium, too. But now that that's not part of the package .... well ..... let's just say I'm not gonna hold my breath ....)

[Matt_S]

Isn't there a sports bar on 10th street a few blocks down from Lincoln , heading towards campus? When I was in Baker's jazz band at school, that's where we would hang after our concerts.

And I can only image how much fun Bullwinkles could end up being that weekend. Heh heh. i use to drag George Z. there back in the day.

That sounds like Yogi's. I love that place, probably the best quesadillas I've ever had.

[shostahoosier]

Isn't there a sports bar on 10th street a few blocks down from Lincoln , heading towards campus? When I was in Baker's jazz band at school, that's where we would hang after our concerts.

And I can only image how much fun Bullwinkles could end up being that weekend. Heh heh. i use to drag George Z. there back in the day.

Hate to break your heart Sara but Bullwinkles closed about a year or so ago.

[oldbandguy]

I booked my rooms in Bloomington yesterday within minutes of hearing the news. At that time only 1 motel in Bloomington was SOLD OUT. As of midnight tonight there are 9 sold out of the 15 listed.

I too had booked my Indy rooms through DCI. I will cancel those on Monday.

Does anyone know if Bloomington has much in the way a public transit, either bus or taxi?

[Matt_S]

Does anyone know if Bloomington has much in the way a public transit, either bus or taxi?

Yep. IU has it's own Campus Bus system, and the town has Bloomington Transit.

[Liam]

Just took another look at the DCI website and they are still advertising and selling tickets to the 2008 Championships at new state-of-the-art Lucas Stadium in Indianapolis. (edit: AND you can still be prompted to make hotel reservations in Indy). I get that this announcement caught them a little by surprise, but they do have the announcement on the front page. It's good that they had this Bloomington thing as a contingency, but they should have had a COMPLETE contingency, along with a communication plan and ticketing/marketing/website switch-over ready to go at the press of a button. It never ceases to amaze me how DCI can do some things so well and other things so unbelievably, consistently poorly -- customer service and communication being at the very top of the latter list.

Music's Major Leagues? Maybe on the field, but not so much in the front office!!!

Edited April 6, 2008 by Liam

[Minimaster]

Well, they found out after 5PM on A Friday. Just chill out till next week.

[geluf]

Actually, what bugs me about this, is that DCI had to find out about the fact that the stadium wouldn't be ready from a NEWS BROADCAST.

Seems like the city of Indianapolis (by which I mean whoever it is on the council in charge of this kind of stuff), who entered into this arrangement with DCI would have known this beforehand and let DCI know that this wasn't going to happen.