What About This Cabin - Stephen's Sanctuary

[ElizabethN]

Hey all,
I think I found a keeper!

It's about a mile from downtown Gatlinburg; on the far side away from
Pigeon Forge. It's on Ski Mountain Rd (the last road before you enter
the park).

Location of Cabin: http://bit.ly/10c5D
Info, Floor Plan and Photos: http://www.abigchalet.com/stephens/aastephe.htm

It has 12 bedrooms and sleeps up to 54 people. (The other cabin
boasted that too, but many of those were from the "pull out couches"
whereas this one has things like queen sized bunk beds and such in the
bedrooms)

It is right on a creek and has a swimming pool and 2 hot tubs.. oh,
and a Wii :) woo!

The amenities:
* 12 Bedrooms! Sleeps Up To 54!
* 8 Baths & 2 Half Baths!
* Outdoor Hot Tub & 4 Inside Jacuzzis! Outdoor Swimming Pool
* Now with new Nintendo Wii !!
* Game Room with mounted TV; Pool Table; Air Hockey; Foosball;
Toys; Games
* PlayStation 2; Nintendo 64; Movies
* Deck w/ Tiki Bar; 2 Grills & Smoker!
* Free long distance, wired and wireless Internet
* Stroller; High Chair; Crib
* Stone Fireplace!
* TV in each Bedroom & Dining Room!
* Creek and Outdoor Fort and Basketball Goal!
* 2 Fully Equipped Kitchens!
* Washer and Dryer!
* 4 Sofa Sleepers; 2 Futons

The best part is, if we reserve during the week in August or September
it's only $495 a night. $495 / 12 bedrooms = about $40 a night (plus
tax). I think most of these rooms can sleep more than one person, so
that would cut the cost even more. If we were able to get sponsors,
we could then pay for pizza or beer or groceries or something else
fun.. and not have it all go to reducing the cost of the rooms.

The only downside I can see is that it will be a PITA to get there the
first time, as we'll have to go through Pigeon Forge *and* G-burg.
Also, if people want to go into Pigeon Forge, they'll have to go all
the way through G-burg each time.

Also, I'd like to check with Eli to make sure we don't conflict with
ZendCon.

Thoughts?

[con...@jlleblanc.com]

I say go for it! The drive in is going to be long even if we decide to
go with the old beast. Also, If we're doing this in August or early
September, we're less likely to run into leaf-gazer traffic.

I agree with everyone who said that doing a hotel would take away from
the atmosphere we had last year. This looks like it's still close
enough to the hotels in Gatlinburg for the families.

-Joe

[D. Keith Casey Jr.]

ElizabethN wrote:
> Location of Cabin: http://bit.ly/10c5D
> Info, Floor Plan and Photos: http://www.abigchalet.com/stephens/aastephe.htm

That one looks great. Are there any other cabins or hotels nearby to
handle overflow and/or families?

> The best part is, if we reserve during the week in August or September
> it's only $495 a night. $495 / 12 bedrooms = about $40 a night (plus
> tax). I think most of these rooms can sleep more than one person, so
> that would cut the cost even more. If we were able to get sponsors,

$40/night is fantastic. Good find. :)

> we could then pay for pizza or beer or groceries or something else
> fun.. and not have it all go to reducing the cost of the rooms.

I think we could do better on food this time around... a little bit of
planning would go a long way and then let us spread the cost a bit more
evenly.

On the beer part, we have a couple who don't/can't drink, so I think it
should be our last priority with group funds. Besides with the BYOB we
get the tasty stuff like Fire Island Iced Tea. Mmmm....

keith

--
D. Keith Casey, Jr.
CEO, CaseySoftware, LLC
http://CaseySoftware.com

[Brandon Savage]

I think if we do this during the week we're golden in terms of traffic being reduced. There are always back ways to *everywhere* so traffic is a lesser concern to me. Might be best to check on the type of internet they have (who the service provider is). Otherwise I think this looks great.

[Jeff Jones]

Ooh, I like this one. Lots of beds, close to Gatlinburg, Multiple hot tubs, etc. The only drawback I see is it looks like there is no theater, maybe less space for commons areas. We could probably find a projector/screen to setup if we wanted to do presentations again.

As for driving, using the same Middle Creek Road/Veterans Blvd shortcut as for phpapp, we can skip most of the PF parkway, and the cabin is off the Gatlinburg bypass, so we won't need to get stuck in that horrid Gatlinburg traffic. People coming up 441 would skip PF as well. For going to "downtown" we can go on River road and park there and avoid the parkway traffic as well. If we go during the week as well, it should reduce our traffic problems dramatically.

-Jeff Jones