UWO Non A/C room Question

Hi, I am coming over to Oshkosh from Thailand, first time visit and the only affordable rooms left I can find are the UWO Non A/C room's.

A couple of other questions:-

• Has anyone stayed in these rooms who can give feedback on how the rooms are? Are they stinking hot or is it more than manageable with a good fan?
• I read on some posts about a dining room, is it like a cafeteria and is it open breakfast through dinner?
• What hours does the shuttle bus run? Is that a better option even if you have a car in terms of convenience?

Thanks alot

Russ

I have stayed in a non-A/C room there. If you have a decent fan it's not terrible. You might want to bring your own sheets. The mattresses are vinyl covered, and the cheap skimpy sheets tend to slide right off during the night, leaving you laying on sticky, sweaty vinyl.

My only experience with the dining facility (a couple of blocks from the dorm I was in) was breakfast. Not bad, cafeteria style. Don't know when it closes.

Buses are cheap and fairly frequent as I recall. Don't remember when they stop running, I think it might have been 11 but someone else can confirm or correct. Parking is an expensive PITA if you drive. You'll spend a lot of time and money dealing with a car there.

Probably more info than you want, but feel free to ask questions.

1. Bus runs every 1/2 hr from both the dorm and the bus park on the convention grounds. At peak rush times (roughly 6:30 AM to about 9:30 AM), they have 'em stacked up, so if one fills up, you don't have to wait another 1/2 hr. As soon as the full one leaves, another one comes around the corner. Works very well. Same thing leaving the convention in the evening. But, the busses run all day long, so if you want to run back to the dorm, no prob. I think they stop leaving the convention grounds around 11 PM. You can buy a bus pass for the week; it's in the neighborhood of $22-25; can't remember. They have them for sale at the dorm registration area. You can also buy single-day passes if you don't want to have the $$$ in hand. Bus drivers don't make change, so either the pass or exact change is required. I *think* it's now $3. The way it ran last year, you pay the $3 in the AM at the dorms, and the return trip is free. I buy my wife the weekly pass; sometimes she wants to go back to the dorms mid-day, so it's convenient for her.

2. The main cafeteria at UWO is right at the bus stand. Breakfast and supper. I think it's around $9 in the AM and $12 at supper, but don't quote me on that. I don't eat there. The food is good, etc., but we have a group of friends and we like to rotate thru the various restaurants in the area. I've eaten at the cafeteria once in my 19 years of attendance. In the AM, there's a "garden room" on the first floor of Gruehagen dorms (diagonal from the cafeteria, so not far) that offers ala carte stuff like bagels, cereal, coffee, juices, fruit, and pastry if you don't need a full up breakfast.

3. The "tradition" in the non-a/c rooms is that upon arrival, you trek over to WalMart or Target and buy a window fan for $16; use it for the week, then just leave it in the room when you leave. Or pack it and take with you if you desire. Main thing is that it's all weather-dependent. We've had weeks when it never got above 72 deg (in the 50's in the AM), and weeks when it never dropped below 90. If you use a fan while sleeping, another tradition is to use a shoe to prop-open your dorm door to allow some cross ventilation. It helps. A lot. I've never heard of any issues with that arrangement like theft, etc. *May* have happened, but you do what you have to do to get some decent sleep. It also helps to bring a small assortment of mini-bungee cords so you can secure the fan into the window opening.

4. In recent years (past 3 or so), the sheet & towel offerings (at least in the a/c dorms) has improved quite dramatically. We used to bring our own sheet sets; now we just bring fitted bottom sheets; the supplied top sheet is just fine. There's no fitted bottom sheet, so if you don't like it pulling up on you, bring your own. These are Twin XL (long) mattresses, so don't bring std twin sheets.

5. Each dorm room has a refrigerator and microwave. We go to WM/Target on arrival and get a bunch of those Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches, then just pop em in the microwave in the AM. Works well for us. Also works well to cool/freeze water bottles.

6. Dorm rooms are SMALL. Wall to wall, it's about 10'. Twin bed, 4' floor, twin bed. End to end, not much room. Wall, 6.5' bed, desk, 2' for chair, and open closet (bring your own hangars or buy once you arrive). Bathrooms down the hall. Please don't walk the halls with holey undies in the middle of the night....

7. We have a car the full week (we fly in to Milwaukee, but O'Hare is probably easier for international). We leave it at the dorms and use the bus. It's mostly used for running to a store or the nightly restaurant runs. You can park ANYWHERE on the UWO campus except the marked police and handicap spaces. Lots of parking available, but you might have to walk a block. The bus is much easier to take to the grounds, and is allowed to take short cuts to get around the backed-up lines of cars trying to get into one of the lots. Cheaper too; I think it's $8-10 per day to park a car on the grounds.

8. If you want an a/c dorm for 2019, you basically have to start calling the reservation number at 8 AM (not 7:59) July 1st Central Daylight Time. Since this year July 1st is a Sunday, check the website; they noted that it would be a different day, but whether that's 6/30 or 7/2 I can't recall. I've blown a gasket and forgot; called at noon and the a/c rooms were long gone. Got on the waiting list, and eventually got one a week before convention.

9. Dorms are great for what they are. Convenient; food available, fast food or other restaurants are in walking distance. Lot's of international visitors stay in the dorms, so we've met so many great folks over the years. We've thought about renting a house or camping, but the flexibility of having the bus AND a car overcomes any logistical issue we've thought of. As an example, my wife shows up on the grounds around 10; I'm at 7. With one car and no bus, we couldn't do that. I don't know how close Uber or Lyft could get you. If we rented a house with 2 other close families and one-two cars, it just wouldn't work.

Awesome replies thanks everyone!

We actually got the air conditioned rooms at UWO, which were fine, but we ended up sleeping with the windows open, the weather was really nice. Oshkosh 2017 was really nice, we had a blast!!


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Staying at UWO.......this. Kelly's bar is in parking lot of UWO. When there;
- U.S. Aviators speak about "airplanes"
- Assie's Aviators speak about "aviation"

my first time to Osh was in 2016 and stayed in the Dorm ( non AC) - for what it is (cheap) you can't complain with what you get, given that it was only used to get my head down for a few hours and never stayed in the room .. I was out pretty much before 6am and then back to the room about 11pm
I would suggest a fan in he window, which given that when I went in 2016 the weather wasn't the best and overcast!
i'm going again this year and again have booked into non ac Dorm room all week.
the room was bit stuffy
Target or wallmart is a good bet for a fan.
I gave the fan to the cleaner when I left
mike

Biggles, how much was the room and did you have to book way in advance?
Thanks,
Bob

HIthe rooms are $75 per night for a non air con room.. and to be honest i think you'll find that there are plenty, in 2016 i left it quite late to book and managed to get a room, this time i booked early as i knew i was going to have a longer stay, so wanted to make sure i had a room for the full duration, rather than just the min 3 days.check the UWO website, it does give the full spec and i think general floor and room layout.my only concern was the communal showers, but as i mentioned earlier, i was up and out before most folk, so had no issues.. ( the benefits of jet lag LOL )mike

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Originally Posted by biggles1998

HIthe rooms are $75 per night for a non air con room..

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Wow, that's a very high rate for what I assume is your standard 5X10 shoebox university dorm room with no amenities, no air and a communal bathroom. For $18.00 more I stay in a spacious brand name hotel in Appleton with complimentary breakfast, all the amenities, AC, and no one is watching me pee or take a shower in my private bathroom.

Thanks for the info Biggles and Floats. Just depends on what you are willing to put up with, communal showers don't bother me and I guess the 3 hr. round trip to Appleton is a trade off too. I am planning to have my vintage Apache hard side camper road worthy by then and that will be it's maiden voyage, (since I've had it). We tent camped in 2016 and I just wanted something a little more sturdy. If for some reason I don't think it will make the 900 plus mile trip, I'll try booking at UWO.
Thanks,
Bob

Quote:

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Originally Posted by robert l

...and I guess the 3 hr. round trip to Appleton is a trade off too
Bob

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Bob, your information is misinformed. Appleton to the grounds is 24 minutes, round trip therefore is 48 minutes.

Year 1: Drove in with wife, stayed in Appleton. The drive isn't bad, but we did get tired of having to hoof it a mile or two back to the truck AFTER walking all day until we were exhausted. Parking was an extra $10 or so per day. Missed all evening/night activities. Ate breakfast and dinner wherever we wanted, slept on a REAL bed with AC and clean sheets every night, all that. Hotel was full of Airventure people.

Year 2: Flew in with a friend, shared a room in the non-AC dorms. Got to see more of Airventure. Cost nearly as much as staying in Appleton, but no parking expense. Easy bus transport in and out with very reasonable wait times.

Year 3 & 4: Flew in and camped in HBC. Total immersion, still not cheap but you have a lot less worry about bus schedules and such. Showers and restrooms are, to be honest, just as good as the dorms.

Year 5: I'll probably fly in and camp. Too early to tell for sure.

Floats, that's the great thing about Convention; anything goes. Sure, I'd like a nice hotel room in which to stay, but the dorms (a/c at that!) serve us just fine.

Bottom line for us is the convenience. My wife has attended every year with me since 2008 and for her the convenience of being able to take the bus when SHE wants to in the AM, or to be able to make a relatively quick round trip back to the dorm in the middle of the day because she forgot something worth the relative inconvenience.

I enjoy her being at Convention, and she gets almost a bigger kick out of it than I do. She'd into history and warbirds, so I never even see her during the day, cuz I'm into homebuilding, exhibits, and volunteering. Between nightly dinners with neighbors and our ever-increasing circle of friends we only see in Oshkosh, we don't see any other venue with the convenience of the dorms.

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Originally Posted by Floatsflyer

Bob, your information is misinformed. Appleton to the grounds is 24 minutes, round trip therefore is 48 minutes.

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I got Appleton and Green By mixed up, in 2011 we flew in to GB and it was an hour shuttle ride to Sleepy Hollow and a hundred bucks! 2016 we camped in Scholler and aside from a storm destroying our pop up canopy, everything was good. This year we plan to bring a pop up camper and stay in Scholler again and bring bicycles to get around. Should be a good time !
Bob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duFierM1yDg