*looks around abit confused*

Welcome, Zombie!

First of all - I would suggest that you look to that sidebar on the left side of this page, and read the items clickable under "Attendee Info", particularly the ones labelled "FAQ" and "New to AnthroCon?" and "Standards of Conduct". This will give you a fair start!

Also in that sidebar, under the topic of "Travelling Info", you will find the subject "Hotel". This should inform you of the rates secured for AnthroCon attendees at our two hotels, and how to secure them. Also in our General Forums, there is a forum specifically for discussing the hotel, monitored by hotel staff to help you, wih turn-around on a question usually by the next business day, if not sooner.

The official room-occupancy limit is four people; which generally works out to be the best compromise for both splitting costs and keeping your sanity under control. I personally arrive in Pittsburgh on Thursday to check into the hotel and get my convention registration and badge, though officially the convention doesn't open until Friday. More than half of the attendees have arrived by then, so it is a good time to socialise, or see some of the nearby sights of Pittsburgh, with a social "mixer: or dance that evening. The convention ends - officially and in fact - on late Sunday afternoon, after which there are final parties and get-togethers, to blow off steam, do after-action reporting and planning, and preparations for the staff to pack away and transport all the convention trappings until next year. Many people depart Sunday Night (after checking out of the hotel by noon, to save on a night's expense), but most depart Monday morning, or even tuesday, using Monday to play tourist.

When you stay at a hotel, you are charged by the night; so Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday Night, depart Monday morning, equals 4 nights. You should make reservations reasonably early, but ONLY after you are sure that you WILL be attending; the hotels this year are charging a non-refundable deposit for the first nights' stay, which is forfeit if you later cancel or otherwise fail to show.

Since you are reportedly about 2 hour's drive away, consider arriving with a hotel check-in on Friday, and departing Sunday Evening; this will limit your expense to two night's stay, but you will need to be checked out of your room before noon on Sunday, otherwise you will be charged for Sunday night as well - and then you might as well spend the night, anyway.

When making your eservations, it is best to do it with a credit card, NOT a debit or other type of card; if using the credit card, the hotel is holding Mastercard or Visa for the funds, not you, and your credit limit should be enough to bear the total cost of your stay, plus another night's worth to cover damages or room service or phone calls to Tahiti or all-night adult pay-per-view, or any other miscellaneous charges (don't worry, any time you do something which will cost "extra", there will be a printed warning about the charges first, OR it will be detailed in the "Guest Services Information" book usually left on the writing desk, describing all the services available to guests, and associated costs).

IF you make the mistake of paying for the room up-front on your debit card, the hotel will put a "hold" on a large chunk of YOUR bank account, until all accounts are settled - which could make cash withdrawals from ATMs unavailable to you, or expose you to writing checks which will not be covered by sufficient funds, that is to say, "bad checks". You really do not want this, so use a credit card to reserve the room, mmmkay?

One final note - you DO NOT NEED a Fursuit to attend AnthroCon, nor even to be a Furry Fan. The great majority of attendees do not have, let alone wear, fursuits. That is one major expense that you can dispense with, UNLESS you wish to concentrate on that branch of the fandom which makes and performs in Fursuits. There is a forum here just dealing with those issues; I believe that much, if not most of the pleasure derived from involvement in this pursuit, is the designing and making of your own suit, using your own skills. Make the effort, and you will be surprised at how many "old paws" will offer advice in this field (just don't expect them to hand over all knowledge on a silver platter, just for the asking; you may have to "earn" some of it, by trying out a path of construction on your own, before you ask "how do I do this").

We also have a specific FAQ for young people that covers such things as explaining the fandom to parents. Even though you are 18 I think it will be helpful.

Furry Fandom is nothing to be ashamed of and nothing that you have to hide from your parents. We're cartoon fans, nothing more. Don't let the popular -- and highly skewed -- image of Furry Fandom color your own opinion. If you think it's something to be guilty about, then no amount of explaining will get your parents to understand it.

FWIW, I've been in furry for about 10 years now, and have never worn a fursuit.

Let me cover some of the other things in your message:

- Minors. They will need to have a signed and notarized form from their parents. That will be up on the site closer to the convention.

- Sharing a room with friends is an awesome idea, and air mattresses shouldn't be a problem. One caveat though: the legal maximum number of occupants in a hotel room is 4. This is due to fire code regulations. More details on that and other hotel issues can be found in our Hotel FAQ.

- Fursuiters generally don't talk in their suit since it would sound muffled, and is perceived as "breaking the "illusion". Doesn't mean you can't talk if absolutely necessary (i.e., "I'm dyin' in here, somebody remove my head please!"), I'm just saying that it's not widely practiced.

Hope that helps! If I missed anything, just let me know.

 
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Since I haven't chimed in yet...

85% of AC attendees don't wear a fursuit. I don't wear a fursuit.
There-I just saved you more money than I spend between food and the Dealer's Room.
You're welcome.

For many of us, traveling costs are a large part of the expense. If you're driving
there, that won't be a problem-but I can't answer questions about driving there.
(Similarly, if you take a Greyhound bus there, and buy your tickets more than 14 days
in advance, you'll probably pay very little.)

When to arrive and leave is entirely up to you.
The first official events begin early Friday-not counting a dance Thursday night.
Thursday, we do registration and UNofficial social events.
(Those of us who are meeting friends there like to have a little time to hang out
with them.)
The events run across Sunday afternoon.
Some people leave Sunday, some people Monday. A few people arrive early and leave
late-but that gets expensive. Since you're not working full-time, I recommend you do
NOT do that. I work full-time and I don't do that.

How much are the hotel rooms?

http://www.anthrocon.org/hotel/list

Now, the prices per room apply for rooms up to quads, and do not include taxes.
http://www.anthrocon.org/faq/hotel

This also means that you can split a room up to 4 ways and split $131 4 ways to PAY
for the room-so long as you actually get that money in your hands, some people always
have an excuse not to hand over money, which means pick your roommates carefully.

Note this about how many people to a room:
http://www.anthrocon.org/faq/hotel#room_capacity

As to paying for arriving and leaving dates and hotels, note these times:
3pm is Check-in, so arrive 3pm or later at the hotel.
11am is Check-out, so leave 11am or earlier from the hotel.

===========
As to specifics for all those, I recommend reading all the FAQs a few times, then
posting more specific questions.

=======================

Well, first of all, if you skip the suit, you skip an entire argument.
Most of us (85%) don't wear them. Spend $1000 to wear fur in Summer? I don't even
want to PACK something like that....
You see them in most videos and pictures because they are more interesting to take
videos and pictures of. How many pictures of a bunch of people hanging out or seated
in rooms would you find interesting? Well, that's true of everyone else....

Now, as to the CSI thing, posters recently said the following:

Chiaroscuro:

PeterCat linked to this page (which he wrote):
http://www.tigerden.com/infopage/furry/csi.html
CSI "Fur and Loathing" episode
How accurate is the episode's portrayal of furries?

As may be expected, things were "sexed up" for television. At a typical furry convention only about 5% of those in attendance wear full costumes (fursuits), although many others will wear accessories such as ears, tails, etc. Fursuits are very expensive, starting at about $800 for an "off the rack" mascot-type costume, with some custom-built suits costing thousands of dollars. Many fans make their own, at a cost of hundreds of hours of labor, as well as hundreds of dollars in materials.

With that kind of investment, dedicated costumers aren't willing to wreck their fursuits by attempting to have sex in them. In fact, wearing a fursuit is damned uncomfortable. There is a real danger of heat exhaustion and dehydration from staying in suit too long, or performing strenuous activity. While it's fun being in public, enjoying people's reactions and compliments about your costume, after a while it's a blessed relief to get out of sight and take off your costume head. Conventions have "headless lounges," well-stocked with water, Gatorade and industrial-strength air-movers, where fursuiters can cool off and relax.

Although many fursuiters enjoy being "skritched," many others would prefer not to be touched by people they don't know. The general rule is "ask first." CSI's depiction of an orgiastic "yiffing party" is complete fiction. CSI's production team received some technical assistance for the convention scenes from a professional costumer who is also a furry fan, but the director reportedly would not allow changes to the "private party" scene.

The CSI episode's plot was based on a film called Plushies and Furries by gay filmmaker Rick Castro, which first aired on MTV in 2002. Castro deceived many furries and convention organizers in the making of this pseudo-documentary; scenes were contrived and staged to suit Castro's view of the world, falsely portraying furry fandom as being entirely fetish-based instead of as a fandom that has attracted a few fetishists. Participants in the film have been vilified and all but ostracized from furry fandom. As far as I can determine, the only people responsible for open "furpile parties" are Castro and his associates, trying to catch some fresh meat for a sequel, or the pornographers running sites like fursuitsex.com looking to make a quick buck.