General registration for Microsoft Ignite 2018 opens today, so this is a good time to update the (unofficial) Microsoft Ignite Hotels page. Two hotels are already unavailable. Please note the usual caveats:

• “Unavailable” means the hotel no longer shows up in a search for a Sunday-Friday stay. If your dates differ, you may be able to book the hotel.
• Until the Ignite site tags the hotel as “Sold Out”, it may become available again depending on cancellations and/or additions to the block.

Hotel Changes

The first hotels to drop off the list are:

• Courtyard Orlando International Drive Convention Center
• Embassy Suites by Hilton Orlando International Drive Convention Center

These hotels were the first to be listed as unavailable last year as well. If either of these is your preferred hotel and you didn’t preregister, plan on doing so next year. These appear to be perennial favorites.

We also have a few hotels that were part of the block last year, but did not show up on the list when early registration started last week. Theses hotels are:

• Buena Vista Suites
• Hilton Grand Vacations at SeaWorld
• Hyatt Place Orlando Convention Center
• The Ritz Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes
• Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin

The Hilton Orlando is also not part of the Ignite hotel block, but that is because it is set aside as the conference hotel for Microsoft Envision which takes place alongside Ignite.

Those changes leave us with 46 hotels out of 48 if we include the Hyatt Regency which requires the Convenience Pass. With general registration opening today, I expect we will see some more hotels drop off the list soon.

Where Am I Staying?

I was at the Homewood Suites last year. I’m generally loyal to Hilton brands and the price was right so I gave this one a try. I didn’t have any problems with my stay, but the bus schedule put me off from booking there again. It was a quick ride to the convention center in the morning, but on the return trip it was a much longer drive than I wanted. Plus the hotel was just far enough away that while the walk to the convention center was reasonable, the humidity was anything but.

I was primed to get the Convenience Pass this year and stay at the Hyatt Regency in the middle of it all, but the pass and daily rate was more than my travel budget could take. The Hilton was out as I mentioned before, so that left the Rosen hotels if I wanted to stay close.

In the end I went with the Rosen Plaza. It isn’t as centrally located as the Rosen Centre, but it does have a covered kybridge over to OCCC West, so I will be able to skip the bus and work on getting those steps in instead. I’ll miss getting those Hilton points for the stay, but for Ignite it’s all about location. The closer the better.