Been discussing Key West poker run with quite a few people and even thou it has never been exactly a cheap week to attend this year seems to be off the charts,
Granted fuel is a huge expense and having a performance boat it just comes with the territory. and for us west coast peeps it pretty much doubled our expenses, again it is what it is, we just live with it,
but now you add the cost of rooms in KW which was just kind of an after thought in years past, under $500 night, just deal with it, just looked at the hyatt and wtf $1700 night for basic room ?
now signing up for the poker run saves you on rooms and Stu has not raised his prices form membership but the hotel and slip rates are still way over a few years ago, ( i get it is out of his control)
Then flights wow , wish i was one of the guys with private plane ,( but i imagine those costs have skyrocketed also)
You start adding up the costs of a 5 day weekend and holy cow,

I absolutely love going to key west, meeting up with some people that i only see once a year, i have been going since 2007 BUT don't know now.

Maybe its the fact of going to LOTO that has awesome boating but you don't feel like you are getting raped every step of the way has changed my attitude, its definitely not the same but still fun

I really want to say screw it and i'm going but on the other hand even thou i can afford it is it really worth while,

Don't know

Was with some friends over the weekend. They have booked the same place for prob over a decade now and the price has been around the same cost which is 5k for 1 week.

They called to set up for this year as usual ans they were told since they did some renovation that the cost went up a bit. Same unit, rooms, and all that as before just some updating.

$20k for the week now.

Been going for the last 15 years, This year I have not made reservations yet, it's kind of the same old BS and the prices are out of this world, not sure it's worth it,

I know plenty of people that gave up annual tickets to NASCAR races years ago, not because of the cost of the tickets but because of all the rest. hotels that a week prior to the race were $89 a nite were suddenly $500 a nite with a 3 or 4 nite minimum. two hour waits at restaurants to buy $30 hamburgers that are suddenly $5 the next week. some times it is not just the cost but knowing you are getting screwed over with out a kiss that eats at you the most.

We're skipping it this year. Daughter has a 2 bedroom place booked we were all going to stay at (4k for 4 nights! Was half that 3 years ago). We were going to go even with the crazy prices, (they're still going since her husband is crew chiefing) but with some work scheduling changes and some other stuff going on, it's just not worth making it happen. Maybe if they weren't RAPING people down there I would make it work but nah, I'm good. Bummer part is going to be not seeing everyone. That's the best part. The races are cool, the poker runs are cool but really, it's all about seeing all the friends we've made over the years. We'll shoot for next year. I'm actually hoping more people pull out so that maybe the city gets the point like, yeah, little price increase for huge event is understandable. Straight up strong-arming people not so much. People I talk to always answer, "well the big ballers that all go wont care, they'll keep going." yeah, there's definitely a lot of money that goes down there. But most of those people made that money and don't like to be taken advantage of. I mean, there's others races in Florida through-out the year and there's PLENTY of other cool poker runs Stu does. When does the cost outweigh the reward? Or when does it boil down to the principal of it and the realization of the old saying, a fool and his money are easily parted!?

We are going to be down in Key West in February 2023 and we are spending $800 a night at a Hampton Inn!! It’s a really nice Hampton Inn but G..D…!

funny…when people made posts like this in the past; OSO would call people out for being cheap a$$e$.

By the way…I’ve always been in the camp that everything costs too much. Even 5 years ago. With all the money printing it has only gotten worse.

we cancelled many of the events we used to do this year. They are fun but not fun enough to spend the extra money. hotel rooms are outrageous if you can even find one.

The wife and I looked at going this year, a get away from the kids, saw the prices and decided to pass..

Enough IS enough!

Let's all remember to get out and vote in November!

Last year when our group was sitting around the pool in KW I brought up the price increase that was last year, and said if Stuff goes up again for 2022, lets consider other smaller race venues and see different areas that they race in.
Long story short, we may be there Friday-Sunday (instead of Monday-Monday) only if the place we have been going to has cancelations or not enough bookings and she reduces the per night cost so she can recoup some money. We will see!
If Not More $ for Havasu trips?