<p>Glad to be of help with the PL tip, we should all get together to meet (handemom told me privately that she also booked the Hilton). I didn’t check other places but I assume that they raise their prices for Parents Weekend. And $45 for the Hilton is a great deal no matter what week it is. I will have to check out the breakfast/lunch place we passed on Main Street for breakfast. I forget the name at the moment.</p>
<p>Just for fun I looked on my Priceline trips and we’ve gotten that Hilton 5 times in the last 18 months. It would be fun to meet and put faces to the screen names. We haven’t booked for moving in yet. DD is doing arrival survival so she gets to move in early, but will be in the towers this year so we might go early to get some apartment shopping done.<br>
Lots of good places to eat on Main St. Unfortunately the Diner closed. The Cereal Bowl is new and fun if you like cereal!
First semester freshman year we decided to use the bookstore for simplicity. She ordered ahead and picked up her box of books without any problems or long lines. Since then she’s used DBE, Leibermans and various online services. My best advice would be to email the professors ahead of time and ask if the required books are actually required and if they have to be the current edition. Some of the professors have custom made “bundles” that you have no choice but to buy and others will accept an older edition of the book which are usually the best online buys. You need to be careful if there is a CD or online key required as not all the used copies will have those pieces. We have seen DBE come up as a seller on the online services. In those cases she just ordered it from them directly and saved the shipping.</p>
<p>Yup, I’ll be at the Hilton on visiting weekend for all of $45.</p>
<p>I suppose our kids can invite us to the cafeteria with their guess passes for breakfast. That could be fun (although my son may not think so).</p>
<p>It would be fun to plan a little meeting at the Hilton. Do any of you do Facebook? We can start a UDel '13 parent group. I know there’s already one for the students.</p>
<p>We’re UD '10 - maybe I can join as an honorary member?</p>
<p>Wow! Thank you all for your advice. We too will be staying at the Hilton Christiana(priceline) for move in and parents weekend thanks to the great CC posts and advice. We do not have facebook but a meetup at the Hilton would be fun. Thank you all again, so much.</p>
<p>I like the FB parents’ group idea. No Hilton for us…driving one hour and jumping off before the toll!</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips on buying books.</p>
<p>No, misterbill, you didn’t miss much with the dorm room sample. It was about seeing the furniture more than anything. I know what exactly a wardrobe looks like now (double doors, abt 18 in. wide per door, small face mirror on inside of left door, three small drawers that make one side of the wardrobe “short”, one large below, one clothes bar) and I saw a lofted bed. Desk chair shown had a non-removable cushion.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, my son would love it if we madfe a parents group on Facebook. He already accuses me of stalking him on the student groups there :-). I will happily join but it is probably best if I am not the owner. I actually heard a good story once, a parent said they refused to pay their students tuition if they didn’t let them see their Facebook page. I would be happy to create a Christiana Hilton Priceline Fans page.</p>
<p>the_mom: how much have you paid for the Hilton on previous trips? I paid $39 for Delaworld. Paid $37 for the Fairfield Inn back in April. They seem to have some sort of deal with the Hilton now since they are pushing 3* rooms in the Newark zone as the best value.</p>
<p>My son is doing the Hillel Freshman Fest which means we have to be in and out and gone in 2.5 hours. The only problem with that is you don’t have a chance to run out and pick up stuff you forgot, unless you are really quick. And we probably can’t do shopping down there before we move in because the car will be jammed and I won’t want to leave it in a parking lot like that (not to mention probably not having room for more).</p>
<p>Does anyone know if we can ship stuff to them once they get their dorm mailing address? Will they hold it, or is it possible that it will get lost??? My son wants this Bed in A Bag from Kohls and it would be great if I could just ship it there and not take up room in the car. Of course, there’s a sale now and an extra 30% off so it probably just pays to order it now.</p>
<p>I was able to send packages to my son with no problem, both directly and from merchants.</p>
<p>They will hold anything you send. It is much better to use the post office (over UPS FedEx etc) as UD is a regular postal stop of some sort. For example, UPS will try to deliver directly to the dorm. If no one is around they take it back and make 2 more attempts. DD has left notes on the outside door with her cell number so she could come get the package. Once she had to go to the local UPS office because she wasn’t around when they showed up.
When you have the dorm room info you can go to [Residence</a> Hall Street Addresses and Zip Codes](<a href=“http://www.udel.edu/SuppSrvc/mail/reszip.html]Residence”>http://www.udel.edu/SuppSrvc/mail/reszip.html) to get the exact address. You can check with the RA when he moves in - DD was an RA last year and they are usually pretty accommodating. You might be able to do some shopping and leave it with the RA.</p>
<p>Forgot to add that usually I get the Hilton for $40-45. Sometimes higher based on demand. About the same amount, sometimes a bit higher for the Courtyard at UD. When we first started going we’d get the Fairfield for as little as $25, but for the extra $$ it’s worth it to get a 2 1/2 or 3* star hotel. The crappy Days Inn across from the Hilton is a 2* so it isn’t worth the risk unless desperate (yes I stayed there once - ick).</p>
<p>[University</a> of Delaware Parents/Priceline Fans | Facebook](<a href=“Facebook”>Facebook)
we now have a page!</p>
<p>MisterBill, is the bed-in-the-bag, extra long sheets? I think most college beds now are long. I also bought my daughter a topper for her dorm bed, and she said everybody thought she had the best bed in the dorm. It’s well worth it and a regular length twin is good enough.</p>
<p>BTW Bill, my son did fine on his APs, now he just has to call his advisor to bump up his calc class. Actually the professor for his calc A class had lousy reviews on <a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessor.com%5B/url%5D”>www.ratemyprofessor.com</a>, so I’m hoping that the calc B class he gets has a better prof.</p>
<p>the_mom, thanks for setting up the group.</p>
<p>Yes, the sheet set has XL sheets.</p>
<p>[Student</a> Lounge Tie-Dyed Bed Set](<a href=“http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/PRD~c17013/Student+Lounge+TieDyed+Bed+Set.jsp]Student”>http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/PRD~c17013/Student+Lounge+TieDyed+Bed+Set.jsp)</p>
<p>Funny you should mention the Days Inn. Another family from my synagogue said she is staying there for $51. I hope she didn’t book it as non-refundable. I stayed in an awful Days Inn in Silver Spring, MD last summer. it was free and I still felt like I was ripped off. I had another free night at the one in College Park and cancelled and chose to stay an extra night at the Omni Shoreham in DC (at $70 via PL).</p>
<p>It was a last resort for me the weekend I stayed there - it was UD graduation and a race weekend in Dover. Here’s the tripadvisor reviews. You might suggest your friends find somewhere else to stay!
[Days</a> Inn Newark/Wilmington (Newark, DE) - Hotel Reviews - TripAdvisor](<a href=“DAYS INN BY WYNDHAM NEWARK WILMINGTON - Updated 2024 Prices & Hotel Reviews (DE)”>DAYS INN BY WYNDHAM NEWARK WILMINGTON - Updated 2024 Prices & Hotel Reviews (DE))</p>