[Closed] 2022 Frozen Four - Boston (April 7 & 9)

Ugh. FU MLB…

Fully expect this years squad to be there.

Early Frozen 4 prediction:

Gophers

Whioux

Purple Cows

St. Cloud

With of course the Gophers winning!

That would be fun!

I’d take the WCHA reunion show, but I don’t think those 4 teams all get their own regional.

Even if you’re not normally a “museum” person, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a real winner. The collection of a single woman obsessed with art, decor and had the money to indulge it. An absolutely gorgeous mansion turned into a private art museum. And the site of one the biggest art heists in the world, still unsolved.

Assuming, the whioux, purple cows, and Gophers all win their conference tournaments. All 3 would be #1 seeds and St. Cloud ends up out east again.

If you rent a car, there are some pretty cool, relatively short drives. Rockport and Salem, Massachusetts are cool coastal towns. Portsmouth, NH is cool too.

Lexington Green is kind of cool to go see, but there's really not much to do there other than just see the site.

The basketball hall of fame is in Springfield, Mass. and is about 1.5 hours from Boston.

I went out to Boston a long time ago when I was a kid but the coolest thing I remember going to was the USS Constitution. If you’re a history buff I would say that is a must.

in this scenario, MN probably ends up out west with Denver in their home regional (Denver likely to be the 5, Kato 1, UND 2/3, Mich 2/3, MN 4). I'm all for the Gophers dodging UND or the Purple Cows until the FF.

I haven't been to Boston since their last Frozen 4 in 2015. If you like seafood I highly recommend Atlantic Fish (about 4 blocks west of Trinity Church). If you want cheaper more casual seafood there is a place on the water called Yankee Lobster in the Seaport. I believe their is a comedy club called Laughs Boston a few blocks away from Yankee Lobster also.

We like Union Oyster House, eaten there several times. I’m always on the lookout for a great lobster roll, will check out Yankee Lobster. We have resys for Friday at a classic Northside Italian spot our Boston friends love, La Familgia Giorgio’s. They have house made pasta and about 10 different sauces. There’s a ton of Italian places on the Northside, some good, some meh.

La Familgia Giorgio’s is really close to our hotel. I think we'll try to get a reservation here as well. We're also going to try and get a Fenway tour on Thursday before the games. It's not a game, but at least we get to go (assuming availability). I don't do seafood but my dad does, may have to try one of those as well for him.

I found a couple of things we booked to do that looked fun and/or different since this will be our 4th Frozen Four in Boston.

https://www.citybrewtours.com/boston/tours/the-original-brew-tour/

Boston Original Brew Tour - 5 hour van tour to 4 different breweries:

• Sam Adams

• Cambridge

• Bearmoose

• Night Shift Brewing

Includes lunch and sampling 16 different types of beer I think it said. There's a shorter version (The Sip of Boston Tour) you can do as well. They're limited to 13 people and our tour on Saturday @ 11am was down to 7 after we booked. Looked like a fun way to get to a number of breweries. $99/person

https://www.undergrounddonuttour.com/boston-historic-downtown-tour

Underground Donut Boston Downtown Tour - 2 hour walking downtown donut tour and sampling

A mix of history and donut eating, seemed like a fun idea. They have 9am and 12p times for their 2-hour walking tour that goes about 1.5 miles and has 5 stops on it. We're doing this Friday AM at 9am as our hotel is only about 1/2 mile from the start and finish (different spots). $40/person (a bit of an overpriced breakfast but looked fun).

We're then going to try and grab a Fenway tour on Thursday mid-morning and stop in at Atlantic Fish for a later lunch before heading up to the arena for the Thursday games.

Still working on Friday afternoon / evening but think we'll just save it for walking around during the day and may do one of the ghost tours or Ayslum Improv that night. Trying to fit La Famiglia Giorgio's in as well - may do so Friday or Saturday after the beer tour since the game isn't until 8pm. The ghost tour leaves at 6pm so would have to do a late dinner Friday if we tried for that.

I had to check out the Donut Tour. Haha, they literally give you the route and suggested donuts. The “famous Northside” spot HAS to be Mikes Pastries. Why not save the $40 and go do it yourself? You could buy a lot of :censored: donuts for $40.

And we’re at La Famiglia Friday at 6. If you’re there say hi. Yes yes, that’s like a Senior Citizen meal time but our friends live outside Boston, he works insane hours at Brigham Young hospital and so no late nights. I told my hubby we’d have an early dinner and then when they bag out we’ll hit the bars.

I get lazy on vacation and like to have people do stuff for me - plus I figure I'm helping keep someone employed by having them walk us around. Probably some BC/BU kid I'm also hoping the drop a bit of history knowledge on us during the walk, we'll see.

I’d suggest you pay me the $40@ and I’d walk you around but I’m lazy too. And in spite the fact I have a History degree, American History was my least favorite, so I’d just make :censored: up as I went along. I used to do that with my nephew all the time when he was little. I have an excellent poker face.

https://treehousebrew.com/

https://www.trilliumbrewing.com/

Those two should be on any beer lovers list.

Maybe if you are lucky Kramer will be your tour guide.

Booked a Fenway Tour for 12p on Thursday and a lunch reservation at Atlantic Fish (it’s 1 mile down the road from Fenway and on the green line) at 1:45p. Figured we’d be done at about 3p and can make our way to the arena.

Ended up having a pretty busy trip.

Wanted to at least get a booking down so got one at citizenM across from the arena. Nothing special but seems it could get the job done.

Resurrecting for non-Gopher game discussion.

Guessing we'll see a few more of you rubes in Boston now...

Love we get two MN and two B1G teams into the Frozen Four and that we're guaranteed "a" MN team in the final.

The Gopher land only travel package (overpriced) mentions a Sota Social, which is typically also open to not package folks (at least for football). It doesn't have any details yet, but imagine it will be before the Thursday semi and (if win) before the Saturday final. If anyone sees the details definitely post them and I'll look for them to firm them up as well.

Nearly 1400 for that package without airfare or game tickets seems steep.

I was looking forward to it when we booked and now that the Gophers are joining the party we are super excited!

Mrs. GE and I went to Atlantic Fish when we went to Boston for our 20th and really enjoyed it.

OK. Do we need to set up a GPL gathering? Either pre-game someplace, or between games on Thursday?

It's not good. Hotel should be ~$750 per person (assuming a $500 hotel, which isn't unrealistic near TD Garden). So, that extra $650 seems steep for a duck boat ride, some name tags and lanyards, and a pep rally.

Same was true for the Gopher bowl game. We stayed at the same hotel, paid separately for the pep rally and saved a LOT of money. Didn't get a name lanyard (oh well).

There's no passing out between games so it'd have to be in arena for a chat. We're sitting in Loge 12 for the game, last row aisle.

Might not be much time between games on Thursday. Games at 4 and 7:30.

Our plan is to be at the bar that is designated the "Gopher" bar before the game on Thursday and am also willing to meet between the games that day. IIRC in 2015, the Greatest Bar hosted the Whioux and Omaha with one downstairs and one upstairs. Providence and BU had each separate bars around the arena as well. It will be interesting which bars are involved this time around as a couple of them down by the arena ( The Fours and Sports Garden for sure) have since closed.

I expect we will hear where the Gopher bar is very soon from UMAA and/or Gopher sports. We would do the same on Saturday (if we play) and maybe Thursday (coming from a 1:45p lunch). Thursday between has to be in arena.

Should still be about an hour between games. Absolute minimum of about 50 minutes. They'll resurface the ice, give that at least a few minutes to dry, then the teams come out for warm-ups starting 38:00 before puck drop.

Creative Charters is nice if you don't want to deal with any logistics.

If you're willing to look yourself, it definitely will cost a lot less.

I know many people that don't care & are willing to pay the extra money to not worry about it. I did it for football game to USC in 2011. It was nice to just get on a bus, be at the hotel, show up & go. But you are definitely paying for that planning.

Creative Charters is doing 2 packages. 1 Wednesday departure and 1 Thursday. Staying at the Boston Plaza hotel.

I opted for Thursday. $925 per person. Good deal in my book. They are returning Sunday, however it'll be a flight to Milwaukee and a bus ride from there.

Our hotel and air (self-booked back in January) totaled about $3,000 for 4 nights. That's convenient Delta flights (leave at 1pm on Wednesday return at 8am on Sunday) and the Marriott Boston Long Wharf. Marriott is convenient to the Subway, easy walk across the street from faneuil hall marketplace, easy walk to the arena (1.3 miles or so). So, we're at ~$1,500 per person. Could have saved a bit more with crappy timed flights or less central hotels.

So, a $1,000 charter sounds amazing (especially given the land only Gopher deal is $1,400 per person).

Hotel and airfare for two (one arriving Friday night) ~2,250. All direct flights, one way on JetBlue rest on Delta.

First three nights across the street from the arena, added a night near airport to fly back Monday AM.

I think we’re going to back out on price. Charter is a decent deal but the Milwaukee bus situation isn’t ideal so balanced out with all the other costs, it’s just a lot

We are just down the road a bit at the Doubletree for the same general cost.

Leaving Wed mid afternoon and returning Sunday mid afternoon via Delta & flights were roughly $500 in November.

I can see not wanting to come via Milwaukee.....what a pia.

Doubletree is a great location. I’ve stayed at nearly every hotel in downtown and Cambridge for work over the years, with my favorite ones the Copley sq/back bay hotels. But you can really walk everywhere. Had we booked six weeks ago I’m sure this would be affordable. Hard to arrange last minute like Tampa was years ago

Great to know, thanks! The location was a definite selling point. The only other time I've been to Boston we stayed a the Hilton Back Bay, that was a great location but probably not as convenient for back/forth to TD Garden. I am willing to pay a certain premium for when travelling to larger cities if I can avoid a long commute into town or the need for a car.

I can feel the pain of late bookers. A group of buds from college are in the process of trying to plan a trip FL, probably Destin, and holy sticker shock! We want to cover the cost of one of our buds because he's had an absolutely :censored: year and needs to escape for a bit, vent some, and maybe abuse his liver a little so.....yeah....yikes.

We booked in October. Airfare was $225 for each of us. Using hotel points and staying at Wyndham Beacon for free. I just checked and the going rate is over $300 a night. It is less than 15 minute walk to the arena. Flying in on Weds afternoon and leaving Sunday am. Already looking at the hotel for Tampa. Not being able to travel for a year really helped us save up points for this FF.

It's definitely much cheaper for both airfare and hotels when you go every year and can plan/book several months to a year ahead of time.

I like this team. In fact it's kinda gotten me back into following college hockey. The last years of Lucia made me not care. I made the decision to go last night at about midnight, and I was able to secure airfare for about $500 with a connecting flight fly out Wed afternoon. Hotels really close to TD Garden are insane, but I'm staying a Fairfield in about a mile from the Arena. I booked with points (actually my travel partner did) but they still had rooms left for $225ish a night just in case anyone is still looking.

Now all I have to worry about is my Stub Hub tickets coming through, Apparently, the venue doesn't do paper tickets?

100%. I've decided to just make it work when the Gophers are in it. I don't want to use any of my vacation time when they aren't. So the less than ideal travel is the price I pay for that, but I'm fine with it.

Correct.

Completely understood. It's all about trade-offs in what we want to accept. I like the trip every year as a hockey vacation, but I completely get that doesn't work right for some people.

Correct they don't do paper tickets? Or correct I should be worried about getting my Stub Hub tickets?

I would expect StubHub to simply re-tag whatever tickets with your e-mail address, then you get them that way.

I am the walrus.