That was an awesome tip Becky!

I did look through the DEMA website of "official" hotels, and Wyndham wasn't on it, but considering how nice the place looks and how inexpensive it is, that is quite the savings.

I went ahead and booked things, but under a mixed plan. Wyndham has this buyer rewards sort of gimmic, where if you fill out the standard online form, you get this customer code. Now with that code, you can "buy two days, get the 3rd free. The partial catch is one cannot combine multiple discount offers onto one booking, but you can do multiple bookings. So that means no DEMA discount if you book the buy 2 days, get the 3rd free. But under an arrival of Tuesday night, departing Sunday during the day, that is 5 nights booked. So if you fill out the rewards shindig, then get the book 2 nights at the non-DEMA rate of $79, get the 3rd free, then book the remaining 2 days under the DEMA rate of $69 a day, that works out to be a $50 savings compared to booking 5 nights at the $69 rate, with no 3rd day free.

The Wyndham does not have a shuttle that goes to and from the Orange County Convention Center, but the regions trolley service runs every 15 minutes, and picks up right in front of the hotel and the OC Convention Center is on its stop list. Or one can take a taxi for the $5 they tell me, or if you are a glutton for punishment, you can walk the 1.5 miles laden with equipment, bags, brochures, etc.

I am contemplating heading back to Crystal River to film the manatees if I could get enough people together for a road trip.