BEFORE YOU EVER GO
- Set best deadlines possible for payments, cancellations, and money owed for cancellations
-- Make sure everyone knows “the rules”
--- Had 2 of 27 pull out 15 days before leaving; 2 more 10 days before leaving
-- What are the rules for refunds or requirements for full payments for those who cancel? Clearly set those up front.
- Set deadlines WAY ahead of when you really need them
-- Needed physical exams (per Safety-Wise, for trips greater than 3 days)
-- Asked for them NLT 1 month before departure
-- Got the last one 3 days before departure
-- Got last payment from several families almost 2 weeks after it was due
- Remember Council will assist with families in need
- Consider a behavior contract that includes a provision to fly home serious offenders at the parent’s expense
PACKING / CLOTHING
- Get Girl involvement!
- Let them develop the packing list based on where you’re going (adult can consolidate and provide to all)
- Establish guidelines and dress code rules before the trip
-- Short shorts ok for the beach; not for the best restaurant
-- When do you wear uniform, same shirts, etc.?
- Two girls (out of 27) forgot their vests
-- Remedy?
- Brought what we thought were TONS of replacement pins, stars, etc.
-- Used every single one of them
-- Wear of vest on trips is more “rugged” than normal
-- Backpacks and purse straps catch pins
-- Vests get taken on and off constantly
-- Expect losses of pins, stars, and tabs
- Remember all the incidentals: water bottles, sunglasses, sunscreen, bug spray, watch, spending money, hats, appropriate walking shoes, etc.
- What are the rules for walkmans, Gameboys, etc.?
-- We allowed them on the bus and in the rooms; not on any of the tours
SPENDING MONEY
- Girls advised to bring $20-$50 for the trip (just for spending money; everything else was paid for)
-- $20 was enough for some; not others
-- What do you do when they spend all $20 the first day?
-- Other adults were buying sodas, ice cream for girls with no money left
-- How do you handle that?
- Two girls forgot their spending money at home; both had their moms along to bail them out
-- Contingency for girls without parents on the trip?
MEALS & FOOD
- Hold back money for meals en route
-- $6 was perfect (stopped off the highway at fast food places)
-- Girls kept the change
-- Could order what they really wanted to eat without trying to “save” money
-- If girls had to hold back their own lunch money for trip home, many would not have had the self-discipline to have done it.
- Many hotels offer continental breakfasts
-- Find out EXACTLY what that is
-- Supplement it!
-- Our hotel: Individually wrapped Danish, can of apple or orange juice, orange
--- We added: Bagels, cereal, milk
--- By day 3 we were swimming in unwanted Danishes, juice and oranges
- Pre-ordered meals in Savannah were great
-- Remember to bring list of who ordered what; most girls couldn’t remember
-- With large-sized group, prepare list according to item ordered, not girls names
--- All the chicken fingers would come out of the kitchen at the same time, etc.
- Prepare to deal with picky eaters
- Asked parents to send sweets for the trip there and back
-- Favorites: Rice Krispie bars, GS Cookies, Twix Bars, anything in individually wrapped packages
-- Avoid: Any kind of chips (too messy), big bags that have to be passed around or re-sealed
- Brought juice boxes, but sodas were the big favorite in the summer
-- If buying bulk sodas, poll your girls – our skinny little girls all wanted the Diet Cokes we thought only the adults would want!
TRANSPORTATION
- Shop around; every bus company is different
-- Ours was $3420 for 5 days, included our access to the bus when needed in Savannah
-- Additionally required us to pay for and provide hotel room bus driver
- Bus Driver became part of our group
-- Came along to most of our events (except JGL house and places where reservations were tight)
-- We picked up the cost, if needed, because we liked him
-- Was not required in the contract
TIPS
- Find out what includes tips
- Most restaurants include tips with group meals
- Tipped $1 per person per event for tour-guide-led events
-- Horse carriage ride, ghost tour walk, etc.
-- Tipped a little less than $1 per person per day to bus driver
--- Since we invited him along for dolphin ride and paid for several meals, we rounded down
--- $150 vice $200 tip
HOTEL
- Unless you’re staying in a 4-star hotel, remember that you’re NOT staying in a 4-star hotel
-- Will probably be towel, air conditioning or other issues
-- Normally calls to the front desk or housekeeping will resolve
-- Consider requesting no-smoking rooms in contract
- Remember requirements of Safety-Wise to review evacuation procedures
-- First night we had girls putting fingers over peepholes and knocking on the doors
-- Spell out: no horseplay; only open the door when you can see or hear who it is
- Consider getting one or more “suites” to save money in long run of having kitchen facilities available
- Room assignments
-- 4 to room presented minor challenges with friends, etc.
-- Solved by bringing 2-3 blow-up beds; put 5 in a 4-person room, never asked the hotel, never had an issue
-- (Girls were “assigned” 4 to a room, but we ended up with some 3 and 5 to a room to accommodate friends)
- Kept 2 adults in a room where possible
-- Nothing specifically in Safety-Wise about hotels, except for overall 2-deep adult leadership rules
- Had several girl-only rooms
-- Kept them close to adult rooms
-- Regularly did random checks of the room
-- Gave girl-only rooms a wake up call each morning just to make sure they were moving
- Need to have an adult “check them out” of their room at end of trip
-- Amazing how they think they are totally packed
-- Our girls left behind blow up bed, blanket, toothbrush, 4 socks, money, and assorted other items – and that was in just one room
ACCOUNTABILITY
- Assign small groups of girls to adults
-- Will never get consensus for big groups during free time; small groups allow flexibility
-- Did head counts through adults
-- Adults were asked to check each girl daily for required items
-- Water bottles, sunscreen, etc.
-- Worked great
- Gave each girl a key chain that looked like a neon mini backpack
-- (Source: Oriental Trading Company, “Sport Bag Key Chains”, Item # 19/75, $9.60 per dozen) 1-800-875-8480 https://www.oriental.com/webapp/commerce/command/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=8039&prmenbr=991&merchant_rn=991&PREFIX=IN&CURRENCY=USD&KIT=I&GROUP=N&navFlag=S
-- Put in address and phone number of hotel, number for tour agency, other emergency numbers
-- Each girl put in 35 cents for emergency phone call
- Make sure girls know room numbers for leaders and first aiders, too
GENERAL ISSUES
- Safety-Wise
-- Bring it, review it BEFORE hand with girls
-- Make sure troop knows there are different standards than vacationing with family!
-- You may be the only ones wearing life vests on the Dolphin Boat ride, but it’s required
-- Need to set the expectation before you encounter the event
-- At our Dolphin ride, they were very nonchalant about life vests; proprietor offered child-sized vests before boarding if we wanted them (I said yes)
-- Had I said no, there would not have even been enough child-sized vests available on the boat (most on the boat were adult-sized)
- Review other activities & checkpoints: Hotel pools, beaches, hotels, bus transportation, etc.
- Girl Issues
-- Even with wake-ups not earlier than 8:15, girls were still exhausted by day 3 of 5 day trip
-- Allow plenty of down time or free time
- 4 sets of sisters on the trip
-- 2 of the four sets were doing the normal “at each other’s throats” at least once during the trip
- Best of friends needed a break from each other after 5 full days
- Phone
-- Pushed phone cards
-- Gave parents our schedule so they would appreciate that girls not always available to call home
-- Had to make one girl call her mother after mom called our emergency contact and wanted her daughter to call home
--- (Daughter was too busy doing other things and just didn’t want to take the time to call home).
- Emergency Contact
-- Called her to let her know we arrived safely
-- Other parents told they could call her for info
-- Had all other info per Safety-Wise and Green Pages
-- She called parents to let them know our precise arrival time coming home
- First Aider
-- Primarily gave out lots of bandaids (just for hangnails, etc.)
-- Used lots of “AfterBite” for mosquito bite itches
-- Gave out lots of sanitary supplies for unexpected / forgotten needs
- Time schedules
-- Every girl had a copy of the daily schedule – where we were going, what to wear, what to bring, what time to be ready to leave
-- Provided relief to leaders from “what are we doing next”? and “What time do we eat dinner”? questions
SAVANNAH-SPECIFIC
- Try to do Birthplace tour EARLY in your trip
-- We arrived on Saturday, did JGL on Sunday
-- Girls slept in Sunday morning, were well-rested and enjoyed everything
-- If it had occurred on day 3, they would have been dropping like flies
- Did “Fabric, Fashion and Frills” SIS
-- Docent leading session was new and inexperienced (kept reading notes)
-- First 45 minutes were TORTURE as the girls just sat and listened to her talk on and on – even my adults were bored to death.
-- Finally picked up when they got to try on corsets, hoop skirts, etc.
- Believe a different person could have made the first part of the session much more interesting
-- Girls absolutely LOVED trying everything on
- Pre-order lunch from Blimpies – they must do a million Girl Scout troops a year and they have it down to a science. Worked great.
- Horse Carriage Tour was great. What girl doesn’t love a ride in a horse-drawn carriage? Girls could probably care less about specific Savannah homes, but the adults loved that part of the tour.
- Pirate’s House was great. Yes, we were in a room separate from the “main” area, but it was a lovely room, service was great, food was good, and we liked having our own room so we could make announcements and do our own thing.
- Shuckers: Had a private room, buffet meal. Nothing much, but it was stuff the girls all liked (fried popcorn shrimp, macaroni & cheese, french fries, salad, iced tea, and brownies for desert). On River Street (see below)
- 606 East Street: Near City Market. GREAT food and great service. Had the “Balloon Baffoon” come entertain us during dinner.
- Mrs. Wilke’s Boarding House: a “Must do”!!! Serious southern cooking, and even my pickiest eater girls found food they liked.
- River Street: Great shops for kids and adults, ranging from junk souvenir shops to 2 candy kitchens (with FRESH pralines), and the candle factory, where many of my girls dipped their own candles ($10 a piece for a large star-shaped candle). Several street performers each night, good police presence – felt very safe.
- Dolphin Ride: Remember that Safety-Wise requires PFD’s to be worn by everyone. This was an issue, as many of our adults had gotten sun-burned the day before at the beach and the PFDs were painful on the sunburns. Also, the company does not require the PFDs to be worn, so other tourists on your boat will probably not be wearing them. We saw enough dolphins to last a lifetime and it was a great ride.
- Tybee Island Lighthouse: 178 steps (ugh). View is great. Consider doing the lighthouse in the morning and the beach in the afternoon. The beaches there are wonderful and you can rent boogie boards at the public beach at 14th street. There were no dressing rooms at the beach (at least not where we were). There were “open air” showers to get the sand off, but that’s it.
- Fort Jackson: The girls should have enjoyed this more and the tour guide was great, BUT our visit was seriously degraded by about 75 YMCA youth camp kids (probably 1st – 4th grade age) that came in half way through our tour and from that point on we couldn’t hear a thing our guide said due to the kids’ screaming and talking. This was in spite of repeated requests of their youth counselors to quiet them down. Add to the fact that it was over 90 degrees, 95% humidity, and it was the last thing we did on our trip (so everyone was tired). Thus, I would recommend it, but if you asked our girls, their answer would be shaded by the circumstances.
- Creepy Ghost Stroll: We were divided into 2 groups because there were so many of us (40). In one group, the ghosts were always “Caspar” (friendly) ghosts. The other group had older girls, so the tone was a bit spookier, and some of our girls were really unsettled by the tales. We were fortunate to run into a local historian after the stroll who boldly proclaimed all ghost stories as nothing more than entertainment and pure fiction. This was frankly a lifesaver for 2-3 of our girls. The adults all saw the tour for what it was and loved walking through the beautiful city of Savannah to see all the homes.
- PBN’J Tours: Did a wonderful job for us. Be advised there are different kinds of tour agencies. Some, like Tootsy Tours, stay with you during your entire visit. Obviously, they cost a little more. PBNJ set up all our meals, reservations, and tours. They provided all the map info we needed upon our arrival. Two of us had been to Savannah before and we were very comfortable with this and Beth was always available if we needed her. If you are not as comfortable and want someone to be with you when you go to each place (the lighthouse, Fort Jackson, the Dolphin Tour, etc.), you may want someone else or make the request of Beth at PBNJ. I especially liked the email-responsiveness of Beth. I had one restaurant and the lighthouse try to bill me for my group, but I just said that PBNJ had those arrangements and they should contact them for payment. Since this is the south, they just said “ok”. Contact Beth at PBNJTours@aol.com
- Days Inn/Days Suites: It’s not the Hilton, but was just right for our budget. We insisted they move one roomful of girls when their room had a faulty air conditioner, and they quickly and happily did so. We had to call once or twice for extra towels, etc. for other rooms, but I expected that. We got one suite, which was perfect for a meeting place and extra food. Be advised that the suites are all in a different section of the hotel, so you won’t have all “regular” rooms next door to the suite…but that wasn’t a problem, either. The best thing is their location: they are walking distance from everything. They charge a small fee if you park your car there. We came in a chartered bus and parked on the street at the hotel (no charge; just put the city permit in the window). They were very patient with us and I found the front desk service responsive and friendly. They’ve obviously dealt with plenty of other troops (there were at least 3-4 other troops in the hotel when we were there). Rooms had hair dryers, small coffee makers (bring your own cream & sugar), irons and ironing boards.
IPs
- On our trip, we earned the Travel IP (pretty easy to do with a trip of this kind)
-- Our bus driver was so excited to talk to us for the career exploration part. You'd think no one ever asked him about his job before!
- We also earned the Daisy's Neighborhood IP -- the "Council's Own" IP from the Savannah Council. You can find the requirements for the IP at http://www.oocities.org/Heartland/Prairie/1054/DaisysNeighborhood.html
-- Buy the IP (or badge) at the 1st National HQ store