WAG Team Travel

[thefellowsmom]

Hi, we are going to Hawaii for our travel meet this year. I have been asked to look into any deals we can get traveling as a large group. I have a couple of questions for any of you who may have done this before.

1. Does your team generally try to travel as a group or is everyone on their own?
2. Has anyone dealt with group airline travel before? How does that work? Does it make sense to try to coordinate that part of it? Are we too late?
3. Anyone have any suggestions for Hotels in Honolulu that would be good for a team of girls and their families and offer us a good break on a block of rooms?
4. Any ideas for good group activities while we are there. We would like to put together a team dinner of some sort and maybe a daytime fun activity.

Any advice would be great. We just got the schedule on Monday and I have a parent speaking with a friend of hers who is a travel agent, but I had to think that there are so many teams represented here and most of us travel at some point. Hoping there is some wisdom to impart by those much more experienced than me.

Oh yes, not everyone on the team is going but we should have between 50 and 70 gymnasts and their families.

Thank you so much!

 

[DND]

Well I may not be able to answer your questions about what other clubs do, but I can shed some light as to the benefits of travelling as a group.

With most airlines when you have 10 or more passengers travelling together you can block a group of seats at what ever price they have available. Depending on your dates and how far in advance you are booking you will be able to hold the seats with a deposit and then not have to pay the final balance until 30 days prior to departure. This is nice as it give people time to budget and plan while protecting the price rather than seeing pricing on the internet that fluctuates hour by hour. Also they will usually give one free seat (you have to pay the taxes though) for every 20 or 25 paid tickets. YOu can chose to split the savings or use it for the coach should you be in the position to have to pay for them anyways.

Also you may find with that size of group you will end up with a variety of price points as the airlines will only give you so many seats at price A then so many at price B etc. When I did a 100 passenger marching band what they did was figure out the total for the group and then divide the cost that way based on the average pricing.

You may want to look at Aston properties as they have some that have kitchenettes which is nice to have and saves a bit of money having to eat out all the time. Again depending on when you are going will determine what type of price break they will give you on the group.

Hope this helps let me know if you need any other thoughts or opinions.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[MeetDirector]

Wow! A nice problem to have.

With that number of girls and thier family members you should definitely be able to get some group discounts. The big hotels on Waikiki should be able to do something for you on a group room rate. I would definitely think a travel agent would be the best bet in this kind of a situation. You do know that there are discounts for USAG members, right? Check out the following link:
:: USA Gymnastics :: USA Gymnastics Travel Discount ::

As for things to do on the island, the beach of course will be the big draw. A tour of the Arizona memorial is always good and for true touristy stuff there is the Polynesian Cultural Center which has a Luau.

Good Luck and safe travels.

 

[hawaii_gymnast]

We had a group travel agent and everyone booked through them, everyone got their hotel and flight booked through them. Lots of the meets offer a host hotel that offers a discount for anyone who is their with the meet. When we went for a meet in Hawaii we stayed at a condo for part of the stay and it was much nicer, not to much more expensive, more space and you can make some of your own food, plus it was much quieter and less busy at the pool. What meet are you going to? We went in 2011 for a meet so if you need help I might be able to give you more details.
There is the pineapple plantation, pineapple maze, a garden and train train all their plus the most delicious pineapple and pineapple ice cream. We went on a whale watching cruise. Polynesian centre is fun.
Plus surfing is a blast, and gymnasts pick up on it really quickly. I can PM you more details on who we got lessons from as a group that was great with all of us.
Hawaii is beautiful and so much fun. There are so many choices on where to eat, but we had our favourites, let me know where you will be and I can give some more specifics.

 

[SuperGirlmlm]

1 all the gymnasts and coaches come together, parents seperately.
2 we meet at the airport at a certain place with the gymnasts parents, if the parent isnt coming, they touch base with the coach
3idk
4 on our relax day, we went to the beach, everything together.

Travel meets are also meant to team bond.
As for rooming, 3 gymnasts to a room and a coach or parent in every room.
Good luck!

 

[GymBeeMom]

Not sure I can be much help. Our girls team travel with the the coaches and sometimes a few parent chaperones. Our office manager makes all the arrangements for our team travel (parents that choose to go make their own arrangements ). We have an escrow account and the money for travel comes out of that account during the season to cover meets, including travel expenses. The girls do fly as a team and stay in hotels as a team, sharing rooms and helping each other get ready for meets, etc.

 

[gymmomtoo]

Can't help at all--we never traveler together as a team--at travel meets, each family is on their own on getting there. When our 9s/10s do a coach/gymnast travel meet (one per year), the girls and coaches travel together, but I have never been involved in finding airfare, etc. for that (plus it's only like 10-12 people for that!).

Good luck and hope the meet is lots of fun!

 

[thefellowsmom]

Thanks for the help. I think we are going with the group travel agent option. She got us a package deal with the choice of two hotels with different price points. She will also help anyone book and coordinate who doesn't want the deal. I hope it all works out.