Girl Scouts

[Cinderellaluver]

As we all get older in my gs(girl scout) troop we are going to start quitting and I was thinking as something to do before we all go away we could take a trip to Disney World.
I realize it's gunna take alot of work to be able to afford the trip but I think we can handle it.
Any tips for us planning wise or how to earn money?They're will be 7 of us girls and I don't know how many parents yet.

 

[maryszhi]

im a girl scout and we used cookie money, money we earned from jobs,and we had some fundraisers and stuff
if you plan right, stay at value resort and do dining plans,that might help.
but try calling disney youth groups to get a ball park figure. if there is enough of you you can get discounts.
also check with kk to see what deals are out there
i hope you can go!
great idea though to get the gs together for one more jamboree

 

[ImaYoyo]

As we all get older in my gs(girl scout) troop we are going to start quitting and I was thinking as something to do before we all go away we could take a trip to Disney World.
I realize it's gunna take alot of work to be able to afford the trip but I think we can handle it.
Any tips for us planning wise or how to earn money?They're will be 7 of us girls and I don't know how many parents yet.

First go to http://www.disneytpa.com/ to get pricing for your youth group. AMAZINGLY cheap. Or you can call 888-779-1757 to get pricing as well. GOod discounts on rooms too depending on when you're visiting (I suggest January, 1st two weeks in february, last two weeks in april through first week in may and August for the lowest Youth rates.

Then go to coaches.espn.com which is a rediculously good fundraiser. You keep 60%, which is HUGE. It's just selling magazine subscriptions to most of the big ones... Cosmo, US Weekly, Rolling Stone, ect.. AND if anyone renews their subscription after a year, you keep getting the money!

 

[redkoala245]

That sounds fun Just save up from all of your cookies or whatever so you can enjoy yourself while you are there

 

[Dwarful]

I did this last year with my oldest daughter's girl scout troop. We had been together since they were Daisy Scouts. Wanted to do something special. We ended up with 36 in our group. Pam with Kingdom Konsultants did an amazing job. She handled every single change and got every dining request we made from Cinderella's Castle & Le Cellier to Chef Mickeys. We came from Illinois so we had quite a bit of $$$$ to raise for our group. We stayed at All Star Movies Dalmation Bldg. Pam helped us get the best deals. We did NOT go with the 'group' rates because I wanted the girls to experience some great Disney dining and it ended up being cheaper to book 10 rooms at the Values w/dining. This ensured that everyone had good food to eat. Not sure where you are located but if you PM me I can tell you how we made the most money. In our council you cannot save cookie money from year to year. You must spend all money (on the troop or service projects) earned that year. *Council is on all checking/savings accounts and you do a year end financial statement. We only make a maximum of .50 cents per box (out of $4) so that was a whole lot of cookies...we had to have other sources and some councils are very strict on what you can and cannot do.

Allow for at least one year to earn your money and go. Have a mandatory meeting before you even begin. Get a ballpark estimate (tell them higher$$) for the cost of each girl and each adult. We put everything in folders that the girls decorated. I told everyone 20 minutes earlier for meals ..because disney will not seat large groups until everyone is present. Set your rules before you go.

HERE IS THE KICKER: Make sure that each person knows and signs a statement that basically says "anyone who cancels forfeits any funds they have earned or paid into for the trip". We started out with 40 in our plans and 36 ended up going. We had a few dads change their minds.

If you want more info feel free to PM me or ask specifics here. I cannot praise Pam enough. It has been a year since our trip and the families are still talking about it. Def. a once in a lifetime event!!!!!.....did I mention Pam could be very helpful ?

 

[Cinderellaluver]

Wow you all have been so helpful...let me reply to each of you!

maryszhi-Cookies will be a really big fund raiser for us of course....and we'll make sure to call Disney youth groups.

ImaYoyo-The think about the youth group is that you can only buy a ticket for five days and we wanted to stay longer is there anyway you can get a longer stay ticket?

Dwarful-I'll talk with my troop about using Pam since you did mention a couple of times she could be helpful but our group won't be quite as large as yours.

 

[Magic Maker]

Guess who replies to that phone call 1-888-779-1757 and the website.... me! But no I will not answer any questions while off the clock. Normally I would but it just gets too complicated. If you want a ticket for more than 5 days no problem, just call the number and we will get a sales manager to get the pricing.

 

[Dwarful]

Pam and her helpers can work with any size group. We had 11 girls in our troop. By the time we added on 'tagalongs' (siblings), parents etc. We grew to 36. You might look into group tshirts or a tshirt that is specific to your area. We are from Southern Illinois - across the Mississippi from St.Louis Mo. so we had a "St. Louis Cardinals" Day and that was a lot of fun..the photos of our group that day turned out especially nice.

One thing that the girls really had fun doing (and mousekeeping got involved in) was we had a window decorating contest. So you might want to include scotch tape or sticky tak in your packing list. The girls got very creative on their windows. Some put up towels, stuffed animals, hats, etc. The winning window was one girl who made a "mickey head" out of maps, bags etc.

 

[shoppingnut]

Have your troop sign up for goodsearch.com where you get a penny for every search you make and they also have shopping through them where various retailer's donate a % amount of the sale to your organization when someone goes to through the goodsearch website to the retailer. Since I've signed our library group up for this in late November of 07, we have made to date $165 between the searches and on-line purchases which is a significant amount for us. It's a great, you can get money for doing stuff you normally would be doing, searching the internet and shoppinng on line.

 

[maryszhi]

Wow you all have been so helpful...let me reply to each of you!

maryszhi-Cookies will be a really big fund raiser for us of course....and we'll make sure to call Disney youth groups.

ImaYoyo-The think about the youth group is that you can only buy a ticket for five days and we wanted to stay longer is there anyway you can get a longer stay ticket?

Dwarful-I'll talk with my troop about using Pam since you did mention a couple of times she could be helpful but our group won't be quite as large as yours.

the cookie thing
at 17, i am still hailed the cookie queen!!!

 

[shoppingnut]

I use Pam and her team at KK for all my disney vacations. Yes, I could do it myself, but it's much easier to have someone who is on top of all the discounts do it for me. If you are going to use anyone I highly recommend using KK's.

 

[EpcotGrl]

Our GS troop did this for our after-graduation trip. We saved up our cookie money and did odd jobs to make money, had the parents chip in to rent a van for all of us, and our leaders drove. Our troop was relatively small (7 of us), but I know that we did get the group discounted tickets and may've even got a discount on rooms (we stayed at AS Music). It helped, of course, that one of the parents was a travel agent and that our leader was a Disney Guru...

It was the trip that started my love of Disney!!! Good luck, and have a great time!! :sohappy:

 

[disneygirl_wdw]

We went a few years ago with exactly 7 in our group for Girl Scouts. One thing I would suggest if your girls are old enough (cadettes or higher) is the money instead of prize option for cookie sales. This helped my other troop out for our trip. When we went to Disney World the girls had been saving forever. They were wanting to go again, however I don't think we have enough for a troop. The girls had a really great time. We tried researching the YES programs, but our group was too small. We stayed at AKL and did the activties they offered at the resort. Our girls were younger, but one thing they had to do was ask 3 questions to the kidcot cast members about their country. They really enjoyed this and learned a lot.

 

[ImaYoyo]

You sure can! Call that number and hit ext. 5993 to speak with Matthew. He can give you pricing on tickets over 5 days.

Wow you all have been so helpful...let me reply to each of you!

maryszhi-Cookies will be a really big fund raiser for us of course....and we'll make sure to call Disney youth groups.

ImaYoyo-The think about the youth group is that you can only buy a ticket for five days and we wanted to stay longer is there anyway you can get a longer stay ticket?

Dwarful-I'll talk with my troop about using Pam since you did mention a couple of times she could be helpful but our group won't be quite as large as yours.

 

[Cinderellaluver]

Wow even more tips then last time I can tell this is going to be the go to place with questions from my troop

The travel agent ideas is sounding better and better lol! less work for me since I will be the one stuck doing most of the planning probably since I'm such a big Disney fan and it was my idea in the first place.

I'm totally going to have to check out good search, look like an awesome site!

Im going to have to call and see how much the discount is!

 

[tharmscott]

Our girl scout troop is planning this also. We have 6 girls and aren't taking any parents and only one tagalong (my daughter). They have been saving their cookie money for several years. We are having a garage sale in a couple of weeks and selling hamburgers, hot dogs, and soda pops. We had a moms day out planned but had to cancel because of bad weather. It was on a Saturday before Christmas and was from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. We were charging $30 per child which also included lunch, snack and all activities. I don't know about your area but the Applebee's in our area has fundraiser pancakes breakfasts on Saturday mornings. I'm also thankful to everyone for all their tips. Our biggest expense will be getting us all there. The girls want to fly. We are coming from Northwest Arkansas.

 

[Dwarful]

Our girl scout troop is planning this also. We have 6 girls and aren't taking any parents and only one tagalong (my daughter). They have been saving their cookie money for several years. We are having a garage sale in a couple of weeks and selling hamburgers, hot dogs, and soda pops. We had a moms day out planned but had to cancel because of bad weather. It was on a Saturday before Christmas and was from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. We were charging $30 per child which also included lunch, snack and all activities. I don't know about your area but the Applebee's in our area has fundraiser pancakes breakfasts on Saturday mornings. I'm also thankful to everyone for all their tips. Our biggest expense will be getting us all there. The girls want to fly. We are coming from Northwest Arkansas.

You all are lucky. Our council was really strict with our extended trip training and what we could or could not do as fund raisers. Mostly because we are in with the St. Louis area and they get a lot of United Way funding and we couldn't do anything that United Way was working with. We also couldn't carry a balance in our troop account from year to year so we had to be very creative with that! We did have a huge yard sale in the parking lot of an area business and that worked out well. We had 11 girls and then parents/siblings. As the troop leader I just wasn't willing to take taht many children 1,000 miles from home on my own! lol.

Just for an idea we spent about $25,000 on our trip for 36 people. We stayed at the All Star Movies Preferred Rooms (Dalmation Bldg) in July. We arrived on Friday night and checked out the following Sunday..so just over a week. Some people arrived on Sat. and Sunday. We had length of stay park hopper passes for everyone and we did the dining plan so we could have great sit down meals. Only one family drove down from Illinois (near St. Louis), the rest of us flew down non-stop from St. Louis to Orlando and did EMH. Pam with KK took care of EVERYTHING for us...including about 50 changes to our plans from the beginning of the planning right up to our trip!

 

[Cinderellaluver]

Im going to have to check out with our council what fundraisers we can and can do and even if we can do the trip at all. I have a feeling it won't be a problem cause our council isn't very strict.

We might have other parents tag along and make it a mother daughter kind of thing but we have two leaders so if no parents want to come it will probaly be ok with just the leaders.

 

[DisneyJoe]

This site is for Boy Scouts, but I'm sure you can adapt many of the topics to the girls:

http://www.scoutingwiththemouse.com

 

[Cinderellaluver]

That site looks like it's going to be really helpful