Girl Scouts earning their way to Disney!

[TinaLala]

Awesome ! Our girls practically voted the same way. And then they ended up having to re-vote, because when the real class schedule came out, it was slim pickings and had none of their top choices on it. Next time we go, we're hoping that we can do the AK Wild Africa Trek or Epcot Dive Quest

Shanna - so what you're saying is even though I've registered for it, we might not get it based on program availability?

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Shanna - so what you're saying is even though I've registered for it, we might not get it based on program availability?

No, no, no, not at all.

What I'm saying is we used the same voting process as you, that's all.

We had to do the individual enrollment, since we only had 2 adults and 4 girls. Each adult registered herself and 2 girls under them.

YES hadn't published the real schedule when we voted. The girls looked up all the classes in their age range just overall in general, and then narrowed it down to their top three choices, so when the schedule did come out, we could just go ahead and do the registration that day, rather than waiting for our next troop meeting to show them the schedule and vote then. (since we were anxiously waiting day by day for the schedule to come out)

But that strategy didn't quite work out, due to when they finally released the class schedule, none of their top three choices was on it. As a matter of fact, when they finally did release the schedule there were only 4 classes being offered the week we were going, and only 1 class for their age group, due to it being the same week as Girls Unite.

They ended up having only a few individual YES classes due to hosting so many troops through the Girls Unite.

 

[TinaLala]

But what you're saying is Disney only offered so many classes the week you were going so you had to register for one of those. However since we have 10 scouts we might be ok since we would be considered a grouo and your group was individual. So crazy.

Just verified the two free chaperon tickets for our group so that hells my leaders. Now praying for flights to go down!

Just went thru deposit questions to make sure I have enough $ now for that.

 

[TinaLala]

So here's something I learned. The LaNouba program was the second most voted program for my troop. I contacted my Disney YES rep and learned in order to participate in that program, you had to attend a LaNouba show, well that's not an option for us cost wise with each ticket starting at $40 a piece.

My travel agent received an email from Disney YES saying they received my registration but won't have word of acceptance until february.

On a side note, I went thru deposits with her to confirm how much money I need and when. I figure final payment will be made in July. Hopefully we will have all the money for the flights.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

La Nouba frequently has tickets on savings sites like groupon, living social, etc. (They also have a fan site that you can get early advance sales.)

But the sales on Groupon are generally pretty close to the show dates, like only a few weeks.

Our girls really wanted to see the show, so we purchased the cheapest seats and I broken-hardheartedly have to say it was not worth the ticket price.

I mean, we can only fault ourselves, it gave us a clear warning that it would be a partially obstructed view, but we could only see essentially half the stage, due to the odd angles of the building structure walls.

Online when I went to purchase the tickets, I had to retry purchasing them several times to try and get all the tickets in the same row. I couldn't ever get a same row combination of tickets. So we had a 2 and 4 split for our party of 6. It was perfectly fine for the girls to sit together 3 rows above us.

Our row was every seat sold, and we were against the wall.

The show started and there were entire huge sections had entirely empty seats. I mean at least half the entire seats were empty. It really made me wonder why the heck after all that, that I wasn't able to get 6 seats together.

We sat break-neck trying to see the show. I had noticed during the show lots of people in the side sections getting up and moving to other sections and the attendants did or said nothing. I finally had enough and got up myself, which was hard to crawl out of our backed row, moved to the next section over and v o i l a.... I could see.... and then the show ended 3 minutes later.......

So my advice is either, pay for the not absolute cheapest seats, or wait it out and see if you can get tix on Groupon

 

[TinaLala]

Id love to take them to La Nouba, but I know they'd enjoy MNSSH party. of course thise tickets are crazy expensive. Im still praying we raise the basic amount of $1200!

 

[TinaLala]

Amazing night! Three of my scouts stood in front of a room full of former Girl Scout leaders and requested donations for our Disney trip! We are asking for the Photo memory maker, mickey ears, and pink shirts (pink for breast cancer awareness since we are going in October) a total of $410.

They did so well. Discussed the trip itself, why we were asking for each item, what yes program we selected. They were amazing! Now the waiting!!

 

[TinaLala]

UPDATE - well it's been a great week. Troop picked our hotel as Art of Animation suites and last night we selected the Finding Nemo section. When I emailed my travel agent she had great news, that the price of our trip went down $125! Still need the flights to come down, but we are getting below our budget!

Today in the mail was a $50 gift card to the Cheesecake Factory and four tickets too New England Revolutions game all for our Golf Tournament!

Such a great week!

 

[dandemom]

This has been such a great thread to read. I have a 3rd grade Brownie troop and when we asked what field trips they would like to take, Disney came up. Of course we nixed it right away, but after reading this thread it makes me think that maybe it's possible to take them in a few years.

I wanted to comment on the method of getting groceries. Every family trip we take, we order from wegoshop.com. You send them your list and they will buy whatever you want from whatever store you choose (Walmart, Publix, etc). There is a small delivery charge and if you request them to leave it at bell services they will also take a 10% tip, but so worth it to have groceries delivered to your hotel. We've used them 3 times and will use them again for our January famiy trip to deliver snacks, bottled water and breakfast food.

 

[TinaLala]

This has been such a great thread to read. I have a 3rd grade Brownie troop and when we asked what field trips they would like to take, Disney came up. Of course we nixed it right away, but after reading this thread it makes me think that maybe it's possible to take them in a few years. .

Dandemom Been there! For 6 yrs my troop asked to go to Disney and every year I said no. One year we calculated how many boxes of cookies we would need to sell in order to go - 2,000 - PER SCOUT!! Then last summer my husband PTO president for middle school received a brochure for the Disney YES program and said I needed to look into it. I took four months, read threads here, talked with YES reps and decided to do it. Troop parents think I'm crazy, but they know the scouts are going to have amazing experience and build leadership skills earning it. The education part of the YES program makes it even more of a unique experience.

I would recommend taking a few years! Lots of fundraising!

 

[TinaLala]

Yesterday we had a great craft fair!! Scouts had made ornaments and another leader had given us some scarves for free to sell. What a great time the scouts had! We made $300 so each scout who participated made about $40. Once step closer!!

Next craft fair is Dec 6th so we're going to have scouts make more scarves and ornaments. We also have to plan a winter program for Daisy/brownie troops for Dec13 so it will keep us busy!

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

WOW ! thats awesome

We're in the thick of planning our 4th Annual Daughters and D.A.D.s Dance

Its on Dec 13th also ! We usually have pretty good luck with it.

About a month ago, we got the green light on Flamingo Flocking as long as we can tie it to a badge. uuummmmm Cadette Entrepreneur and Senior Business Etiquette.

We're also planning, after cookie season ends, doing a sleep in for C/S/A and doing a few steps of the level GS Way.

 

[TinaLala]

Shanna that sounds so great.

Well I had one scout complain about the long 20step walk to my car saturday so we will be planning some hiking adventures to get those legs in shape for Disney! LOL.

We're planning a winter program for Dec and then cookie season!

 

[TinaLala]

So excited! Received an email from Disney YES program that they have excepted our program and scheduled it. Now to get the group to the studios by 7:45 on a Saturday!, when I told the scouts that they had to be there by then, they were all shocked - so Early! LOL, hello all of,you are at your desk at school by 7:45 so you best be ready to go by 7am!

With our last holiday fair craft fair profit we are now 1/4 the way saved for our trip! Sounds great, but flights will be coming out in January and we will need at least $5,500 for flights and we don't have it! Plus we need to put deposit on Disney hotel rooms - 3 rooms X $200 each that's $600! So I'm freakin out about money again which means FUNDRAISERS! We have another craft fair and winter program next month, but I think a can drive might be another option.

Cookie season is right around the corner so I'm hoping to really push the scouts to sell, sell, sell. Fingers crossed

 

[TinaLala]

Update - Well the scouts are working hard this month, multiple craft fair events scheduled, a Winter fun babysitting program next month and we just put out a holiday cookie platter preorder. With cookies right around the corner, I asked scouts their cookie goal and they picked 150-300 boxes per scout to be sold. I reminded the, and their parents that per the contract they needed to sell at least the minimum amount (which would be $60 profit for scout). Some scouts complained since they have siblings in scouts and won't be able to make it. Well I said try harder this year! Plus we will be doing a ton of booth sales as well as drive thru booth/can drive sales this year.


T-shirt- the scouts had picked a pink shirt to wear on yes program day, so we discussed how to design shirt. Consensus was each scout will design a mini mickey head and then they will be put into a circle on front of shirt with troop number in middle. Can't wait to see what they design!

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

not to make you freak out, how did the girls come up with 150-300 ?

Is that just from the initial door to door pre-orders ?

do you have abc or lbb ?

 

[TinaLala]

not to make you freak out, how did the girls come up with 150-300 ? Is that just from the initial door to door pre-orders ? do you have abc or lbb ?

Ok so we have ABC, that's total orders including booth sales.

First I think each scout should sell at least 250 boxes so each scout makes $100 in profit. My push was the profit side. Their side was 300 is too many and 150 is a lot. Most of my scouts have multiple sisters so they're fighting over boxes. However we are doing lots of booth sales from Dec 19 - March. Every weekend if I can!

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

does your ABC let older girls forgo the incentives for higher profit ?

We too have ABC, D/B/J get .43 cents and incentives, older girls can opt out of incentives and get .48 cents.

Our door to door orders start on Jan 9th.

We have booths only Feb 20th until March 15th. But in our area troops very rarely count on booth during the last wknd of sale.

 

[TinaLala]

does your ABC let older girls forgo the incentives for higher profit ? We too have ABC, D/B/J get .43 cents and incentives, older girls can opt out of incentives and get .48 cents. Our door to door orders start on Jan 9th. We have booths only Feb 20th until March 15th. But in our area troops very rarely count on booth during the last wknd of sale.

We do have that program. I had troop vote and they picked no incentives. I think a few parents might be pissed cuz they bank on camp credits. Oh well troop voted.

Selling starts dec 19 and I hope to have booths right away. We are already have a few parents who have donated their driveways for driveby booth sales. Plus we are going to do can drives at the same time.

 

[TinaLala]

Well we had a craft fair yesterday and with some miscommunication and horrendous traffic we lost $9! Ugh!

Praying next weeks craft fair will be better.