Needing help to plan a trip for my school!

[Team3763 Adam]

Hello all and good day:

My name is Adam, and I've been given the humble opportunity to plan a school trip to Universal Studios at Orlando, Florida with my school's Engineering Academy. Some details I can provide are:

-30 person attendance max.

-4 day trip leaving June 12th, 2014.

-Day one departure at 3AM and arriving in the approximate area of Orlando around 1PM. When we arrive in Florida, we will be stopping at the Kennedy Space Center for the hopefully 1PM tour, which lasts approximately 8 hours.

-Day two will be spending the entirety of the day at ½ of Universal's Park: The Studios.

-Day three will be spending the entirety of the day at the other half of Universal's Park: Islands of Adventure.

-Day four will be departure.

Summarize:
-June 12th arrive June 15th depart
-30 Adult tickets (Both for Universal and KSC)
-1 Charter Bus
-1 Hotel with preferred 4 people per room, maybe 5 in some to use a maximum of 8 rooms.

The issue is websites such as Universal's only allow to plan up to say 10 people max. I was hoping to find a website where I can plan for EVERY factor of the trip, from the cost of the hotel, park, bus, and KSC tour, to the reservation and all that good jazz. Or if you guys can provide insight that would be great!

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Team3763 Adam

When we arrive in Florida, we will be stopping at the Kennedy Space Center for the hopefully 1PM tour, which lasts approximately 8 hours.

A KSC tour that runs until 9 pm? That sounds like a typo.

Originally Posted by Team3763 Adam

The issue is websites such as Universal's only allow to plan up to say 10 people max. I was hoping to find a website where I can plan for EVERY factor of the trip, from the cost of the hotel, park, bus, and KSC tour, to the reservation and all that good jazz. Or if you guys can provide insight that would be great!

My best advice is to ignore the websites and do it the old-fashioned way: Telephone. 100% reliable. And all of those places - KSC, Hotels, Park, etc - are all used to dealing with groups of 30.

Most vendors for those kinds of services (hotels, buses) do not publish their group rates online, as they fear it is a competitive disadvantage.

Who on your team plans the travel? Ask them for pointers.

[wendymom]

Couple things:

What route are you using to come down? KSC is approx 45 min to an hour from Orlando (more from Universal depending on traffic)

You don't need 8 hours at KSC, even if you take the bus tour. There are some cool things to see there. IF you come down I95 you could stop at KSC before you get to Orlando. There are group rates for KSC. Since you are coming as a school you might want to check out one of their educational packages and then you might even get to ride on some of the simulators. There are several FIRST alumni who work as education counselors at KSC.

You can call Universal and get group rates for the parks. Do you want to stay on property at Universal or just in a hotel near by? There are TONS of hotels near by that are most likely cheaper than the ones on property.

IF you have park hopper passes, you can bounce between parks on both days so you don't have to limit it to one park per day. (more roller coaster riding that way)

Thats all I can think of for now

[Team3763 Adam]

The website for KSC listed the tour times which were like 9 11 and 1, so we would probably aim for the 1pm one. We'll be leaving from Jacksonville, North Carolina taking 95 down onto Florida which is why the departure day would also be the KSC day. Then we would be purchasing 2-day passes, 1 day for each half of Universal, and leave the fourth day. I'll definitely call all places to look into group packages and educational packages!

Thanks for all the help!