Reno Fun Train 1/27 - 1/29/2006

I know it's early to be planning, but saw on last year's thread that the Hawaiian train was sold out early. Thought TCers could get a headstart and take over the "Hawaii ALOHA Train" scheduled for January 27-29, 2006.

Unfortunately, individual bookings aren't being accepted until September and prices aren't listed yet. Advanced group reservations (for 16 or more) are available, though, (don't know how that works if prices aren't available?). The company website is Reno Fun Train 2006.

Looks like it was a blast last year. Here's the old thread for more information:
Reno Fun Train - 3/4 to 3/6/05

What we discovered on this year's "50s" themed Fun Train is that they put nearly no effort into theming -- it was limited to calling the cruddy margaritas they had for sale "Ann Margar-itas" and sticking a couple of bad cardboard cutouts in a few places -- the sort of themeing one might find in a post office around Halloween.

As a matter of fact, one very large group took over an entire car, and went 70s funk, calling their car the Soul Train and wearing crazy 70s threads & massive afros. The music they brought with them was great -- their car was definitely the most fun.

The point being: don't worry about getting on the "Hawaiian" train, plan on bringing your own decorations & music & what have you.

I just called Key Holidays this morning to inquire about booking a group on next year's train. They're going to call me back with the details. I'll post here as soon as I know more but I'm guessing that it may require a big deposit to hold the seats which I don't have the means to do.

Who's the Tiki Central treasurer? :wink:

I'm into taking the Hawaii train if we can but as Humuhumu said it's not terribly important to get on that one.

Choo Choo! WooHoo!! Sounds like something Soccer Tiki and I could WooHoo to :)

ooh, I might actually have more time off by then...
I'm interested.
I love Reno!
Pea

I called Key Holidays back and here's the procedure to book a group:

1. Make a reservation for a group of 16 or more people. Group reservations started in June and there is still space on the Hawaiian themed train (which leaves Emeryville on Friday 1/27/06 at 10:15AM returning Sunday 1/29/06 at 5:55PM).

2. Sometime in August pay a deposit of $20 per person.

3. 60 days before the trip (for the Hawaiian themed train that would be around 11/27/05) payment is due in full for each person (minus the deposit). The cost last year per person was $255 (includes 2 nights at the Nugget + gourmet meals on the train :lol: - it was really KFC).

Since I have no experience in planning events I would like any ideas on how we can set up an account where everyone can submit their deposit and we can get an idea of how many people are serious. Those who don't pay a deposit don't get a reservation. Then when the time comes people submit payment for the trip to the account, and the account owner pays Key Holidays.

If people change their mind before the 60-day period they get the deposit back from the account manager. If we have less then 16 people when the time comes to pay in full we still get our seats but there is an additional $25 fee (not per person).

I'm not sure how it works if people cancel after the full payment is made. Last year the amount you were refunded varied by how close to the date you cancelled, but you could pay a small additional amount for cancellation insurance.

I have a Premier Paypal account and I am charged a fee to receive money (it varies from 1.9% to 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction), so I would need to charge that fee back to each person who sends money to the account. The advantage of a Premier account is I can receive payments from credit cards (unlike a personal Paypal account), and I have a Paypal debit card that I could pay Key Holidays with. I don't really want to be treasurer so if anyone can think of a better way I would love to hear it.

Or we could skip the group booking and try to book it ourselves when they start accepting reservations on Sept. 6th.

We should get a count of who's in so we can see if we have even close to 16 people.

I'm in!

On 2005-06-30 17:08, thejab wrote:

The cost last year per person was $255

That's per person, based on double occupancy. Us single folks had to pay $70 more.

ChooChoo! WooHoo! That's plenty of time to save up some vacation $$ :wink:

On 2005-06-30 17:18, cynfulcynner wrote:

On 2005-06-30 17:08, thejab wrote:

The cost last year per person was $255

That's per person, based on double occupancy. Us single folks had to pay $70 more.

Hmmm. Well...I do weddings. Cheaper than $70.00, too! I'll do them for Mai Tais! Oh, what kind of damage could I cause on that train?!??!

Father Scott ([email protected])

There's an article about the Fun Train in the travel section of the Sunday SF Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/22/TRGQBGOV871.DTL