Monday, December 3, 2007

Get On The Bus

This was discussed over Thanksgiving Weekend while the Nor Cal Contingent visited. Namely, some of the Aunties and Uncles were thinking it a good idea to charter a bus to take us Santa Barbarians to Morgan Hill, CA for Leah's wedding.

Well, I did some looking. I didn't do in-depth research. I simply wanted to get an idea for the cost. I emailed 2 companies: US Coachways, and Santa Barbara Airbus. Though it's been over a week, I only have a response from US Coachways.

Here is what they say:

We have available a 56 passenger coach. It comes equipped with high back bucket reclining seats, TV, VCR, AC, AM-FM stereo, rest rooms and some have CD/DVD players. On any overnight stays a private room is required for the driver. The price will be $2390 plus a 15-20% gratuity for the driver. We work on a first come first serve basis. If you decide to book please sign all forms and completely fill out the attached forms and return them to us.

So, that's $2,390 base cost. The 15% gratuity adds $358.50. And let's estimate the room for the driver at $120 for the night. That puts the estimated cost for the bus charter at $2,868.50.

If we have 50 people on the bus, it makes the cost about $60 per person (no discounts for kids and senior citizens).

I'm fairly confident this is what we can expect, with little deviation, if we decide to go with a bus for the trip. There are details we must work out, and we can talk about those things later.

My opinion: this would be fun. We'd all be on the bus, free to move seats, chatting it up the whole way. There's be no wear-and-tear on personal vehicles. This would be like sitting on Monica's deck on any given afternoon. Good times, I say.

Think about it and discuss amongst yourselves. Ask and I can provide you some things to consider.

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