coasterkid16 said:
I had some questions about the ECO Trip, obviously you have to belong to ACE, but do you have to have a high ranking in ACE or something.
Nope. Anyone in ACE could have done the tour.
I was also wondering how much it would cost to do it, I can't see it being cheap, but insanely expensive doesn't seem right since there a re doing the whole tour thing and the more you get to go the less you pay. Please supply input.
I spent around $3,000 for the entire tour. That included my airfare, travel package price (transportation, hotels), and overall expenses. I also did both weeks of the tour, went a day early, and stayed 2 days after the tour ended.
I must say, it was well worth it. Easily the best time of my life. If you wish, I did a 20-part series trip report. Just search for "Trip of a Lifetime" on the search function of this site.
Greg Legowski also is hosting a 5 minute video on his site I put together from the footage I shot on tour.
If I had to do the entire tour again, I would do so in a second.
-Sean
I did the first week, and spent about $2000 on it "Rank" had nothing to do with it, and in fact there were (higher) rates for non-ACE-members to go.
My site is loaded up with my pictures from the first week, and Sean's video. I posted a series of trip reports for that first week, as well.
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--Oat Boy
My page
*** This post was edited by GregLeg on 12/1/2002. ***
The ECO trip was my first ACE trip. I found out about the trip a few months after I joined ACE. When I saw it posted, I knew that I needed to go. C'mon, who wouldnt want to spend over 2 weeks in Europe traveling by coach, staying in lovely accomodations (Pontins), experiancing new cultures, meeting new friends, and .....oh yeah.... riding new coasters every day.....91 new coasters for me. Some people on the trip hit way over 100 (Danielle and Jim)!
For the money portion, it broke down as follows: $1610 for the actual trip (park admission, ERT's, transportation, lodging, boat ride across the English Channel, lunch at most parks) $734 airplane ticket, $1000 spending money. To me, thats a really great bargain. I dont think that I could have ever pulled a trip off like this, that cheap.
The reason that Im glad I did this trip is simple....friends! The friendships that I made on this journey were amazing! (To think, I only knew 2 other people going on this trip!) Let me just say, contrary to popular belief, the orange coach was simply amazing! I think that the other coaches were just jealous because we had more fun (excluding a certain incident). Who remembers getting to Oakwood an hour earlier than the rest of the coaches......then being let in to the park to ride Megafobia for an extra 45 min before the next coach showed up! Big thanks goes out to Nigel!
Im sorry for rambling, but this excursion was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I can honestly say that I feel very lucky to have taken part in the largest trip in ACE's history. It WAS worth every penny!
Thanks goes out to everyone who enjoyed themselves on this trip!
P.S. --- Did anyone see in the paper today, the Santa's on EURO-MIR at Europa Park (Germany) breaking the world record!
Awesome, awesome video Sean! Excellent editing, and your footage looked great. I really liked the song as well, who was that?
--user begins saving for next ECO trip.
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Mike Miller
"You're trouble, Trouble Boy!"
Did you even have to be an ACE member? I seem to remember there was a non-member registration fee.
As far as expenses go, it depends on what you want to get out of it. Elissa and I don't really collect a lot of 'coaster stuff', so we bought very few souveniers along the way. For us, pictures and video was the best way to remember the trip. I would say between the two of us, we spent less than $1000 for both weeks of the ACE part of the trip (not including the cost of the event itself and airfare).
To do a trip on your own, which both of us have done several times, it's only as expensive and you make it. There are some VERY good deals to be found on the internet, and in some cases might even be more efficient to do it yourself than with an organized trip.
For '03 and '04 we're looking into Australia and Japan, and finding it very easy to find amazing deals and it allows us to set our own interary and do the trip at our own pace.
Don't let the fact that it's 'overseas' scare you. You might find it just as easy as doing a US trip! =)
--Robb "Being a travel agent is WAY too easy!" Alvey
That song was by King's X, an excellent band that deserves a LOT more attention than it gets. (Coincidentally, they're in Pittsburgh this coming Sunday night; I'm hoping to go...)
PS -- for people who've seen my Europe gallery before, I FINALLY got around to developing and posting my pictures from Oakwood. They're not the best pictures I've taken, but not horrid either.
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--Oat Boy
My page
*** This post was edited by GregLeg on 12/2/2002. ***
Robb Alvey said:
Don't let the fact that it's 'overseas' scare you. You might find it just as easy as doing a US trip! =)
That is actually a good point. I know of a few people that didn't want to do the tour because they considered it to be "to difficult" or "to hectic in a different country".
If I would have done a tour by myself, I would have probably have done it very similar in regards to the parks.
The fact that it was overseas played a big part in me wanting to go and I am so glad I did. I won't forget it anytime soon. I just feel a bit sorry for those that didn't go because they weren't comfortable with traveling to another country.
Agreed. Especially for the first week. The United Kingdom and the United States aren't so radically different that you'll feel completely out of place. Yes, there's differences -- they drive on the other side of the road, for instance, and the guys in t-shirts, shorts, and baseball caps are probably American tourists ;)
But I'm actually more comfortable in London than I am in some American cities (the first day we arrived, I went off on my own for lunch at a great little Indian restaraunt I knew of)
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--Oat Boy
My page
GregLeg said:
Agreed. Especially for the first week. The United Kingdom and the United States aren't so radically different that you'll feel completely out of place. Yes, there's differences -- they drive on the other side of the road, for instance, and the guys in t-shirts, shorts, and baseball caps are probably American tourists
But I'm actually more comfortable in London than I am in some American cities (the first day we arrived, I went off on my own for lunch at a great little Indian restaraunt I knew of)
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--Oat Boy
My page
Really? Which one? We found a great little place in the soho district. There's also a decent italian chain that I've been going to for years that served up plenty of plates or Elissa's fresh mozzerella throughout the whole trip!
--Robb "Food in England isn't that bad...you just need to stay away from the english food!" Alvey
It's hard to go wrong on Brick Lane, IMHO -- any "bad" Indian restaraunts wouldn't last long (much like Italian places in Little Italy in NYC, for instance)
Agreed that the food in England isn't THAT bad. There's even SOME good "English" food, if you find a good enough pub ;)
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--Oat Boy
My page
*** This post was edited by GregLeg on 12/10/2002. ***
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