So...What's INCLUDED in the COST? 

*Basically EVERYTHING is included except your Souvenirs!

$180-Arrow Charter Bus Transportation

$365-Lodging, Session space, & 3 Meals a day at Manhattan College

$29-Unlimited use Subway Pass

$130-A New York City TOUR Pass that gets you into several top tourist attractions for FREE and gives great discounts to a bunch of other amazing NYC places....Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Musem of Natural History, Ellis Island, Guggenheim Museum and more!!!

$35-A FULL Day at Cedar Point Amusement Park...the Roller Coaster Capital of World!!!  World's HIGHEST & FASTEST Coasters!!!

$10-A Super Stellar Caravan Tee Shirt! 

$30-Volunteer Staff Support

$20-Administrative Costs

$799=TOTAL Early-Bird Rate (Ends on Feb. 1st, 2012)

So...What's NOT included in the COST?

*Each registrant will be responsible for their road meals out to NYC and back to Cedar Falls. Note, one of those road meals will be at Cedar Point Amusement Park on Saturday. That meal will most likely cost a bit more than the normal rest area stop restaurants. 

*Registrants will have the option to sign up and pay for extra options which will be shared later as the trip nears. Some of those are listed below.

What Options Can we Sign Up for later?

-Mets Baseball Game at the NEW Citi Field

-Broadway Shows! 

-Other options will be shared as details are sorted out.

*Here's some frequently asked questions regarding this NYC Caravan!

1.) Is it safe to take 200 high school students to NYC?  What precautions do you take to make it safe?

Answer: This will be the third Caravan to NYC.  We've been very blessed to never experience any troubles throughout our visits.  There are obvious precautions that we take to help prepare our students and staff for the big city.  We explore the city in mandatory 'City Groups' that the students will sign up for with each other.  These 'City Groups' are mandatory for every student to be apart of throughout the day.  They involve a group of 6-8 students plus an adult staff leader. This group stays together throughout the entire time away from campus (Manhattan College).  They are required to stick together as they explore the city.  All adult leaders will have a reliable working cell phone with quick access to any of the Caravan Core team members and youth directors.  Any students with cell phones will have the phone number of their 'City Group' leader for the day as well as to the youth directors on the trip.  Pre-trip directions for students and leaders will be given in regards to being 'smart' in the city.  How to safely navigate the subway, hold to hold purses, where to put wallets, what areas to stay clear of along with other suggestions to help be 'smart' while exploring.  In addition there will only be one night that we'll be in the city after dark.  Every other night we will be back to campus before nightfall to help avoid any unsafe situations.  The final night in NYC we will as an entire Caravan group wear our Caravan tee shirts and go from campus to Times Square all together and in our small groups to expierence the glowing lights safely together.

2.) What is payment schedule?

*We want to help each registrant be financially responsible and help to budget over the course of the year to pay for the trip.  We have set up the below payment schedule to help breakdown the large bulk payment into smaller more managable amounts to help budget appropriately to pay for the trip.  At any time you may pay more than the amount due or even your entire balance of the trip. We hope that this will help to think financially smart in preparing for this trip.  You might notice that the final balance due will still be roughly 50 days before departure.  This should allow time to save for some of those souvienours and extra options!

The Payment schedule goes as follows:

  >Early-Bird Rate $799 (must register and pay deposit before February 1, 2012)

  >Deposit of $150 is required with registration to secure a spot (opens on Dec. 14th @ 10p)  *Deposit is non-refundable

  >2nd Payment of $150 is due on/before February 1st, 2012 (*If signing up on or after Feb. 1 the current balance of $300 is due at registration)

  >3rd Payment of $250 is due on/before April 1st, 2012 (*If signing up on or after April 1 the current balance of $550 is due at registration)

  >4th and Final Payment of $249 is due on/before June 1st, 2012 or at the student/parent pre-trip meeting whichever is later (*Pre-Trip meeting to be announced in the Spring 2012)

*Cancellation of a student at any point after initial registration will need to be done by contacting Tim Walsten at Orchard Hill.  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 319-290-4316  Your deposit is non-refundable but any other amounts already paid to the account may be elgible for refund if the open spot is successfully filled before the trip and if the trip income/expense books come out ahead following the trip.  The amounts paid beyond the deposit may be elgible to be applied towards the cost of another registrants balance.  All of these possibilities will be need to be discussed and decided upon by the Caravan point trip leader Tim Walsten.

3.) It's SO expensive...what is the price breakdown?

*The price breakdown is listed above in the details.  We prayfully discern the budgeting of Caravan and the pricing to our students and volunteer staff.  We try very hard to be financially responsible to our church organization, students, student parents, and our volunteer staff who sacrifice their own vacation time and money to serve on this trip.  We are in no way trying to make money on Caravan. We spend lots of time investigating, negotiating, and, planning the details and budget for this and every student trip.

4.) What is the lodging situation? Hotels? Dorms? Central Park?

*This year Caravaners will be lodged at Mahattan College dormatories.  Jasper Hall is an ideal lodging choice for our student group. This small private Christian College is in Riverdale, NY at the end of the '1' subway line.  The dorms will sleep two per room and there are community dorm style bathrooms with plenty of shower stalls and such for students on each floor. Males and females will be separated by floors and there will be adult same gender leaders throughout each floor.  The dorm has several group hang out lobbys for our group with couchs, pool tables, ping pong, and TV's.  Every room has a window air conditioner unit.  Manhattan College will also be offering our meals through their cafeteria three times a day.  For breakfast and dinner we will eat at their open buffet style cafeteria and for lunches we will pick up a brown bag lunch to take with us for the day. Our sessions will be held in a community room on campus.  Manhattan College is not officially a 'gated' campus but it is a closed campus.  Closed campus means that there is fencing almost 100% around the campus grounds however at the entrance/exits the gates are open for anyone to walk in/out. There are campus police that are out on patrol via car and on foot throughout the campus 24/7 and routinely ask anyone on campus for proof of identification.  Our Caravan core leaders Tim, Ben, and Kristina toured and met with staff at Manhattan and felt with full confidence that this campus was safe and the best option for our Caravan group!  Their campus police will help enforce our Caravan curfew hours and in dorm policies throughout the week.  Our Caravaners will not be allowed to leave the dorm nor the campus after set hours.

5.) Is the food any good? 

*You may have heard that our last Caravan NYC food experience was less than ideal.  Ok, it was terrible.  This year is totally different! Our man George at Manhattan College is so prideful about their cafeteria's food that he forced slice after slice, entree after entree, salad after salad onto our trays during our pre-trip visit.  We were well beyond satisfied and more then excited for our Caravaners to have a delicious meal to start and end the long days in NYC.  The sack lunch will be a sack lunch...nothing to exciting here. But it will be suffice for lunch and there are plenty of options to try on your own if you wish while navigating the big apple!

These are typical questions asked at our Parent/Student PRE-TRIP Meeting. We will wait to answer them there!

6.) How much spending money do you recommend to take?

7.) What things will I for sure have to pay 'out of pocket' for during the trip?

8.) What is required and what isn't during the trip?

9.) I have an immediate question...who can I contact right now?  (We can answer that for ya...right now!)

*For questions you are free to contact one of the Core Caravan Directors via email below or calling them at their perspective church. 

Orchard Hill Church p. 319-266-9796

Tim Walsten (Caravan12 Point Leader)  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   (p.319-290-4316)

Ben Patterson   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  (p.319-269-3136)

Nazareth Church  p. 319-266-7950

Kristina McBurney   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  (.319-464-9946)