National Girl Scout Convention - Orlando, FL

Update 10/25/22

Below are my questions and the answers from the convention organizers.

A recap of the info; we only need one registered person per room, so moms that don’t want to go into the actual convention event do not need to register/pay $250 towards it. Once we have all the early bird participants, we can figure out how to get all the rooms for the discounted rate of 2 adults/2 children per room (this is “on paper”; the actual room assignments will be based on the number of scouts and parents attending). Also, we will be able to book at the discounted rate through 7/25/23 to stay the extra days for WDW!

We do need to reserve rooms with the price of the room for one night, so in addition to the $250 per girl to register, we would also need $75 towards the room (total $325 per registrant) or just $75 for moms not registering for the convention. Moms will also need to register as a troop volunteer ($25) with a background check for participating in an overnight trip, but we will deal with that a little later.

No food is included, they were vague on the activities except to say “there will be experiences for Girl Scouts of all ages throughout the entire event”. Also, a bit vague on Covid, except that “it’s on the website, but there’s nothing that specific... Finally, if we end up with an odd number of girls for the early bird/group of four, we’ll take the total registration amount and divide it by the number of registrants, so may ask for a few more $$ to make it fair to everyone doing early bird.

Q. Does everyone in the convention rate room need to be registered?

A. The person who books the hotel room/main guest must be registered for the 2023 Girl Scout Convention, however you can have additional guests stay in the room with you.

Q. Will we be able to book two nights at convention rates after the convention end date?

A. Our hotel block is from July 17th – 22nd with shoulder nights on July 15th -17th and 23rd – 25th. Dates/rooms are all subject to availability at the time of booking.

Q. Are any meals/snacks included during the convention days or is everyone on their own?

Will there be food in the convention area or would we go to the hotel to get meals?

A. Meals are not included in registration. Food will be available for purchase across the various Walt Disney World Resort properties.

Q. Would you say there are engaging activities for Junior and Daisy level Girl Scouts? We have a few younger siblings of our Cadettes and want to make sure there would be engaging activities for them as well.

A. There will be experiences for Girl Scouts of all ages throughout the entire event. The hall of experiences will be full of activities, as well as additional program opportunities happening throughout the space. Our “Special Offerings” page of our convention website also has a list of special happenings that will be taking place throughout the event.

Q. What if Covid explodes again and we can't fly down; would there be full refunds for that type of situation?

A. The most up to date Covid policies and refund policies are always available on our website.

Q. When registering with the early bird special; what if we have an odd number of girls? Would that one (or two/three) have to pay a higher registration fee?

A. All registrations currently have early bird pricing until 11:59pm ET on October 31st. If you are interested in the group of four package, you can only register for one package (four individuals) at a time. Additional registrations would need to be processed separately.

Post from Facebook:

National Girl Scout Convention in Orlando in July 2023

FYI to parents; at Tuesday’s meeting, we talked to the girls about traveling to the National Girl Scout Convention in Orlando in July 2023. The convention only happens every 3 years and we think the girls are a great age to attend and be with other Girl Scouts. They say it can be very motivating to keep girls interested in staying a Girl Scout! AND it’s at Disney World!! We’re waiting on some more information on the specifics, but so far we know;

The GS events will take place at Disney’s Coronado Spring Resort from Thursday 7/20 – Saturday 7/22/2023. Some activities will also be at Epcot on 7/21/2023 (space is limited and we’re not sure yet if there’s an extra charge for that). If girls want to commit, there’s a discount on the convention registration at $250 per person by 10/31/2022, and they would be more likely to get the Epcot experience (and possibly a deal on additional park tickets).

The hotel rates known at this time are @ Coronado Springs; $219 per night (plus tax & divided by 4 girls per room) and the Contemporary; $299 per night (also plus tax & divided by 4). It’s hard to say what flights would cost at this point, as most airlines are only showing prices until April/May 2023, but a budget airline would hopefully be around $250 per person. Another scout troop is going to Disney at a different time and was quoted $32 from Mears from the airport to the resort. Disney tickets today are $109 per day and besides the GS activities at Epcot, I’d say maybe 2 additional days in the parks to make the trip worthwhile. These are (hopefully) inflated estimates, but my guesses are attached.

Besides our Fall Nut/Magazine sale & Cookie Sales, we would explore additional fundraisers such as Pointsettas/Wreaths at Christmas or pancake breakfast at Applebee’s, etc. Each girl would get their own “account” for their own fundraising results, but it’s unlikely that they’d be able to raise even half the full amount in this short amount of time. Families who are interested would need to realize that a substantial amount may need to be paid for their scout to attend.

Parental chaperones are not required but are always welcome (at your own expense). Rooms would need to be occupied by either 2 adult females and 2 girls, or be a room of all adults/all girls, as GS rules state a single female adult cannot be in the room with unrelated girls. Moms make the distribution a little easier, but a Dad could come on the trip, but would only be allowed to stay with their own scout, so the room would only be “split” by two people.

A decision is not required immediately, but soon. I’ve asked GS Council for any more information they can provide and will add it to the post when received. Here’s a link to the convention page; https://girlscouts.cventevents.com/.../317a7153.../summary

If this doesn't work out, we told the girls we would still travel, just to a closer/cheaper destination Let us know your thoughts, you can message Gina & I separately if you'd like to ask questions or offer opinions.

Click picture below for link to the official information site: