Updated bus trip to DC thread, now with a 2nd bus.

Due to high demand, we are going to run a second bus to D.C.

However, it’s not quite as easy as it would seem. We have enough reservations for the first bus, however about a dozen people who have reserved for that bus haven’t paid yet. To avoid us getting stuck reserving a second bus for people who no-show and therefore losing a ton of dough, we’re asking everyone to confirm their interest, confirm their reservation, with a payment. If you can pay in full, the price is still $ 65. If you can’t pay in full now but want to hold your spot, you can give us a down payment of $ 20 now and pay the balance on the bus.

Why are we doing this? Well, much as we’d like to hold a spot for everyone who has expressed interest, when it comes to kicking people off a bus list or not, we have to give priority to those who pay. We have in the past just allowed people to reserve a spot verbally or over e-mail, knowing that the bus wouldn’t likely fill up. Now that we’re talking about getting a second bus and risking close to two thousand bucks, we need to make sure everyone who says that they are going really is going. If things have changed and you can’t go, no biggie. But, we can’t tell someone else that they can’t go only for you to no-show and leave us with a loss and an empty seat while some other fan sits on their couch who could have gone.

So, anyone who hasn’t paid yet and wants to go, whether you were reserved for the first bus or not, please get your payments in as soon as possible. There are two ways that you can do this:

1. Via paypal, sending an e-mail to escgear@yahoo.com
2. Meet us at Stout for the NY vs. Kansas City game on Saturday, June 2nd and pay in person (cash please).

Again, if you pay in full now, it’s $ 65. If you get your $ 20 down payment in by midnight, June 2nd (as in, by the end of the day of the KC viewing party), you can pay the remaining $ 45 on the bus, and we’ll hold a seat for you.

In case it isn’t clear, the $ 65 (or, $ 75) includes a bus ride there and back, and a match ticket.

If you don’t pay now and don’t have a seat, we may still have room on the second bus for you. But, we may not. And, as an incentive to get people to pay in advance so that we get a firm enough commitment to do the second bus, anyone who pays on the day of the trip who hasn’t put in a deposit in advance, will pay $ 75.

If you put in your $ 20 now and it turns out you can’t go, that’s fine. We’ll roll that over for the August 25th bus trip to New England, and you’ll only have to pay the balance for that trip.

Please note that the only way to reserve is to pay, and to send an e-mail to empiresc@verizon.net to let us know. We can’t read every post or PM on a board and then read tea leaves to discern who is really going. If you have the commitment to go, follow it up by taking the 10 seconds to send us an e-mail. It’s a lot easier to handle e-mails in one place than to go through PMs and posts on multiple message boards and then rosetta stone usernames into real people names. You may know who mixmastersuperjimbo5 is, or whatever, but that doesn't mean that we do. Thank you.

Update on seating location: We are still waiting for a final section confirmation from D.C. Yes, we will be in the upper deck. This is for security reasons. We will post on June 4th what our exact seat location is, and we’ll give you a phone number for the D.C. front office to contact them to get seats. You can, if you live down there or are driving on your own, sit with us, no problem. It’s just that you have to order those seats from D.C. directly. We cannot order seats for you unless you are on the bus trip.

And finally, as to who goes on what bus. Both buses will pick up in New York, and we’ll likely fill the first one about 80% of the way. Both buses will drive to New Jersey, picking up there. Depending on how many people we have and where they are from (NY or NJ) we’ll likely fill a few seats on that bus in Jersey people, and the rest will go on the second bus. ESC will determine who goes on which bus. Also, on the ride back, if the numbers work out, we will have one bus of just NY people and one bus of Jersey people. This will allow each bus to go to the drop off points directly, allowing us to get the bus drivers home earlier and also hopefully avoiding any overage charges by keeping the busses longer than the allotted times if traffic is bad (likely for a Sunday).

Below is a reminder about the bus trip and itinerary. Again, if you have any questions, please e-mail them to us at empiresc@verizon.net.

All NYRB fans are welcome on the trip. Seating priority goes to ESC members, but Raging Bull Nation and KA fans can also come, along with any other NYRB fans who want to go. But, again, please put your paycheck where your mouth is so that we can tell if the second bus is really as necessary as it seems to be.

Thank you.


Bus Trip

We will leave from Penn Station in NYC at 7am, 31st street & 8th Ave across from the Post Office. From there we’ll drive to the Metropark Train Station in Iselin, NJ, just off the Garden State Parkway. We can’t do a Giants Stadium Pickup that day because there’s a CONCACAF Gold Cup doubleheader that afternoon, with the second game starting at 6pm and likely letting out right around the time we’re coming back. So…rather than get stuck in a traffic jam when 20,000 Hondurans (or whatever) drive out of the stadium, we’re doing the pickup/dropoff in Central Jersey. If you need to know where the Jersey pickup spot is, click on the Google map link below:

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&...01&z=1 6&om=1

Anyway, the details:

New York vs. DC United- 1:00 pm
RFK Stadium, Washington DC
Sunday, June 10, 2007

Cost: $ 65 (must pre-pay in full or with a $ 20 deposit)
$ 75 day of trip price


Details:

Depart Manhattan- 31st Street and 8th 7:00 AM
Depart Metropark 7:45 AM
(Metropark NJ Transit Station, 100 Middlesex-Essex Turnpike- Iselin, NJ)
Arrive RFK Stadium 12:30 PM
New York- DC United 1:00 PM
Game ends 3:00 PM
Depart RFK 3:15 PM
Arrive Metropark 7:15 PM
Arrive Manhattan- 31st and 8th 8:00 PM

So, if you want a spot, reply back via e-mail to empiresc@verizon.net. Or, meet up to sign up in person at the next 3 home games. Spots are first come, first serve, and if we fill up, we have to kick you off of the reserved list if you haven’t paid yet. If you have to paypal it, send the payment to escgear@yahoo.com.

We aren’t sure of the section just yet, but we’ll have details shortly for anyone who wants to meet us in DC, no worries.

See y'all there.