Sam's Army & American Outlaws - Your Experience With Their WC Packages

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Work with 3 different tour promoters, based in 3 different cities, say NYC, Chicago & LA. Each has the challenge to fill one 350-passenger charter plane & arrange ground transport for that number to/from hotels/airports/matches.
I'm not in the industry, but there are lots of tour promoters around the country, who might want to accept this challenge, especially with 6 months notice from the draw.

All the more reason for USSF to try to work with tour promoters to block out hotels in advance, perhaps even in those two cities.

 

My educated guess is any tour promoter or packager is going to be basing people in Moscow, where hotels are already astronomically priced, but exist at least, and trying to ferry people out to the games just like AO tried to do with Manaus.

There simply are not enough hotels in many of these host cities, let alone good hotels.

First thing I'd advise any prospective traveler for the 2018 World Cup do is learn:
жильё

 

http://www.charterflightgroup.com/aircraft-charter-to-moscow-russia/

 

...and you were opposed to the 40k$ VIP package.

 

When I got the brochure for the USSF package, I was very sorry I hadn't won the lottery.

 

Agree with you here. AO did the best they possibly could have done given the insane logistics, cities, etc.

My only complaint was AO doing no pregame in Manaus, and zero in Salvador. Big let down as the pregames are a supreme highlight for me. But oh well.

Let me rant one more, for Salvador all they had to do was post/tweet to meet in the Pelourinho. It is just a main square, no organization was needed besides a simple "meet here".

Oh well, i still love those guys and applaud them for 99% of what they did in Brazil. Order and Progress!

 

Classic... First line in the brochure says:

"Moscow is now home to more Billionaires than any other city in the world, so what better way to arrive than in a privately chartered jet from Charter Flight Group."

 

Their big problem was focusing only their little package group and ignoring anybody else. They didn't have a pregame in Manaus because they weren't going to be there. They don't have a pregame in Salvador because they all went home. They stopped people from going into the Natal pregame until they got all their package goers inside the building. I mean they have the right to do whatever they want, but in my view they didn't live up to their "Unite and Strength" motto this trip.

You know what AO should have done, and it's what I would have booked if presented with their plans, locations and numbers, is booked a cruise ship. Supposedly they had plenty of people on the waiting list, so you could either do a typical sized boat for around 1500 rooms, or found a smaller one for the 500. You'd have your whole group in one location, you'd have cost certainty and you could park it in Recife's harbor.

I'd suggest if they are planning on doing a package for Russia this is how they should run it. You either park the boat in St. Petersburg or Sochi, Piter giving the better transport options, and then shuttle off to the group games.

It'd save you the risks and hazards of trying to black out 250 rooms in crap holes like Samarra or Volgograd, or even Moscow where you aren't getting a room for less than $500 a night during the World Cup.

 

Then, sail it up the Amazon to Manaus, then back around to Recife, then on to Salvador, and finally home to Miami!

 

Was on dream events (sams army) tour, was a fun trip of a small group less than one bus in each city, everything went smooth and with the small group got to do some neat things in each location arranged by our dedicated guide. Only thing I would have changed was travel days, we traveled on the game days of other games in the cities we were in, so didn't get to see non-us games.

Talked to some people on the great Atlantic ( us soccer recommended company) tour that stayed a same hotel, no complaints , bigger group , more on your own for activities.

 

Norwegian does charter ships, they port in st Petersburg in the summer on a baltic capitals itinerary. I think they had the jade or spirit in Sochi for the Winter Olympics docked for two weeks. Start working on it now and it could work out if there is one game near a cruise port.

 

They did and it was some of the most reasonably priced accommodation in town. Starting at about $60 a night

 

Did you do the buggy/dunes tour? That was awesome.

 

I didn't get a chance to because of the monsoon.

 

I'm thinking instead of using Ten Dot they should have used someone who understood Brazilian bureaucracy, like say a Brazilian travel agency.