Nauvoo cabins

Here's the website I'm guessing Mom was looking at to stay in log cabins in Nauvoo:


Nauvoo Log Cabins

The lodge has a full kitchen, 3 bathrooms, free wireless internet, and sleeps 13. That's half of our group of 26 (16 adults, 10 kids). It costs $400 a night, so assuming we were there for 4 days and 3 nights, that would be $1200.

Looking at what the other cabins are priced at, what if - instead of getting the 2nd biggest lodge - we got one of the smaller cabins that sleeps 6 and has only a fridge and microwave? We would be doing the meals all together anyway, wouldn't we? The lodge has the kitchen and we could use the other fridge as extra storage or all the snacks, or something like that. The 6-person cabin is priced at $85 (rather than $185 for the 10-person lodge) per night, for a 3-night total of $255. Either way, we'd have 4 showers, because the 10-person lodge has only 1 full bathroom.

So it would be about $1500 for the lodging. Yes, that's beds for 19 instead of 26, but all the adults would be covered and I would be willing to put my kids on an air mattress next to our bed so we didn't have to keep reserving and paying for more. But it's $300 less than getting the lodge for 10. Unless the number is high enough that you think $300 isn't that big of a deal.

So just to throw a number out there, let's say $2200 total - $1500 for the cabins plus $200 or so for tax and fees (I'm guessing here), and then $500 for four days worth of meals. (Those with kids can get their own snacks because I'm sure every kid likes/is used to different things.) Divided by couple, and putting Tawnia/Emily together would make 8 couples - $275 each. (Tawnia and Emily could split that.) NOT BAD! If we were to each do this trip separately during the summer, you couldn't even get your hotel reservations for less than that, let alone all your meals. And that was rounding up pretty high.

If everyone did put that amount of $275 (or a little more) into a group account to make the reservations and do the grocery shopping out of, and we came in under - we could either split the extra evenly and give it back to everyone, OR we could leave it in the account to start us on another reunion trip.

Oh, and the catch is, the website says that to make reservations, you have to give them half of the money immediately. That would be about $800. So we'd need to get everyone saving, and pooling their money, right away.

I vote to keep any extra in a family reunion account. We don't need to all migrate back to Oregon every time we want to have a reunion. There's a lot to see around the country! I suggest Palmyra and upstate New York for another family reunion in a few years, as well as camping somewhere in the Rockies like at Glacier National Park.