Planning a houseboat trip

i am planning a houseboat trip for May 7 - 11 down on dale hollow lake. this is the first time i have ever been on a houseboat trip, so i dont really know what to plan for. the rent for the boat is easy, we are going to divide it up 12 ways. for those that have participated in houseboat trips before, how have you paid for gas (boats, generators, etc.), food, and other miscellaneous stuff? at this point in time, my thoughts are to have everyone pitch in 'x' amount of dollars as a "gas fund" and any excess $ gets split among everyone.

last thing, i dont want this to get too long. any suggestions to a first timer?

Jeremy, send me an email, well talk I live in lexington also. My boat stays on Dale hollow.

We rented an 80 footer an year ago and we ran gen all 7 days. did not drive house boat all over the lake and spent about 600 on gas for the week for the house boat. We also had 2 waverunners and a boat which took a lot of gas. I would plan on 3 to 5 hundred for gas on the boat and 2 to 3 hundred for wave runners if you have any. I am going down in August and have every one coming pitching in an extra 60 bucks for gas. I have 10 going so 600 plus the 500 deposit we get back at the end of the week should get us started. Make sure you bring a ton of beer if you drinlk b/c if you run out you will pay out the a$$ on the lake for it. expect gas top be .50 higher on the lake too. Also tell all people coming to bring extrra money just in case you gas fund is used up. All hat said you are in for a blast. The best trip ever. Have fun.

Always overestimate! It will be a lot easier to divy the money up at the end then collect it from people in swimsuits as you go. Like Nick said w/ gas make sure that you include any boats or PWC's that anybody is bringing. I love to give pulls all day if needed, but just because it's my boat I'm not going to pay out of pocket for it. Depending on the group, another recommendation I have is reomoving/hiding any breakable dishes and silverware and replace it w/ plastic/paper. You can e-mail me if you have any questions.

Charge eveyone a certain price that includes food and stock up at Sams Club. Then individuals are responsible for Adult beverages. We've also done it where certain people are responsible for certain meals but the prepaid stock up of Hamburgers, Hot dogs Chicken Breasts, eggs, and snacks works better.

I think we paid about $300-400 per person to cover gas/food/beverages on top of the HB rental for a 4 day trip. It will depend on how much alcohol you plan on consuming and how much riding you want to do but I'd say $100-150/person/day is a good number to start with for all-inclusive. If you're heavy drinkers and/or ride a lot I would err on the high side.

We did all the shopping at Costco the day before we left. We took drink preferences from everyone and tried to gauge what to buy from that (some ppl will prefer mixed drinks while others want only beer). We also had a schedule of dinners (one theme night if you want to have some fun) and assigned everyone duties....cooking/cleaning/etc for breakfast, lunch and dinner for each day. We found (after 4+ trips) that the more organized you are from the start the better time everyone has.

thanks for all of the feedback, i have been too busy at school to post back. hopefully it all goes well.

one thing that is important about an HB trip, is the people involved. if you have even one flaky or lazy person, it can ruin the whole trip. remember that you are in fairly tight quarters for X amount of time.
but I will say, it can be one of the coolest vacations ever. nothing like being on a HB for a vacation.

We divide up nights and a different couple cooks every night. We create a shopping list so we don't duplicate/over buy. All special items and boat gas receipts are added in and split amoungst the group.

I have created a spreadsheet that does it all.

I plan a Don Pedro houseboat trip every year with my buddies. Last year we got the 75' VIP houseboat with the hot tub and bar. (3 boats) It was sweet. we did $300 a person and bring your own beer. Food, gas was included. We had 12 people and it worked out good. Strippers were not included in that price either. Added cost later.

Bring your own beer is the ticket. If you include that in the cost it gets to much even at Costco prices. Also at the end when you bring the house boat back and figure out how much gas money was spent make sure your buddies are willing to pitch in if you go over the budget.

Scout out a sweet spot before you take the houseboat out. Then park the houseboat and leave it there for the rest of the time. This saves you a ton on gas. Plus only have the generator on when you need it.

Don't forget playing card/ pocker chips, horseshoes, good tunes and tons of ice for the coolers. Bottle water is a must.

I agree with the gas money up front, and get a lot of it.

Another suggestion, what we always do, is to divide up all the meals for the whole trip (ex. 7 days= 21 meals) by the amount of people you have. you said 12? then each person is responsible for 2 meals that they buy, bring, and cook. makes its easy.

i have been talking to my crew and this is how we are doing things thus far. we have planned a dinner menu where eveyone will eat at the same time and everyone must prepare dinner at least one night. we are going to go to sams and stock up on all of the dinner stuff. my crew wants to go "every man for himself" on lunch, so we are going to go that way with lunch. i am thinking of having a $960 gas fund. we are going to have two boats (an x-30 and my friends fishing boat) and the housboat and generators. we will park the houseboat somewhere and leave it but we will probably be running the generators quite a bit. do you thing that will be enough $ for gas?

Jeremey, the 600$ deposit will cover your gas on the houseboat. I've been 9 years in a row and never had to pay for houseboat gas in the end. most of the time we got money back after it was all said and done. I found that if you start a fund in the begining say 20 dollors a person, you buy ski gas and ice from that, that way you dont have to ask for gas money everytime you go. We had people who wanted to ride but not pay, or "they paid last time" when the fund is empty everyone puts another 20 in and away you go. just a thought.

Jeremy, we assigned two meals a person, they cook and clean those meals.

Jeremy. If your out all day on that x-30 with ballast full you are looking at $100.00 a day for that boat alone. Buy the way. Make sure you take more than enough beer. Its about a buck a beer on the lake.