Hawkeye fans prepare for trip to Florida

CEDAR RAPIDS - The first call came 90 seconds after the University of Iowa's Hawkeye logo appeared on the screen during Sunday night's football bowl game selection show.

“It's crazy, because we're very, very busy for two days, and then it's done,” said Lisa Gilliatt, vice president for group and leisure travel for Destinations Unlimited.

Gilliatt and eight other employees were in the travel agency's northeast Cedar Rapids office last night to handle the expected rush of calls from the Hawkeyes' famously well-traveled fans. The faithful - who earned a mention from an ESPN announcer for helping their team secure the berth in the Jan. 5 game against Georgia Tech in Miami - had all nine workers occupied within minutes.

“The Hawkeye fans know they want to go,” Gilliatt said before the matchup was announced. “They're just waiting for the destination and the prices.”

Right after the announcement, a Destinations Unlimited staffer hit “send,” launching an e-mail blast with those details: $1,769 for a three-night package, $100 more for four nights, including airfare, hotel, game ticket and transfers. Transportation will be a charter flight out of The Eastern Iowa Airport.

Gilliatt said the agency booked 150 packages for the Hawkeyes' last Orange Bowl appearance, in 2003. She said the agency also has fielded calls from Iowa State fans interested in travel to their team's Dec. 31 Insight Bowl game in Tempe, Ariz.

About 600 Orange Bowl packages had been presold at Winebrenner Red Carpet Travel in Iowa City, where general manager Terry Tegan expected sales to be close to the 1,800 booked to the 2003 Orange Bowl.

Although the UI ticket office had sold all 17,500 seats of its allotment for a potential Fiesta Bowl bid, Orange Bowl tickets remained available late Sunday at $135 each. The Illinois company processing ticket orders reported that “the phones were ringing off the hook all day long,” said Susan Griffith, spokeswoman for the UI Alumni Association.