BarryCF
Let's Buy DVC!!
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2002
Welcome to our last High School Disney trip. Our DD Kayla is a Senior in Band and Choir, so this is our 3rd Disney trip in 4 years, along with one trip this past March with the band doing Universal and Disney while my wife, sister in law and I did Universal only. In the 1st week of December 2012 we went on a Choir trip with the HS Choir and 2 Church Choirs. The Choirs performed in the Candlelight Processional. We were there for 5 full days (Tues-Sat) in the parks and we didn't need a FP until Friday. Saturday 12/6/12 was grand opening day for New Fantasyland so it was busy. Otherwise, it was VERY slow. That was a GREAT trip. 93 days later we went on a Band trip for Spring Break. My wife (Stef P) and I drove our own car, went to Houston Astros Spring Training and stayed for 5 days after the band left. Keep in mind these two trips were in the pre FP+ days.
Which brings us to our current trip. First things first though, we need a little background info. The people planning the trip (the travel company) and the school either didn't know, didn't care or didn't understand that things needed to be done in a timely manner when planning a Disney trip. To make a long story short we made our final payment to the school 30 days prior to departure and the school didn't send the payment to the travel company for almost 3 weeks. We didn't get room assignments or tickets until we got there.
No tickets in hand = No FP+ reservations...I knew making the final payment 30 days prior to departure would put us behind in getting them, but we weren't able to make any at all until we got there. This being our first FP+ trip I did a LOT of research prior to the trip and thankfully it all worked out.
When we do these school trips the logistics are a little different than going on our own, and the band trips are different than the choir trips. The 2013 and 2015 band trips were almost 200 people each trip. The band stayed offsite and did one park a day. This choir trip was 36 people total, 19 HS Students, 1 2nd grader and 16 adult chaperons. We stayed at Pop Century and were in the Parks for 4 days, with park hoppers, Dec 17-20. Each set of chaperons was assigned a group of students to keep up with. We didn't need to tour with them, just make sure we knew where they were. The students toured in 4 groups of 4 and 1 group of 3. Our group of students was Kayla and her 3 best friends. All but one had been to WDW multiple times and Kayla was on her 10th WDW trip overall.
Now for our participants:
Daddio - Me, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst
Stef P - My wife, long time Disney nut, but down on Disney since FP+ was brought online
Kayla (Anvil Head) - The leader of the pack at Disney World. She could be a Disney Travel Agent.
Annie - Like our 2nd daughter. She calls us "other family". There have been summers that she stayed at our house a LOT more than her house.
Bryanna - Has known Kayla the longest. First trip to WDW
Emily - (Blondie) Great kid, actually the oldest one in the group, along for the ride.
Next episode - Pre trip, getting there, and day 1
Which brings us to our current trip. First things first though, we need a little background info. The people planning the trip (the travel company) and the school either didn't know, didn't care or didn't understand that things needed to be done in a timely manner when planning a Disney trip. To make a long story short we made our final payment to the school 30 days prior to departure and the school didn't send the payment to the travel company for almost 3 weeks. We didn't get room assignments or tickets until we got there.
No tickets in hand = No FP+ reservations...I knew making the final payment 30 days prior to departure would put us behind in getting them, but we weren't able to make any at all until we got there. This being our first FP+ trip I did a LOT of research prior to the trip and thankfully it all worked out.
When we do these school trips the logistics are a little different than going on our own, and the band trips are different than the choir trips. The 2013 and 2015 band trips were almost 200 people each trip. The band stayed offsite and did one park a day. This choir trip was 36 people total, 19 HS Students, 1 2nd grader and 16 adult chaperons. We stayed at Pop Century and were in the Parks for 4 days, with park hoppers, Dec 17-20. Each set of chaperons was assigned a group of students to keep up with. We didn't need to tour with them, just make sure we knew where they were. The students toured in 4 groups of 4 and 1 group of 3. Our group of students was Kayla and her 3 best friends. All but one had been to WDW multiple times and Kayla was on her 10th WDW trip overall.
Now for our participants:
Daddio - Me, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst
Stef P - My wife, long time Disney nut, but down on Disney since FP+ was brought online
Kayla (Anvil Head) - The leader of the pack at Disney World. She could be a Disney Travel Agent.
Annie - Like our 2nd daughter. She calls us "other family". There have been summers that she stayed at our house a LOT more than her house.
Bryanna - Has known Kayla the longest. First trip to WDW
Emily - (Blondie) Great kid, actually the oldest one in the group, along for the ride.
Next episode - Pre trip, getting there, and day 1