HS Choir Trip - A Trip Report

HS Choir Trip - A Trip Report (4/14 to 4/18)

Well, we're just back from a whirlwind tour of WDW and UO.

If you've never travelled as a chaperone for a trip, especially one of this magnitude, you'll learn some fun things about watching over about 160 HS aged kids from NJ in Orlando and it's theme parks.

There were 9 "official" chaperones and 2 other adult tag-alongs (I was one of these). The 9 had specific groups of kids they were responsible for, and the other 2 of us just helped wherever we could.

Lisi (my wife) and I made up trip tip sheet for everyone going on the trip, and told everyone to ask us any questions, since we were the 2 Disney experts. This made us pretty popular while we were there.

Day 1

Wednesday, April 14

Wake up at 1am ...yes....1AM so we can be at the school by 2am and be there before the kids begin to arrive. We were on the early flight from Atlantic City to Orlando which took off at about 7am. The majority of the kids were on a chartered flight from Philadelphia a little later in the morning (but not much). Well the kids were all early, and we left the school on time. Too bad the bus driver was not the brightest. He took us on the worst route to the airport, and when he realized that we were running late, he sped....horribly.

We arrived, in one piece, and went through our check in process. The flight took off on time and the trip was a bit bumpy, but thank heavens it was over pretty quickly. My wife is good at keeping my mind off flying when she needs to be. We, along with one other student, played cards the entire way to Florida.

The plane landed a little after 9am, we got our luggage and stopped past the hotel to drop off our carry-on bags. We did NOT stay on property , more about some of the problems with the hotal later :brick: .

Our bus arrived at Epcot at about 10:45am and we were staying for RoE, so this was going to be a LONG day.

The kids split up and so did the chaperones. Lisi and I headed for a Fastpass at M:S. IIRC, stand-by was around 1 hour 15 minutes and the wait just to get a Fastpass was about 10 minutes. Our return time was 2:05 to 3:05.

We walked to the Art of Disney and began to dream what it would be like to buy anything in there we wanted. Minutes later she sent me out of the store. Apparently it was time to start Christmas shopping :hammer:.

After that, we walked into Ice Station cool, and no, I did NOT drink the Beverly. Actually, I like the watermelon and the Kinley the best.

The it was time for lunch via priority seating at Le Cellier with the other 3 chaperones from our flight. We all got the Cheddar Cheese Soup and I had a great French Dip. It was very relaxing there, and we all had a great time.

Our first meeting as a group was at 2pm under "the ball", as the non-experts called it...:lol: .

Between that meeting and our next meeting at 8pm in Mexico, we did M:S, JIYI, Spaceship earth (found a bunch of hidden Mickeys). shopped around Mouse Gear, took a survey from a very nice CM out by the Fountain of Nations and checked out the new Nemo additions the Living Seas. I'll reserve total judgement until all phases are complete. For now I'll say it's pretty well done, but seems a little out of place. We'll have to see what it's like when all is finished.

Then it was over to the Coral Reef for dinner. This was our first time there ever and we'll definitely go back. Even though it was a bit pricey, the food was great and the portions were relatively large. The ambience and set-up of the dining room itself was worth the price of the food, not to mention that we got a table right next to the aquarium.

Time to head off to meet the kids in Mexico, the long way. We decided to take a lap of the WS since we really hadn't been there at all during the day. Here's one of the times that being on a HS trip was a major disadvantage. We literally just strolled through the countries and did not get to explore then at all. Oh well, there is always next time.

RoE was great as usual. It was pretty windy all day, so I was a little worried that some of the show elements would be left out, but I was wrong. They even used the perimeter shots. It was fun hearing the kids and the other chaperones react to the show, most were pretty awe-struck. My wife and I, who have seen the show countless times agreed, this show never gets old, and it never fails to make us cry.

We walked out singing our "waylas" along to the music, met up with our group and headed for the busses.

Now for some fun, we arrived at our hotel, the Sheraton World Resort. The rooms were "ok". A few of our students' room keys wouldn't work, one of the groups wasn';t given a room, one room found there bedding to be wet :hurl:, and another found hairs and <ahem> "stains" on the sheets and towels :hurl: :hurl:. There was also the room that had a toilet which didn't work and was not fixed for a day and a half. Everyone's water smelled of sulfur and the vending machines would not take dollar bills. (I wish we had stayed on property...:brick: )

Once all problems were fixed, everyone passed out for a nice rest after a really long day.

Day 2 - Coming Soon!!!

Have any questions? Please ask!

 

[marypopmom]

You are a brave soul to deal with that many teens. Boy when I read your comments about the off site hotels I am so glad we always stay on site.

 

[DarkImage4]

Day 2 - Thursday, April 15

Wake up call was at 7:30am for breakfast in one of the ballrooms in the hotel, and we were on the busses by 8:30am, heading for Islands of Adventure.

Here's a matter of personal opinion....

I know many of you enjoy this park, for various reasons, the rides, unique theming etc. However, this park is an absolute waste of time for me. I am not a roller coaster person, and very rarely will I get on a thrill ride in general (with few exceptions).

My wife went off with one of the other chaperones to do both sides of Dueling Dragons, the Hulk and Spiderman. I would have tried Spiderman, but the oh so tasty hotel breakfast was playing havoc with my stomach. The only thing I actually did was some of the little exhibits downstairs in the Jurassic Park Visitor's Center.

I met up with my wife and Tim, the other caoster person, and we did lunch at the Confisco Grill. I must say that the food was pretty good. We had a bunch of appetizers, and we inhaled them without much thought....I guess we were hungry :slurp:.

Well, it turns out that they never rode the Hulk because Express passes were gone and there wasn't a single rider's line yet, so after lunch Tim and my wife headed back to Hulk to meet a couple other chaperones to get on the newly opened single riders line.

I walked around the area while i waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, my wife got off the ride and we started to do a lap of the islands.

As we approached Dr. Suess Island (whatever it's called), I noticed a ride vehicle going around the tracks above the area. Is this attraction open or are they finally openeing it. I had read that the ride was built but just never opened, so you can imagine our surprise. Anyone know what's up with this?

As we continued, we skipped Posidon since the wait was too long, and my wife shopped around in the Lost Continent shops.

Here's where I created a new pasttime. It may seem childish, but it kept my wife and I amused in the UO parks.

We all know about finding Hidden Mickeys in WDW...well, we started leaving Hidden Mickeys in Universal parks. This was in no way done in a destructive manner.

For example, in the shop where they do the Henna and sell scarves, they also offer i make your own candle type item, but it's made with granular wax. Well, I make classic 3 circle Mickey head in a couple of the bowls of wax :drevil:. Yes, I know...I'm immature....but my wife took up the task later in the trip, I'll get to that in time :fork:. We never did anything that would be a burden to remove or was permanent

Our circuit of the park continued into the Jurassic Park Visitors Center where we just sat down on the rear veranda and vegged out for a while. From there we completed the lap and ended up back at the Confisco for a small snack on the nice shady patio.

After that it was out to CityWalk to meet up with the group and get to the busses by 5:30pm. We were going back to the hotel to change for dinner at Medieval Times.

Unfortunately, we encountered a new problem back at the hotel. Apparently, a fraternity moved in downstairs from us, and began harassing the girls (about 140 of the 160 students we had there). They were cat-calling, whistling, making comments and worst of all, they were hanging around by the stairway looking up their dresses. I ended up being stationed, almost as a bodyguard, under the steps so no one else would have issues. Needles to say, I was in a VERY uncomfortable situation, so I can imagine how much worse some of the girls felt.

Although I don't know what they could have done about it, the hotel would accept absolutely NO responsibility for placing a group of frat brothers in the middle of nearly 140 HS aged girls. Did I mention that all of our students and chaperones weren't even housed in the same building together? We were in 3 or 4 seperate buildings, which only made things harder to watch over. At least we had no further problems after that night

Now, Medieval Times would not have been at the top of our to-do list while in Orlando, but it was a nice time. Our kids were told to get a little dressed up, just "because".

The fun part was that 2 of the girls dressed up in period dresses and beaded headdresses. Two of the guys had more creative ideas. One of them wore an orange sherbert colored leisure suit with a black shirt and sunglasses, while another one wore a kilt with all of the accessories....yes, I said a kilt.

This was when our first medical emergency of the evening popped up. Another one of the guys tripped and hit his head on the cement. A little later he got dizzy and had a nosebleed. He was off to the hospital with a chaperone for a bunch of tests. He was released around 5am the next morning, and he was fine.

This was the first time that our knight actually was the champion of the tournament, and it only took 4 trips to Medieval Times (twice in Orlando and twice here in NJ).

Back at the hotel, one girl starts uncontrollably vomitting and another gets sick and sinks into hyterical paralysis, i.e. she couldn't move her legs. Two more to the hospital.

They eventually returned as well, and both were much better upon their return, except for the lack of sleep.

After quite an eventful day, we all finally managed to get to sleep.

More to Come!!!

 

[tigsmom]

And you thought flying was going to br the worst part of the trip. :lol: All in all, so far it sounds like a fun trip. :wave:

 

[NemoRocks78]

Seems like you've had a fun trip! Can't wait for the rest of the trip report.

By the way, the tracks above most of Seuss Landing at IOA are (or should I say "were") for the Sylvester McMonkey-McBean's Very Unusual Driving Machines attraction. It was suppose to open with the park in 1999 but never did. Occasionally, a car will go around the tracks.

 

[DarkImage4]

Thanks for all of the positive response....

- I'm not brave to go anywhere with that many teens, I'm used to it, I teach the HS marching band of over 180 members.

- The flying still is the worse part of the trip. thoughts of getting on the plane crept into my head days ahead of time. And the last day it bothered me most of my time in the parks. I wasn't as bad on these flights as I have been on previous trips, but I still highly dislike flying.

- About the Driving Machines at IOA, I knew they never opened, but I was really shocked to see a car on the tracks. Why would they randomly send a car out there any ways? Especially if it's not open.

FYI - Sorry for so much time between installments of the reptort. I type these mostly at work and things are hectic around here lately.

 

[DarkImage4]

Day 3 - Friday, April 16

So, as a bit of set up for Day 3...

We were originally scheduled to go to the Animal Kingdom first thing this morning, then use Disney Tranport to switch over to the Magic Kingdom at around 12:30-ish, so that the kids could meet for their performances. We were also going to leave the MK relatively early because of peformances early the next morning. We would also have been in Universal Studios for like 11 hours

So, we would have had 2 1/2 hours at the AK, then about 6 1/2 hours at MK including the time for all of our performances. Over breakfast the day before, Lisi and I suggested that we give the kids a choice about the AK/MK for Friday morning and we also suggested some time at the hotel the next day (Saturday) after the performances for relaxing/swimmming etc. Well, they took our suggestions, however, due to the number of kids sick and us being down at least one chaperone, it was decided to just take all of the kids to MK all day Friday.

Day 3

Wake up was again 7:30am. Once on the busses, we "broke" the news to the kids as to our schedule change. For the most part, no one was devestated. I would have liked to see Everest in person, but I'll just keep looking at the photos here and wait til next time.

We walked into the MK at around 9:30am, Lisi and I cried when we entered (as usual, this park is our home ).

We heading straight for Fantasyland with plans to get a FastPass for PhilharMagic. No need, the stand by wait was only 5 minutes, so in we go! I must say... AMAZING!!! The clarity of the 3D, the effects and the sweet story make this a must-do attraction, and definitly ranks up there with some of our favorites now.

We grabbed a fastpass for later, just in case, and then rode IASW to take it in for the last time in it's current form. From there it was over to Liberty Sguare and the Haunted Mansion. There we met a couple of our students and split up and rode with them to show them the 2 Hidden Mickeys and the Hidden Donald in the ride. It was fun getting the reactions out of them. What was even more fun is that Kristen, who I rode with, was a first-timer for the HM.

We started thinking about and early lunch, since we had a meeting time with the kids coming up. We headed back through Fastasyland and did PhilharMagic again with our FPs. Turns out we did 4 attractions in a bout an hour 15 minutes....INSANE

Then a few shops, a walk around the Castle, a few wishes into the Wishing Well and finally into Cosmic Ray's for a lunch show by Sonny Eclipse. we usually like to eat at full service restaurants, but we were provided with one meal ticket per day, and we didn't use ours in Epcot on Wednesday, so we were eating on the cheap today!

After lunch we meandered through the Hub towards Adventureland and Pirates of the Caribbean. This is where we were meeting with the kids at 1:30pm, and the first of our performing groups was going to head backstage to change, warm-up and generally get ready for their show.

As per the on going theme of this trip, one of the girls was not feeling well, so the handnful of chaperones took care fo her and brought her over to the Galaxy Palace Theatre to watch the Women's Choir.

As usual they sounded great, and for me (a drummer at heart), it's says alot for me to like a choir. An issue here...I always though Disney would not program performance so close to each other that they would interfere with each other. However, while our Women's Choir was performing there was a rock groups of some sort on the Tomorrowland Stage. Needless to say it was a bit distracting.

Afterwards, we got FPs for Buzz. Lisi lead people on the fastest route back to PotC for the second meeting of the other 2 groups for their performance. I took my time and got a Dole Float...MMMMmmmm:slurp:.

At this point, we rode PotC and wandered around for a bit before again heading to the Galaxy Palace Theatre. This time our Concert Choir and Chorale performed. They were great, but again due to bad scheduling, there was a Dance team at the Tomorrowland Stage, and their music was being blasted at insanely high levels. We could almost not hear our own groups. Both my wife and I were HIGHLy disappointed with Disney for letting this happen, it was very unfair to our performancer and we fear that anyone who doesn't know better would think this is an on goingproblem at Disney. On our of the other trips that my wife and I have been on where we or our students performed, we NEVER had this problem. Why would they let this happen???

After the show, we took a loop on the TTA, shoipped a little bit, walked through the Tomorrowland Arcade, then we rode Buzz with our FPs. I am HORRIBLE at this ride, in fact, I think I only scored a 16,000 :brick: .

From there we leisurly walked around through the west end of the park (Liberty Square, Fontierlan and Adventuredland) before eating at the Plaza Pavillion with two other chaperones. After dinner, we walked slowly down Mian Street and shopped through the Emporium (didn't buy alot though).

At this point it was about 8:15pm, and it was time for the trasvesty of the trip....IT WAS TIME TO LEAVE!! No Spectromagic !!! Worst of all ...NO WISHES !!!

Due to an extrememly early wake-up time for tomorrow, we had to get out of the park very early.

The slap in the face was as we werer heading up the ramp to the monorail, I could hear Spectro starting .I did by best to keep composed fro 8:45pm, when we met, until we got backto our room. When we did, I did cry a bit, Spectro is one of my favorites...I love it, and the fact that we were there and would have no chance to see Wishes, especially after all of the great things I've heard about it...it was quite a disappointment. I coudn't dwell on it too much, or else I wouldn't get any sleep.

My wife got back from her bed checks, and we fell sleep for a very short night of sleep....and it even turned out to be shorter than we thought it would be....

More to Come!!!

 

[tigsmom]

Todd, how could things get worse?

 

[Gucci65]

Hmmmm, you're making me think that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to volunteer to chaperone my daughters orchestra trip to WDW next year............

More to come??? Okay, I'm waiting.

 

[cherrynegra]

Well, sounds like you've had a very well rounded trip so far with lots of experiences. But I have to admit your experiences with that large of a group is really making me look forward to my trip in Sept all by myself.:animwink:

 

[Gucci65]

Originally posted by cherrynegra
Well, sounds like you've had a very well rounded trip so far with lots of experiences. But I have to admit your experiences with that large of a group is really making me look forward to my trip in Sept all by myself.:animwink:

Not to change the subject, but I thought the last time you mentioned it you were NOT going by yourself. I guess plans have changed again.

Let me know how you like going alone, I'm thinking about doing it myself.

Thanks.

 

[cherrynegra]

Originally posted by Gucci65
Not to change the subject, but I thought the last time you mentioned it you were NOT going by yourself. I guess plans have changed again.

Let me know how you like going alone, I'm thinking about doing it myself.

Thanks.

Nope, definitely going by myself. I have the room booked, on property, and the airfare. Now I just have to wait these long excruciating months!!

 

[scorp111]

I think we have the same wait cherrynegra...140 days for me now

 

[DarkImage4]

It was a fun trip...

I'm planning on talking about the chaperoning experience at the end of the report. But, I will say that you did not make a bad choice....

 

[DarkImage4]

Day 4 - Saturday, April 17

The phone in our hotel room rings...at about 2am. It's one of the choir direcotrs calling from one of the girl's rooms. She needs Lisi to come relieve her in staying with one of the girls who's been felling really sick. Off my wife goes, after barely 2 hours of sleep.

Lisi returns just after our wake up call...4:30am :snore: :brick: .

Breakfast was at 5:30 and we were on the busses by 6:30am, headed for a music festival/competition at Poinciana HS in Kissimmee. We were the first school on and the first there, so we had the performance area for a warm-up spot.

The same three groups perfomed and sounded much better today than yesterday. Of course we could actually hear the music and we were in room with great accoustics.

Once we were done, the choirs tooks professional photos and we re-boarded the busses back to the hotel for some R&R. Most of the kids took advantage of the pool, while others hung out in their rooms and relaxed. The chaperones hung out by the pool and I got a nice nap in the the warm breeze :sohappy: . We had a small lunch and I headed to the room to stretch out on the bed for a few minutes before we had to get going.

About 2:30 we were back on the busses and headed over to Universal Studios.

Let me just say, the attitudes of some of the employees at Universal were really turning us off to the park. As we walked through the turnstiles, the person at the gate made a comment about my wife's Tink t-shirt...something like, "hey, wrong shirt...". Apparently, another of the chaperones was hassled in the Brown Derby for his WDW hat, and instucted how to burn and destroy it. he also had security at IOA tell him about a "surcharge" for Disney bags. The tone of the voice was a little more than joking too.

First, we waited in line for Shrek 4D. Okay, this was well done, but not even close to PhilharMagic at the MK. The moving seats were a cute thought, but often the motions were just unnecessary, and didn't go with what was happening on screen. For example, there's if you're seeing a shot from the point of view of someone riding on a horse, I can understand why the seats are simulating a gallop, but when see go to a wide shot, from the air, of the character on the horse, why are "we" still galloping. Just my opinion, the show was neat, but not a blockbuster.

We headed to Revenge of the Mummy, and I couldn't ride (darn fat legs and small restraint devices ). So my wife rode and I waited around in the gift shop. My wife came off and we walked for dinner across the street at Finnegan's Bar and Grill. She told me all about the ride over fish and chips. She said it's the first thing that she's ever been enthusiastic over in a Universal park...and that says alot.

From here we walked over to the first aid building to take our shift sitting with one of the sick students. Turns out that she was feeling better and we could go as soon as her friends showed up. We grouped up with the chaperones who were finishing their shift. Lisi and one of the othere rode the Mummy, and from there we headed for ET. I've never done it before, and it is cute, but not something I'd wait in a long line for.

Lisi also left a few Hidden Mickeys in one of the gift shops here, just a couple round items grouped "just right" :drevil: , nothing destructive. After the way we were treated because we had Disney stuff with us, she felt the need to do it.

Over to MIB in the singles line, and almost no wiat. I scored a 240,450, the highest score of everyone on the trip...:king: . And finally, Lisi and Will (the other chaperone) rode Back to the Future. From here we made our way across to the Beetlejuice theater, where the arwards ceremony to the competition was being held at 10pm (wow, what a long day).

Our groups did well, but the biggest award given out was the Esprit De Corps award, given for great attitude, sportsmanship and performance on and off the stage. Turns out we got it, the kids went nuts, and all of the adults were very proud of them.

After that, we headed back to the busses for our last trip back to the hotel. We packed a bit and went to sleep...tomorrow was our last day in Florida.

More to come!!!

BTW...post number 200 !!!!:sohappy:

 

[DarkImage4]

Day 5 - Sunday, April 18

I know this installment has been a long time coming...so here it is....

Wake up call was 7:30 again. Breakfast and packing.

We were on the busses by about 9am and headed to MGM.

We re-distributed the groups according to flights. Our flight, which was the first met up to leave at 1:30. The late rflight had an additional 3 hours in the park .

Oh well, Lisi and I just walked through a couple shops and ran into Tim. We decided that Lisi would go with him to ride RnRC and ToT sinece, if you hadn't guessed, they are NOT my cup of tea.

All of the chaperones (minus two who were a little short on cash), met at the 50's Prime Time Cafe for lunch, and we had an absolute blast. It was our 3rd time there, and 2 others were there once before, but the rest of them had NO IDEA. :fork:

It was truly fun, the head choir director really egged on our cousin (waiter) and ended up being ebbarrassed in front our our entire area of rooms, many of which had our students at tables laughing at their teacher as she was "punished" for being a tattle-tale. Oh, and yes, there are many black-mail pictures now floating about.

From there Lisi and Tim had to run back to the ToT to use their FastPass. I just took my time and met them in the gift shop. From there, we heading to our meeting point at the hat. Our last bit of magic sharing came as we showed a bunch of the kids the Hidden Mixkey that isn the central plaza area.

Off to the airport, the bus ride wasn't so bad, and the flight was relatively smooth. I actually slept a bit on the plane, which is a miracle.

The Day After...and my thoughts...

I woke up in my own bed to my wife half screaming at the phone, "why are you calling me?!?!!?" It turns out it was one of her band students calling her from class to see if she was alright (as if using a cell phone in school is allowed ). We spent the day relaxing, unpacking, doing laundry and talking about how we would have done the trip if we had planned it. My wife gave me a little something she bought for me, an electronic talking Monorail magnet for the fridge :sohappy: .

It was a good trip...NO shcool trip of this magnitude could go off with out "something" happening. Considering the few people who had to go to the hospital, but were brought back relativelky soon, we were lucky. There are much worse things that could have gone wrong.

The kids were absolutely great. Expect for the few girls who completely disobeyed the rules, we had 160 kids who were not only well behaved, but really nice kids. My wife works for the school and had just started meeting the student, and I had absolutely no idea who most of them were since I mostly know the band kids. But the entire time, these student were friendly with us, sat down and talked with us, made a big deal about seeing us in the parks etc. It was just not the treatment that I was accustom to for HS age kids, at least not on the many prior HS trips I had been on. Four word sum it up, "they were a pleasure".

The trip itself was ok, not exactly how Lisi and I would have done it, but we were just ecstatic to be there. The oddest thing was the lack of expectations heading into the trip, and of the complete depression of leaving. Don't get me wrong, we were sad to leave, but not as we would have been if it was just us "on our own".

Well, that seems to be it...

I hope you all enjoyed reading my ramblings. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Thanks for Reading!