Okay! We've been back for just over 3 days now and I'm finally feeling back to 'normal.' Which means I'm ready to get going on this trip report for real. As mentioned in the past few posts, it was a pretty exhausting trip. Keeping over 100 high school aged kids in line and doing the right things can be a bit tiring. So, in the interest of helping those who might plan something like this in the future and maybe even my future self if I consider another trip of this kind.
So, we left northern Maryland around 4pm on Thursday afternoon. The plan was to get about 3 hours behind us and stop for dinner somewhere in Northern Virginia. To our great benefit, the traffic was somewhat light around Washington DC, so we made it almost to Richmond by 7pm. Found an exit with a number of food options and gave the kids their $10 per diem and 45 minutes to get some dinner. Our choice was Panera and we greatly benefitted from mobile ordering online. While some of the kids (and parents, too) were still waiting we got our food pretty quickly - even though we were the last to get into the restaurant.
After the dinner break, we got back on the road (of course, I95) and went another 3 hours before making a quick stop at a rest area. And then another 3 hour chunk before picking up new drivers in South Carolina. Once again, back on the road we had one last pit stop around 5:30am at the Florida Welcome Center. Sadly, a bit too early to get the free OJ! At this point (and while I could complain about it many times) I will just mention the anarchy of medications for a large group of high schoolers. Our district requires that all medications be approved individually by a doctor (including over the counter meds like ibuprofen) and that each student have their own personal medications. So, for the trip I had a large crate with about 150 different bottles of medications, each with their own forms, and each morning, afternoon, and evening I had a lineup of kids to whom I would distribute medications. Not too tough in the hotel, but during the bus ride and at rest areas and fast food restaurants it's a bit chaotic. But enough of that complaining!
Around 8:30am we got to a place in the Disney Area called the HUB. it's actually in the Clarion hotel just across from the Lake Buena Vista hotel area. They have a number of rooms set up for all our travelers to wash up, get changed, and feel better after the long bus ride. Then they have one of the banquet halls of the hotel reserved for the group to have breakfast. Since many school groups drive overnight to get to Disney it seems like a pretty darn good idea and they did a pretty good job as well. If you happen to be in this situation, I highly recommend a stop at the HUB.
This meant that we arrived at Hollywood Studios at a little before 11am. Here's the view from
@MeffysMom's bus for pretty much the whole drive down.
Of course, arrival at the park meant that we had to distribute actual park tickets (students had been given their ticket number earlier to set up MDE) and meal tickets (we had Disney Dining cards for $20 per meal for all the kids). Once everyone was all set, it was time to head in!
As I'm sure you already know, there is no way that it could have been that easy! Although, I was pretty surprised that we only had 4 real issues. A couple were just kids who mistaken assigned their ticket to someone in their 'friends and family' on MDE and a couple were the result of parents assigning the ticket and then the kid setting up their own account. After about 30 minutes, we had everything resolved and everyone was into the parks and having a good time.
Our first stop was some relaxed exploring in Galaxy's Edge - talking to some of the 'locals' and exploring some of the nooks and crannies of the land. We happened upon one of the new 360 degree Photopass spots and got a picture taken.
We had a FP+ for Toy Story Mania at 12:30pm, so we meandered our way over to TSL and enjoyed a ride. Continuing our slow touring, we headed over to launch bay and looked at some of the new items on display and then used the Chase Visa character meet to get to see this guy for a couple minutes. Although he was a bit pushy with the questions about our motives there.
Then we headed back to Galaxy's Edge to ride the Millennium Falcon and then grab a bite to eat. Now, I know the big draw with the Falcon is to get to be the pilot, but we both just enjoy the ride, so we did single rider which meant we both were engineers. I know that the ride hasn't gotten the best reviews, but I do enjoy it - both the nostalgia of being aboard the Millenium Falcon and I do think it is a well done ride (maybe it's because I'm not a gamer, so I have no idea about that kind of stuff). After the ride, we grabbed a Ronto Wrap at Ronto Roasters which was pretty good and enough food for both of us to at least be sated for a while.
At this point it was getting close to 3pm which was attendance check-in time for my kids. So, we parked ourselves in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theater at about 2:40pm and waited as all the kids stopped in. No surprise to anyone, there were 3 kids who didn't make it by 3pm. Or by 3:15pm... or by 3:30pm. Turns out they had gone to the 3pm Indiana Jones Stunt Show - but, luckily the brother of one of the three helped out by getting in touch and we let them check-in remotely this time! We then headed to our Star Tours FP+ and helped Lando save the galaxy again. It was a little after 4pm and with nothing really planned, we headed back to Toy Story land and waited in the Slinky Dog Dash line. The wait time was pretty accurate - read as 70 minutes and we waited almost 70 minutes on the dot for the ride. Fun as ever!
After riding with Slinky, we stopped at Woody's Lunch Box for the totchos (with veggie chili) which we always enjoy and then found a spot for
@MeffysMom to wait for our daughter so they could head to Magic Kingdom. Once met up (around 6:45pm), they caught the Skyliner to Caribbean Beach, then Riviera, and finally to Epcot. They walked through Epcot (perhaps grabbing a drink along the way) and then took the monorail to Magic Kingdom for the party. I'll get back to their party in a little bit. First, the rest of my evening.
With the girls on their way, I decided to head back into Galaxy's Edge to ride Millennium Falcon on my own again. And, by the way, at about 8pm... there is NO WAIT for single rider. I actually rode twice in about a 15 minute span. Then I walked over to Docking Bay 7 and had the meatless meatballs which were very good. Then I headed back tot he front of the park to watch some of the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular and then meet all the kids (and parents, etc) at the exit around 8:40pm.
We headed to our hotel, Springhill Suites Flamingo Crossing, got all the kids checked in, busses unloaded, medications handed out, and I was finally up in my room a little after 10pm. And I didn't manage to stay awake for much later than that!
Meanwhile, the girls were off at Magic Kingdom for the After Hours Party there. While I'm not a huge fan of the ticketed experiences, this one was pretty good for them (and a couple friends from home who were also there). They rode just about everything in the park with no wait at all and some things multiple times. All in just 3 hours.
Yes, that's the 4 of them in their own boat for Pirates of the Caribbean.
And, yes, our daughter is wearing a tiara (after all this was her 16th birthday gift). As such, they decided to get a nice picture right about at midnight when her actual birthday began.
When they finished the party, they got a Lyft back to the hotel and thanks to our trip security, they got into the room. Yes, despite texting and calling me, I didn't wake up until they opened the door to come in. And then promptly fell back asleep!
I'll leave you with one last picture from today's adventures - the girls have had a strange fascination with one of the local rental companies ever since their first Princess Half, when reading the barriers became a good way to stay interested during the run. More soon!
