Morning all! I hope that ya'll have enjoyed the work week so far. Time seems to be dragging by this week and I'm more than ready for a weekend.
We had the parent-teacher conference Monday about the WDW trip. John and I both attended and it wasn't until we walked into the meeting that we realized that John on a Walt Disney World shirt. 
The cost of the trip is $760 per student and per chaperone. The $760 covers transportation, a hot breakfast each morning, two quick service meals vouchers per day, three park tickets, the performance fees and the hotel accommodations for three nights. I could see a bit of sticker shock on some of the parent's faces and I wanted to get them all in front of a computer so I could show them what a "real" onsite trip to Disney would cost. Still, I understand where they are coming from. Our area is not what you would exactly call a boom town and there are a lot of people who struggle to make ends meet, much less have the money to send our kids to WDW.
Since they are also performing (and getting scored), they must have at least 25 students go or they can't possibly put out a quality performance and the orchestra conductor doesn't want a poor score for them. I can't say that I blame him because our school has a great performance record.
I think that I have mentioned before that our school has almost 2,000 students and it is a big old pain in the rear end to have any fundraiser on school property. You have to submit paperwork, tell them what you are raising money for, how much you expect to raise, etc. You have to report back to them after the fundraiser is done and, if you don't raise what you thought you would, you have to explain why you didn't. Like I said, a pain in the backside. Therefore, we have to do any fundraising offsite or individually.
I guess the search for corporate or individual sponsors is officially on!
Speaking of "officially on", I am officially on the time clock so I need to get to work and get some things off my desk. I should be back sometime this afternoon with an installment. If not, I promise to get it posted in the a.m.
Hmmm.... cost does seem a little pricey or our school trips are a bargain!
Nate's class trip was $775 per person (student or chaperone) and included:
Airfare to/from Boston
Luxury Bus to/from our school to Boston
4 nights at All Star Music
3 day park tickets (part of Y.E.S. program)
meal vouchers for two meals/day
cold breakfast provided by school (cereal, fruit, granola bars, etc from Sam's Club) and a pizza party the night we arrived.
We didn't have any performance fees or anything, though.
I think Disney really worked with us on the costs since we were staying on site and doing two Y.E.S classes.
We don't have any sponsorship that goes towards the trip. The individual kids do have the opportunity to earn some money by selling Christmas wreaths.
Still, sounds like this will be an awesome opportunity for Hunter and the other students in the orchestra. I really hope he gets to go!!!
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Can't wait to see how long you all lasted!!!!
Looking forward to next update. -Amanda 
for round two. I'm sure your video will be great. Sending you some pd 
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