Quacktatty
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
- Messages
- 1,311
So I'm in the middle of packing box after box of all my personal belongings and I found a disposable camera that had never been developed. I brought the camera to CVS today to find out exactly what was on that camera. To my surprise (kind of) there were pictures of my Walt Disney World trip from 1999. I had suspected that they might have been from my 2003 trip, but I didn't guess that they would have been from almost 10 years ago!!
So, here's a trip report within a trip report from that long time ago.
I was a senior in high school, I think it may have been in April or May when we went down. I can't remember exactly, but I don't remember it being cold back in Rhode Island when we left. This was a band trip. I played the trombone in both regular band and jazz band.
We took a bus from Rhode Island to Orlando, it was about a 27 hour drive. I still remember getting stuck in traffic on the highway in New Jersey and how the girl sitting next to me on the bus ride down was mad because her dad was a bus driver and the drivers we had "weren't doing it right".
We stayed off site (gasp), 4 to a room. The main purpose of the trip was to learn some music things from the Disney folks. We had a LOT of time backstage which was really cool. The regular band group spent some time in a huge room playing lots of Disney songs and we won some prizes. I think I got a keychain (??).
The Jazz Band had the best of all though. We got to spend some really great time behind MK in a little studio doing some intense training with a Disney musician. I can't for the life of me remember who it was, but we had a great time. We even got to do some recording in the studio.
All of this practice culiminated with two concerts that we gave. The regular band played Downtown Disney. It was a super windy day and we were on this little stage by the water. I remember having to use clothes pins to get our music to stay on the stands. The jazz band had the most awesome experience, however. We were escorted backstage through the Utilidors (where I saw Eeyore with no head!) and brought to Tomorrowland. We were loaded onto an elevator. Up above us was Cosmic Ray's. We were raised up on to the floor of Cosmic Rays and Sunny Eclipse moved above us into the ceiling. It was so awesome!!! I don't know how often Disney allows high school students to do that, but it was a once in a lifetime experience for me.
We went to all of the parks, I don't remember too much about that. I do remember standing in line for about 90 minutes for Splash Mountain. And also riding Tower of Terror and holding up letters that spelled out - BHS MUSIC! We were such band dorks
We did eat dinner one night at Planet Hollywood. We sat up on the second floor and we all wanted to see Arnold and Sly.
On the last day we went to the pretty newly opened Animal Kingdom. From what I recall, not a lot of the park was open at that time. We did the safari, Countdown to Extinction and who knows what else. From what I recall, Asia was in soft opening mode at that point. I want to say that some folks rode Kali River Rapids, but I don't think I did.
Anyway, it was a great memory and kind of what got me back on the Disney bug as an adult. I was 17 for that trip and will be 27 for this trip. Things have changed a lot with me and a lot at Disney, hopefully all for the better
Here's the pictures - most of them are of Animal Kingdom with a couple others thrown in. They didn't come out great, but between my stellar picture taking skills and the fact that the film has been in the camera for nearly 10 years, I guess good pictures are asking for a lot!
The Tree of Life
On Safari
More Safari
Planet Hollywood
Any idea where this is? I'm guessing AK since that's where it fits within my pictures but it doesn't look familiar!
So, here's a trip report within a trip report from that long time ago.
I was a senior in high school, I think it may have been in April or May when we went down. I can't remember exactly, but I don't remember it being cold back in Rhode Island when we left. This was a band trip. I played the trombone in both regular band and jazz band.
We took a bus from Rhode Island to Orlando, it was about a 27 hour drive. I still remember getting stuck in traffic on the highway in New Jersey and how the girl sitting next to me on the bus ride down was mad because her dad was a bus driver and the drivers we had "weren't doing it right".
We stayed off site (gasp), 4 to a room. The main purpose of the trip was to learn some music things from the Disney folks. We had a LOT of time backstage which was really cool. The regular band group spent some time in a huge room playing lots of Disney songs and we won some prizes. I think I got a keychain (??).
The Jazz Band had the best of all though. We got to spend some really great time behind MK in a little studio doing some intense training with a Disney musician. I can't for the life of me remember who it was, but we had a great time. We even got to do some recording in the studio.
All of this practice culiminated with two concerts that we gave. The regular band played Downtown Disney. It was a super windy day and we were on this little stage by the water. I remember having to use clothes pins to get our music to stay on the stands. The jazz band had the most awesome experience, however. We were escorted backstage through the Utilidors (where I saw Eeyore with no head!) and brought to Tomorrowland. We were loaded onto an elevator. Up above us was Cosmic Ray's. We were raised up on to the floor of Cosmic Rays and Sunny Eclipse moved above us into the ceiling. It was so awesome!!! I don't know how often Disney allows high school students to do that, but it was a once in a lifetime experience for me.
We went to all of the parks, I don't remember too much about that. I do remember standing in line for about 90 minutes for Splash Mountain. And also riding Tower of Terror and holding up letters that spelled out - BHS MUSIC! We were such band dorks
We did eat dinner one night at Planet Hollywood. We sat up on the second floor and we all wanted to see Arnold and Sly.
On the last day we went to the pretty newly opened Animal Kingdom. From what I recall, not a lot of the park was open at that time. We did the safari, Countdown to Extinction and who knows what else. From what I recall, Asia was in soft opening mode at that point. I want to say that some folks rode Kali River Rapids, but I don't think I did.
Anyway, it was a great memory and kind of what got me back on the Disney bug as an adult. I was 17 for that trip and will be 27 for this trip. Things have changed a lot with me and a lot at Disney, hopefully all for the better
Here's the pictures - most of them are of Animal Kingdom with a couple others thrown in. They didn't come out great, but between my stellar picture taking skills and the fact that the film has been in the camera for nearly 10 years, I guess good pictures are asking for a lot!
The Tree of Life
On Safari
More Safari
Planet Hollywood
Any idea where this is? I'm guessing AK since that's where it fits within my pictures but it doesn't look familiar!
. Like the vintage pix. I went on a few band trips to WDW myself back in the day. We were geeks too but we had a great time!
That must be a great feeling! Have a fantastic time and hurry home to tell us all about it!!! 
