Band trip to Disneyland - Advice wanted

[momstable]

My jr. high son's school band is hoping to be accepted to play at DL in May. The band has been there in previous years, but we have a new band teacher who isn't at all familiar with the process. She's asked me to do some research (Disney lover that I am) on hotels for the band to stay at. Anyone ever been part of a school group trip to DLR? And, yes, I'm going to be one of the chaperones. of course. My son plays the bass clarinet.

Oh, and any other hints or tips about taking part in a DLR band trip.

The Momstable

 

[Goofy_Mom]

I was in the colorguard, we did the May DL thing. . . way back in the mid 90's. Indian Jones was the newest ride. We stayed at the DL hotel, it was all decked out in a jungle theme with giant ugly bugs. We thought it was the coolest thing ever. If memory serves, i think the girls had one floor and the boys were two floors up same wing. Our chaperones were very cool, but very stern (thinking mary poppins). Lots of fun to hang with, but would let us go off on our own in the parks during times when we didn't have to be anywhere. They always had a "watch" on each floor to make sure the boys stayed on their floor and the girls stayed on thier floor. There was no chance that BFs and GFs met during the night and pretend they were mature grown ups.

 

[skiingfast]

If you are going by bus.

I would look at:
The Anahiem Plaza Inn--cheap
The Ramada Maingate--free breakfast
Fairfield Inn
Hojo
and
maybe the Tropicana, maybe.

Because these places can fit buses in thier parking and you can walk to the park no problem.

 

[danceanddisney2010]

My old middle school has been taking band trips to disneyland every year.. every time they go they stay at hojo. Never stayed there before.. but the fact that they keep going back must mean it's pretty good!

p.s. im looking for a good hotel for our dance team. We have been many times before but never as a big group. There are 16 of us total.. we don't want to be too cheap.. but we don't want too expensive. We are looking for 2bedroom/2bathroom suites...any ideas?

 

[hjgaus]

Your band director will need to submit a performance video for selection. Once selected make sure she gets an info packet guideline for chaperones then make copies for the chaperones. Students & Chaps will meet @ toontown to be guided to the back of toontown where Cast Members only are allowed. This is the same policy for your group. Performing students & chaperones ONLY. Parents tagging along are not allowed. When ready they will take a specfic parade route which returns them towards the back; take a group picture; chane back into their street clothes and receive a Disney Performing Arts t-shirt. Both of my sons (Jr. & High schools) attend every year and they love it!
We only live 25 minutes from Disneyland so I'm not sure about hotel stuff. Hope this helps!

 

[HydroGuy]

My jr. high son's school band is hoping to be accepted to play at DL in May. The band has been there in previous years, but we have a new band teacher who isn't at all familiar with the process. She's asked me to do some research (Disney lover that I am) on hotels for the band to stay at. Anyone ever been part of a school group trip to DLR? And, yes, I'm going to be one of the chaperones. of course. My son plays the bass clarinet.

Oh, and any other hints or tips about taking part in a DLR band trip.

The Momstable

We did this with my then DS13's middle school jazz band in May 2009. See the mini-trip report here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2181033

We stayed at the Doubletree Anaheim/OC which had a reliable hourly shuttle. I had nothing to do with the hotel choice but did feel like the pied piper at DLR with 8 middle schoolers of DS13 tagging along with us.

Make sure everyone remembers their ticket to DLR (one kid in our group left it in his hotel room and had to take the shuttle back to the hotel to get it). Make sure a good cell phone communication system is in place. Encourage everyone in the group to get to the parks early.

The promo tickets we got from Disney had a $10 optional upgrade fee to parkhoppers (normally $25-30) and everyone jumped on it.

HTH

 

[katesorad]

I went for a high school band trip during my freshman year and we stayed at the Doubletree Anaheim. I've heard of other schools staying there as well, so they may be able to give you guys a good deal.

Going with a group of middle school kids can be hard, but I know that when I went in high school, we did a huge group breakfast at Hometown Buffet before heading to the park (there were 250 of us, including color guard), and then they let us go into the parks by ourselves. We marched the parade, which I believe we got ready for around 3 PM (had to get dressed in marching band uniforms, warm up, etc.) Then we were able to go off on our own again. We had a final call time to meet up by the buses at 9 PM, I believe, to go home. We were responsible for lunch, snacks, and souvenirs.

 

[DLR29]

I went last year, as a high school senior (I played clarinet), on a band trip to DLR and it was awesome!!! I'm pretty sure we stayed at the Doubletree Anaheim too.

It was fun and I got a lot done in a day. I don't know your itinerary, but we didn't play in the park. Instead, we played in some festival outside of the park and then on our Disney day, we had an awards ceremony in the park. The awards ceremony was LONG and, frankly, a waste of time...everyone got "silver" awards or higher. And it wasted at least a solid 2 hours of our day. I don't know how that would be different if the band were to play in the park at, say, the Plaza Gardens stage. Probably wouldn't take as long but it would still cut out a chunk of the day.

 

[clairabell29]

Our band went in 97 and stayed at the Double Tree. I think we did a city card because we did DL, Sea Word and Universal Studios. We didn't march, but played on stage and the rest of the time was ours. I do remember having to be back stage and waiting and waiting for what seemed like forever. It was cool, but did kill a bit of the magic. We had food vouchers as well.

 

[mellers]

My jr. high son's school band is hoping to be accepted to play at DL in May. The band has been there in previous years, but we have a new band teacher who isn't at all familiar with the process. She's asked me to do some research (Disney lover that I am) on hotels for the band to stay at. Anyone ever been part of a school group trip to DLR? And, yes, I'm going to be one of the chaperones. of course. My son plays the bass clarinet.

Oh, and any other hints or tips about taking part in a DLR band trip.

The Momstable

It's been a couple of years, but I noticed a lot of student groups went for the Anaheim Plaza Hotel (largely because it used to be extremely cheap--I've heard they've recently raised their rates). My suggestion would be to call the HoJos, ask for group rates, and see if you can get a good deal staying there. They are close enough for the kids to walk. Also try the Anaheim Plaza, Ramada Maingate, and the Castle Inn.

 

[lcasa]

I chaperoned a a middle school band group last year - as a previous poster mentioned everyone had to gather at Toontown at a specific time for a performance - it came in very handy to have cell phone numbers for at least 1 kid from each group that went off together (and each chaperone needed the numbers of all the others) since some of them really underestimated times to get back to Toontown and these were local kids. The hardest thing all day was trying to get them back on the same tram for the bus - failed miserably. Fortunately there were 2 adults + the teacher so 1 adult per tram. It was a blast though. If they get to march on main street don't forget a video camera. Filiming/photos totally forbidden if they go backstage for the class they teach on dubbing movies - and they mean it! But it's really cool for the kids.

 

[momstable]

Thanks for all the wonderful tips. And for the recounted memories. DS12 turning 13 and I are going this coming weekend for his birthday. We are staying at HoJo, so will be able to scope it out. I will pass alo g all this wonderful information to the band teacher.

The audition video was already sent in. Just waititng to hear back to see if we are accepted or not. In previous years, with the prior teacher, only the 7th and 8th graders went. DS is a 7th grader this year, but if we go, they ALL will go, 6th graders, too. We only have a handful of the older grades in band this year, so it is like starting over from scratch. No collective memory nor repeat parents.

Wish us luck to get in, and if there are more memories and/or tips, we'd appreciate them.

 

[daneenm]

DD's Middle School Band will be there in May. They are staying at the Red Lion, which is a new hotel for them from years past. The great news is that breakfast (full breakfast, not just a danish) is included in their room rate.

I understand that they will play at Carnation Plaza as well as having a recording session while they are there. The children are really looking forward to it.