Disney Homeschool Days

[herodrx1]

Has anyone participated in this program? Is it worth changing my vacation dates to do it? It shows that you buy tickets that include park entrance but what if we already have tickets?

 

[laceemouse]

Bump! I would like to hear from someone who has been, although the dates would never work for us anyway

 

[mommyof2princesses]

We are going this year, but have never been. The tickets are cheaper. You can pay $16 for the program if you have tickets already. I am hoping someone will post info about the activities themselves.

 

[colonialtinker]

What are the dates? I would love to take DD to this.

 

[thebeesknees]

Can I get park tickets at the homeschool price but not do any of the extra programs? We homeschool, and my kids are 7, 5, and 1, and it looked like the programs would be over their heads. But the ticket prices are so good, I'd love to get them and save our non-expiring ones for another time. Do you think they'd allow this, or are you required to do the tours/activities if you get the homeschool tickets?

 

[Iceman10]

Here's the link

http://disneyyouthgroups.disney.go.com/wdyp/index?id=HSDSplashPage&CMP=OTC-DisHomeSchoolDaysGenVan

I am very curious too what people think. One thing I got from reveiwing the web page were all the various Run/Walk marathons and such that go on there. I had no idea! We plan to do the 3k at Epcot in early October.

 

[mommyof2princesses]

Can I get park tickets at the homeschool price but not do any of the extra programs? We homeschool, and my kids are 7, 5, and 1, and it looked like the programs would be over their heads. But the ticket prices are so good, I'd love to get them and save our non-expiring ones for another time. Do you think they'd allow this, or are you required to do the tours/activities if you get the homeschool tickets?

I know the programs that cost additional money you do not have to do. I am wondering, also, about the epcot tour on Monday that is included in the registration? We may do it because the girls love Epcot, but if dd5 gets tired from it I want to be able to leave and go find other things to do!

 

[thebeesknees]

Yeah, I hear you. I was thinking that with the hopper passes, we could just do whatever park we wanted whichever day and not even do the tour. My DH is not much of a tour person, anyway. He says this is vacation and he wants to play, not be educated! It's just that the ticket prices are so good that I was hoping to take advantage of them.

 

[herodrx1]

I hope someone can tell us about the programs. They sound a lot like the Y.E.S. programs, maybe someone can talk about those.

 

[graygables]

We went in January. It was held at DHS (it moves) and the central theme was Narnia/production. The event had a guest speaker who was an expert on C.S. Lewis and also a singer (Vicky Beeching). My daughters (23, 20, 13, & 10) ADORED her and talked all afternoon about what she had to say. They were given a goodie bag with some Narnia stuff and a couple of CDs. I'm a CM, so we didn't need admission, just paid the program fee (was it $16pp???)

I also signed the younger 2 up for a production program. It was a YES program, $25 each (?). I had to work so didn't go, 23yo dropped them off with the leader and I went back to pick them up. There were several parents in the group (although they also have to pay the fee and it's no more than one adult per child). They learned about perspective, facade, editing, and more. DDs weren't overly enthusiastic about it, but did learn a few things which was good enough for me. They did get to ride ToT and do a few backstage things there, which was cool.

I'm still deciding what YES program to send them to in September. I probably will not do the regular speaker as it just doesn't seem that interesting to me (or them) primarily b/c I grew up overseas and they know a lot about cultural differences and such already.

I don't know that I would change my travel dates to do it, and I don't know that I would use up vacation time, either, unless the program REALLY interested your child. You do NOT have to accompany them, so it could give you a few hours of alone time which might be a good thing and worth the $25 each. Just sayin...

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

We went last fall (it was at AK) and we did not pay extra for the yes programs. Outside AK, they had a table where we gave them our names (not sure if they had us on the list from purchasing our park tickets through the homeschool page? I didn't purchase the tickets, so I'm not sure about this.) Anyway, they put bracelets on us so that all the *stations* would know we were homeschoolers.

They had tables set up around the park with neat activities to do that had to do with AK, animals, the environment, etc. We did take an extra day at AK b/c of this since stopping at the stations cut into our time seeing the rest of the park. It was fun and different and geared towards elementary age, although even really young kids would enjoy, I think. We liked it, and LOVED the price of the 5 day park tickets!! (156$...this included PH AND WP&M)

 

[herodrx1]

Thank you for the information. It sounds like a pretty good deal. Depending on how my work situation is in Sept., I may adjust my travel dates. Since this isn't the only time we go to WDW it won't really cut into our park time, it will just change our park time.

 

[P.I. Squirrel]

DW and I were investigating this tonight, and here is what we came up with, (verified by another homeschooler who went before).

The main speech, events, and tables are on the 21st at Epcot. This is what the $16 buys you. I say $16, because we got AP's, so we didn't look up park packages.

The YES lessons, on the 21st and 22nd at Epcot and MK, are $25 each person in addition to the event itself and park admission. Each child can be, but is not required to be, escorted by one paying adult. So, both parents cannot attend the YES events with only one child.

So, according to my math, this is what our trip will look like.

21st ~ Main event at 10:15am at Epcot...$16 each x 4
21st ~ Disney's Ocean Discoveries at 1pm at Epcot...$25 each x 4

22nd ~ The American Story at 7:15am at MK...$25 each x 4


The Tickets page contains this addition to each YES ticket:

*Theme Park ticket or Annual Pass is required to attend Y.E.S. Programs. Parents must pay additional Y.E.S. program fee for admission into Y.E.S. program to attend with student. Only one adult per child allowed into Y.E.S. Program* $25.00

 

[mom2mek]

Just found this thread and was wondering if anyone knew about the restrictions on the tickets (i.e. when they expire). If we went down on the 22nd with the 5 day tickets, would they expire on the 27th or be good for longer than that?

Also, my sister homeschools, so if she went down ahead of us to do the Epcot events on the 22nd with her girls, could we still buy tickets through the site even though we aren't arriving until the 25th? In other words, do we have to participate in an event to buy a ticket?

Sara