My sons' band did it Feb '06 and I went as a chaperon. Here is the itinerary of our trip and how it worked out for us, kind of a mini trip report.
Details:
Northgate Flames Marching Band, Pittsburgh (Avalon & Bellevue), PA
65 kids
10 chaperons
2 buses
Stayed off Site (can't think of the hotel)
3 days in the parks (MK, Epcot, DHS)
All meals included except trip down and back. We were given tickets that gave you basically what you get for a CS meal on the
DDP only it was for a very select number of restaurants.
Cost per student $460, per chaperon $560 (The band boosters paid $100 for each kid)
Left Sunday after dinner and 23 hours later got in Monday before dinner. We switched drivers somewhere around Charlotte and they where the bus drives we used all week
One of the kids left her contacts in all night and thought she lost it in her eyeball because she still felt like it was in her eye. All morning people were digging in her eye and trying to flush it out. Around lunch time we had to find a hospital, turns out it popped out of her eye and she lost it. What she felt was her that eye ball irritation from everyone trying to get it out. Hospital gave her some drops and told her to see her eye doctor when we got back.
Monday night was pizza at the hotel, included in the cost, and free time.
Tuesday we did the class that everyone else has talked about. The instrumentalists did the movie sound track thing behind Italy at Epcot and the frontline girls did a class somewhere in a MK backstage area. Their class was setup like a dance audition where you had to learn a routine as a group.
They try to limit the number of people that in the backstage areas at all times. For the instrumental class the they let the chaperons stay. In fact three of us, including me had to do the animal sounds for "soundtrack". Be aware that they are very touchy about pictures taken in backstage areas.
Our Director was very impressed with the class. The instructor was a professional Disney musician and he told great stories of who he has played for and how they have to do their jobs and perform on very short notice.
One story he told was that his group would have to "come up" with something for an intro for some star at some dinner using Tarzan music. They have to play it by ear because they never know how long its going to take this star, who turned out to be Phil Collins, to walk in the room and get to his spot. It could be 30 seconds or 5 minutes.
They then worked on the soundtrack. They did multiple takes and a tech in the back mixed them all together. Someone else was taking pictures. By the end of the class the tech had taken the photos and the sound track and put together a VHS video that he gave to the Director.
After that we went into a backdoor entrance to Epcot and had the day to ourselves. We all met up at the end of the day and watched Illuminations.
On Tuesday (Parade Day) we had a Disney breakfast buffet in a tent somewhere near the Swan. Here we had another presentation by another Disney performer who had played various characters in the shows. He told various stories of him messing up at performances and that they shouldn't be nervous about the parade. Our Director got some Mickey ears and we had a visit from a special guest. Yes we had Mickey all to ourselves.
We then went to MK and were told to meet back at Frontierland at 1:30 to get ready for the parade. They only allowed the Director and two chaperons to go back with them.
I then made my way to the Train station to get perfect pics of their parade. You don't march in the parade but before it as a "Special Preparade Performance". Around 2:45 I heard our band in the distance and then the booming Voice of Disney came over the PA system and announced the band. They marched down main street and exited by the fire station. they took a ton of Photopass pics and gave us a special photopass card. Here's the rub about the pics, no Photo CD for $99, Disney knows how to make money don't they.
We met back up and had the rest of the day to ourselves.
Thursday was DHS until 5:00 and from there we went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede after that back to hotel.
Left Friday at 9:00 AM and got back at around 7:00 AM with no problems.
Overall a great trip, our director was concerned that the class would be some token thing that was thrown together so the trip had an "educational element", but it wasn't. the hardest part for him was keeping his mouth shut and not trying to fix things and just let the instructor do his thing. He thinks it was a great experience to have the kids learn from someone else.
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