High School Group/Need tour company advice.

[SilverMickey]

My son's HS Band is going to Disney and they in the past have gone by bus. 30 hours each way. (boo Hiss) I would love to be able to work out a proposal for the kids to be able to fly and use a Local Florida tour company for the Florida/Disney part of this. In the past they have stayed just 3 nights in FL.

Any suggestion as to a web site I could try or a company I could contact? Any other band mom's out there?

Thanks!

 

[chartle]

My son's HS Band is going to Disney and they in the past have gone by bus. 30 hours each way. (boo Hiss) I would love to be able to work out a proposal for the kids to be able to fly and use a Local Florida tour company for the Florida/Disney part of this. In the past they have stayed just 3 nights in FL.

Any suggestion as to a web site I could try or a company I could contact? Any other band mom's out there?

Thanks!

Are you looking for a local Travel Agent or just a bus company?

I don't think you need a tour company just someone to pick you up at the airport and then drive you around WDW.

Last year at this time I was making final arrangements for my son's band trip from Pittsburgh. Only 20 hours on a bus.

Can your band afford to fly, we could never even consider it? My wife did look into taking the train.

Our cost for one bus for the trip Sunday night to Saturday morning was only $7,400.

 

[SilverMickey]

Well I'm not sure what I need. I have my next meeting with the Band Booster/Music Booster peeps on Feb 7th and I guess I'm just putting feelers out there. lol

The band director is new and wonderful! The Other band director is lending a hand in putting it together... I'm still wondering why they took a bus instead of plane for their last Disney trip. I hope to have a little information to share with the group so both ways can be considered.

 

[chartle]

Well I'm not sure what I need. I have my next meeting with the Band Booster/Music Booster peeps on Feb 7th and I guess I'm just putting feelers out there. lol

The band director is new and wonderful! The Other band director is lending a hand in putting it together... I'm still wondering why they took a bus instead of plane for their last Disney trip. I hope to have a little information to share with the group so both ways can be considered.

There are two issues with flying besides the cost

One is that you may not be able to all fly on the same plane. For a trip 5 years ago were I was just a chaperon, but I knew other band parents planning a trip for a school in a much more affluent town. They flew and had to take at least two flights. The last flight back to Pittsburgh landed after Midnight and they school the next day.

Second you have to take luggage and uniforms and instruments. Thats a lot of stuff to put on a plane and then get off a plane and then back into a plane for the flight back.

Think of all the hassles people have flying with just their families, now multiply that by the number of kids in your band.

With a bus everything and everyone is locked up and easily controlled, if you know what I mean.

Maybe we need a sub-forum for band parents (and former band parents me*) to discuss these trips. When I was Band Booster Secretary I did get a email from someone trying to put together a "Band Mom" website.

*I'm still a band parent but my two sons play for the University of Pittsburgh Varsity Marching Band and since they are now adults can go to the bathroom all by themselves and don't need chaperons.

 

[SilverMickey]

There are two issues with flying besides the cost

One is that you may not be able to all fly on the same plane. For a trip 5 years ago were I was just a chaperon, but I knew other band parents planning a trip for a school in a much more affluent town. They flew and had to take at least two flights. The last flight back to Pittsburgh landed after Midnight and they school the next day.

Second you have to take luggage and uniforms and instruments. Thats a lot of stuff to put on a plane and then get off a plane and then back into a plane for the flight back.

Think of all the hassles people have flying with just their families, now multiply that by the number of kids in your band.

With a bus everything and everyone is locked up and easily controlled, if you know what I mean.

Maybe we need a sub-forum for band parents (and former band parents me*) to discuss these trips. When I was Band Booster Secretary I did get a email from someone trying to put together a "Band Mom" website.

*I'm still a band parent but my two sons play for the University of Pittsburgh Varsity Marching Band and since they are now adults can go to the bathroom all by themselves and don't need chaperons.

Congrats on the adult potty!

We are looking into all possibilities! Southwest will charter planes. They will be getting back to me on a price. I'm hoping it is less than a few extra nights in a hotel and 60 hours total on a bus.

 

[chartle]

Congrats on the adult potty!

We are looking into all possibilities! Southwest will charter planes. They will be getting back to me on a price. I'm hoping it is less than a few extra nights in a hotel and 60 hours total on a bus.

A question, how long have you been involved in the booster organization?

The reason I ask is that I was involved for 6 years and the one response you may get is "Well we have always done it this way".

If you are set on doing this, you will need a motor coach company to drive you around, even if you are staying onsite you really can't use Disney transportation. I don't know how many kids are in the band, but even our small band would take forever to move using Disney buses and also for your back stage activities you need your own transportation.

I actually work for a transportation company but not in Fl and i don't know anybody in FL, but this Google search should get you started.

http://www.google.com/search?aq=2&o...ie=UTF-8&q=orlando+motor+coach+transportation

I don't know anything about this company but this is kind of the type of company you need. http://www.alliancebuses.com/ or http://phoenixbusmco.com/index.php

There is also Mears which dominates the Orlando transportation scene.

So you will need the bus company to pick you up at the airport. You should be able to load all your stuff under the bus. The issue is if you can keep it there. On all our trips we have never unloaded the uniforms or instruments because now you have to arrange something with the hotel and of course there is more chance of forgetting something at the hotel.

Good luck

 

[dudspizza]

My son's HS Band is going to Disney and they in the past have gone by bus. 30 hours each way. (boo Hiss) I would love to be able to work out a proposal for the kids to be able to fly and use a Local Florida tour company for the Florida/Disney part of this. In the past they have stayed just 3 nights in FL.

Any suggestion as to a web site I could try or a company I could contact? Any other band mom's out there?

Thanks!

Why not just book a group booking with an airline such are Airtran, use Magical Express, and stay on Disney Property? Our baseball team did this and the coach took care of the booking. Disney can help you with the rooms and ME, you can book the Air.

Airtran offers a small discount for groups of 10 or more... I think it was 5% off of the currently listed price. Give their group booking department a call and check it out....

Best of luck.

Duds

 

[chartle]

Why not just book a group booking with an airline such are Airtran, use Magical Express, and stay on Disney Property? Our baseball team did this and the coach took care of the booking. Disney can help you with the rooms and ME, you can book the Air.

Airtran offers a small discount for groups of 10 or more... I think it was 5% off of the currently listed price. Give their group booking department a call and check it out....

Best of luck.

Duds

Our small band was 54 people. Most bands would be closer to 100 and go up to 300. It would be impossible to book a trip that way. Also you can't take Disney transportation to the back stage areas.

 

[juliebean]

My son's marching band is going in April, and they are flying. But, we live near Newark (lots of nonstops), and it's pretty affluent town, so I don't think a bus was considered. I can only imagine 30 hours on a bus! My son is a freshman, so I am new to this whole thing - but I know the band directors are just having a travel agent take care of all the bus, etc details. I don't think the parents are too involved - beyond sending the money. I'm not sure how all the instruments and uniforms are being handled - it's a large band. I'm no help am I! Maybe call the other local school and see if they used a travel agent?

We are making the most of it and bringing our 5 & 8 year old girls too and then keeping our son for longer to have some family time too. Really looking forward to it, son is too. He loved doing MB this fall.

Have to add - glad to see some other parents of kids going on trips w/bands. I've been looking around the boards for info about this and no one seems to care about it or feel like it's a cool or special thing.

 

[Tink9295]

Mu DD is going in April with her softball team. The team is flying out of Hartford on Southwest. They are staying 6 nights at the All Stars. It also includes tickets, some food vouchers and a couple of character meals. All transportation is provided by Disney, even to the ESPN complex. The cost if about $1200.00. (The flights were refundable or it would be considerably less.) But because the coach is an aggressive fund raiser, (the kids are doing many different types of fundraisers,) the costs is considerably less. Some of the players have raised enough to play for their entire cost of the trip.

Now my DD was also suppose to go with the chorus/band trip in March. This trip was canceled due to lack of commitment from families. Plus there was a lack of fund raising. The cost was more than the softball trip and they weren't even staying at Disney. ( I think that was a major turn off) They were flying. They were using a travel agent instead of going directly through Disney. I think this considerably raises the cost. Also staying off site you have to rent buses for the entire week and not just when you need transportation to certain events.They also hired security at night and while in the hotels.

I think if you look into the Disney Youth Music Program, you can get a lot more information. Good Luck!

 

[seashoreCM]

Southwest will charter planes. They will be getting back to me on a price. I'm hoping it is less than a few extra nights in a hotel and 60 hours total on a bus.

But you will still have to rely on and worry about airport baggage handling crew and procedures.

 

[chartle]

Mu DD is going in April with her softball team. The team is flying out of Hartford on Southwest. They are staying 6 nights at the All Stars. It also includes tickets, some food vouchers and a couple of character meals. All transportation is provided by Disney, even to the ESPN complex. The cost if about $1200.00. (The flights were refundable or it would be considerably less.) But because the coach is an aggressive fund raiser, (the kids are doing many different types of fundraisers,) the costs is considerably less. Some of the players have raised enough to play for their entire cost of the trip.

Now my DD was also suppose to go with the chorus/band trip in March. This trip was canceled due to lack of commitment from families. Plus there was a lack of fund raising. The cost was more than the softball trip and they weren't even staying at Disney. ( I think that was a major turn off) They were flying. They were using a travel agent instead of going directly through Disney. I think this considerably raises the cost. Also staying off site you have to rent buses for the entire week and not just when you need transportation to certain events.They also hired security at night and while in the hotels.

I think if you look into the Disney Youth Music Program, you can get a lot more information. Good Luck!

The Disney Youth Program only helps you with tickets and points you to on and or off site hotels. They are not a full service TA.

Band trips are little different than a baseball or softball team going to Disney.

As I stated above the number of people involved is way less than a band and there is a considerably more equipment to move. Our small (45 kids total) band uses a 20 foot truck to transport the uniforms and instruments. The bass drums themselves are in a drum case that is about 4 foot in diameter and 2 feet tall. Also each one has a oddly shaped harness that just never seems to fit when packing. The larger bands around here pull a 30 foot trailer or use an old school bus with all the seats removed.

As for using Disney transportation even our small group had issues just getting to and taking the ferry back the TTC to catch our bus. Could you imagine the looks if 150 to 300 kids showed up at the POP music bus stop trying to get to the MK. They would need maybe 8 buses (?) just for them.

With this many kids you need to control the situation as much as possible, locking everyone into a bus or buses is sometimes the best way to control things.

Also the overnight security is not to protect the kids but to make sure they stayed in their rooms. Even staying on site we would hire someone. We also pick hotels with interior hallways and no balconies.

We have never stayed on site because it would cost more and we would get less. We pick larger suite style hotels that have a breakfast of some sort.

A Disney Band trip is not like your normal Family Vacation. You sometimes have to give up certain things up for the good of the trip.

Not using a TA is the way to go if you have a group of parents (or just me) who knows all the little things you need to take care.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

If you are looking for a bus to drive you around to your performance and/or workshops while at Disney, use Mears. They know Disney like the back of their hands, have reasonable rates for youth groups, and when I have used them for my singing group - have always been on time and very curteous to the kids and my director. I book through Samantha each trip and she is great to work with, even found us a cheaper way to book the bus AFTER we had signed the contract and paid the deposit. Her email is Samantha Steff [ssteff@MearsTransportation.com].

 

[disfan07]

We used Disney transportation when we went for Both Festival Disney and Disney Magic Music Days.

There were 130 of us plus chaperones.

We took buses both times from VA to Disney. We had 3 buses plus 2 Trucks for equipment but when we got to Disney, we use dtheir transportation except for to and from performances.

We stayed at POFQ for the trip

Our small band was 54 people. Most bands would be closer to 100 and go up to 300. It would be impossible to book a trip that way.

Not impossible. We went to San Francisco with 140 band members plus chaperones.
2 separate flights (about 80 ppl on each flight)
3 buses in SFO


Its not impossible. If the band wants to fly you:
book flights. My mom was in charge of the trips and she used a TA for all of the trips.
Charter buses down in orlando. IMO, if staying on Disney property, you only need the buses for performances and airport transportation.
Have parents drive the trucks with the equipment down to Orlando.
We always did that. We had 4-6 truck drivers and they would leave the day before us and drive to wherever we were going. They did this for marching band, spring trips, drumline, etc.

A question, how long have you been involved in the booster organization?

The reason I ask is that I was involved for 6 years and the one response you may get is "Well we have always done it this way".

If you are set on doing this, you will need a motor coach company to drive you around, even if you are staying onsite you really can't use Disney transportation. I don't know how many kids are in the band, but even our small band would take forever to move using Disney buses and also for your back stage activities you need your own transportation.

I actually work for a transportation company but not in Fl and i don't know anybody in FL, but this Google search should get you started.

http://www.google.com/search?aq=2&oq...transportation

I don't know anything about this company but this is kind of the type of company you need. http://www.alliancebuses.com/ or http://phoenixbusmco.com/index.php

There is also Mears which dominates the Orlando transportation scene.

So you will need the bus company to pick you up at the airport. You should be able to load all your stuff under the bus. The issue is if you can keep it there. On all our trips we have never unloaded the uniforms or instruments because now you have to arrange something with the hotel and of course there is more chance of forgetting something at the hotel.

Good luck

Again...you can use disney transportation for park and hotel use. We did it for both trips. Its not as difficult as you make it out to be.

You should ALWAYS unload EVERYTHING from the bus when you get to the hotel! Leaving stuff on teh bus would never have been okay in our band. Instruments, uniforms, etc were to ALWAYS be in the posession of the band member OR in the hotel room. I dont see what you are talking about leaving things on the bus. What are you talking about having to arrange with the hotel to unload eveyrthing?

When we performed at Disney, we changed at the hotel, went to the performance area, left our cases backstage and than after we performed, we changed and went back to the hotel, dropped eveyrthing off and went to the parks.

When we performed at other venues (hotels, schools, etc) they would have rooms set aside to store cases, unforms, etc. Nothing was left on the bus.

I'm very confused as to what problems you are talking about.

 

[Lewisc]

Some of us are still able to book deeply discounted money losing fares (under $250 R/T).

An airline isn't likely to offer a rock bottom fare to a large group or charter. Let everyone book their own airfare and a few people would be able to grab airfare lower then the group fare but many would wind up paying more. The last people to book might have to pay the fully refundable fare. Group bookings frequently let you delay paying and will let you change passengers. You might be able to get some kind of bulk rate on luggage or even instruments.

You might want to ask the posters who booked these kinds of trips. I don't know if you break out the cost of airfare with the parents.

I'll speculate you may have at least one parent who will see an ad for a fare sale and want to know why you can't rebook the entire group at that fare.

 

[chartle]

Its not impossible. If the band wants to fly you:
book flights. My mom was in charge of the trips and she used a TA for all of the trips.
Charter buses down in orlando. IMO, if staying on Disney property, you only need the buses for performances and airport transportation.
Have parents drive the trucks with the equipment down to Orlando.
We always did that. We had 4-6 truck drivers and they would leave the day before us and drive to wherever we were going. They did this for marching band, spring trips, drumline, etc.



Again...you can use disney transportation for park and hotel use. We did it for both trips. Its not as difficult as you make it out to be.

You should ALWAYS unload EVERYTHING from the bus when you get to the hotel! Leaving stuff on teh bus would never have been okay in our band. Instruments, uniforms, etc were to ALWAYS be in the posession of the band member OR in the hotel room. I dont see what you are talking about leaving things on the bus. What are you talking about having to arrange with the hotel to unload eveyrthing?

When we performed at Disney, we changed at the hotel, went to the performance area, left our cases backstage and than after we performed, we changed and went back to the hotel, dropped eveyrthing off and went to the parks.

When we performed at other venues (hotels, schools, etc) they would have rooms set aside to store cases, unforms, etc. Nothing was left on the bus.

I'm very confused as to what problems you are talking about.

OK impossible was most likely the wrong word.

I think the issue we have is we don't travel much and we get very little support for the band member's parents. Since no one wants to be too involved the same people have been on the booster Executive board for the past 4 years or so, in fact since we kind of have "term limits" they just move around from position to position.

I guess since I was the equipment manager I tried to keep things as simple as possible. We kept as much stuff locked on the bus as possible much, less chance of it being lost. I could also imagine the kids having their instruments in their rooms and them deciding that they wanted to have a little jam session at 3 am.

The thing that I can't figure out how you pulled off getting everyone at the bus stop and on buses to the parks.

The only thing I can imagine was you let everyone just do their own thing and go to whatever park they wanted.

If sounds like you guys do a lot more trips than we do and are more organized. Like I posted, my sons now are in Pitt's marching band and they seem to use military precision when they take trips.

The point I was trying to make was that a band trip is not the same as a baseball or softball trip.

 

[juliebean]

Just checking in to see how things are working out? Don't get discouraged, I'm sure there is a way this will all work out!

All these snow days are wreaking havoc on our HS plans for our band's trip in April!

 

[NotUrsula]

Generally speaking, a charter is going to be prohibitively expensive. SWA's 737's only carry a maximum of 137 passengers; most bands go way over that for a trip that requires chaperones and staff.

I know that quite a lot of the groups I'm familiar with will fly the people but drive the equipment; they will load a panel truck and send it on its way the day before the flight.

It usually isn't a great idea to leave equipment locked in a truck in a hotel lot unless you have people available to mount a 24/7 guard on the truck.
I know of at least 3 instances where bands lost everything because someone stole the equipment truck from the hotel lot. Consider asking the hotel to remove the beds from a room for storage instead; they will often throw in an extra room if you have guaranteed a certain number of rooms.

 

[SilverMickey]

Thanks for everyone food for thought! I have managed to speak to a few parents with kids that seem to spend their high school careers traveling with band.

Our school has only been to Disney once before and even traveling out of state is fairly new to our school.

I have only been a part of the Band boosters for 3 years and I'm among very few old timers.

We are doing a huge amount of fund raising! (The worst is cleaning a race track after indie races) Race fans leave a huge mess! Th most fun? (and least work) a tubing party at a local ski area. If I never bake another pie it will be ok with me!

I think we have about 70ish kids in band and another 60 or so in chorus. In the past they required 1 chaperone for every 15 kids. Our band can get all equipment and kids to a parade in 2 school busses with room to spare.

I'm not dead set on flying to Disney however I wouldn't put myself through that long a bus ride unless there was no other possible way. 60 hours total on a bus... ick

Thanks again for the input!

 

[chartle]

I'm not dead set on flying to Disney however I wouldn't put myself through that long a bus ride unless there was no other possible way. 60 hours total on a bus... ick

Thanks again for the input!

You would be surprised how quickly time goes by on a bus.

We left 7:00 PM ish Sunday night to arrive at approx. 4:00 PM Monday and do nothing the first night except eat pizza and hopefully swim.

We barely get one movie in before its lights out. In the middle of the night around 2:00 AM we switch drivers. I woke up and then started to figure out where to eat breakfast. Once done with breakfast I was worrying about lunch and then we were there.

I would assume you would have to leave sometime in the morning.

My first trip we had one girl having contact lens issues. She had the kind where you have to take them out before you go to bed. Well since she "didn't go to bed" she left them in. She woke up and thought that her one lens had gone up in her eye. All morning people where digging in her eye because they thought they saw it. I wish I had pictures of her laying on her back on a bench while people squirted solution in her eye.

Well we had to find somewhere to take care of the problem. Our bus driver had one of those new GPS devices and it took us to the nearest hospital. It was noon so we just ate a long lunch.

Turns out she lost the lens overnight and she scratched her cornea. All the digging didn't help. She got some drops and of course didn't wear her contacts all week.

These trips are fun. The best advice I can give is that these trips are not like normal family trips. Because of the performances and the classes you may take you don't get a lot of park time so things like ADRs sometimes don't work.