wallywolverine
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2001
- Messages
- 5
Feb. 23 to Feb. 28
6 days, 5 nights
10 chaperones and 14 kids (10,11 years old)
Disney Y.E.S. program (Youth Education Series)
All-Star (aka "all-kids") Sports
Weather: "Awesome" ....low 80's during the
day and 60's at night. No monsoon rains.
Since we are from Michigan, repeated ravings
about the weather will be unavoidable.
Pre-Trip : My daughter's 4th grade teacher
takes a group of 4th and 5th graders down to
Florida every year. WIth the help of her efforts
and Disney, the trip is a vacation and a learning
experience for everyone. (They did miss 2 days of
school.) I missed 4 days of work , yehah !!
My daughter, Emily and I excitedly counted down
the days to Disney. Our family had been there for a week in "94 at Carribean Beach and in '97 at ASMU.
The '97 trip was between Christmas and New Years
and the decorations and atmosphere were great.
Day 1 : Up at 4 AM, finish last minute packing,
my dear wife and youngest daughter are driving us
to the airport. We pick up Emily's friend and classmate and we're on our way. It's 15 degrees.
Our flight leaves at 7:30 and we have one changeover in Atlanta. We get lots of smiles from
total strangers as they survey our caravan of kids
as we snake our way through the concourses of the
never ending Atlanta airport. At last, wheels up and we are Disney bound. We land in Orlando, grab
our gear and make a trail to the Animal Kingdom,
while our luggage departs to All-Kids Sports.
We arrive at AK at 1:30pm. 80 and sunny. We are
happy campers. We split into groups so everyone can go at their own pace and do whatever they want. This strategy works great and as the trip
progresses our small groups are constantly changing and this helps keep the kids from wearing
on each other.
We check out lots of wildlife , eat lunch and
visit the shops. Next is Kali river rapids where
we are soaked to the gills.
The kids play in the boneyard for awhile before
we head out to meet up with everyone at 4:30.
Since this trip is for the kids, we let them have a large part in the decision making. It gets
crazy sometimes, but we keep things moving in the right direction. Knowing this ahead of time and
being a Disney veteran, I am making sure that
everyone has a good time. We are on vacation !!!
Most of us head back to the hotel to get into our
rooms, swim , change, eat and then head out to
MGM. We make it there by 7pm and ride the Tower
of Terror....twice in 15 minutes. It seems that
everyone else is in Fantasmic. They are....when
the show lets out the masses of humanity are
everywhere.
We grab a late snack , check out a few shops and
work our way back to the buses. We had started to wait in line for Rock-n-Roll coaster, but the line was an hour long. Will use fast-pass on this at a later date.
Mickey is going to call me at 6:30 AM , so it's
off to bed .....after one more swim and kicking
field goals through the "real" goal posts on the
football field with my new roommates...more on this later..........we haven't lost any kids yet!!
Day 2 .....Discovery Cove and SeaWorld...
6 days, 5 nights
10 chaperones and 14 kids (10,11 years old)
Disney Y.E.S. program (Youth Education Series)
All-Star (aka "all-kids") Sports
Weather: "Awesome" ....low 80's during the
day and 60's at night. No monsoon rains.
Since we are from Michigan, repeated ravings
about the weather will be unavoidable.
Pre-Trip : My daughter's 4th grade teacher
takes a group of 4th and 5th graders down to
Florida every year. WIth the help of her efforts
and Disney, the trip is a vacation and a learning
experience for everyone. (They did miss 2 days of
school.) I missed 4 days of work , yehah !!
My daughter, Emily and I excitedly counted down
the days to Disney. Our family had been there for a week in "94 at Carribean Beach and in '97 at ASMU.
The '97 trip was between Christmas and New Years
and the decorations and atmosphere were great.
Day 1 : Up at 4 AM, finish last minute packing,
my dear wife and youngest daughter are driving us
to the airport. We pick up Emily's friend and classmate and we're on our way. It's 15 degrees.
Our flight leaves at 7:30 and we have one changeover in Atlanta. We get lots of smiles from
total strangers as they survey our caravan of kids
as we snake our way through the concourses of the
never ending Atlanta airport. At last, wheels up and we are Disney bound. We land in Orlando, grab
our gear and make a trail to the Animal Kingdom,
while our luggage departs to All-Kids Sports.
We arrive at AK at 1:30pm. 80 and sunny. We are
happy campers. We split into groups so everyone can go at their own pace and do whatever they want. This strategy works great and as the trip
progresses our small groups are constantly changing and this helps keep the kids from wearing
on each other.
We check out lots of wildlife , eat lunch and
visit the shops. Next is Kali river rapids where
we are soaked to the gills.
The kids play in the boneyard for awhile before
we head out to meet up with everyone at 4:30.
Since this trip is for the kids, we let them have a large part in the decision making. It gets
crazy sometimes, but we keep things moving in the right direction. Knowing this ahead of time and
being a Disney veteran, I am making sure that
everyone has a good time. We are on vacation !!!
Most of us head back to the hotel to get into our
rooms, swim , change, eat and then head out to
MGM. We make it there by 7pm and ride the Tower
of Terror....twice in 15 minutes. It seems that
everyone else is in Fantasmic. They are....when
the show lets out the masses of humanity are
everywhere.
We grab a late snack , check out a few shops and
work our way back to the buses. We had started to wait in line for Rock-n-Roll coaster, but the line was an hour long. Will use fast-pass on this at a later date.
Mickey is going to call me at 6:30 AM , so it's
off to bed .....after one more swim and kicking
field goals through the "real" goal posts on the
football field with my new roommates...more on this later..........we haven't lost any kids yet!!
Day 2 .....Discovery Cove and SeaWorld...
