Marching band at MK, staying offsite-do they include meal vouchers?

[bcinohio]

A question for those who have had kids in marching bands that march at the MK. DS marching band in marching at the MK the last week of March 2011. They have not released a lot of information yet other than saying they are going to stay offsite. I was just wondering if anyone has been with a band that stayed offsite if the group had meal vouchers that they purchased ahead of time? I'm a planner and DH is going with the band and the rest of the family is staying onsite and flying down. I was just trying to figure out about how much it is going to cost. What we are getting from the band people is about$700 but didn't say if that included the food in the parks or if we had to pay for food on top of the $700 all week. I figured we would have to pay for food on the travel days. It is only 8 months away and not a lot of time to save.

Thanks for any help.

 

[secretpantssam]

When I was in Marching Band ( and this was like 12 years ago) and we marched in MK and stayed offsite, we got one meal ticket for the parks each day. I think the hotel provided breakfast and so we only really had to pay for one meal. But again this was YEARS ago so it may have changed and I'm sure each group has different plans.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Ours didn't tell us much until 2 months before. They did collect payments though. The total cost we paid for DS was only 475.00 plus 10.00 for a special Tshirt that had to wear in the parks. The chaperones washed the T-shirts every night. That was for 3 park days and 1 water park day.

Our kids stayed offsite and they got free breakfast at the hotel and a meal voucher for one meal in the parks. The parents had to give their kids money for the other meal, snacks, and souveniers. They recommended no more than 120.00 total for the 4 days.

We knew our DS14 is an eater and would need more drinks to stay hydrated so we gave him more.

Our band group kept saying they would be playing in "the parks" but they ended up playing at DTD. It was nice to be able to sit and enjoy their playing even though it was in full sun.

They didn't tell us which park the kids would be in on which day until the week before they left. Of course I had us in different parks then the kids were because I followed TGM advice for planning and couldn't get my ADR's changed to match their parks at that late in the game. It was ok though. DS14 liked not having his parents around.

Have fun!

 

[D&D's Mom]

Our son's band went this past spring. Their trip did not include meal vouchers for the park, but what we paid included each student being given $20 cash for each day each morning by the chaperone. So, even if no voucher, you should check to see if the meal cost is included somehow.

 

[bcinohio]

Thanks for the replies. The band has not been very open about details yet. I'm a planner and if I was going to WDW as a family in March I would already have to hotel booked and be looking at what days for what park and where to eat. The hard thing is my mom, younger son and myself are going down to watch them march and need to make ressies too. It is just hard not knowing what is going on. I guess I just need to wait.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

our school will be having the parent meeting about this in the next few weeks so I will ask.

 

[Piecey]

I went in 2004 with my band, we stayed offsite-- we got meal vouchers for each day in the Disney Parks plus our day in Universal. Our dinners were planned elsewhere and covered, too- one night was a pizza pool party back at the hotel, a dinner show, etc.

I think my parents paid $375. 1 Universal Day, 1 Epcot, 1 MK, 1 Hollywood Studios (where we marched) and Wet-N-Wild.

 

[richmond282]

No, they ended the meal voucher program a couple of years ago. We went 2 years ago and could not get the vouchers.

 

[ebhurleys]

I was in on the planning of one of these trips. The truth is that the planners are given a price list and need to put the options together themselves. So it really depends on who is making the decisions. Our band opted to stay on site becuase we flew and to rent a bus would have been more than staying on site. There is a tremendous amount of decision making that goes into the process. I would not wish it on anyone. As fas as where the band plays that information is not available from disney until approx 1 week before and the school has no real input, they are assigned performances. I know not everyone was happy with every decision but we tried to do the best for the group as a whole. We took our whole high school music program so there were some students who performed with every group and logistics were not always easy.

 

[disneyfan007]

My son was there during March 2009. They stayed offsite. They were given breakfast at the hotel and one meal ticket for $15.00 for the remainder of the day. They ordered pizza a night or two back at the hotel. I made sure he had extra money for meals or drinks. As previous poster mentioned, it will probably depend on the planner and what they choose.

 

[scrappinmom]

My daughter just went last March, they didnt get vouchers for meals specifically...they got a gift card each day with $15 on it to use for lunch and/or dinner. they stayed offsite and had breakfast at the hotel daily. For the girls $15 a day seemed to cover snack & one meal. For the boys, it didn't seem like enough they spent some of their own money as well. I was a chaperone and would ask my girls each day what they had to eat, just to make sure they didn't NOT eat to buy a sweatshirt or something.

 

[jamounger]

My daughter's orchestra played at a compitition there last year. They stayed off site and did have meal vouchers for in the park.

 

[mrsklamc]

Find out who is in charge, be it band booster president, director, whatever. Call them up and say very nicely, "I'm SO hoping you can help me. We're going to be traveling with/at the same time as the band, and I need some help with the details.' or whatever. We on the DIS can speculate, but only your band's planning people know for sure.