School trip fastpass

[gabbyrodman]

my niece is going to all 4 parks on 4 days in April with her band class at spring break. (I know how crazy it is). Problem is she's probably not going to get her tickets till that morning. Can anyone tell me if there's a way she can link tickets earlier? I don't know how band trips work. I would imagine they get their tickets through Disney if they're playing at the park. Can anyone help me steer her so she can make fp ahead of times for her and 3 friends on app?

 

[scrappingbuckeye]

More than likely they are getting their tickets thru the Disney Performing Arts - that's how you get discounted tickets when you are scheduled to perform. She should try to talk to the person in charge of planning the trip. More than likely they have rooms booked so her fastpasses would be avail 60 days out. All of the room & tickets are booked thru DPA by one of the people in charge of the trip. If she can get the room reservation info she can link it to her MDE account and go from there. My daughter's dance team did this in January this year, it was a lot of fun.

 

[d-train]

I take my choir every other year. This happens to be one of those years. I use a travel agent that specializes with trips like this, but I have done the planning myself as well in the past, with similar results. For our April 2017 trip, I already have our room confirmation numbers and inputed mine into MDE, so it works fine. I always get our park pass numbers at about 63 days from arrival, pass those numbers out to the kids and help them set up their MDE accounts, linking them to mine. We always can make fast passes. Every time. I make them link to mine because I also purchase a memory maker, and then collect their photo pass cards, already have their ticket numbers. Upon returning, I enter all those numbers and redeem my photo pass, thereby also getting all the photos from all the kids, then share them all with the kids. We came home with almost 4000 photo pass pictures on the last trip. (Only a couple hundred were from me personally, lol!). Sharing that many photos...glad my IT Dept was helpful on that task! Lol!

The only reason your child is not,getting the confirmation numbers would be either a travel agent not doing their job well, or the teacher is over controlling, not knowing, or caring, how to have the best WDW experience...

A coy but frank conversation with the teacher would give you the answer as to which of those reasons it is...just sayin'....

 

[chartle]

I'm following this because when my kids were in High School I went on 2 trips as a chaperone, the second I did a lot of the planning.

This was years before Magic bands so I can only help so much with questions like this but the post above explains it the best.

The only reason your child is not,getting the confirmation numbers would be either a travel agent not doing their job well, or the teacher is over controlling, not knowing, or caring, how to have the best WDW experience...

But I can add that these kinds of trip you have to keep control of the little things so they don't turn into big things. When it was just the old FP system the issue was a lot of groups handed out your YES ticket at the gate and then collected them once in so no FP's at all.

So I hope this trip is being planned by someone that knows how things work these days. Through the years of following these trips there have even been TA's that no idea how it worked.

One last note, realize that trips like this can be very stressful for the teacher so they may have rules that they have to have just to keep them from stressing out. So please let your child know this will not be a normal WDW trip.

We had a very good parent booster organization so our director just had to sign off on things and try to enjoy the trip.

I only had one issue with him. Our last day was always DHS and since it was the last day and we didn't have to be anywhere like a class we would get to the park at around 10 10:30. Ugh DOESN'T HE KNOW TS FP's WILL BE GONE BY THEN.

 

[Sydney2977]

We are sort of in the same boat. DS is going with his band in April to "Orlando" and supposedly marching in the Magic Kingdom parade one day. Because of my work schedule I am not able to go to the booster meetings. He actually wants me to chaperone ("We can't get stuck with certain moms!") so of course I said yes! My issue is I have no details so far except the dates- which they just voted on and finalized at the beginning of Dec! No idea where we're staying, what parks (Universal has been mentioned, which DS is not super excited about since he doesn't like thrill rides much), eating situations, nothing!!!

It's stressing me out! I am a super planner so that once we get there I know what's going on and we can really enjoy ourselves. We are spoiled and have stayed on site every trip and I always plan out food, park days, fp, etc. I have already explained to DS that this is NOT going to be like a typical family trip. I think I need to start looking at it like no matter what, I can still make some magical memories with my son and his friends, and get a taste of what a solo trip is like.

Keep us posted on how your niece's trip plans are going.

 

[d-train]

An update on my choir trip planning - In December I received the room confirmation numbers and I was able to input mine into my MDE fine.
I am expecting to receive ticket numbers from my TA, who gets them from DPA, about 60 days before we arrive.
Last trip, we were off site, and received ticket numbers at the 30 day mark - had to ask the TA for the specifically...
We put them in our MDE accounts then, and made FP reservations.

 

[chartle]

I have already explained to DS that this is NOT going to be like a typical family trip.

This is the main tip I generally give in these kinds of threads. Its just best to go with the flow and realize that all your tips, strategies and traditions get thrown out the door. Get used to hurry up and wait.

One thing I can tell you, unless something has changed, is that you will not march "in" any of the MK parades. You march either before the parade or in a parade all your own or with maybe other bands if its a busy school trip season (spring break). We always went last week in Feb so a slow time if you miss Mardi Gras. We always marched a half hour before the parade.

Oh wait I have video.

Sorry about the shaky cam with bad youtube unshake.

 

[Music City Mama]

My DS is going on a school band trip during spring break (in which I'm chaperoning) and I've asked these questions of the band director who said she'd check with the travel company. They evidently go every other year, but this is the first time since everything is FP+ (it was in existence last time, but I guess they didn't utilize it since it was newish).

She really doesn't understand how it will all work even though I've tried to explain and offer my assistance. The last I heard from her in mid-November was that she'd try to get my questions answered, but with our 60 days fast approaching, I'm getting antsy that I haven't heard back. I've explained that there is absolutely no reason that every student (about 150) wouldn't have the ability to make 3 FP+ reservations 60 days in advance (but hopefully before 30 days) as long as the travel company (she uses the same one each time) provides the info and there is no reason for them not to provide that to us.

 

[Sydney2977]

chortle- thanks for sharing the videos! Yea, I figured they would be marching on their own or with other groups- it's so cool though! Hopefully the kids will have a little more leeway once we actually get into the parks and it will only be a situation of "be here at this time to leave" in the mornings and nights.

I probably should have mentioned that the band is only in it's 7th year of existence since it's a new school. Older DS was a freshman when the band started and had one director for 4 years. The only trip they did was to a competition out of state and then to an amusement park for one day. Then when younger DS was a freshman they go a new director. With it being a new program so much initial fundraising money had to go to set up, equipment, etc. so it's nice that the kids can do something fun this year. Including color guard we have about 150 kids but I have no idea how many are going.

I am still waiting for info to come out about this trip because I don't want to be "that parent" but I too am getting antsy!

 

[chartle]

1. Hopefully the kids will have a little more leeway once we actually get into the parks and it will only be a situation of "be here at this time to leave" in the mornings and nights.

2. I am still waiting for info to come out about this trip because I don't want to be "that parent" but I too am getting antsy!

1. Just so you know to get ready for the 3:00 parade we had to meet back up behind Pecos Bill's at around 12:30 which means the larger the group the earlier the director may say to be there. We were a small group so he told us 12:00 expecting 12:15. They didn't get back into the park until after 4:00 so a huge hunk of time lost. Also if they do the class at Epcot, it starts first thing and they are not back until almost 1:00 PM.

As I said we were a small band and mostly trusted the kids. We went into the park and told the kids when to meet back up. Never had a problem and this was before everyone had a Cell Phone.

In both trips I had a group of kids that I toured with not because they had to but because I hope it was that I was the "cool" dad . Also a few kids where a little younger, we were 7th-12th, and a parent asked if their younger child could tour with us. Not a problem because he was the younger brother of one of my son's friends (we only lost him once for a few minutes ). For the second trip we toured as a group of 11 which was close to a fourth of our group. I have read that some groups tour only with Chaperones in small groups.

For the end of the day for MK and Epcot we met up before Wishes and Illuminations. For DHS we just met up outside. We never went to AK because we only had 3 days in the parks.

2. As for being that parent, you may have to bite your tongue and not say anything for the benefit of the group. It all depends on the dynamics of your group