Disney Youth Education Series

[menicksmom]

Planning a trip to Disney World with my Mother-in-Law & 13 year old homeschooled son. Has anyone attended the Disney YES programs? Are they worthwhile? It appears they all start early in the morning before the park opens, so I haven't noticed the tours before. They have quite a selection! The website says only 1 adult chaperone per child (which can change daily), but does anyone know if I can still purchase the YES tickets for all 3 people so the 3 of us can go to the park for remainder of the day?

What was your favorite class?

[currence]

I recently helped book a YES package so I can answer some of the planning questions and none of the "how was it" questions.

Per the website you can buy as many adult tickets as you have kid tickets with the exception that if you only have one kid you can still buy two adult tickets. So yes, you can buy enough YES tickets for all three adults. The YES tickets are separate from the admission to the YES event, so you can buy more than just the tickets that you would need for that day. From the website, the minimum ticket package is 3 days. I believe the tickets that I helped buy were 5-day hoppers.

The one caveat that I read elsewhere was that these tickets are not at all upgradeable, so buy more than you think you would need. The people I was helping originally only wanted 4-days at the major parks but I talked them into 5 days instead. The cost was only $10 extra per ticket so if they don't use the 5th day, they haven't lost a lot of money. And now they have the flexibility to add a major park on their dedicated water park day if the weather doesn't cooperate or for any other reason.

Note that the individual enrollment is only available certain times of the year and are not listed more than about 6 months in advance. So that does make planning a bit harder. We were fortunate that the other stuff was already booked and there was a YES class that we thought the kid would enjoy so it was plugged into an already scheduled trip.

If you click "purchase tickets" on the YES website, it will take you to the selection page and from there you can see what dates are currently available/sold out which may give you a little bit more understanding of your options.

[menicksmom]

I recently helped book a YES package so I can answer some of the planning questions and none of the "how was it" questions.

The YES tickets are separate from the admission to the YES event, so you can buy more than just the tickets that you would need for that day. From the website, the minimum ticket package is 3 days. I believe the tickets that I helped buy were 5-day hoppers.

The one caveat that I read elsewhere was that these tickets are not at all upgradeable, so buy more than you think you would need.

If you click "purchase tickets" on the YES website, it will take you to the selection page and from there you can see what dates are currently available/sold out which may give you a little bit more understanding of your options.

So the cost of the YES series is IN ADDITION TO the the park tickets? I just got an email back from Disney and they said I can take 2 adults to the class with the 13 year old, but when I try to click on both adults on the order form it tells me I've exceeded the amount of adults, so I have another email out to them. It would be kind of hard to get one adult to the class and leave the other in the car (since it looks like the classes start early before the park opens).

[currence]

I believe at WDW 1 YES class is included with the tickets and you can buy more classes at a reduced cost if you want to. We only signed up for one class so I don't know much about the process of signing up for more than one class.

I don't know about multiple adults staying for the class, the people I helped plan with basically flipped a coin as to who would go to the class and the other one will stay and finish packing up the room since the class is offered the morning that they are checking out/going home. If Disney has already indicated they will make an exception for you then they are the best people to tell you how they want you to do it.

[momof three]

So the cost of the YES series is IN ADDITION TO the the park tickets? I just got an email back from Disney and they said I can take 2 adults to the class with the 13 year old, but when I try to click on both adults on the order form it tells me I've exceeded the amount of adults, so I have another email out to them. It would be kind of hard to get one adult to the class and leave the other in the car (since it looks like the classes start early before the park opens).

Just e-mail or call them. I had lots of questions because we had AP's and I didn't want to buy extra tickets. (FYI-AP's are no help with the YES programs.) They responed to my e-mails very quickly.

My daughter is a 2nd grader. We did Wild by Nature and Synergy in Science last fall. She and I enjoyed both experiences. I highly recommend the YES classes.

Im not sure about the two parents for one child thing as I was traveling alone with my daughter and never thought to ask about this. Sorry.

I can tell you that several parents did tell me that they ordered their park tickets for their families through the YES program as they are far less expensive to buy this way. Some even mentioned that they planned their entire vacations around the YES class schedule. As the saving is pretty substantial.

Mily

[hmsharpe]

I was looking at this program as well and it looks great for my older children does anyone happen to know when they release the dates for next year and how fast it books up?

[menicksmom]

I can tell you they DON'T offer the programs in November or December.

[currence]

It looks like they have about 3 months of dates available, on a rolling basis. Right now they have classes posted through the end of October. I read elsewhere that they possibly only offer the individual enrollment during certain times of the year. I don't know if that is still the case. The class for 5-year old kids and Wild by Nature (which takes kids 7-14) are all sold out for the dates released. If you are interested in a popular class you might want to contact Disney to see if there is a set release time for new listings. Otherwise, if you have a while before your trip you could probably monitor the website and determine if there are any specific patterns. We got lucky because they planned their trip first and then noticed there was an interesting class offered during the time they are there.

[WITron]

If you go to the YES website, there is an option to sign up for updates.