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death from below
04-13-2007, 06:20 AM
I am a chaperone for my son's 8th grade band trip to Disneyland in May. The band is doing the seminar with the Disney musicians. From what I understand, they show the kids how they make the music for the movies. They show a movie without the sound track and then they play live to the movie. After that they instruct the kids on how it is done. Then they film the kids playing to the movie.
All this is done backstage at Disneyland. I can't wait to see what it looks like. My son is also excited about going. They even mentioned that they might receive a DVD of the them playing with the movie.
What I am not looking forward to is the 8 hour bus ride down to LA from the Bay Area with a whole bunch of middle school kids. :confused:
I think we leave on a Friday at 7:30 am and spend that day relaxing. We then get up on Saturday when Disneyland opens and leave that night at 11:00 pm and get back home around 7:00 am on Sunday.
A question, has anyone here done this or has had their kids do this?
Thanks in advance.

Katlovett
04-13-2007, 07:30 AM
Way back when (class of 1982) my high school's marching band and drill team - including me - performed at Disneyland. Subsequently, my daughter's high school girls choir performed during "Music Days" at Disneyland, and I went along with their group. I have never done the specific movie music activity you refer to, but I have the following hints:

1) Bring a portable DVD player with a fully charged battery and a variety of movies. Either the kids on the bus around you will want to watch (and will knock off the rowdyness), or you can plug in earphones and watch your favorite movie and ignore the rowdyness. Also, then you can immediately watch the DVD that Disneyland gives you. Target has a fairly decent one for about $69.

2) My daughter's choir had a problem with adult men approaching the girls at Disneyland after their performance, and making arrangements to meet them at night at nearby bars outside the park. We practically had to patrol the halls of the hotel until one parent came up with a wonderful plan. We told the students that we would seal their rooms from the outside (I think someone had some stickers or stamps or labels) and if anyone had a broken seal in the morning then we would call each of their parents to come get them immediately. I don't know how much of a problem this would be for middle school students instead of high school students.

My experiences at Disneyland were that Disneyland is very organized and you will be expertly guided through the whole process.

Katprint

dlandnut
04-13-2007, 11:45 AM
I have had this wonderful experience a few times when my daughter was in high school a few years ago. Our award-winning high school marching band traveled to Southern California and marched at Disneyland, among other things. We left in the early evening (four tour busses), and traveled all night and then got to So Cal that morning, enjoyed a breakfast buffet (boy, those high school boys can eat!, lol), and then arrived at Disneyland when it opened. Although an exhausting trip, I can honestly say that those experiences are the best! The kids were/are awesome. Don't miss out on the whole band experience! If your child is in the 8th grade, I promise you that if your child sticks with it (the whole band scene), the best is yet to come!

Our band was 170+ strong. I spent a lot of time with other chaperones, parents, etc., but also spent part of the day by myself, doing my own thing. It was a wonderful experience. Good luck to your band! :)

dawnid
04-13-2007, 12:08 PM
Both of my children have played with their HS Marching Band and my son did the seminar with his HS Jazz Band. You will NOT be allowed to take any pictures backstage, make sure the band director cautions the kids to respect any characters backstage, this is the fastest way to blackball your school from every returning and being sent home. Also, the kids get so excited, I've seen "mob mentality" take over and its not pretty (not our school) and the characters have their guard down because they are backstage.

The band directer does get a copy of the performance, ask your CM escort when you are there if you can purchase a copy for yourself. I waited until we got home and our director, who I love dearly, wasn't much help in finding out how to get a copy for myself. I know when you march you can purchase a copy of the group picture from delivears.

Every year we went I made a Priority Seating at the Blue Bayou for the chaperones and director. It was nice to have one quiet grown up meal. The Priority Seating # is 714-781-dine.

The label/sticker idea is great, that's what the chaperones did when the kids went to Washington, D.C..

But mostly have FUN!

JadaB
04-13-2007, 07:17 PM
I just wanted to 2nd everyone on what they posted (althought I guess that doesn't help much! :p )
I also did this with our marching band when I was in the 8th grade hehe, although I was in attached units (flags). We drove from Fairfield, CA to DL, which was also about 8-9 hours. I remember we had a lot of fun, but as all kids do, we got a little rowdy. :D We got to go backstage and like everyone else had mentioned, they were very strict about us not really talking to the performers or characters and definitely no pictures. But just the experience of being backstage was worth it!! I think we checked in a couple of times with our room mom before cruising the park for a while, I have to say I think they had as much fun as we did.

PS. our Chaperones also did the "sealing" of the hotel doors!! I just thought that was funny!

MinnieMomma
04-14-2007, 01:21 PM
My kids have played music with Disneyland 2 different ways. One way is playing onstage at the bandstand on the west side of the castle. They are very strict with them both backstage and on stage. No pictures, no running, the shoe issue is very strictly inforced; only black dress shoes. If you have on even black athletic shoes, you are not allowed on stage.
My youngest daughter has also done the "playing with the musician" day. It is much more casual, but she learned a lot, they got to record a song that was played back with a Disney movie for them (I think it was Hercules). She brought home a t-shirt from that day. I'll check with her on more details when she gets home this afternoon.
We're local, so its just a day trip, no hotels involved.

MinnieMomma
04-15-2007, 04:48 PM
I just checked with my 8th grader about the "playing with the movie" day vs actually playing on stage. They all loved the day they spent recording the music. It was their favorite because the whole thing just took a little over a hour and they got to spend the rest of the day in the park. When they play on stage, their call time is a hour before they play, they have to change into concert dress, walk over to the stage, play all the songs, walk backstage around behind ToonTown, change back into their "play" clothes, put the instruments away and then they can go back to the park. At least 3 hours out of their day is used up by playing. So to the 12 or 13 year olds, recording the music is a much better use of their fun time.

HobbitFeet
04-15-2007, 09:08 PM
1. For days now I've been thinking that your subject line meant that your adult son was in a *band* and he was playing at some club and you were cool and going with him. :)


2.
We told the students that we would seal their rooms from the outside (I think someone had some stickers or stamps or labels) and if anyone had a broken seal in the morning then we would call each of their parents to come get them immediately. I don't know how much of a problem this would be for middle school students instead of high school students.

Oh wow, that would have been a good idea for our 8th grade Washington DC trip. Not b/c of the adult man issue, but b/c of the 8th graders wandering the parking lot, giggling and yelling issue. :rolleyes: I might mention that was in '82.

3. How COOL does this program sound!!!??!! If I'd known that something like that could ultimately have happened, I might have stuck with symphony (no school band, San Jose School District budget cuts you know, but independent symphony) if I knew that could happen!

Leap for Joy
04-16-2007, 04:27 PM
Definitely take rolls of masking tape to seal the doors. Tell the students not to open the doors until you knock in the morning to release them. You may also consider warning them against having a pizza delivery person remove and then replace the tape for them (I'm not sure if warning them just gives them an idea they might not come up with at that age. HS kids know this trick). If the rooms have windows, be sure to tape them too!!

Also give them strict instructions about phone use. Kids will call each other's rooms all night long and make a lot of noise. Some motels will turn this feature off for their phones and that's a big help.

death from below
04-17-2007, 08:05 PM
Thanks everyone for the advice. I talked to the band teacher and were are going to use the masking tape on the door. If we see that the tape is broken, that room will have to spend the day in the bus.
I did buy a Zen for the trip down there, hopefully I can block out most of the noise.

Also, on a side note, my wife and kids are going to Disneyland in Dec and staying at the GCH!:D

Bytebear
04-17-2007, 08:37 PM
What if someone walks by and breaks the tape. Sounds like there are some holes in your plan. I would recommend you put the tape somewhere inconspicuous at least

inkstainedpsyche
04-25-2007, 05:53 PM
Having just gotten back from doing the Magic Music Days thing on April 11th at Disney with my boys' high school band, I think I can answer most of your questions.

In the clinic, which is held backstage, the kids will get the opportunity to learn a piece of music, play it through and then listen to it while watching a snippet of the movie it's from. Our kids did a song from the Emperor's New Groove. They will have to sight read the music pretty much as they don't give them really time to practice.

The first time I went with the band to do this was in 2001, when my oldest son was a senior. DCA had just opened and after the kids did their clinic, they performed on a stage in DCA. This year, the kids were on the Plaza Gardens stage.

You think you had it bad on an eight-hour bus ride? We flew from Seattle to LA the same day the kids had the clinic and performance. We all met at our high school and boarded the school bus to the airport at 3:00 a.m. for the hour ride to the airport to be in time for a 6:30 flight. But we all boarded the plane and then they announced that one of the engines wasn't working. So we all had to de-plane and go back to the terminal to wait until the plane was fixed, which took another three hours.

Mind you, the kids were scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. clinic. It's about a 2.5 hour flight, so you do the math. Fortunately, we used a company that does student travel so we were able to get a hold of our trip leader in LA and he took care of getting Disney to schedule us in a later clinic in the day, after our performance at 4:00 p.m. We didn't arrive at LAX until after noon and then had to wait for all the luggage and instruments. The Disney people met us and after getting the tour bus parked backstage (they had a tour bus from the airport) and escorting the kids into the park, they were allowed to explore for about an hour or so, just enough time to grab something to eat and meet back at appointed time to go get changed into their performance clothes and grab their instruments and get escorted back through another backstage entrance into the park by the Plaza Gardens. Btw, the big gates that are at the end of Toontown is where they go backstage to get to the clinic building.

After the performance, they went backstage again and went to their clinic. As to the DVD, the band director will get a copy of the DVD. The kids get t-shirts and I believe the director is supposed to get something that tells how the kids can order their own copies of the DVD at a later date. Oh, and they take a group picture outside, too, which the kids can order later.

All cell phones should be turned off in the clinic and absolutely NO photography is allowed anywhere backstage.

Our kids finally got to check into our hotel (The Radisson Maingate) after the clinic, given about half an hour to dump their luggage and instruments and then we went back to the park for the rest of the evening. Had to meet in front of the Mickey flowers inside the entrance at 11:15 to get to the shuttle area at 11:30. Back at the hotel a little before midnight. We did a quick room check and then it was lights out. Because the kids were so tired, they all went to sleep right away. This is the only trip I've ever chaperoned that the kids didn't give us any grief (and I've been chaperoning band trips for 8 years now). The trick is to give them as little downtime at the hotel as possible.

The next day, we went back to the park at 8:00 a.m. and they had all the day until 11:15 that night to parkhop all they wanted.

I have done the tape thing in the past. Use clear tape, NOT masking tape. It's less visible to people walking by. Oh, and make it clear that there will be no pizza delivery ordering. If your director is smart, he'll have a set of clear rules printed as a contract that the kids will have to sign and there will be consequences for breaking any rules.

Any more questions, just ask :-)