Taking a group of 30

Originally Posted By familyguy

I'm taking a youth group to Disneyland at the end of July/beginning of August. Does anyone have any experience with taking groups or valuable advice that might be helpful? Any thoughts or ideas you might have would be appreciated. Also, if you know of any "group benefits" that I might not be aware of that would be cool too.

 

Originally Posted By SuzieQ

Group sales kicks in at 15 people, I believe.

 

Originally Posted By Lizzie

I have taken youth groups before. My first advice is to not try to do everything togethor. Have meet up spots in the day. But split up your leaders and split up your students. I would do as many groups as you have leaders.

 

Originally Posted By mele

Wow, are you working towards Sainthood? ;-)

I like Lizzie's advice about not trying to do every single thing together and having meet ups throughout the day.

Good luck!

 

Originally Posted By dlkozy

Last year our high school band (100 kids)went to DL. One thing that we did that turned out GREAT was that we provided each kid with a lanyard with a pocket on it that held his ticket/fastpasses AND a card with his group with all of their cell#s and his chaperone's cell#

Our groups had 10 kids each all had their own chaperone. The chaperones also had a phone list with their kids #s and all of the other chaperones #s too.

The chaperones were responsible for meeting up 2 times (more if they thought it was needed) and they picked the times and spot to meet at.

I had my group meet me at the castle on the cement benches. All my kids knew that the first couple of kids that came to me would win a prize-one day it was a Disney $, a pkg of Disney pretzels, you could also pick a couple of things up at Target to use.

I always reminded them in the morning by asking the entire group "Where are we supposed to meet?" "What times are we meeting at?" "What happens if you do not meet up at the specified times?" (They would have to spend the rest of the day with me-YIKES) and then I would remind them that the first 3 people to meet up at the specified time would WIN!

Out of the 10 groups that we had-MY group was the ONLY one that was ALWAYS on time for meeting up-I could see them running for me to be on time. Less time that I had to wait for a kid to meet up with me=more Disney time for ME!

 

Originally Posted By familyguy

Good tips! Keep them coming whatever advice you have to offer is greatly appreciated. Meet spots throughout the day is definitely a great idea! We definitely plan on splitting up. We had planned on breaking up into about 3 groups of 10. Ya think thats too many people to walk around with? We have three couples leading. We figured 8 kids per couple.

 

Originally Posted By gottaluvdavillains

What are the ages of these kids?

 

Originally Posted By familyguy

6th -12th grade. I believe the ages are anywhere between 12 and 18.

 

Originally Posted By gottaluvdavillains

I wouldn't try and keep too big of groups together - I have gone with the choir from our high school for a few years - our rules were everyone had to have a buddy... Our age groups were 14-18 and everyone had friends on the trip so buddying up was easy enough..

Having meeting times worked out well for me too... I would check off my list as they showed up for the meet.

I would suggest letting the older kids go off together in pairs or more and keep the younger ones with the chap's...

Our biggest problem was there is always one or two who don't like the rides or something and seem to be left behind - those kids usually stayed with the chaperones the whole time.

 

Originally Posted By familyguy

That was one thing we were going to take into account in breaking up the groups. We would break up people into groups of brave, not-so-brave, and scardy cats. LOL

 

Originally Posted By Disney_Disney_Disney

Thoghts:
It depends on the age of the kids.
Here are some ride ideas:
AGES 3-6
KING ARTHUR'S CARROUSELL
WHINNIE THE POOH
TARZAN'S TREEHOUSE
ENCHANTED "TIKI,TIKI,TIKI,TIKI" TIKI ROOM
Fun For Little Ones
Flik's Flyers
Francis' Ladybug BoogiE
Heimlich's Chew Chew TraiL
Jumpin' Jellyfish
King Triton's Carousel
Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
Princess Dot Puddle Park
Redwood Creek Challenge Trail
Featuring "The Magic of Brother Bear" show
S.S. rustworthy, presented by McDonald's®
Tuck and Roll's Drive'Em Buggies
IT'S A SMALL WORLD
PETER PAN'S FLIGHT
AGES 7-10
MATTERHORN BOBSLEDS
GRIZZLY RIVER RUN
MR.TOAD'S WILD RIDE
HAUNTED MANSION
MAD TEA PARTY
INDIANA JONES ADVENTURE
SPACE MOUNTAIN
SPLASH MOUNTAIN
ASTRO ORBITOR
BUZZ LIGHTYEAR ASTRO BLASTERS
GADGET'S GO COASTER
MALIBOOMER
AGES 11-14
BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN RAILROAD
CALIFORNIA SCREAMIN'
GOLDEN ZEPHYR
MULLHOLAND MADNESS
TWILIGHT ZONE TOWER OF TERROR
ALL AGES
FINDING NEMO SUBMARINE VOYAGE
JUNGLE CRUISE
SNOW WHITE'S SCARY ADVENTURES
ORANGE STINGER
SUN WHEEL
SOARIN' OVER CALIFORNIA
IT'S TOUGH TO BE A BUG!

Hope you have fun with your trip, and these suggestions helped you.

 

Originally Posted By x Pirate_Princess x

I'm chaperoning a high school field trip, and I actually have a group of Freshman who WANT to hang out with me (because they know we can do everything we want LOL)

I will probably only have 4 or 5 with me, though..the lanyard idea is a great one, though. Too bad I can't afford enough for everyone. I think just exchanging cell numbers will be sufficient, though.

And we're only doing Disneyland, not DCA, which will help.

 

Originally Posted By familyguy

Disney, Disney, Disney - Thanks for taking the time to type all of that out, although I'm real familiar with the rides and such. I was just looking for ideas on touring and/or budgeting for a group like this. By budgeting I mean Group discounts or grup benefits and things like that. Thanks all of you.

 

Originally Posted By x Pirate_Princess x

familyguy, do you have an AP?

if you all purchase your meals together, I think the discount will count for everyone.

Unfortunately for me, my pass expired on the 19th of March, a week and a half before we go to the park, so no dining discounts.

 

Originally Posted By Disney_Disney_Disney

anyways -
glad i could help
highschool, might want to try stuff like ToT or the faster side of Matterhorn.

 

Originally Posted By dsnykid

for locating them easily you could try the same colored shirt technique and then let the kids personalize them and turning them into autograph shirts that their friend can sign. that way they are easily identified by the big blob of same colored shirts, but allowing them to personalize them might take away the "geekiness" factor

 

Originally Posted By gottaluvdavillains

Ohh good Idea dsnykid - they could each come up with a clever nick name to put on the back... DS19's choir did that the first year they went - I also see other choirs and bands doing that... The could even sign it before hand and have them printed with the signatures...

 

Originally Posted By familyguy

How big are the kids meals at the counter service restraunts in the park? I was thinking about giving each student a $10 meal voucher (which I think would cover a kids meal) so that we wouldn't have to leave the park for lunch. Are they big enough to be a decent lunch? I figure it would probably be best to just go out of the park and get something like Mcdonald's where they can get more for less, but I just thought I'd ask and see what the experts think.

 

Originally Posted By gottaluvdavillains

$10 for lunch should be fine ---

They can eat at most walk up restaurants (stage coach, coke corner, corn dog truck, rodds pizza port) I would suggest to them to ask for the free cup of water (unless eating at the pizza place with free refills)

 

Originally Posted By gottaluvdavillains

Those places are regular food not kids meals. Kids meals run about $6.