Walt Disney World

September 25 - October 2, 2010

UPDATED on 7/16/10 - see updates in red.

Important things to know...

w The final registration deadline for this trip is July 31. Travelers who register early will have a better chance of getting any extra guest tickets they need and will have priority for chaperoning our educational programs.

w Payment will be due in my mailbox within 7 days of the day I send your confirmation email. Please don't register until you're able to pay for your tickets and/or hotel. (This eliminates the need to send repeated payment reminders.) If I don't receive your payment within one week of my confirmation email, your registration will be deleted and you'll lose first-come, first-serve priority for any extra guest tickets needed for your family, as well as priority for chaperone spots. If you decide to register again, a re-registration fee will be added to your total.

w We accept checks, money orders, and bank (cashier's, certified) checks. Families from Canada (and other countries outside of the US) are encouraged to register well before the July 16 deadline to allow enough time for checks to clear and avoid a delay in mailing tickets.

w Homeschoolers from other states and countries are welcome to join us. We enjoyed meeting homeschooling families from around the country and Canada during previous trips.

w We do not use a travel agent, nor are we travel agents who receive a commission on your trip. Instead of booking a group block of Disney rooms, we allow you to choose your own hotel based on your budget, whether on Disney property, or off-property. We do have group rates at an off-property hotel for those who choose this option. Also, when you use a travel agent, Disney will not let you access your reservation, make any changes to it, or even discuss it with you - your travel agent must do everything on your behalf. We prefer for you to have complete control over your reservations. And last, we've found that option-for-option, the cost of our trip is much lower than those offered by a travel agent, whether it's a "homeschool" trip or not.

w We are not attending Disney's Homeschool Days. We prefer to choose our own dates, and our own educational programs instead of being limited to three (or so) programs. Also, the cost of our program is included in the price of our tickets, so it ends up costing less than Disney's Homeschool Days program.

w Please understand that for each group 5-day or 8-day park ticket you purchase for your school-age children (K-12, and college-age), you'll be able to purchase one identical ticket for yourself, your spouse, and/or another guest in your party. Since the number of parent/guest tickets cannot exceed the number of student tickets, you might not be able to get the discounted group tickets for every guest in your party if the number of guests exceed the number of students. (In this case, you'll need to purchase the extra tickets from Disney - I'll help you with this once I determine our total student/guest ratio.) Tickets will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis, so register early for a better chance of getting educational tickets for the "extra" guests in your party. All of your children in grades K-12 must be registered for and attend at least one educational program in order for your family to get the discounted group tickets.

w If you're trying to decide between the 8-day and 5-day tickets, I recommend the 8-day tickets if you're staying 6 days or more, especially if you're using the dining plan. You'll have more flexibility in choosing restaurants if you have more park days (since many of the restaurants are located inside the parks), and you can spend a half-day at the park on your arrival and departure day without feeling like you're wasting money.

w One parent per five children can chaperone during each program (except for the How Things Move program for the younger kids – Disney will allow us to have more chaperones for that one). I'll work out the logistics of this after the deadline passes and I know how many students will attend each program. Just keep in mind that you probably won't be able to attend these programs with your children. (We'll have plenty of homeschool parents chaperoning each program, and we've never lost a child in the four years we've coordinated these trips.)

w Chaperones will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. You'll have a better chance of chaperoning if you register (and send payment) early. One parent of children ages 7 and under registered in the How Things Move program must attend with their child.

w Your tickets will be mailed to you via certified, traceable, insured, signature, as-safe-as-the-post-office-can-get mail at least two weeks before our departure date. In four years of coordinating this trip, we've never lost tickets in the mail. If you have any doubts about the legitimacy of Carolina Homeschooler or my integrity, please ask me for references before you register. Don't send money to anyone on the internet if you don't trust them.

w You can choose your own arrival date, but you must plan your arrival in time for your students to attend at least one educational program. I've scheduled our programs on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. See the Educational Programs page for more information.

w You will not be able to purchase the non-expiration option for our heavily discounted park tickets. They will be valid 7 days before our main group arrives and will expire 7 days after our main group leaves.

w You will not be able to add your educational ticket to your "Key to the Kingdom" card to get everything on one card, even if they say they can do this for you. Most Disney personnel are not familiar enough with our special group tickets to know that it won't work. If they try to transfer everything to your card, it will seem to work. However, the first time you try to use your card to get into the water parks, Disney Quest, or use your 5 or 8 park days, it won't work. You'll then have to spend the better part of a day getting your original educational tickets reissued to you. (Yes, we learned this from experience.)

w Park admission is required for the educational programs. Your tickets will have five or eight park-hopper days included, so make sure you save one (or more) of those days for admission to the park that is hosting the educational programs you registered for. You don't have to stay at that park after the conclusion of the program, though. Since you have hopper tickets, you can hop to another park. Each program lasts for between 2 and 3 hours on a specific day (programs don't carry over on multiple days). Please make sure you don't use up all your park days before your scheduled program.

w If you decide not to take the trip after paying, a refund is not guaranteed. Please read and understand my refund policy (located on our main Disney Trip page) before sending your money! In any case, a $20 cancellation fee per person will be charged.

w Since we're going during hurricane season (which is why Disney usually offers their free dining to draw us in), there is a hurricane risk. Please check Disney's website for information about their hurricane policy in regard to refunding your hotel cost if your trip is disrupted. I can't be responsible for Disney's refund policy, so make sure you understand it before you reserve your rooms, etc. Regarding our group tickets - Disney will work with us on a case-by-case basis to refund our tickets in the event of a hurricane. There are no guarantees, but they'll almost definitely refund our tickets if they experience a direct hit (or anticipated direct hit) from a hurricane right before our arrival or during our stay. If there's just heavy rain from a hurricane, then no, they probably won't refund our tickets - we'll just have to deal with the rain. I'll do my best on your behalf if there's an event that impacts our stay, but there are no guarantees. Please register with this in mind.

w See our Disney World 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 trip reports for a description of our previous trips.

w More "things to know" will be posted as we near our departure date, so check back here from time to time for the latest updates.

Ready to register? Before you do, you need to choose Disney Youth Educational Programs for your children.

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