Walt Disney World

August 30 - September 6, 2008

UPDATES: Updated on 5.7.08 -- see item in red below.

Important things to know...

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. (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. If you decide to register again, a re-registration fee will be added to your total.

w The following educational programs have been confirmed: How Things Move, Physics Energy and Waves, American Story, Wild by Nature, and Showbiz Magic. See our Youth Educational Programs page for dates and times. Several other programs are close to being confirmed. Subscribe to our Traveling Homeschoolers mailing list for timely updates.

w The registration deadline for this trip is July 5. Travelers who register early will have a better chance of getting any extra guest tickets they need. They'll also have priority for chaperoning our educational programs.

w Homeschoolers from other states and countries are welcome to join us. The more, the merrier!

w The free dining code for US residents is AYG, the free dining code for Canadian residents is CMU. The last day to book the free dining package is scheduled to be June 22. They predict that there won't be as many packages available as in the past, so it's best to call as soon as possible.

w We are not using a travel agent for this trip, 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, whether on Disney property, or off-property. We feel this option is best for a wider range of budgets. 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 do-it-yourself trip is 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), 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 exceeds 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. Your children must be registered for at least one educational program in order for your family to get the discounted group tickets.

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 program(s) with your children. Chaperones will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve 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-offers mail at least a month before our departure date.

w You can choose your own arrival date, but you must plan your arrival in time for your students to attend the educational programs. I'll try to schedule all of them (except the Cirque du Soliel Showbiz Magic program) toward the beginning of the week, but I may need to schedule them later in the week if Disney doesn't have availability on those days.

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 (from August 23 to September 13).

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 program(s) 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 3.5 hours on a specific day (programs don't carry over on multiple days). I may schedule several programs on one day, or each program on a different day - it depends on several factors outside of my control. In any case, once we have the confirmed program schedule, please plan your park days to coincide with the programs.

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 this page) before sending your money!

w Since we're going during hurricane season (which is why Disney usually offers their free dining program 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 and Disney World 2007 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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