I am going with my church (5 adults, 7 high schoolers) to volunteer at Give Kids the World Village for a couple days in August. We are taking everyone for one full day to MK (could change to UOR but not likely).
I don’t have my own children so could you all give me “rules” you would give to the teens to keep everyone safe and out of trouble while in a park?
So far I have:
You must stay inside the park gates at all times.
You must stay in groups of at least 3 at all times.
Is there anything I’m missing that you all use with your own children? Any help is greatly appreciated.
You cannot stop every five minutes to take a selfie. Lol! Speaking from personal experience. A few years back my niece got Disneyland for her 18th birthday plus two friends to bring with. They drove me nuts with the selfies every five minutes - slowing up the Touring Plan.
I think what you have so far is good. Maybe go over the official park rules or have them read it. ?
Maybe talk about line jumping and the importance of respecting others who are waiting. Thinking about my 15 year old daughter who tends to be super hyper and silly around her friends. They often forget that others are around who are trying to have a positive experience too and that their behavior can impact that.
Your rules are good and I agree with @Gnatjo about discussing theme park etiquette. I also set up periodic check-ins about every 3-4 hours (usually around meal times) where the kids meet me to let me know how things are going and to reapply sunscreen.
First off - thank you for taking a group on a service project.
Definitely add the check in every three hours part. Specific places like, “The entrance to HoP at 11:30,” NOT “At the castle.”
With 5 adults and 8 youth, who’ve just worked side by side together for a week, you might find adults end in touring with some kids. 8 won’t divide into three groups of three. I’ve also found when taking youth groups to activities (I do very often) a lot of teens enjoy spending time with adults.
Try to keep an even number of kids, DD13 was assigned to an odd number group for a trip, which ended up having her solo for activities much like rides are many times in pairs.
Tell them to turn off social media location sharing to the public if they haven’t done so. And maybe turn off Airdrop capabilities on iphones.
We will be getting the tickets beforehand. I will be setting up their MDE profiles on my account. Would anyone recommend setting up a new account on a different email for myself? My only reasoning would be to not “clutter up” my typical account with 12 people I’ll likely not travel to WDW again with in the future.
This will be our second service trip this year! This is a great group of kids who are very willing to serve. In July we worked with a remodeling service group in Eastern NC where they got to work with loads of power tools. It’s a new church to me and I love how mission minded it is. They really show the “love thy neighbor” piece very well.
Also, I think a couple have been to Disney but it’s been a while for everyone except me.
Eta: I believe the church is paying for meals so I’m we’ll be dining together.
You can always remove them when the trip is done! I have grown accustomed to adding and removing people from my MDE - as far as I can tell, there’s not limit on how many times you can do this!
Then your etiquette speech is easy: act how you want people to remember you.
Even numbers is often better.
Stay with your buddy is key.
I’d specify a meal time and place to meet up - like 11 am or 3 pm
Or both - thinking of hydration. Fluids and fuel are important.
I’d be sure the teens had LOUD ringers set up on their phones.
We were 5 days in Disney with 2 teens - 17 and 16. We met up at supper. Didn’t text as much as I thought. Actually calling worked better. These teens seldom call. Social media is how they communicate.
I have lots of people in MDE - I should remove them.
Update: we purchased the tickets, everyone involved has a profile, they’re linked on my MDE account, and physical tickets will be mailed.
Follow up clarification: since everyone is linked to my MDE account, if I purchase a 1 day Memory Maker, pictures taken that day by all 12 of us will be accessible to me correct?
