Anyone familiar with the Youth Education Series?

[tgbanks3]

And please move this to the appropriate board if you feel necessary. I could not decide to which board this topic should belong.


My daughter's middle school is taking a trip at the end of May. As soon as I heard about this, I volunteered to chaperone, as like everyone else here, I'm looking for reasons to get my WDW fix. I've received some info on the program but it's limited. We are to 3 YES programs (not sure if mandatory or not). From what I can tell the programs are all about 3 hours each (for middle school aged kids). That's 9 hours of precious Disney time learning and not playing, made worse if they are early in the morning when it's best to hit the attractions (yes, I know I have the wrong attitude about this, ha).
Anyone experience this before? Worth the 9 hours spent?

 

[Scar1199]

We did it last year with our Middle School. Yes, you do leave the resort early as the program usually starts before the parks open. We did a program at MK where we got to ride Space twice, once with lights on and again in the dark, Buzz Lightyear and Big Thunder. In Epcot we got to ride TT and Spaceship Earth as part of the program, our third program was at HS we got to ride ToT and watch the Muppets show. Rides will depend on what programs you pick. It was definitely worth it, we were done mid morning and could explore the park for the rest of the day. Disney is the only place that could get me to chaperone 40 MS kids. It's really well done and the instructors we had were awesome.

 

[dandemom]

Was your 2nd program (with TT and Spaceship Earth) the Evolution of Technology? We are taking our Girl Scouts in July and doing this YES program. Wondering which attractions we won't need FP for. (Yes, I understand they may have to switch things up if a ride is down or it's raining.) And do you remember what part of the park it was in? Since all the chaperones won't be allowed in the class, wondering where we meet up. Thanks.

 

[Scar1199]

Was your 2nd program (with TT and Spaceship Earth) the Evolution of Technology? We are taking our Girl Scouts in July and doing this YES program. Wondering which attractions we won't need FP for. (Yes, I understand they may have to switch things up if a ride is down or it's raining.) And do you remember what part of the park it was in? Since all the chaperones won't be allowed in the class, wondering where we meet up. Thanks.

Yes, that's what it was called. We just stayed around Spaceship Earth and TT and those were the only 2 rides we did for that program. Spaceship was the last ride and yhe program ended after we got off that ride, so you could meet anywhere around there.

 

[Scar1199]

Was your 2nd program (with TT and Spaceship Earth) the Evolution of Technology? We are taking our Girl Scouts in July and doing this YES program. Wondering which attractions we won't need FP for. (Yes, I understand they may have to switch things up if a ride is down or it's raining.) And do you remember what part of the park it was in? Since all the chaperones won't be allowed in the class, wondering where we meet up. Thanks.

We had 8 chaperones and were all allowed on the rides.

 

[MommaBerd]

I think the YES programs are very well done and worth the time. For how long will the trip be?

In regards to “not sure if it is mandatory or not,” it has been my experience that your child *must* attend at least one session. Typically the park tickets are discounted as part of the program. If you do not show, you will be charged the full ticket price. (Don’t ask me how they would collect it. My guess is that they would charge it to the organizers.)