By Henry Thompson
You may have noticed a large percentage of Lovett students missing from school a couple of Thursdays ago. You may even know that this was a result of a mass trip of the Chorus, Band and Orchestra to Disney world for a competition. The following is my recounting of my experience on this trip.
The trip began with our early dismissal from Lovett at 11:00. Of course, we wouldn’t be leaving until a little over an hour later, but excitement was still high as we began to load the buses with our instruments, luggage, and garment bags containing our concert attire.
The buses themselves were the typical long-distance school trip buses: large compartments at the bottom for luggage, and a cabin on top with several rows of seats that, by bus standards, might as well be beds.
Each of the five buses was loaded according to the different groups attending the trip (Wind ensemble, Ellington Jazz Ensemble, Orchestra, and Chorus). Chorus took up two buses to compensate for their larger size. Upon boarding the Ellington bus, I was elated to find that our lower numbers had resulted in quite the positive side effect: I would be getting a row to myself. Since the bus ride was mapped at eight hours and I like my leg room, I was pretty happy. Luckily, we would never have to wait long for the rest of the trip. Not once. (This is false.)
Once everyone was on board and roll had been called, we set off, but not before being given a complementary pillow-blanket (a planket? A blillow?), a chick-fil-a chicken sandwich, and an assortment of snacks ranging from potato chips to a Gogo Squeeze in a cellophane bag, each with a little tag with our name on it.
Contrary to most high school bus experiences, our drive actually started off pretty peacefully. No one was talking; most people opted to listen to music on their headphones, me included. Since we had left around 12:00, I was soon reminded by my stomach that I had not eaten yet that day. Luckily for me, I had the provided chicken sandwich, and so began the first meal of the trip. I rated it a 5.5/10. Above average. Not a bad start.
Just as I was washing my meal down with some lukewarm bottled bus water, a commotion arose from the back of the bus. An exclamation: “Someone stole my sandwich.” The distressed voice belonged to one of our three drummers, Freshman Grant Dickson, who then began to go person to person, interrogating them in an attempt to gain some information on his sandwich’s whereabouts.
Only vaguely aware of the situation, I was left sitting in my seat imagining a modern adaptation of a classic train murder mystery in which a detective must uncover the nefarious mastermind who robbed him of his precious Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich as the smooth voice of Anthony green echoed in my ears through my headphones.
The thought soon passed, as chaperone and Jazz band director Mr. Varnes uncovered not one, but two extra sandwiches in a bag. And while one, of course, went to Grant, a chorus of “can I have it”s and “That’s mine”s bubbled up from around the bus. Seeing no other logical option (because there was none), Mr. Varnes decided to hold a musical trivia contest to decide the sandwich’s owner.
Questions ranged from basic knowledge of how to play one’s instrument to deep-cut information about various bands, with each tailored to the recipient’s strengths. Mr. Varnes would walk up and down the row, asking each person a question. The rules were simple: if you get it right you move on, if you get it wrong, you’re out. As the game progressed, the more knowledgeable among us quickly began to make themselves clear, some particularly strong performances coming from senior vibraphonist Will Byrne, senior Bassist Elle Kauffman, and sophomore guitarist Graham Tedder, who on multiple occasions correctly answered a question before Mr. Varnes had finished asking it.
Personally, I only made it to round three, and after an extended back and forth between Elle and Will several rounds later, Elle was crowned champion and received her prize.
Not long after the conclusion of our intense trivia tournament, we arrived at our first stop on our drive: rest stop 41. Everyone got off the bus, including the orchestra, chorus, and the rest of the band, swarming the little highway-side rest stop with high school students and annoying the few truckers unfortunate enough to be caught in our wake.
The rest stop boasted concrete benches, decent bathroom facilities, and three or so vending machines with pretty minimal stock. I bought a Coke.
After saying bye to my friends in the other fine arts, I got back onto the bus, put back on my headphones, and hunkered down for the next few hours. Nothing else interesting happened until we reached our next stop, with most people napping or trying to do school work. Said next stop was the highly anticipated Ocala Mall in well, Ocala (Florida).
Before you start considering the dangers of releasing around 80 high schoolers into a mall with only provisionary supervision, just know that it went much better than I expected. For the most part, students just got food in the food court, a revolutionary idea of course, and ate with their friends. Upon surveying my many (many) options in the mall, I decided to get (drum role please) more Chick-fil-a. To this day I’m still not sure why.
My poor decisions were met with a 3.5/10 meal. I had none to blame but myself.
After everyone was successfully herded back onto their respective buses, much to the inconvenience of anyone trying to enter the mall who didn’t want to wade through a sea of high schoolers, we began the final two-hour stretch to reach our hotel. Interestingly, this time my music was accompanied by the cable TVs protruding from the ceiling of the bus which provided some… unique entertainment. Let’s just say that if you’ve ever wanted to watch Oregon college softball or a news broadcast about a “cocaine dog” up for adoption, the bus might just be the place for you.
Eventually, though, the channel found its way to the current March Madness game, much to the satisfaction and excitement of the whole bus. As you can imagine, the completion of the game (which coincided oddly well with our arrival at Disney) resulted in many a disgruntled grumble and celebratory fist pump as their respective brackets were either ruined or survived to fight another day.
Upon exiting the bus, we left our instruments behind and took everything else, then were given our room keys and assignments. My roommate was freshman Khairi Whittle (drummer number two); we were in room 6639.
Ignoring the somewhat staggering implication of there being at least 6638 other hotel rooms, we made our way through a maze of music-themed buildings and various thirty-foot-tall statues of items associated with different music genres, and we arrived at our room in the country music section of the hotel. Along our way, we also passed two separate pools, one shaped like a piano and one like a guitar, both still full of activity despite the fact that it was 10:30 at night. As freshman, Danny Whigman exclaimed, “They’ll really just build anything here, huh.”
The rooms were a typical motel set up, opening directly to the outside. On the inside, although cramped, the room’s accommodations were pretty nice: the usual mini fridge, ice bucket, bed, shower, sink, closet, TV, etc.., and strangely, a Disney themed Alexa. Furthermore, one of our two beds was a Murphy bed, something we discovered much to the relief of Khairi, who was prepared to surrender the bed to me and sleep on the floor. Once opened, the bed revealed not only a second comfortable sleeping place, but also a large mural of various scenes and characters from the show Duck Tales.
After hanging up my garment bag and putting away my other luggage while Khairi showered, I opted to follow his lead and wash up myself. Luckily, nothing of note occurred during my shower, although the shampoo was an odd, opaque, sparkly green, similar in appearance to the kids’ toothpaste one might be given at the dentist.
I finished the rest of my nightly routine and exited the bathroom only to find that Khairi had already claimed the regular bed for himself and was fast asleep, leaving me the Murphy bed. As I lay down under the watchful eyes of Huey, Louie, and Dewey, I prepared myself for the days to come.
We awoke at exactly 6:15 the next day, thanks to a combination of an alarm Khairi set on our Alexa and some rhythmic knocking from Mr. Varnes on our door. We got dressed in our concert attire, a suit and blue tie for Elington and a suit and black bowtie for wind ensemble, since our concert was that morning, and set out from the room towards the cafe where we would be eating breakfast.
To get to said cafe, we were given what can only be described as the most strange directions I have ever received; they were something along the lines of “leave your room, walk right until you reach the cowboy boots, and then go down the stairs. Continue down the path and turn left at the trio playing trumpets so that you are walking parallel to the electric piano and the pink bass guitar. Then, once you reach the rainbow pan flutes, turn right and enter the building with the parrots on it.” We arrived at the cafe on our first try.
Unlike most hotels at Disney, breakfast is not free. If you want to eat food in the morning, you must walk up to the counter and order one of three or so pre-set meals, and take the provided tray with your food, as well as any other additions you may want (Ie. chips, granola bars and drinks) to the checkout, where you will then pay for your breakfast. I opted for the waffle, eggs, and sausage meal as it seemed like the most solid option. Foolishly, I decided not to purchase a water, seeing that it cost five dollars, a decision I would soon deeply regret.
Making my way to a table to sit with some other band members, I began to feel the rumblings of thirst in my throat, but I pushed it aside. The meal itself wasn’t terrible; each item served its purpose pretty well, with no notable features… except for how salty and/or sweet they were. I quickly became incredibly thirsty, a theme that would soon become a constant on the trip. Overall, the meal ended up being a 3.75 out of 10.
After the completion of our meal, we quickly retraced our steps (just think the previous surreal instructions but in reverse) back to the bus, where thankfully, there was some bus-warmed, vaguely sour, bottled water. I drank it in less than a minute.
The bus ride to the performance area was pretty uneventful, and when we arrived, we were told to unpack our instruments on the curb and leave our cases on the bus by our very own Festival Disney chaperone (who I never saw again for the rest of the trip).
We were led, instruments in hand, to a large building, which, upon entering, was revealed to be a very large convention center. After a series of escalators and hallways, we arrived at our stage. The stage was a makeshift platform in a conference room, with the judges’ table at the very back. While the stage setup did its job pretty well, it was a shared sentiment amongst the bands that it was a bit odd. “I don’t know why they put so much effort into setting something like this up when they definitely have an actual stage somewhere,” said senior and fellow guitarist Wyatt Botha.
If you’re wondering how a jazz competition even works, it’s pretty simple. The band will play two to four pieces, and the judges will evaluate them, followed by live, in-person feedback. As Mr. Varnes explained, “bands are evaluated on everything from pitch and rhythm, to individual players and stage presence.” At this year’s Festival Disney, our judges were a variety of college band and orchestra directors, as well as a performing musician who had a leading role in the music section of Disney’s Imagination Campus.
Ellington played first, performing three pieces: two by Duke Ellington (whoa, surprising right) and one by Ella Fitzgerald. Some highlights were saxophonist Kethan Menachery’s song-long solo on the Ella Fitzgerald piece, Elle Kauffman’s solo on the final Ellington song, and Will Byrne’s solo on the same song (there might be a theme here).
We received our feedback and traded places with Wind Ensemble in the makeshift theater seats in front of the stage as they began their quick pre-concert warm-up. During their performance, Wind Ensemble played two longer songs, a march and an opera, with some notable performances from clarinetist Hongyu Zhu (who actually also played with Ellington in our performance) and Emily Choi on oboe. Of course, none of this is to say that the other performers (or other soloists in EJE) didn’t play incredibly well themselves.
For the band, these performances are the culmination of many months of work, and for many, it is a moment of great relief. As senior trumpet player Nicholas Holland explained: “It feels so good to practice a solo for weeks to get it just right and then play it and have fun with it in the competition.”
Feeling relatively satisfied with our respective performances, we made the short trek back to the buses, excited to spend the rest of the day at the parks. We repacked our instruments and headed to the hotel to do a quick change and, upon the incessant request of chaperone Mr. Brunt, apply some sunscreen.
The park we would be visiting that day was Hollywood Studios, home to such staples as The Tower of Terror and various Star Wars rides. Feeling somewhat hungry, my first stop, along with my group, was a restaurant. Guided by the seeming Disney expert Sam Garroway (who had the notable distinction of being the first person from orchestra we had seen since the mall), we arrived at a cantina-themed restaurant deep in the Star Wars section of the park after ordering our food ahead of time on our Disney apps. I, as well as a few others, had a simple mac and cheese with chicken, which I rated a respectable 6 out of 10. Smartly, I had brought a bottle of water from the bus into the park, yet by the end of our meal, it was all but gone, which was quite scary given that it was reaching the high eighties later in the day.
Feeling refreshed, I sought out my first ride of the trip, and since most rides at the time had incredibly long wait lines, the ride we chose was Minnie and Micky’s Runaway Railway. Along the way, we ran into some more students from the orchestra who had just purchased custom lightsabers for around 300 dollars. At that price point, I would have expected them to actually cut through metal (and who knows, maybe they do), but seeing the joy it brought them, I cast aside my judgment.
After arriving at the ride, we waited in the cue amongst children, elders, and everyone in between; seemingly, Disney has mass appeal, something that had become increasingly clear since our arrival. Despite the ride being objectively designed with young children in mind, I, too, found the slow-paced, music-filled experience quite enjoyable, and in the end, I rated it 5.75 out of 10.
As I began to search (with no particular destination in mind) for another ride, it quickly became clear that I was getting lost amongst the many fake cliff faces and buildings, arbitrarily transitioning between areas themed around various franchises. Eventually, I found my way to the Millennium Falcon attraction and, with no better ideas in mind, decided to join the cue.
Throughout the line, I encountered many examples of one of Disney’s main strengths: immersion. The whole area was set up to feel like you were wandering through a spaceport, constantly barraged with audio and visual performances to enhance the experience. Freshman Ian Aguilar agreed stating, “The architecture really is cool how they built this place.”
Much to my surprise, The Millennium Falcon was not a roller coaster, but instead a simulator in which you were tasked to pilot a ship and steal enemy cargo. Each person in your group, which in our case also included a selection of random park goers, plays a different role in piloting, protecting, and capturing during the mission (I was a pilot, and since I had driven a car exactly once at the time, I considered myself pretty qualified). The ride was one of the first experiences that I had thoroughly enjoyed, and as such, I rated it a very solid 8.25 out of 10. We received the score of ‘pirate’-the second-highest possible (basically a B).
Following the flow of the crowds I next wound up at the Slinky Dog Dash rollercoaster in the Toy Story section of the park, the entirety of which was themed to be an enormous backyard; it was at this time that the effects of my intelligent bus water play began to wear off (unfortunately I wasn’t able pick up a new drink earlier because, while blue milk and captain crunch cold brew are frequent around the park, water oddly isn’t). Because this ride’s cue line was set up next to several restaurants and pastry stands, my ailment only worsened as I was overwhelmed by the armada of smells around me.
Through sheer willpower (and some amount of laziness preventing me from leaving the line), I powered through until it was time to ride, and it was most definitely worth it. Being the only true roller coaster (that I know of) in the park, I had high expectations. And the ride delivered with its smooth yet relatively fast-paced journey through Andy’s backyard. An 8.75 out of 10, of course.
Upon exiting the attraction, I actually had a plan for where I was going next: the infamous Tower of Terror. Unfortunately, a glance at my Disney app revealed that the wait time had risen by over an hour and a half (I would later learn this was due to some minor technical malfunctions), and so I chose to find something else to do. Through the urgings of my fellow bandmates, I decided that something would be dinner.
We went to one of the many Toy Story-themed restaurants in the area (the one we chose was meant to resemble a child’s lunch box) and bought our dinners. Not feeling particularly hungry after the roller coaster, I opted to buy a kids’ meal: a grilled cheese, a water, some fruit, and some tater tots, all for a record-low eight dollars. Possibly at the expense of the cost, the meal only received a rating of 5 out of 10, which wasstill not the worst performance on the trip thus far.
As I sat there in the midst of so many people and stimulants, I finally took the time to examine my surroundings. The first thing I noticed was the apparent lack of pollen, in contrast to Atlanta. Furthermore, I finally took note of the whimsical music that had been scoring my adventures all day, seemingly without end. Just as I was beginning to ponder the implications of said music (and its possible relation to my growing headache), we set off again, this time for what we thought was a teacup ride. As you do directly after dinner, of course.
Much like the first ride I had ridden that day, by the time we stepped in line, it was clear we weren’t really the target audience for this attraction. Nonetheless, we continued, this time equipped with a new strategy to keep ourselves entertained: impostor.
If you are unaware, Impostor is a simple game in which a word fitting a specific category is chosen, and each person is told that word… except for one. This person is the impostor. You then take turns saying words that would be associated or linked to the chosen word, and then collectively vote on who you think is the impostor.
Armed with our games, the line flew by, and we were soon at the front, ready to ride a… teacup ride? (It was not a teacup ride). Instead, the ride involved sitting in a flying saucer as you are driven around in circles through the enclosure. If you ignore the details, it’s basically a teacup ride (It is not). Anyway, the ride was an expected 3.25 out of 10.
Seeing no other option, we returned to the Slinky Dog roller coaster as it began to turn to night. This time, as we were waiting in line, the ride broke. Not like we were letting that stop us, though; we would wait in that line until we were dragged out (not really, of course).
Eventually, it was repaired, and just in time too, as our time left in the park was waning. The wait was worth it, however, as the coaster, for whatever reason, was significantly more fun at night, with the speed seeming even higher and bright lights illuminating the entire track. Freshman and self-proclaimed roller coaster hater Rhys Stieglitz shared this sentiment: “That was exhilarating” (I bumped up the score to a 9 out of 10).
We exited the ride and rushed back to the designated meeting spot to board the buses and return to the hotel. Luckily, we arrived just in time and left with the rest of the band.
As we arrived back, my several bottles of water and small dinner began to catch up to me as I was forced to rush to the bathroom and then to the cafe for the world’s fastest late-night snack (you have no proof it wasn’t). Said snack consisted of a croissant and a granola bar, evidently a pretty decent croissant and granola bar, as it received a 5.75 out of 10.
Tired from my day, I quickly made it back to my room before curfew, showered, and fell asleep.
The next day, we were awakened in a very similar manner to the previous day, except this time an hour later. Once again, I made my way to the cafe, had the route memorized by now, this time adorned with athletic shorts and my prized Bad Religion band tee. Feeling like something different that morning, I chose to get my food from the bakery rather than the main counter. For this reason, Saturday’s breakfast was a bagel, a chocolate croissant, a bag of chips, and, begrudgingly, a bottle of water. Maybe my decision to switch it up was a good one, as this breakfast received a 5 out of 10.
Much like the previous day, we left the cafe pretty promptly to enter the parks; this time, our destination would be Magic Kingdom. The only difference this time was that instead of arriving directly at the parks, we arrived at a station and took the monorail to the entrance.
Once we did finally enter, we were immediately greeted by the arrival of a marching band that snaked through the streets, and accompanied us as we walked to our first ride of the day: Pirates of the Caribbean, a choice we made almost entirely based on its shocking five-minute wait time.
As we rushed through the empty cue line of the ride, the ever-present Disney immersion took over once again as we descended into a dark, dungeon-like structure and boarded the water-based ride. The ride itself is more experiential than anything, as it only contained one drop, yet knocked it out of the park with immersion and “vibes.” Upon looking up, it appeared as though you were truly out under the cover of a clouded night, and it was both oddly dark and beautiful at the same time. Sounds like around a 6 out of 10 to me.
We left the dark building with haste and searched for a ride with a forgiving wait time, deciding upon The Seven Dwarves Mine Train as our destination. As we walked over, two things began to become clear to me. One: The Magic Kingdom is big, when compared to Hollywood Studios at least. And two: Not only is it bigger, but somehow everyone’s attitude just seemed more whimsical, more… magical.
Once again, I didn’t have much time to think about it as we soon arrived at the Seven Dwarves roller coaster. This time we came prepared with a new type of entertainment: the ever-popular NYT games. Through a combination of Spelling Bee and the crossword, we were able to pass the time pretty easily until we reached a more interesting section of the line.
You may ask yourself, “What on earth could make one section of a line more interesting than the rest?” to which I say, “shiny things you can touch, of course.” This is exactly what we came across roughly three-fourths of the way in, with a selection of transparent gems being at our disposal, practically begging us to touch them (they make little ringing noises when you tap them). Despite this, I showed record-breaking levels of restraint (again, you have no proof against it) and moved on. And was immediately greeted with another touchable entertainment structure; this time it was a piano you could play by activating different water spouts.
Luckily, this time it was significantly less appealing since the plethora of kids who had used it before had already caused a large puddle to form at the base of the stand, something it seemed I would have to deal with whether I wanted to or not, as it ran directly through the next part of the cue.
We continued forward, passing a few other crystal playthings along the way, eventually arriving at the front of the line. This ride, much like the Slinky Dog coaster from the day before, was surprisingly smooth and fast for what I expected at Disney, and presented plenty of hands-in-the-air opportunities, and as such, I felt that a 7.5 out of 10 made sense.
Next, we made our way to the nearby It’s a Small World ride, a personal favorite of a few members of my group, joining the short thirty-minute wait time with little intermission. Interestingly, this line moved faster than most, allowing us to reach the front in what seemed to be no more than 30 minutes. The ride itself was easily the longest of the trip, each slow turn around a corner only revealing more rooms and more singing children. Despite this, the experience was rather pleasant. And although the speakers playing the iconic tune sounded pretty worse for wear (their garbled quality did NOT help with the already present creepiness of the many dolls), I decently enjoyed the ride, giving it a 4 out of 10.
By now, we had been in the park for a couple of hours, so it was time to check in with the chaperones. As we walked over, I was, on several occasions, swarmed by a cloud of bubbles from a bubble wand at a nearby souvenir stand, an occurrence I soon realized was not new to me and one I had encountered the previous day as well.
Powering through the bubbles, we made it to the designated check-in area, quickly confirming our safety and moving on to the next ride, which we soon decided would be Tron. Along the way, the faint sound of singing and cheering arose behind us, something that would soon reveal itself to be a parade rapidly catching up to us. Not thinking much of it, we continued on our way, only for the string of floats (which, admittedly, boasted surprisingly enthusiastic and skilled actors) to show up just as we wanted to cross the road, blocking our path for a solid twenty minutes.
We took the time to enjoy each other’s company, and once it passed, we completed the rest of our journey across the park to reach the relatively new Tron ride. This would end up being the longest line we would wait in during the entire trip, at around an hour and ten minutes, which sadly coincided with what seemed to be the one time Disney didn’t put an impressive effort into making the queue visually appealing. Since we were basically line experts by this point, the line flew by (it didn’t hurt that my shirt received several compliments during our wait), and we quickly arrived at the indoor portion of the line, where the line quality improved drastically.
We were taken into a small viewing room where we were presented with our mission directive and subsequently “digitized”. Stepping through a newly opened doorway, we walked into a series of rooms with intricate electronic and futuristic theming. Through some incredible stroke of luck, when we reached the front of the line we were actually given the front row of the coaster, an idea that I was particularly excited about given the motorcycle-esque nature of the ride as, unlike most roller coasters, Tron seats you in the same way one might ride a motor cycle (or a light cycle in this case) as opposed to just sitting down.
As we sat down and leaned forward, a brace descended down and held our back in place. We were then brought forward and launched at around 65 miles per hour upwards into what would prove to be an exhilarating and incredibly fun ride. We raced around turns and drops, at one point entering a dark, enclosed space where we flew through various energy rings that lit up as we passed. Tron was by far the most fun I had had thus far, something echoed by sophomore Victoria Penake, who said, “That was Peak” (She went on to repeat this several times the rest of the day). Tron received a record-breaking 9.5 out of 10.
As some of the members of my group were beginning to feel somewhat hungry, we stopped at a small stand in the Tomorrowland area for a quick snack. It was here that I purchased what was simultaneously the most disgusting, intriguing, and unique meal (if you can even call it that) of the trip: a Fanta Slushy and cherry cola churro. I take full responsibility for all resulting consequences. (It still received a 4.25 out of ten, though.)
Deciding upon the nearby Space Mountain as our next stop, we left the stand and began our walk over to the classic ride. The queue for the ride provided us with many space-themed pieces of architecture and graphics. The entire time, I couldn’t help but think that if I were a park goer when it first opened, the sci-fi environment and subsequent ride would probably be just about the coolest thing I had done. Speaking of the ride, it delivered on all expectations: the high speeds and dark, well… space-esque surroundings. While I may have almost lost a limb to the pieces of metal flying around me (or not I couldn’t tell), the ride received a well-deserved 9.25 out of 10.
Finally deciding to leave the Tomorrowland area, we selected Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, previously Splash Mountain, as our next stop. However, seeking redemption for my previous snack choices, I took a pit stop at a shop and purchased the significantly healthier option of beignets (just trust me on this). They were actually pretty delicious, garnering a food high score of 7.25 out of 10.
Detour aside, we joined the cue for the infamous log flume. While the line may not have been as visually interesting as others, our roughly 55-minute wait was punctuated by the rather fitting sounds of jazz. Eventually, after an absolute maze of a line, we reached the front and boarded the boats.
The most famous part of the ride is a nearly fifty-foot drop and subsequent splash for which the ride’s original name was chosen. So, for the entirety of the ride, you sit around waiting for the drop to finally happen, and you are misled, not once, not twice, but three times. Of course, once you make your way through the beautiful, ambient scenery to the climb of the drop, it becomes abundantly clear what is about to happen. And as I sat there, staring upwards as we inched up the hill, rays of light shining down on me through the small opening at the top, and the eerie voices of animals singing in unison echoing somewhere far behind me, I once again found myself contemplating the odd beauty of the ride around me. And then we dropped fifty feet into a splash that soaked my back completely. An 8.25 out of 10 experience.
Having spent nearly eight and a half hours in the park by this point, it was time for us to leave and head to the award show for the festival. We met back up with the rest of the group, took the monorail back to the buses, and left once again for Hollywood Studios, where the show was taking place.
Upon arrival, it became immediately clear that the award show was going to be a party. When we got there, a man was announcing something (I’m not sure what, as the music was so loud), and he soon made his way into the stands and began interviewing the kids on their favorite parts of the trip. Oddly, most responses centered on the student’s ability to impersonate different members of the Disney cast.
After a while of intermissional activities, a band took to the stage (like an actual band that you would see in concert) and began playing a few classic dance songs. The ground shook with the sound of thousands of students dancing; the number of schools there was staggering. As Mr. Varnes explained, “There are usually between 10 and 50 bands at a competition,” and each band probably had twenty or more members, so the size made sense.
Eventually, the band wrapped up with their performance, something that sophomore Leyton Collins described as “actually kinda okay,” and the actual awards ceremony finally started. I immediately got incredibly confused. It seemed as though every band received some kind of award, yet the awards were each different? Except not? Either way, once it came time for the category Lovett was entered in to receive awards, EJE was given an excellent score, and Wind Ensemble a good one, which I assume to be a good thing.
Once the awards concluded, each band director received a personal shoutout for their hard work, and the band returned to play one last song, followed by our immediate departure from the venue. As we walked back to the bus, it began to rain and wind (I don’t think that’s a verb) pretty hard. This did not deter us, though, as when we arrived back at the hotel, I once again made a beeline for the cafe for a midnight snack, this time with the rest of the band.
I opted to eat a more meal-esque assortment of food this time around, purchasing an apple, some pizza, and some chips. It was possibly the most average-tasting meal I had ever consumed. A perfect 5 out of 10.
Since we all had an early start the next day with wake-up being at 5:15, I hurried back to my room (and then showered and slept, you get the idea).
The next morning, when we awoke, I was tasked with packing my things, an activity that took longer than I expected. Luckily, I still had time for a quick breakfast at everyone’s favorite cafe before we left. This time, I went for the smaller regular breakfast option: three Mickey-shaped waffles and some bacon.
And as I checked out (with a water, of course) and sat down to eat Mickey Mouse’s little waffle face, I thought about the trip as a whole. While unable to fully articulate my thoughts at the time, I think Mr. Varnes said it best himself, “The travel and experiences build camaraderie within the band. We come back a closer unit.” The meal was a 4.5 out of 10. Mr. Varnes’s words of inspiration…10 out of 10, of course.
After reloading the buses for the last time, we once again embarked on an eight-hour drive that was not too different from the first, though it included much more sleep. Just like at the start, we made two stops: one at a rest stop (which was significantly better than the first, with several vending machines and nicer bathrooms) and another at a shopping center (the meal I had there was a 6.25 out of 10).
Overall, I think the trip was fun, and at the very least, I now know I don’t like cherry cola churros.
