Los Angeles 2025

It's almost time! We can't wait to travel with you to Los Angeles, California, next week!!

This newsletter will provide you with up-to-date information, schedules, reminders, and communication codes for our trip. Please read the ENTIRE document and follow the instructions inside.

All travelers will load their luggage onto the truck on Saturday, May 31.

LOADING PROCEDURE

1. You may begin arriving at the Band Hall at 6:00 PM
2. Please park in the PAC parking lot on the west side
3. You may enter the building via Door #14
4. Check-in at the table.
5. Place any prescription meds into the Ziplok provided, label, and leave on the table. Over the counter medications do not need to be placed aside. They may remain in your luggage.
6. Place your luggage in the designated area as directed by staff (if needed you may get instrument from band hall and place with your luggage)
7. Proceed to the PAC and relax
8. Once the K-9 sweep is complete, reverse flow
9. Pick up luggage & proceed out of Door #14 to the truck
10. Load luggage on the truck

Once your luggage and instrument are loaded on the truck you may go home. We anticipate the entire process to take approximately 1.5 hours.

Please note:

• Each traveler may bring ONE suitcase/bag and one instrument
• Reminder that flute, oboe, and clarinet will carry their instrument in their carry-on on the plane
• Make sure your luggage AND instrument have a name tag - this is very important!!
• No one will load your luggage for you. Please make sure you stay through the entire process to ensure your luggage is loaded and secure.
• If you are unable to bring your own luggage, and someone else (family, friend, etc.) is loading your luggage for you, please make sure they know to stay and load the luggage on the truck themselves. The Frenship Band is not your valet service.

As discussed at the trip meeting, we are excited that we were able to add a second day at the Disney parks without changing the price of the trip. In order to do this, we saved money by canceling the charter bus travel to DFW, and chose to utilize the school buses from Frenship. This allowed us to use the money we saved on buses to pay for your second day at a Disney park. WooHoo!!

These buses are not your normal yellow school bus. They are the newer Freightliner buses with bucket seats, air conditioning, tinted windows, over-head storage, etc.

We are now working with Durham bus services to create our bus assignments. We should find out today (Thursday) the exact seat configuration for each bus and will create the assignments based on flight groups.

IMPORTANT!

In order for us to ensure proper seat numbers and bus assignments, we need each traveler to complete the form found at the link below. This will inform us of how many travelers are riding the bus and how many are not riding the bus - both going and coming.

🚨 CLICK THIS LINK NOW! 🚨

https://forms.office.com/r/VHf9PtrkiZ

Please fill out this form one time for EACH traveler by Friday (May 30) at 5:00 PM.

Once we have this information, we will be able to more accurately create the bus assignments.

There is an outside possibility that the itinerary may change slightly on the return bus trip if the seat configurations on the buses require us to utilize Bus 2 for additional passengers. If this happens we'll let you know.

Ok, look, we have all traveled on school transportation long enough to know that you can't plan for every contingency. Sometimes on the day of departure a specific bus is not available, or a driver gets sick, or something breaks down. We just roll with the flow and do the best we can with what we have. Please be patient with school travel scenarios and know that everyone is doing their best to ensure you have a great experience. Thanks!

The official itinerary is available at www.frenshipband.com Please make sure to check back often for an updated itinerary if changes are made.

As you begin packing for the trip, here are few reminders.

Try Not to Over Pack

• Do your best to limit your luggage to only what you need.
• Check the weather in Los Angeles and Anaheim (Disney) for next week - it looks like it will be great weather.
• Avoid the "what if" scenarios. What if it rains? What if I need six dressy shirts and 6 pairs of shoes to match? Trust us - you won't!
• You will be doing LOTS and LOTS of walking. Be sure you wear comfortable tennis shoes & socks every day. That will probably be the ONLY shoes you'll need.

Required Clothing

As you can imagine, group travel necessitates certain protocols that ensure the safety of our group. One of those is required apparel on certain days. It is important that we are able to find, identify, and communicate with all our students while traveling. This is especially important on travel days (bus/flights/etc.).

So, here are the shirts you will need to pack as required apparel for the trip:

Tuesday, June 3 - bus & flight travel day

- students wear your black Zoom Zoom show shirt (or a previous black show shirt)

- chaperones wear whatever you want

Wednesday, June 4 - workshop day at Disney's California Adventure

- wear the blue official trip shirt that was distributed at the trip meeting

- this will help the Disney workshop coordinators to easily identify our participants

- student participants must also have close-toed, fully soled shoes. No crocks, sandals, etc. allowed in the workshop. Guard - you are allowed to bring (on the truck) and change into any dance shoes you want - if you want - but they must be full-soled, no split soles. Or you can just use tennis shoes.

Thursday, June 5 - Disneyland

- wear whatever school-appropriate clothing you want

- chaperones wear whatever you want

Friday, June 6 - Universal Studios

- wear whatever school-appropriate clothing you want

- chaperones wear whatever you want

Saturday, June 7 - return flights/bus

- wear your white rehearsal gear shirt

- chaperones wear whatever you want

Note: Sometimes it can get chilly on the airplane. If you tend to get cold in these kind of enclosed environments, you might consider a light jacket that can be easily stuffed into your carry-on.

For a trip this size, we MUST be able to communicate with you. You MUST be connected to our Reminds. Every traveler MUST enroll with the codes below.

You only need to enroll in the Reminds that are appropriate to you.

Please text the code to 81010 to enroll.

All Travelers - @ak8eh4d

Chaperones - @88chhbc

Flight 1 - @897ak3

Flight 2 - @gag2d3

Flight 3 - @747fg2b

There are no excuses for not receiving communication from the band staff.

"I didn't know." is not an acceptable response.

• Please be responsible by having your phone charged and ON so you can receive important communications.
• Check your phone often for updates and communication
• Be sure your phone can stay charged by having an external battery/cord. There will be days you will be gone from the hotel for 15-16 hours. Keep your phone charged!!!

PLEASE RESPOND!

If the staff or your chaperones text you - we expect you to RESPOND! You may receive some direct communication, requests, and/or notifications from staff or chaperones. This does not apply to general Reminds to the group. We're talking about direct (or small group) communication. If you don't respond, it causes us to think you may need assistance and we enter into a mode of administrative search. So, do yourself a favor and please respond when prompted. 😃

Your safety is our number one priority. As you travel throughout this adventure, you are required to stay in a group of 4 or more. This is not a request or a suggestion. Anytime you're not in a group of 4 or more, a staff member will require you to stay with them for the reminder of the day (or activity).

Just a general reminder to be observant. Anytime your group (of 4 or more) feels uneasy about your environment, move on. Feel free to use Remind to reach out to the staff if you need to.

We will get to spend a little bit of time at Santa Monica Pier on our first travel day. We understand that traveling all the way to the west coast and not getting to touch the ocean would be disappointing. We have no problem if you want to walk on the beach or even take your shoes off and walk in the surf. However, do not go any deeper than your knees, and there will be absolutely NO swimming in the ocean.

Los Angeles is obviously a large, urban environment. While we will mainly be in well established tourist areas, there will certainly be a variety of humanity along the streets of Hollywood.

Please do not engage with anyone on the street. Whether it's a homeless person, or a street performer, they may try to engage you in conversation or attempt to "give" you something and expect money in return. As much as you may want to "help" or appreciate their art, just keep walking with your group.

Be smart. Don't purchase items on this trip that make it difficult or impossible to bring home.

• Giant stuffed animals
• Knives, swords, or other prohibited items
• Liquids that can't pass TSA inspection
• Fruits / vegetables /etc.

We encourage you to purchase plenty of souvenirs to commemorate your trip, but please be smart about what you buy.

Los Angeles is about the same latitude as Lubbock. It will be warm! We suggest you wear plenty of sunscreen when outside, especially at the parks. It may be more financially feasible for your group (of 4 or more) to share a bottle of sunscreen. Remember, sunscreen probably won't be allowed through TSA, so we suggest you pack it in your luggage.