By Stacy Howell

Wow! The Disney World High Adventure Trip was amazing. Although there were many bumps along the road, overall the trip was very successful. Basically I was the only one who encountered the bumps in the road, however the participants experienced 7 days of fun & excitement. The group spent many hours of fundraising to reduce the overall cost of the trip and we even had fun while fundraising. By the time we boarded the plane to Orlando, FL, we were one big happy family.

This was the troop’s first experience flying as a group. Overall, the flights were great & if the troop chooses to participate in another High Adventure Trip to Disney World, we will definitely be flying again. We stayed at The Disney All Star Sports Resort which is located within the Disney World complex. This resort is a great option for groups. A few of the participants tried out the swimming pool but I heard they didn’t stay in the water long because it was quite chilly. Each participant also had a MagicBand which is pretty amazing. Everyone got to choose the color of their MagicBand and they also have each person’s name inside the band. The MagicBand was used to access your room, to enter the amusement parks and access the FastPasses. The six Boy Scouts earned 3 Merit Badges, American Cultures, Movie Making and Aviation. 

We were divided into two groups. Our group had 15 people and we went almost non-stop to ensure that we saw almost everything there was to see in the four Disney World amusement parks. Everyone in the group stayed together except when we were in the resort rooms. Although the parks were very full because of the Christmas holiday, we did not spend much time standing in line because we utilized the FastPass option which allows you to reserve a time to ride the attractions. The few times we did stand in line, we visited, laughed and got to know each other better. 

The entire group of 29 participants spent the last few hours of New Year’s Eve together in the Magic Kingdom amusement park. We watched the Electric Parade and the ‘special edition’ of the New Year’s Eve fireworks. All I can say is, ‘WOW’. I don’t think I have ever seen so many fireworks in such a short time. I will never forget such a great New Year’s Eve celebration with 28 great people (and the thousands of other people). 

I would like to thank the other 28 participants for making this trip great. I truly hope everyone enjoyed the experience. I especially would like to thank Melinda Newberry for taking the time to purchase a beautiful glass Mickey Mouse head Christmas ornament and a cute Cinderella’s Castle phone case as a gift of appreciation from all the participants. I am ready to start planning the troop’s next High Adventure trip to Disney World. Is anyone else going with me?