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During the weekend of April 26-29, Paint Branch’s music department took their annual spring trip, this time to Florida. Led by music teachers Mrs. Mitchell and Mr. Casement, the trip featured students who are enrolled either in Jazz singers or who are members of orchestra or band.

The trip began on Thursday evening as 75 students gathered at school and loaded on to two busses for the 14 hour trip. Once the group arrived in Orlando, they stayed for five days and four nights with every day full of a variety of foods, fun rides, and a lot of walking under the sun.

As soon as the students crossed the Florida state line they grabbed breakfast before getting back on the busses for a short ride to Daytona Beach. At the beach the sun was beaming, which made it the right setting for taking pictures, making the waves hit your feet, and taking a swim. After a pizza lunch, everyone loaded the busses for the an hour and a half drive to settle into their hotels in Orlando. Afterwards, the students went to the Disney Springs Marketplace where they watched the Jazz Singers amusing performance and then spent the rest of the day there.

On the second day, the students went to Epcot, the home of the giant golf ball. Epcot was having their Flower Garden Festival, so a bunch of colorful flowers were displayed around the park. The park was divided into countries like Japan, Morocco, Italy, Mexico, and China. There were a diverse choices of foods. Every student had workshop that day: one for jazz singers and one for instrumental music members. Jazz singers did acting exercises and they sang and danced to “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” while members of orchestra and band learned a portion of the background music for the movie Aladdin. They played and recorded it and inserted their work into the movie.

The next day, everyone went to Magic Kingdom, the home of the famous Cinderella’s Castle. Magic Kingdom had a lot of street parades and our very own marching band was a part of it. Along with the parade came the display of all of the famous Disney movies such as Brave and Dumbo and characters such as Daisy and Donald. As night fell, everyone went on rides and gathered around the castle to watch the fireworks show. Different Disney movies were projected onto the castle while music and fireworks corresponded with the theme. It was beautiful.

On the last day, everyone checked out of their rooms and then went to Universal Studios. The park had a lot of large roller coasters, a variety of cool movie themed attractions, and an extravagant waterpark. Universal Studios also had a parade displaying Dora the Explorer, Gru and Vector from Despicable Me and Pets. Students had the opportunity to meet and take pictures with characters from The Simpsons, as well as Gru, Spongebob and Patrick.That following night, students ate dinner at the hotel before getting back on the road for the 14 hour drive home back. They arrived in Maryland the next morning tired and ready to go home, but with great memories of their trip.