“We were part of the Disney experience” | Albany High School band students recount memorable trip to Disney world

ALBANY -- Emma Owens took two trips last week she won’t soon forget.

The first trip was to Disney World, a place the 17-year-old senior had never seen in person before making the 12-hour bus ride there alongside nearly 40 members of the Albany High School band.

The second trip happened at Disney World, as she and her bandmates were walking off the Marketplace Stage following their full-concert set. 

“I legit hit the ground,” she recalled, adding that she snapped her shoelaces. “It was not discrete.”

Neither was her reaction, according to 16-year-old junior tuba player Michaela Walter.

“She laughed so loud,” Walter said, drawing another hearty laugh from Owens. “Nobody missed it.”

Owens’ minor mishap was the only blemish during an otherwise unforgettable trip.

During a three-day trip at Disney World, 40 AHS band students serenaded a crowd with a live performance on the Marketplace Stage, an open-air venue located along Lake Buena Vista at Disney Springs, on Thursday, Jan. 4.

Under the direction of band director Amy Elmore, the students opened their set at 12:15 p.m. with a sequence from the Disney film “Frozen,” which they performed at halftime of a football last season — quite the irony on this chilly 45-degree afternoon.

In fact, Elmore said Disney employees shot fake snow in the air during the opening.

“All accidental,” she said.

During its set, the band also played “Moscow” and “Come Lady, Come,” two songs from last year’s concert, as well as several other well-known Disney tunes before closing with “God Bless the U.S.A.”

Unlike Owens, this was senior percussionist Kaitlyn Erday’s third trip to Disney World.

But before last week, she never pictured herself actually being part of the Disney experience — until now.

“My whole childhood was Disney, Disney, Disney,” Erday said. “So it was cool to be there and actually be a part of it. This time, we were doing something productive there, and we were part of the Disney experience.”

Included in the band’s performance was a five-minute medley of other well-known Disney hit songs, which was captured in a video that was later uploaded to the school’s Facebook page.

In the video, which has drawn more than 4,200 views, 144 reactions, and 87 shares, students played “A Whole New World,” “Under the Sea,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Friend Like Me.”

After the band’s performance — and Owens’ memorable trip walking off stage — the students went from the ones providing the entertainment to the ones being entertained.

They toured Hollywood Studios on Thursday afternoon and Magic Kingdom on Friday before splitting into groups and visiting either Epcot and Animal Kingdom on Saturday.

For a first-time visitor such as Owens, who spent her time at Animal Kingdom watching monkeys and getting to touch a snake, everything she saw at Disney World was a sight to behold, from the Christmas decorations still hanging down to the amount of workers she saw.

“There were so many things that I didn’t even know were there,” Owens said. “Whenever you say Disney, you think of the rides, but it’s way more than the rides. The atmosphere is what makes it Disney World.”

Since she became the AHS band director 19 years ago, Elmore has always made it a point to take her students outside the classroom.

Her students performed at Universal Studios four years ago, and she’s also brought them to New Orleans to see broadway shows such as “The Lion King,” The Phantom of the Opera” and “Wicked” in the past.