Planning my daughters Sweet 16 at Disneyland!

[my3gyrlz]

So I have started planning my oldest daughter's Sweet 16, although it is two years away. Looking for ideas to make this extra special without breaking the bank. The plan is to pay for the bulk of the trip with income tax refunds (estimate 10,000 for this, possibly more) There will be a total of ten people going, myself and my three girls, my best friend, and five of my daughters friends. I will be renting a 15 passenger van, and we have already decided to stay at Motel 6 Maingate (love this hotel, simple, clean place to lay your head at night) We will be going from June 20-26, so my plan is to get the 6 day parkhopper, as well as one day tickets to Knotts Berry Farm and dinner at Medevil Times. So there goes about $7000 ( estimate is higher to include inflation and doesn't take into account any discounts I know are available, and I will be saving money for the next two years so my budget will be more than the $10,000) Any hints, tips, or ideas about anything are welcome and appreciated concerning this trip....
*currently looking on how i should word the invitation's, and how far in advance should these be given out. Since this is a big trip and I am taking teens that are not mine, how much notice should be given?
*I plan on meeting with parents once I know a child is going, to present them with an itinerary and medical release form. Is there anything else i should include or discuss.
Where are some good offsite places to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner with a group to eat that wont break the bank. When it is just my family we eat a lot out of a cooler, but I can't imagine doing this with this many people! I am thinking I may do dry cereal and packing milk though.
*My mom and I are making cinch backpacks for the girls as a goody bag and to carry their stuff while in the park. Any ideas on design (will be personalized with their names with crystal iron on letters)
*I want to make group shirts for her actual birthday day, design ideas? would like to make others as well for other days, ideas?
SORRY this is so long, and I have so many more questions! TIA!!!

 

[tinkermomma]

While two years goes by in the blink of an eye when you have kids, it is also a long time when it comes to planning events. I hate to say this but you should consider the fact that your daughter may have slightly different friends in two years so don't give up the details of this to those friends and their parents until much closer to the date, otherwise you risk having potentially double the guest list, by people getting too excited.

Also I am a little confused. Are you paying for everyone's tickets? You may find this to be unnecessary as you get closer to the event. It's entirely possible that some parents may be more than happy to send their kids to DLR as part of their own summer vacations and for your daughters birthday and I think you should take them up on it if that's the case. Are you close with any of these parents already?

That said...

I would probably send out save the dates about 6 months prior to your daughter sweet 16 and official invites 3 months prior.

If these kids are close enough friends, Itinerary is great but I cannot imagine you would need a medical release form from the parents if you know these parent and if you intend on only 5 girls that are not family attending.

How old are your other 2 girls? If there is just you and your best friend and your two other daughter are younger you may want to enlist the help of other parents. Six teen girls will undoubtedly want to be on their own the whole time but you want to make sure there are enough adults in any case.

As for the backpacks and tee shirts, there are moms on the disney for families board that do a lot of that and could really help you figure out a good design and help you figure out where to get it done. I do know that if you have the design ready you can upload it to a number of websites like vistaprint or custom clothing specific websites. Or contact your local screenprinting company.

 

[cyclenut]

While two years goes by in the blink of an eye when you have kids, it is also a long time when it comes to planning events. I hate to say this but you should consider the fact that your daughter may have slightly different friends in two years so don't give up the details of this to those friends and their parents until much closer to the date, otherwise you risk having potentially double the guest list, by people getting too excited.

Excellent advice and I was going to say the same thing. Things changed quite a bit for my kids as they made the transition from young teen to sweet 16. The things they get involved in at HS change who they want to spend time with. Lifelong friendships sometimes drfit apart. While there may remain one or two core friends, your guest list is larger than that and as a result, you should wait on any formal announcements until much closer to the event.

Also I am a little confused. Are you paying for everyone's tickets? You may find this to be unnecessary as you get closer to the event. It's entirely possible that some parents may be more than happy to send their kids to DLR as part of their own summer vacations and for your daughters birthday and I think you should take them up on it if that's the case. Are you close with any of these parents already?

Interesitng thought, but it seems like it would be awkward if the plan was to have this be about the girls and the birthday if the family of one of the girls was also trying to make it a family vacation. I think that would "ruin the mood" so to speak.

That said...

I would probably send out save the dates about 6 months prior to your daughter sweet 16 and official invites 3 months prior.

If these kids are close enough friends, Itinerary is great but I cannot imagine you would need a medical release form from the parents if you know these parent and if you intend on only 5 girls that are not family attending.

I have to disagree here. Any time you are traveling with a minor child without their parents you should have a "permission to treat" form that specifies your authority to seek treatment for that minor child in the event of a medical emergency. It goes a long way if you have this form and need to take one of the kids to urgent care or something more severe. Asking for the authorization also forces the conversation with the parents regarding any medical issues or medications that you might not know about. People are often very private about their medical conditions and you might be surpised to learn certain things. As the chaperone for the trip, I would insist on knowing about any and all perscription and over the counter medications that the child is taking with them. This is very important.

How old are your other 2 girls? If there is just you and your best friend and your two other daughter are younger you may want to enlist the help of other parents. Six teen girls will undoubtedly want to be on their own the whole time but you want to make sure there are enough adults in any case.

Sound avice. You are likely going to need some help planning and carrying out the events.

As for the backpacks and tee shirts, there are moms on the disney for families board that do a lot of that and could really help you figure out a good design and help you figure out where to get it done. I do know that if you have the design ready you can upload it to a number of websites like vistaprint or custom clothing specific websites. Or contact your local screenprinting company.

I didn't even think of that ... great tip!

I have one suggestion that worked great for my teens. Arrange a scavenger hunt. It can take a couple hours or more, depending on how significant you want to make it. Have the girls break into groups of two, three or four (whichever works best) and give them a clue. The objective is that when they reach their "find" they take a picture with their smartphone and text it back to you. You send them their next clue or puzzle. You can sit in one place (with good cell reception) and they can run around for as long as you want them to searching for the hidden items. You will want to end the hunt at some place like an ice cream shop or something fun like that. The winning team gets a special prize and they all get ice cream.

As an alternative, you can give them a list of clues and have them take pictures with their digital camera or camera phone and then bring back all the pictures. You go through the pictures from each team and see who got the most right. First team back with the most right answers is declared the winner.

You can set a time limit ... or not.

Setting it up will take some planning, but you have time on our side. You can use this board and search for pictures to develop your clues. Then, at some point early in the trip you can sort of "walk the hunt" and adjust the clues before you turn them loose on it. It is a great activity for a "day 4" or "day 5" of a multi-day trip. You can include DTD, DCA and DL or a combination. Just don't run them around too much of they might get a little bored of the game. Doing clues that require them to ride attractions is nice, but keep in mind that this also means they have to stand in lines ... and probably without a fastpass ... so pick things that won't have really long lines ... or pick items from the ride that can be seen from an observation area.

You get the idea ... use your imagination ... the possibilities are endless.

ONE WORD OF CAUTION ... do not create a scavenger hunt where you leave something somewhere for them to find. That causes all kinds of angst with Disney security. We've seen a few stories where entire areas (or even the entire park) has been shut down only to find out the suspicious item was part of some sort of game.

Have fun!

 

[rtfelt]

I agree you better get a medical release. Whenever you take any minor anywhere who is not yours, you should have a medical release, so you can make sure they get the treatment they need.

I know you're looking into the Motel 6, but have you considered renting a timeshare from someone. You could get a 3 bedroom and possibly have everyone together without having to have everyone split up into groups of 2-4. You would also have a kitchen for breakfast and to keep snacks and even make sandwiches for lunch. That could save you a ton of money on 10 people. There's usually always timeshare owners who have extra time to rent out to others. The ones in Anaheim are around the same distance as the Motel 6. It's just a thought. Since you have 2 years to plan, you could very easily find someone who would like to rent theirs out. It could actually cost you a lot less than renting 3-4 motel rooms.

The scavenger hunt would also be a great thing. Many on this forum have planned scavenger hunts, so you could get a lot of help.

Did you know that as of today, you can no longer buy 6 day hopper passes online. I think you can still buy them at the gate, but I don't think you'll get any deal.

 

[Mel522]

I would talk with the parents of the girls you plan to invite before you invite the girls. It's possible their parents might not be comfortable with them going or have something else planned, and you don't want to create an uncomfortable situation where the parents have to say no to something their daughter would love to experience.

I would also second looking into a timeshare, or possible a larger suite. It would be a lot more fun for the girls if they were all together instead of broken into groups.

 

[my3gyrlz]

While two years goes by in the blink of an eye when you have kids, it is also a long time when it comes to planning events. I hate to say this but you should consider the fact that your daughter may have slightly different friends in two years so don't give up the details of this to those friends and their parents until much closer to the date, otherwise you risk having potentially double the guest list, by people getting too excited

I do realize at this age friends come and go and did take that into consideration. So the only people on my guest list are myself, my girls, my best friend and her daughter. Others would not be added till closer to the event.

Also I am a little confused. Are you paying for everyone's tickets? You may find this to be unnecessary as you get closer to the event. It's entirely possible that some parents may be more than happy to send their kids to DLR as part of their own summer vacations and for your daughters birthday and I think you should take them up on it if that's the case. Are you close with any of these parents already?

Being that is is a birthday party, I would never ask or expect any of the parents to help fund this trip. Considering most of her friends parents could never afford such a thing (myself included, I just have a way of making things happen) The only thing I could see them paying for is extra souvenir money. Although the girls will have a Disney gift card in their goody bags/backpacks!

That said...

I would probably send out save the dates about 6 months prior to your daughter sweet 16 and official invites 3 months prior.

Can you do "save the date", I was under the impression these were only for upcoming weddings? I had considered this but wasn't sure it was appropriate.

If these kids are close enough friends, Itinerary is great but I cannot imagine you would need a medical release form from the parents if you know these parent and if you intend on only 5 girls that are not family attending.

No minor child travels with me, even a day trip, without a medical consent form!!! Although minors will be treated for life threatening conditions with out a parent present, what if one were to require stitches for a fall, or ends up in the ER with a migraine. Things happen, and I would hate for that child to sit there waiting for a parent to show up (six hours away) or to get the proper paperwork sent to the hospital so that I may authorize treatment, and to sign them out when done. A few minutes now can save hours of headache later.

How old are your other 2 girls? If there is just you and your best friend and your two other daughter are younger you may want to enlist the help of other parents. Six teen girls will undoubtedly want to be on their own the whole time but you want to make sure there are enough adults in any case.

My other two girls will be five and six when this trip occurs, and while the teen girls will have some time to explore on their own, they will be expected to be in the group most of the time. Knotts Berry Farm is a good example of freedom time. I will arrange for transportation for the teens to get to the park early. My friend, myself and my two youngest will sleep in and get there when we get there. We will all have dinner there together and then split again leaving the teens there till closing while my friend and I with the two girls will head back to DL, teens will be picked up by transportation at closing time. The only day I expect everyone to be together for the whole day will be the actual day of my DD birthday, as I am hoping to have a wonderful jam packed day planned!

As for the backpacks and tee shirts, there are moms on the disney for families board that do a lot of that and could really help you figure out a good design and help you figure out where to get it done. I do know that if you have the design ready you can upload it to a number of websites like vistaprint or custom clothing specific websites. Or contact your local screenprinting company.

Thank you, will keep searching the boards!

 

[my3gyrlz]

[/QUOTE]I have one suggestion that worked great for my teens. Arrange a scavenger hunt. It can take a couple hours or more, depending on how significant you want to make it. Have the girls break into groups of two, three or four (whichever works best) and give them a clue. The objective is that when they reach their "find" they take a picture with their smartphone and text it back to you. You send them their next clue or puzzle. You can sit in one place (with good cell reception) and they can run around for as long as you want them to searching for the hidden items. You will want to end the hunt at some place like an ice cream shop or something fun like that. The winning team gets a special prize and they all get ice cream.

As an alternative, you can give them a list of clues and have them take pictures with their digital camera or camera phone and then bring back all the pictures. You go through the pictures from each team and see who got the most right. First team back with the most right answers is declared the winner.

You can set a time limit ... or not.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the idea, I will have to incorporate this somehow in a way that takes up minimal amount of my time, I want to enjoy DL why I am there too, sitting and waiting while at DL would drive my nuts, to much to see and do =)

Ugh... I cant seem to quote texts properly!!!

 

[larina]

...If these kids are close enough friends, Itinerary is great but I cannot imagine you would need a medical release form from the parents ....

I can't imagine a parent on Earth that would let their child go to Disneyland with a friend without having an itinerary for the trip! It seems to me that the itinerary should be traded for the Medical release form (I get one for day trips if I think it might be needed. Overcautious? Maybe, but if my kid breaks an arm with you, I want you to be able to get them into the ER!).

I would talk with the parents of the girls you plan to invite before you invite the girls. It's possible their parents might not be comfortable with them going or have something else planned, and you don't want to create an uncomfortable situation where the parents have to say no to something their daughter would love to experience...

I would be pretty irritated if somebody invited my child to DL without asking me about it first.

 

[my3gyrlz]

I know you're looking into the Motel 6, but have you considered renting a timeshare from someone. You could get a 3 bedroom and possibly have everyone together without having to have everyone split up into groups of 2-4. You would also have a kitchen for breakfast and to keep snacks and even make sandwiches for lunch. That could save you a ton of money on 10 people. There's usually always timeshare owners who have extra time to rent out to others. The ones in Anaheim are around the same distance as the Motel 6. It's just a thought. Since you have 2 years to plan, you could very easily find someone who would like to rent theirs out. It could actually cost you a lot less than renting 3-4 motel rooms.

Forgot about these, was never a good deal when it was just my family, but might be worth it for this trip! Thank you!

Did you know that as of today, you can no longer buy 6 day hopper passes online. I think you can still buy them at the gate, but I don't think you'll get any deal.

[/QUOTE]
Did not realize this, can always plan to shorten trip by a day. I think travel agents still sell these though, maybe they will come back in two years time =)

 

[my3gyrlz]

I would talk with the parents of the girls you plan to invite before you invite the girls. It's possible their parents might not be comfortable with them going or have something else planned, and you don't want to create an uncomfortable situation where the parents have to say no to something their daughter would love to experience.

Agree!

 

[cyclenut]

Thanks for the idea, I will have to incorporate this somehow in a way that takes up minimal amount of my time, I want to enjoy DL why I am there too, sitting and waiting while at DL would drive my nuts, to much to see and do =)

Ugh... I cant seem to quote texts properly!!!

The way to make this work in your favor is to have them use the camera idea where you give them all the clues ahead of time and in no particular order. They just take a picture of what they think is the "answser" to the riddle and then move to the next one. Then you set a meet up time and location. You are free to do whatever you want until that meet up time.

Another fun thing to do is at BABWS. You can schedule a "party" there or you can do your own version. You can do a "record your own sound" option and have the girls sing "happy birthday" for the sound and place it in the bear. Each girl takes a heart and does the heart ceremony and all hearts are placed in your DDs bear. Your DD will have one special sweet 16 bear. You'll have to decide if you want to pay for everyone to get a bear of if you want that to be something they decide to spend their own money on. You can also purchase BABWS gift cards to put in their goody bags as an option.

I'll talk to my DDs and see if they have any more stories from their friends and others for cool sweet 16 ideas with a Disney flair.

Since you talked about a day at KBF, I'll ask them about that too.

 

[Disney Dreams]

What a great gift!

So, my Sweet 16 was quite a "hoop de do" event with several parts to it. I am going to share it with you because I think it might help you since there are some similarities.

The party - All my girl friends met at point A (dropped off by parents) with a day bag packed with swimsuits and change of clothes for the evening. We were taken via limo to point B where my Dad and his girlfriend (now step-mom) had lunch and lots of girl-only activities planned. Several hours later we all changed into "party clothes" and back into the limo. Meanwhile, my boy friends were picked up at point A via limo. All of us (limo A & B and dad & gf/stepmom) arrived at a restaurant at the same time for dinner (location C). Then, limos took everyone to location D for an evening activity that lasted a few hours. Then boys went back to location A via limo for parental pick-up at the end of the night while girls went back to location B via limo for a slumber party with parental pick up a location B the next afternoon.

Here's how he did it, for you to steal/use/borrow/ignore as you wish:

1. My Dad sent out invites three months prior. (Two different versions, girl's / boy's.) The invite was basic Sweet 16, with "a party you won't want to miss, be there or hear all about it at school on Monday from those who made it" (haha, I still remember that part!). He then sent out a "It's Almost Here!" reminder three weeks prior.

2. In the invite there was an itinerary included (girl's version / boy's version), but it was clear that the itinerary was strictly for parental information only and that mid-party joining or leaving could not be coordinated due to logistics. It had times, locations, contact phone numbers at each location for each segment of the party (pre-cell phones... aging myself).

3. Also in the invite there was a "what to wear / what to bring" sheet included. (Girl's version / boy's version)

4. Lastly, the invite pack included a medical waiver for each kid. He made it clear if it was not signed, the girls would not be included in anything beyond location B and the boys would not be included beyond dinner. This was included on the sheet in #3.

Party favors included items that could be used during the day and be keepsakes. Everyone got sweatshirts customized with a "Dreams Sweet 16 Extravaganza" logo (with the date as well) on the left-chest area and matching hats. Everyone received them at the evening activity (which was outdoors). The RSVP card asked for shirt sizes.

All friends received a little flip book with about 10 pictures from the day along with their thank you note so 1) parents could see the fun and 2) a keepsake. I know to this day at least 3 friends still have that picture flip book. Sort of fun for me (yeeeaarrss later) to know that they enjoyed the day as much as I did. There are 2 of the sweatshirts still around, that I know of, anyway.

Hope this helps with some of the planning. Let me know if I can answer any questions. Sounds like your daughter will have a Sweet 16 to remember forever!

- Dreams

 

[my3gyrlz]

All friends received a little flip book with about 10 pictures from the day along with their thank you note so 1) parents could see the fun and 2) a keepsake. I know to this day at least 3 friends still have that picture flip book. Sort of fun for me (yeeeaarrss later) to know that they enjoyed the day as much as I did. There are 2 of the sweatshirts still around, that I know of, anyway.
- Dreams

I so thought of doing a mini album for the guests a couple days ago. I think its a great thank you gift. I already have what I want picked out and it on sale this week, just waiting for DD approval, lol!

Can anyone tell me if attraction photo's can be loaded to a photo pass, so I can purchase after the trip? Meant to ask a CM the last time I was there and forgot.