Two years ago, the Pride of Mayfield Band stepped off a plane from Honolulu, Hawaii. The band members were still buzzing from vast amounts of coconut and tropical sun. They had just participated in once-in-a-lifetime activities like hiking the slopes of the Diamond Head Crater, snorkling with sea turtles, and performing at Pearl Harbor.

However, they were already thinking about their next big event: the trip to Disney World.

The trip was to occur two years from that point, over spring break. It is now two years later, and spring break is right around the corner.

The band leaves on March 21 for Orlando, Florida. The trip will be led by Brian Fancher, one of their directors.

“This is just going to be a really nice way to spend our spring break,” Fancher said. “Disney has its own sort of magic to it that you can’t replicate anywhere else.”

The band will be participating in a number of events and performances throughout the trip, some that the band as a whole has been doing for years and some that are brand new to even the directors.

One of the activities that the band has been the most excited for is the You’re Instrumental Workshop. The workshop is a two-hour long project that consists of the band receiving and sight reading a piece of Disney music led by a guest conductor from Disney.

“Once we’re finished, we go through and record our performance, then put our soundtrack to the actual Disney movie. It’s going to be a really unique and exciting experience,” Fancher said.

In addition, the band will be participating in one of Disney World’s famous night parades. “We certainly have to prepare everyone for sight reading and being open to perhaps some more complex music,” Fancher said.

The Pride of Mayfield had been exposed to similar projects before on the Hawaii trip, but nothing quite like this. In that case, they had weeks to prepare and practice the pieces they planned to perform, but it will be much different this time when they set out for Disney.

“In terms of the parade, we won’t get to practicing for that until after our winter concert,” Fancher said. “We’ll have about a week and a half before the trip that we’re just going to go all out, practicing marching and various tunes that we’ll need for the trip.”

It has been evident that the band students themselves are just as excited. They picked out their roommates and completed payments months ago in preparation.

“Honestly, I’m just excited to get out of the cold for a little bit,” said Sophia LaRiche, a senior trumpet player in the band. “But this trip is really going to be a lot of fun.

“I’ve been practicing way more than usual because Fancher warned us that we’d be sight reading a lot. It’s going to be a really interesting and exciting challenge,” LaRiche said.

Senior percussionist Elise Montani is also getting excited as she prepares for the trip.

“Personally, I’m most excited for marching the parade and finally getting to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter,” Montani said. “I’m definitely a kid at heart so I’m living out some childish dreams of mine.”