Is Your Senior Trip Structure Normal? NYC Experience in 2009 #SeniorTrip #NYC #HighSchoolTravel
My Senior Trip in NYC – Semi-Structured Fun!
In 2009, my senior trip took us to New York City. It was semi-structured, with set activities at certain times, but also provided solid three to four-hour blocks for free time. The catch? We had to stay in groups of four and meet back at designated spots.
Breaking the Rules
Despite the rules, some students ventured off in pairs or solo. Surprisingly, everyone managed to meet up on time and safely.
Questioning the Norm
Is this type of structure common for senior trips, especially ones in a bustling city like NYC? Sending 17 and 18-year-olds out with minimal supervision seems risky, but was this normal?
I’m from California, so we did what all seniors do in California and went to Disneyland. They set us loose and just told us to be back at the gate at 4 am so we could sleep at the hotel for a couple hours before visiting Magic Mountain the next day. Which, again, we were set loose upon with no structure.
I didn’t get a senior trip… (COVID)
Senior trip? That’s hilarious. My school was so small and poor it barely had a prom.
Senior trip? LOL my school threatened to not let us walk at graduation
Let us loose and had fun.
“Hey look we know some of you are 18, just respect the rules and use the designated smoking areas.” It was 6 flags and that was back when you could buy cigarettes at 18.
Do most schools even have senior trips?
What’s a senior trip?
School didn’t have an official senior trip. But my school sports team had a European trip my senior year. So, for myself and the 10 other seniors, it was our senior trip, so to speak.
We had structure like games, tours and events we had to attend. But they also gave us a train pass and several days to explore nearby cities. Obviously, we went to bars and obtained lots of alcohol. So when the chaperones locked us into the dorm at night to go out or go to bed. We all just went wild inside. Drank profusely, pulled pranks, smoked way too many cigarettes, gambled, and tried to get local girls we met on omegle to come over. Was a fucking blast.
My school didnt even have a track team, much less a senior trip. Oy.
Look at the rich kids over here getting a trip in high school!
Dafuq is a senior trip?
Went on an 8th grade leadership trip to New York and was allowed to let loose for 1 hour around time square. Not mutch but still pretty cool.
It was let loose. We went to an all inclusive resort in Cancun where they let us drink & we had two recent law grads who “chaperoned” us
The schools didn’t really have anything to do with it, some kids organized it and the more who went the cheaper it was. About 70 kids ended up going
I went on a band trip, and it was pretty similar. We had certain group activities, but we had several hours unchaperoned each day with meeting times for a headcount.
My only “school trip” was a Girl Scout trip…I’d have rather jumped off a bridge than gone on that trip but my mom forced me to go.
Same scenario for me in 2002. Bus ride to NYC, stay in a group and report back in every few hours. There were activities planned that the bus took you to, like Ellis Island and shit like that. Back in the hotel by 8pm.
My school had no senior trip. However, some of the clubs did have trips that I went on my senior year. Some were fairly accounted for; others we had lots of free time. One we only circled back in the afternoon to discuss what was taking place.
Pretty normal. My kids had an 8th grade trip that wasn’t too different (in Manhattan). Break them into groups and let them run around a little, meet back at Place XYZ by a certain time.
My rising senior is going on a school trip to Paris this summer. I’m sure it will have similar structure.
Our senior trip was going to Disneyland. Not sure if this is what most schools in Southern California do. I’m surprised to hear yours was just going out to a city.
We just went to six flags
We had a senior night party in the gymnasium.
Semi structured. They’d bring us to a museum or whatever and we could do what what we wanted for four hours. Then we’d be brought to a mall and given two hours. And so on.
Ours was to a theme park, so yes we were on our own in groups of our choosing or individually if you were into that but you weren’t to leave the park and we all met at the gate at a certain time. I couldn’t imagine letting an entire highschool class on their own in NYC. We did have a smaller trip to DC for a more advanced class where we ‘interned’ at different organizations during the day and then met up at night, taking ourselves on the metro each morning. This was an incredible amount of freedom for us but it was an honors level class with only 10 people who were especially responsible
09 here. The main “dudes” of our class (I was one of them) just got done watching Role Models and wanted to LARP for our senior trip. We somehow sold it and they went with it. What resulted was a structured battle template that lasted half a day in a public state park that resulted in so many “quiet kids” unleashing 4 years of rage on their classmates. Is still to this day one of my funnest memories. Seeing Jonathan beat the shit out of so many people with a foam sword is something I’ll remember forever.
Mazatlan, Mexico in the mid-90s. Gave us bracelets with our hotel name on them in case we were found passed out on the beach and said “Have Fun” for a week. I got alcohol poisoning the 2nd night like an amateur.
We (about half my graduating class around 200+ kids) went to Cancun, there were no parents there. Absolute shit show. I have no idea how we pulled this off.
Mine was a 7 day cruise with 25 friends , 1 teacher and her boyfriend.
First stop… Jamaica
We were instructed to not die or get arrested.
Didn’t have a senior trip but I was fortunate enough to go to California my junior year with my marching band. I felt safe being a naïve 16yo, we had a few safety measures in mind like check ins at certain times at a certain place in the park, only going around in groups, plus being places like Disney or Universal felt okay to go around without adult supervision. Going to visit Hollywood and the beach tho we all stayed together with chaperones along with us.
My middle school actually had an annual eighth grade trip to Washington D.C. every year, around the end of May. It was a kindergarten through eighth grade school, so more like a final trip before moving on. On the other hand, my high school did not have a school-wide senior trip. You had to be in a specific class that might have a trip apart of its curriculum, usually an AP or drama class. Some AP classes that I was not in would collaborate and go to Hershey Park together, so I missed out on that. I was in AP Government, so I went on a class trip to Washington D.C. for a townhouse type event where various politicians spoke. It was quite structured and not really any going off on our own. Plus, it was near the end of November, so it was chilly. The middle school trip to this day is the most memorable school trip I went on. It was more about having fun with classmates one last time.
All the seniors in my school had to pay $500 to go to some water park for a senior trip, as well as some senior only activities on campus. Sadly covid happened and nobody got a refund 😬
The closest my school had to senior trips was certain teachers would organize trips with students that took their specific class, and they were usually the only teacher for it.
Example: we had only one ap euro teacher he had maybe 25-50 total students and the winter break after the ap exam they’d go to Europe
Or a specific English teacher would take some of his students to Ireland
graduated 2022, didn’t have a senior trip.
My class played kickball at the local park for our senior trip. I didn’t go.
They turned us loose at a water park with a time to meet the bus again to go home.
I went to a private school and on my senior trip in 2005 we went to London, UK for 2.5 weeks. For this trip to be allowed by the Board of Education, it must be structured and have educational elements to it. My best friend was the teacher’s reader(aide) who helped create our mini binders filled with important information, itinerary, and work sheets on places of interest. When we got to our hotel in London we found out that the box that carried those binders went missing. Virgin Airlines misplaced them. Our trip was slightly unstructured, but we made it to all of our appointments and events. A few of us went out at night and hit the pubs, it was legal for 17 year olds. Lol. We all had fun and it was the best school trip ever.
There were times when we got separated by rush hour traffic at the underground, but their system and maps are easy to read and understand. It’s difficult to get lost. One of the students lost us at St. Paul’s Cathedral and went back to the hotel to take a nap, he met up with us later at the next appointed event. Sometimes our English professor wanted nothing to do with us cuz some of the boys were embarrassing her by trying to speak in a Cockney accent, boisterously. They kept yelling out “Ello Poppet!” “What up, Gov’na!”. We were unsupervised then. Even our chaperones ditched us at times. Teachers and parents. Lol. I took advantage of checking the sites out, away from them. It was nice. Met some lovely people too. Furthermore, there were many times when we were left to our own devices and knew to meet up at stated checkpoint by a certain time. We had free time in the afternoon and evenings.
Once we got back, Virgin Airlines found our binders. As soon as they arrived, we dedicated an entire class period to filling it out. My best friend and the professor created work sheets for us to fill out educational information about the places we visited. These binders were our proof to the Board of Education that we truly did take an educational trip. Once again, best trip ever!
Mine was 1994 and the students could only go if invited by the staff. I wasn’t invited. Funny enough, all the kids who’s parents had a business on main street were invited. The senior trip was paid for by all the other students parents.
Our senior trip was canceled because of covid, but I did go on band trips every year before that to the same theme park our senior trip would have been on. We entered the park at around noon, the chaperones told us to always stay in groups, and let us loose until it was time to leave at around 8 or 9 pm. The only time you’d see a chaperone during those 8 hours was if you happened to cross paths going from point A to B or if you happened to eat at the same restaurant. I didn’t have a group during my freshman year, so I wandered off by myself for most of the trip and no one noticed. I’m sure other people also broke the “stay in groups” rule at least for a little bit. I’m sure the senior trip would have had the same rules and a similar timeline.
I was home schooled but we had a co-op group that took us seniors out to mini golfing and milkshakes afterwards. It was super fun despite it just being about 4 or 5 of us. I technically was too young, but as there was no one my age, they decided to have me “graduate” a year early with the group so I wouldn’t be the only one next year or so I wouldn’t not get one if it was just me.
Senior trip to the liquor store to buy swisher sweets was what I got
Our senior trip was free roam of Disneyland at night. It was a bunch of schools at once and pretty much just “be back at this time”. Bussed us all out and all back at like 2am.
We did a senior trip to Europe and toured Europe over a course of two weeks. And just to preface only like 20% of our class went because it was a $5-$6k thing to pay for.. I was very fortunate to go as my late grandparents helped me out with paying for this as a graduation gift.
But, we basically had free time to do whatever as well with rules to come back and meet at a certain time and place. The vast majority of us would stick together and head to a bar or pub and do our own thing!
we went to a resort
Tell me you are obliviously untitled without telling me you’re obliviously entitled.
Didn’t have one
I graduated high school in 2004 and we didn’t have a senior trip. Nor did any graduating classes surrounding me, all the way back to when my mom graduated from the same school in 1978. I had never really heard of it IRL until my sibling became a teacher and she now advises the senior class. I thought it was a Saved by the Bell trope for most of my life.
we have a grad bash trip to universal every year. once we got through security, it was do whatever the fuck you want