Cheerleader Overload

ahelmes71

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 9, 2013
Just got back from a week at CBR. Vacation started out nice enough, but by mid-week the cheerleaders began pouring in for some sort of National competition and I felt like I was unwillingly thrust into the middle of Spring break. Loads of people milling around in the food court when you wanted to grab a quick bite, and the pool areas were much busier.

Earlier in the week we had usually 8 to 10 people on the Disney park buses. By Friday they were full to standing capacity. It's not that the kids were causing trouble...it's just the situation when you suddenly have hundreds of kids in a resort having fun. The noise level and crowd level increases, our ability to enjoy the amenities decreases. If it was peak season we'd expect that, but we specifically attempted to go during off-season for a peaceful quiet resort experience as we had in October a few years back. Oh well, live and learn.
 
We try to miss those type of events but never fails there is always something going on at WDW. It is almost like off season is no longer "off." It would be nice if they would publish a calendar of these events so vacationers would know about them. But I guess that is what the boards are for.
 
If you stay at Disney between feb 1st and the middle of march at either the Allstar resorts or Caribbean you will see cheerleaders. There is a co petition almost every weekend in that time frame there.
 
If you stay at Disney between feb 1st and the middle of march at either the Allstar resorts or Caribbean you will see cheerleaders. There is a co petition almost every weekend in that time frame there.

I thought the Competition ended sometime this week. If there is a competition the weekend of 3/1-3/3, I will remember that when I see a full resort at that time.
 


I suppose it comes with experience- learning when to expect some of these huge sports/cheer groups, and knowing where they are usually lodged. You are usually safe at the Deluxes. One of the mods is usually subject to these groups- lately it always seems to be CBR. And AS Sports and at least one other value are usually tagged as well.

There are a couple of websites that you can check to see if a major event is going on during your projected dates. Mouseplanet notes some of them on their weekly park update. And I think the ESPN/WWOS also has a search function that shows you sports activities going on each month.
 
It seems like they are always there. My experience: They hang in packs and like to make fun of people.
 
lucas said:
It seems like they are always there. My experience: They hang in packs and like to make fun of people.

Funny that is how I treat them.
 


I'm sorry you got caught in the mix of all of the cheerleaders. I see how it can cause trouble... The only type of resort you would not find them in at this time would be villas and deluxe.
 
Did you notice any difference in your experience in the parks or DTD? We are going to be there during a gymnastics national competition. They will not be staying at our resort but I'm sure hoping it doesn't effect our experience in the parks.
 
Large groups like that always stay in the values/mods. If you wish to avoid them, you should stay in a deluxe or go at a time of year when there aren't competitions going on at Disney. This particular time of year is notorious for cheer/dance competitions.

I stayed at Pop last month and there were Brazilian tour groups everywhere. I was expecting this and with my budget right now, it was either stay in a value or don't go. I just knew I would need to exercise patience in dealing with the number of people around. It really wasn't that big of a deal.
 
LOL, when we booked, we thought we were avoiding the cheerleaders, but just found out there's another competition the last weekend we're there. (we're going Feb 23-March 5th)
Oy! Nothing like waking up to screaming pyramids, fake smiles, and bright makeup... right out your window. We requested a room to the back of the building.

On the plus side? My 14yr old son will love it. :love:
 
My son's teacher is down in Disney now coaching one of those teams! :lmao:

We have been to Disney several times in Dec during the pop Warner championship and never had any issues but we always make sure to stay at a deluxe resort that week to avoid them.

From what we have seen typically they are in the parks more at night then durning the day b/c games and competitions are held during the day. But the cheerleaders we have encountered always seemed to be more of an issue then the football players. The girls could get really obnoxious with all the cheering and just being LOUD in general!

We were just there in mid dec for a quick trip and unknown to us we were there during some HS basketball tournament and we were staying at All Star Sports where all the teams were staying! Luckily for us we had NO problems. Matter to fact we couldn't have come encounter with a more nicer group of kids.... In the afternoons we would come back to the resort to swim and there was alway a group of kids at the pool they would let my 11 year old DS join in whatever pool game they were playing or they would sit there and talk B ball with him. :goodvibes:goodvibes

I will say the teams did make the buses quite crowded thou!
 
dalayney said:
LOL, when we booked, we thought we were avoiding the cheerleaders, but just found out there's another competition the last weekend we're there. (we're going Feb 23-March 5th)
Oy! Nothing like waking up to screaming pyramids, fake smiles, and bright makeup... right out your window. We requested a room to the back of the building.

On the plus side? My 14yr old son will love it. :love:

I looked at the scedual and it was the 13-18 at least i think lol
 
Just got back from a week at CBR. Vacation started out nice enough, but by mid-week the cheerleaders began pouring in for some sort of National competition and I felt like I was unwillingly thrust into the middle of Spring break. Loads of people milling around in the food court when you wanted to grab a quick bite, and the pool areas were much busier.

Earlier in the week we had usually 8 to 10 people on the Disney park buses. By Friday they were full to standing capacity. It's not that the kids were causing trouble...it's just the situation when you suddenly have hundreds of kids in a resort having fun. The noise level and crowd level increases, our ability to enjoy the amenities decreases. If it was peak season we'd expect that, but we specifically attempted to go during off-season for a peaceful quiet resort experience as we had in October a few years back. Oh well, live and learn.

As a cheer mom I can tell you it is PEEK CHEERLEADING COMPETITION season. From February to April, there are going to be dance teams, cheer teams, etc in Orlando. College Cheer, High School Cheer, All-Star Cheer, Recreation Cheer. They will all have their turn. <3 We love it! The HP Field House is one of several prime locations for cheer competitions. Along with the Silver Spurs Arena (Kissimmee) Orlando Convention Center, Gaylord Palms, and the Peabody Hotel. We live 45 minutes away in Tampa and are always going to Orlando area for competitions.

What you see there now is nothing compared to the Cheerleading Worlds Competition to be held April 27-29 2013. They HP Field House fills to capacity so they have to have one of those jumbo screens outside for all the late arrivals who can't make it inside. We started taking DD 9, there to watch for the first time last year, will go back again this year. You have teams fro all over the world and people coming from all over the world to watch. It is the Olympics of cheerleading.
 
We try to miss those type of events but never fails there is always something going on at WDW. It is almost like off season is no longer "off." It would be nice if they would publish a calendar of these events so vacationers would know about them. But I guess that is what the boards are for.

No, Disney never really has ever had an OFF season. A bit slower season yes, but never off.
 
nonstopdisneymom said:
Did you notice any difference in your experience in the parks or DTD? We are going to be there during a gymnastics national competition. They will not be staying at our resort but I'm sure hoping it doesn't effect our experience in the parks.

DB and I were there for 2/1 to 2/8 and we didn't find them disruptive in the parks at all. We FP everything, so keep that in mind. We were even in DHS for Superbowl Sunday and it was totally fine!
 
Between Dance Competitions, Cheer Competitions (College, High School, All-Star, Side-line), band competitions, and other events, you are most likely going to hit some group of people.

I have been a cheer mom for 7 years and am a member of some of the larger on-line communities, facebook pages, etc. and you just are never going to know about all of them because there are too many of them.

I will tell you, in Florida the cheer competitions can start as early as October, but peek in Jan/Feb through April (ending with the Worlds Competition at the HP Field House. Teams and fans from all over the world are there.)

Prime locations in the Orlando area that these events are held:

Disney HP Field House
Gaylord Palms Convention Center
Orlando Convention Center
Peabody Hotel Convention Center
Silver Spurs Arena
Inside Universal Parks

There may be some at a few other locations. My friend's daughter joined the school Color Guard and has been to Orlando for competition already this season. There are countless events held in Orlando.

Yes, the cheerleaders stick together in groups, they are loud, they laugh, they tumble and stunt outside the doors and down the hallways. They have tons of fun. So do the parents. On occasion the parents can behave worse than the kids. Everyone tends to let loose form all the weeks/months of stress from preparing for the competition.
 
We just got back from a POP Century weekend a few hours ago, and the place was packed with them, both English and non-English speaking ones. For the most part they seemed like nice enough kids, but there were definitely some issues. There were a lot of the several or more people blocking a whole sidewalk off thing, and coming into an elevator before letting people off; basically some of them needed a few lessons in manners. :confused3 More irritating to me was a series of crank phone calls from young girls yesterday afternoon and evening, mostly to my 77-year-old mom, who had stayed in the room because she didn't feel well. :mad: They did it again when I got back to the room; first my daughter picked up and got mad, hung up. They did it again, and I picked up and stopped it! I was traveling with my 16 year old daughter (and 15 year-old nephew who had NO problem with them being everywhere! :cool1: Well, except when it came to rides, see below...), and anyone who has teenaged girls knows there's always that silly female judging thing going on, and there were a few looks and giggles behind hands that got her fuming, and that's never fun! :sad2: There was a lot more running around and shouting and 'kid' noises than there usually are at night while we were trying to get to sleep.

Yes, you could probably avoid most of this by staying at the deluxes and most of the mods, but not everyone can afford that - the only reason we usually do is because I'm a DVC member. I can't afford $200 and up for one night most of the time - I'm a single parent and caregiver with a fairly decent job, but just decent! At the very least, I would think Disney could let you know what you're getting into if booking at x-resort for xyz days, cause I definitely would've looked into a different weekend or resort.

Also, I've seen a few people post that it doesn't effect the parks, but it seemed the wait times were definitely higher and attendance was more dense this weekend than it's ever been on my past visits. I understand there's always something going on, but nothing like this - they were everywhere. Maybe I've lucked out in the past - I've seen large groups that took over a ride for a bit, but nothing like this. I'd rather see them give over a ride completely - and let people know about it! - for an hour or so, just large groups, and then let the groups know outside of that time, they'll need to break up into smaller groups of 5 or 6 and let non-group people feed in between those smaller groups. My mom and I waited almost 2 hours for my daughter and nephew to get off Test Track, and there were at least 4 large groups that came out during that time.

I guess I wish there was some kind of calendar available for the normal visitor to check before we book and spend (and in some instances really waste) our time and money. Maybe even something showing when the groups will be at the parks instead of at ESPN, some thought given to those who aren't part of these groups. I understand everyone deserves to be at Disney and have a great time, but these huge groups' pleasure shouldn't mean the rest of us don't get to go to the resorts or parks and enjoy them as well.

And I do apologize if this 'rant' steps on someone's toes, but I was really aggravated about my mom being pranked and the number of rides my kids had to pass up or wait forever on because of this.
 
We just got back from a POP Century weekend a few hours ago, and the place was packed with them, both English and non-English speaking ones. For the most part they seemed like nice enough kids, but there were definitely some issues. There were a lot of the several or more people blocking a whole sidewalk off thing, and coming into an elevator before letting people off; basically some of them needed a few lessons in manners. :confused3 More irritating to me was a series of crank phone calls from young girls yesterday afternoon and evening, mostly to my 77-year-old mom, who had stayed in the room because she didn't feel well. :mad: They did it again when I got back to the room; first my daughter picked up and got mad, hung up. They did it again, and I picked up and stopped it! I was traveling with my 16 year old daughter (and 15 year-old nephew who had NO problem with them being everywhere! :cool1: Well, except when it came to rides, see below...), and anyone who has teenaged girls knows there's always that silly female judging thing going on, and there were a few looks and giggles behind hands that got her fuming, and that's never fun! :sad2: There was a lot more running around and shouting and 'kid' noises than there usually are at night while we were trying to get to sleep.

Yes, you could probably avoid most of this by staying at the deluxes and most of the mods, but not everyone can afford that - the only reason we usually do is because I'm a DVC member. I can't afford $200 and up for one night most of the time - I'm a single parent and caregiver with a fairly decent job, but just decent! At the very least, I would think Disney could let you know what you're getting into if booking at x-resort for xyz days, cause I definitely would've looked into a different weekend or resort.

Also, I've seen a few people post that it doesn't effect the parks, but it seemed the wait times were definitely higher and attendance was more dense this weekend than it's ever been on my past visits. I understand there's always something going on, but nothing like this - they were everywhere. Maybe I've lucked out in the past - I've seen large groups that took over a ride for a bit, but nothing like this. I'd rather see them give over a ride completely - and let people know about it! - for an hour or so, just large groups, and then let the groups know outside of that time, they'll need to break up into smaller groups of 5 or 6 and let non-group people feed in between those smaller groups. My mom and I waited almost 2 hours for my daughter and nephew to get off Test Track, and there were at least 4 large groups that came out during that time.

I guess I wish there was some kind of calendar available for the normal visitor to check before we book and spend (and in some instances really waste) our time and money. Maybe even something showing when the groups will be at the parks instead of at ESPN, some thought given to those who aren't part of these groups. I understand everyone deserves to be at Disney and have a great time, but these huge groups' pleasure shouldn't mean the rest of us don't get to go to the resorts or parks and enjoy them as well.

And I do apologize if this 'rant' steps on someone's toes, but I was really aggravated about my mom being pranked and the number of rides my kids had to pass up or wait forever on because of this.

I completely get where you're coming from. Now, I feel we are pretty laid back, and we don't get upset over much. My DH and I have a pretty high tolerance level. I feel we give most everyone the benefit of the doubt.

But.... some people need to realize that not all of us can go to WDW on a regular basis. Some people, this is a once in a lifetime trip. How would you feel, spending $4,000-$6,000... saving for the trip for years... to have it ruined by other resort guests keeping you up all night, overwhelming the food courts, the rides, etc. Especially when some of us try like heck, to go at a time where it's not a madhouse. (although I hear off peak times are a thing of the past) I feel for people that leave WDW less than happy because c*ap like this.

Heck, we thought we had done our research. We booked going off of crowd calendars, etc. Spent alot of time trying to figure out a decent time to go, taking our kids out of school, etc. Booking our reservations through disney, they didn't tell us that the pool would be closed while we're there, or that it will probably be filled w/cheer groups. (we're staying feb 23-March 5th... that last weekend March 1-3rd is w/the cheer groups will be there) Kinda scratching my head on this... wishing we we're informed....

No matter what, I know we'll have a great time at our upcoming trip. Because that's just the type of family we are. We roll w/the punches. And we do adore disney. Last trip we had was in 2005.

Now, like I said before, my 14yr old son will love this whole cheerleader overload. :lovestruc Me? Eh... we'll see. :)
 
We were there for the last 10 days of January. We stayed at POFQ. No cheer groups there :goodvibes but did notice them at the parks somewhat, our last 5 days or so. They were pretty well behaved at the parks, and really had no effect as far as wait times, unlike the huge Brazilian tour groups, when they hit an attraction the wait times soar.
I have noticed a vast improvement with their (Brazilian tour group) behaviour this trip. Maybe Disney had a word with the tour companies about the kids behaviour? I only heard loud chanting once. They were quiet, respectful, no pushing, no line cutting. A nice change.
 

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