Chancing it with the Cheerleaders?

[susy]

DH and I are going for a weekend trip in Feb 2004 when the cheerleaders will be there. Yippee


We will be arriving late Fri night and plan to be at MK all day Saturday and maybe just come back to the hotel to change for dinner (at Epcot). We will have our car,so we won't be relying on the buses. I kind of want to do this trip cheap, so we will have more money to put towards our next few trips. Since we wil just be there to slep, do you think we woudl be alright at teh AS? Can we ask for a room "far from groups"? I always bring my humidifier to block out noise. Will it be able to block out the kind of noise that goes on then? I would stay at a mod, but heard that they are often there, too. Should we go for offsite this trip? I don't mind doing the Hotel Royal Plaza or something like that if a good rate comes along, but would of course prefer onsite! We also don't need to use the food court or pool at the AS.

 

[Disneymoon04]

Mind me asking WHEN in Feb they'll be there? We'll be there in Feb too.

 

[crystalb]

I can tell you about our ASMu 8 night experience in January with the cheerleaders and soccer kids.
I requested Jazz at ASMu (as I am sure almost everyone does).
The marathoners were arriving too, so it was a busy check-in and we had to wait approx 1/2 hour in line. (Arrived Friday before marathon Saunday) Plenty of CM's were working. There was just a lot of people checking in.
We were assigned Rock Inn. Not a big deal, as the walk over the entire resort really isn't bad. I mentioned to DH if we were unhappy with the location we could asked to be moved when an opening was available.
The ASMu room assignor did a terrific job. The cheerleaders were mostly in the Jazz buildings, and some of Broadway, from what we saw.
The runners were in Jazz Inn.
This worked out VERY well. We were very happy with our room. I asked for the top floor, corner room, non-smoking (Jazz). I got all but Jazz.
The room we stayed in was close to the elevator near the center of the building. If you look toward the back of the resort, we were on the right.
The only downside was minor. The bus stacking depot/maintenance area for the three AS, and a huge parking lot separating ASMu and ASSp was down the corridor from us. I am thankful we were not in the corner room at the opposite end. We would have been overlooking the parking lot and bus center.
What made that so bad was EARLY (midnight+) marathon morning the busses started pouring in and waiting at the bus center.
Luckily (?) neither of us sleep well marathon morning anyway. (Too antsy) We weren't grumpy from all the noise. More curious actually. (I stood put on the balcony corridor for awhile. )
The only BAD part was once the busses settled in a little, then hundreds of cheerleaders congregated in the parking lot. THEIR busses were also taking them out of the resort EARLY in the morning.
The busses were bad enough, but the screaming, screeching cheerleaders were very irritating.
I was very glad when their busses left. It was probably only 3 in the morning by then.
We didn't sleep well that night. But we usually don't. It wasn't that big of a deal. But I am surprised no one from Disney was there trying to quiet down the departing cheerleaders.
Then it was very quiet during the week.
End of the week the soccer players started caming in. They were much worse than the cheerleaders. But consider except for early Sunday morning, the cheerleaders were very good, and well behaved. The soccer players.... They weren't horrible. But they made cheerleaders look pretty good!
I would maybe take earplugs and sleep with that or music.
Again the soccer players were in Jazz. Disney did do a good job at trying to separate these groups from the others.
From what we saw during this time period, ASSp was the busiest with these groups.
ASMo was just busy, period. I was very happy we chose ASMu. ASMo was being picked up and dropped off last by the park busses. We did occasionally experience a bus so full we didn't even go to ASMo for pick up. And sometimes it was standing room only for those coming aboard from ASMo.

 

[P'colaFla]

That's just great!.........I had no idea they were there in Feb. I thought it was just January. We were planning a quick trip in Feb also. We decided on Feb instead of Jan because of that very reason. yuk........We have been at CBR in Jan with them and it would have been okay if it weren't for having to ride the busses with them, boy was that a nightmare! Good luck to ya! I'm gonna re-think my trip time now.

 

[dratomic]

You might want to bring earplugs! They're not too bad but if you like to sleep in late they may wake you up at 7:30am practicing thier cheers. (This was at All Stars Movies back in 2000)


Kungaloosh!
Patrick

 

[LoveMickey]

We were at POFQ in March with Cheerleaders, never again will we go that time of the year. Very rude younger generation we have now.

 

[susy]

Great! Any experience with them in the parks on saturdays or do they have their competitions then?

We might just say offsite and pay that parking fee just to avoid them.

 

[ShaneV]

We didnt have any problems with them in the parks, but at ASMo we did. One group practiced until 2:00 am and another started at 6:00 am.

 

[katrina1122]

ok so now I may have a marathon, mlk holiday, cheerleaders and soccer players to contend with? (we are planning on jan 10-18th)...Now I'm not picky, but I haven't been since 99, and dh has never been, we would like to get on a few rides....is there a place where schedules are posted for all of these things? I know about the marathon schedule and mlk is obvious, but what about other tournaments going on? How do we find out about those? We can still change our week back a few if need be.
thanks

 

[heffalump9]

The first weekend of our visit this year was during the cheerleading competitions. It was fine as long as you avoid MGM, and Typhoon Lagoon on the weekend. Here is the schedule for 2004, plus the website so you can check for any changes as your trip gets closer.

www.contestofchampions.com

2/26/04-2/29/04 All Star Studio, School Cheer & Youth
3/5/04-3/7/04 Contest of Champions

 

[KellyJ]

Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA), as a general rule, has several cheerleading and dance competitions at WDW during January and February. They have college cheer competitions, college dance competitions, high school cheer competitions, and high school dance competitions. Most of the time the groups travel Weds - Sun with their main competition day being on Saturday. Some of the competitions are held at the Wide World of Sports and some (the finals I think) at the Indy Amphitheater in MGM. The dance competitions cause the least amount of hassle for other visitors, at least at the resorts, because the dancers generally do not cheer and yell all the time. As far as the parks, I think the weekend we shared with them last year there was a party or gathering at the MK on Friday night and crowds were a little heavier than usual and MGM on Saturday was very crowded but lines at attractions weren't terribly long. Of course, we didn't stay at the value resorts, which is where the cheerleaders and dancers usually stay. I think they also put some of them at CBR. For the most part they are very well behaved, but as with any group, there's always those that defy that statement. Try not to worry too much if your trip coincides with a competition, you might be pleasantly surprised!

Kelly

 

[Disneymoon04]

Ok... in addition to the one posted by heffalump... i found these on http://www.intercot.com/infocentral/calendar/events.asp#Beyond October :

2004 National Cheerleading Championships
Wide World of Sports Complex
College Championship -- January 15-19, 2004
National Dance Team -- January 30 - February 3, 2004
National High School -- February 6 - 10, 2004
National All Star -- March 12 - 16, 2004

 

[ColetteN]

I was at WL Feb 7-10, '03, during the High School Cheer competition, I believe. Staying at the WL, we didn't encounter any cheerleader groups there (at least not that we noticed). We did notice a large crowd to us at MK (mostly in fantasyland and frontier land during parade time), but really didn't encounter any problems as far as ride waits and such.

You may want to rethink your resort, if you're at one the groups use, but I don't think you'll need to worry about it affecting the parks too much.

Enjoy all of your trips (we opted for Marathon weekend in '04 - especially since DH is running!!!).

Colette

 

[maryliz]

Fax the room assignor before you go and request to be "nowhere near the cheerleaders" They will certainly try to accommodate your request. We've stayed at both ASMo and CBR when the cheerleaders were there, and both times we were put into buildings where the cheerleaders were not. I found the pool a little crowded on the Sunday, and they were a pain if you just wanted to refill your mug, and there was a group of them discussing "which drink should I get" ! We did avoid MGM on the weekend, but other than that, we didn't notice any crowded situations in the parks.

Mary Liz

 

[Baileymouse]

My 17 year old son now wants us to book for that week!

 

[MinnieGi]

We were there last year during the first week in Feb. and we had a good experience with the cheerleaders. Now we stayed at AKL so we did not have any groups there but we did encounter groups at MK and they were just fine. Many were at MK the friday before their competitions on Saturday. In fact MK had a banner to welcome them. Most seemed to travel in big groups and were very excited to be at WDW! They were posing for pics and excited to do the rides etc. They were totally fine and we saw no rude behavior at all, just excited teens to be at WDW. We were in line for several rides with groups of them and many talked with our 2 1/2 yo DD very sweetly. DD thought they were very cool - many had their hair done up and were wearing matching shirts.

We're planning on going again at this time of year this 2004! I would recommend staying somewhere beside AS's though from what others have posted. Go off-site or a deluxe.