Cheerleading Debacle at Disney - Bed Bugs, Crowds

[4kids4karen]

So I don't know where else to put this... but wanted to share.

This is from the CheerMad Blog @CheerMAD (Cheer Mom And Dad-=CheerMAD)

Bed Bugs
Over capacity at ESPN Venues, etc:

https://www.facebook.com/cheermad/?...cma3XVERXQkp6ZMLfPmnzp8hSP_ILDq_kbv0E&fref=nf

Here is a cut and paste for those that don't like to click on links although there are "great" pictures on her facebook and great comments in the replies:

(ETA some of the parents that were IN the rooms with bed bugs and moved comment on her facebook.)

After a day to reflect, here is my take on yesterday, Day 1 of The Summit:

Let's start with, *bed bugs at Allstar Sports. Confirmed. Eleven families from one gym alone affected. Dogs trained in bedbug discovery verified the contamination. Disney confiscated the clothing and decontaminated and clothes were returned after 48 hours. Disney had those effected choose clothing from gift shop as well as stuffed animals in the interim.

No cell service inside venues and sketchy service outside. Coaches were frustrated that they couldn't contact parents. Parents were frustrated that they couldn't contact their kids.

No clear signage (one sign hidden by the crowd at Arena, none seen at any other venues) for where to reunite with your athlete after they compete.

Traffic was stopped last night for more than an hour because congestion was so bad. Add an accident to construction at an already over-packed venue, UBER couldn't get into the venue and told people they weren't accepting ride requests. People were stranded.

*Let's not even talk about the rain, with absolutely no thought or preparation for a downpour that caused everyone to run inside the Arena. Fire Marshall ordered everyone to evacuate to the baseball field because Arena was over capacity.

When everyone had to re-enter, the gate to the Arena was closed so everyone was herded through the main gate up the hill...the "line" (easily 20-people wide: it was the width of the entire passageway) went down the hill, past the ESPN Wide World of Sports iconic globe.

Teams on their way to compete walked in single file, holding hands, had to push through to get to their check-in

Security eventually came out and opened the gates and let everyone in without scanning fingers or tickets. It was just in time, as people were starting to push each other.

There was a one and a half-hour delay, so more athletes and fans were arriving for their appointed time while no one was leaving because the comp had been delayed by rain.

Also, take into consideration that, Thursday and Friday the International Summit was held with teams from all around the world competing; this overlapped with Wildcard competition held on Friday.

One Sr. Level 1 (think about that for a moment) team from Ireland didn't qualify for Finals so of course they (not to mention all the teams that did make Day 2) stayed to watch The Summit. What were they going to do? Their reservations to go home weren't for a few more days (as told by a parent from Ireland to a parent from the US).

Next year a Sr, Level 5 team that doesn't make Worlds can compete at Summit when they open up that division.

Having said all that, today (when only the Finalists competed which were the top 10-15 teams per division) was much more doable.

Even with fans and athletes that didn't make finals attending to cheer them on, the busses, traffic, parking, venue overcrowding and crowds walking around massively decreased during a day with even more rain.

I think gyms should let parents vote on if they want to accept the "honor" of Summit or chose to only attend if a team gets a full-paid bid like many are thinking of doing next year.

*Photos below: No. 1 "Lines" getting back into Arena after first of the three evacuations.

Next three photos from one family that was quarantined for 48 hours after their room was confirmed with Bed Bugs: No. 2 shows the items being removed by All Star Sport personnel; No. 3 is how all clothing and personal items were returned bagged; No. 4 the melted cheer shoe after the high-temperature was used in decontamination. Imagine dealing with this in addition to everything else!

 

[kaytieeldr]

Difficult to believe that eleven rooms at one property were all infested with bedbugs, and that al l 11 were assigned to cheer families.

Cell service inside the venues may be the responsibility of the venues. Cell service outside is the towers, not owned by Disney.

Rain? Seriously? All on Disney, with no personal responsibility of protection, aka rain gear?

 

[luvsJack]

I don’t think they were blaming anyone for the rain. They were blaming them for not having a plan in place. A downpour that has everyone go into a place that isn’t big enough to hold everyone isn’t good planning. I don’t know who is supposed to make such plans. Perhaps it’s not Disney.

As for the bed bugs, the article only talks of the 11 that had cheer families. There could have been others that they don’t mention.

Are these venues not Disney property? Perhaps bad cell service is something that should be communicated to coaches beforehand by those that organize these events. I wouldn’t think it would suddenly be a surprise that they don’t get service in the venue. Telling coaches ahead would allow them to make an alternative plan beforehand.

 

[sam_gordon]

Difficult to believe that eleven rooms at one property were all infested with bedbugs, and that al l 11 were assigned to cheer families.

Cell service inside the venues may be the responresponsibikity of the venues. Cell service outside is the towers, not owned by Disney.

Rain? Seriously? All on Disney, with no personal responsibility of protection, aka rain gear?

It was mentioned in another thread that AS is "reserved" for cheer families during this time frame. Assuming individual groups/gyms have rooms together, it doesn't surprise me that one gym is affected more than others. I would assume bedbugs wouldn't travel far (in a single hotel). Unfortunate? Of course.

Any time you have a large number of people in a single location, it can easily overwhelm the cell service unless you make plans to combat it. I would think it would be up to the hosts (in this case Disney) to notify the cell companies that they're expecting a larger number of attendees than normal. It would (IMO) behoove Disney to increase cell coverage inside the arena (isn't it new?). It's possible they thought they had sufficient coverage, but this event proved them wrong.

I don't understand why they would have had to delay 90 minutes. This is an indoor venue, right? So storms shouldn't have shut them down.

I was at WWoS for a soccer showcase over Christmas break. They also had a baseball tournament going on simultaneously. Traffic/parking was a bear, but you planned for that.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Maybe the cheer families brought the bed bugs in with them.

 

[sa cheermom]

nm

 

[JaxDad]

I think my biggest take-away is, "Wait! What?! There are bed-bug-sniffing dogs?! Cool!"

 

[sa cheermom]

nm

 

[Southernmiss]

I just want to say "And?"

Lots of people in one place there will be hiccups. The issues that the OP is referencing are not all Disney. Rain? Yea-Florida in spring/summer there will be rain.

People were likely shuffled to the baseball stadium, not on the field. The stadium is a big place with lots of covered area surrounding the fields with bathrooms. As comfortable as one can be outside during a rain event, probably much more room than in the arena.

Bad cell reception, I get bad cell reception at Disney maybe it's my carrier, maybe it's being inside a building.

Bed bugs happen anywhere. Yea they are a pain.

We were there for a soccer showcase in November. Busy, but manageable. There was a college basketball tournament going on at the same time, too. Park and hike, but that is expected in big venues.

Our offsite hotel was just a few miles away and yes, it took an hour to get to the WWoS. But we were prepared for traffic and left early.

I know someone going down there this weekend for the "Summit" will be interesting to see her take on her experience. She is usually a very upbeat, make the most of a situation kind of person.

I think this was more of a whiny cheer mom.

 

[lifesavacation]

Outside of the bedbugs (gross), this really isn’t a big deal to me. My dd plays in really large volleyball tournaments and most of this is to be expected, especially the lines, traffic, overlapping competition, and cell service inside a large venue. You just gotta roll with it.

 

[4kids4karen]

Difficult to believe that eleven rooms at one property were all infested with bedbugs, and that al l 11 were assigned to cheer families.

Cell service inside the venues may be the responresponsibikity of the venues. Cell service outside is the towers, not owned by Disney.

Rain? Seriously? All on Disney, with no personal responsibility of protection, aka rain gear?

Pretty much the entire resort was cheer families and there are assumed to be more than 11 since they said the dog only searched every third room.

The rain resulted in folks rushing into venues then the fire marshal having to evacuate the building because they went over capacity. They were moved over to the baseball fields. I know there is covered seating there, but I am not sure if there is enough covered seating.

I have Verizon and while I usually do not have cell phone issues, there were issues the weekend before when my daughter was there for Worlds and it was not the same crowd issue as this past weekend. Last year, she also had cell phone issues while I did not and we both have the same service. I think it is more if you are inside the venue it might be the building materials blocking service. When my mom got her metal roof it impacted her cell service in her home.

I also read a post where they stopped letting adults in so one mom had to send her 8 year old in by herself in that mess.

 

[DizneyMommy]

It’s all about perspective. We have friends who were there for the competition and are having the most amazing time. Super excited to get to compete and be at WDW.

 

[DizneyMommy]

Also, those bed bugs could have started in one room and then been spread by the girls in their cheer bags, clothes, etc all stashed together in tight spaces at the competition, then brought back to their rooms.

 

[gillep]

I think my biggest take-away is, "Wait! What?! There are bed-bug-sniffing dogs?! Cool!"

Yes. Disney uses beagles and they are adorable (I have a beagle so I may be biased).

 

[NotUrsula]

Also, those bed bugs could have started in one room and then been spread by the girls in their cheer bags, clothes, etc all stashed together in tight spaces at the competition, then brought back to their rooms.

Yep; almost certainly what happened. Makes sense especially following an international event, as bedbugs are more prevalent in some third-world countries, and thus, baggage on international flights is more vulnerable to infestation as it passes through the bag rooms to the aircraft. All it takes is for one bag in a traveling group to get infested, and the little nasties will spread like wildfire. They actually are slow to reproduce (about 10 days), but are very good at hiding, so you can easily get quite a lot of them in a small space like a suitcase lining.

Ironically, in Florida, the simplest defense is leaving your baggage in a vehicle exposed to sun for several hours before bringing it into your room, especially if the bag is black. The inside of a closed car in subtropical heat usually gets hot enough to kill them over the course of a day. If you are traveling in a group on a bus and bugs are found, then every suitcase needs to be sealed in a double-layered black trash bag on the way home, or they will move from bag to bag like Frogger, and from there to your home. The bus company also will need to take the bus out of service and treat it before it is used again, because they can get into the upholstery.

My DD is in a sport that travels this way, and one of the chaperone duties on trips is to do a bedbug inspection before allowing the girls' bags into the room. We've saved a lot of grief that way.

As for the phone service, the venue network was probably overwhelmed. This happens really often with new buildings these days; no one ever truly anticipates the load that will hit until it does, and vendors will tend to bid the minimum for the space so as to come in low on price. Some venues solve the problem by adding portable signal boosters during major events, but for a building built especially for cheer competitions, I think that they will probably bite the bullet and upgrade the network. (I don't know about cheer, but at USFSA skating competitions, one of the venue requirements is availability of a secondary secured network for the use of judges and coaches only. That helps quite a bit.)

 

[sa cheermom]

nm

 

[4kids4karen]

Again, this is on the poor planning of Varsity and has absolutely nothing to do with Disney. Why in the world would Varsity think it is ok to cram 4 floors in the new Arena and not rent out the VISA building to help with crowds? It is not Disney's fault that Varsity's performance order caused over crowding.


I was there for both ICU and USASF Worlds. Again, there did not seem to be problems with texting. If you wanted data to post Suzi's pictures, then yes, you would probably have to wait till you got back to the hotel. I have subsequently asked a bunch of parents that were at Worlds (pretty much all our parents) if anyone had problems and they all said no. It might have taken a couple of minutes for a text to go through, but it was not shut down.

I also read a post where they stopped letting adults in so one mom had to send her 8 year old in by herself in that mess.

Where the heck were the coaches that they were meeting inside the building? Way crappy planning by that little girl's gym. And this doesn't even make sense because athletes needed their coaches to check in at the athlete entrance. Again, and I can't believe I am saying this because I am not a Disney fan, this has absolutely nothing to do with Disney. As I mentioned, our gym had 22 teams there. They all managed to set a meeting place at or around the globe. Then the coaches would take the cheerleaders in the athlete entrance, which is different than the spectator entrance. I would be horrified if my gym was not responsible enough to set a meeting place and have the coaches be responsible for getting the athletes into warm-ups.

Again, were you there? And why are you trying to blame this all on Disney? This sounds way more like the blogger should be finding a new gym for her daughter and stop blaming their lack of planning on Disney.[/QUOTE]

I didn't say the 8 year old was going to warm-ups to perform did I?

As one Cheer mom to another, your beef isn't with me. Go to CheerMADS facebook and complain if you would like.

As for me, this post is perfectly appropriate for the Community Board on DisBoards. If you have an issue reading it then perhaps you should refrain from reading further.

 

[sa cheermom]

nm

 

[Shanti]

So I don't know where else to put this... but wanted to share.

This is from the CheerMad Blog @CheerMAD (Cheer Mom And Dad-=CheerMAD)

Bed Bugs
Over capacity at ESPN Venues, etc:

https://www.facebook.com/cheermad/?...cma3XVERXQkp6ZMLfPmnzp8hSP_ILDq_kbv0E&fref=nf

Here is a cut and paste for those that don't like to click on links although there are "great" pictures on her facebook and great comments in the replies:

(ETA some of the parents that were IN the rooms with bed bugs and moved comment on her facebook.)

After a day to reflect, here is my take on yesterday, Day 1 of The Summit:

Let's start with, *bed bugs at Allstar Sports. Confirmed. Eleven families from one gym alone affected. Dogs trained in bedbug discovery verified the contamination. Disney confiscated the clothing and decontaminated and clothes were returned after 48 hours. Disney had those effected choose clothing from gift shop as well as stuffed animals in the interim.

No cell service inside venues and sketchy service outside. Coaches were frustrated that they couldn't contact parents. Parents were frustrated that they couldn't contact their kids.

No clear signage (one sign hidden by the crowd at Arena, none seen at any other venues) for where to reunite with your athlete after they compete.

Traffic was stopped last night for more than an hour because congestion was so bad. Add an accident to construction at an already over-packed venue, UBER couldn't get into the venue and told people they weren't accepting ride requests. People were stranded.

*Let's not even talk about the rain, with absolutely no thought or preparation for a downpour that caused everyone to run inside the Arena. Fire Marshall ordered everyone to evacuate to the baseball field because Arena was over capacity.

When everyone had to re-enter, the gate to the Arena was closed so everyone was herded through the main gate up the hill...the "line" (easily 20-people wide: it was the width of the entire passageway) went down the hill, past the ESPN Wide World of Sports iconic globe.

Teams on their way to compete walked in single file, holding hands, had to push through to get to their check-in

Security eventually came out and opened the gates and let everyone in without scanning fingers or tickets. It was just in time, as people were starting to push each other.

There was a one and a half-hour delay, so more athletes and fans were arriving for their appointed time while no one was leaving because the comp had been delayed by rain.

Also, take into consideration that, Thursday and Friday the International Summit was held with teams from all around the world competing; this overlapped with Wildcard competition held on Friday.

One Sr. Level 1 (think about that for a moment) team from Ireland didn't qualify for Finals so of course they (not to mention all the teams that did make Day 2) stayed to watch The Summit. What were they going to do? Their reservations to go home weren't for a few more days (as told by a parent from Ireland to a parent from the US).

Next year a Sr, Level 5 team that doesn't make Worlds can compete at Summit when they open up that division.

Having said all that, today (when only the Finalists competed which were the top 10-15 teams per division) was much more doable.

Even with fans and athletes that didn't make finals attending to cheer them on, the busses, traffic, parking, venue overcrowding and crowds walking around massively decreased during a day with even more rain.

I think gyms should let parents vote on if they want to accept the "honor" of Summit or chose to only attend if a team gets a full-paid bid like many are thinking of doing next year.

*Photos below: No. 1 "Lines" getting back into Arena after first of the three evacuations.

Next three photos from one family that was quarantined for 48 hours after their room was confirmed with Bed Bugs: No. 2 shows the items being removed by All Star Sport personnel; No. 3 is how all clothing and personal items were returned bagged; No. 4 the melted cheer shoe after the high-temperature was used in decontamination. Imagine dealing with this in addition to everything else!

Yuck. Sounds miserable. Sorry.

 

[sa cheermom]

nm