I was still wide awake and had lots of energy when we got back to our room. My BFF on the other hand wasn't in any mood to go out that night. She was tired and was has having problems with soar feet and a bit of chafing. Luckily the perpetual girl scout in me was prepared with a supply of Gold Bond powder and body glide. I left her with both, and went off to take a walk of the grounds under the guise of looking for a bottle of Coke Zero.
The weather was slightly warmer than the previous nights, and there was no rain so there was a lot more activity around the resort that night. The bar area outside of the hangten pool was packed with the parents and chaperones of the Pop Warner groups. They seemed well behaved, but a bit loud.
The rest of the grounds were running rampant with the Pop Warner kids. The pool was packed, and the football field and tennis court areas were very loud with all the kids playing out on them. I'm very glad that our room didn't face these areas, as they were awfully loud.
I had heard lots of really bad things about the Pop Warner groups before going, but I didn't find the kids to be unruly or wild while walking around. They were just excited, and a little bit loud. In short, just being kids. I can't fault them that, but still I'm glad that my room wasn't near any of the areas they were hanging out. Supervision seemed a bit lax too. It seemed as if there were more adults around the bar than keeping an eye on the kids. I don't know if I would have been happy with the supervision going on, if I was a parent who had sent their kid on this trip.
Would I intentionally book a room at a Pop Warner hotel again? Yes, but only if another hotel wasn't available. My experience wasn't bad, but I can see where it could be really awful if you had the wrong room location. It's possible it got worse as the week went on as well. I was on the grounds of POR later in the week (another Pop Warner hotel) and thought that Riverside was even worse. It felt chaotic and horribly loud. Much, much worse than what I saw at AsSp.
The grounds at All Star Sports looked wonderful at night. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how much I ended up liking my stay at the resort. I hadn't really been looking forward to staying there. I had always found the photos of the big statues a bit garish and tacky and couldn't really imagine staying there. I'm glad I gave it a chance. I still would prefer to stay at least at a moderate, but I'm glad that I gave a value resort a chance. For a short trip that your not expecting to spend much time at the resort it was perfect. I actually really liked the way the statues looked all lit up at night. They looked a bit softer at night, and I loved how they glowed at night.
I think the Homerun area was my favorite, but that might be because baseball is my favorite sport. It was a bit farther away from the main building, but didn't feel too far. The Surf area was the loudest, and the hoops area felt the most removed from the action.
Still I was really looking forward to moving over to my dream resort - The Boardwalk Inn the next day, but I had my morning of solitude to look forward to first.
It's great with small children, but really not our style now that the kids are older. Also, DH says it just feels too crowded to him.
