How bad was Pop Warner week this year?

[GreenGirl8]

I love reading all of these replies.

I coached Pop Warner Cheerleading for about 10 years. My cheerleaders were always very respectful and I made sure they were polite when we went to public places, such as hotels etc. I did get to see other teams who did not share the same practice though. I loved coaching, and basically stopped because of the parents. Each year it got worse and worse. Parents would spend the nights in bars getting drunk instead of watching their own kids! They were on vacation and expected the coaches to take over parenting. It got so bad that my last year of coaching, when my team made it to Nationals in WDW...I refused to go. I did not want to be one of the teams all of you are complaining about.

Personally, I think cheerleading is a great activity for children, if handled well. Competitions should NOT be held in theme parks. Sadly, for Pop Warner teams, there is no choice....stay on Disney property or don't go at all.

With that being said, I will never visit Disneyworld during Pop Warner Cheerleading week. If you DO happen to go and a team is not being approrpriate or chaperoned, take down the team name (if possible) and report them to guest relations. Pop Warner/Disney does have a policy that eliminates teams from coming back if there are multiple complaints. Some of the major offenses include stunting in the park (unsafe in many ways), cutting in lines and being rude to other guests.

 

[liamsaunt]

We were there Nov. 30-Dec. 6th and noticed the pop warner groups showing up in the parks about halfway through the trip. The groups we noticed were quiet and did not cheer, cut in line, etc. We were staying at Shades of Green so they were not at our hotel at all that I am aware of.

However, overall the parks were much more crowded than I was expecting. I was there last year at the same time and it was much less busy. This trip we saw standby waits of 100 minute waits for Soarin, an hour (estimated by the CM) for turtle talk, 50 (!) minutes for Small World (who would wait 50 minutes to be tortured?), an hour for buzz, etc.

We got to the parks in the AM and used fastpass so were able to get on the rides we wanted, but I was surprised by the crowd levels, and will likely try a different week next year.

 

[PCFriar80]

Need to weigh in on this also. We were there 12/3 - 12/9, stayed at BCV.
There was no scenario which stuck out at us and said that these kids are Pop Warner or Cheerleaders. Yes there were groups of kids in all parks, and in my
judgement well behaved. Maybe it's timing? I used to be a kid, like 35 years ago and would have relished the opportunity to go to Disney with a team or classmates. These are kids! Yes, the "hanging out" in front of your room or the cheering in the parks can be annoying, but there are ways to circumvent the situation. I'll leave that up to the individuals who can't tolerate this.

BTW Full disclosure; no kids!

 

[Markstudy]

What is Pop Warner?
Who is Pop Warner?
Are Pop Warner kids all Cheerleaders or boys sports also?

Is it only once a year?

I thought Pop Warner was a hotel at Disney. Now I'm thinking there must be a story behind the worlds "pop warner groups"?

 

[DebbieB]

What is Pop Warner?
Who is Pop Warner?
Are Pop Warner kids all Cheerleaders or boys sports also?

Is it only once a year?

I thought Pop Warner was a hotel at Disney. Now I'm thinking there must be a story behind the worlds "pop warner groups"?

Pop Warner is a league of junior football players and competing cheerleader squads, I believe ages 8 to 16. They have their "Super Bowl" at Wide World of Sports at WDW at the beginning of December each year.

http://www.popwarnersuperbowl.com/

 

[WaltD4Me]

It's a shame to me that Pop Warner has taken over such a great week to go to Disney. I was there in 2004 the exact same days as Pop Warner and I swore I'd never go during PW time again, especially after hearing one of the coaches say PW is getting bigger and for 2005 there would be 40% more teams than 2004!

We didn't see too many cheerleaders during the day in the parks, but we stayed at POFQ and shared buses with the groups that were POR...Holy cow, they are so LOUD! They cheered and sang on the bus the whole ride...it was awful! DTD was also loaded with them the night we went and we could hardly move and when we went to Rainforest it was overrun and our drinks got spilled twice from them knocking into our table while they running around from table to table. It was so bad Rainforest kicked out a large group and picked up our whole check and the table across from ours.

 

[WaltD4Me]

It's a shame to me that Pop Warner has taken over such a great week to go to Disney. I was there in 2004 the exact same days as Pop Warner and I swore I'd never go during PW time again, especially after hearing one of the coaches say PW is getting bigger and for 2005 there would be 40% more teams than 2004!

We didn't see too many cheerleaders during the day in the parks, but we stayed at POFQ and shared buses with the groups that were at POR...Holy cow, they are so LOUD! They cheered and sang on the bus the whole ride...it was awful! DTD was also loaded with them the night we went and we could hardly move and when we went to Rainforest it was overrun and our drinks got spilled twice from them knocking into our table while they running around from table to table. It was so bad Rainforest kicked out a large group and picked up our whole check and the table across from ours.

 

[dr2004]

I was there Nov 29-Dec 5. I must say it was heaven from the 29th thru Sunday afternoon. It was very empty everywhere except Soarin. Sunday night at MGM EMH you noticed them. The cheerleaders and parents were loud, obnoxious and rude. In contrast, the football player groups were really well mannered, happy to be there and the coaches had the teams in line. I thanked God I was leaving the 5th, by the morning of the 5th Splash Mountain had a 50 minute rate, compared with walk on the previous 5 days.

I think this is something that WDW will take action on if enough paying customers complain, but I must say that at least at MGM EMH a CM kicked a whole cheerleading group to the back of the line after 2 grils jumped ahead on the roller coaster.

 

[DaisynDonald]

We were there from Dec. 6 -- Dec. 13, I felt the parks were very crowded. I will NEVER go the same time as Pop Warner ever again. Lots & lots of line jumping, I was so irritated. Buses took forever, we waited 1 hour 2 times while there to get back to our hotel.

 

[SandrA9810]

I'm glad they don't like to camp. But one time over the summer, I think we got stuck in the loop next to the boy scouts or something. They were loud all night long.

I need to learn of all these weeks of group gatherings, other than the normal peak time of the year.

 

[Paula H]

WaltD4Me - I heard somewhere a similar stat after last year's Pop Warner but for some crazy reason went and booked it again this year. I thought the presence in the parks this year was much greater than last, and all day long. I will agree with another poster, though, that the football players seem much better behaved than the cheerleaders, and for the most part, I didn't even notice the players. Maybe they were practicing??

This week has to be a huge $$ maker for Disney - they filled ASMu and AStS (I believe both) and at least part of POR with players, cheerleaders and families. The parks were full - so there were ticket sales. The kids I saw eating appeared to be on some sort of meal plan.

All of this going on in addition to MVMCP, Osbourne, etc. That's a lot of people and a lot of money. I totally can understand from a $ perspective why Disney would want to host. I just dislike that "magical" experiences of other families can be literally "trampled" if they go to WDW during a week like Pop Warner week. I'm sure that my family is not alone in that we save, and save, and save to have a high quality, family vacation and then spend the week quelling the exhausted tears of our kids when after standing in line politiely for a long time, a group of teenagers jumps in front at the last possible second. I spent a great deal of time at WDW explaining to my kids that the behaviour that they were seeing was totally unacceptable. I overheard another frustrated parent in line at Soarin' say to her children "just try to be role models for the little kids around you and mayble they'll never act like the other kids." I appreciated that and tried to keep it in mind all week. You'll always find kids and families acting in ways you don't want your own to be, but what goes on during Pop week is truly crazy and IMHO not fair to individual guests (who are much more likely to return and spend more money in the long run, than the teenagers).

Personally, I just don't understand why Pop does their competition in a theme park environment. If this is the biggest competition of the year, wouldn't coaches want their teams to be well-rested, eating healthy and not all hyped up?

Anyway, Disney could care less if my family and I "boycott" PW week. We're DVC members - they've already got our money. And the profits they make from ticket sales and food for my family of 4 is meaningless compared to filling the resorts with football players and cheerleaders. But, I still feel its unfortunate that one of the best weeks of the year at WDW is becoming harder and harder to enjoy.

 

[cobbler]

I love reading all of these replies.

I coached Pop Warner Cheerleading for about 10 years. My cheerleaders were always very respectful and I made sure they were polite when we went to public places, such as hotels etc. I did get to see other teams who did not share the same practice though. I loved coaching, and basically stopped because of the parents. Each year it got worse and worse. Parents would spend the nights in bars getting drunk instead of watching their own kids! They were on vacation and expected the coaches to take over parenting. It got so bad that my last year of coaching, when my team made it to Nationals in WDW...I refused to go. I did not want to be one of the teams all of you are complaining about.

Personally, I think cheerleading is a great activity for children, if handled well. Competitions should NOT be held in theme parks. Sadly, for Pop Warner teams, there is no choice....stay on Disney property or don't go at all.

With that being said, I will never visit Disneyworld during Pop Warner Cheerleading week. If you DO happen to go and a team is not being approrpriate or chaperoned, take down the team name (if possible) and report them to guest relations. Pop Warner/Disney does have a policy that eliminates teams from coming back if there are multiple complaints. Some of the major offenses include stunting in the park (unsafe in many ways), cutting in lines and being rude to other guests.

This post from a former coach speaks VOLUMES to me. I mean when a former coach won't even go . . . .

We were there for POP Warner in 2004. Stayed at ASSports with them. Actually we checked out 2 days after they got there so we really only had to deal with them in the food courts and pool. We didn't even let our kids go in the pool because they probably would have been drowned. Also since hubby is a big guy and rather intimidating looking we sent him into the food court and got the items to go and went back to our room.

I would say the kids were rowdy and somewhat ill-behaved but that was more because of not being supervised. We saw more parents/coaches/chaperones, whatever they were, more concerned with "getting their drink on" (literally heard one say that) then watching the children.

I wouldn't go during the week. I would check out a day or two after the come in because we wouldn't feel the impact then, but never the week they are there.

 

[erikthewise]

I hope everyone who had a bad experience will report such to wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

I don't mean to imply that's the only thing you can do, or even the most effective, but it's more likely to lead to change than posts here (which of course are welcome regardless).

 

[cmaelltt1]

We were there December 4 - 10. The only time we noticed the Pop Warner Kids was Sunday night at ESPN. There were several boys yelling and jumping around during the football games. They would stand above our table and start shouting right at us while we were eating. The waitresses had to tell them repeatedly to sit down and stay out of the aisles. I didn't see any adults even look in their direction so I have no idea who was supervising the 10 and 11 year old boys. In retrospect, going to ESPN during PW week was not such a great idea.

However, we never had any other problems that week. We avoided going to parks that had EMH and rarely had to wait in line more that 15 minutes. Usually we were walk ons. I think the people who keep saying it was crowded were just at different parks than we were. The only day we used Fast Pass was on Friday for Soarin. And Saturday I used 2 of them in Fantasyland because I had a very limited time there. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have used them because the waits were only about 30 minutes in the morning.

If you need to go this week, just plan well and don't stay at value resorts. We stayed off site this time. I think you can have a great time if you learn to avoid them.

 

[nursemelis374]

We were there December 2-8. The boys were fine. We saw tons of them. Actually had a funny experience with some of them at MK on Monday.

The girls were a completely different story. They were loud and obnoxious much of the time. Now I remember being a young girl so most of the time I let it go. The best was when we were all waiting for the POFQ bus at DTD and a bunch of them forced there way to the front of the line. We pretty much had to push them out of the way to get on. They also were frequently cheering and just generally being disruptive. They were screaming and being loud on Journey Into Imagination and on Spaceship Earth. One of the coaches got off the phone and loudly told her girls, "The coach from such and such must be smoking crack if she thinks I am going to meet with her." Good example! I also loved all of the younger ones whose uniform pants said "Cheer" on the bottom. I don't know about you, but I would not want my daughter pretty much inviting people to look at her bottom. I also loved seeing 8-10 year olds with fake hair and tons of make-up. The coaches seemed oblivious and were probably cheerleaders when they were younger so act the same way. We did have one experience with a group of cheerleaders who cracked us up on Mission:Space.

I still would not hesitate to go at this time of year. I don't let other people ruin my vacation. I just feel that the cheerleaders lived up to every expectation I have ever had of cheerleaders.

 

[hockeygirl]

I was down from the 2nd-6th, and I didn't really notice any problems with the Pop Warner kids. Of course we did see them around the parks, but I didn't see any cheering squads chanting, or cutting lines. I didn't think the crowds were that bad either. This is such a nice time of the year to go to Disney, I would go back again even if it is Pop warner week.

 

[shellybaxter]

We were in WDW from Dec 2nd to Dec 12th. We stayed at CBR the first four days and then moved to the Grand Floridian. We went to all the parks different mornings and nights. We usually went back to the room in the afternoon. We even went out to POP for lunch at the food court one day. We had NO Problems with the pop warner kids. Sure, we saw them. We even heard a cheer or two in the parks. I thought they were way less annoying than the small children who screamed on buses or in sit down restuarants. Not that I was really bothered by them either. I kind of feel like live and let live. I didn't think the parks were overly crowded. I can't compare them to another year as I'd never been in early December before, but I didn't think it was too crowded. I would go again at that time in a heart beat. I loved the Christmas time activities and didn't think the pop warner kids were any more "problematic" than any other kids.

 

[mogulskr]

We stayed at POR from 12/3 to 12/11 and the first night was alright, but seemed to get worse as the week went on. Monday morning we were woking to the sounds of cheers at around 7:30. My wife looks out the door and sees it's the parents who were leading the cheers. We could not take my 3 and 5 year old to the so called quiet pool because all the girls swam there because ' they could do anything' at the main pool. The parents also took over most of the tables and chairs at the pool as well. I feel bad for anyone with a room facing the pool who wanted to try and get to sleep before midnight.

We did go to the front desk a couple of time and all we got for a response was "There here all week". Thanks for the help.

 

[moppety]

We were there 12/4-12/8, and for us they were extremely annoying. We experienced all of the obnoxious behaviors already mentioned: Line jumping on rides and buses, spontaneous routines and cheers in the middle of the walkways, rude pushing, comments and sneers. I'm noticeably pregnant and got quite a few rude comments directed my way, one even pointing out how "fat" I am. (Right now I weigh 150 lbs). Every horrible stereotypical cheerleader attribute you can think of. Because of my experiences this trip, I will NEVER go to Disney during PW or any major teen event ever again.

 

[Tricialiv]

I only saw 2 small groups 2x. We were there Dec 3-8th. We had no problems with lines, We avoided EMH parks. We stayed in the Music 1 night we were bumped from Movies, then were in the Poly the 4th-8th. I definately am going again this week. Good weather, low crowds & wonderful decorations. A lot must have to be timing and planning we were at MVMCP the 6th and had short- if any lines. I read a horrible review saying how unbearly busy it was the same night. Hard to explain