How bad was Pop Warner week this year?

[dsnymomof4]

We stayed at the All Star Sports Fri & Sat before going over to the Boardwalk Villas, and I could not wait to get out of there. There were football players practicing on the field which was on the way to our room in the baseball building and I was so afraid that one of my children would be hit by a kicked ball. I saw very little chaperones. The food court was always crowded. Even in the parks, there would be large groups of un-chaperoned kids. The cheerleaders would walk in long lines down Main Street doing their cheers along the way. It kind of took away from the Disney atmosphere - I couldn't even hear the Christmas music that was playing (and I have nothing against cheerleading-my DD7 cheers at home, I just felt like that was not the place). Anyway, none of this interfered with us having a good time, I would love to go back in December again, but I think I will try to avoid Pop Warner week in the future.

 

[wendy1974]

Going into MGM I was almost hit in the face by a cheer gone wrong- and then the cheerleaders about knocked over my 8 year old son. I'm afraid at that point I was pretty nasty to them. That was our only experience with them- never saw them in the parks (they didn't even go into MGM that day, just went to another bus stop). We stayed at CBR.

Not making fun of your 8 year old getting knocked over but I love the "Cheer gone wrong"
I have to agree with many of the other posters. These groups of girls are extremely annoying. I have been stuck in the stretching room at the Haunted Mansion with them and they all gave out this nice high pitched shrill scream from the time they stepped into the room until they finally exited their doom buggy at the end of the ride

 

[nbodyhome]

We were at Disney from 12/4-12/10. We were told that they don't affect the crowd levels. I would strongly disagree with that. We saw so many large groups of kids. I think it would have been much less busy with out them there. Some of them were really obnoxious. One group of girls almost knocked down my father to try to sneak to the front of the line at test track. Come to think about it most of the groups that were being crazy were the girls. I think we will try to avoid them next time.

I am glad I wasn't the only one who noticed the crowd levels. I posted about them while at Disney, and everyone else seemed to think the crowds were light (not!) This is the worst I've seen Disney in the beginning of December, and I saw the Pop Warner groups all over the parks. Those who I was with also mentioned the crowd levels, they were CM's and others who do go to the parks (I am there every couple of weeks for the afternoon, and this time I actually stayed onsite for 8 days).

I am sorry about your dad being almost knocked down.

I did stay 2 of those nights at the Pop Century, and it wasn't bad like the All Stars would have been. I had a very nice stay there.

Denise

 

[TheresaNY]

I always say it, it's the chaperones. You know which ones? It's the ones that say "They're just kids, and my kid never acts that way."

Those are always the chaperones who are sitting at the bar or sitting on the bus with a dumb grin on their face, with their eyes closed, while their kids scream and chant on the bus as if any of the rest of the people care or want to hear it. Instead of telling them to shut up and be respectful of other people, they just laugh it off.

Complete ignorance.

OH YEAH !! You are so right !! It deserves mentioning again, for the parents that were not there, about the amount of drinking and cigarette smoking that the chaperones that were supposed to be watching their kids were doing !! Holy Cow !! I could not believe the total disregard for no smoking signs, etc. and how they were all sitting at the bar or by the pool drinking while the kids were off terrorizing families. It was really disgusting to watch these adults blowing their smoke right into the kids faces - as well as everyone else !! It was all over the resort and parks. What really bothers me as well is that Disney did NOTHING about it. Perhaps it is time for them to start enforcing their own rules and regulations. People smoke right outside their rooms and throw their butts where ever they feel like it. It was quite pathetic. I pointed out to a number of CMs several issues I saw - a pack of kids jumping into the fastpass lanes, etc. and the only response I ever got was a either a blank stare or one CM said, "There are so many that we can't do anything about it". Give me a break !!

 

[dreamalittledream]

Does anyone know what day they arrive? Friday? Sat? Sun? I know they have a MGM event the following Friday but are they there all week before?

We are going next year at that time and I just want to plan my parks around it. Thanks!

 

[DisPadre]

We went to all four parks this year Dec 4-10 and two years ago during the same Pop Warner stretch. In 2003 the crowds were really low until the end of the week. This was the primary reason I picked this same week this year. Unfortunately this time around the kids, mostly the cheerleaders, had a much bigger presence in the parks. Two years ago I heard that the teams were asked to watch other teams compete so they didn't get to the parks until nighttime or the end of the week. This time it was pretty much constantly busy at each park. The kids weren't too loud at the parks, but we did have the occasional line cutting mostly when a group of kids would catch-up with their friends already in line. We had two cases where at least 10 kids ducked under the ropes to be with their friends and cut off about 40-50 people. There was some grumbling but its hard to get angry when you're surrounded by the magic of Disney! Next time I'll wait a week.

 

[cardramblues]

Can I assume it will be those dates? or does anyone know?

 

[Toni300z]

Hi,

My son and I stayed at the Disney All Star Sports December 2-5 and we saw all the teams and the kids everywhere. Did not bother me much. I did nto hear much noise.

I was surprised at how busy the parks were. Especially when I had read that the 1st week of December had Level 1 Crowd Levels. not ture. It was REALLY BUSY. but Not quite as busy as SUMMER TIME when it was scorching hot.

'But everywhere I looked I saw them. As a matter of fact, they kept asking what team my son was playing on? LOL

WE HAD AN AWESOME TIME THO! 1st time down for the holiday season. It was truly beautiful! I loved the Spectacle of Lights at MGM studios. It was amazing. The MVMCP was ok. Not what I expected. The cookies were icky too.

 

[JulieEck]

We were there from the 4th to the 8th. Did DTD on Sunday - no parks, then MGM first thing Monday, Epcot after the nap. Tuesday we did MK then MGM. Wednesday we did MK then Epcot then MK. I didn't think it was too crowded except for MK evening EMH and DTD Sunday evening. Tuesday morning was the best at MK crowdwise. Walked on or only had 5-10 min waits. MGM on Monday morning was great as well. We did see/hear groups in the parks, mostly the cheer groups since they would be yelling which can get annoying quickly, but dind't really see anything bad happening. We stayed at CSR so we didn't have to deal with them at the resort or the buses. I was definitely glad we switched from ASMo to CSR though. If it wasn't for these boards, I never would've known they were going to be there and I wouldn't have known about the upcoming deal we took advantage of that allowed us to upgrade.

If we go back this time of year, we may switch to the week right after Thanksgiving or the week after POP Warner so that we can stay at ASMo next time.

 

[buzz2400]

We did not notice any high crowd levels during the beginning of the week. My ds told me our town's cheerleading team was arriving on 12/7 and leaving on 12/10. I did notice a high crowd level on friday at mgm 12/9. That was the night that they were closing mgm an hour early for the pop warner conference. It was very irritating to see all these unsupervised girls. they cam in packs and they would do their stupid cheers and then on the roller coasters would do high pitch screaming. we did see a pack here and there on other days but it was not really that bad on those days.

 

[Paula H]

We arrived on the 3rd and stayed one night at POR before moving over to BCV. We couldn't wait to get out of POR, where the Pop overflow was staying. Yikes - mobs of teenagers, pushing and shoving and otherwise being obnoxious in the food court area. I was really worried one of my kids would get hurt. Once we moved to BCV we didn't see the cheerleaders or players at the resort, but they had a much larger presence in the parks during the day than they seemd to last year. And, last year when we visited during Pop week, they didn't seem to come in until mid-week; this year they were in the parks all week long. I also heard someone say there were nearly double the number of teams attending this year.

We got on one bus and the driver was very annoyed with the cheerleaders that had just gotten off - he said they cheered the whole trip and that he couldn't even hear the dispatches on his radio.

I don't think we'll visit during Pop week again. It was more crowded this year than last year - not only do the players and cheerleaders contribute to increased attendance, but there are a lot of families that tag along, too.

I really think Disney should enforce a no cheering rule in the parks, on transportation, etc. It is extremely annoying to others. After being stuck in a line for over an hour for Soarin' behind a group of loud cheerleaders, my DD (6) started imitating them. DH and I both looked at each other and said "no cheering -ever." That's how bad the impression made on us by this group was.

 

[lbarton]

We arrived on the 3rd and left on the 11th (yesterday, and already want to go back!!) We really didn't notice them at all most of the week, and had to positively look for them, except for MK on saturday, but MK on Saturday is always busy anyhow. They were a bit obnoxious in large groups but the smaller groups were fine, and we had no issues with any of them.
I am sure the fact it rained 3 days helped some though... that scared most people away, and we were getting on rides repeatedly with <10 mins wait, including Test Track, Mission:Space, RnRC, Space Mountain, and TMR.

BTW Mission:Space is absolutely incredible, but that is a story for another thread.. must have done it 6+ times in a couple of days, and the first time was literally out of this world

 

[Jersey Gerry]

I didn't find the pop warner event to have an impact - there did not appear to be any groups staying at POFQ and we only saw a few cheerleader groups one day at Animal Kindgom. They cheered going on the rapids, but that was the only time we noticed them.

 

[revgadd]

We went to WDW Nov.28 - Dec. 6 and expected the crowds to be extremely low due to the lull between Thanksgiving and Christmas and because school children wouldn't be there. The park crowds were fine but the Pop Warner kids started rolling in half way during our staff and made our resort experience less than desireable. We stayed at the All Star Sports and the place was covered up with loud, obnoxious kids and their parents. Punk kids were hanging out everywhere. Whole teams gathered early in the courtyard outside our room. Our corner room location became a favorite hang out spot for a gang of young teens who hovered outside our door until way after midnight. And the pool was covered up. One cool night, I counted over 75 kids in the pool even though the temp was in the 60s! Since we typically spend so much time in the parks, we have always stayed at a value resort but we have now decided to move up to higher priced resorts in order to avoid this happening again.

 

[apostolic4life]

I did notice the large groups of girls at the parks.........I noticed because they seemed to be constantly cutting line at almost every ride. My DD12 and I were waiting in line on Splash Mtn. when a group of 6 girls (in the matching cheer t-shirts) came pushing through the 25 minute stand-by line to meet up with their "chaperones" who were saving a place in line for them. Excuse me, but if you want to go do other things instead of waiting in line you need to use fast passes. Busting through 50 or 60 people to meet someone saving your space in line is something the CM's should be forced to put a stop to.

If this were an isolated incident I could easily overlook the event, but is was a standard practice of the young groups of rude obnoxious girls. I consistantly kept telling my children I expect them to have more respect for others than these girls were showing.

Howard

 

[wright1baby]

Is Pop Warner week always the 2nd week in December?

 

[jenjersnap]

Is Pop Warner week always the 2nd week in December?

It's the first full week after the first Saturday, I believe. So this year they started arriving on Sat. 12/3.

Had no issues with the PW kids (the cheerleaders last Feb were much more obnoxious!) but there were more of them in the parks than I expected. We went 12/2 - 12/12 this year and thought it was measurably more busy than our dates last year - 12/10 to 12/20 (actually the parks got quite busy starting around the 18th but were quieter before that!).

Since this has been our first two December visits, we don't have anything to compare but we thought line waits were reasonable as long as you got in early and left early. Restaurants were busier though, undoubtedly due to the dining plan's popularity.

 

[S.Poppins]

Our last day there was Dec 3rd. We went to epcot and then MK. Wow, it was totally different then the 2nd - much more crowded. The 27th thru 2nd we had no crowds. And whoever mentioned screaming girls on Haunted Mansion - yes this is true! So when will they be there in 2006, we are thinking of making this an annual trip and want to avoid Pop Warner.

 

[SplashLover93]

well lets say my mom wanted to ban cheerleading from the parks when we left the Disney(and she informed a cm of her thought who laughed). The poor cms who were working man i would not want to be in there position they were everywhere seriously i thought they were like following me when we left Epcot they were right behind us cheering and doing there routines ugh. Then there were at DTD all over you couldn't get away i swear every where you turned there was a Pop Warner person and then they do there cheers and routines in public and it got annoying after the 10th time. Then they start doing there jumps and show off. One of the cms at Cosmic Rays actually said "Anybody but cheerleaders please" only to know i wasn't a cheerleader but they were behind me. My dad had warned us that we would see them but still i didn't believe it but after that vacation im avoiding Pop Warner Week at all cost.

 

[PhotoJen]

We are there from the 4th-9th (and yes already want to go back too!) but never again will we go back during PW time. We were inundated with cheering through Epcot on Tuesday the 7th and the waiters at Alfredo's on Tuesday night decided to let them all SING WITH THEM!! OH JOY! Thankfully they left after about 20 minutes. Alfredo's is already loud IMHO and with cheerleaders its just about U N B E A R A B L E!!! We have 2 girls ages 10 and 5 and no way no how will we ever have cheerleaders in this house. Besides who would want to go walking through WDW with curlers and little bandandas strapped to their heads?