Lagoongirl
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2005
- Messages
- 37
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Me 42 year old Disney lover and cheer mom, 5th visit to WDW
DD 17 year old cheerleader, 3rd visit to WDW
19 other 16-18 year old cheerleaders
15 other moms
2 dads
3 siblings (not mine, but other group members)
1 son in law (not mine, but other group members)
2 coaches
1 advisor
Sheesh!!!
My DD is a cheerleader at her high school and we went down to WDW for the UCA National Cheerleading Competition February 11-12. This report is a solo/group combo as there was a lot of time when I visited the attractions solo and other times when I patiently herded around with 20 cheerleaders, 16 moms, 2 coaches and 1 advisor or any combination of the above.
Thursday, Day 1, February 9, 2006 Plan: Arrival, Shopping in DTD, Moms Devotional
All group arrangements were made by the cheer coaches and advisor, which is a feat in and of itself. I let them know that I didnt envy their job and how much I appreciated it.
Our flight was to take off from SLC at 10:00 a.m. We were told to arrive at 8:00 a.m., but because my husband had to be back at home to get our younger daughters to school before our jr. high school daughter left, we arrived at the airport at 7:30 a.m.
First off, I must explain that DD and I are completely different. We manage to get along actually fairly well considering how different we are. She is outgoing, unorganized, ditzy, forgetful, and sometimes just plain lazy. I, on the other hand, am anal about organization, punctuality, and getting the most out of everything I do, which includes touring WDW. It works for me and I could never exist being any other way, but I do realize that my personality type can rub others in the wrong way, hence I was hoping on this trip to grab some time alone so I could do what I wanted, without appearing too anti-social. Anti-social was not my intention, but I knew I would go crazy if I had to be with the group wandering aimlessly without a plan.
So we arrive early, much to the dismay of the other cheerleaders who are used to my daughters lackadaisicalness. They were very surprised that she was the first one there. We were supposed to go to group check in but I didnt know where that was and when we asked the employee didnt know where it was either and said we could just check our bags. So we did. When everyone else arrived, we walked down to the very far end of the counters by international check in where there was a little counter labeled group check in. No matter, it didnt really make a difference.
I discovered that when you are traveling with a group that large everything seems like a miracle. It was a miracle that we all managed to get checked in, with time to spare to buy Cinnabons!!!! After going through security which was another miracle thats straight where my daughter and I headed. We started something because when we got back to the gate with our gooey treasures in hand everybody else had to go get one. We had about 20 minutes before boarding and I wondered if that was enough time for 40 people to buy Cinnabons and get back in time. Another miracle.
We boarded and I sat in the middle between two other mothers, one that I knew fairly well as she is my neighbor and another that I didnt know at all. My daughter was about 10 rows behind seated between two other cheerleaders. On the way in the plane I noticed one of the flight attendants looked very familiar to me. I knew that I knew her but I couldnt place where.
Our plane left on time. Another miracle because we couldnt seem to get the mothers to take their seats. The cheerleaders were fine, but the mothers were darting around chatting. Finally, a flight attendant had to kindly make an announcement that they wanted to be able to have us arrive on time in Orlando and would all passengers please take their seats. I wasnt one of them!!
The flight went by very fast and we conversed the whole way. I thought for two seconds about watching the movie, but gave that up because I knew Id never be able to focus on it with two chatty women on either side of me.
About 3 hours into the flight we got up to walk around and were standing in the more open section near the restrooms where the flight attendants hang out, stretching our legs and talking. My daughter came up to me and told me that the flight attendant (the one I recognized had graduated from Davis High School, which was the school my daughter went to). I didnt go to that high school so I checked off old high school peer off of my list. I told my daughter that I recognized her but I couldnt place where. She went back to her seat and I continued talking to the other moms. Suddenly I had a light bulb above the head moment. I knew where I knew that flight attendant!!!
When I was a teenager I worked at an amusement park. She had worked at that same park, but in a different department. One night I had gone to a party and a guy that I liked was at the party. He was aware that I liked him, but we didnt have an official claim on each other yet. Well, he went off into a bedroom with this flight attendant and spent longer in there than I liked. They came out after about 10 minutes and left the party in her car. I got mad and went outside to leave the party. I was going to go home when another guy friend of mine stopped me. He was trying to cool me down and we ended up talking by my car for about a half hour. The flight attendant and my crush came back and he came over to where we were talking. My guy friend left us to work it out and went inside with the flight attendant. My crush admitted that he was a jerk and apologized. I told him I didnt have any claim on him, he could do what he wanted. We proceeded to have our first tiff. We did end up being together for a little bit months after this incident.
Anyway, that was probably more information than you wanted, but needless to say, I remembered where I knew this flight attendant. I told the other moms my story and we were all busily giggling about it. I went back and told my daughter the story and got her and her cheerleader friends giggling about it. Finally, I confronted the flight attendant and asked her if her name was Pam and if she worked at Lagoon as a teenager. When I said who I was she registered recognition. I dont know if she remembered that specific incident as I did, though. She went back where the cheerleaders were and asked them which one was my daughter. My daughter raised her hand and then proceeded to mention my old boyfriends name and ask if she remembered him. There was a look of dismay on her face and she said yes, but she hadnt seen him in years. After the flight attendant left, there were squeals of laughter from the cheerleaders. Oh we are so mean!!!
The flight arrived on time and after sitting around in the terminal while everyone used the bathroom we counted off. Each cheerleader was assigned a number and to make sure we had everybody with us, we had the girls count off several times throughout this trip. Our bags arrived promptly (which hasnt always been the case in Orlando for me) and we proceeded to the bus. The bus arrived after about 10 minutes and they loaded our bags and we headed out for WDW CBR. It took about ½ hour to arrive at CBR where we waited on the bus while they unloaded the luggage. After everyone making sure their luggage was there we went to UCA registration and store. I bought my daughter a UCA sweatshirt.
We were assigned to Barbados at CBR. We all proceeded to the coachs room where she handed out room keys, park hopper passes, meal vouchers, and UCA bus passes. I shared a room with another mom. My daughter shared a room with three other cheerleaders. Our luggage arrived in her room and we quickly took it to our assigned room without unpacking. By now it was after 7 and the girls had a curfew of 9:15 and we were antsy to go to DTD for dinner.
This is my first experience with Disney transportation. I was very interested in how it would work because in the past Id always chosen to rent a car because I like to be in control of my own time. Plus, Id only stayed on property one other time because my husband always has hotel points at Hilton or Marriott, and that one time I had used my own car. Anyway, after about 15 minutes the bus for DTD arrived, but there wasnt enough room on it to hold all of our group. I was lucky to be one of the ones to get on that bus because the others had to wait 20 more minutes. After about a 10 minute bus ride we arrived in DTD.
Some of the group wanted to eat at Planet Hollywood. I suggested that we eat at Earl of Sandwich because Planet Hollywood would be expensive and the wait would be long and we had a curfew to be back for. I wanted to laugh, but I contained myself. They were just young teenagers after all, but they and a couple of mothers insisted on learning the hard way and headed over to Planet Hollywood. We got in line for Earl of Sandwich and my daughter ordered the Club and a cupcake, and I ordered the chicken salad sandwich, tomato soup, and chips (about $13). We sat down and ate and about the time we were done and ready to go shopping the Planet Hollywood group came and said the line was 1 ½ hours long and the food was expensive. No kidding? Really!?
DD and I browsed around some shops and bought Mickey best friend necklaces for my daughter and her friend at home and a Mickey ring. We didnt have much time so we headed back to CBR. The wait for the bus was about 10 minutes and we arrived at the coaches room at 9:14 p.m. My DD complained about me being a nazi about arriving on time. At 9:15 p.m. the coach gave the three girls that had arrived on time a Twix. When everyone else arrived late she told the whole team that their curfew for the next night was moved up ½ hour.
I went to my room and unpacked my bag. While the girls were in their coaches room, the mothers all congregated and prepared for the moms devotional we had planned to motivate and support the girls on their cheerleading quest. We had planned to do our own cheerleading routine complete with tumbling and stunting. We chose a spot by the pool and practiced once (my cartwheel was perfect) and then sent someone to send the girls down.
After the head cheerleaders mom read a motivational spiel we turned on the music and did our routine. We had people watching and cheering us from the sidewalk outside the pool. I mean we looked awesome. When it came time to do my cartwheel I went with full confidence because during practice I had done it just fine. I dont know what happened, but I ended up falling into the most pathetic cartwheel ever done. Of course, our whole purpose was to make the girls laugh and accomplish that we did. We all did our version of toe touches and herkeys and then made a pyramid. At the end we all grabbed our daughters and danced in a big circle.
Afterwards, I had about 5 cheerleaders come up to me and say Youre cartwheel was soooooo funny!!! Well, I love how I entertained them, but it was hard to swallow the fact that Im getting old and uncoordinated.
The girls had practice in the morning so it was off to bed. I went to my room and finished unpacking and after setting a wake up call for 7am was in bed by 11. My roommate and I talked and got to know each other better before we both drifted off to sleep.
Highlights: Teasing the flight attendant, my cartwheel
Downers: my cartwheel (Im getting old!)
Me 42 year old Disney lover and cheer mom, 5th visit to WDW
DD 17 year old cheerleader, 3rd visit to WDW
19 other 16-18 year old cheerleaders
15 other moms
2 dads
3 siblings (not mine, but other group members)
1 son in law (not mine, but other group members)
2 coaches
1 advisor
Sheesh!!!
My DD is a cheerleader at her high school and we went down to WDW for the UCA National Cheerleading Competition February 11-12. This report is a solo/group combo as there was a lot of time when I visited the attractions solo and other times when I patiently herded around with 20 cheerleaders, 16 moms, 2 coaches and 1 advisor or any combination of the above.
Thursday, Day 1, February 9, 2006 Plan: Arrival, Shopping in DTD, Moms Devotional
All group arrangements were made by the cheer coaches and advisor, which is a feat in and of itself. I let them know that I didnt envy their job and how much I appreciated it.
Our flight was to take off from SLC at 10:00 a.m. We were told to arrive at 8:00 a.m., but because my husband had to be back at home to get our younger daughters to school before our jr. high school daughter left, we arrived at the airport at 7:30 a.m.
First off, I must explain that DD and I are completely different. We manage to get along actually fairly well considering how different we are. She is outgoing, unorganized, ditzy, forgetful, and sometimes just plain lazy. I, on the other hand, am anal about organization, punctuality, and getting the most out of everything I do, which includes touring WDW. It works for me and I could never exist being any other way, but I do realize that my personality type can rub others in the wrong way, hence I was hoping on this trip to grab some time alone so I could do what I wanted, without appearing too anti-social. Anti-social was not my intention, but I knew I would go crazy if I had to be with the group wandering aimlessly without a plan.
So we arrive early, much to the dismay of the other cheerleaders who are used to my daughters lackadaisicalness. They were very surprised that she was the first one there. We were supposed to go to group check in but I didnt know where that was and when we asked the employee didnt know where it was either and said we could just check our bags. So we did. When everyone else arrived, we walked down to the very far end of the counters by international check in where there was a little counter labeled group check in. No matter, it didnt really make a difference.
I discovered that when you are traveling with a group that large everything seems like a miracle. It was a miracle that we all managed to get checked in, with time to spare to buy Cinnabons!!!! After going through security which was another miracle thats straight where my daughter and I headed. We started something because when we got back to the gate with our gooey treasures in hand everybody else had to go get one. We had about 20 minutes before boarding and I wondered if that was enough time for 40 people to buy Cinnabons and get back in time. Another miracle.
We boarded and I sat in the middle between two other mothers, one that I knew fairly well as she is my neighbor and another that I didnt know at all. My daughter was about 10 rows behind seated between two other cheerleaders. On the way in the plane I noticed one of the flight attendants looked very familiar to me. I knew that I knew her but I couldnt place where.
Our plane left on time. Another miracle because we couldnt seem to get the mothers to take their seats. The cheerleaders were fine, but the mothers were darting around chatting. Finally, a flight attendant had to kindly make an announcement that they wanted to be able to have us arrive on time in Orlando and would all passengers please take their seats. I wasnt one of them!!
The flight went by very fast and we conversed the whole way. I thought for two seconds about watching the movie, but gave that up because I knew Id never be able to focus on it with two chatty women on either side of me.
About 3 hours into the flight we got up to walk around and were standing in the more open section near the restrooms where the flight attendants hang out, stretching our legs and talking. My daughter came up to me and told me that the flight attendant (the one I recognized had graduated from Davis High School, which was the school my daughter went to). I didnt go to that high school so I checked off old high school peer off of my list. I told my daughter that I recognized her but I couldnt place where. She went back to her seat and I continued talking to the other moms. Suddenly I had a light bulb above the head moment. I knew where I knew that flight attendant!!!
When I was a teenager I worked at an amusement park. She had worked at that same park, but in a different department. One night I had gone to a party and a guy that I liked was at the party. He was aware that I liked him, but we didnt have an official claim on each other yet. Well, he went off into a bedroom with this flight attendant and spent longer in there than I liked. They came out after about 10 minutes and left the party in her car. I got mad and went outside to leave the party. I was going to go home when another guy friend of mine stopped me. He was trying to cool me down and we ended up talking by my car for about a half hour. The flight attendant and my crush came back and he came over to where we were talking. My guy friend left us to work it out and went inside with the flight attendant. My crush admitted that he was a jerk and apologized. I told him I didnt have any claim on him, he could do what he wanted. We proceeded to have our first tiff. We did end up being together for a little bit months after this incident.
Anyway, that was probably more information than you wanted, but needless to say, I remembered where I knew this flight attendant. I told the other moms my story and we were all busily giggling about it. I went back and told my daughter the story and got her and her cheerleader friends giggling about it. Finally, I confronted the flight attendant and asked her if her name was Pam and if she worked at Lagoon as a teenager. When I said who I was she registered recognition. I dont know if she remembered that specific incident as I did, though. She went back where the cheerleaders were and asked them which one was my daughter. My daughter raised her hand and then proceeded to mention my old boyfriends name and ask if she remembered him. There was a look of dismay on her face and she said yes, but she hadnt seen him in years. After the flight attendant left, there were squeals of laughter from the cheerleaders. Oh we are so mean!!!
The flight arrived on time and after sitting around in the terminal while everyone used the bathroom we counted off. Each cheerleader was assigned a number and to make sure we had everybody with us, we had the girls count off several times throughout this trip. Our bags arrived promptly (which hasnt always been the case in Orlando for me) and we proceeded to the bus. The bus arrived after about 10 minutes and they loaded our bags and we headed out for WDW CBR. It took about ½ hour to arrive at CBR where we waited on the bus while they unloaded the luggage. After everyone making sure their luggage was there we went to UCA registration and store. I bought my daughter a UCA sweatshirt.
We were assigned to Barbados at CBR. We all proceeded to the coachs room where she handed out room keys, park hopper passes, meal vouchers, and UCA bus passes. I shared a room with another mom. My daughter shared a room with three other cheerleaders. Our luggage arrived in her room and we quickly took it to our assigned room without unpacking. By now it was after 7 and the girls had a curfew of 9:15 and we were antsy to go to DTD for dinner.
This is my first experience with Disney transportation. I was very interested in how it would work because in the past Id always chosen to rent a car because I like to be in control of my own time. Plus, Id only stayed on property one other time because my husband always has hotel points at Hilton or Marriott, and that one time I had used my own car. Anyway, after about 15 minutes the bus for DTD arrived, but there wasnt enough room on it to hold all of our group. I was lucky to be one of the ones to get on that bus because the others had to wait 20 more minutes. After about a 10 minute bus ride we arrived in DTD.
Some of the group wanted to eat at Planet Hollywood. I suggested that we eat at Earl of Sandwich because Planet Hollywood would be expensive and the wait would be long and we had a curfew to be back for. I wanted to laugh, but I contained myself. They were just young teenagers after all, but they and a couple of mothers insisted on learning the hard way and headed over to Planet Hollywood. We got in line for Earl of Sandwich and my daughter ordered the Club and a cupcake, and I ordered the chicken salad sandwich, tomato soup, and chips (about $13). We sat down and ate and about the time we were done and ready to go shopping the Planet Hollywood group came and said the line was 1 ½ hours long and the food was expensive. No kidding? Really!?
DD and I browsed around some shops and bought Mickey best friend necklaces for my daughter and her friend at home and a Mickey ring. We didnt have much time so we headed back to CBR. The wait for the bus was about 10 minutes and we arrived at the coaches room at 9:14 p.m. My DD complained about me being a nazi about arriving on time. At 9:15 p.m. the coach gave the three girls that had arrived on time a Twix. When everyone else arrived late she told the whole team that their curfew for the next night was moved up ½ hour.
I went to my room and unpacked my bag. While the girls were in their coaches room, the mothers all congregated and prepared for the moms devotional we had planned to motivate and support the girls on their cheerleading quest. We had planned to do our own cheerleading routine complete with tumbling and stunting. We chose a spot by the pool and practiced once (my cartwheel was perfect) and then sent someone to send the girls down.
After the head cheerleaders mom read a motivational spiel we turned on the music and did our routine. We had people watching and cheering us from the sidewalk outside the pool. I mean we looked awesome. When it came time to do my cartwheel I went with full confidence because during practice I had done it just fine. I dont know what happened, but I ended up falling into the most pathetic cartwheel ever done. Of course, our whole purpose was to make the girls laugh and accomplish that we did. We all did our version of toe touches and herkeys and then made a pyramid. At the end we all grabbed our daughters and danced in a big circle.
Afterwards, I had about 5 cheerleaders come up to me and say Youre cartwheel was soooooo funny!!! Well, I love how I entertained them, but it was hard to swallow the fact that Im getting old and uncoordinated.
The girls had practice in the morning so it was off to bed. I went to my room and finished unpacking and after setting a wake up call for 7am was in bed by 11. My roommate and I talked and got to know each other better before we both drifted off to sleep.
Highlights: Teasing the flight attendant, my cartwheel
Downers: my cartwheel (Im getting old!)
