Pop Warner thoughts... should you cancel?

[Pecobill]

Just because you played High School Football does not mean you know what you're talking about with Pop Warner. My DS played Pop Warner from 3rd grade until High School that's all there is around here there are no middle school teams. How many elementary schools in Bradenton have football teams? That's the starting ages of Pop Warner. The kids here play Pop Warner until they start High School that is 9th grade.

All of them that I know of.Football is huge in Florida.

 

[disrev]

Third these aren't generalizations.I was at the competition this year and I can honestly say they could not even dream of competing against schools or All Star with they're "talent".

I think you're missing the point.

I don't think the generalizations being made of the PW crowd that are frustrating people have anything to do with their skill levels. It's the "every cheerleader will be loud, obnoxious and ditzy" or "every football player is a inconsiderate, obnoxious brat who picks fights" or "every PW parent is a drunk who doesn't care about their kids" generalizations.

The nice thing about this thread is that although there have been some generalizations that feel a little like that, there are many saying that is not what they experienced.

 

[Pecobill]

I think you're missing the point.

I don't think the generalizations being made of the PW crowd that are frustrating people have anything to do with their skill levels. It's the "every cheerleader will be loud, obnoxious and ditzy" or "every football player is a inconsiderate, obnoxious brat who picks fights" or "every PW parent is a drunk who doesn't care about their kids" generalizations.

The nice thing about this thread is that although there have been some generalizations that feel a little like that, there are many saying that is not what they experienced.

Well from my experience a lot of them have been like that.I wouldn't say all of them but I'm not going to risk my money.

Oh and we all know all cheerleaders are ditzy

 

[johnGorski]

We where at WDW dec 1st-11th. We did see lots of PW kids, football and cheerleaders. ALL of these groups where are very well behaved. We were standing for a place at illumnations at Epcot and 15 min before it started about 500 PW kids came out of the cafe oddessy spot and headed to where we where by Mexico and center showcase. We all looked at eachother like Oh know. But let me tell you not a one of those kids mis-behaved. It was the 8 drunk adults by us that we mis-behaving.

 

[Momof3Gr8kids]

All of them that I know of.Football is huge in Florida.

Football is huge here in Alabama too, but I do not know of one elementary school that has a football team. All the children at that age level play either Pop Warner or another Youth football league program.

As far as people choosing not to go when the Pop Warner teams are going to be there, that does not bother me. As some have mentioned they would not want to spend their money during this time knowing that there could be large school age group children with sometimes little supervision. Whenever anyone plans a trip to WDW 1st and foremost should always be what is best for you and your family. For us my husband hates huge crowds so, although Christmas and summertime might work out great with our children not having school it would be a horrible time for us to go. Well if we wanted to come back married that is

What does bother me is the general comments that come across as making Pop Warner football players, cheerleaders and parents out to be horrible rotten people.

 

[Csaks]

They aren't an issue in the parks. The problems is the horrid behavior at the resorts. We will never again stay in the same resort as the PW groups. (The parents are as bad or worse than the kids.)

I will second that. Parks are not the problem it's the resort they stay in. If you are unlucky enough to be placed near them, sleep is hard to come by some nights. Some of the parents are butt heads but a bunch take pride in their organizations and it is reflected in the kids they are looking over. I am guessing about 10% are a pain and 90% are great but guess which ones I remember.

...we went 2204

Time Machine?

 

[So_Money]

If I were staying in the POP Warner hotel I'd move, but I wouldn't cancel my trip over a bunch of kids.

 

[tfoster]

We were there Dec 10 - Dec 15. We didn't stay in the same resort, but we saw a couple of groups at EPCOT and Animal Kingdom. I have to admit that while they weren't misbehaving at all, I did find them to be annoying with the ridiculously loud cheers. I don't mind children (have four myself, was a cheerleader in middle school and high school, and have a son who has gone to WDW with his baseball team for tournaments), but it was annoying to be walking along near a big group being so LOUD. We stopped at the restroom so we could put some room between us.

 

[Csaks]

I'm not trying to belittle those who had bad experiences with PW Week. In fact, I'm really sorry for those who did. I do, however, think that the majority of those going (especially those not staying at the POP resorts or POR) have little to nothing to worry about.

I agree,location, location, location.

We had no problem in 08 staying at CSR, didn't even notice them really.

In 07 staying at POR was a whole different vacation. We were in AB 17 and there was a group across the green space at AB 28, every night carrying on till the wee hours of the morning almost every night of their stay. I truly believe the resentment we harbored for them for those nights carried over through out the trip. We noticed them everywhere, doing everything and hated them as a whole. Lack of sleep will do it to you everytime.

The next year we stayed at CSR and had a great vacation. Though we missed POR I didn't miss the lack of sleep. Were there groups of PW at the parks carrying on? Yes but it didn't even bother us one bit this time around.

 

[DisneyChristian]

We just got back from our trip from Dec. 7 - 15 and we stayed at All Star Music. I was extremely concerned about the PW groups staying there but it turned out to be a non-issue. The only issue we had was on the Magical Express to our hotel had a cheerleader squad on it with us and thought that the entire bus would enjoy a couple of their chants. Luckily once we got moving along to WDW, they stopped. We never had problems with them at the All Star Music food courts or pools. Yes, they were at both but not in massive obnoxiously large numbers. We never really saw any of them in the parks except in very small groups with parents. I thought all in all the PW groups we encountered were quite well behaved.

 

[Took]

I have seen many more complaints about pop warner than non-complaints. We were there the week before. We started to notice their presence in the parks on Thursday.

I have seen many complaints from people who don't stay at their resorts but witness their obnoxious behavior in the parks.

I'm not going to spend my hard earned money with the chance I may or may not run into them or the groups I run into are the sparse well-behaved ones.

Thx for your observations, but IMOP if you visit during PW week you are taking your chances.

I had no complaints about the behavior of the kids, but i also arrived on thursday, 12/10, and the crowds were definitely larger than they've been in December. This may not be due to Pop Warner, of course. Did notice a lot of cheerleaders, especially, in matching outfits.