Pop Warner Week

[MelMeg]

When is Pop Warner Week?

 

[Sammie]

Usually the first week of December

 

[Missytara]

It is always the first full week in December, which happens to be the second week after Thanksgiving.

The early birds start arriving Th/F, if they have been before and decide to add a few days. They arrive in droves by Saturday and most families start to leave by Th/F, while the old pros will stick it out until the following Saturday.

They are always offered one value and one moderate resort at a reduced package rate. They will take over the resort.

If you want to avoid them altogether, book a deluxe.

 

[longing4disney]

May I ask what is Pop Warner week?

 

[Missytara]

May I ask what is Pop Warner week?

Pop Warner is a national Youth Football and Cheerleading program.

They hold their national championships every year, the first week in December, at Disney. They do fundraisers all year in order to pay for the trip. A few weeks before the nationals, they post the package on their website, featuring one value and one moderate resort where they can purchase a reduced package rate.

When they check in, they take over the entire resort and mayhem ensues.

I was unfortunately accidently there at POR on their week; never again. I changed back to the week after Thanksgiving and told friends, if you want to come, it is that week or nothing.

 

[longing4disney]

Pop Warner is a national Youth Football and Cheerleading program.

They hold their national championships every year, the first week in December, at Disney. They do fundraisers all year in order to pay for the trip. A few weeks before the nationals, they post the package on their website, featuring one value and one moderate resort where they can purchase a reduced package rate.

When they check in, they take over the entire resort and mayhem ensues.

I was unfortunately accidently there at POR on their week; never again. I changed back to the week after Thanksgiving and told friends, if you want to come, it is that week or nothing.

Wow! We are not from the States. Thanks for explaining!
We are planning to go to Orlando from 27 Nov to 13 Dec. I was thinking of spending the first 11 nights at WDW and move on the Universal for the last few days. But looks like we'll hit the parks the same time as the Pop Warner! Now I'm wondering if we should do Universal first. We plan to stay at either Poly or Contemporary, will it be any better?

 

[Missytara]

Wow! We are not from the States. Thanks for explaining!
We are planning to go to Orlando from 27 Nov to 13 Dec. I was thinking of spending the first 11 nights at WDW and move on the Universal for the last few days. But looks like we'll hit the parks the same time as the Pop Warner! Now I'm wondering if we should do Universal first. We plan to stay at either Poly or Contemporary, will it be any better?

Actually, you are good.

They are tied up in practice and championships early in the week, so until they get eliminated they are not in the parks except for a few hours in the evening. They really don't go to the parks during the day until Friday/Saturday.

A few parents will book a deluxe resort, but it will be on their own. So they will be few and far between in the deluxes and are much better behaved because they have most likely been to Disney before.

The ones that really ruin it for everyone are the families in the values and moderates, who most likely couldn't even afford a vacation like this on their own, never been on vacation before, haven't been to Disney before, and it is being paid for by fund raisers.

One cute story I have to tell you; I stay at POR (they have been the moderate choice up until last year) and am leaving the day they arrive. I was feeling a bit ill the last day and it was quite nice out, so I sat outside in one of the rocking chairs facing the marina.

You have to realize some of these people don't even know what Disney is.... believe it or not.

The wife and son were standing out facing the marina watching the water taxi come into the dock. Father and daughter were checking in. Father comes out back and conversation ensues:

Father: all checked in, need to go to the buses out front to go to the parks.

Mother: but we want to take the boat to Disney World.

Father: you are not going to believe it, we are IN Disney World. This entire place is Disney World. And they have four parks, and two water parks and someplace called Downtown Disney. This place is f***ing huge......

Mother: but we want to take that boat to Disney World.

They had not a clue what they were getting themselves into; I had to chuckle!

 

[MelMeg]

Thanks for the info, thinking of planning a long weekend from 11/28 - 12/2 so should be OK.

 

[goofy4tink]

Pop Warner is a national Youth Football and Cheerleading program.

They hold their national championships every year, the first week in December, at Disney. They do fundraisers all year in order to pay for the trip. A few weeks before the nationals, they post the package on their website, featuring one value and one moderate resort where they can purchase a reduced package rate.

When they check in, they take over the entire resort and mayhem ensues.

I was unfortunately accidently there at POR on their week; never again. I changed back to the week after Thanksgiving and told friends, if you want to come, it is that week or nothing.

I seem to end up in WDW at almost the exact same time as the PW kids every Dec. It seems to be getting worse each year!!! I haven't had an issue at a resort with them. Actually stayed at Music at the same time, and they were no issue at all. But, on the other hand, I was at POR with the Tupperware group one year. OMG!!! They were worse by far!!! Huge numbers of grown adults behaving less than wonderfully!!

The one thing I have noticed in Dec is that it seems that there are more families in the parks during the day time hours. It used to be that the kids were much more noticable during the evening hours..and you hardly noticed them during the day. But, for the past two years, it seems that there are more and more groups of kids roaming unsupervised in the parks during the daytime. Not sure why that is...not even sure if it's PW kids. But it is during their week.

I'm still trying to decide if an early Dec trip is in the cards for me. Will have to make up my mind soon!!

 

[SusieBea]

Just my 2 cents: we were there during Pop Warner this past December. We did not stay at the resorts where the participants were primarily housed. We never even noticed them in the parks. So, aside from avoiding the resorts where they stay, it doesn't seem to be an issue.

 

[longing4disney]

Thanks Missytara, and Susiebea.
Looks like we're good to go! now I only need to decide if it is Poly or contemporary!

 

[magicalcouple]

Just my 2 cents: we were there during Pop Warner this past December. We did not stay at the resorts where the participants were primarily housed. We never even noticed them in the parks. So, aside from avoiding the resorts where they stay, it doesn't seem to be an issue.

Us too. We were there this past December at did not notice them.

 

[MelMeg]

Thanks everyone.

 

[aubriee]

Just my 2 cents: we were there during Pop Warner this past December. We did not stay at the resorts where the participants were primarily housed. We never even noticed them in the parks. So, aside from avoiding the resorts where they stay, it doesn't seem to be an issue.

This is true! We were at POFQ one year when it was being used for the overflow from PORS. They were absolutely horrible at the resort with the drunk parents really acting as bad if not worse than the cheerleaders (never did notice any football players). They were so bad we swore we'd never go back the same week they were there. I started going the second week of Dec every year. However, Dec 2010, due to scheduling conflicts at work I had no choice but go during Pop Warner week, if I wanted to take my annual Dec trip. I booked a split stay at CSR and YC and would have not even known Pop Warner was down there, if I hadn't known it was their week. I never noticed them in the parks at all. I did see a group at DTD one night, but they were no problem. It's at the resort that they are such terrors and even that depends on which sort of group you get. Some people say other than being loud they have had no problem with them, whereas for others like us they ruined our resort stay (loud at all hours of the night, running up and down walkways banging on doors at 2:00am, one group outside the room cheering at 6:00am and another group out there cheering at midnight, taking over the pool, hot tub, and food court so no one else can use them, knocking people out of their way at the drink stations, constant foul language, drunk moms trying to fight on the boat to DTD, parents and cheerleaders trying to treat the CMs like their own personal servants, verbally abusing them. I know the group we had were so obnoxious we just wanted to go home to get away from them.