pop warner?

[smidgy]

I'm sorry . I still haven't gotten any answers on this except "geez, what did you expect?" I have no sons in high school football. I have no daughters in cheerleading. but I still expect the same treatment at my resort as at any other.
I was NOT advised at reservations that my resort would be OVER RUN with teenagers with chanting their rants at 12 or ! AM in the morning, or that they would have no supervision. we were in the Jazz section, and we might as well have been on the bad side of the inner city. there was NO way we could have let our pre teens go to the food court by them selves. we assumed this was a disney supervised resort . all about the resort was constant swearing, yelling, and no one trying to do anything about it. the "supposed chaperones" as we noticed, were too busy drinking to care.
we DID bring it up to the security. they said they "were aware of the situation"". ok does not help me when I am waking up at 630 am to take advantage of Early Magic hours!!!!and have spent the last 6 months PLANNING MY TRIP!!! extra magic hours... this park,,, EMH... that park

disney REALLY needs to plan for "GROUP" reservations better, and ENFORCE CURFEWS at value resorts if the chaperones cannot enforce the rules, then they should not be allowed back, or the chaperones need to be chaperoned

 

[WillCAD]

Geez, what did you exppect?!

Just kidding! I agree with you completely that Disney did a very poor job at enforcing their agreement with the PW league in 2007. In fact, since you were at ASMU, you were in the thick of the action, including the 100-person Pop Warner Brawl that wound up causing the eviction of 3 entire PW teams from ASMU at 3am on Dec 9th (see here for more )

The brawl was the culmination of a PW year that had more disruption than any other year I have seen (I have been to MouseFest, which overlaps the PW event, for the last 5 years running). In 2007 I saw more PW kids in the parks and at Downtown Disney than any other year, and heard more of them getting loud, profane, and abusive to other Guests than any other year. Of course, I stayed at All-Star Movies this year, and spent some time at ASMU's Melody Hall because my room at Movies was closer to Melody Hall than it was to Cinema Hall; I had to thread my way through the PW kids at Melody Hall more than once.

Disney itself does not enforce the curfews or other rules on PW kids; that's up to the PW chaperones, who obviously did a very poor job this year, especially those of the 3 teams that were evicted because of the brawl (several of them were actually involved in the fighting themselves!)

My gut reaction is that Disney management will probably negotiate with the PW league and threaten to kick out more teams, and maybe drop the whole event, if there is a repeat of the fight incident, but they won't do anything about the much more common complaints of unruly and unsupervised kids, curfew breaking, and other rule violations by the football and cheer squads.

Fortunately, I didn't see any PW kids at ASMO, so I won't hesitate to stay there again next year if I get a good rate, but after what happened last year I'll never stay at my favorite, ASMU, during the PW competition.

 

[ConcKahuna]

A good friend of mine (a mod on the TPAS boards as well, CanadianGuy) was down then too. He was at Sports (where the actual "fight" and evictions happened). And he didnt have any issues at all. The "Brawl" wasn't a riot, just 3 teenagers who got in a fight in the arcade.

He even commented several times that he was suprised at how quiet the resort was, and the only time he really saw any practicing was in the morning when some cheerleaders were practicing formations.

And by your "I felt like I was in the inner city" and "I was afraid to let my kids out" comments, I wonder if you feel the race of the teenagers was an issue?

 

[WillCAD]

A good friend of mine (a mod on the TPAS boards as well, CanadianGuy) was down then too. He was at Sports (where the actual "fight" and evictions happened). And he didnt have any issues at all. The "Brawl" wasn't a riot, just 3 teenagers who got in a fight in the arcade.

He even commented several times that he was suprised at how quiet the resort was, and the only time he really saw any practicing was in the morning when some cheerleaders were practicing formations.

And by your "I felt like I was in the inner city" and "I was afraid to let my kids out" comments, I wonder if you feel the race of the teenagers was an issue?

Actually, I was at Movies during the brawl and never heard anything, either - because the brawl was at Music, not Sports or Movies.

And the brawl WAS a brawl. According to this article from the Baltimore Sun, the initial call to police was for a possible riot involving 80-100 people.

When police arrived on the scene, they found a fight involving more than two dozen players and at least 3 adult chaperones from the three teams, according to this article from the Honolulu Advertisor.

I don't know about you, but to me a fight involving nearly 30 people, which requires six police units (12 cops) plus Disney security personnel to break up, qualifies categorically as a brawl.

Smidgy didn't mention race at all. But since you brought it up, for the last 5 years I've been encountering PW kids at WDW and seen mostly white kids, with a mix of other races thrown in, so I seriously doubt that race had anything to do with her feelings. And how do you know what race Smidgy is? I think you're making unwarranted racial assumptions without knowing any of the facts.

Since I was actually there and saw some of these kids and their behaior with my own eyes, I think Smidgy was right on target in her assertions. Several times that I went to Melody Hall to eat in the food court (because my room at Movies was actually closer to melody Hall than it was to Cinema Hall), I noticed groups of PW kids hanging around. Mostly they were just hanging around, but sometimes they were loud and obnoxious, used a lot of profanity, and once or twice I even whitnessed them making lewd comments to passersby. And since they were all teen football players, aggressive and in good physical condition, they were quite intimidating in groups of 5-10, and sometimes even a little gang-like.

Aside from the cheerleaders chanting Christmas carols on the busses, I rarely noticed PW kids at WDW during my trips from 2003-2006. But in 2007 I saw them a lot more in the parks, at DTD, and especially any time I stopped at Melody Hall. They were louder, more rambunctious, and more noticable than ever before, eventually coming to the braw at Melody Hall. My thoughts are that adult supervision was seriously lacking this year, because I never saw any of these kids, sometimes in groups as large as 15, with a single adult chaperone.

Hopefully, Disney will force the PW league to enforce the rules better next year. I'll be there for MouseFest again, so I'll let you know.

 

[CanadianGuy]

Well.. as noted by a previous poster, I *did* stay at All Star Sports which had far more teams and chaperones staying there than any of the other value resorts.

There were signs posted around the resort for quiet hours from 10pm to 9am and I experience no examples of those quiet hours being broken. The few times I was out of my room between 11pm and 6am ... there were regular security patrols.

I was not woken up sooner than 9am on any day that I was there.. and other than a bit of noise during the daytime.. I really didn't have any problems.

Sounds like the experience at All Star Music was quite different.

I think that the articles that refer to the fight being at All Star Music was a simple case of mistaken facts on the part of the reporter. All indications I have heard .. from CM's at the resort where I was staying, to over hearing conversations among teams and players... the incident took place at Sports. Whatever resort it occurred at -- it did not impact my trip or my experience one bit.

Hard to say at this point. I know that another Disney site referred to it being at Music but that wasn't what the teams and players at Sports were saying.

Most of the kids were fairly polite for 13 to 15 year olds. My biggest problem was they kept offering me their seats on the bus.. !! I'm only 38 years old kids.. !! Sheesh.

Knox

 

[myladyisatramp]

I have been a parent down in Disney with cheerleaders during the PopWarner
Competitions. Yes we found a lot of teams running loose. I think this is each individual organization responsiblity to make sure their cheerleaders and football players "behave", or maybe its the parents who should keep tighter reins on their kids. I know when we where down there I as a parent accompaied my kids (I know money wise some can't, then make arrangements for someone to "babysit". Our kids had a curfew, and were to be curtious to others. As I said our coaches would not let them run around like indians. They should remember why they are down there, its not a vacation our girls wanted a win. Its too bad some people don't know how to act, but then again half the parents were at the bars in the hotels, maybe they should be with their kids.