UDA Dance Nationals in Disney 2012

[MichiganMomto4]

I wrote this mini trip report for a much smaller disney board I'm on but I thought I'd copy and paste it here for those of you who will read anything

Our cast of characters: Me - crazy dance mom and WDW lover: this was my 14th visit to the World since 2000.
Bailey - My 14 year old daughter/dancer who is on her high school's Varsity dance team.
Erin - My 9 year old daughter who was left home in the summer for a different dance competition and wouldn't let me out the door this time without taking her!!

First, Disney knows how to take care of these huge groups - very impressed with the entire process. We went for UDA Nationals and I'm going to guess that involved 3,000 plus people - probably more. DME took us to Celebrity Hall, which is a building behind and between ASMu and ***. That's where we checked in. Gave our name and they handed me a labeled envelope with our room keys, park hoppers, meal vouchers and a map. We were in Country Fair bldg. 5 which is the very, very back of ASMu - close to Celebrity Hall but pretty far from the food court. We got Mears transportation from Celebrity Hall to the events at ESPN but obviously went up to the regular bus stops for all other parks. ESPN is an amazing complex if you've never been. I walked around a bit but I'm sure I didn't see a quarter of it. Bailey danced both of her dances in the Field House. I was happy to find out I could use my Disney gift card for concession purchases at ESPN.
We arrived after midnight on Thursday (ugh!) so we just got to the room and went to bed. Friday morning we headed off to Epcot and had breakfast at Sunshine Seasons (where I ate the most awesome berry breakfast pudding!!). Did Soaring, which, frankly, needs to be cleaned or something :/ There are big, black pieces of dirt or something on the film that didn't used to be there and the picture just isn't as sharp as it used to be. I couldn't 'smell' anything either We did ask to wait for row B1, which we learned on a previous trip was the top center and it was a good experience with no feet hanging in our face and no black sides of the screen in our side vision. Erin did Test Track for the first time ever and she loved it!!! We got ham and cheese croissants and napoleon in France for lunch ♥ and I got Erin a passporter for the countries because she's outgrown/gotten bored of the masks (now Duffy's actually). That passporter is really cool! All the CMs wrote a nice passage on their country's page and then read it back in English Funny/odd thing - I thought the CMs working in each country had to BE from that country ??? Our CMs in America where from Panama (okay, but it's a stretch) and India (not even close) and neither one could barely speak English!! Bailey and I just looked at each with a 'wth' look on our faces and laughed when we walked away! They couldn't find anybody from the heartland to work in America???? Weird.
Anyway, Friday night was the private UDA party at MK but everyone was so exhausted we skipped it, especially since we all had to be up at 4:30 to get the 6:15 bus to ESPN. Saturday morning the girls danced their prelim pom and didn't make it to semi-finals so they were done for the day. They did a great job and it was very disappointing but they went up against 150 teams so the competition was tough. Oh well, off to MK!! omg, I have NEVER seen the Magic Kingdom THAT crowded! It was crazy!! Not even on July 3rd were there that many people! Took Erin on Space Mountain for the first time and she absolutely hated it I hate it too but she wanted to try. Did a bunch of other stuff; ate lunch at Cosmic Ray's and watched about a half dozen gulls attack a family with just purchased food trays walking outside (no seating available inside) and the food went flying and the family screamed! It was terrible!! We rode snow white for the last time A CM confirmed that it was closing but she didn't know when. Couldn't see much of the progress for the new section but the mountain range and Beast's castle looked to be almost finished. Stayed for Wishes and the preshow before that - The Magic, The Memories and You. I had no idea about this show on the castle or we would have been closer :/ We were standing near the ice cream shoppe on Main St. so our view wasn't so great but from what we saw it was absolutely Incredible!!!! Definitely want to see this again closer!! Disney never ceases to amaze me ♥
Sunday morning was a repeat of Saturday morning - the girls danced their jazz and frankly, it was a hot mess and they knew it obviously, didn't move on to semis and the dancing part for the team was over. Went to DTD for lunch at Earl; shopping at World of Disney and I got an ornament I needed at the Christmas store.
To be continued with highlights of UDAs private DHS party on Sunday night ........

 

[MichiganMomto4]

After DTD we decided we needed to relax - we went to the guitar pool and hung out with the rest of the team; Erin swam and met a new friend from Canada I walked up to the bar near the food court with a couple other moms and got a Banana Cabana - good but after tax and tip it was $11!! Yikes - no more cocktails for me in Disney Trying to figure out the game plan for Sunday night we found out that DHS closed at 7 and didn't reopen for our party until 9..... hmmmm.... what to do for 2 hours? So we decided to go to Epcot, eat and then go over to the Studios when the party started. Got adrs at Biergarten for 8:30. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed a good majority of the food (compared to a cold fish salad experience I had while on a Disney Meet trip in 2002!!! LOL) and so did the girls. The band quit playing at 8:45 which was okay because they were so LOUD haha but they were fun while it lasted. I am a waitress/server in a restaurant and needed a new order taking book (the padded thing they give you with your check inside) because the one a friend "acquired" for me a couple years ago at Boma had split in half from all my use. So I decided instead of just taking it, I would ask..... the CM server gave me 2!!! I am so excited to use my new Disney book everyday at work ♥ ♥
After dinner we went and got on the bus to DHS, which I was pleasantly surprised that there was one!! Got to DHS and they had 4 rides open - TSM, ToT, RnR and Star Tours - plus the store on the left when you first walk in and the ice cream place and the counter service right near ToT and RnR. Erin didn't want to try any of the more intense rides so she and I did TSM 5 times in a row!! WoooWHOOOO!!!!! I love, love that ride!! Rides 4 and 5 we didn't even have to get out of the ride vehicle - it was so awesome!! We only quit because it was 12:30 a.m. and we couldn't move our hands any more LOL!! UDA had Mears transportation buses waiting to take us back to Celebrity Hall. Monday we had DME at 1:25 p.m. We decided to hop over to AK real quick so Nicole, a team dancer whose parents didn't go and who stayed in our room with us, could see it since this was her first WDW experience. We basically just rode EE (Erin said it was just okay and didn't think she'd want to do it again but it wasn't as bad as Space Mtn LOL) We ate lunch at Flame Tree. Bailey got the turkey and cranberry sandwich and it was really good! I got the bbq 1/2 chicken and was disappointed that it seemed to have a lot of fat. The 2 older girls tried to get a ride in on Primeevil Whirl but the line didn't move and we had to go Made it back to Celebrity Hall to catch our DME and from then on out it was just depressing
Oh, forgot to say..... Nicole's favorite character is Snow White. She wanted to meet her so bad So Sunday evening at Epcot Bailey and I surprised her knowing that Snow White was in Germany; she had no idea what we were going to do until we walked up and got in the line and she saw her... talk about a 14 year old girl who looked like she was 5! ♥ It was so sweet and she was so Happy! These poor children whose parents never took them to Disney when they were little I'm glad we got to give her a bit of Disney Magic )