What is Pop Warner??

[mom2my3kids]

We are in the early stages of planning a dec 1st-9th trip to disney/pop century. We have stayed numerous times at pop and the kids love it..Yesterday on a thread someone said something about that time of the year is bad at pop with pop warner??

 

[wallawallakids]

I am not sure I am right, but when I was a kid growing up in MA we had Pop Warner. It was little kids' football and cheerleading teams. Hope that helps.

 

[SenecaWolf]

It is a national youth football league that has their annual tournament at Disney.

http://www.popwarner.com/superbowl/pop.asp

 

[mom2my3kids]

I have read they are very rude, lots of parents drinking, smoking etc..thinking about moving to a moderate but the kids love pop century..

 

[GAN]

We've been and never experienced any rudeness, but if you are planning a trip you will want to stay away from Value Resorts -the problem is that they are all there together, so they tend to travel/hang-out in larger groups which make them louder etc. A moderate would be a safer bet, but I had a friend who took part in the Tournament a few years ago and they were put up in POR -so I'm not sure how they figure who stays where but the bulk will be in the Values. As far as the Parks go, they don't get to spend too much time there so they don't usually make a big impact -between homework that they are required to do and practice/games it doesn't leave them much free time.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

What is Pop Warner??

1) It is a disease/condition that
. . . keeps parents and kids alike awake at all hours
. . . causes various levels of damage at resorts
. . . creates loud and strange noises in the middle of the night
. . . wears out carpet and concrete via late night running around
2) It also happens to be a little-league football group.
3) Pop Warner
. . . has their annual end-of season tourney at WDW every
. . . brings tons and tons of kids into WDW
. . . has little adult supervision (adults are "guides", not chaperons)
4) It is best to avoid the resorts where they stay, due to noise & damage.
5) Think: Annual plague of locust as a comparison.

NOTE: Why does not WDW control the kids in both noise and damage?
They bring in MAJOR bucks. To play in the tourney, each player MUST
stay at a WDW resort. (On team stayed off-site for savings, and were
disqualified.) So, who cares about $10,000-$12,000 damage at
All Stars if the income is so huge for food, tickets, hotels, field rental?

EDIT: Before I am accused of putting down Pop Warner, let me say that
our group is a major supporter (in cash and labor) of the local Pop
Warner league. I am simply stating those facts of which I am personally
aware. For many of the kids, this is the first time away from their city,
let alone out of their state, and they go wild.

 

[GAN]

1)
. . . wears out carpet and concrete via late night running around
[/I]

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

They don't normally stay at Pop Century. Usually they are at the All Stars for the value category.

For the moderate category - sometimes they stay at CBR but mostly at POR. I don't see which moderate they'll be at for 2012 posted on their website yet.

I think you'd be safe at Pop Century.

 

[goofy4tink]

I have read they are very rude, lots of parents drinking, smoking etc..thinking about moving to a moderate but the kids love pop century..

WEll, that may not help since they are usually offered a moderate to stay at....could be any of them.

I go to WDW at the same time pretty much every year. The first time I went in Dec, I didn't know any better and booked ASMusic. It was a very last minute trip. Imagine my surprise when I got there and found it to be full of young cheerleaders and some football players!!! I arrived on a Thursday, so they were pretty much at the end of their week...most leave on Sat. In all honesty?? Other than the food court being nasty loud about an hour prior to park opening, and the buses being really crowded 30 mins before park opening, I never had an issue. No running around late at night, no drunken parents, no excessive cheering practices going on around the pool areas.

Now, the only thing that bothers me are the larger than normal groups of kids in the parks toward the end of their competition. It used to be that you didn't see the kids in the parks during the day...mostly at night. Now though, there seems to be more of a 'family' presence....maybe families are bringing everyone down with them..don't know.
All I know is that I really haven't had an issue with the PW kids. But, I tend to stay at either Pop or a DVC resort. These are places you don't see the PW kids and their families placed.

Now, don't get me started on the area day trippers in May/June. OMG!!! I have never seen such awful behaviour. You will find a lot of church and school groups headed to the parks for the day at this time of year. And those kids, even though the vast majority have shirts on stating where they are from, have exhibited some of the worst behaviour I have ever seen!!!

The PW kids were much better behaved. Now, then again, there was the cheer dad I ran into in DTD at Guest Services. I was getting some ticket stuff taken care of. And this dad was talking to another adult next to me. He had been asked how his dd's team had done. Well....he got all red in the face, and says..'Yeah, they place third!! Can you believe it??? Not worth the trip down here. It's just not worth it unless they finish first!!! Really disappointed in them. Screwed up big time and the scoring was pretty awful on top of that!!' And what made it worse??? He was from Mass, same as we are. I was mortified. He was really angry about the whole thing. Nice example of sportsmanship if you ask me. Felt bad for his dd and her squad.
But, all in all? I have never had a big issue with. Not even after 9 years of being there at the same time.

 

[sadossey]

Why so negative about kids having a good time at WDW?

 

[mom2my3kids]

Why so negative about kids having a good time at WDW?

I think there is a difference between kids having a good time and just being kids, and some of the nasty behavior you see at WDW..And the thing is parents dont do anything about it or they act the same way as if hey I pay to come here I can do and act anyway I can..But then again that is why kids act the way they do today parenting..in IMHO

 

[Lynne M]

If it were just a matter of kids having a good time, I doubt if anyone would mind.

Unfortunately, due to poor supervision by the adults in the group, there has been really atrocious behavior by some of the youth groups that seriously impacts the stays of other guests. Trashing of the food courts, garbage tossed all over the place, property damage to the resort and rooms, banging on guest doors all night long, lots of noise in the corridors all night long, out of control drunken behavior by 'chaperones', cheerleading practice at the crack of dawn right outside guest rooms. We've seen dozens and dozens of stories of this kind of thing over the years.

Let me emphasize that not all of the kids behave this way; most youth groups are well supervised, and really don't impact other guests at all. Unfortunately, it's the out of control groups that get all the notice and make people wary of booking a stay if a youth group will be there.

Pop Warner has sort of become the poster child for this sort of thing, partly because of the recognizable name, and partly because of a couple of highly-publicized brawls, one in a resort food court and one in the Magic Kingdom, that got at least one team sent home from the competition.