Nat'l Dance Team Championship, Feb. 1-3

[tinkergal]

Has anyone been during this time before? Does it impact the crowd levels very much?

Thanks for any input!!

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Special events don't interfere with attendance.
2) At least, not usually.
3) The people come in for the event, and it occupies a lot of time.
4) They might get 1 or 2 days for the parks.
5) So, don't worry about attendance.

6) But, worry about noise at resorts.
7) The kids usually are noisy and sometimes troublesome.
8) In some cases (like Pop Warner) they are actually destructive.

[Here we go again...]

We participated in the competition last year. (our girls are National Champions!! :D )
We were too busy with the competition to spend much time in the parks.

We stayed at All Star Sports last year and I can tell you that the resort was crowded. We used the football field to practice, but only during the day. Our girls all had an 8pm curfew.
I am sure not all dance schools are as strict as ours because I saw lots of teams at the parks at night. (maybe that is why we did so well)

We will be back this year so we will be there at the same time as you.

****one thing to keep in mind****
Mardi Gras is February 5th this year. Most schools around here are out February 4th through 6th. That means many people will be taking a 5 day vacation (2nd-6th) to Disney World.
We have gone during Mardi Gras before and we were surprised to see how many people leave Louisiana and go to Disney World.

We are preparing ourselves for the worst but hoping for the best. No matter what, we will go and have fun! :mickey:

[magicgal]

We have been there in both 2006 and 2007 during this event. They really did not impact the park crowds that much at all! We did notice some groups, but only here and there. Nothing that impacted the crowds too much. The groups we did see seemed well behaved.

If they are staying at your resort, you may notice them more, especially on the buses.

We have also stayed the week that the cheerleaders came in, which is the week after the dance comps. They were way more noticable, still nothing drastic at the parks..but there was lots and lots of cheering going on in the parks and the buses, which was not fun after a long day at the parks.

[KatGat]

We will be part of the Mardi Gras crowd flocking to the parks feb. 2-7 and I'm really concerned about staying at AS Music. I don't know if they try to confine the dance teams to AS Sports, but I really don't want extra resort noise, commotion, & bus crowding if at all possible. I wanted to stay at POP but it wasn't available. My teen aged son is SO hoping that our resort IS over run with teen aged girls...~sigh~...

[DDuck66]

We went a few years ago at this time, and while the Parks were pretty quite, it was a non stop party at the All Stars Resort (First and Last Time we stayed there). All in all, there should not be much effect upon park attendence.

[KatGat]

Yikes. DDuck66, Which Value resort did you stay at?

[Jasper]

Just to clarify the noise issue somewhat;

We have been at the various All Stars when different groups have been there and while the noise outside can be very loud sometimes the noise inside the room has always been virtually non-existent. Granted, when someone is standing right outside your window and is screaming at the top of their lungs you will hear them but that is not normally where the noise comes from.

We have raised three kids of our own and have always been 4-H leaders and involved with our church youth group, etc. so we know that when kids are at play they will be noisy so we don’t get too upset as long as there is someone that is keeping the kids under a reasonable amount of control. However, I will say that the year that we were staying at the All Star Sports when the Pop Warner people were there I just about lost my religion over them. This was about 4 or 5 years ago (I am not sure of exactly how long ago it was) and I hope that our experience was the exception rather than the rule with them but there just didn’t seem to be any adult supervision and the kids were beyond being noisy they were downright mean, cruel and abusive!!

As for the impact on the parks, as others have already said most of the groups are kept so busy that they really don’t have a whole lot of time for the parks. I would look at what else is going on around the country to see what crowds will be like.

[magicofdisney]

That's usually the time of year we take our winter vacation. The only way we were effected was by the noise at the resorts. As an additional clarification; if you're room is right next to the football field at All Star Sports, you WILL hear them playing football until 12:00AM.