Pop Warner will be there the same time we are!

[smartinez1]

Ok, so I just heard that Pop Warner will be holding the 2008 Cheerleading competitions down in Disney Dec 7th-13th. Same days we are going to be there. Has anyone gone during their stay before? I don't care about the kids, I just worry how bad this will affect the crowd level? Wondering if we should move our vacation a couple of days earlier to get a few days in before they get there. Am I worrying for nothing, or should I be concerned?

[Bri]

oh man, we will be there dec 8-15 and we already bought our plane tickets so we def can't change the ressie. i hope it's not going to be crowded. but i have heard that they are so busy with their competitions that they are usually at wide world of sports the whole time. hopefully this is true!

[MickeyMomof2]

From what I have read and heard, they Pop group affects the quality of life at some of the resorts more than the crowd levels at the parks. The group is usually at the Wide World of Sports Complex for events during the day.

[Tinkerfreak]

I think it really effects the value resorts as far as there being alot of hyper cheerleaders running around and can get pretty crowded in the food court etc. As far as the parks I have heard that you might see a few groups here and there being a bit rambunctious in line but not really contributing too much to the crowd levels. I have a 13 year old so I think I could probably handle the giggling and cheering in line but I could not handle the noiseyness at the resort. I must have all of my beauty sleep or I am one cranky lady.

[meldan98]

We were there in Dec '07 during the last Pop Warner event and barely noticed them. I think near the end of the week we saw maybe 2 or 3 groups of cheerleaders and 1 or 2 groups of boys. We even met a family that stayed at one of the Pop hotels and they said the food court and pool were a little more crazy than normal.

We honestly saw 5 teams at the Atlanta airport and that was more than we had seen the entire time we were in Olrando.

[Toodle]

We have been there several times when the cheerleaders have been there. We go by ourselves, just my husband and myself. We have NEVER been bothered by the cheerleaders or any of the other sports groups who might be staying at the value resorts. As a matter of fact all the groups we have ever encountered were quiet and well behaved and typically had an adult chaperone with them. I wouldn't worry about it at all. I do agree that the food court might be a little more crowded - kids, especially boys (in my personal experience) are hungry all of the time!
Disney World is suppose to be full of kids.

[KineGirl]

While I wasnt (overly) bothered by them or noticed if they added to the crowd level (Its already very busy that time of year), we went in Dec '05 and they were everywhere!!! The only time they really bothered me was when they would walk in a side by side line so that they took up the entire walkway or when they would start impromptu cheering behind an unsuspecting me (yikes!). I didnt stay in the values, where most of the Pop Warners stayed so idk what that is like.

[Bringonthemouse!]

We had a 4 day overlap with Pop Warner last year and we didn't notice any crowds in the Parks. It is definately the best time of year to go, many of the rides are walk-ons (except of course Peter Pan and Soarin' ), the Christmas decorations are fabulous and the weather was beautiful!
The only time we noticed any "unruly" teenagers" was on the Friday evening at DTD Marketplace.
You'll have a great vacation!!! Enjoy!

[TheRustyScupper]

1) The parks are not affected much by Pop Warner.
2) However, the resorts can be really rough.
. . . yelling late at night
. . . screaming
. . . rowdy behavior
. . . damage to the resort (can be major)
. . . running the hallways well into the night
3) The resorts *most* affected are
. . . All Star Sports (main housing location)
. . . Pop Century (Value overflow)
. . . Port Orleans French Quarter
4) Fortunately, most leave right after the contest.
5) The groups usually can't afford to stay long.

NOTE: The resorts get hot pretty hard. One reason is that the contract between WDW and Pop dictates that ALL contestants MUST stay on-site or they cannot compete.

[Belle1217]

I stayed in the All Star Sports during pop warner week in 2006. I had not 1 problem. We never heard them cheer at all. We saw them a few times in the pools or food court but they were very polite. I know alot of people get nervous (i was at first) but for us everything was fine. I have 3 kids under 7 at the time and found that the cheerleaders and football players were very polite letting us get in front of them in line or while waiting for the bus so we could get a seat. I'm sure there are some people who have had problems, they are a bunch of kids away from home and very excited but in general they were OK. Have a wonderful trip

[Sean Riley Taylor's Mom]

We will be there at the same time. From everything I have read, we do not have much to worry about.

Let's hope so!

[Gator]

I was there with them in 06 and didn't notice them. They don't really affect the crowds. Adding 1000 people to the parks won't make much difference. The football players behavior was always real good (the result of being whipped into shape by a coach). The cheerleaders are the ones that will cause grief. They are typically out of control. So much for the age old myth of girls being more mature than boys

[smartinez1]

Thanks for all the info, it has eased my mind!

[minnie1956]

Will NEVER do it again. Most are correct, you will not notice them in the Parks. I think they are kept so busy with the competition that they really don't have much down time. But the resorts is a WHOLE different story.The problem really is a lack of adult supervision. Too many unchaperoned young'uns. I don't mind the cheering and laughing. I did mind the screaming, running, trashing the food court because of course, THEY didn"t have to throw their food away.All these folks that didn't notice the pandemonium must have a higher threshold for tolerance than me.

[MushuGrl]

We'll be there the same week but are planning to stay at CSR. Should we be okay?

[TBY2225]

Just in case, I am glad we are staying at SSR when we go during that time!

[Aurora]

We were there last year during that time and stayed at SSR. We didn't even know about the competitions but definitely DID hear them at the parks -- cheering all the time. I wasn't so much annoyed by the cheering, because we weren't overrun or anything. But I was bewildered by their seeming inability to ever STOP cheering. Walking down the lanes, in lines, on the monorail, etc. It didn't really bother us, per se, but we did notice them (we could hardly NOT notice them).

[FriendsofMickey]

We were there last year at the beginning of Pop Warner. The only thing a noticed is when you left the resort later in the afternoon, the busses were a little more crowded. Also, on one or two nights we had some young girls running and 'screaming/talking loudly' outside of our room. We were staying at POFQ.

[Jasper]

We didn't really have much problem with the cheerleaders, it was the ball players that caused us so much grief. And as others have already said it is not in the parks but rather at the resorts that the problems happened.

It appeared to us that some of the ball teams had VERY little parental oversight when they were at the resort. In fact, when I went out to talk to one group of boys who had run into the window of our room a good 6 or 7 times in 15 minutes while throwing the ball around they told us that ALL of their chaperones and coaches had gone to Down Town Disney for dinner while leaving the boys back at the resort to eat pizza and hang out. These youngsters were very rude to us, calling us several names we can't repeat here and threatening to step up their actions if we complained. Naturally that just got my ire up and I went straight to the front desk and was VERY clear (in a polite but direct way) that we needed help IMMEDIATELY and we got that help. Within an hour the adults were back and that group was packing up and going someplace else. To this day I don't know if they were thrown out or just moved someplace else.

I realize mine was an extreme case but there was just generally a lot more noise (including things we didn't want our under 6 year old children to hear), a lot more roughhousing on the lawns and in the pools, and a lot more trash on the grounds that we could see first hand was being generated by the football players.

As for the cheerleaders we did see and hear some of them practicing on the lawns early in the morning and in the evenings but they generally were respectful of others and didn't start any loud cheering before about 8 am and knocked off by about 8 in the evening. This goes for both the female and male cheerleaders. Also, anytime we saw more than 3 or 4 cheerleaders together we always saw at least one adult as well.

[Marker]

Well, my own opinion is, it doesn't matter when you go, there will be reason to "fuss" if you really want to look for one. Otherwise, if you just roll with it, it'll be a great week regardless of who is there, or what "challenges" there may be, after all, you're at Disney World.

So, to quote a Doris Day song....

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

Although, you may also gain a new meaning for "it's A Small World After All".