What is Pop Warner?

[benny]

Hi,

I am planning to be at WDW Dec 14-21 staying at Pop Century. I have been reading some of the threads, one in particular someone was asking is this was a good time to visit WDW and a reply was is was as long as you are not staying at a Value Resort because of Pop Warner.

I'm now worried as we plan to stay at Pop Century. Could you please tell me what Pop Warner is and if it will affect our stay at Pop during this time.

Many thanks

[chick20679]

Pop Warner is a youth football "superbowl" & cheerleading/dance championship session held Dec 7 - 13, 2008 at WDW Wide World of Sports. If your trip coincides with theirs, you will be sharing parks/resorts with large groups of teens & pre-teens.
It appears they normally stay mostly at ASMu, ASSp, POR & POFQ. (Not POP)

[Harley-Davidson_Guy]

If you go to their web site you can read all about them. Pop warner dot com. They take over the parks and it is quite annoying. My appoligies to anyone who that offends but I've been there during their events and they are everywhere. There are packs of screaming, cheerleading girls everywhere. When we were there they were so hyper they were cheering in the lines, walking down the streets etc. I swore to never go during their time there ever again.
Now, some people don't mind at all. If you already have your trip planned it isn't something I would change. Just be prepared.

[smiles_rock]

Hi,

Pop Warner is a sports organization for kids, they have football, baseball, cheerleading, etc and their national competitions are usually at Disney's Wide World of Sports. We were at the ASSports 2 years ago during the same week, it wasn't that bad, we had 4 boys with us who really enjoyed having so many kids to play with. There were a lot of kids around who did occasionally get loud, mostly at the pools and food court but it didn't really bother us and security was good about enforcing "quiet time" at night. My only real complaint was that they left their trash everywhere! If the thought of having large groups of kids around bothers you, you might want to consider a moderate resort instead. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it. We actually had a lot of fun playing football and stuff with so many people. The really good news is that in the parks you won't even notice them.

[Bringonthemouse!]

We were at Pop last Dec. and had a 3 day overlap with the Pop Warner crowd. We didn't have any encounters with the groups at the resort (they mainly stay at the All Stars and POR/FQ resorts) In fact, the only place we noticed any large groups of teenagers was DTD Marketplace.
Enjoy your vacation!
:mickey:

[OhToodles!]

Is Pop Warner usually the second week in December? Just wanted to know for future planning.

[chick20679]

Pop Warner History:
2008: Dec 7 - 13
2007: Dec 2 - 7
2006: Dec 3 - 9
2005: Dec 4 - 10

Hope that helps. :mickey:

[Belle1217]

I stayed at the All Star Sports in 06 the same week as pop warner. We had no problems at all. The resort was full of kids from Pop Warner but they were very well behaved. We only saw them once on the bus back to our resort one night. Before our trip I read a lot of posts that made me very nervous but everything was fine. :mickey:

[Mary Chase]

If you go to their web site you can read all about them. Pop warner dot com. They take over the parks and it is quite annoying. My appoligies to anyone who that offends but I've been there during their events and they are everywhere. There are packs of screaming, cheerleading girls everywhere. When we were there they were so hyper they were cheering in the lines, walking down the streets etc. I swore to never go during their time there ever again.
Now, some people don't mind at all. If you already have your trip planned it isn't something I would change. Just be prepared.

I hate to say it but I agree with this post. We were there only one day that overlapped with that week and I really noticed the kids in the park. I like Disney because it's a family place and I had a hard time enjoying it with big packs of kids (teens) running around. We avoid that week (we like to go late November/early December - I always look to see what the dates are for Pop Warner).

[Taja]

Is Pop Warner usually the second week in December? Just wanted to know for future planning.

Pop Warner usually begins the first full weekend in December. December 1 falls on Monday in 2008, so it's a week later.

[benny]

Wow - thanks for the replies! I see from the link given that POP Warner finishes Dec 13. We will leave our dates as planned as we have had to organise so many things. Hopefully most will head home pretty quickly after the 13th and those that stay are well behaved.

Believe me, it's not that I don't like kids, I do, I'm a teacher, it's just I thought it would make the resorts, parks etc really busy and I did have some worries about noise at POP.

Thanks again for the help.

[ljv1975]

We stayed at Pop for one night this past March and I was worried because it was the first day of a cheerleading competition or something. We noticed that the parks were a LOT more crowded that day. When we got to Pop that night and checked in, I asked the CM if our room was in a quiet area. He told us that Pop is a family resort and that they don't host groups like the All-Stars. I am guessing that these groups don't stay at Pop, so you should mostly encounter them in the parks.