Cheer Competitons Dates 2017

[RRDallas]

Hello all! I have read past post on here for some time and have seen that most of yall don't favor when WDW host cheer competitions. Being that I am in the cheer industry I thought I would share the dates for some upcoming cheer competitions at WDW. As well as what hotels are mainly being booked for use of the cheerleaders while there so avoid any headache!

UCA High School Nationals February 11-12, 2017
I would expect the athletes and families to begin arriving Thursday the 9th-Friday the 10th and departing the 13th. I know most schools choose to stay at the All Star resorts so those will have more than enough "yell it loud" going on. As well I believe a lot have been booking into Pop Century and Coronado Springs.

UCA International All Star Championships March 11-12, 2017
Again I would expect the athletes and families to begin arriving Thursday the 9th-Friday the 10th and departing the 13th. This one is a bit larger than HS Nationals since it programs from all over the country with different ages and levels from 4-19 years old. The All Star Resorts and Pop Century are very popular that weekend along with Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach, and Swan and Dolphin. Programs have also been known to use off resort hotel too depending on the number of teams they bring and families that attend as well.

The Cheerleading & Dance World Championships and the International Cheer & Dance Union Championships April 27-May 1, 2017
This competition is the biggest of the ones I will list due to is being the World Championships. Teams will begin to arrive on resort as early as Wednesday April 26th morning to prepare for this competition, especially the international teams who have travel across the world to compete. Majority will leave on Tuesday May 2nd. Once again all three All Star Resorts will be booked full of cheerleaders and spectators. This is year I booked at AS Sports and was moved from the resort to Music due to the competition company booking out the entire resort and in doing so Disney had to move over 1,200 people who were previously booked there before the company booked it. Coronado Springs is technically a competition hotel and venue as well for the Dance World Championships so it will be full of competitors and spectators. Resorts also used during this week are Pop Century, Caribbean Beach, Swan and Dolphin, and Art of Animation. Programs have also booked outside resorts such as the hotel near Disney Springs and the Gaylord.

The Summit May 5-7, 2017
This is the last competition of the season for All Star Cheer. The teams that attend Summit are the younger teams so its a little less crazy. Teams will arrive I believe beginning Wednesday night May 3rd and will depart Monday May 8th. Once again all three All Star Resorts will be booked full of cheerleaders and spectators. Resorts also used during this week are Pop Century, Caribbean Beach, Swan and Dolphin, and Art of Animation. Programs have also booked outside resorts such as the hotel near Disney Springs and the Gaylord.

I hope this is helpful to some who have vacations planned during that time!

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

They were there the first of December this past year. I'm not sure if they were there because of Pop Warner Football but it wasn't too horrible.

 

[BackOTheLine]

We came in today (Feb 3rd) and saw 2 teams waiting at DME in the airport. Saw a few more in MK. Early for next weekend or something else going on... any idea? It doesn't really bother me - just curious for conversations sake.

 

[Snayberry]

Does it get that busy with the cheer competitions? I'm going to be staying at the Yacht Club 2/10 - 2/13

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

I know PP, we are there from the 6th to the 16th. I hope they don't impact the parks too much. Never been there when cheer teams were at Disney. Oh well, you have some sort of event most the time now, especially the "slow" times.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Being that I am in the cheer industry I thought I would share the dates for some upcoming cheer competitions at WDW.

My 6 year old is on an All Star cheer team and hopes one day she can compete at Disney. I know some people do get down on all the cheerleader groups because they can be quite raucous and that is the fault of the parents who don't teach their children how to behave and feel entitled to act any way they please. I will say that cheerleading is an amazing athletic sport for young girls that teaches teamwork maybe more than many sports. If one girl is not focused than they or another can get seriously hurt.

 

[popcenturylover]

They were there the first of December this past year. I'm not sure if they were there because of Pop Warner Football but it wasn't too horrible.

Yeah, POP Warner is usually the 1st week of December every year.

 

[RRDallas]

We came in today (Feb 3rd) and saw 2 teams waiting at DME in the airport. Saw a few more in MK. Early for next weekend or something else going on... any idea? It doesn't really bother me - just curious for conversations sake.

This weekend is the National Dance Championships so much smaller than cheer!

 

[RRDallas]

Does it get that busy with the cheer competitions? I'm going to be staying at the Yacht Club 2/10 - 2/13

I have seen it get a little busier but its usually only the Friday before the actual competition days. Most programs require their teams to watch each other so Saturday and Sunday they are mainly at ESPN!

 

[ninjaprincesst]

Does it get that busy with the cheer competitions? I'm going to be staying at the Yacht Club 2/10 - 2/13

It really is not much busier and staying at the yacht club you should be okay, staying at the values or moderates not so much as unsupervised cheer leaders seem to pretty much take over the food courts and buses as well as they are outside loudly yelling cheers very early in the morning and very late at night.

 

[Snayberry]

It really is not much busier and staying at the yacht club you should be okay, staying at the values or moderates not so much as unsupervised cheer leaders seem to pretty much take over the food courts and buses as well as they are outside loudly yelling cheers very early in the morning and very late at night.

Good thing I'm not staying at the moderate or value hotels or else I'll be like this.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

It really is not much busier and staying at the yacht club you should be okay, staying at the values or moderates not so much as unsupervised cheer leaders seem to pretty much take over the food courts and buses as well as they are outside loudly yelling cheers very early in the morning and very late at night.

Having stayed at Pop Century for the last 4 times around this part of the year....I've never encountered rude Squads..Even the tour groups weren't as bad....

 

[ninjaprincesst]

Having stayed at Pop Century for the last 4 times around this part of the year....I've never encountered rude Squads..Even the tour groups weren't as bad....

More than once on separate trips I have not only had cheer leader outside at 5am yelling cheers very loudly, also after midnight practicing cheers yelling at the top of their lungs, I have watched them decend on the food court where about 20 of them would cut I line while one or two held their spots, same with buses one or two gets in line then the whole mob cuts in line and takes all the seats, I have also seen them mow down small children in an effort to do their line cutting. I have also experienced loud vulgar language from these girls on buses, in food courts ect. Oh and the kicker of it all was at Magic Kingdom when about 20 of them cut in the line for Peter Pan and when my daughter said something to them they said ,"too bad we are cheerleaders, there is nothing you can do about it." And the Disney employee standing 2 feet away did nothing until the whole line started rebelling then he finally made the special "cheerleaders" go to the back of the line.

 

[Beacon Joe]

UCA International All Star Championships March 11-12, 2017
Again I would expect the athletes and families to begin arriving Thursday the 9th-Friday the 10th and departing the 13th. This one is a bit larger than HS Nationals since it programs from all over the country with different ages and levels from 4-19 years old. The All Star Resorts and Pop Century are very popular that weekend along with Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach, and Swan and Dolphin. Programs have also been known to use off resort hotel too depending on the number of teams they bring and families that attend as well.

Thanks for posting this information.

I'll hold my tongue since you're in the industry , but dang, I wish I had thought to look up the cheerleader invasion dates when I booked our upcoming trip.

My son is at the age where I'm starting to observe him beginning to take notice of the opposite sex, so at least this will be a positive for him. I remember being down there during a cheer week when I was in high school, and that was not so bad.

More than once on separate trips I have not only had cheer leader outside at 5am yelling cheers very loudly, also after midnight practicing cheers yelling at the top of their lungs, I have watched them decend on the food court where about 20 of them would cut I line while one or two held their spots, same with buses one or two gets in line then the whole mob cuts in line and takes all the seats, I have also seen them mow down small children in an effort to do their line cutting.

And this is why (despite being a curmudgeon in general), I generally don't join in complaining about Brazilian school groups... you get a group that large of American school kids on a trip, or overseas, and you'll see some far more cringeworthy behavior.

 

[Princess B]

I live close to Disney and am an AP holder and have gone several times in the past couple of weeks.. while I haven't noticed any particularly rude/entitled behavior, there has definitely been a lot of obnoxious high schoolers parading around in large groups and shouting cheers at random.. especially in long line ques. At first I just brushed it off as this was just them having some fun, but having to put up with day after day of loud high schoolers around every corner gets to be a bit difficult.

 

[Snayberry]

I live close to Disney and am an AP holder and have gone several times in the past couple of weeks.. while I haven't noticed any particularly rude/entitled behavior, there has definitely been a lot of obnoxious high schoolers parading around in large groups and shouting cheers at random.. especially in long line ques. At first I just brushed it off as this was just them having some fun, but having to put up with day after day of loud high schoolers around every corner gets to be a bit difficult.

Just got back from my Disney trip. I stayed at the Yacht Club for my first time, it was amazing and no cheer squads there. But the parks were slammed with cheer squads and that really bumped up the ride wait times.

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

More than once on separate trips I have not only had cheer leader outside at 5am yelling cheers very loudly, also after midnight practicing cheers yelling at the top of their lungs, I have watched them decend on the food court where about 20 of them would cut I line while one or two held their spots, same with buses one or two gets in line then the whole mob cuts in line and takes all the seats, I have also seen them mow down small children in an effort to do their line cutting. I have also experienced loud vulgar language from these girls on buses, in food courts ect. Oh and the kicker of it all was at Magic Kingdom when about 20 of them cut in the line for Peter Pan and when my daughter said something to them they said ,"too bad we are cheerleaders, there is nothing you can do about it." And the Disney employee standing 2 feet away did nothing until the whole line started rebelling then he finally made the special "cheerleaders" go to the back of the line.

Wow..... don't hear many people complain about any tour groups other than South American; usually Brazilian. The domestic tour groups are usually worse than any of those from South America.

Last month at Test Track we were in line with a coach and two cheerleaders from Terre Haute. They were complaining about a Brazilian tour group being rude and cutting in line at Soarin. As we continued through the line, the ENTIRE team cut in front of us......again it started as only 1 coach and 2 cheerleaders .......each new group of line jumpers added new twists to how bad those Brazilians were for jumping in line at Soarin.....by the time we made it to "design our cars" the squad had grown to over twenty...we actually enjoyed engaging them on how bad it must have been to experience line jumpers......one of the girls, we believe the only one who actually understood THEY were line jumping as well, actually thanked us for not saying anything, as she was clearly embarrassed ......

We have noticed the bad tour groups come from all over, with the domestic ones being the most obnoxious

 

[Chaset24]

Honestly, I agree that a lot of the domestic large groups that travel to Disney World during competitions can cause frustrations, but years ago we stayed at Port Orleans when the Brazilian groups were traveling through. There were so many Brazilianites (lol) there that it was almost impossible to go the pool at night and the hot tub, forget about it haha..

 

[Todd H]

Brazilian tour groups absolutely ruined one of my past stays. We were staying at Pop to save a little money and it was a nightmare. They would just up and down the walk outside the rooms screaming all night long and would call the room constantly and hang up. Complaints to the front desk fell on deaf ears. Then in the park the line cutting and bursting out in cheers while waiting in line made it unbearable. Worst vacation I've ever had.

Since then I refuse to stay in a value resort, since that seems to be where most of them stay. Last trip we stayed at POR and it was awesome. Absolutely quiet and relaxing.

I certainly hope the cheer squads aren't as bad.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

We just got back from WDW today, and we saw several cheer groups. However, they never caused any problems whatsoever. No cheering, yelling or line cutting that we noticed. Also so many 15's and BTG's and I was amazed at how quiet they were. The 15's seemed to have older women as leaders, and we saw the leaders making them form orderly lines before entering an attraction. We were on Thunder Mtn with them, and never heard a chant or had a problem. All the backpacks we saw were neatly stacked up in out of the way places. We heard only one BGT singing/chanting while walking through adventureland. It was noisey, but we were heading the other way I guess we were surprised at the lack of chanting, line cutting, blocking with themselves or backpacks, after hearing all the stories on many Disney sites. Maybe we were at WDW during a slower time, but with nothing to compare it to, there were several groups with 50 or more.
I think Disney has finally clamped down on bad behavior and chanting. I certainly hope so, as we love this time of year to visit.