Cheer weekends - how bad/busy are they??

[skippah]

Hey all, I've got a trip booked for the first week of May and noticed last nite that we're bookend'd by two dance/cheer weekends. How busy can I expect the parks to be?? I expect our park days to be from Sunday, May 1st thru Friday, May 6th.

Ironically, we picked this week to avoid school vacations and field trips from the local school systems.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Cheer is the same as gay days in terms of crowds IMO. They don't do a whole lot to affect total crowding, but they can be concentrated in certain parks on certain days. See what you can find regarding their itinerary and avoid the particular parks that they're scheduled to be in. In past years, I believe the major cheer event was usually an after-hours thing at Hollywood Studios where the park closed early for them. If it's the same this year, I would just avoid DHS on that particular day.

 

[skippah]

Cheer is the same as gay days in terms of crowds IMO. They don't do a whole lot to affect total crowding, but they can be concentrated in certain parks on certain days. See what you can find regarding their itinerary and avoid the particular parks that they're scheduled to be in. In past years, I believe the major cheer event was usually an after-hours thing at Hollywood Studios where the park closed early for them. If it's the same this year, I would just avoid DHS on that particular day.

Thanks, Cap. Good to know. I'll do some poking around.

 

[Weather_Lady]

We were there that week, pre-Covid. Other than seeing a lot of the girls on transportation and in the parks in their ponytails and bows, there was no impact on lines, and they generally weren't traveling en masse. Maybe we just got lucky.

 

[ppet]

My experiences are about the same as the others. But we did have one buss trip with an annoyingly loud bunch that wanted to do their cheers and thought we all cared. On the other hand my teenaged son enjoyed pool time a lot.

 

[DCLcruiser]

I believe the rule is to avoid the Value Resorts (All Star, POP, Art of Animation) as they concentrate these groups there.

 

[JIMINYCR]

Not bad during the daytime when everyone is at the competitions but late afternoons into the evenings you can feel the parks gradually getting more and more crowded. In the evenings after the parks close certain resorts where they are booked, get crazy with unchaperoned kids running amok. Be ready for a noisy resort stay... bring your earplugs for getting a good night sleep. The resort managers will not control what goes on even if you complain.

 

[DisneyDelirious]

My comments are very similar to others . I would say if you are at the same resort as the groups you can find the food court and pool areas to be quite congested at times. They have just as much right to be there as we do. They just have a much larger group size so you really notice their presence. Probably healthier for me as I eat fewer snacks and got a few less drink refills because I don’t like to wait

 

[wutisgood]

I wonder how many of these groups just stay at universal now. Its not like disney adds many perks in addition to the discounts being gone.

 

[WDW_Emily]

Avoid the hotels they are at and you will be golden. We were there last April and stayed at All-Star during a cheer event. Never again they completely took over the hotel. But as far as parks/springs they just did their own thing like other tourist. Our bus line did become very long though at springs around 10pm one night but that can happen at any hotel sold to the max.