Is There Time To Do Disney At Uca Nationals?

[Babs]

Hi! I'm a cheer mom and a team mom. This will be my first time going to UCA Nationals in Orlando. Our school has no vacation time before or after this weekend. Is there really time to go to the Disney Theme Parks --- as is suggested by the competition selling Park-Hopper Passes??? Isn't it tiring enough to be competing? And isn't it really crowded with long lines at Disney during this weekend?? Thanks!

 

[PullandPray23]

Hey ok so I think out of every fierceboarder on here I think Im am gonna proclaim that no one has the ability to answer this question quite like me...why you may ask..because Im a Walt Disney World Cast Member...Ok so you say you would like to do the Parks, well generally speaking March is a great time to hit the parks because you may not know our winter is south america's summer so right now we have soooo many south american tourists -__- but by march the tend to go away for the most part (it's similiar to christmas) so the Parks are pretty much dead with the exception of Magic Kingdom...never expect Magic to have short waits...as far as hitting all the parks in a day...if you think thats going to happen your absolutly crazy...its just not possible...but if you are going with say younger girls (like mini's per say that finish early in the day on Sat) I would say you'll have a few hours to hit a park or two...Or if your have people (say older kids competing later in the day) who really wanna do a particular ride (say space mt.) give all the tickets to one person who will go get fastpasses for that ride and just explain to the cast member that you didnt have time to use them when you got them because you had to compete and they will let you in the fast pass line...I would also suggest the meal plan if thats possible with your arrangments...it makes life so much easier trust me!!! We're also launching a new fireworks show at Magic Kingdom...if nothing eles I say go see that...its a 8:00 Pm and theres illuminations firework display at EPCOT at 9:00 Pm if you have any questions about anything Disney...and I mean anything feel free to message me I would be more then Happy to help your team moms get the most outta the short time you have with us P.S. Im also competing that weekend so I look foward to seeing your teams

 

[ufomom]

I would think it would be really hard. You would have to think about the value of the money you would spend on the passes vs. your ability to really use them. If this is the only time you can go to Disney, maybe you decide to spend the money, but it would be hard, I think to get the value from them. The fastpasses are a good idea. Just don't wear your cheerleader out if they are little. It takes so long to get from park to park, that if you only have one day and the competition, I would just choose one park and focus on it if you really want to try to experience Disney. Think about 2 day competitions not at Disney and go from there on how much time you will have. Getting to a park takes more than 30 minutes if every single thing goes right, but I would plan on an hour or more.

 

[Babs]

thanks for the replies!
Regarding expense of the parks ... my team will be competing at Disney's Hollywood Studios, so we HAVE to buy two days worth of Disney entrance to just go see the competition. And of course the competitors have a 3 day hopper pass with their registration. BTW- my daughter was cross competing (level 2 and level 3) but got moved off my team (level 2). I'm still team mom for that team even though my daughter's not on it. So my team will be competing at Disney's Hollywood Studios and my daughter will be competing at ESPN Wide World of Sports. Is it easy to travel between the two??

 

[Babs]

PullandPray23 - thanks for the inside info! As I get more questions from my team I'll certainly be asking more questions!!!

 

[MissBee]

Are you doing HS Nationals or All Star Nationals?

 

[Babs]

Are you doing HS Nationals or All Star Nationals?

All Star Nationals ... sorry for not saying so up front!

 

[MissBee]

That's ok. Not sure about AS Nationals. I know that with HS Nationals, if your team doesn't make it past the first round, you could have the rest of the day Sat and all day Sun for the parks. Some teams compete at 9am Sat and by 1030 know they're done.

 

[PullandPray23]

thanks for the replies!
Regarding expense of the parks ... my team will be competing at Disney's Hollywood Studios, so we HAVE to buy two days worth of Disney entrance to just go see the competition. And of course the competitors have a 3 day hopper pass with their registration. BTW- my daughter was cross competing (level 2 and level 3) but got moved off my team (level 2). I'm still team mom for that team even though my daughter's not on it. So my team will be competing at Disney's Hollywood Studios and my daughter will be competing at ESPN Wide World of Sports. Is it easy to travel between the two??

Thats right! I always forget about the Indiana Jones Stage!!! Well this is a little tricky since you have to go from Hollywood to Wide World...Is your team flying or driving because if you are driving my suggestion is to bite the bullet and pay for parking because to my knowledge Im not sure you can take a bus from a theme park to Wide world and if your driving its much easier because Wide world is on Victory Way and Hollywood studios is just off of that street on Buena Vista...it would literally take you less then 10 minutes to travel back and fourth but if your flying Ill find out how that works and report back to you

 

[PullandPray23]

That's ok. Not sure about AS Nationals. I know that with HS Nationals, if your team doesn't make it past the first round, you could have the rest of the day Sat and all day Sun for the parks. Some teams compete at 9am Sat and by 1030 know they're done.

To my knowledge in AS Nationals at UCA you compete both days...sat pretty much judt gives you a seed for Sunday

 

[LoveCheerForLife]

There is absolutely enough time to go to the Disney parks. Enjoy.

 

[Itsamidwestthing]

There plenty of time to see the parks as long as your team is not practicing all the time. I always feel sorry for those teams that are out practicing for hours at the resort.

 

[krissycole44]

if you have to travel back and forth between indiana jones and wide world of sports.. uca provides a special shuttle for this. we did it last year and it took no more then 10 mins. Also i noticed with teams that competed at hollywood studios.. one day the scanned our park passes the next day the didnt, they let us in through the side. Not sure if they were suppose to do that.. but they did.I wouldnt by any means bet on that again. Luckily last year we had 2 hour breaks in between our teams.. We had one team go at 10:30 @ at indiana jones and the next team didnt go till 1 at the milk house. The lines were short enough that we did a few rides at hollywood before we went back over. We didnt allow the kids to go off to the other parks until we were all done for the day.. which again we lucked out and were done by 6ish with team practices and meetings.Our curfew was about 9 pm and most parks close by then anyway so that gave the kids a few hours to enjoy some time at the parks. Our gym rule is that everyone goes to every performace. With the venue split we divided the teams up for UCA but it worked our perfect. I was so proud of our gym parents. It ran so smooth and everyone was where they were suppose to be when they needed to be there despite the HUGE distractions! I'm just hoping for no rain this year! we flew in thursday morning and it rained HEAVY from the time we got to the hotel till friday night. The kids made the most of it and everyone just laughed it off.. but hopefully it wont be a repeat this year!!! As a gym we really liked UCA and how smooth everything went!

 

[Level5Mom]

I remember being so nervous at our first UCA about the parks and competing and stuff. This competition is amazing and so much fun!! There is plenty of time for parks, and be sure to take full advantage of it. It's not like other nationals.....there is a magic there that somehow allows your kids to NOT get tired, even by doing all of it. I laugh now about how nervous I was lol.....it's such a great atmosphere and you will LOVE it