Competing our way to Disney World -- A February 2022 UDA PTR - Start Packing! We've Got Plans!

[kimberwee]

We're headed back to the "happiest place on earth"...this time, without much planning and as a HUGE group!

In my last pre-trip report, we knew that we may have to cancel for a really great reason. DH and I are proud parents of a High School Pom Girl! DD worked so hard for this and we are thrilled...but, we did have to cancel her birthday trip. The good news is that this team is amazing and we will be back at Disney World in February for the UDA Nationals. The bad news is that I am a planner and there won't be much planning.

If you haven't seen my pre-trip report, let me recap our small cast of characters:

Me: The designated Chaos Coordinator – aka Kimberwee… just turned 42 and still obsessed with all things Disney…I was also the one to push DH for DVC at The Polynesian a few years ago. We found a great deal via resale market, I had a spreadsheet with all of the data and now I have the Magic of Disney to look forward to for years to come.

DH: 40 years old and happily lets me do all of the planning and requires a good plan with contingencies.

DD: The star of our show...this sweet girl is about to be 14 and loves Disney trips as much as I do. She will be a High School Freshman next year and busy with all things Pom.

​

Now on with the show...

 

[kimberwee]

The Dates...

Y'all, this Pom team has amazing leadership! We have been completely impressed with the organizational skills and communication so far. We had our first meeting on Monday night and received the travel dates for Nationals.

Our trip "home" will be February 2-7!



So, of course I plugged it in to my trusty TP planning app and stared in amazement at crowd levels. I thought crowds would be lower that time of year.
Guess we will just have to wait and see...

This was also when I realized that some of the new attractions/things that we were missing out on by going in May, would probably be open. AND, we will be able to enjoy the 50th Anniversary celebratory stuff!! AND, even better....they are now letting people take pics without masks on. The gorgeous smiles will be back! SO excited!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[kimberwee]

I received an alert today, that the crowd levels are changing for the February dates. It's not good. We are talking about changes like Animal Kingdom going from a 3 to a 10 on Saturday, the 5th.

Praying this changes...

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I received an alert today, that the crowd levels are changing for the February dates. It's not good. We are talking about changes like Animal Kingdom going from a 3 to a 10 on Saturday, the 5th.

Praying this changes...

I suspect the Dance Competition is the reason behind the high crowd levels.

 

[kimberwee]

I suspect the Dance Competition is the reason behind the high crowd levels.

You are probably right.

 

[kimberwee]

Extra days??

Got lucky yesterday on planning our family trip to Aulani in November...I found a complete stay for Thanksgiving week in an Island Garden View 1 Bedroom, which saves us points. By doing this, we have 58 DVC points to play with in our September 2021 Use Year. Why is this important? Well, one of the other Pom Mom's was talking about previous years trips to Nationals and how a lot of families will stay an extra day or two, with no penalty for the girls missing practice. If that holds true this year, it may mean that we can enjoy some park time as a family in a Deluxe resort for a couple of nights before heading home.

FINGERS CROSSED!

 

[kimberwee]

Cancelled trips and reservations...

So, if you've been following along, you know from my other trip report that Hawaii was cancelled for us. DH's grandmother did not have her Aulani room booked like she thought she did and the whole thing fell apart.

Which really means that we have points to burn...

The UDA Nationals are 2/2-6 and because we will probably be staying at Pop -Something, I decided to look at extending the trip by 2 days and looking at what we could find with our points.

My booking window opened this weekend and guess what I found! We are staying 2/5-8 at... RIVIERA!!! We got a 1 bedroom and I am so excited. DH and I will start the week wherever DD is staying but move over Saturday. She will move over Sunday after competing.

 

[kimberwee]

We've got news!

It's been a while and I haven't had anything to update until we had a booster club meeting last night.

THE SCHOOL DISTRICT HAS GIVEN THE GREEN LIGHT TO TRAVEL!

With the understanding that things could change rapidly, we are glad to hear that as of right now we are good to go. The girls will leave from OKC to MCO on 2/2/22. The girls will be traveling under the responsibility of coaches and sponsors, so DH and I are on our own. There will be package prices available for families, but they haven't been released yet.

The team has also planned a dinner for the team at Planet Hollywood on Thursday night at Disney Springs. Parents are welcome to join, but would sit at different tables.

What does this mean for us?

WEDNESDAY 2/2 - DH and I will probably fly out with the team on 2/2. The team will have a bus to take them to their resort, while DH and I will take different transportation (waiting to see what MEARS reviews are like) to the same resort. I am hoping this is early enough for DH and I to:

A. Head out to Epcot if there is enough time to warrant exploring, dinner & drinks - looks like close last February was 8pm for these dates
B. Do a resort bar/lounge crawl
C. Go to Disney Springs

THURSDAY 2/3 - DH and I will probably head to DHS for GE and lunch at the Brown Derby. Hopefully we get RoR...if not, oh well. We will head to DS for drinks and join the team for dinner.

FRIDAY 2/4 - Sunday 2/6 - These are competition days! We will have to wait to make plans for these 3 days until the schedule is released. Saturday night, DH and I will pack up and head over to the Riviera Resort, where we will stay until Tuesday afternoon.

Monday 2/7 - The underclassmen of the team (includes DD) will possibly have to head home this day or be granted an extra park day. IF we get our free day, we are going to head to Universal Studios for the day.

This is it for now! We should have more details at our next booster meeting next month. SO EXCITING!

 

[kimberwee]

FLIGHTS ARE BOOKED!!

The flights for our return and departure have been booked and we are flying with the team. We leave at 6am on Wednesday, 2/2, and come home on a 4pm flight on Monday 2/7!

After speaking with some of the other parents, I decided that I would like to expand our Riviera reservation for the entire stay. We were able to add the night of 2/2 and 2/4, but not 2/3. I booked the night of 2/2 and waitlisted 2/3. Then I adjusted my existing reservation to 2/4-2/7

This decision was based on their feedback on how little they actually interact with their child during the trip. Also, we are DVC, so it seems silly to pay for accommodations when we don't have to. We will just buy an attendee package for the competition.

Hopefully, the resort choice for the team will be Caribbean Beach and we can walk over. Fingers crossed!

 

[Bama Mom]

My hubby and I are headed down the 1st-6th. I hope the crowd levels aren't really sky rocketing that much just because of the dance competition . Crowds don't bother me in general but I was hoping this wold be a less crowded trip since it's short and nost likely reduced park hours. Either way, I hope your daughter and her team does well. As a mom of a daughter who had cheered from the time she was 3 until she graduated high school, I know how much blood, sweat, tears, and hard work goes into those teams.

 

[kimberwee]

My hubby and I are headed down the 1st-6th. I hope the crowd levels aren't really sky rocketing that much just because of the dance competition . Crowds don't bother me in general but I was hoping this wold be a less crowded trip since it's short and nost likely reduced park hours. Either way, I hope your daughter and her team does well. As a mom of a daughter who had cheered from the time she was 3 until she graduated high school, I know how much blood, sweat, tears, and hard work goes into those teams.

I would try to get a lot of the more popular rides/thngs done between the 1st and the 3rd. It seems that a lot of teams go down Wednesday through Monday.

 

[Bama Mom]

I would try to get a lot of the more popular rides/thngs done between the 1st and the 3rd. It seems that a lot of teams go down Wednesday through Monday.

Thanks. We won't get in until later on the 1st so it won't be a park day. I'll have to decide what two parks to do the first two days to hopefully beat some of the larger groups. Probably MK and HS but Epcot is our least favorite park so I really don't want to end the trip with it but may have to do that since it has the least important things to us.

 

[kimberwee]

What's a Disney plan without a million changes?

SO, I am back with another update and of course, changes.
We got a release this week that the team has three options of resorts. The first and least popular is All Star. This is all i says about selection, and which All Star resort is not specified.

The other two choices are moderate resorts, Coronado Springs and Caribbean. We are going to be told on 10/26, which resort the coaches have chosen for our team

I am really hoping for Caribbean Beach and it isn't because DH and I are booked at nearby Riviera...we actually cancelled that reservation this week. There is too much included in the low cost package with UDA for us to NOT stay with the team wherever they stay. We've also heard that some of the only times we will see DD is at breakfast, so it would be nice to be at the same resort and not have to worry about timing our commute. Being our first year, we also don't know what to expect and this will offer some peace of mind. If we find that it doesn't really matter where we stay, we will try to stay using DVC next year.

UDA has announced that their CELEBRATION PARTY is back!!! For all of you also planning a trip that includes Sunday, 2/6, avoid Magic Kingdom on Sunday afternoon. Loads of dance teams will be showing up throughout the afternoon/evening for the Celebration Party night.

The best part of all of this...
With the decision to go with the UDA package, another trip plan has been born! Our next trip will be Thanksgiving Week 2022 (fingers crossed that Disney Genie makes planning and crowd management bearable) with DH's extended family!

More to come...

 

[Bama Mom]

I would choose to be close to my DD as well if it were me. Especially since you won't get to see her much. We leave on the 6th so that's not a park day for us since our flight is at 9:50 that morning but I am gonna share that info on the February 2022 thread for others so they know...

If you're not already on that thread you should join us: February 2022 thread

 

[Bama Mom]

The best part of all of this...
With the decision to go with the UDA package, another trip plan has been born! Our next trip will be Thanksgiving Week 2022 (fingers crossed that Disney Genie makes planning and crowd management bearable) with DH's extended family!

More to come...

Oh, how fun! I like the planning part so knowing there was another trip coming up shortly after the one coming up would be fun for me. Hopefully everything will go smoothly for you with planning and coordinating with the larger group.

 

[kimberwee]

I would choose to be close to my DD as well if it were me. Especially since you won't get to see her much. We leave on the 6th so that's not a park day for us since our flight is at 9:50 that morning but I am gonna share that info on the February 2022 thread for others so they know...

If you're not already on that thread you should join us: February 2022 thread

As soon as we find out the resort I will…
I have been glued to the Genie post on the theme park thread. Wonder how this will impact things when we go. I feel like it will help us get through more attractions in the little breaks we have

 

[kimberwee]

Another Booster Meeting in the books for this season. Our girls have 4 competitions coming up before heading to Nationals, so we had a lot to talk about and the conversation regarding travel for Nationals wasn't really much of it.

BUT!!! We did get our registration code and I registered DH and I to stay where the team stays with park hoppers and the ticket for the private Magic Kingdom party.

92 Days to go!

 

[kimberwee]

IT'S A CELEBRATION:
So, in my registration, I didn't see where the Celebration Party at the Magic Kingdom was included in our package and I added it. Today, I found out that was unnecessary so I requested that it be removed from our package. In the request, the UDA site showed that we are listed as a package at...

I am so excited and hope this is accurate. If it is, I already have my room request ready...

Counting down the days...

 

[kimberwee]

Stalking the Genie...
Does anyone else feel like they are stalking Genie? I have been logging in the last few mornings to get a feel for what the timing should be on booking rides for iLL and what rides are disappearing by certain times...
TOTALLY GRATEFUL that I have time to figure it all out...


In other news...
The team competes tomorrow in our State's "GAME DAY" Championship...They took first place at Regionals last weekend, so State is theirs to lose. So exciting!!! It is definitely getting us pumped up for the rest of their competitive season, especially Nationals.