All-Star Allstar Resort/block Party

retiredl5cheer said:

Each night one Disney park stays open late. They rotate which park it is.

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This is GREAT to know! I've literally been to Disney at least once a year for cheer for over 15 years now and never knew this. Will keep it in mind for next year for sure!

ztaprincess said:

Disney offers the extra magic hours on certain days and the days vary for each park. Magic Kingdom had one the 29th, Epcot had one the 28th, and Hollywood Studios on the 27th. Only certain rides are open and I would assume that dates change every year.
Extra Magic Hour at Walt Disney World

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This needs to be promoted more=)

I am that the USASF has notice and plan on taking steps to make it right. Next thing that will happen though will be athletes and maybe some coaches complaining once again that the USASF is trying to control them too much. Do they really leave them any other choice though? Someone could have gotten injured or even died. If these athletes want to be treated like adults who can make their own choices then they need to wise up and start acting like an adult, and those who are already adults need a big dose of reality to wake them up.

All it takes is one kid getting alcohol poisoning and ending up in the hospital. Parents get sue happy and then we're in a WORLD of trouble.

Supreme distraction techniques: 1) Fun event that is heavily monitored and discourages mass congregation. 2) No outside beverages. 3) Security/rules that are ACTUALLY enforced- ban gym/athlete from Worlds for underage drinking/misbehavior. I personally say 'athlete' as well, because a disgruntled athlete stuck on a team by the waiver rule might try to 'one-up' their team by getting them disqualified, then leave the gym. Tag it to the athlete/gym so they're BOTH accountable.

Kids today (myself included ) have the attention spans of squirrels. If you're keeping them occupied with something fun that distracts them from drinking and avoids mass groups (which is where trouble starts), problem goes down. Isn't eliminated, but goes down. People who are so attracted to alcohol that they can't function without it will still go for it anyway, but the people there for the casual party won't get lumped in as much..

I think accountability is key - have consequences for underage drinking and follow through with them. All of you who say "kids will do it anyway" - in my experience, no, not if there are severe consequences that are actually enforced. I didn't drink in high school because I was an athlete (hooray for my high school considering cheerleaders athletes way back in the '90s) and the school had a strict policy prohibiting athletes from engaging in drinking or drug use. They followed through with it, even for star athletes. My brother held the school record for stolen bases, yet was kicked off of the baseball team for underage drinking (along with a couple of his friends who were caught drinking at the same party). Trust me, no athletes who cared about staying on their teams drank at parties after that.

Ashley said:

I think it was just Magic Kingdom. I don't know if they're always open until 2AM on Sunday or if it was just a coincidence - but definitely something worth remembering for next year.

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Yes Magic Kingdom for the last 2 worlds has been open till 2am on Sunday. We skip the block party and go there hardly any lines at all!!
Just make sure you bring your room key to show the workers cause after 11 the park closes to everyone who is not staying at a Disney hotel.

CharlotteASMom said:

I was just on the phone with a friend discussing this and you can probably check my posts every year right after Worlds and see that I write the exact same thing.

I do not think this is a USASF or Disney problem but a gym culture issue. Gyms that enforce curfews, have a zero tolerance rule for alcohol/drugs and enforce consequences for unacceptable behavior do not have these issues 99% of the time. There are FAR too many gyms that have a set of rules in place but look the other way when there is bad behavior. These things wouldn't happen if kids knew their position on the team was in jeopardy by breaking rules and the coaches actually followed through by removing them.

Gym owners, you want the USASF to loosen control and give the sport back to you? Then the first step is by taking control of your own program. Rant over....

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Shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy! (The board only allows one shimmy per post...)

Just-a-Mom said:

I am enjoying you tremendously this evening. I'm just going to follow you around here, shimmying, OK?

And I'm sure everyone is going to reply that gyms like CA and Rays can have zero tolerance policies because they're so awesome that no one would risk it, but some small gym couldn't afford to kick out the talented kids. I often wonder when people say stuff like this - does it ever occur to anyone that CA and Rays are the huge powerhouses they are BECAUSE they have zero tolerance for BS in their programs?

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Our small gym has kicked off at least one cheerleader every year for having a bad attidude/being disrespectful and many times have banned cheerleaders from competing at one or more comps. The majority of the time, they were one of the most talented athletes on the team... with the attitude to match.

As much as our kids hated it, we always had mandatory team things going on (dinners, trips to the parks, etc) as coaches, we didn't make it possible for our kids to get involved in what was going on. Our programs alway had to work way too hard to pay our way to worlds and we weren't going to let kids silly antics mess that up!

What surprises me more than anything is that people are surprised underage kids were able to get their hands on alcohol?

Ariel said:

What surprises me more than anything is that people are surprised underage kids were able to get their hands on alcohol?

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Right!!

4everSPIRITed said:

This is GREAT to know! I've literally been to Disney at least once a year for cheer for over 15 years now and never knew this. Will keep it in mind for next year for sure!

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You can go on the Disney website months in advance and look under extra magic hours. It has been Magic Kingdom on Sunday night every year for many years now. All of the rides are open, stores and majority of places to eat. Also there is the parade, amazing fireworks show and characters are out. Lines are not long because only Disney hotel guest can take advantage of extra magic hours. The buses continue to run until after closing. Once they get back to the All Star believe me they are to tired to walk to the room much less get in any kind of trouble!

Does anyone have a news article about it? A twitter follower of mine said that it was ALL OVER the news (lovely). Some of my friends, on South Elite, say that they just stuck to the rides and didn't even BOTHER looking in the drunkee's way. And, on youtube, this girl who went in 2011, said she almost got in a fight with a drunk canadian chick. lol Seems like USASF and Disney need to STEP IT UP. Question; Are participants from the Dance Worlds competition also invited to this block party?

EmmeCheer(: said:

Does anyone have a news article about it? A twitter follower of mine said that it was ALL OVER the news (lovely). Some of my friends, on South Elite, say that they just stuck to the rides and didn't even BOTHER looking in the drunkee's way. And, on youtube, this girl who went in 2011, said she almost got in a fight with a drunk canadian chick. lol Seems like USASF and Disney need to STEP IT UP. Question; Are participants from the Dance Worlds competition also invited to this block party?

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Yes they are, but it's the party at the Allstars resort that was the problem. Not the block party.

I think, like many have said, there needs to be something LIKE the block party, but a bit more appealing for those who need to drink to have fun. If USASF actually put a decent amount of money into an outdoor event for the cheerleaders after Worlds, I'm sure a lot of people would go. That's not to say there wouldn't be drinking, wouldn't be partying, but if stricter rules are applied to those who drink and you offer an actual FUN alternative. Maybe a few different things going on around a park with some good music (throw in a few cheer mixes) blasting throughout the who park? I can't come up with many ideas 'cause I don't really know what's possible at Disney, but I do think that if there's a fun alternative, you'll pull away at least some of those people who would otherwise be a lot less responsible.