Walt Disney World crowds are most impacted by faculty breaks. That is hardly stop-the-presses information. It’s patently apparent given the core demographic for Magic Kingdom, which is households with children. There’s a cause why the weeks of Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New 12 months’s Eve, and different breaks are among the many busiest weeks of the yr.
Much less apparent is how “sneaky” weeks with regional faculty breaks trigger spikes in attendance. The 2 we’ve mentioned at size on this weblog are Ski Week and Jersey Week. To the uninitiated, it most likely appears counterintuitive that folks would go to one of many hottest locations in the US for a break devoted to snow sports activities. Jersey Week makes much more sense given the ubiquity of Spirit Jerseys amongst Disney followers…however that’s probably not what it’s about.
The purpose is that breaks for less than a subset of faculty districts can have an outsized affect on crowd ranges at Walt Disney World. Jersey Week is simply a break for a single state, however roughly 71% of households from the Backyard State flock to Florida throughout that week each November. Narrowing issues even additional, there are the “breaks” that aren’t actually breaks however draw big numbers of school-aged children: youth sporting occasions.
Traditionally, there have been huge youth sporting occasions hosted on the ESPN Huge World of Sports activities within the late winter and spring, and once more in November and December. Mainly, the months of the yr when Central Florida is snug for outside athletic competitions (or “shut sufficient” to snug). The schedules comply with an identical cadence to runDisney races, which equally skip the summer season months.
The phrases “Pop Warner” little question ship chills down the backbone of longtime Walt Disney World trip planners. For the longest time, this was an enormous purple flag throughout the Christmas season, particularly on the Worth Resorts. Pop Warner was so notorious amongst Walt Disney World followers and we bought so many complaints from first-timers that we included warnings about it in numerous posts, and actively advisable avoiding the All Stars throughout Pop Warner. Fortunately, issues have modified in more moderen years, and we’ll circle again to that in a bit. For now, the massive announcement.
In a transfer that underscores its dedication to delivering premier youth sports activities experiences, Pop Warner Little Students, the nation’s main youth soccer and cheerleading group, has introduced that its extremely anticipated 2025 and 2026 Pop Warner Tremendous Bowl and Cheer & Dance Nationals will happen in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The transfer marks the first time since 1995 that Pop Warner Nationwide Championships will not be held in Orlando, Florida.
The Pop Warner Tremendous Bowl is scheduled for December 6-13, 2025 on the Mecklenburg County Sportsplex. The Pop Warner Cheer & Dance Nationals can be held December 8-11, 2025 on the 600,000 square-foot Charlotte Conference Heart.
Every year, the Pop Warner Tremendous Bowl and Cheer & Dance Nationals carry collectively 10,000 student-athletes and their households from throughout the nation.
There are extra particulars to the announcement, however I’m guessing most Walt Disney World followers don’t care concerning the state-of-the-art options at these venues, or listening to quotes from the president of Pop Warner or head of Go to Charlotte. The underside line is that that is nice information for Walt Disney World company…and, I assume, dangerous information for individuals who had plans for peaceable visits to Charlotte that week in December.
It’s value noting that this isn’t a sudden shift away from Walt Disney World. You could have missed it since that complete time was a blur, however Pop Warner really “briefly” moved away from the ESPN Huge World of Sports activities throughout the phased reopening. Right here was the announcement at the moment:
“We proceed to have an ideal relationship with Disney and are certain households will go to the parks that week. Whereas Disney has performed host to our Pop Warner Tremendous Bowl and Nationwide Cheer & Dance Championships for years, our partnership relating to championship week got here to a pause when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020.
We had been placing remaining touches on a brand new settlement when Disney was instantly tasked with internet hosting and making a bubble for skilled leagues just like the MLS and NBA at their ESPN Huge World of Sports activities complicated. With a lot uncertainty it was troublesome for Disney to decide to the long run and since our first precedence is our Pop Warner members, we determined to begin trying to find a brand new location to make sure our groups had a first-class Championship residence.”
Because of this, the Florida Citrus Sports activities reached an settlement to host the Pop Warner Tremendous Bowl and Cheer & Dance Nationwide Championships. The occasions can be performed at Tenting World Stadium with Common Orlando Resort inns internet hosting households. There was however the expectation that Pop Warner would return to Walt Disney World finally, as soon as issues bought again to regular. That by no means occurred.
In our youthful and extra susceptible years, we had the misfortune of staying at All Star Sports activities throughout Pop Warner. Suffice to say, there’s a cause it as soon as topped our record of 10 Issues We’ll By no means Do Once more at Walt Disney World. For the reason that shift to Common, I’ve stayed on the All Stars twice that week, and it was downright blissful by comparability. So for a number of years already, Pop Warner relocating to Common had an enormous, constructive affect on the related resorts at Walt Disney World.
Nonetheless, Pop Warner did proceed to supply ticket packages to Walt Disney World even when the occasions had been hosted at Common Orlando Resort. That is one more reason why Walt Disney World followers would possibly’ve not seen that Pop Century already moved–as a result of attendees had been nonetheless visiting the parks.
Presumably not in as excessive of numbers, however they had been coming. It was nonetheless doable to have the unfortunate expertise of being caught in the identical Haunted Mansion Stretching Room with a gaggle of dozens of “high-octane” children. And that’s the form of factor that sticks with you, and makes an outsized impression. (Ask me how I do know!)
The writing has been on the wall for an entire transfer away from Walt Disney World and Orlando since final summer season. Right here’s an illuminating (I assumed) weblog put up by Pop Warner on its enterprise mannequin and among the challenges it has confronted. In pertinent half:
“Our occasion was considered one of Disney’s largest outdoors occasion for years, as Walt Disney World generally noticed unprecedented development. Many people have witnessed firsthand the explosive development of Disney and the rise in guests for the reason that Nineteen Nineties. Nonetheless, that development got here with a value.
Early on in our partnership with Disney, we supplied quite a lot of room nights and theme park attendance throughout a time of yr – between Thanksgiving and Christmas – that was stated to be the slowest stretch for the resort. In 2019, the ultimate yr of our most up-to-date settlement, Disney was reportedly at 97% capability frequently throughout that point interval, with the aptitude to ebook and safe reservations properly upfront. Sadly, Pop Warner was not the magic wand it was many years prior.”
A complete part of that Pop Warner put up additionally mentioned trimming prices, and the group eradicating the requirement of buying theme park tickets. In addition they talked about that this was being finished regardless of a survey indicating that the overwhelming majority of attendees valued the theme park expertise and reported “excessive utilization of tickets, plus a excessive variety of a number of visits per individual to the parks.” Therefore the crowds Walt Disney World was persevering with to see throughout Pop Warner even after the occasion relocated from ESPN Huge World of Sports activities.
There’s an attention-grabbing dialogue in that put up that’s little question occurring amongst different occasions which might be nonetheless held at Walt Disney World (for now). Pop Warner isn’t the one group that’s listening to from dad and mom about ballooning prices and the necessity to trim bills. That is one thing we’ve additionally seen at Disneyland with Grad Nites, that are nonetheless fairly standard (for now) however the top-tier tickets have skyrocketed during the last ~5 years and cheaper packages have been created consequently. Even so, a number of faculty districts have already moved to completely different venues attributable to excessive prices.
As of 2025, there are nonetheless main youth sporting occasions hosted on the ESPN Huge World of Sports activities, together with cheer and dance nationwide/world championships within the winter and spring months. It appears inevitable that a few of these organizations will comply with an identical path as Pop Warner attributable to larger prices as soon as their contracts come up for renewal. First perhaps they’ll transfer elsewhere in Orlando, then out of state utterly. However that’s down the street, and purely speculative on my half at this level.
Actually, that’s unlucky. Though Pop Warner was an notorious occasion for Walt Disney World followers, it was undoubtedly a constructive expertise for them and their households–lots of whom wouldn’t have visited however for the sporting occasion and it’s discounted packages. Walt Disney World pricing out the center class and needing to do extra to cater to households has been a scorching matter right here, and these youth sporting occasions are a kind of methods. The members might be obnoxious generally, certain–however we’ve all been pre-teens and youths. It comes with the territory. That makes this information a bit bittersweet–like the top of an period.
In any case, Pop Warner transferring away from Orlando utterly ought to end in barely decrease crowd ranges at Walt Disney World for December 6-13, 2025.
When making preliminary crowd predictions for 2025, we had been beneath the idea that Pop Warner would nonetheless be in Central Florida and would have a point of spillover at Walt Disney World. Sturdy emphasis on a point. The transferring of this huge occasion that pulls 10,000 folks to Orlando isn’t going to have an enormous affect on crowd ranges.
Frankly, it may’t. Crowd ranges have already been low to average for the second week in December for the previous couple of years. Just about since Pop Warner moved to Common, not so coincidentally. However with the occasion gone utterly, we do anticipate additional incremental enchancment.
That is what that is actually about. Our record of the 10 Finest and 10 Worst Weeks to Go to Walt Disney World in 2025 & 2026 already recognized each of the primary two weeks of December as among the many better of the whole yr. And as you is perhaps conscious, the week beginning proper after Thanksgiving is our #1 week of the whole yr.
With Pop Warner gone, that second week may now dethrone the primary week as #1. On the very least, they are going to be equal to at least one one other, so anybody who has the liberty to go to throughout both week can select on the idea of cheaper airfare, higher reductions, resort availability, and even their most popular Candlelight Processional narrator.
The truth is, we are actually leaning in direction of doing our annual household trip in that second week. If all else is equal, we’d most likely fairly not take care of the vacation journey rush. Transferring our journey away from Thanksgiving can be good, because it makes issues much less hectic. I’m additionally going to exit on a limb and assume costs can be decrease on the whole lot–from airfare to Lightning Lane Multi-Move (which has a nasty behavior of staying elevated after Thanksgiving even after crowds depart).
Resort availability and reductions are additionally an enormous one. It’s attention-grabbing that Pop Warner talked about Walt Disney World’s 97% occupancy stage throughout this timeframe. I assume somebody at Disney Occasions advised them this throughout negotiations for the reason that firm doesn’t publicly share occupancy numbers.
In any case, it tracks with what we’ve seen. November and December are sometimes booked up–and early. Typically, availability is slim pickins’ earlier than reductions are launched. To the purpose that we hear from readers who’re frightened that crowd calendars are all fallacious and attendance can be heavy throughout their journeys.
A bit tangential to the purpose of this put up, however they received’t. On-site occupancy isn’t essentially indicative of crowds. Walt Disney World virtually all the time has excessive occupancy stats (particularly on the DVC aspect–by design). Regardless of tens of 1000’s of rooms, it’s nonetheless true that almost all of company come from off-site, in order that’s what actually strikes the needle. 12 months after yr, inns have booked up within the first half of December…just for crowd ranges and wait instances to be on the decrease aspect of average.
The underside line is that Pop Warner transferring away from Central Florida provides us larger confidence within the second week of December being one of many absolute better of the whole yr at Walt Disney World from each a quantitative and qualitative perspective. It was already doubtless that wait instances can be within the decrease to average vary, at worst, however now this dramatically decreases the chance of being caught behind hordes of under-chaperoned cheerleaders and soccer gamers, and that’s a useful assurance on the qualitative aspect of the ledger.
It’s not an enormous pendulum swing from one of many worst weeks to among the finest, however it’s a large win for flexibility throughout the vacation season. Now you don’t “want” to hurry to Walt Disney World earlier than the leftovers are even completed. For those who’d want, you’ll be able to go to (just about) midway between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and nonetheless have what’s prone to be the optimum Walt Disney World expertise. There’s not a single #1 week throughout the vacation season–there are two of them. To every their very own, however that’s big to me as a fan of this time of yr!
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Find out about inns on our Walt Disney World Resorts Opinions web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Opinions. To economize on tickets or decide which kind to purchase, learn our Suggestions for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets put up. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys put up takes a novel have a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Trip Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, one of the best place to begin is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for the whole lot it’s essential to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you concentrate on the Pop Warner Championships relocating from Central Florida? Anticipate there to be any affect on crowds that second week of December? Unhappy about this being the ‘finish of an period’ for considered one of Walt Disney World’s most notorious occasions? Do you agree or disagree with something in our crowd forecast for the primary half of December 2025? Any questions we can assist you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
