Need Help With Choosing a Week

For the past 5 years, we’ve gone to WDW in late October. This fall however, our son will be starting college and we have to find a new week to go.

The two weeks we are looking at are:

November 24th - December 3rd
December 1st - December 10th

The crowd calendar shows that Pop Warner begins on December 3rd. The predicted crowd levels at this time don’t look bad at all but I read that the parks get pretty busy at night with all the football players and cheer leaders.

If any of you have gone during Pop Warner, how was it?

Which week would you choose and why?

Thanks for your help :slight_smile:

I would go with the December week if for no other reason then your first trip starts on Thanksgiving weekend, which wwill no doubt be more crowded. I’ve never been during “Pop Warner”, but I think I remember people saying that it impacts the resorts more than the parks.

We were there Pop Warner week in 2015 - we noticed large groups of youth teams waiting for MDE (no big deal). Very occasional groups in the parks, but the vast majority of the time the kids are competing and thus not visiting the parks. The All-Star resorts typically bear the brunt of Pop week - I’d avoid All-Star and and consider at least upgrading to a Moderate and avoiding all Value that week, but that’s the extent of changing plans for Pop that’s needed IMO…

I vote Dec…pop warner seems to be better than thanksgiving week.

Wow, came on here to search almost the same thing. I’m looking to go the week after Thanksgiving or the first week in December.
In researching Pop Warner, I found their dates are 12/1 thru 12/9 and the resorts that are offering them discounts this year are the All Stars, Caribbean Beach & Coronado Springs - so not just values.
My main reason for going to WDW is to see my daughter who will be in DCP. She will not know her location until August, but she will be working in a Quick Service Food/Beverage location. If she ends up at a resort I will try and change my reservation to where she is - I’d like to reserve POFQ.
I do plan to visit a park, but everything will revolve around her work schedule.
I also want to try to go to the MVMCP for the first time, so getting last minute (day or 2 before) tickets are also important factors for me.
Sorry for jumping on your thread but I didn’t want to start another one too similar!

Will your son be missing classes? That first week in Dec is often exam prep time, and some professors are not keen on missed classes. I had a friend who’s grade went from an A to a D because she went on vacation with her family and missed several classes and labs where they take attendance. Just a word of caution. Definitley have him check in with the professor at the very beginning of the semester to make sure he won’t miss anything.

We go every year the first or second week of December. We haven’t experienced much difference either week. Sometimes you will see groups of kids in the parks-more often in the evening then the daytime, but their numbers aren’t enough to impact crowds or wait times. We occasionally have been in line with a cheer group and have listened to cheers for a half an hour. Cute for the first ten minutes, annoying after that. Other then that they seen well chaperoned and behaved. We always stay at WL in December - no groups there. Have stayed at POP when there was a different cheer competition in the spring. The resort was very busy especially the bus lines for the parks towards the end of the week when groups were finished competing. But again did not feel an impact on the crowd level or wait times. Never been in November so can’t compare. Either week the Christmas decorations are wonderful.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions!

The University our son will be attending is on a quarterly system rather than semesters. He actually has a very long break from the day before Thanksgiving until January 3rd.

We are still waiting for the free dining plan dates to be released but we are hoping with past dates we won’t have to change much but hoping to go week after Thanksgiving- arriving that Sunday Nov 26- Dec 3rd! Last year we went Dec 14-21st and the 14-17 the crowd levels were wonderful! The weather was hot and Christmas was in full motion! We always heard the first 2 weeks in December are the best time to go!

I booked Nov. 26th thru Dec. 2nd at POFQ. DD will know her assignment by August & if she gets a resort we will re-evaluate.
I’ve never been during free dining (haven’t used the dining plan in over 10 years) but if it’s offered for free should I call to see if they can add it? I’ve never paid attention to it before.

I’ve not used the dining plan, but if they offered it for free, I’d probably bite on that (no pun intended). However, be prepared to change resorts. I’ve noticed that POFQ oftentimes is excluded from specials like this.

Lol, I will see where it’s offered. Honestly I’m hoping it isn’t offered because ADR’s will be hard to come by.

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