2023 D2 Summit trip report 5-4 to 5-9

[avalovesminnie]

When I was planning this trip I could not find anyone recently reporting on going to Disney for the D2 cheerleading summit, so here goooeeesssss…

Characters: Me, mama bear. dd (11) cheer bear, ds (13) brother bear, dd(8) lil sister bear. sadly DH had to work so I am braving this solo.

Split stay- 2 nights Hilton Home2suites at Flamingo crossings- that is our room view in the pic. then our package through varsity with 5 nights at All Star Sports. We rented a car using credit card points. Got a free upgrade to a minivan which has been hard to park due to me not being the worlds best Parker.

Important things that surprised me as a first time cheer summit attendee:
Varsity forces you to get a park hopper, no choice. We did add days so we had 5 park days.
You don’t know your hotel assignment until the week or two prior (you know it’s all all star just not
which one.) If we come again I’d upgrade to Coronado which was other choice.
Since it was booked this way you have no reservation in your MDE. This means you can’t book ILL at 7 but need to wait til parks open. You also have to check in to access other on site benefits.
If you don’t like cheer/ large sparkly groups then stay away from All Stars. It is a bit nuts here. Our room is at far edge so has been quiet but if you face any of the fields lots of teams practice there.

Day 1: Epcot and Hollywood Studios
Day 2: Check in at All Stars and Magic Kingdom
Day 3: Epcot
Day 4: Cheer competition and pool
Day 5: Animal Kinglom and after hours party at HS
Day 6: TBD

 

[avalovesminnie]

Thoughts on Home2Suites- The room looks just like online pics. It’s big, perfect for larger family, full kitchenette. Nice pool and slide but the lifeguard was letting kids do borderline dangerous stuff and my daughter said he told them he was too tired working a double shift! This hotel was built with cheap material, eg bathroom slider didn’t shut correctly. I was hoping more stuff would be open across the street at the mall but it felt a bit like a ghost town due to the number of unoccupied shops. We did pick up an order from Target and they had a huge cute Disney section and everything felt clean. The mall doesn’t really feel that walkable from hotel although you could. We drove.

arrival night ate at PDQ. Tasty chicken strips. Apparently parmesan broccoli is steamed broccoli with a handful of parmesan on top, I thought it would be melted or roasted. We tried a peanut butter milkshake which was interesting and good.

Day 1 morning: We had breakfast at hotel which was decent. They have a lady making Mickey waffles and several other hot items as well as the usual cold selection. It was a bit crowded due to a different cheer comp. Drove toEpcot and entered at opening at 9. We consistently got pulled for bag check due to sun umbrellas, sunglasses case and spare phone charger. You can try to put all that stuff in your hand as you walk through detector but I’m not sure.

We had a super productive morning . I did book a Guardians virtual queue spot and bought Genie plus so I could stack rides in HS later in the day. We were group 63 for guardians and got on around 12:30. Before that we did test track, Soarin, living with the land and mission space. we walked through the butterfly garden and did figment as well. We tried a few snacks- maple popcorn yum!, poutine- meh, Dole whip yum! Guardians is amazing! We all loved it. I’m a bit sensitive to screen rides but was fine.

 

[avalovesminnie]

Day 1 afternoon: We drove over to Hollywood Studios around 2:30. I did have a harder time stacking LL for the evening than I thought I would as they had to be after 2 and I couldn’t figure out how to modify to a different park. Ended up on my phone more than I like to be. We did Slinky, TSM, star tours, muppets and then had dinner at Rodeo round up. I got the reservation that morning . It was pricey but cute and the food was pretty good. My youngest daughter had $ burning a hole in her pocket so she built a droid. They are real strict about only 1 person with builder and was stern with my 13 year old son which kinda upset him. It’s a bit chaotic in there and hard to do as a solo parent.

 

[avalovesminnie]

Day 2: We checked out of Home2suites, picked up our target order and drove to All star sports. We got there around 8:30. It took about 30 minutes to get our keys, Doing it through Varsity cheer was definitely a different process for the cast and they had file folders for each gym. There are cheerleaders everywher,! Lots of cute window decorations which I’d like to do if we come again. We then decided to bus to MK which was a mistak. We were tired and grumpy and it was crowded and hot. We did lots of rides with relati short waits (except space mountain which was an hour). Had my first cheeseburger egg roll and citrus swirl, both were awesome! Came back to hotel around 6 and nearly didn’t make it on bus. I think we are a car or boat family, everyone hated the bus. We mobile ordered from the food court which took like 20 minutes when I pressed Im here due to the volume of people. The Alfredo pasta with chicken was good and the meat plate but my burger was cold. Apparently I forgot to take pictures this day… I really miss my hubby who usually takes all our pics.

 

[avalovesminnie]

Day 3: Epcot! We met up with family at 8:15 for 8:30 early entry. The drive from all stars was so easy and we parked very close! We had decided to try Ratatouille first which was a tactical error as we waited like 45 min. We got pastries in France after. The ham and cheese croissant is SO good. We ended up walking alot this day. We went back to Soarin and Living with the Land. Then Spaceship earth. We had a virtual queue for guardians of the galaxy and got on around noonish. Then we went back to world showcase for snacks. Pretzel in Germany was pretty decent. Shaved ice in Japan was great! I had to take my dd to cheer practice so peeled off. They were practicing at Coronado springs and took the bus provided by varsity. They only get 15 min of floor time so it didn’t take that long. The rest of the team rode test track, Nemo and spaceship earth. I came back and then we had more maple popcorn and fish and chips and roamed the world showcase. We were exhausted and left just before 9.

 

[avalovesminnie]

Day 4: Competition time! We got up and got ready and my dd headed off with her team. We drove to WWOS and parked easily. I had heard this could be a problem but it was easy. The team didn’t do as well as they had hoped. It’s a huge venue and we have a young team so I think they were nervous. Afterwards we went to the pool with our family then out to dinner at Disney springs. DS was crazy packed! We ate at Terralina and it was good. Not the best I’ve ever had but good! We had overpriced Sundays from Ghirardelli’s which was a disorganized mad house. The world of Disney store is completely overwhelming and we got separated and had to call each other a few times

 

[JMommyof3]

I love this. We've been to D1 and D2 and it's a different beast than a normal trip. FYI, the Coronado sells out very fast so depending on when your team gets a bid, it might not even be available. It's also unfortunate that D1 got an
AKL option.

 

[avalovesminnie]

I love this. We've been to D1 and D2 and it's a different beast than a normal trip. FYI, the Coronado sells out very fast so depending on when your team gets a bid, it might not even be available. It's also unfortunate that D1 got an
AKL option.

Oh great to know! I think the upgrade to Coronado would be worth it. Although once everyone left Monday night at all stars was so much quieter. If our whole family went there are 5 of us which poses a problem with the rooms available. I love AKL!

 

[avalovesminnie]

Day 5: Uh oh, it finally happened…. My son was up all night vomiting. We’ve had at least 10 Disney trips (more land than world) and never gotten a GI bug so I guess it was bound to happen. We had planned to meet my brother in law family at AK but there was no way after being up every hour. They graciously picked my girls up and I stayed in the room taking care of my son. I did a target order to get bleach spray etc as I was worried it was Noro virus. For some reason they do not put trash bags in the trash cans so it felt so gross cleaning up vomit without a trash bag. Those poor housekeepers. My girls had a fantastic day with their cousins while my son and I napped. I wandered through all the resorts and saw a raccoon trolling about across one of the ponds. If I had a choice I’d like to be in AS movies with the Dalmatians!

My girls came back and we all napped again. My son said he was up to try going out and hadn’t vomited all day, so maybe it was something else as I thought noro made you sicker. Tonight was the after hours party at HS. It was 9:30-1:30. We went to the park at 8 because we wanted to ride Rise which wasn’t going to be open during the party. Luckily after being down when we first got there it reopened and we got on. I had bought party tix for my brother in laws family ($55 each) and they were able to get in at 9 and got to ride rise too! Then we did millennium falcon. After that it was SO crowded and as to be expected lots of rowdy singing girls. I don’t really think the party is worth it for guests. I had hoped for better waits or some kind of fireworks show. They totally over inflated the wait times on the boards which made it feel more stressful but Slinky was lined up almost all the way to TSMM so was probably 90 min at least. Star Wars land bring empty was cool but my nephew couldn’t get his magic band to play the bounty hunter game (maybe it turns off after hours?) and none of the cast knew how to help or anything really. The party seems more like a time for teams to hang out and dance versus normal park going.

 

[avalovesminnie]

Day 6: Final Hurrah! After being up til 1 we slept in. I bought genie plus to try to maximize our day. We started at AK on the Safari. I love that ride. Got to see giraffes super close! Then Everest, then Dinsosaur. Dinosaur is impossible to see anything. We got an ice cream sandwich in Dino land and my 11 year old wanted to play in sand pit so we did briefly. Then it’s tough to be a bug and Lion King. We didn’t get to do TOT and my middle d really wanted to, so I had booked a LL. We went back to hotel for a break. It’s less than a 10 minute drive back to the hotel! We went to HS and did TOT. Littlest did not like it. Then the longest wait of the day… Starbucks! We drove to MK. I was hesitant about driving after a bad boat ride from the parking lot the last time we were here. We took the monorail and it was easy and fun! At MK we used LL at space mountain, big thunder (yep all 3 mountains in one day!) and jungle cruise. We had dinner at Columbia harbor house which was much better than I expected it to be. We were going to ride Poo but it went down and the crowds were gathering for fireworks. We witnessed a lady accidentally run her scooter into someone and almost tilt over. Yikes! We went to get a treat and watched fireworks from the center of the front of Main Street. We did exit just before the finale to get back to the monorail. It was a great busy day. I’ll add some pics when I get better Wi-Fi.

 

[avalovesminnie]

Final summary and thoughts!

I’m glad I added days to our package and made it a family trip. I did not like being forced to buy a hopper and pay a higher than average rate for a value hotel. I would probably do things differently in the future if the whole family comes again.

The after party wasn’t great.

I didn’t really feel like I got to fully experience the cheer competition, but that was because I had 2 non cheer kids with me demanding to get away. Driving to WWOS is totally fine.

Wait times at the parks weren’t too bad. Genie plus is worth it if you park hop and stack a few (if you can).

Florida in May is hot. Not as bad as July but I think I prefer February . It was hard to do things midday.

 

[avalovesminnie]