Following my Shining Star all the way to Orlando - Pretrip Report
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**CRCrazy** · 04-02-2011, 04:54 PM

Well - I wasn't going to do a trip report for this short jaunt. I have done several reports in the distant past, but as my girls have gotten older and busier, it's been more and more difficult to find the time to complete them.

Where - Orlando Florida!!!
When - Friday April 8th through Sunday April 10th - yep, I know, way too short!
Who - mostly me! Marie, aka CRCrazy, although I plan to meet up with several other PassPorters, and there will be reports and pics of some Cheer Magic Shining Stars along the way.

Here's the background for this short solo trip.

My youngest daughter Sarah is 14, and a freshman in HS. She has been a dancer pretty much all her life, taking classes from the age of 2. She is currently enrolled in 8 different dance classes, including 3 competitive numbers. While dance is her primary sport, she also plays field hockey and does cheer for the school. Last year, in middle school, her new cheer coach convinced her to join an All-Star cheer squad at a local gym in Lisbon, NH called Cheer Magic. She joined their summer practice sessions, and beginning this fall, was on their Senior squad, the Cheer Magic Shining Stars. They went to regional competition in January for their first competition of the season at UNH's ACDA Beach Blast. Much to their coaches' delight - they came in first place - and won a FULL PAID BID to Nationals.

(Sarah's the tall one - fifth from the left in the back row)

That was the good news - now the bad news. The Orlando US Finals competition was April 9th - the same exact day as Sarah's dance teacher's wedding (and Sarah was supposed to be helping out as the designated babysitter) and my cousin's wedding. UGH!

Well, after much agonizing, and many not so gentle nudges from the coaches, Sarah decided she did need to go to Nationals with her team, and she'd have to pass on the wedding.

Although every other freshman on the team is having their mom chaperone, Sarah is pushing very hard for independence. So - I let her travel and stay with her team - without me.

That said - anyone who knows me understands - if my daughter is competing in Florida - I'm going to be there. I have never, and will never, miss a major event in my children's lives. AND - if there is an opportunity for a Disney trip besides - DUH!!!!

So - my planning engine went into high gear.

This trip was going to have to be a BUDGET trip - a trip to Disney hadn't been in the cards for this year. Sarah's dance and cheer costs have doubled this year, Jennie is in her 3rd year of college (yuck - tuition and room/board), and Amanda is getting married in January. We also had to put a new roof on our house this fall, and there are several other major repair jobs needed ASAP.

We decided it was best for John to stay at home and hold down the fort. He is the operations manager at a wood fired power plant in Northern NH - and they always have their annual maintenance shutdown in April. Sure enough - they shut down tomorrow, and are anticipating startup (which only John can do - next Friday afternoon). That saves one plane fare, and the kennel fee for the dog.

So - first job was to get myself down there. Sarah would be travelling with her team, but I had not been given any info as to when or where. (Took them a while to figure it all out). I'm a teacher, so I only have 3 personal days to use within the school year. I'd already used one in December to go pick Jennie up from school, as I didn't know I'd be using them on a trip. So - 2 left. I always fly Southwest - love their no cancellation fee policy. Since I knew that I could always rearrange dates and times - I grabbed a flight leaving Manchester Thursday after school, and a flight home on Monday evening.

Now - where to stay. Hmmm? No idea yet where the team was staying - but they had to go to a suite style hotel, as they have only 1 male cheerleader, who needed to be in a room with a chaperone, but have his own bedroom. Disney was having their spring special - discounts for room only, but it was ending SOON. I checked out rates - would have loved to stay at POFQ to see their refurbed rooms - but with it being peak season, and only for myself - I cheaped out at Pop Century. I've stayed there several times, and always been happy with the room and experience. I couldn't believe - it was $129/night for the weekend nights at the discounted rates. I've always paid around $59-79/night for prior stays.

I did consider staying at an off-site hotel - but knew I'd want to be at Disney when I could. I figured that parking at Disney is $15 a day, so if I spent time there for all 3 days left on my old parkhopper, that was $45 saved by staying on site. Still a little more expensive, but worth it.

Next up was posting my tentative plans on PassPorter. Boy, am I glad I did. I found out that several PassPorter friends were planning to be there that same weekend. Through some PMs, I planned to be at WDW at least for Friday - I had no idea of the cheer schedule, but knew that the girls would be occupied then. Wendy and Cheryl's group had an ADR at La Hacienda for 7:15, as did Ann. I hopped on the WDW website, and yay! Plenty of room for a solo diner at that time. I'm hoping that we'll be seated near each other, so we can enjoy visiting and watching Illuminations together. Sadly, Ann had to cancel her ADR, as her group is doing something else on Friday evening - but we do have tentative plans to meet up some other time that weekend.

Finally - just 2-3 weeks out, the cheer team's plans were being finalized. They have several members who play HS softball, so they ended up making some crazy short plans. I feel bad for the kids who haven't been to FL, as they are not going to see much other than the airport, hotel pool and the Convention Center.
They are flying out of Providence, RI (a 4 1/2 hour drive from here) on Southwest Friday morning at 6 am. They'll arrive in Orlando at 9, shop and have lunch at the airport, and head to the hotel. (They rented a minivan, and are borrowing a FL friend's car for the weekend, so they need to make a couple of trips.) They plan to have a barbecue that night for dinner, and then go to the Convention Center for a dance party for the contestants. Saturday is the day of the competition (they compete in the afternoon), and then head back to the hotel to swim and pack up. They need to be at the airport by 6 am Sunday morning, for their 8 am flight back to Providence. That way the girls will be back in time for Sunday evening softball practice. A whirlwind adventure for sure.

So - I hopped back on Southwest - moved my Thursday afternoon flight to Friday morning at 6:15 (since I have to bring Sarah to Littleton Thursday night by midnight) and changed the Monday flight to the last flight home on Sunday evening. Saved a bunch of money on the hotel - since I'm only staying 2 nights. Called WDW travel - no problem to drop the other nights.

I will need a rental car, since I will be going to the Convention Center Saturday for the competition, and probably will help with driving girls to and from the airport. Rates were sky high, and National (my go-to rental company for Orlando) wasn't accepting any weekend free day coupons for that week. Finally in March - they started accepting the coupon - and the rates dropped for just a couple of days. Scored an Emerald Aisle (guaranteed midsize or better) reservation for three days at $84 including taxes and fees. I haven't been able to match that since with any company. Even National's rates for the same dates and codes is up to $120 now.

The US Finals released the preliminary schedule last week, so I could finalize some plans. The all-stars division for Levels 3-5 compete from 1:30 - 4:45 on Saturday, including the awards. Yay!! I can go back to WDW for Saturday evening. I've been dying to see the Main Street Electrical Parade again - but we haven't been down to WDW since it's been back. My last trip was also a solo trip for the Decade of Dreams WDW portion in May 2009. I have tentative plans to meet up with Cheryl, Wendy and Heather to watch the parade.

So - those are the preliminary plans - be back soon with a tentative itinerary - as well as packing fun. Glad I didn't fly out this Friday - we had a foot of snow again.