Staying onsite= Go to Celebrity Hall, which is in the parking lot of Disney Allstar Resorts.
Commuter= tents outside of Disney Springs.

The lines can be long, so prepare for that and give the staff some grace. People are probably unkind to them all day, be different and maybe ask how their day has been!🤗

BEFORE arriving in Orlando, make sure your kids and parents are aware of athlete/family expectations. Do you have curfew times, are kids able to freely go to parks with their families, do all athletes need to watch your other teams or will they be released after competing. Think through these things, make a decision on them and then communicate them ahead of the trip. Our families get to enjoy Disney, but they do not get a free for all on when they can go!

There are going to be multiple things that go wrong while at the D2 Summit. Some of these things will be little, some big. My advice is to roll with the punches and remind yourself that your families and kids will feed off your energy and expectation.
Be a leader that problem solves and keeps issues in perspective. If the issues are amongst the gym, resolve, diffuse and keep moving forward. If the issues are with the competition, address them professionally and in person, I would refrain from posting them online until you exhaust all avenues.

You may not want to hear this, but you need to:
If you bring 2 teams, one is going to do better than the other.

You need to be prepared for this, and you need to communicate this ahead of time to your families and kids. This is just the reality of competing. The year we won Junior 4 at D2, 1 of our other teams made it to finals, and 2 didn’t get out of the At Large round. We knew with bringing 4 teams that their paths and the reality of each advancing or winning was different, by having honest conversations with families you can avoid a lot of problems. A division of 10 is not the same as a division of 100. That is just real life folks!

There are divisions of 159 teams at D2. In a division that large, you can hardly control anything, let alone the judging. You may hit the routine of a lifetime and still place 85th place and that’s just how it goes. No one is going to D2 to lose or not make finals, but still 75% of the teams that compete will do just that!

So focus on what you can control, enjoy the last performances of the year, take pictures with your kids and coaches, remind a kid that has not their best day that you love them regardless. Cut yourself some slack, and appreciate what you have created and the kids that believe in you!

Winning or not doesn’t matter in the long run, having fun, growing and wanting to be a champion is what matters.