This was my second year going to the Cheerleading Worlds (held in Disney World) but first year with Felix on the team. I wasn’t planning on blogging about it because I covered most of the experience in my post from last year but I guess I’ll do a shorter post to summarize. 

After an exhausting week of practices leading up to Worlds, Felix and I flew down to Orlando on a Thursday night. We stayed in an AirBnB with two of our teammates, Elise and Jonah. On Friday morning, we met up with the team in our bedazzled practice wear to practice on the field of Disney’s Allstar Sports Resort. There’s one field that’s iconic in the cheer world that all the teams practice on. Apparently some people wanted the experience of practicing here so we did it even though we passed a bunch of far less crowded fields on the way there. 

Our coach forbade us from going to the parks before we competed so after practice we chilled for a bit and then went to the ESPN complex to watch the ICU World Championships, which is the competitions where teams compete representing their countries. This is essentially the Olympics of cheerleading and it’s really awesome to watch because the skill level is so high. We watched all of the all-girl division and half of the coed division before we had to leave to practice again. 

We practiced on a field in different matching practice wear. Practices went pretty well. Felix and I did some hand-to-hand in a cheerleadery way even though this skill is not in our routine. 

The next day was our competition day and we got up early to watch our sister team, Lady Light, compete. They did pretty well. We weren’t competing until the evening so we had the whole day to stew in anxiety. We met up in the evening to take a bunch of team photos and practice a bit more. 

Then we competed! You can watch our routine here! Elise screen recorded the streamed footage of the routine after we competed so the audio is a bit messed up but the whole routine is there. I start as the right most person. We did pretty well. The routine was great until the end where the pyramid got a bit messed up. It happens. I got some great action shots from the routine. 

We ended up placing 13th out of 18 teams in semifinals and didn’t make it to finals. We placed 7th out of 8 US teams, and we would have had to be top 3 in the US to make it to finals, so we were nowhere close. Our coach really hyped us up to believe we had a chance of making it to finals but that was clearly wrong. Our team has only existing for two years and it was our first year competing level 7 (last year we were level 6). Honestly, if a team like ours could make top 3 on our first try, winning wouldn’t mean much, so I’m comforted by this. 

Right after competing we booked it to Magic Kingdom to see their firework show. We didn’t have time to change so we went to the park still in our uniforms with our bows and with glitter on our faces. I thought that was pretty funny. 

This is where they send you if you do an illegal skill

We rode some rides, had a good time. Since we didn’t make it to finals, we had two days to spend at the parks. The next day we watched some more cheerleading in the morning, then Felix and I split off to see Disney’s resident Cirque du Soleil show, Drawn to Life. Felix really liked it because it was a more artistic show with a clear plot. I like circus for the big tricks so I thought it was ok. 

No photos were allowed during the show so this is all I got…

After the show we met back up with Jonah and Elise and went to Animal Kingdom. We went on rides, saw some animals, same as last year. 

The next day we got up early to get to Hollywood Studios right when it opened because I really wanted to go on the Rise of the Resistance ride in Star Wars land. I don’t really care about Star Wars but I think it’s great as an immersive world. The story of the ride is you’re recruited by the resistance, then your ship is captured by the First Order and you end up in the docking bay of a big ship with a bunch of storm troopers surrounding you. Then the First Order try to interrogate you for information about the resistance, and the resistance fighters break you out. I was so wowed. New favorite Disney ride. 

We spent a bit more time in Star Wars land, took a break, and finished off the day at EPCOT. I didn’t bother taking pictures. That’s all for this post!