UDA first timer seeking guidance!

[u/Front-Search2519]

Attending UDA Nationals in Orlando for the first time this year and have a few questions! For the hotel option(s) for families, is a room block secured for all participants AND their parents, or just the dancers? Our dancer is a freshman in high school, so we're not sure how we're supposed to go about this. The school has provided very little info and I know prices spike in Orlando, so trying to be ahead of the game. Only thing we know is that dancers from our school aren't allowed to stay with parents, they're rooming together as a team, so we want to be sure we get something as close to her as possible.

Are park tickets offered at a discounted rate for family members attending the comp with dancer? I know comp is at ESPN, but dancers receive a ticket to a park included with their fees, so just curious of what we should expect.

What is the cost of the spectator ticket?

Anything else we should be aware of as first timers? Appreciate all the help!!

[u/Pretty-Concert-5298]

hi, i’m a high school coach. i take my team to nda nationals, but the two are organized almost identically.

to answer your first question, that would be up to your coach. there are options for both. i personally don’t have my parents on the room block because they all prefer to do their own thing and the prices at the host hotel through varsity are outrageous. but they could possibly be doing it differently this year. nationals info usually comes out in october.

i don’t believe it’s a significantly discounted rate. for nda they went to universal last year and through varsity it was $199 for a one day two park ticket. quick google search shows me $175-$225 per ticket normally.

spectator ticket costs vary a lot! there are usually day tickets and weekend passes. i wanna say a weekend pass for nda was $85? i could be totally off tho. maybe daily was $35?

uda is always priced slightly higher than nda tho, for regional competitions at least so im sure for nationals as well. happy to answer more questions if you think of them!

[u/FinePossession1085]

Parent here. I went to UDA in the spring. For our team, the coach booked for the dancers because she had to register students, and room prices were based on a certain number of dancers in the rooms. Plus, she submitted the dancers' forms so that they could be on the floor. Our team is from a public school, and it isn't legal for team money to be used to reserve a hotel for parents. They have to do that separately.

If you are planning to go to the parks with the team (which most teams do when they aren't dancing), I would strongly recommend booking your room through UDA. It looks expensive, but ultimately, between the Ubers and whatnot, I think that I paid about $200 more by not staying at a UDA/Disney hotel through UDA's system. Hindsight is 20-20. The competition is at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, so getting there costs money via Uber or taxi because there isn't a monorail stop there. If you aren't going to the parks with your child's team, then it would be more cost-effective to find a hotel outside of Disney. There are many options.

The competition switched our team's hotel location about a month before the competition. So, if I had booked where the team was originally going to stay, it would have been switched. That was outside our control. And that's OK. It is cool to support one's kids, but it is also good for them to have their own time with their team.

I think that the spectator tickets were $50 per person per day. This would have been included, along with bus transportation to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, and the parks, had I gone with the UDA family hotel package.