The Disney Memorial Day Soccer Tournament runs May 23 to 25, 2026 at ESPN Wide World of Sports inside Walt Disney World. Around 300 teams in age groups 9U through 19U, three competitive flights, and the same Disney complex that hosts the January Girls Showcase and the President’s Day weekend. If your kid’s team just got the invite, this is the practical guide. Dates, costs, registration windows, where to stay, where to eat, what the weather actually does in Orlando over Memorial Day weekend, and the line items that catch first-time families off guard.
The short version up front. The tournament itself is around $1,100 to $1,600 per team. Hotel block runs $189 a night at the cheapest Disney Value resort and over $340 at the Moderates. Memorial Day weekend is one of the busiest park weeks of the year, so if you want to add a Magic Kingdom day, book early. There is a $55 per-spectator gate fee for the showcase events at this complex and a smaller gate fee for the tournament events like this one, which most first-time families do not budget for. The whole weekend, all in, lands around $3,200 to $4,500 for a family of four flying in, depending on park add-ons.
The Event in One Page
Dates: Saturday May 23 to Monday May 25, 2026 (Memorial Day weekend).
Venue: ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, 700 South Victory Way, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830. Soccer plays on the championship-fields side of the campus.
Age groups: 9U through 19U, boys and girls.
Competitive levels: Advanced, Intermediate, and Recreational. Age divisions with more than 16 teams split into Championship and Premier flights so brackets stay competitive within tier.
Field count: Roughly 17 fields across the complex, with soccer hosted on the championship side. Mix of natural grass and turf, all lit, well drained, and maintained to a level closer to MLS academy fields than typical youth complexes.
Approximate teams: 300, give or take depending on final registration. Smaller than the President’s Day weekend, larger than most regional events.
Sanctioning: US Club Soccer. Accepts teams from USYS, ECNL, MLS Next, ECRL, and EDP-affiliated clubs.
Game format: Three-game minimum guarantee. Most teams play one game Saturday, one or two Sunday, and either a Monday consolation or a final. Some age groups play earlier in the weekend with Monday off, depending on bracket size.
Registration window: Opened December 2025. Final acceptance deadline April 13, 2026. Once full, the event closes early, so popular age groups (12U through 15U girls especially) historically fill weeks before the deadline.
Entry fee: $1,100 to $1,600 per team, depending on age and division. The fee covers field rental, officials, and event admin. It does not cover the per-spectator gate fee, parking, or any team merchandise.
Contact: ESPN Wide World of Sports Soccer Office. Email wdw.sports.soccer@disneysports.com. Phone 407-938-3805. Tournament page lives on Disney’s event hub at disneyevent.com.
Why Memorial Day Is the Most Underrated Disney Weekend
Among the three Disney soccer events, the Memorial Day weekend gets less attention than President’s Day or the January Girls Showcase. That is its strength, not its weakness.
The Girls Showcase in January is the recruiting weekend. College coaches walk the sidelines. Roughly 200 teams. The whole event is shaped around that audience. Useful if your daughter is in the U16 to U19 window and committed to playing college soccer. Stressful and expensive if she is not.
The President’s Day weekend in February is the volume play. Boys and girls, U9 through U19, both showcase and tournament divisions running together. Largest of the three by team count, biggest crowds, longest concession lines.
Memorial Day is the family weekend. Smaller field, no college recruiting pressure, three honest days of soccer, and a built-in long-weekend vacation framing. Younger teams come here as a first travel tournament because the schedule is friendlier and the weather, while hot, is more predictable than the February rain. Older teams come here when the calendar is winding down before summer ECNL and showcase season starts in June.
The trade-off is heat. May in Orlando is not February. Afternoon thunderstorms are real. The fields are kept playable but tournament weekends in May routinely have a 30 to 60 minute rain delay on Saturday afternoon. Plan for it, do not be surprised by it.
Registration Walkthrough
If your club is being invited, the team manager handles the registration through Disney’s official portal. As a parent, here is what you actually need to know about how it works and where the money flows.
Team registration goes through the Disney event platform, currently the GotSport integration. The team submits a roster, proof of insurance, and the entry fee. The fee is per team, paid by the team, not per player. Most clubs front this cost and then split it across the rostered players in the team’s seasonal dues, which means your share is usually $80 to $130 per player just for the entry, depending on team size.
Player registration is a separate step done after the team is accepted. Each rostered player is added to the official tournament roster with date of birth verification and a current US Club Soccer or USYS pass. Add deadlines for guest players typically close one week before the event.
Stay-to-play requirement. This is the line item that catches new families. If your club is more than 75 miles from the complex (effectively anyone flying in, plus all teams outside central Florida), every player must book a room in the official hotel block through Disney’s housing partner. You cannot bring your own hotel arrangement, you cannot drive in daily from a rental house, you cannot stay with the grandparents in Davenport. Disney verifies the rooms against the roster. The penalty for non-compliance can include disqualifying the team from the bracket, though in practice the consequence is usually a fine to the club, which gets passed back to the offending family.
Booking the hotel block. Open the housing link the moment the team is officially accepted. The Value resorts in the block (All-Star Sports, Pop Century, sometimes All-Star Movies) fill within the first week of the block opening. The Moderates (Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans) hold inventory longer but the best rates go fast.
The deposit. Disney holds the entry fee fully through the registration window. If your team withdraws before April 13, 2026, there is a partial refund minus the admin portion. After April 13, the entry fee is non-refundable. Hotel deposits are separate and follow the housing partner’s cancellation policy, usually 30 days out for a full refund.
What the Schedule Actually Looks Like
The published bracket goes live the Tuesday before the event. Until then, your team has a check-in window assigned and a general “Saturday morning” or “Saturday afternoon” kickoff slot, but no specific game time.
A typical 12U boys schedule looks like this:
- Friday May 22: Optional team check-in, 2:00pm to 7:00pm at the complex welcome center. Pick up wristbands, parking passes, schedule printouts, and the official team gift bag.
- Saturday May 23: Game 1, sometime between 8:00am and 6:00pm. One game only.
- Sunday May 24: Game 2 and Game 3, with 90 minutes to 4 hours between games depending on the bracket draw.
- Monday May 25: Semifinal or final for teams that advance. Consolation game for teams that do not.
Older age groups (16U and up) sometimes have a fourth game on Sunday and play the championship game Monday morning. Younger groups (9U and 10U) typically wrap by Sunday afternoon and have all of Monday free.
Two practical reads from this schedule. First, your team will likely have a six-hour gap between games on Sunday. That is the off-day window when most families head to a park. Second, Saturday is a one-game day for most age groups, which means a half-day of soccer and a half-day of free time. That is the realistic park-day if you only want to do one park.
Finding Your Field at the Complex
The complex is 220 acres. The walk from the far parking lot to the back of the Marathon Fields cluster is 12 to 15 minutes on a hot afternoon. Knowing where your assigned field sits before you arrive saves you 20 minutes and a lot of complaining from younger siblings.
Open the full PDF training field map (745 KB) to zoom in. Print it before you fly or save it to your phone for offline use. The complex Wi-Fi gets spotty when 300 teams are checking schedules simultaneously.
Quick orientation by field cluster:
- HP Field House and the Arena sit at the north entrance off Victory Way. This is also where check-in happens on Friday and where you pick up wristbands.
- Baseball Quadraplex (fields 1 through 4) and the Diamondplex (fields 13 through 19) are the dedicated baseball clusters and are only relevant for Memorial Day soccer parents if a sibling tournament happens to be running parallel.
- Marathon Fields (14 through 30) are the soccer-and-multi-purpose grass fields where the bulk of Memorial Day games are played. These are the championship-side fields, lit, grass, and the most maintained.
- ESPN Wide World of Sports Track and Field complex is on the south side and occasionally hosts overflow soccer games on its infield turf.
- The Stadium (formerly Champion Stadium) is the showpiece. Finals for the older age groups sometimes get scheduled here. Walk over even if you do not have a game there.
Most soccer matches at Memorial Day weekend play on Marathon Fields 14 through 30. Once you know your field number, the rest of the weekend is navigation by signage and the orange ESPN WWOS field markers.
Where to Stay
The hotel block is mandatory for stay-to-play teams. Inside the block, here is the honest read.
Disney’s Value resorts are the cheapest and the highest value for tournament weekends. Pop Century is the favorite among soccer families. The rooms are small but functional. Tournament-weekend rates run $189 to $230 per night. The food court at Pop Century is open from 6:00am, which matters when you have a 9:00am Saturday kickoff. Bus service to the complex runs continuously during event weekends, and the bus is the perk you are paying for. No rental car needed if you stay on property and skip the park rental fees.
All-Star Sports is the other Value option families default to. Similar price, similar quality, and the sports-theme rooms (basketball, surfing, tennis themes) are a hit with kids. Slightly older property than Pop Century. Same bus service. Both options put you about 10 to 15 minutes from the complex by Disney bus on game day.
Moderate resorts (Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter) sit in the $260 to $340 range. Bigger rooms, table-service restaurants on site, and more parking if you do have a car. Coronado Springs has a true conference-hotel feel and is closer to the complex than Caribbean Beach. Caribbean Beach has the Disney Skyliner gondola for EPCOT and Hollywood Studios trips on off days, which is genuinely useful if you plan to do a park.
Good Neighbor hotels are off-property partner hotels that are stay-to-play compliant. The list shifts year to year but typically includes a few Hilton properties on Hotel Plaza Boulevard and a handful of Marriotts in Lake Buena Vista. Often cheaper than the Disney resorts, sometimes by $40 to $60 a night. You lose the Disney bus, so you need a rental car or rideshare. Practical pick if your team has eight or more rooms and one parent is willing to be the unofficial bus driver.
The booking tip nobody mentions. Most Disney Value rooms sleep four (one queen, one pull-out daybed, sometimes two queens). If you have two parents and two kids, fine. If you have a kid plus a sibling and a grandparent traveling with you, you need either two rooms or a Moderate. Book accordingly.
Where to Eat
The on-site complex food is functional and overpriced. Bottled water is $5. Hot dogs are $9. The lines on Saturday morning when six games kick off simultaneously are 25 minutes deep. Plan one meal here per game day at most, and pack snacks for everything else.
Off the complex, three reliable plays:
Disney Springs is 12 minutes by car from the complex. Sit-down dinners that can seat a team of 18 without a two-hour wait. Wine Bar George, Earl of Sandwich, Chicken Guy!, and Splitsville are the team-friendly picks. Wine Bar George has a back room that handles team gatherings well. Earl of Sandwich is the cheap-and-fast pre-game pick. Splitsville is the if-you-win post-game celebration pick.
Crossroads of Lake Buena Vista is the strip mall across from the complex, walking distance from some of the parking. Fast casual chains (Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, Pollo Tropical), a Goodings grocery for cooler restocks, and a CVS for forgotten cleats laces and athletic tape. Good for a between-games lunch when you do not have time to leave the area.
Hotel quick-service at any Value or Moderate resort gets a team fed for under $20 a head if you eat at the food court. Pop Century’s Everything POP food court has a 24-hour grab-and-go fridge that is genuinely useful for a 6:30am breakfast on game day.
The cooler tip. Disney resort rooms have a small fridge but no real freezer. Buy a styrofoam cooler at the Walgreens off Hotel Plaza Boulevard for $7, ice it daily at the resort, and you have your sideline cooler for the weekend. Throw it out before you fly home.
What the Weather Will Actually Do
Memorial Day weekend in Orlando is hot. Plan for highs in the upper 80s to low 90s, lows in the low 70s, and a 50 to 60 percent chance of an afternoon thunderstorm on at least one of the three tournament days.
The pattern matters more than the daily forecast. Storms in central Florida in May build in the early afternoon and break in the late afternoon. The morning hours from 7:00am to 11:00am are usually clear, hot, and humid. The 1:00pm to 5:00pm window is the storm risk. Evening games after 6:00pm are usually fine again, sometimes still warm but with the worst of the storm activity gone.
Disney holds games unless lightning is detected within 10 miles of the complex, at which point fields clear for 30 minutes and the clock resets with each new strike. A bad storm afternoon can delay games by two to three hours total. Tournament directors will compress the schedule the next morning if they have to, which means a Sunday game that was originally at 4:00pm might end up at 7:00pm or get moved to Monday morning.
Pack for it. A team pop-up tent or two on the sideline is the difference between a comfortable weekend and a heat-exhausted one. Disney does not provide shade at the championship fields beyond what is built in. Sunscreen, electrolyte tablets, and a cooler full of ice are not optional. The kids will tell you they do not need water. They do.
The Park Strategy
The honest answer is most soccer families do one park day, not three. Multi-day Park Hopper tickets for a family of four during a Memorial Day tournament weekend run $500 to $750 depending on the day count and any current promotions. A single-day single-park ticket for the same family is around $200 to $250. Kids leave a tournament weekend exhausted regardless of how the team performed. Two full park days on top of three game days is genuinely too much.
If you do one park day, the picks for Memorial Day weekend specifically:
Magic Kingdom on Sunday or Monday morning. It will be crowded, this is one of the busiest park weeks of the year, but if you arrive at rope drop at 8:30am and target one side of the park (Frontierland and Adventureland, or Tomorrowland and Fantasyland), you can ride five or six rides in three hours and call it a day. Genie+ is worth it for this specific weekend.
EPCOT in the late afternoon and evening. EPCOT crowds clear out after 6:00pm, the temperature drops, and the World Showcase food carts are open. If the team finishes Sunday games by 4:00pm and you want a low-stress park experience, EPCOT after dinner with the fireworks at 9:00pm is the move. You can buy a half-day ticket after 2:00pm at a discount.
Animal Kingdom early morning. Lightest crowds of the four parks during this weekend. Avatar Flight of Passage is the headliner. Get there for rope drop, ride Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey, then leave by lunchtime when the heat peaks. Animal Kingdom does not have indoor cooled queues for most rides, which makes the afternoon brutal in late May.
Hollywood Studios is the skip. Most stressful park, most aggressive crowds during this weekend, and the headliner rides (Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway) require Genie+ Lightning Lanes that are usually sold out by 9:00am on a Memorial Day Sunday.
If parks are not the move, the alternatives within 30 minutes of the complex are Volcano Bay (Universal water park, $90 per person), Andretti Indoor Karting in Orlando ($35 for an unlimited pass), and Crayola Experience at the Florida Mall ($25 per person). All three keep kids busy for four hours without the all-day commitment.
What Parents Pay Beyond the Hotel
The line items that surprise first-timers.
Spectator gate fee. Disney charges per-spectator admission to the complex during tournament events. For the Memorial Day weekend, the fee typically runs $20 to $35 per person per day, with some events selling a multi-day pass at a small discount. A family of four watching three days of games can easily clear $250 in just the gate fee. The fee is collected at the gate, cash or card. Kids under a certain age (varies year to year, usually under 4 or 5) are free.
Parking. $20 per car per day at the complex, unless your hotel package includes a tournament parking credit. If you stay at a Disney resort and take the bus, you pay nothing. If you stay off-property or drive in daily from a rental car, this is $60 across the weekend.
Game-action photos. Disney’s preferred imaging partner sells team and individual photo bundles. Optional. The marketing is aggressive on-site, the prices are not soft ($60 to $120 per bundle), and the quality is good but not better than a parent with a decent phone camera and a 60-yard zoom angle on the sideline.
Team gift bag and merchandise. Each player gets a Disney-branded participant gift (water bottle, hat, drawstring bag, the exact contents shift year to year). Optional team souvenirs (jerseys with the Disney logo, hoodies, championship rings for finalists) are sold at the merchandise tent. Budget $40 to $80 if you plan to buy anything beyond the included player gift.
Airport parking and rental car. If you drive to your home airport and fly to MCO, factor in airport long-term parking ($15 to $25 per day) and a rental car at MCO if you do not stay on Disney property. A mid-size car for the weekend is $200 to $300. If you stay on property and use Disney transportation, you save the rental car cost entirely.
Per-person all-in budget estimate for a family of four flying in from a major US city, three nights at Pop Century, no park add-on, one full sit-down dinner at Disney Springs, all other meals quick-service or in-room:
- Flights for four: $800 to $1,400
- Hotel (3 nights): $570 to $750
- Per-spectator gate fees (3 days x 2 adults + 1 sibling): $200 to $300
- Food and snacks: $400 to $600
- Disney Springs dinner: $180 to $250
- Pop Century daily essentials and gift bag extras: $100 to $150
- Player’s share of the team entry fee: $90 to $130
- Total without parks: $2,340 to $3,580
- Add one park day: $200 to $250 per person, so $800 to $1,000 for a family of four.
Parent Tips From Families Who Have Done This Multiple Times
The honest takeaways from repeat Disney Memorial Day families.
- Book the cheapest Value resort the morning the block opens. Pop Century fills first, then All-Star Sports. By the time you check in late at night Friday, the room is just a place to sleep and shower. You are not spending time there.
- Skip the Park Hopper. Buy a single-park single-day ticket for one off-day instead. Saves $200 to $300 per person and the kids are too tired to enjoy two parks in one day anyway.
- Bring a real folding chair. The benches at the championship fields are limited and the grass is wet in the morning. A camp chair with a built-in shade canopy is the upgrade.
- Pay the gate fee on Day 1 and confirm whether it covers all event days. Some years the fee is per-day, some years it is an event-wide wristband. Ask at the welcome center on Friday during check-in.
- Pack snacks and a cooler. The on-site food is overpriced and the lines on Saturday morning are slow. Granola bars, electrolyte mix, fruit, and water bottles in a cooler save you $40 per day per kid.
- Treat Monday as a buffer day, not a vacation day. If your team makes the final, Monday is a soccer day. If your team loses out on Sunday, Monday is a travel-home day or a low-effort pool day at the resort. Either way, do not book a flight back before 6:00pm Monday.
- Get the team photo package only if it is a milestone year. First time playing at Disney, 8th grade trip, senior year before high school, last team tournament before college. Skip it otherwise.
- Plan one team dinner, not three. Coordinating a meal for 18 families takes work. Pick one night (usually Saturday) and let everyone do their own thing the other two nights. Wine Bar George at Disney Springs is the most consistent pick.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the tournament held on Memorial Day itself? Yes. Monday May 25, 2026 is Memorial Day. The championship games and final consolation games run that morning and early afternoon. Most teams wrap by 2:00pm, leaving time for the trip home or a half-day at the pool.
Can my family fly in Friday and out Monday night? Yes, this is the standard pattern. Most teams arrive Friday for the optional check-in, play through the weekend, and fly out Monday evening or Tuesday morning. Flights out of MCO on Monday after 6:00pm have more availability than the lunchtime block, when the parks-trip families are leaving.
Do guest players need their own US Club Soccer pass? Yes. Guest players must be added to the official roster before the add deadline (typically one week before the event) and must have a current US Club Soccer pass or equivalent from a recognized federation. Talk to your team manager early if you have a guest player situation.
Can I bring a stroller or wagon for the younger siblings? Yes. The complex is a long walk between fields on the championship side. A wagon for siblings under 7 is standard and welcomed. Strollers are also fine.
What happens if my kid gets injured during a game? Disney maintains an on-site athletic training tent at the complex. Minor injuries (sprains, cuts, dehydration) are handled there. Anything that needs imaging or a stitches-level intervention gets referred to AdventHealth Celebration ER, about 15 minutes away.
Can we leave the complex between games? Yes. The wristband at the gate is good for re-entry. Most families head back to the hotel or to lunch off-property between games. Just allow 30 minutes minimum for traffic on the way back.
What is the dress code for spectators? None officially. Functionally, light fabric, hats, sunscreen, comfortable shoes. The complex is asphalt walkways between turf fields and there is limited shade.
The Bottom Line
Disney Memorial Day Soccer is one of the better-run youth soccer tournaments in the country. The complex is in the top tier of US youth sports facilities. The schedule is honest, the brackets are competitive without being cutthroat, and the built-in vacation framing means the trip is more than a soccer weekend.
The cost is real. Plan for $3,200 to $4,500 all in for a family of four if you keep park add-ons modest. Plan closer to $5,500 if you do two full park days and any merchandise.
If your kid’s team got the invite and you are wondering whether it is worth it, the answer for most families is yes, once. The first Disney tournament is the experience. The second one is the calendar habit. Decide whether your team is signing up for the experience or for the habit before you book the second one.
For everything else about playing at this complex, see the ESPN Wide World of Sports venue guide. For booking the hotel block, weather forecasts for the weekend, and getting between MCO and the complex, see the linked topic pages below.