Just back from a quickie trip to WDW and for the first time in a long time we didn't stay at SOG. I thought I'd make a quickly little run down of comparisons and what worked and didn't work for us. The primary reason for staying at All Star Movies for this short trip was price (CM discount rate), and since it was just a quick trip to get my daughter from the DCP, it wasn't a trip where I wanted to spend a lot of money.
Room size:
SOG Wins this one hands down. But this trip was just myself and my teenage son, so ASMo was perfectly adequate. However, there were times that the bathroom sink area was problematic; I'm at the sink brushing and he comes out of the bathroom to wash his hands. Prefer the two sinks at SOG any day. Also, ASMo only has a curtain to separate the changing area. I found it a tad less private than I would have liked.
Food situation:
ASMo wins. No question. They had a small but decent food court. Food was perfectly acceptable, good choices, and since we were really trying to watch money we ate all our meals here instead of sit down restaurants. Now, if I was there for more than a few days I probably would have tired of it at dinner, but just having the selection for lunch and breakfast was fabulous for us. Also, loved having the pool bar right there. (serving something other than draft beer swill - even though I probably paid more for one beer at ASMo than I would have for a whole 6pack at AAFES.
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Magic Band use:
ASMo wins. Really easy to have the magic bands be your key, your ticket, your fastpass, your charge card. I loved not having to worry about my son having a key when he went out to the pool or food court to grab a snack. I loved not having to bring a wallet to go to the pool and still was able to grab a drink. I'd run out to grab a coffee in the morning with nothing - just me and my magic band. At the parks it was easy to just not be pulling out tickets and fastpasses and money. I think the charging ability was my favorite part. Also, I'm not sure yet how far in advance you'll be able to make your FP reservations with SOG tickets, but given that we were not able to make any until the day we were in the parks and that really was bad, I think you'll be at a huge disadvantage if you don't make them early.
Buses:
Draw. SOG wins for promptness of buses, no question there. I love knowing exactly when my bus is coming. With ASMo, we had no clue. However, it was nice to be able to get a bus at any time to HS or AK, vs the hourly ones at SOG. It was also nice to be directly deposited at MK or Epcot vs TTC. That extra step in transportation is always a PITA to me. And at the end of a long day, I have no desire to walk from Poly to SOG. I also appreciated the queue lines that all the disney bus queues have. I hate that the SOG buses do not. While it's not often a problem, I have been at closing times where no queue really was an issue. But as for distance of bus stops, I think the AK and HS buses for ASMo are positioned just as far out of the way as the SOG buses. The values seem to have the worst bus queues. And the buses at ASMo did get crowded, quickly. Sometimes we shared a bus with the other All Star resorts and ASMo was the last pickup/dropoff. That was a real pain to me.
Other things;
No winners, just observations: While I don't have younger kids anymore ASMo had tons of activities for kids and families every day. I can see that being a huge draw.
I also liked the theme at ASMo much better than SOG. However, SOG is restful in a way ASMo wasn't. We also had a pool room and even though we were on the 3rd floor it was LOUD. I've never had a SOG pool room so I don't know. But the entire ASMo just seemed loud. The walls were super thin and the noise from the hallway pretty loud.
We had a great location room but if we were in one of the outlying buildings at ASMo the walk to the food court and buses would have been pretty far. Now, we've had some really horrid room locations at SOG that felt like they were 20 miles away, but at least in the rain they're all covered.
Loads of larger groups of teens at ASMo. I think I counted about 5 or 6 when we were there, I can only imagine how many ar there in the summer. Since these groups seem to all move as one, they can really tie up the areas - food court - pool. And some of the kids were pretty out of hand (midnight yelling from outside). That's not something you ever have to worry about at SOG.
So that's my rundown. I think if I had more than 2 of us I would have hated the smallness of the ASMo rooms, but given that we only paid $79 with tax I couldn't really justify paying more at SOG. And where I had to rent a car as well, I couldn't justify paying more for the room, paying to park at SOG, and then paying to park if we wanted to drive to the parks.
I think on our next visit I might like to try a moderate Disney hotel. While I love SOG, I really can't justify the lower cost of the room when I end up having to spend money on lots of other things that I wouldn't at a disney hotel. I could easily do without a car next trip if we took Magical express, and with only 3 of us travelling from now on, we don't really need the larger room. And the food situation is just my biggest complaint at SOG and that was eliminated for us.
On the other hand, the large room and quietness of SOG is a real winner and that might tip the scales for me next time.
