Disney's Art of Animation Resort Info Thread! Mouseketeers welcome!

[1153rsmith]

Originally Posted by TinkandPooh

1153rsmith......Yeah another DIS board member will be there during the time we are there!!! Arent you super excited!!! Will you have your lime green Mickeys? I have my Mickeys all set! I cant hardly wait to get on the plane in Noveber and while I know November is a short ways away technically, it seems like its going to take forever in the mean time!!!
Were you one of the ones to get a pin for the LM section for free dining?

We are staying in a family suite and got the free dining however we upgraded to the dining plan just above what they give at values so we could at least hve one sit down meal a day and then the 1 counter service plus snack per day.
When we made our ressies they said they had 2 options for us to get the free dining one was to book a cars suite and the other was just to book it as a family suite and not one section in specific and then just put in the notes what sections we hoped for and see how it turns out when we arrive!
Based on our choices we figured it would better to book as a family suite and put our preferences in the notes seeing as how the cars section would be our 3r choice. We put Nemo as #1 and LK as # 2 and left it at that and would be thrilled if we got either of the 2. If not and we end up in the cars section its still no biggy because its Disney and we will be there and can walk around the resort and enjoy the outside of the other sections. Either way we get to stay at AOA with free dining and I am thrilled about that and looking forward to a new fun experience. Our family is used to staying at Deluxe or Villa resorts when doing Disney in our home state of CA and the time we visited WDW we stayed at the Boardwalk Villas so it will be a nice change of pace to save a bit more money and put that money into more spending and also to see how things go at a value since we have no experince with the values.
We now have 2 little ones a 3 year old daughter and a 16 month old son so we really think that AOA will be much more appreciated by them verses the luxury Villas or deluxes (which would be nice for mom and dad) but we want our babies to really enjoy themselves so its more about surroundings for them verses us. Them being happy makes us happy
Im so beyond excited and cant wait to see the larger than life characters and be right in the middle of some of my all time favorite movies!!!
I am already having a hard time sleeping at night thinking about our trip and planning out the dining
Going to call in the next couple days and make our dining ressies, weve been going through Birnbaum Guides 2012 WDW book and researching all the dining and have almost made all our choices for our trip

No, we don't have free dining. We are only staying 3 nights there, and already have our tickets, so I just booked the room thought Hotels.com. I wish there was a way I could get a better rate, but I figure with it being brand new, that is not likely to happen. My DS is 14 and my DD is 11, so even though my kids are a lot older than yours, they still LOVE everything disney. I know my DS would rather be in the Toy Story wing at ASM, but it is not often you get to stay in a hotel that is less than 3 months old when you check in. yes, we have our Lime Green Mickey Heads... I noticed the other day that Home Depot does not carry them anymore.... I guess they had too many paint cards leaving and not enough paint.

I hope you guys have a great time.

[Mom loves Disney]

How have the busses been? Are they really crowded due to the number of people the suites hold? I also read some bad reviews of the airconditioning not working great, anyone been recently that could answer those questions. TIA

[TinkandPooh]

Originally Posted by 1153rsmith

No, we don't have free dining. We are only staying 3 nights there, and already have our tickets, so I just booked the room thought Hotels.com. I wish there was a way I could get a better rate, but I figure with it being brand new, that is not likely to happen. My DS is 14 and my DD is 11, so even though my kids are a lot older than yours, they still LOVE everything disney. I know my DS would rather be in the Toy Story wing at ASM, but it is not often you get to stay in a hotel that is less than 3 months old when you check in. yes, we have our Lime Green Mickey Heads... I noticed the other day that Home Depot does not carry them anymore.... I guess they had too many paint cards leaving and not enough paint.

I hope you guys have a great time.

1153rsmith
I hope you all have a great time as well!! Our teen daughters will be along on the tip with us as well and they are looking forward to staying at AOA as well. They are 18 and 16 years old. Our 18 year old is hoping we will get put in the Nemo buildings and our 16 year old is really wanting LK.

Maybe we will run into each other there....we are coming in on the 2nd day of your trip. I will have my lime green Mickeys on my purse and we will have a double stroller for the little ones from Orlando Stroller rental. Say hi if you see us (I have TinkandPooh on one of the lime green Mickeys and then DIS Boards on the other)
Heres counting the days until we get to go.
Wish we could come up with something creative to do each day as we get closer to going to pass the days

[deedee2177]

Originally Posted by 1153rsmith

Hey TinkandPooh, we are going to be at AoA from 11/27-11/30. We are planning on staying in the Little Mermaid wing for my DD, but she doesn't know it. I don't plan on telling her until we leave. Partly because I like doing surprises, and partly just in case I need to change our accommodations at the last minute. I could certainly stay somewhere cheaper, but this is new, based on her favorite character, and DISNEY.

We will be there during this time. We will be there 11/24-11/29. We are staying in the LM rooms and we happened to be one of the fortunate people to get a pin number so we got FD. We also upgraded to the DDP so we could reserve character dinners. My DSD6 is so excited!! I'm sure my 7 month old son would be if he understood what was happening. :-)

[TinkandPooh]

Originally Posted by deedee2177

We will be there during this time. We will be there 11/24-11/29. We are staying in the LM rooms and we happened to be one of the fortunate people to get a pin number so we got FD. We also upgraded to the DDP so we could reserve character dinners. My DSD6 is so excited!! I'm sure my 7 month old son would be if he understood what was happening. :-)

So Exciting I cant wait to see more pictures and get updates as DISers go and come home from AOA

Have fun

[sixkristy6]

Originally Posted by 1153rsmith

No, we don't have free dining. We are only staying 3 nights there, and already have our tickets, so I just booked the room thought Hotels.com. I wish there was a way I could get a better rate, but I figure with it being brand new, that is not likely to happen. My DS is 14 and my DD is 11, so even though my kids are a lot older than yours, they still LOVE everything disney. I know my DS would rather be in the Toy Story wing at ASM, but it is not often you get to stay in a hotel that is less than 3 months old when you check in. yes, we have our Lime Green Mickey Heads... I noticed the other day that Home Depot does not carry them anymore.... I guess they had too many paint cards leaving and not enough paint.

I hope you guys have a great time.

I keep seeing these mentioned, what are they?

[sixkristy6]

Originally Posted by Mom loves Disney

How have the busses been? Are they really crowded due to the number of people the suites hold? I also read some bad reviews of the airconditioning not working great, anyone been recently that could answer those questions. TIA

I have not read about anyone having issues with the a/c. I am thinking that the food court will be the busy part of the resort once fully opened, but I keep reading the buses are fine.

[jenjie]

Originally Posted by Mom loves Disney

How have the busses been? Are they really crowded due to the number of people the suites hold? I also read some bad reviews of the airconditioning not working great, anyone been recently that could answer those questions. TIA

I've been here all week, checking out tomorrow. I could not be any more happy with the busses. We rarely waited more than 5 minutes. The only time over crowding was an issue was at park close.

One night there was a group of people that had to wait for a second bus. Part of that was the fault of inconsiderate passengers though.

[rachel09985]

Can a Macbook Pro 13 inch and an ipad both fit into the safe?

I am a little hesitant to bring my computer down if it can' fit into the safe.

[PrincessSuzanne]

Originally Posted by rachel09985

Can a Macbook Pro 13 inch and an ipad both fit into the safe?

I am a little hesitant to bring my computer down if it can' fit into the safe.

I don't think the MacBook would fit, but the iPad will. They might separately, but I don't think they would fit together. They have the large safe boxes at the front desk

[rachel09985]

Originally Posted by PrincessSuzanne

I don't think the MacBook would fit, but the iPad will. They might separately, but I don't think they would fit together. They have the large safe boxes at the front desk

Shucks, I probabaly won't bring it then. I know something probabaly wouldn't happen, but if it did i would be devastated.

[popcenturylover]

23 days LMR!!! 21 days til' no work!!!

[1153rsmith]

Originally Posted by sixkristy6

I keep seeing these mentioned, what are they?

Lime Green Mickey Heads are a way for Disboard members to identify themselves. I am not sure if they have stopped or not, but Home Depot sold a line of Disney paints. Their paint chips had the color in the shape of mickey head. Someone on here came up with the color of lime green as the color we would all use. At times I have gone by there and gotten several of the paint chips and made door magnets and laminated them to hang on my lanyard. You can also find printable lime green mickey heads in the Disign section of this board.

The last time I was in Home Depot, it looked like they had stopped selling the disney paint, so it may be that you have to print them now.

I try to wear a lime green mickey head (LGMH) whenever I am in the park or on DCL. It makes for a great conversation piece. You would be amazed at how many folks know what it is, and many of those that don't will ask me what it is all about.

[ollyg]

Originally Posted by stephie1012

We will be there the same time as you celebrating my DD 7th bday as well! This is her 2nd bday trip and in 2009 it was HOT! But were headed back anyway lol

Originally Posted by DW2010

We were there September 27-30 in 2010 to celebrate my DD's birthday which is October 2nd, and it was hot. I want to say the temps were in the 90's! We'll be at AOA from October 1-5 this year to celebrate DD's 6th birthday .

Lots of Birthday Celebrations going on at the AOA!

How cool we will all be there around the same time.

[TinkandPooh]

Yeah! Another day closer to our November trip to WDW and AOA!
Cant wait until the final countdown
Going to be doing trip related things this weekend like making our dining ressies and working on our lists of everyones must do's in each park and at DTD.
Cant wait to put it all together in my binder created for this trip.
Disney trips are the best!!!! No other trip anywhere else in the world gets me as excited as a Disney trip...........there really is magic with the mouse!!!!!


Can anyone recommend any sit down meal places that our family should do while at WDW other than Chef Mickeys because that is already on our must do list.
Also if there are any must do counter service meal places please chime in with tips as well. We have the dining plan so we will be doing 1 sit down a day and 1 counter service a day and then of course the snack.
We have 2 adults, 2 teens, and a 3 yr old and 16 month old going if that helps.

We also want to do 50's Primetime Cafe.