2 rooms at the All Stars Sport vs Cabin review

[Skyw]

Hi everyone, It has been a while since I have posted anything but I really felt compelled to write this review. And also a letter to Disney. You will see why soon.

We decide to stay at the All Star Sports this visit to WDW, due to some budget constraints. We got 40% off Hotel with military discounts and also some nicely priced park tickets. There were a totally of 5 of us with two rooms. With the discounts it was about a $300-$400 cheaper with then staying at the cabins.
*** .

Kinda of a long story, but 4 of us where in one room. And one in another. It was as expected, small. Disney has created some space saver features that I wish they would have in the cabins. There were hooks on the walls, places to store things all over of the TV console. We fit 3 bags of stuff easily in the room. The same is true of the cabins, it just requires a little more planning.

The bathroom was OK. I suppose having the sink separate from the shower is good when you are getting ready. At the Cabins, we would just use the kitchen sink. The shower was horrible at AAS. We never seemed to get hot water. Just luke warm. We did not get ready any faster with two bathrooms vs. one. We stayed on our Disney schedule of some people shower at night and others in the morning.

The condition of the room seemed the same as the Cabins. The big difference, NO Kitchen. I had no idea how much we would miss having the kitchen. We spent about $30 a day for breakfast for 4 of us. Total that up and you have what we spend on grocers the whole week at the cabins. I even had garden grocery send stuff and it was gone the 2nd morning.

Finally, we requested rooms that would be at least in the same building complex together. My SSD was as far away as it could get. We were in Hoops and she was in touch down.

So I give the Cabins a for kitchen, and the fact that all 5 of us could be in the same area.

ASSp for price.

Next post will be on resort services............I am putting on my flame retardant suit now, so I can post later.

 

[Born 2 Fish]

 

[Skyw]

Review Cont...

I absolutely love Disney's service. I never had a bad experience with any cast member. Until now!!!! Before I give you the list of the things that went bad, I want you to know that I am not a picky person. But these things that were bad affected our trip.

We arrived about 8pm at night and quickly were processed thru and given out keys to the world. The cast member barely spoke English and I was glad that I knew what to do and how to get around. If it were my first time, I would have been lost and confused. There was no instructions about park times and buses. Just directions to the food court. At first glance, no biggy.

As I said before, we had a 4 to a room. And my SSD was in her room far far away. We had 4 towels for 4 people. Once again, no biggy, we will just call for some more. The first call was made and we went to the pool. After the pool and wanting to get ready for the evening, another call was made. This CM was awesome that answered the phone. I had to sing the Mickey Mouse Club song to get more towels. Cool. I can do that. And we got them soon after.( 3 hours to get towels, and 1 wasted still waiting for them) At first glance, no biggy. But a trend was starting.

How are Cabins better? Well, everyone knows that in the bathroom cabinets are more towels and wash clothes then you will even need!!!!! And the front desk always has gone thru my packet to tell me what everything is and how to get around. Cabins win.

More later, I have to get ready for church.

 

[Lyndria]

Sounds like cabins are the way to go...however, remember, the cabins are a higher tier of resort then the All Stars. This may be what you get when you get the cheaper room.

 

[Born 2 Fish]

 

[2goofycampers]

Sounds like cabins are the way to go...however, remember, the cabins are a higher tier of resort then the All Stars. This may be what you get when you get the cheaper room.

I don't think so, I have had great and awful service at value and luxury resorts at WDW. Sometimes you just have one of those trips where Murphy is in your room also.

 

[Disneylitch]

The bottom line is that it shouldn't matter what type of resort you stay, high end or value, the service should be the same. I'm not a picky person either, but I expect good service. When staying at The Fort, we have been notified at 4:30 that our site was ready, but we were already there and set up. We had to keep calling. We were told that 1:00 is not the check in time, that it was 3:00. I told them that it's 1:00 for the campsites and the person argued with me. I told them it was on my paperwork and they told me it wasn't. First thing, DON'T ARGUE WITH THE GUESTS. I then went to the front desk and got things straightened out. A big problem is that not all cast members know all the information that is needed.

I noticed you said you were military, have you tried shades of green. They do have a small refrigerator and coffee pot in each room. The also have a couple of packages that include food and are very well priced.

All that being said, if I wasn't in the MH I would be in the cabins. We just booked a cabine for my parents and daughter for 190 per night in September. To me, that's a great price considering you don't have to go out to eat.

 

[Skyw]

more.....

Our Garden Grocer food was delivered on time. We went up to get them and were offered the option to get them delivered. We got them alright. After another phone call and at 1130 at night.

Then on Saturday night, the safe decided not to work. The key wouldn't turn. We made one call to maintenance, explaining that our things were in there and we couldn't go eat dinner without them. You do know what happened right? No one showed up and we had to call again. Finally after 2 hours we got it fixed and we were on our way. This time we got the manager and maintenance guy.


OK. Now the last thing. My SIL needed to get signed up for the magical express back to the airport. After 3 calls, 3 different answers and a trip to the front desk, she finally got the information she needed. And that did waste a large part of her day trying to arrange this. She has done this at the Fort with absolutely no problems. Because of that, she knew she wasn't getting the correct info on the first few calls.

We never had issue with the Cabins maintenance calls or setting up magical express. The cabins win again.

Next will be a 7 years olds view of the pools, theme-ing and resort activities.

 

[Born 2 Fish]

 

[Skyw]

POOL- my DS 7 loved the pool at ASSp. Even though it didn't have a slide. He loved the size and shape. ASSp for the pool.

Theme-ing- He also thought the over the top sports theme statue's and things were very cool. "way better then FW". ASSp for theme-ing

Resort activities- None except the pool. Read the review above. We did miss the evening FW activities like watching the movie or the fireworks from the beach. On one night particular, we weren't really ready to go to the parks but still wanted to do something. There was not anything to do except the pool Great for kids,,,not so much for me. ASSp (7 year old) and FW for me.

I cant really compare the food court to the dining at FW. We usually don't eat at FW. But it was pretty good food. Burgers were fresh, pizza's were very good. No complaints other then the expense. for AASp.

Transportation- . Here is the big surprise. We hated it!!!! It took forever to get anywhere. We waited as long as a half hour many times for a bus to a park. The MK bus was stand up room only on both days that we went. Boy, did I miss the boat. If I had to wait a while for the boat, at least we could play on the beach and hang out. At All Stars, we stood on a concrete uncovered curb. JOY. FW for transportation.

As an adult, we really missed the animals, nice people staying at FW and not having the cost of going out ot eat. Or having to go out to eat when we wanted to stay in.

We decided to wait and save more money in order to stay at the cabins next time we go. This is just my humble opinion.

 

[PaPa Doc]

I have to agree that the "bloom is off the rose" with regard to a lot of Disney service - and IMHO this also includes the Fort. Late January was our fifth stay at FW cabins, after an absence of almost 5 years.

Although we got a good dose of Magic, it seems to me there were a number of examples of "slippage" all 'round WDW. Staff reductions were really obvious, and CMs were uniformly more stressed out, harder to locate, or manning more than one battle station.

Granted, it was training week while we were there - but we've been there during the same shake-down for new cast members before, and this time 'round they were literally being thrown into the deep end to sink or swim. A very small example: Two tearful episodes on the part of 2 different brand new ("this is my 2nd day!") people in 2 different parks w/o an "adult CM" in sight who couldn't make sense of snacks on the DP (we actually cried together - not being good at higher calculus, I gave up on day 1).

Everywhere from snack carts in the parks to front desk at FW - very often got "I don't know" (period, end of encounter), or flat out wrong information ("You cannot use resort luggage checking on departure unless you are on the Magic Bus") and very little "let me find out..."

My overall sense is that people were more hurried, more harried, and generally much less experienced than previously.

Among several bright spots were: the mousekeeper who staged large "tableaux" in our cabin using my DGD's stuffed animals every day (even the ones they got at Universal!) - 11 and 5 yo couldn't wait to get "home" to see what she had set up for them; and the boat captain + trainee who used an early AM training run to give our princess a special ride to the MK for Cindy breakfast when we mistakenly showed up at the dock before the boat service officially opened. There was enough magic to balance the fact that that things are murkier and less easy to navigate.

Overall, the fact that most CMs obviously tried hard (and more often than not succeeded) made up for the overall sense that the Mouse is getting stingy(er) with his employees and sloppier about his guests in his old age...

 

[Skyw]

I kinda got the feeling that they were understaffed too.

 

[Born 2 Fish]

 

[2goofycampers]

Our first on site stay was 1991. I have to say we have seen a decline in the service and the food. But, we still keep going back, for The Fort.

 

[starbuc71]

As I stated before, at least in my book in this day and age, price is a huge factor in any vacation. I am not a cabin fan just due to the fact that Disney categorizes them as a moderate resort, hence the huge price per night. I have always thought of staying in a cabin to see how much easier it would be not setting up the RV for a quick weekend trip, but the price always makes me back out. I guess I'm spoiled with an RV, not that $100 a night for a piece of concrete is all that great either...lol

 

[PaPa Doc]

My family aren't really campers, so getting gear and supplies would be a waste, and we are now enough people with DGDs and their assorted cousins to need 2 rooms, so altho a rental Motor Home looks like it would be fun, it'd be an adventure in togetherness. Have stayed at Disney hotels and also in DTD (before discovering the Cabins) - and then never looked back. I am SOOOO glad the on property hotels were all booked that first year and the "trailers" were mentioned as an alternative by a CM.

For one thing we no longer feel like we're missing something if we don't see every nook and cranny of the Parks (after all what is there to do at the hotel? - as far as our kids are concerned a pool is a pool is a pool*), since just hanging out at FW is a real vacation all by itself...

* I actually couldn't convince 6yo and 11 yo to take the treck to the new Meadows Pool when the cabin area pool was "right over there." Never did get to see the renovations on this trip!

I will probably be back sooner than 5 years this time aound - hope maybe the Mouse will have more shine on by then...?

 

[iheartdisney]

I am LOVING this report! July is our first stay at the cabins, and I have always stayed either All Stars or Shades of Green.
With the military discount this year, we are staying in 2 cabins for about $70 more than 3 rooms at Shades would cost. And since it is summer, about the same price as the "values" (remember when they were a value? What happened there?)

and I agree about maintenance at the All Stars. One trip, our bathroom door handle broke, in the locked position, of course. We called at around 9. it was 2 a.m. before someone showed up. And between my mother and I, about 4 treks to the lobby to use the potty. Apparantly, the all star resorts do not have a dedicated maintenace person (THREE RESORTS, NO MAINENANCE GUY!) and it took so long because he had to come from Animal Kingdom lodge, and apparantly our call came it at shift change, so it didn't get passed down. Very un-magical.
But I LOVE the value to cabin coparison. Keep it up!!

 

[lync]

We've stayed at All Star Sports and the cabins. Hands down, the cabins are better for us. Just parking right outside our door is enough for us! Not to mention the kitchen and the seperate bedroom/living room area! I do agree that Disney kind of treats the values as a "second rate citizen".

 

[sharadoc]

Just wanted to add that if you are staying at All-Star Sports, it's a quick walk over to All-Star Music that has non-stop activities and a nightly movie around the pool. It's a shame they didn't tell you about that or you would have had something to do on your "off" night there.

We love the cabins too and love the water parade and fireworks from the beach.

 

[bord1niowa]

Another option is to rent a trailer locally. Sleeps up to 9 with a kitchen and all. Can be much cheaper than 2 rooms or the cabins.