All Star Music FAQ thread and tips

[wdwnomad]

Just wanted to post my review of the All Star Music. I stayed there from 12/7/08 to 12/13/08 in a standard room in the Broadway section. Overall, it was a nice stay. This was during Pop Warner week and I didn't mind the groups around. Mostly cheerleaders stayed in our resort. They were fine. Never once heard them practicing as I people have said they would do. They do travel around in packs but they were well behaved.

The room was really nice. Mousekeeping could have been a little better but I didn't mind. A couple of times we came back to the room around 2 and they hadn't even gotten to our room yet. A little annoying but with just two adults in the room it didn't need much cleaning anyway.

Transportation was good. Buses were shared with the other All Stars a little more than would have been desired. A couple of times at closing at Epcot the buses were still being shared. I thought at least for that they should have spilt them up.

The activities in the pool area was really nice. I didn't take part in them but it would be nice when I take my nieces back. I think they would enjoy it. They had stuff going on from the afternoon to the evening.

The food court was, well, a food court. Nothing special, nothing bad.

 

[joeatdisney2008]

We just spent 2 weeks in a family suite and I really liked the suite. We are a family of 5-DD(9), DS(7), & DD(5). We really liked having a queen bed in the bedroom, desk in the bedroom (with power strip-great for charging phone, camera...), and a comfy chair in the bedroom. The fridge, micro and coffee maker were nice. And the kitchen provided a lot of extra storage that was really nice.
__________________

 

[PlutoGirl1117]

My family and I just stayed in a family suite from 12/5-12/13. We all LOVED the suite! We were in the Jazz section. It was nice and quite in the back. Not a bad trip to the pools/food courts at all.

However, I did NOT enjoy the cheerleaders there. It seemed every where we went, they would break out in cheers. Not just at ASMu, but on the busses, in the parks, even at the airport and on the plane!! Trying to watch the movie by the pool one night was VERY annoying!! My daughter loved all the activities though. The pool parties, the movies! Makes for taking a nap by the pool a bit difficult though! On our last day, we had that "lag" time, you know, not enough time to go to a park, yet still having to much time to wait for Magical Express! So, my husband and I were napping at the pool, and then BOOM! Music SO loud! Off to the food court!

We really enjoyed the suite though! Two bathrooms were great. Loved the extra room, loved being able to go TO a different room from the kids. The two TVs were nice also.

 

[DreaGirl]

Thanks for the reviews on the family suites. We are still trying to decide if we want a family suite or to stay at Pop.

Any recommendations? We are a family of 4.

 

[hematite153]

However, I did NOT enjoy the cheerleaders there. It seemed every where we went, they would break out in cheers. ... Trying to watch the movie by the pool one night was VERY annoying!!

When we were there in Sept. we tried to watch a movie from the pool one night and found that even without the cheerleaders it is annoyingly loud and incredibly hard to hear the movie. We ended up relocating to right in front of the movie/speakers in order to have a chance at hearing it.

I don't understand why they don't turn on the captions? With a DVD the captions usually appear below the movie so don't interfere at all. But, they would make the movie accessible to guests with hearing impairments, make it easier to follow for people whose first language isn't English and help to deal with the fact that the background noise is really extreme.

 

[PlutoGirl1117]

When we were there in Sept. we tried to watch a movie from the pool one night and found that even without the cheerleaders it is annoyingly loud and incredibly hard to hear the movie. We ended up relocating to right in front of the movie/speakers in order to have a chance at hearing it.

I don't understand why they don't turn on the captions? With a DVD the captions usually appear below the movie so don't interfere at all. But, they would make the movie accessible to guests with hearing impairments, make it easier to follow for people whose first language isn't English and help to deal with the fact that the background noise is really extreme.

Good point! They really should turn on the captions!

I have to say, if the cheerleaders just didn't keep breaking out in cheers, they really wouldn't have bothered me! Sure, it was crowded, but that was no biggie really. And I have to say that when in the food court, they were polite and everything. It was just the "constant" cheering! I know they were excited though! But by day 8 I just wanted to yell STOP IT PLEASE!!!

 

[musicmama]

Stayed in Rock (not my choice) from December 17th to early morning on the 25th. We will NEVER go back to Music! (I guess I really am a Pop snob after all.) Our room request was for Broadway or the standard rooms in Jazz or Calypso because I'd had knee surgery in August but..... no pixie dust for us!

Room was almost as far away as possible from everything (very back of Rock building 4) including the elevator. Parking was deplorable because of a large number of tour group buses being allowed to take up multiple parking spots for all but the last 2 nights - which meant parking in the "3" lot or on the Sports side of "4" and hobbling back to the room. Shower and tub faucets dripped constantly. Front desk agent when we checked in just before 11pm was miserable - I asked about an upgrade (and our room request) and she cut me off. Iron was unuseable (found that out too late) and the ironing board cover should have been replaced long ago. The shelf unit had dust an inch thick on the top that was only moved when I cleaned it off to put stuff on. The only positive comment I can make is that there were no bed bugs.

DH used the food court several times because he was working for the first part of our trip - it was deemed "OK" by him. DD and I went once (refillable mugs were out of the question because of the distance) on a night when my knee had been a problem and I had to be wheeled out of the Studios, and the food was AWFUL! Stood in line for half an hour for cold pasta and chicken - good thing there was a microwave to make it warm.

I had purchased a couple of things in another resort shop that needed to be returned (sizes) and the cashier refused me, even though I had been told that I should have been able to do this.

The biggest problem -- DH needed to send a letter via UPS and the @#$% concierge overrode my stored Amex card for room charging with his VISA card! We found out when the room key was refused at Downtown Disney just before we needed to be at WL for Whispering Canyon dinner. The lovely concierge at WL called Music and got a strange response when I wanted to clear my charges. When she put me on the line, she asked about the last 4 digits of my VISA card and I said "What VISA? Should be Amex!". This meant that everything else for the night went on my Amex instead of the room, just in case. When we finally got back to the hotel (after 1am) I went to the lobby to get this straightened out. 45 minutes later, a couple of lame excuses offered, my Amex was correctly re-applied and charged and the "key" was available again. Thank goodness that this was our next-to-last night.

All in all, a perfectly awful hotel experience. Never to be repeated - I'll give up my PIN code before I'll stay here again. I expected the great service, not-beat-up rooms, great locations/parking and good food we've had at Pop. Not surly CMs, dusty surfaces, cold dinner and poor parking!

 

[Eli's 1st trip]

A few questions...

We are planning a trip for the week after Thanksgiving 2009, Nov. 29th - Dec.4th. I see that many of you have stayed in the Family suite and liked them...that is our plan.

So my questions..

1. How many family suites are there? How early do I need to make reservations?

2. Will Christmas decorations be up then?

3. How do I find out if there are any "things" going on, like cheerleading competions and such?

Thanks

 

[Alphabetsoup]

Just got back yesterday. Had rooms 5550-5552 in Country Faire. A bit of a hike to the main food court, but not too bad. Our rooms were clean, no bed bugs, no dust, no dirty stuff. Biggest problem we had was a leaking sink that left the carpet a bit damp and consequently a faint smell of mildew. (Must remember to email and suggest that they fix that!).

Food court was sometimes crowded (so the person who waited 45 minutes for cold food...best to try not to eat there during busy times). The longest we waited was 5 minutes for a custom omlet one morning. The food court was always very clean, saw LOTS of cleaners in there on Christmas Day even.

Didn't try the pool, but they were pressure cleaning the tiles around it every morning while we were there.

Our CMs at check in and guest services and the shops were all very friendly and helpful.

This was my second stay in CF at ASMu (10 years apart). I would definitely stay there again.

My next Disney adventure....March 2009 at ASMo...Princess 1/2 here I come!!

 

[bigbabyblues]

I thought I wrote a little review of our 11/20-30 stay at ASMu, so I'll write an even shorter version....

CHECK-IN - Very smooth and simple. Of course, it was not quite 6:30 in the morning! There was no one else in the lobby except the CM's. I don't remember the CM's name, but she was very nice and helpful.

ROOM - We didn't make any room requests, and we had paid for a standard room. We were in Jazz, building 2, 2nd floor facing the parking lot. Our room was ready when we checked in, which we did not expect. When we went in, the room was clean, there was a towel Mickey on one of the beds, and a towel animal in the window. We didn't have any issues with the room at all. Even the remote was clean, no crumbs or anything gross in the cracks around the buttons (it sounds dumb, but I've seen a couple that were dirty). We've stayed at the value resorts before, and the rooms are basically the same. There was a shelf with pegs near the sink area, which was nice since we wore jackets all week. The tv stand/entertainment center was a little different than we've seen, it had one set of drawers and the other side was a cabinet; at Pop, they're all drawers. No big deal, we had plenty of space, but it was just different.

BUSES - The bus service was much better than I had expected from what I've been reading. In the mornings, each All Star had it's own bus except one morning we were going to MK. We didn't share on the other morning we went to MK, so I'm not sure why that happened, but it wasn't a big deal. There were only a handful of people on the bus when we got on; some of the people from ASMovies had to stand. At night, the 3 AS resorts were sharing until park closing (not sure what time they started sharing, or if it was each day). At closing time, they went back to not sharing. Waits for the buses were minimal also, except for one morning. We were going to MK for our 8:05 ADR at the Crystal Palace one morning, and we were about the bus stop by 7:20. We've done this each trip since 2004, but the bus didn't come for awhile. We got to the MK right at 8:00. It was not a problem, they didn't even mention it when we checked in for breakfast. As far as drive time from ASMu, it took 14 minutes to back from the MK after MVMCP, AK was less than 10 minutes, Epcot was about 11 minutes and DHS was about the same. I can't find my times for DHS right now.

FOOD COURT - We ate breakfast several times, lunch once or twice, and dinner twice at the food court. It was the typical food court, the food was fine. There wasn't a huge selection, but we didn't have trouble finding something we wanted.

CMs - We didn't find any CM that wasn't friendly anywhere at WDW. Almost all of the CMs at ASMu smiled and said hi, and several went out of their way to talk with us.

POOL - We only swam once, or I should say, DH & the boys swam once. They said the water was warm in the pool, the one at Calypso. They had towels and towel returns at both pools, which I haven't seen at the values before. The pool area was always clean, and we saw them washing down the chairs and things every morning on our way to the bus. It seemed like there was always something going on by the pool, dance parties, games, etc. They are still doing the nightly movie, but we didn't go. Life jackets were also available at the pool for little ones.

EVERYTHING ELSE - We were in Jazz, and until our last day, we didn't even venture past our room. I did take a walk around the entire resort while the boys were swimming. I didn't think the walk from even Country Fair looked too bad, but I only walked it once.

We would not hesitate to go back to ASMu again.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Stayed in Rock (not my choice) from December 17th to early morning on the 25th. We will NEVER go back to Music! (I guess I really am a Pop snob after all.) Our room request was for Broadway or the standard rooms in Jazz or Calypso because I'd had knee surgery in August but..... no pixie dust for us!

There are no standard rooms in Calypso, and hardly any in Jazz because it is mostly suites. If you have serious medical issues, you can book your room through the special needs service, which is more likely to get you a close room for medical reasons.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

So my questions..

1. How many family suites are there? How early do I need to make reservations?
2. Will Christmas decorations be up then?
3. How do I find out if there are any "things" going on, like cheerleading competions and such?
Thanks

1) About 200, I think. Not sure how early they would book up that time of year.

2) This year they went up just after Thankgiving at the resort

3)This is really hard to know in advance. Pop Warner is usually the same time most years, but the All Stars get a LOT of random groups.

 

[P&B's Mom]

There are no standard rooms in Calypso, and hardly any in Jazz because it is mostly suites. If you have serious medical issues, you can book your room through the special needs service, which is more likely to get you a close room for medical reasons.

Are the suites only in Jazz and Calypso? Just wondering what type of requests to make when I book a suite.

 

[musicmama]

There are no standard rooms in Calypso, and hardly any in Jazz because it is mostly suites. If you have serious medical issues, you can book your room through the special needs service, which is more likely to get you a close room for medical reasons.

Just to clarify, I didn't feel that I needed special needs assistance because my surgery had been in August, although my TA did mention this when she made our room requests. My knee had improved, but the long days took a toll. And yes, I admit that I was too stubborn to get a wheelchair or an ECV - pretty much because I didn't want to force my DH or DD to push and I was afraid of being one of "those awful ECV people". However, being at the very back of the building - and not getting my requested buildings - made things less likeable from the start. It pretty much went downhill from there with the poor parking situation and the less-than-stellar condition of the room.

Also, the one night we had dinner and waited - it was after the Studios closed (so about 8:15 by the time we got back) - I expected that to be past the regular dinner time, which is why I was surprised by the wait.

 

[CrystalCastle]

I'll be staying at All Star Music in a couple weeks and I have a question about grocery delivery. I was going to use Gardengrocer.com. Has anyone done this for ASMu? If so, how did it go? Any problems? Instructions on how this all works? Sorry to ask so much. I've never done this before and this is my first trip back to WDW in almost 16 years. Thanks for everything!

 

[Eli's 1st trip]

1) About 200, I think. Not sure how early they would book up that time of year.

2) This year they went up just after Thankgiving at the resort

3)This is really hard to know in advance. Pop Warner is usually the same time most years, but the All Stars get a LOT of random groups.

thanks soooo much!!

 

[hematite153]

I'll be staying at All Star Music in a couple weeks and I have a question about grocery delivery. I was going to use Gardengrocer.com. Has anyone done this for ASMu? If so, how did it go? Any problems? Instructions on how this all works? Sorry to ask so much. I've never done this before and this is my first trip back to WDW in almost 16 years. Thanks for everything!

I haven't ordered to ASMu before, but, I have ordered from Garden Grocer and it went really well. At SSR they delivered right to our room after we called to tell them which room we'd been assigned to; I imagine it would work the same at ASMu because of the exterior hallways.

One thing to know (in case you don't already) is that you can order lots of extras that aren't on their lists. Just add it into the comments. If you want alcohol you'll need to send them a fax of your id proving that you're 21+ and the same person will need to receive the groceries and have the same id with them at the time.

Overall, I was thrilled with their service and would certainly order through them again.

One last note: have you arranged to have a fridge? Remember, unless you're staying in a family suite, the value resorts don't have included fridges.

 

[seasonality]

Hi - We're a family of 6 staying at ASMu in August of 2009. We are very excited and can hardly wait already! Thank you to each and every one of you for sharing all of this wonderful information. I've learned so much just by reading this thread alone...I'm only on page 27 but plan to read it all!

Does anyone know if the pool closes at a certain time? I had read a trip report where a family took a dip in the pool each night after returning from the park and then showered in the changing room before heading to bed. Sounds like a neat way to save time in the mornings but wasn't sure when the pool closes. We are all night owls and like to sleep in.

 

[hematite153]

Does anyone know if the pool closes at a certain time?

I'm reasonably sure there are quiet hours posted by the pool and there are only certain hours when there are lifeguards on duty.

But, if you were to swim quietly and are strong enough swimmers to not need a lifeguard, I imagine you could swim late at night.

 

[seasonality]

Thank you!