All Star Music or POP?? Which one??

[sueh]

I have a trip booked for July and the reservations are with All Star Music.
I have been reading great posts about Pop Century.
I have 2 children (8 & 6).
Which one do you recommend better?

Thanks

 

[Kazzy1548]

Both are great, However Pop is much bigger which = to more people. We thought the service was lacking with the CM's.... We will not go back to Pop anytime soon, it was way to noisy for us. Although the best thing from Pop was the bus service

 

[momsoftwins]

my kids and i did alsmovies last yr and really liked it. we had never stayed on property b4 so we had nothing to compare it to. this yr we are stayin at pop to give it a try. i have finally got thur their head that allstar movies isnt the only "mickey" hotel there. so after lookin at the pics of pop century a million times i think they are game to try it.
as far as noice and crowded. well its disney and we will have a blast no matter what

 

[HopperFan]

After 3x at POP, gave ASMu a try last month. Glad I am going back to POP in fall. POP was never noisy for us (we had problems with neighbors at ASMu both times there), I like that POP is a brightly lit and upbeat resort, we were not comfortable walking around Music at night, a very dark resort. POP food court had a much better offering of food and faster service. Both we experienced great CMs and great Mousekeeping.

 

[Rora]

Do POP. Your kids will love it!

 

[minnie61650]

I have stayed at all levels of Disney Resorts. My favorite Disney owned resort is All Star Music.

Here are a few reasons :



1. I can book a preferred room location.
The way All Star Music is laid out it "seems" smaller than most of the other Disney resorts. If I stay in a preferred building i only see the Calypso and Jazz builings on the way to to and from the main pool and the bus stop and food court. Since I stay in preferred room I know I am going to be close to the food court, bus stop, & main pool.

2. I enjoy the theming at the All Stars. All Star Music is also is the quietest of the values. Generally less people stay there and there are more seniors and couples and less young children because children enjoy the themes of the other values more.

3. The bus service at the All Star Music is very good. Since I use an ECV good bus transportation is essential.

4. The entry at the values and Mods are much more Handicap friendly.
I am able to get in and out of my All Star room unassisted. This way my husband can go and play a round of golf and know I can leave my room to relax by the pool if I choose.
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All Star Music is my favorite resort. It tends to be the quietest of all the values.


All Star Music just underwent a refurbishment of all of the rooms and was completed in June 2007.


Here is a website with photos of the newly refurbished rooms at All Star Music.

Look at the Jazz Inn section with new posted:

http://allearsnet.com/acc/g_asmu.htm




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DH and I enjoy the landscaping and peacefulness of All Star Music.
We enjoy relaxing by the pool (there are plenty of chairs and lounges), and the beautiful lighting at the resort by night.

I have never had the unfortunate experience of running into the any of the large
groups of teens who sometimes stay at the values on school trips.
As long as you can avoid those large groups I do not think Noise will be an issue.

*HINT if you close your bathroom door at night you might not even hear the turbo toilets.
I close my bathroom door and I don't hear them.
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I love The All Star Resorts.

I am 56 years old and travel several times a yearfor pleasure. I often stay at 3and 4 star and sometimes a 5 star hotels and motels.
So the deluxe and mod resorts are just another hotel/motel to me.
Staying at an All Star is like being in the heart of the Magic and that is where I want to be.

All Star Music is my favorite. It is quieter because more couples stay there. I love staying at the Calypso building. It is closer to the pool, food court and bus stop.

Here is a site with a map of All Star Sports and All Star Music.
http://www.wdwinfo.com/resortmaps/allstarmap.htm
Scroll down. All Star Music is at the bottom of the page.
The Calypso buildings at All Star Music are #1 and #10 are nearest to the food court and bus stop.

The Calypso pool at ASMu has Donald Duck.

The buses are wonderful.

Bus rides are quite short from the ALL Stars according to PassPorter.com

All Star Buses-CBR buses---POPbuses--PO buses--- Contemporary
MK 20 min---- 20 min-----25 min------10 min---20 min(mono)
Epcot 10 min-- 15 min-----20 min------10 min---15 min
MGM 10 min----12 min-----15 min------15 min---20min
AK 10 min------20min-------15 min----15 min---20 min
DTD 15 min----20 min------20 min-----15 min---35 min

It only takes 10 minutes to get to Epcot, MGM and AK from All Stars.
MK is 20 min away. That's the same amount of time it takes on the monorail from the Contemporary.

A WORD ABOUT BUS SHARING

To me Bus Sharing at the All Stars is really a non issue.

In the mornings during Park opening hours each All Star usually has a dedicated bus.
During mid day it is usually just our stop and maybe one more on the way to the parks. On the way back sometimes it is all 3 but often Sports and Movies share and Music has it's own bus back. Each of the All Stars usually has it's own dedicated bus back from the MK.
That is a big plus. It seems like the Music bus stop usually has the shortest of the three All Star bus lines.

I guess some people who stay at POP see all 3 All Star names on the return sign of our bus stop when they head to the POP bus stop and think All Stars also has 3 stops on the way to the park.
(Even when we stop at another AS resort to load up it has not taken more than 5 minutes and we are on our way!)

The pools at The All Stars are very kid friendly.

When staying at the All Stars you can use any of the All Star pools.That means 3 main pools ,3 quiet pools and 3 kiddie pools to chose from.

The All Star Movie Fantasia pool has Mickey.

The Calypso pool at ASMU has Donald Duck.

And the Surfs up pool at All Star Sports has giant surf boards.

Here are a few pool photos.

All Star Sports pool.

All Star Music Donald pool.

All Star Movies Mickey Pool.

I have visited WDW more than a dozen times with the 1st time in Oct. 1971. It was brand new. I've stayed at FW, Disney Inn, a few the of Hotels on hotel Blvd., CBR and the towers at the Contemporary. I got to see the MK from my balcony at the Contemporary and I'm happy I got to experience it once. I just prefer the All Star Resorts.
The theming is pure Disney.

My last 6 visits have been at The All Stars and during the fall of 2005 when we took dd,dsil, and our grandson age 3(at the time) for 8 nights we stayed at the All Stars Music. I thought about AKL and even though we can well afford AKL I just wanted Alex to experience the Disney Magic at the All Stars on his first visit.
Where else can one find Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse at the pool?

Have fun at Disney!

 

[disalways]

We stayed at the POP last year, and loved it. In fact my kids loved it so much they were upset that we are staying at the Poly this year. lol We stayed in the 50's building facing the Bowling Pin Pool... It was wonderful for late night swimming. The food court was good too. Over all we enjoyed the POP.

 

[minnie61650]

I stay at the values quite often and have never had an issue with noise.

Some reasons why some guests experience noise issues come with :

1. The main pool is located very close to some of the value rooms.

The themed pools at the mods and deluxes are set away from the rooms.

Tip: Ask for a room facing away or located a ways from the main pool.

2. Turbo toilets

The Values are newer and have the turbo toilets.

Tip: Close your bathroom door at night because noise travels through the plumbing.

3. Connecting rooms

About 50% of the value rooms have connecting doors.

Noise will travel under the connecting doors in a room.

Tip: If you have noisy neighbors open your connecting door and place a rolled up bath towel on the floor between then close and lock your connecting door.

These tips should help you get a restful sleep wherever you choose to stay.

Have fun at Disney!

 

[bigbabyblues]

We've stayed a Pop twice, but we prefer ASMovies. That said, we're going to stay at ASMusic this year. There isn't anything wrong with Pop, but we just liked AS better.

 

[WillCAD]

I prefer Music because it's quieter (it's the quietest of all the Values, IMHO) and because the quality in the food court is a little better than Pop (menus are very similar but quality and service is better at Music).

If you have a car, Music definitely has much better parking - more spaces and more rooms close to the parking lots.

 

[Dengar]

I've stayed at the Pop Century twice.. and loved it. We had pretty decent rooms, first time was the 50s and the second was the 60s. The 50s was pretty tough, as it was so far away from the lobby and buses. But, the 60s was perfect. It wasn't close to the noisy pools, but it wasn't far from anything either.

The buses are what really get me going. If I'm correct, the other value resort guests have to share buses with each other.

However, I never did stay at any of the All Stars.

 

[julm26]

If you like chaos and too too many people then go to POP - we were there in September and hated every minute of it. We will be heading to a moderate this september or to a different value.

We won't go back to POP ever again.

 

[disalways]

I stay at the values quite often and have never had an issue with noise.

3. Connecting rooms

About 50% of the value rooms have connecting doors.

Noise will travel under the connecting doors in a room.

Tip: If you have noisy neighbors open your connecting door and place a rolled up bath towel on the floor between then close and lock your connecting door.

These tips should help you get a restful sleep wherever you choose to stay.

Have fun at Disney!

That is a great idea! My only complaint when I stayed at the POP was there was a family next door who came two days after we arrived, And they were loud! BUT the thing that got all of us... Well we were left wondering just how loud we were! Yikes! I certainly think a towel rolled up would be a good thing whether you are the noise maker or the one listening to the noise, iykwim?

 

[tpuszcz]

As a kid I liked ASM but now we are going to POP and I was hoping that it can compare to the ASM!

 

[minmate]

We stayed at Pop twice... once in April 2004 right after it opened and once in April 2005. Overall, we liked it a lot both times. We are looking at our next trip and considering ASMu because of the family suites (we're a family of six). I've had to do some convincing to get my kids to consider it, they liked Pop that much - even better than GF and it's convenience with the monorail!

We felt the rooms were small, but I believe they are the same size at ASMu. The layout of the beds, I hear is different. At Pop they are closer to the doors (and concreted down so you can't move them) -- which makes it feel crowded when walking in.

I have not stayed at ASMu so I can't give you any personal opinions comparing them.

But I don't think you can really go wrong with either!

 

[Shmily1]

We've stayed at almost all the resorts and nine of those times were at POP(does that tell you anything? ). We stayed at ASMu in December and loved it! The theming at both is awesome! If you are going to WDW to have fun and not stress out if you have to wait five minutes for a bus, then you will be so happy at either one. Everyone in our family has a different favorite resort for different reasons. No matter which one you choose, you will have a blast!!!

 

[Tara8595]

I love the Pop. If they offered DVC at the Pop, I'd probably buy in. I go so often I feel like it's my 'home' resort. I have been to the All Star Music once. I won't go back.... the theming is just blick - not a lot of detail, and those murals at the food court are downright creepy - and they're not even of anyone famous.

I thought the ASMu was kind of dark and dingy, and I don't care how this makes me sound 'cause it was true when I was there - I didn't care for the clientele. There were just a lot of trashy loud rednecky obnoxious people. The foodcourt is small and limited.

Pop is bright and garrish and fun and very well themed and they play really good music in the lobby and food court. The foodcourt is huge with a lot of different offerings and I've found the food quality to be consistently good. Besides, where else can you get tie-dye cheesecake and twinkie tiramisu?

If you end up back at your hotel during fireworks time you can see them from a distance from the top floor of the back of one of the 50s buildings, both Wishes and Illuminations - Guest relations can point you in the right direction. Nice when it is rainy (like this past Tuesday night...).

I dare anyone to look at all the nostalgic shadowboxes in the lounge and not say at least a few times, "Hey - I had one of those when I was a kid!!"

The lifeguards do a cute little ceremony with the kids to open the pool in the morning. The staff in the food court does the hustle when it's not too crowded. It is just fun fun fun.

On the practical side - it has dedicated bus service and is the first stop on its Magical Express bus.

IPop.

 

[captinhookedondisney]

Pop century Cm are kinda (not all some were great) unexperienced and not don't know what to do in certain situations like traveling and park advice music i had a better experience with and i think better theme and pool.

I say ASMusic!