All Star Music Suite vs. Port Orleans Riverside

[Familyof5fromNJ]

My family and I will be on our first vacation to WDW 4/29 - 5/5. We are currently booked at Port Orleans Riverside since there are 5 of us (2 adults, 3 children). I was looked at the pictures posted for the All Star Music Family Suites and they look great. The extra bathroom would be a plus. Do you think I should switch? Would you? Kids are 3, 7 and 9. I checked online and I think I'll be paying about the same as what I had paid for Port Orleans. Any information would be greatly appreciated if you have stayed at either resort. Thank you!

 

[minnie61650]

If cost were about the same I would switch in a heartbeat.

Comparisons:


The Family Suites has 2 seperate sleeping areas.
POR has 1.

The Family Suites are 520 square feet.
POR is 314 square feet.

The Family Suites has 2 bathrooms.
POR has 1 bathroom.

The Family Suites have 2 dressing areas with a privacy curtain.
POR has 1 dressing area with a privacy area.

The Family Suites have 2 sinks, 2 closets, 2 safes, & 2 hair dryers.
POR has 1 sink.1 closet,1 safe, and 1 hair dryer.

The Family Suites have a kitchette with a nice storage area,lots of counter space, a microwave , paper plates & bowls, plastic ware, can opener, Paper towels, fridge,& coffeee pot.
POR has a fridge &a coffee pot.

The Family Suites -Sleeps up to 6 (plus one child under age 3 in a Pak-n-Play crib)
POR-Sleeps up to 5 (plus one child under age 3 in a Pak-n-Play crib)

The Family Suites--Queen bed, full-size pullout sofa, convertible ottoman & chair sleepers (4 separate sleepers) & 2 TVs.
POR has 2 double beds and a trundle bed&1 TV.

The Family Suites -Studio amenities and separate sleeping areas giving more privacy than a standard room.
POR is a standard room.

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Here is the layout of POR:

POR room lay out

Family Suite layout
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Here are some photos of the POR room with the trundle bed from Allearsnet:

the trundle bed

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Here are some photos from the DIS resort website:

** NOTE there is a wall mounted hair dryer next to the bathroom sink.
Look at 8th and 10th phots down and you will see it.

For more info about the All Star Resorts Please visit the FAQ thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1072409





Have fun at Disney wherever you choose to stay!

 

[grumpytx]

If you will do a search on this site for All Star Music suites I am pretty sure you will find lots of info. If you haven't checked availability you might want to do so, it wouldn't suprise me if they are already booked for the time frame in question. You probably won't get any kind of a room discount according to what others have posted on this site. Good luck.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Hey...looks like we'll be there at the same time! We are staying at POR from 4/29-5/5 with our family of 5...ages 6, 9, and 12. It's our first vacation to WDW too! Are you as excited as we are? I hope you have a great time wherever you decide to stay!

 

[minnie61650]

If you will do a search on this site for All Star Music suites I am pretty sure you will find lots of info. If you haven't checked availability you might want to do so, it wouldn't suprise me if they are already booked for the time frame in question. You probably won't get any kind of a room discount according to what others have posted on this site. Good luck.

Good advice.

If you decide you want to stay at the Family Suites make sure you can book the Suites before you cancel your POR ressies.

Here are some other websites with info about the Family Suites:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/resorts/asm-suite-review.html


www.mousesavers.com/allstarmusicsuites.html


http://www.wdwplanner.com/All Star Music.htm

http://www.intercot.com/resorts/disney/allstarmusic/default.asp




Have fun at Disney!

 

[dbm20th]

I agree that if space were the only issue, and you guys don't want to be on top of each other all the time, then go with ALM. But that may not be the only reason to consider. As mentioned before, booking can be an isse. From a purely Resort stanpoint, I personally can't tolerate the AS resorts. They are noisy and not very nice. POFQ is a far superior place, imho. But again, comfort may trump scenery.

 

[minnie61650]

I agree that if space were the only issue, and you guys don't want to be on top of each other all the time, then go with ALM. But that may not be the only reason to consider. As mentioned before, booking can be an isse. From a purely Resort stanpoint, I personally can't tolerate the AS resorts. They are noisy and not very nice. POFQ is a far superior place, imho. But again, comfort may trump scenery.

My experience at All Star Music has been different than yours.

All Star Music is my favorite value resort. It tends to be the quietest of all the values.

Birnbaum recommends All Star Music in his tour guide Walt Disney World without kids saying, All Star Music tends to have a higher ratio of adults to children.

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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Many others have stated in thier reviews about how quiet the Family Suites are.

Here are a few of their reviews:

Just returned Friday from a week long stay in the family suites and they were great. My family and I (DH, DB, DSIL and DNep) stayed in them. We were in room 2650 which was on the 3rd floor of Jazz building #2. I would ditto many of the comments that whetstone had previously posted, especially the air conditioning. My DH likes the room on the cold side and I don't think the temperature ever got down to the temp we had it set at. The resort was pretty crowded during the time we were there (lots of tour groups), but our room was in a good location where we didn't have a lot of noise (DNep took naps each day). The pull out sofa and chair were pretty comfortable to sleep on, but the ottoman was not as comfortable. Mousekeeping was great and we even got some towel animals (little dogs). I didn't really take any pictures of the room because it looked exactly like the pictures posted on this thread. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to post.

I made a seperate post but I'll copy it here. I'll have pics in a couple of days after we sort through them all....



Me, DH, and DS11 just got back from 5 nights in the All Star Music Suites.

We were in 2436 in the Jazz building. The room was on one of the rows that shoot straight back toward the parking lot about 3/4 of the way down on the first floor. Basically you make a right at the drum set and head straight back.

The location was very quiet. I don't think we heard a single person the whole week. It was not far away from the pool or main area.

The room was perfect for us. DS slept in the living room area and DH and I slept in the bedroom.

DS had a lot of fun trying all the different beds in the living area. He proclaimed that the couch bed was great for at night but the chair bed was best for naps. He didn't like the footstool bed but said it would be good for a smaller kid.

The only complaint I have about the room is that the bathroom for the master bedroom area is on the other side of the kitchen. It would have been nicer for me if it was within the master bedroom area, or if there was a door to the kitchen area that could be closed. I had to be careful not to wake DS going to the bathroom at night, and no walking around nekkid between the bedroom and bathroom.

Mouskeeping did a great job all week. The resort was clean, everyone was very friendly.

We only used the food court for snacks but I did see people eating burgers and pizzas. They seemed to be enjoying them.

The bus service was excellent! I could not believe how easy it was. I was very concerned about this when I went but the longest wait we had for an all stars bus was 10 minutes. One night we left MK after wishes. There were a ton of people and I was worried we would have a long wait. Within 10 minutes 3 busses stopped. We were on the third bus and the line was empty after that.

Sharing with Sports was soooo not a big deal. It's right next door and added about 2 minutes to our trips on the way back. On the way to the parks we never had to get into a crowded bus, even though they had stopped at sports first.

We took a cab to Boma and hopped on the AK bus to Magic Kingdom. We did wait about 15-20 minutes there.

Having the extra space, a fridge, microwave, coffee maker, 2 tvs, these things made the trip so much nicer than being crammed in one room with 2 double beds. I would choose this over a moderate or delux if it's the 3 of us going again.

Couple of other tidbits.

The Bed - i think it is a queen. It seemed bigger than the sofa bed in the living room that was a double. I didn't measure it but both me and DHs assessment was it was bigger.

Coffee Maker - The coffee Maker takes 4 inch basket filters. We took the cones instead and they worked fine. We didn't take enough, but we reused them (for 2 pots in the same morning) We checked the gift shop and they do not sell filters, so don't forget to take them.

The room was wonderful. We were on the 3rd floor of Jazz 2. Not too terribly far from the food court or bus stops, in my opinion, and smack dab between both pools. We had plenty of room, and the beds were all comfortable. Believe me, I slept in them all, with all the bed changing and sleepwalking my DS and DD were doing. We had great mousekeeping, with towel animals or a window display every single day but one! Everyone was helpful and nice. The pool was never terribly crowded. The food court was crowded if we were there at 9:00 a.m. which we only did once. Bus service was great - we never waited very long and the buses were never too crowded except on the EMH morning at MK that we braved. We never heard noises from other guests. All in all it was a wonderful stay. I will be posting restaurant and dining plan info and reviews, too, in a few days, after I do laundry!

You can find this info on the Family suites FAQ thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1072409&page=1&pp=15