All Stars Music

[shana398]

We are booked for the first week in December at French Quarter. It's myself DH and DS2. We were unable to qualify for any discounts or free dining for our dates at FQ. We can move to All Stars Music and save about $900. We stayed at Wilderness Lodge last year and loved it. We picked FQ this year to save some money and also bc it is a small resort and seems it may be easier for us with a two year old.

Will we be very disappointed at ASM? How is the bus situation compared to FQ? We really don't want to switch but 900 is a lot! Is FQ worth it?

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

My guess is you will be disappointed after WL, but it's $900!!!! For me, it probably wouldn't be a question and I'd switch. But our family spends very little time in the room or at the resort. We're at-the-park people, so the room isn't that important to us. You'll have to look at your family's way of vacationing and decide if it's worth it to you. My guess is it won't matter that much to a two-year-old----it's what the adults would prefer.

My thought would be with $900 extra, think of other things you could do. An extra night or two added to the vacation. Special dinners or experiences. Extra souvenirs. Photo Pass Plus. Boat rental, carriage ride, etc.

You can also always keep trying and see if something opens up for your time slot at the resort of your choice. Many times the 45 day is the magic mark, when payment in full is due for packages. People will cancel right before for whatever reason.

All this being said, we've always stayed at a value and this time we've moved to POFQ for our upcoming trip. We did get a Free Dining PIN but wanted the full dining, not just QS. Once we upgraded, the price difference was so small, we went with a moderate. Maybe we'll be spoiled after this!

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

Hi, we just returned from an 11 night stay at Music. It was our first time there but have stayed at other values. It is a very clean resort and every cm we encountered was happy and cheerful. The price was great at just over $85 a night with the summer discount. Our room at Broadway was always kept clean.

Now, that being said, there were some things that bothered us enough that we probably would not stay there again. I had read here on the dis that buses were sometimes shared but not very often. Wrong! I can tell you that with the exception of MK and DHS closing at night where each all star had its own buses we shared buses all. the. time. In the morning going to the parks, during the day and at night from Epcot and DTD the bus was full with at least another 50 people or so left behind to wait for another bus. The worse was by far DTD at around 10 p.m. They treat the all-stars as one resort broken up into 3 sections. The bus leaving from the resort was always full from the Sports guests and many times it did not even go to Movies from Music because it was so full.

The food court is another sad story. I really don't know how Disney thought it could accommodate the guests from Sports. My dh called it the mess hall and we rarely used it other than pizza and drinks. The masses of people and noise was really unbearable especially in the morning and after 7 p.m. We have been to Pop 3 times and were aware of how busy a food court could get at these hours but nothing like this.

 

[lauradis]

All star's are basic motel.

They have bigger then life statues for kids and very kid friendly, they aren't a resort as the wl, but a basic room with cool disney themes

You will only be disappoint if you expect the style of wl resort.

It different, its new to you just enjoy it and relax, if you don't like it don't go back or try another value.

We personally stay at a different resort every time we go.

 

[shana398]

Thank you all for your info. Momtomickeyandminnie, what other values have you stayed at and do you recommend any of them? Thanks!

 

[4kids4karen]

That is PW week. Research "Pop Warner Week" before deciding to stay at a value resort. There are a few posts on here already. With All Star Sports food court down, who knows where the PW kids and families will stay. I am not saying PW is a problem, just know ahead of time to expect this group at the value resorts.

 

[shana398]

I think the second week of Dec. is Pop Warner week. I'm really torn about what to do. 900 is a lot of money but we had our hearts set on a moderate and queen sized beds. Maybe a discount will come up between now and our trip!

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

Thank you all for your info. Momtomickeyandminnie, what other values have you stayed at and do you recommend any of them? Thanks!

We have only stayed at Pop 3 times and were very happy there. It is a huge resort at 1000 rooms more than Music. Having done both I would pick Pop for the dedicated bus service but it is a bit more expensive at around $10 a night.

If you do decide on a value you can always ask for a rollaway bed for one person since the beds are a bit small. We saw many of them being brought to rooms at Music.

FWIW, I would not pay $900 more to stay moderate. The values, for all their drawbacks, are still really nice, clean and comfortable places to stay. I know some people do not like the "in your face" décor but for us it screams Disney and we really like that.

 

[Babsy]

Stayed in all of the values, and of the All Stars ASMu is my favourite because I like the theme best. (However, if you can get the discount at Pop Century, that would be best, IMO.)

If you can get the discount at Sports you are the first pic up and drop off when buses are shared. However, the food court might be an issue if closed then. Wouldn't be n issue for us. Personally, we don't eat at the food courts much - we bring food to eat in the room while getting ready in the mornings and eat in the parks for lunch and dinner.

The difference in Values and moderates is very little for $900.00!! Full instead of queen beds and less/different theming. We have stayed in moderates, but we more frequently stay in values because for a budget trip they make more sense to us. When we splurge we tend to stay in deluxe such as WL or AKL.

If you stay in Music, you might want to book a preferred room if you mind walking. It can be a hike to the furthest room. If you want a close room and don't want to pay for preferred, then Sports or Movies are a better bet.

Good luck!!

 

[noahdove]

I returned last Wednesday from All Star Music and I must say, I was disappointed. Please don't get me wrong, I ususally stay at ALStar resorts, however this time, the food court was a total mess in the morning!!! Way tooooo many people and not enough CM's to handle the crowds..Even late at night (after 10:00) there were so many people there, we could barely get our night beverage. We had the beverage refill situation with the mugs and for the most part that went well, however, when we had to wait for time to pass to finish filling our mugs, well...it took longer than it should have. We also had a problem with requests after we arrived. Our refrig nor tv worked and we did report that to the customer service ..so, when we arrived later, nothing was done So the next day, we asked again as well as where the cot was that was paid for and still not in the room. Upon arriving back late, the cot still wasn't there and a call was made to customer service and the CM acted like the request was just made and she said she would check on it, leaving one of us on the phone waiting for her to come back. That was at 10:30 and we waited...and waited...finally at 10:58 there was a knock on the door and a housekeeper pushed the cot in the room, asked if we needed help sitting it up and left..nothing else was said or an apology..Well, the next day, we arrived the TV was fixed, and the new refrig was sitting on the floor plugged in next to the cot!!!! How dangerous was that. So...with that being said, the bus would stop at the other all star resorts on the way to the Parks and occasionally stop at Sports and one time stopped at Pleasure Island and Typhoon Lagoon..At night only 1 time we stopped at Sports and other than that, we were the only resort on the bus and we never waited longer than 10 minutes for a bus to go anywhere. For whatever the reason the 3 of us received red carnations and our room was ready when we checked in...the room was always very clean and our mousekeeper was attentive to our requests for towels..in fact, upon arrival we had a towel animal waiting for us and for the rest of our days we had a different one left...We were close to pool, food court and bus stop...

 

[Rosanne]

We just got back last Tuesday from ASMusic and we had a great trip. Our experience was everything was clean when we went through the common areas and our Mousekeeper was great.

I will say that we never tried to hit the food court in the morning as we always have a granola bar in the room while getting ready to save time anyway. So, the food court probably was chaotic and we just weren't there to see it.

The two or three times we hit the food court in the evenings it was around 7:00 or so. It wasn't at all busy at that time of day but I suppose there would be a big rush around the time some of the parks close.

I've stayed at Movies, Music, Pop, Swan and Dolphin (Dolphin part), YC, CBR and visited most of the others. My favorites are Movies and the S&D. Music was good also, though. It's really great with little ones at the All Stars. My girls have always loved the cheerfulness and brightness.

All that said, I would avoid Pop Warner simply because the one time I got caught in that we got virtually no sleep at all. The cheering outside our door went on until midnight (I called and supposedly it was supposed to stop at 11:00 but didn't) and started up again around 6 a.m. I would think they were stopping and it would start again. I got kind of shell-shocked on that trip.

P.S. We only took the bus to the MK and did that twice. Both times we had our own bus coming and going. We left about 9:00 a.m. from the hotel and returned about 7/8 both times.

I guess it depends on time of day and maybe park you're going to.

 

[LoriZH]

We stayed at the ASMu for one night last week in the Suite and the best way I can put it is that the room was FANTASTIC but the resort was way too busy for me and a bit of a hot mess as far as confusion goes. The bus service however was busy but fine, it was actually better than The Contemporary, but again, very busy.

My daughter and her friend stayed there the entire week and they actually ended up at the parks before us every single time we were meeting up an ended up waiting on us all the time.

So if you don't mind the hustle and bustle, a little less service, than the extra 900 bucks in your pocket will make you happy

Oh just to let you know, our room was quiet, peaceful and a minute walk from the front desk and bus etc. I wish I could have taken that suite and put it at the CR lol.

 

[shana398]

Thanks for all the information. Unfortunately there are no room discounts for Pop for our dates, either. The only value room discount I can find right now is for the All Stars Sports or All Stars Music.

The one big concern I have is the bus situation because we have an impatient two-year-old. We loved WL last year because of the boat to MK, which was where we spent most of our time.

We prefer queen beds but can make do with fulls.

I think I am going to hold on to my FQ reservation for a while longer and see if any discounts happen to pop up for us there. If not, I am seriously going to consider moving. $900 is a lot of money, and our son may like the values better than the mods anyway at his age.

We won't do too much food court, mostly breakfast. And we can always pick up something in the parks. We mostly eat at the parks anyway.

Again, thanks for everything.

 

[HM]

Sports and Music are my favorite Value resorts. You'll never know if you'll like them if you don't try. I'd love to save $900 and still be at WDW. And bus service at the All Stars is really good in comparison to moderate and deluxe resorts in my opinion (they run a lot more buses).

 

[HopperFan]

ASMu is our least favorite and no plans to return. Since size and walking are of concern I would price out a preferred room location. I have only stayed at the back and it's a long walk. Long enough we started driving to the parks and eating elsewhere. While all other value resorts located their main hub in the middle of their oblong footprint, ASMu has their located at the end of the oblong footprint. Standard rooms are the farthest. We had numerous other issues with the resort but the inside of the room itself will be similar to all the other values.

 

[sharadoc]

I think the second week of Dec. is Pop Warner week. I'm really torn about what to do. 900 is a lot of money but we had our hearts set on a moderate and queen sized beds. Maybe a discount will come up between now and our trip!

There is a current discount for December. I think it's only 5% for POFQ, but it's 20% for other mods. I agree that you might be disappointed with a value if you are used to WL.

Look into a studio at VWL or another DVC. They are running a 30 or 30% discount, maybe you'll be okay with the price.

 

[shana398]

I have tried looking into all the discounts, and WL and FQ discounts are not available for our dates once you check availablity.

 

[goofy4tink]

I first stayed at Music back in 2003...and we (dd and I) loved it! Since then, I've bought DVC at BWV and BLT. I have stayed in VWL, CR/BLT, Polynesian, POR, YC/BCV, S/D, OKW, SSR, Pop, AoA. So, I've kind of 'slept around' at WDW. I just stayed at Music in late May, for 5 nights, followed by 2 nights at AoA-LM. Sadly, I have to say that I couldn't wait to get out of Music. It just didn't 'get it done' for me this time. I doubt anything really changed. I think it was my perception...I was now used to either a more deluxe experience or a stay at a more themed and colorful value resort. I have Pop booked for my November trip, so it isn't a value issue. I just really didn't enjoy my Music stay. My room was clean, the CMs were pleasant. It was just the overall feel.

So, should you change to stay there? I can't say. There is no comparison between Music and WL!! None. BUT...I never had an issue with transportation there. I didn't have an issue with the food court either. And the first time I stayed at Music, back in '03, the Pop Warner kids were there. I had no idea what they were at that time. But other than being pretty loud on the buses and in the food court, I wasn't really bothered by them. PW kids shouldn't be there during the first week in Dec in any case. I 'think' they are coming in for Dec 6/7. I'm there that week but not in the parks that weekend when they start arriving.

 

[JennyDrake]

I am just back from 6 days 5 night at AS Movies. Where our room was located (Mighty Ducks), it was closer for us to walk over to Music to eat, catch bus, etc. I have to respectfully disagree with PPer comments on buses, food court, etc.

We shared buses with other AS ONCE in 6 days and that was to TL, which I would expect.

The food court was FINE. I had more issues with evening crowds/slow lines at Movies, but none were *bad*.

I stayed at Music in late April and had a good visit then as well.

As far as PW goes: I have been at WDW during PW at least 7 times, and most of them in the same (value) resort. Please note that I am Childless by Choice and cannot be considered "Kid Friendly." I have NEVER had an issue with PW kids!!! I find them polite, respectful and often pleasantly friendly.

In contrast, I was at WDW this April during Cheer Spirit week and I found the cheerleaders incredibly self absorbed, unaware of others, UNsupervised and often rude. Give me Pop Warner any day!