Any Difference between All Stars to consider?

[Dis703]

Looking at booking a last minute trip for 3 nights next week at a value resort. Options are Pop or any of the All Stars. Pop is the most expensive and least is All Star Music. Not a ton of difference in price but as I'm looking to take 2 more of these short trips I'm trying to keep the budget as tight as possible.

I know the resorts are very similar. As I understand it they may or may not share a bus depending on time of year/day, etc. Are there any other differences to consider besides theming? Have any been refurbished more recently? Any construction going on at the moment that might be annoying?

If all else is equal I'll likely just pick Music since it's the cheapest but as I've never stayed there I wanted to make sure there isn't anything important I might be missing when making this choice.

Thanks!

 

[bigbabyblues]

I think Sports and Music have had their food courts redone in the last year or two. Music is our favorite value resort. If the buses are not sharing (such as park closing), we have used Sports' bus back to the resort if they had a shorter line, then just go through the main building and across the parking lot to get back to music.

 

[loves to dive]

I'd go with whichever one is the cheapest, they are pretty interchangeable and all within walking distance of the other.

 

[lovesdumbo]

I'm not a fan of the layout of Music-it is more straight back from front so most remote rooms there are longer walk to food court/bus than Movies & Sports. Most of Movies (6 out of 10 buildings) is preferred. I like the set up of Sports the best.

 

[ssmurphy28]

We stayed at Sports back in 2013. The deciding factor for us was that we went at the end of May and the three resorts were sharing buses. We chose Sports because it was typically the first to be picked up and the first to be dropped off. So on the way to the park, we typically had a seat and on the way back we were the first stop, which was important to us with a 1yo.

 

[HopperFan]

Yes, Sports and Music have new food courts.

Music is our least favorite for many reasons. And there is reasons why it is always the cheapest - even with a chunk of their rooms eaten up with suites - they still need to reduce the price on the other rooms. One reason is Music is laid out completely different than all other value resorts. rather than the main hub being more centrally located, at Music the hub is at one end and the standards are at the other end with suites/preferred between them. Walks to the standard are long and at night very dark.

Music has lots of fans so you might be one too. We are not. POP is our favorite, then for the money Sports.
We have stayed at Sports twice in last year and while Movies is fine it is a wee bit more spread out (green space) and popular with young families (we are adults) so I go with Sports.

Here is a map from Disney Food Blog to compare layout. - http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/tag/all-star-sports/

 

[wdw4rfam]

I think Sports and Music have had their food courts redone in the last year or two. Music is our favorite value resort. If the buses are not sharing (such as park closing), we have used Sports' bus back to the resort if they had a shorter line, then just go through the main building and across the parking lot to get back to music.

Yes, we like music because at the end of the night, we would hop whichever bus showed up first and walk. You could have a somewhat reasonable walk from either of the other two resorts since music is in the middle. Also can use any of the food courts for variety.
We like movies the best for theme, we are huge toy story fans. But I would pick either music or movies over POP, but that's our opinion.

 

[bookgirl]

Music and Sports are usually cheapest. Movies is approx.$10-$20 more per night.

If the buses share the order is Sports, Music, Movies.

Music is the most spread out but also the quietest and the most lush/least garish theme.

Sports is popular with the sports/cheer teams. Movies is popular with the fans of classic Disney and small kids due to theming. Music has the family suites and is the cheapest way to sleep up to 6 (7w/ababy) on site in the same 'room'.

All three food courts are very similar but some differences.

Sports is the closest to the McDonalds. LOL

 

[Dis703]

Thanks for the feedback. I went ahead and booked Music this evening. The difference isn't a lot but it's enough to buy the two of us a meal while we are there. And I just realized I totally forgot about renting a stroller for him so that's yet another thing to add on. Even with the super cheap airfare this short trip is adding up!

I think he would love the theming of Movies but there weren't any standard rooms left which seems like that's what bumped up the price a bit.