Art of Animation - Likes/Dislikes

[Cappap2]

Please advise.

 

[disneyhorselover]

Likes:

It's bright, colorful, and BEAUTIFUL-the theming is amazing and I felt I could spend hours in the lobby looking at all of my favorite animated characters.
The rooms are new and very nice.
The pool is awesome-loved the zero entry and the underwater music.
The food court wasn't crowded when we were there, but the staff seems well prepared to deal with crowds.
Great breakfast selections in the food court.

Dislikes:

The resort is HUGE. It's a long walk from the little mermaid rooms to the food court/buses.
Only 3 drawers in the finding nemo rooms.
Cell service was very spotty throughout the resort.

Overall, I liked it!

 

[Tialeigh]

Likes:
Very spacious rooms
Awesome decorations
Big pools
Fun activities for kids to do
The arcade is cool
The drawings on the wall in the main building are amazing
The food court is pretty big

Dislikes:
Food was pretty expensive (like most Disney restaurants)
The food wasn't hot or warm when I got it (But they did have microwaves to heat it up)

Overall I really liked it. If you're not a fan of walking far, I'd suggest staying in the Finding Nemo or Lion King Suite.

 

[Tialeigh]

Likes:

It's bright, colorful, and BEAUTIFUL-the theming is amazing and I felt I could spend hours in the lobby looking at all of my favorite animated characters.
The rooms are new and very nice.
The pool is awesome-loved the zero entry and the underwater music.
The food court wasn't crowded when we were there, but the staff seems well prepared to deal with crowds.
Great breakfast selections in the food court.

Dislikes:

The resort is HUGE. It's a long walk from the little mermaid rooms to the food court/buses.
Only 3 drawers in the finding nemo rooms.
Cell service was very spotty throughout the resort.

Overall, I liked it!

I agree 100%! If you don't like walking much, you might want to stay in the Finding Nemo or Lion King suites.

*Oops, didn't mean to post twice

 

[cristen72]

Only two dislikes for me!

Cell/Internet service horrible inside our room.

The lines to scrape your plates in the food court. Only one person can scrape their plate at a time (the holes for waste are really small) and we ended up just standing around garbage cans holding our plates waiting for opportunities to clean up.

I do appreciate the attempts to reduce waste but I think their system needs a bit of improvement. We were there in a slower time. I cannot imagine it in a busy time like Christmas!

As far as likes? We absolutely loved everything else. We would definitely stay there again!

 

[Lauralaylin]

Agree with all the likes. I'm here now and thoroughly enjoying my time. A do have a few dislikes though. Cell service is dreadful, cafeteria is much more crowded than Pop IMO, and my quiet room is too silent, but I can hear a whole lot outside. They seriously need some white noise or to stop playing music outside when it gets dark.

 

[dadr]

Just back yesterday, stayed in a Lion King suite. Overall a good experience!

Pluses:
-theming all over the resort is great
-Nemo pool/splash park is fantastic for kids
-movies outside at night
-food court with a good amount of choices (had the Indian style dishes a few times) and plenty of space
-staff were terrific, rarely had to wait more than a minute in any line
-it really is not too spread out as others have said (*this goes for the suites, not Little Mermaid buildings which DO seem like a bit of a hike). Even pushing a fully loaded double stroller it wasn't a pain to walk across the resort. You can even get from the AoA lobby clear over to Pop Century in about 5 minutes.

Minuses:
-little food storage space (very minimal "kitchenette" corner)
-little hanging clothes storage (no actual closet)
-longer bus ride to MK
-bus wait after fireworks one night at MK was horrendous, I think over an hour. This is in "low season" too. I don't know if this was an anomaly, but every other resort had less than 1/3 the line we had. It stretched 3-4 corrals down. Pop was pretty backed up but not as much. They rectified it by diverting buses continuously to the AoA stop, but it wasn't much better 2 nights later. We got a much better spot in line only because we bolted right after fireworks.

I think they need to work on managing the bus service given the capacity of this resort which has grown continuously since its opening.

 

[mamabug70]

I agree with what everyone has said. The rooms are nice and new, but we did get a lot of noise from outside. We stayed in LK suite and they played a movie on a big screen at night right outside our room. Not too quiet, but I always sleep with ear plugs and my DH is a pretty sound sleeper. My biggest complaint was the cell phone service. I had family staying at 2 different resorts and I could not receive texts or phone calls on my cell phone inside the room. Also a big thumbs down from my two teenage daughters who could not text or talk to their friends from home (I thought that part was kind of good though haha!). We have AT&T though not sure if that matters.
It was very nice to have our own room and great to have a second bathroom for my teenage daughters. Gave us much more time at the parks since we didn't have to wait for them to get done in the bathroom. The theming was also great!
We always rent a car so don't use the bus system much. We did take the bus to MK for the Not so Scary Halloween Party thinking it would save time. The trip there was shorter, but when we left, the lines for the buses were MUCH longer for the AOA. I almost cried when we saw it. I think they did a good job getting the buses there quickly and we didn't have to wait in line too long.
Overall it was a pretty good experience but we always travel with others who stay at a time share off property so cell service is a must.

 

[bookgirl]

I stayed at the Little Mermaid section

Liked:

Options at the Food Court
Central Location to parks



Disliked:

Too over the top themed for me (Ursula was creepy and I felt like I was taking a shower in a cave, a very small dark cave). I'm really not a fan of the in your face type of theming.


I thought the size of the resort was okay. It was shorter walk then some of the Deluxes.

 

[JennyDrake]

I am going to repeat what others have said.

Likes
Theming is TERRIFIC
Resort is very clean
CMs very nice
Walking path around lake is lovely

Dislikes
FOOD COURT
Food "sounds" much better than it is
Long time to get food
BEDLAM - loud, chaotic, often messy
The Bus Your Own Table thing gets old. Separate silver for plates, sort of trash then try to cram trash through too small opening in trash can.
In room noise (LM rooms) I am not a light sleeper yet was frequently bothered
I am a runner and don't mind walking but it is a HIKE from LM rooms to food court and bus stop. A HIKE.
Cell phone service, but I blame Verizon, not WDW. I had no reception in the room. None.

 

[tinkerpea]

Loved our stay at AOA

We did 16 nights in a 2bed at SSR so to transfer to a LMR for 3 nights did make the room feel very small lol,

We loved everything about the place! I was initially really worried about the "hike " most go on about to the LM but IMO it was nothing !!

I have 3 boys aged 7,7,10 and they didn't even find the walk a big deal? By he time you walk through the LK section looking at everything your there took 5 min max! Akl is way further to walk.

The pools are fab! We all Loved the Lm pool it was like walking into a bath!! Amazing it was so beautiful to be in the pool late at night and to be sooo warm. Most people I find skipped this pool in favour for the nemo pool so they don't realise how hot it is.

Food court has huge selections I wish the deluxe resorts would give us even half the food court this place has.
It was a little chaotic however.

 

[Sur]

Little mermaid rooms... excellent!!

 

[Gabe's Mom]

Agree with the likes. We stayed in a ground floor Nemos suite pool side for Christmas week. We didn't feel like it was noisy, but we do always request a ground floor room.
Loved the extra beds and having two bathrooms.
The kitchen space can't be compared to a full kitchen, but even having the paper plates in the room came in handy.
We were a party of 6-Dh and myself, our 3 sons ages 13, 5, and 3 and our 14 yo nephew.

Dislikes- we did not like the food court. I get what they're trying to do, "value plussing" the food court with the real plates and flat ware. Might have been a good idea in theory, but in real life we did not like it. At all. Too heavy to carry the trays. Disgusting bussing your own table. It's one thing to throw away your paper plates but seperating out the plates, flat ware, and paper products was gross.
We had a bit of a hard time finding something for our little boys to eat besides pizza. Wish the more interesting choices were in addition to some more traditional ones (hot dogs, chicken nuggets).

It was enough of an issue for us that we agreed we would probably go with 2 rooms at another value resort than to stay at AofA again.

But, it was beautiful and a GREAT trip!

Michelle

 

[pl4bby]

Agree with the likes. We stayed in a ground floor Nemos suite pool side for Christmas week. We didn't feel like it was noisy, but we do always request a ground floor room.
Loved the extra beds and having two bathrooms.
The kitchen space can't be compared to a full kitchen, but even having the paper plates in the room came in handy.
We were a party of 6-Dh and myself, our 3 sons ages 13, 5, and 3 and our 14 yo nephew.

Dislikes- we did not like the food court. I get what they're trying to do, "value plussing" the food court with the real plates and flat ware. Might have been a good idea in theory, but in real life we did not like it. At all. Too heavy to carry the trays. Disgusting bussing your own table. It's one thing to throw away your paper plates but seperating out the plates, flat ware, and paper products was gross.
We had a bit of a hard time finding something for our little boys to eat besides pizza. Wish the more interesting choices were in addition to some more traditional ones (hot dogs, chicken nuggets).

It was enough of an issue for us that we agreed we would probably go with 2 rooms at another value resort than to stay at AofA again.

But, it was beautiful and a GREAT trip!

Michelle

Asm has suites

 

[SolitaryPhoenix]

Have only passed through to check this location out -stayed at POP this past weekend, wandered over to see if we'd want to stay at AoA in future, and we do!- theming was amazing, but the food court left a little to be desired, in terms of having a few plain selections. Not everyone wants everything spicy or spiced, and in particular my senior mom had difficulty finding anything that she could comfortably eat. I know it's a huge family resort, but they should consider how many families bring grandparents with them. They have to eat too!

 

[Males1011]

Likes:
-Resort grounds (Soooo many photo ops!)
-Landscapes of Flavor (Make sure you try the meatball sub)
-No shared bus system
-Theming
-LM section isn't as far off as everyone claims.
If a 5 minute walk is too much for someone, how will the next 8-10 hours in a park treat you?
DGF and I found the walk back to the room after a long at the parks kind of unwinding.
-Big Blue Pool

Dislikes:
-Only bus ride we found to be a long wait, would be for DTD. All the rest didn't feel bad at all, especially Epcot.
-Wi-Fi service
-Cell service

Honestly, being on vacation, I don't *need* my cell phone or the internet when I'm in my room. AoA really does deserve the be called a Value+ just with all the detail that went into it, the food options, and just the atmosphere. It might be much for someone wanting to "Escape the magic when they leave the parks", but for someone like me the AoA has everything I need and more.