Here goes - a VERY long review of our stay at All Star Movies with some pictures!
Summary: Stayed here September 11-15, 2019. My husband, 4 year old son, and myself chose this resort over the other values because of the Toy Story theming and Pop’s main pool being closed for refurb during our stay.
Things that worked for our family:
Price
Awesome staff
Room layout
Fun pool
Plenty to do for kids
Size of resort
Things to be desired:
Transportation system
Food court options
Price: We booked alllllll the way back in January under the Fun and Sun package. I’ve had many Disney trips but this was the first for my son; we knew there would be some kinks to work out and we felt not spending an arm and a leg would remove some of the pressure. Factoring in the current value of our 4 day tickets, a preferred room ended up costing $112.50 a night including the tax.
I think this room was worth $150- $170 a night; they are new, clean, and have a great layout. The resort has lots of activities that additionally made me feel like we got a great bang for our buck.
Awesome Staff: I can’t say it enough - the staff was AWESOME! From the front desk to the food court to the lifeguards, they were exceptional, not just pretty good. I would go so far as to say that it’s the best experience with cast members I’ve ever had.
The front desk staff were efficient and helpful when checking us in, explaining room location, as well as later when I was attempting to receive packages at the resort. All staff seemed genuinely happy to be there and wanted to know about our trip - they really made the trip magical!
Room Layout: I’ve read the Value rooms are the smallest on property, but their excellent layout and design makes them very functional. We had 3, not 4, in a room; 4 adults would be pretty cramped, and an extra kid may have been a bit much by the end of the trip.
The layout makes the most of the small space. Sliding doors save on space and wall the bathroom area off so that you can get ready without waking everyone up. The Murphy bed and regular bed setup was great for moving around during the day (and my 4 year old really got a kick out of the Murphy bed!)
The mini fridge held a lot (three six-packs and then some - no I’m not joking lol). There were lots of shelves and storage space everywhere, and plenty of outlets and chargers. The only thing missing was an alarm clock, but as everyone has a cell phone now anyway, that wasn’t too missed.
Fun Pool: we hit the pool each afternoon sometime between 1-4 pm, and the activities and music were a hoot. The awesome staff leading the activities - trivia, scavenger hunts, tie-dye shirt making - were so fun and really into the activities. We aren’t usually “joiners” but their enthusiasm was infectious and we participated more than once!
Plenty to do for kids: my son LOVED the theming, the arcade, the pool, the playground, and having his caricature done. I saw some older kids walking around and playing around the themed areas as well. There is a smaller pool in the Mighty Ducks area that we didn’t even realize was there until our last day - I could see this being a great space for older kids/ teenagers (or adults!) to hang out away from the more crowded big pool.
Size of the resort: the time to get from the farthest section of the resort - Love Bug - to the pool is about 3 1/2 minutes, and to the buses would be 5 minutes. From our location in Toy Story, it was 3 minutes max to the buses, and we also found a walkway that went straight from building 9 over to the bus area. (Note - I am posting this 9/24/19 and I do NOT know if the Love Bug section has refurbed rooms as yet - they were working on Fantasia while I was there).
For parents with small kids, I would definitely recommend “preferred,” which would get you Toy Story or 101 Dalmatians sections; for those really wanting to save money, the walk is not bad at all.
Transportation System: despite ALL the amazing things about this resort, I would not stay here again, and the transportation situation is the reason.
All Star Movies is “last” in the line of All Star resorts. When leaving the parks, we mostly had our own bus straight back to Movies; however, when going TO the parks, Movies is last on the loop. We frequently had to get on a bus that already seemed packed, as it had picked up Sports and Music guests already.
Time to the parks was also an issue. I felt this might be somewhat mitigated because Disney now shows you when you can expect the next bus for a specific park, so that we could wait in the room or grab a bite to eat while waiting; however, these times were often not correct, or were not available at all.
The All Stars are pretty far removed from other locations on Disney property - they are at the southern most end of Disney property, and about as far as you can get from the Magic Kingdom. All in all, it took 40-60 minutes to get to MK factoring in waiting for a bus, the drive there, and going through security. If you are planning to take a midday break, that’s at least two hours and 40 minutes of your day spent commuting. I don’t mind some travel time, but I feel the lost time I could have been spending in the parks, at the pool, or just relaxing in the room really lowered the value overall.
In addition, we ended up taking a Minnie Van or a Lyft in several instances. The buses were such a cluster that we felt it was money well spent to have a relaxing ride and get there 20 minutes earlier than waiting for a bus. We ended up spending about $100 on rideshare services while there so that we could have more time to actually be places instead of waiting for a bus.
Food Court: if you like veggies, this is not the place for you. The food they had was good, and the service was excellent. However, there are no salads on the menu - the best you can do is a chicken Caesar in the take and go section - which was the only option. It was also not apparent that you could change up your sides - I ended up throwing away lots of fries before I used the mobile ordering one day and discovered that they would allow me to select other options.
The food court was also the only option on-site for dining; Values do not have table service restaurants. I suppose we could have walked to the food courts at the other resorts, but that seemed inconvenient.
OVERALL: I would stay here again if I was on a trip with a budget and did not intend to take mid-day breaks on my Magic Kingdom days.
Thanks for indulging me and reading this review!