We just returned from ASMo. We stayed Sep 4-12. Woody is being worked on, so that is disappointing. Apparently they have been working on him for a long time. Buzz is being painted, but can still be seen. The Fantasia pool did close on the 11th while we were there. Our room faced the Toy Story courtyard. The kids loved it! They just wished they could have seen Woody.
You can take the path from the courtyard to the main building or if you are just going to the bus stop, as someone said, there is a back path that is a little quicker.
Toy Story is a preferred room. When we booked, it was standard and we took our preferred status off and requested a Toy Story room. When we got there, they added a charge to our pill of over $100 for the Toy Story room. I was not happy. This was our very first experience upon arrival. My husband said not to worry about it. Well, the more he thought about it, he decided they shouldn't have done that. So, a few days later, he got on the phone while we were sitting outside Epcot. He was on the phone for over an hour! He kept getting passed between AsMo and Disney's booking people. He finally got them to agree that we should have been given a free upgrade, but both claimed they couldn't take the charge off. Someone named Nigel was very sarcastic and rude too. Finally, in the end, we were credited that amount back, and my husband was happy enough with that that he did not complain about the bad service.
Back to the buses - Most of the time, AsMo had their own buses. A few times at the end of the night, Epcot had All Star Resort buses, and they were packed! Most of the time though, buses were good. The only time we had to wait 20 minutes or more was when we were in a hurry of course! The longest wait we had was getting a bus once from MGM to Epcot (but that is unrelated to AllStars). You definitely need to give yourself at least an hour to get somewhere. You never know how long it's going to take for the bus to come, to get there, and to get in the gate. Remember, they check bags, and then you have to get in line to put your ticket through at the gate. Then you have to get to wherever you are going. What a hassle with all these dinner reservations! We were exhausted!
We did have breakfast and dinner at the ASMo food court a few times. It is very crowded in the morning and still very busy at night. The burgers were good, taco salad not bad, spaghetti standard. You can get a stamp for ice cream, but not for popsicles - you have ot get those then - stupid. Pretty sure the individual pizzas are the same throughout Disney. Breakfast portions are small, IMO, and I am a small eater. If you are on the
DDP, I see no reason to get a $12 cup. We didn't. All snacks under $4 are included as DDP snacks in the gift shop.
We would stay in ASMo again. I thought the rooms were decent, and I didn't find them tiny. We don't usually stay in luxury accomodations anyway. There is a place to hang clothes next to the sink and there are dressers. We had plenty of room for 2 adults, 2 young girls. If we had extra money to throw away next time, we would consider staying in a more centrally located hotel.
At ASMo, people, including us, like to put Disney items in the window ledge for everyone to look at. That was a fun thing. Some people put magnets on their doors. Our housekeeper didn't leave us towel animals, but I did see a few in other people's windows. She did take our flounder stuffed animal and Disney Barbie and put them on the bed leaning against a towel. She put the remote next to them and left the tv on Disney cartoons so it looked like they were watching tv. Very cute, and our dds loved it!
AsMo, was not too loud. Everyone was friendly - workers and vacationers. September was VERY hot! Not sure we would go then again. Crowds were usually slow - 5-10 minute wait average - sometimes walked right onto rides. On Night of Joy days, MK was a nightmare, so we left. It was a great vacation - although hot and exhausting (especially with running, literally, to dinner reservations). We hope to go again in a couple of years!
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