Resort Thread Disney's ALL-STAR SPORTS Resort

[Nick6300]

The amount of guests seem noticeably lower at sports. There’s usually only a handful of guests sharing the main walkway to stadium hall at 7:30am.

And last night at MK, for instance, Pan and Jungle had G+ available after 8:30pm, and we had forgotten and still grabbed Tron VQ after 4:30pm, got on at dusk with it glowing, and back to back for me since wife didn’t want to swap to ride while watching baby. It’s pretty weird to see alien saucers at higher wait time than rise at night, 10 min. It is the week after Labor Day, but still. We only bought G+ once in 6 days.

 

[dreynolds1982]

The amount of guests seem noticeably lower at sports. There’s usually only a handful of guests sharing the main walkway to stadium hall at 7:30am.

And last night at MK, for instance, Pan and Jungle had G+ available after 8:30pm, and we had forgotten and still grabbed Tron VQ after 4:30pm, got on at dusk with it glowing, and back to back for me since wife didn’t want to swap to ride while watching baby. It’s pretty weird to see alien saucers at higher wait time than rise at night, 10 min. It is the week after Labor Day, but still. We only bought G+ once in 6 days.

This has always been one of the best times of the year (crowd-wise) to go. Less so now that years ago, but still definitely a down period. Typically picks back up towards the end of Sept into October.

We're coming down next week for 2 nights at Sports, doing one day at Epcot. Hoping for lower crowds (though it's a Friday and Food and Wine will bring in the locals in the evenings). Still have not done Guardians so hoping for virtual and LL so we can do twice!

 

[Nick6300]

This has always been one of the best times of the year (crowd-wise) to go. Less so now that years ago, but still definitely a down period. Typically picks back up towards the end of Sept into October.

We're coming down next week for 2 nights at Sports, doing one day at Epcot. Hoping for lower crowds (though it's a Friday and Food and Wine will bring in the locals in the evenings). Still have not done Guardians so hoping for virtual and LL so we can do twice!

It’s lower than normal for early sept., not 2020 levels (probably won’t ever see that again in my lifetime) but much better than expected.

I’ve been doing tron twice (RS) and then guardians 1-2x on my mk/ep days and didn’t expect it to be so easy to grab BGs with the low volumes. I expected to wait 2 seconds for the 1pm drop for Tron not wait until 4- 5pm to get an after sunset one. We haven’t paid for any ILL and just one G+.

I set out to avoid EP on wknds for FW but it hasn’t been an issue. I’ll likely go tonight just for guardians and TT. It’ll be 4th time at EP this trip and the tired baby has prevented us from doing a few things like TT, Canada show (if it’s running with food and wine).

 

[LisaRay]

Hi, I've never stayed at All Star Sports (we usually stay at Pop) and I am helping my brother and his girlfriend plan a trip for next month (end of oct). Can anyone tell me are all the rooms remodeled yet or how far along things are. He's trying to decide between a % off standard or the dine card which only is available in the preferred rooms. It's a very last minute decision and I'm trying to give advice, but I was unsure of the construction.
Thanks for any help!

 

[WEDWDW]

Hi, I've never stayed at All Star Sports (we usually stay at Pop) and I am helping my brother and his girlfriend plan a trip for next month (end of oct). Can anyone tell me are all the rooms remodeled yet or how far along things are. He's trying to decide between a % off standard or the dine card which only is available in the preferred rooms. It's a very last minute decision and I'm trying to give advice, but I was unsure of the construction.
Thanks for any help!

9 of the 10 buildings have been finished.

1 of the 4 Preferred buildings has not been finished.

 

[LisaRay]

9 of the 10 buildings have been finished.

1 of the 4 Preferred buildings has not been finished.

Is there any idea of the timeline? Their trip is end of Oct. the preferred room is the best deal with the dining card. but I know they won't arrive till close to midnight and I would hate for them to end up in an older room.
Also do we know which preferred building isn't done yet? because they aren't interested in the pool anyway.

 

[limegreenmonorail]

Is there any idea of the timeline? Their trip is end of Oct. the preferred room is the best deal with the dining card. but I know they won't arrive till close to midnight and I would hate for them to end up in an older room.
Also do we know which preferred building isn't done yet? because they aren't interested in the pool anyway.

Building 1 is the only one left to be refurbished. That building is closed for refurbishment, so no one's going to get assigned to an older room at this point. All available inventory will be the new rooms.

 

[LisaRay]

Building 1 is the only one left to be refurbished. That building is closed for refurbishment, so no one's going to get assigned to an older room at this point. All available inventory will be the new rooms.

Thank for your info and help! appreciate it.

 

[dreynolds1982]

It’s lower than normal for early sept., not 2020 levels (probably won’t ever see that again in my lifetime) but much better than expected.

I’ve been doing tron twice (RS) and then guardians 1-2x on my mk/ep days and didn’t expect it to be so easy to grab BGs with the low volumes. I expected to wait 2 seconds for the 1pm drop for Tron not wait until 4- 5pm to get an after sunset one. We haven’t paid for any ILL and just one G+.

I set out to avoid EP on wknds for FW but it hasn’t been an issue. I’ll likely go tonight just for guardians and TT. It’ll be 4th time at EP this trip and the tired baby has prevented us from doing a few things like TT, Canada show (if it’s running with food and wine).

I was on my college program during September 2002. The year after 9/11. Never ever seen the parks as empty as then. It was a fantastic time to be there!

Glad to hear that about the crowds. We head down Thursday for the one night at Epcot on Friday. Planning on doing GGCR twice (virtual + LL). From the tests I've done, LLs seem to be available for most of the day and the 1 pm Virtual Queues especially stay available for a while. Can't wait!

Also psyched to stay in Sports and see the new rooms. I've stayed in the updated Pop Century rooms (and know these are basically the same) and actually really love the clean, modern design. Though, I will miss the classic 90s retro Sports rooms!!

 

[Nick6300]

I was on my college program during September 2002. The year after 9/11. Never ever seen the parks as empty as then. It was a fantastic time to be there!

Glad to hear that about the crowds. We head down Thursday for the one night at Epcot on Friday. Planning on doing GGCR twice (virtual + LL). From the tests I've done, LLs seem to be available for most of the day and the 1 pm Virtual Queues especially stay available for a while. Can't wait!

Also psyched to stay in Sports and see the new rooms. I've stayed in the updated Pop Century rooms (and know these are basically the same) and actually really love the clean, modern design. Though, I will miss the classic 90s retro Sports rooms!!

The new rooms are similar to pop’s. I do like them but I’m one of the very few who misses the old rooms because the new design makes it feel very cramped. I’m not sure if it’s just the furniture being bigger, not just the Queen bed instead of double. I also liked having 2 beds to permanently use the 2nd bed as table for my suitcases and all of my crap (rather than the small table that has to be folded up for the pull out). But the new rooms look a lot nicer.

Housekeeping was supposed to be every other day but they skipped our last night and garbage pulled up, had to ask for towels and coffee a few times.

For guardians… there is a room with doors at the front to go into a video viewing room, which leads to another video viewing room. Tough to describe but try to be not just in the front by the doors but as far right as you can, as the last video viewing room has doors opening to the right. If placed correctly you can save yourself some wait time - if to the far left, you can have 100 people in front of you. Great ride, best at WDW imo, even though I still appreciate large expense and detail they went through for Rise, Guardians is the most fun. And tron is 30 sec too short and cardboard wall queues that are tearing apart. I did witness a girl at guardians exclaiming “I’m going to be sick,” then rushing to puke in a plant by the benches I was sitting at.

We had no trouble with obtaining BGs for either tron or GotG, getting as early as group 3-10 for the 7am slot and typically upper 100s for the 1pm drop that we did when we checked in with PH at 1:45-4:40pm. I was even allowed to go in at 1:42 this last Sat because my wife was going in for first park of day with baby and distracted the cm, while my back tapstyle was blue.

GotG: while we had no issues waiting until afternoon, after doing RD attractions in am, for even the group 3… I didn’t like entering queue at 8-9pm, especially on wknd nights, that’s when all of the 2pm or later ph guests got there BGs called and the wait times can be very long. We saw lines wrapped around outside, and my wait once was 85 min.

 

[Nick6300]

We put in our requests when I booked. I asked for baseball building. Checked in early and was told tennis told them I would wait until there was something available at baseball. They put in my request and later in the day I got a text again for tennis. Went to desk to explain about waiting was told there was nothing at baseball because there was a soccer tournament and the kids were all in that building. I asked for an upgrade and was told they were all booked.
The funny thing is the guy walking behind us was put in baseball and he wasn’t part of the soccer teams. Going to fill out the feedback when u get back from the parks.
Also told them (when I booked). I was celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary. No comment from anyone acknowledging it.

While booking my bounceback just now, I told CM your experience and my experience on room requests, and she was appalled at what happened to you. Doesn't help much, but good to know not everyone at WDW is ok with that practice.

There were some other "Disney Cut backs" that I noticed on our trip - from small things such as skipping the every other day housekeeping, AC in our rooms set to 75, and trying to prevent the override, AC at traditionally very cold AC rides like Under the Sea being much warmer, to larger things such as 1st time I can recall not having extended hours for 1st week of Sept. like 8am AK (remained 9am except Sat and Sun, and the main reason we paid for park hoppers), 9-10 instead of 9-11 for MK, 9-9 at HS instead of 8:30-9 or 8:30-10, recycling HEA, EP Forever instead of creation of special 100th anniversary fireworks. Not that I really mind on the fireworks, I love HEA (prefer Wishes) - and we didn't get to watch a single set of fireworks anyhow with the baby this trip anyhow. Don't want to get into speculations as to why there may be cutbacks since that will just get deleted anyhow. But overall, I still booked another trip, so I complain but I still go.... so can't be bad enough for me to stop my vacation addiction. We're literally still ill from the ahi tuna nachos at Yak this past wknd where my wife lost 11ibs in a day from losing fluids... and I still booked another trip. I actually got pooped on by a bird at one of the AK trails - the one with the aviary. The poop managed to hit every article of clothing I was wearing. And everyone exclaimed... "oh! but at least that's good luck!" Yeah, within an hour we both got super sick from Yak n Yeti. And wife couldn't even go to the parks afterwards. So much for my good luck.

 

[Nick6300]

The "Futures" booking discount was 25% off, and you book within 7 days of check out. You get 30% for moderate, and 35% for Deluxe I think. You can just do the $200 deposit within 3 days, and it locks in the discount to where you can later add tickets at today's prices or dining package or change to another resort later and still have that discount.

The catch was that we always go during this past week with Labor Day, and they excluded end of Aug. and through Labor Day so you can't book the last wknd of Aug. or 1st full week Sat to Sat in Sept. We picked 8/17-8/24 rather than 9/7-9/14 since a little cheaper, longer park hours, get Labor Day off afterwards as a long wknd instead of before trip. It was $119 or $158, respectively to move up to Preferred and $285 higher for Pop.

Stays were 1/7-1/10, 1/15-1/18, 1/21-1/25, 1/28-2/1, 2/4-2/8, 2/11-2/14, 2/19-2/22, 2/25-3/16, 3/31-5/23, 5/27-8/29, 9/2-9/30, 10/27-10/31, 11/25-11/27, 12/1-12/24/2024. Sort of surprised on Halloween, Thanksgiving and that late into Dec., really even Memorial and valentines being included and not the wknd leading up to Labor Day. I don't remember when the full marathon or Dopey's Challenge (there's a lot of exclusions early in the year here) is but I think my in laws want to go in 2025, so we will have to see on bounce-back after 8/2024.

 

[LisaRay]

The "Futures" booking discount was 25% off, and you book within 7 days of check out. You get 30% for moderate, and 35% for Deluxe I think. You can just do the $200 deposit within 3 days, and it locks in the discount to where you can later add tickets at today's prices or dining package or change to another resort later and still have that discount.

The catch was that we always go during this past week with Labor Day, and they excluded end of Aug. and through Labor Day so you can't book the last wknd of Aug. or 1st full week Sat to Sat in Sept. We picked 8/17-8/24 rather than 9/7-9/14 since a little cheaper, longer park hours, get Labor Day off afterwards as a long wknd instead of before trip. It was $119 or $158, respectively to move up to Preferred and $285 higher for Pop.

Stays were 1/7-1/10, 1/15-1/18, 1/21-1/25, 1/28-2/1, 2/4-2/8, 2/11-2/14, 2/19-2/22, 2/25-3/16, 3/31-5/23, 5/27-8/29, 9/2-9/30, 10/27-10/31, 11/25-11/27, 12/1-12/24/2024. Sort of surprised on Halloween, Thanksgiving and that late into Dec., really even Memorial and valentines being included and not the wknd leading up to Labor Day. I don't remember when the full marathon or Dopey's Challenge (there's a lot of exclusions early in the year here) is but I think my in laws want to go in 2025, so we will have to see on bounce-back after 8/2024.

Thanks for all this info. Quick question with those dates do you know if the discount is good for your whole stay as long as you check in during the window of dates listed?
Example: for November it is 11/25-11/27 does that mean I can check in on 11/27 and stay till 12/4 (one week) and get the discount or is it only for those 3 nights Nov 25,26,27th?

 

[jcarwash]

Thanks for all this info. Quick question with those dates do you know if the discount is good for your whole stay as long as you check in during the window of dates listed?
Example: for November it is 11/25-11/27 does that mean I can check in on 11/27 and stay till 12/4 (one week) and get the discount or is it only for those 3 nights Nov 25,26,27th?

There is a thread about whatever the current bounceback offer is: https://www.disboards.com/threads/b...-35-off-bouncebacks-are-back-for-2024.3680214

But the short answer seems to be that this one of the offers where the discounts apply only to the specific dates listed. So in your example, you'd get the discount for one night on November 27th and pay rack rate for the rest.

 

[LisaRay]

There is a thread about whatever the current bounceback offer is: https://www.disboards.com/threads/b...-35-off-bouncebacks-are-back-for-2024.3680214

But the short answer seems to be that this one of the offers where the discounts apply only to the specific dates listed. So in your example, you'd get the discount for one night on November 27th and pay rack rate for the rest.

Bummer! but thanks.

 

[Nick6300]

Thanks for all this info. Quick question with those dates do you know if the discount is good for your whole stay as long as you check in during the window of dates listed?
Example: for November it is 11/25-11/27 does that mean I can check in on 11/27 and stay till 12/4 (one week) and get the discount or is it only for those 3 nights Nov 25,26,27th?

That's a good question. But I'd guess the discount is only for the listed dates too. Doesn't mean my CM was right, but she seemed to think it was just those dates, and I had to adjust accordingly. I'm thinking about looking at a few other dates though just in case we want to change it to late Sept. And still thinking about adding tickets to avoid whatever price increase that's likely to occur by next year. But we could buy from UT too and get a small discount.

 

[bigmac5]

I haven't booked my trip yet but was thinking some time between mid January and mid February. I was wondering if there is any events happening during that time that will make it busier at Sports?

 

[Nick6300]

I haven't booked my trip yet but was thinking some time between mid January and mid February. I was wondering if there is any events happening during that time that will make it busier at Sports?

WDW events:
1/3-1/7/24 is Marathon Wknd and there could be stays that extend a few days after. EP Fest. of Arts is Mid Jan through Mid Feb. (it was 1/13-2/20/23), Mardi Gras 2/13/24, Valentines Day, Princess Half Marathon Wknd 2/22-2/25/24. Of these, the race events are the only thing that I'd be slightly wary of... the 1st week of Jan for extended holiday trips and Marathon Wknd and Valentines and later.

Cheer/dance events:
1/12-1/14/24 college cheerleading & dance team national championships, 2/2-2/4/24 national dance team championship, 2/9-2/12/24 national high school cheer championships, may draw more guests to Sports more than the other Values, but there's some sort of cheer event on and off through May every year and it never personally influences me to book elsewhere.

2nd week of Jan though Valentines is Value Season 1 for the very reason that it is one of the least busy times of year, and hence prices are lower.

My friend goes during Valentines through late Feb every year and usually complains how busy it was in the parks - she stays at Pop more than All Stars.

I think we're currently going to be suckered into going during Marathon Wknd 2025, which I am not looking forward to! (In-Laws are marathoners). I don't want to spend a bunch of money, just to be anxious before running a marathon and then potentially being injured the rest of the time, that is supposed to be a vacation.

 

[Nick6300]

Thanks for all this info. Quick question with those dates do you know if the discount is good for your whole stay as long as you check in during the window of dates listed?
Example: for November it is 11/25-11/27 does that mean I can check in on 11/27 and stay till 12/4 (one week) and get the discount or is it only for those 3 nights Nov 25,26,27th?

I called today just to ask if the gap dates are included in the Bounce-back sale, and it's a no. You can start on a day that is included and overlap not included dates, but you don't get the sale price for those dates.

We're currently at 8/17-8/24/24 for $906 at Sports Standard (it was $963 9/2/-9/9/23 w/ 20% off sale). We can't do Labor Day week with that wknd not covered, and we like sticking with Sat to Sat.
Alternatively:
9/7-9/14 is $1022
9/14-9/21 is $1068
9/21-9/28 is $1061.

Could you guys please weigh in on 8/17 arrival vs. the Sept. dates? We're flexible.
Pros for 8/17:
cheaper by $116-$155.
especially vs. late Sept., maybe lower crowds (local schools started by 8/10 this yr).
2 party nights vs. increasing to 3 starting wknd after Labor Day
this year park hours didn't extend in early Sept.
Labor Day 3 day wknd after your trip

Pros for especially late Sept:
could be about 5 deg. cooler for baby, but potentially more rainy and still very hot.
can't really think of anything else at the moment... I don't care if I miss any pumpkin decor since I see it every year.

 

[bigmac5]

WDW events:
1/3-1/7/24 is Marathon Wknd and there could be stays that extend a few days after. EP Fest. of Arts is Mid Jan through Mid Feb. (it was 1/13-2/20/23), Mardi Gras 2/13/24, Valentines Day, Princess Half Marathon Wknd 2/22-2/25/24. Of these, the race events are the only thing that I'd be slightly wary of... the 1st week of Jan for extended holiday trips and Marathon Wknd and Valentines and later.

Cheer/dance events:
1/12-1/14/24 college cheerleading & dance team national championships, 2/2-2/4/24 national dance team championship, 2/9-2/12/24 national high school cheer championships, may draw more guests to Sports more than the other Values, but there's some sort of cheer event on and off through May every year and it never personally influences me to book elsewhere.

2nd week of Jan though Valentines is Value Season 1 for the very reason that it is one of the least busy times of year, and hence prices are lower.

My friend goes during Valentines through late Feb every year and usually complains how busy it was in the parks - she stays at Pop more than All Stars.

I think we're currently going to be suckered into going during Marathon Wknd 2025, which I am not looking forward to! (In-Laws are marathoners). I don't want to spend a bunch of money, just to be anxious before running a marathon and then potentially being injured the rest of the time, that is supposed to be a vacation.

Thank you. I just booked Jan 21-31. Looking forward to it!