Disney's ART OF ANIMATION RESORT Thread

[Whitney08]

hi!
We are going on a impromptu trip for my birthday in may!
Was wondering if anyone has done online check in recently and had problems with it? The last time i stayed at AoA they were testing magic bands and ours NEVER worked. We couldn't open doors our dining plan wouldn't work it was horrible. We ended up leaving the bands in room and just using our Key to the world cards and still had problems with those!
We are driving through the night to arrive in Disney the morning of my birthday and we have an 11am reservation at Akershus. Want to run my bags in and hop on a bus to EPCOT. Also we are staying in cars suit and I'm terrified we are going to get put in the middle of nowhere. Last time we were in Lion king and the room location was PERFECT.

Just wanting to see if Online check in will help make process go a little faster or if its going to cause a million problems that I'd really prefer not dealing with on my birthday lol.

thanks

 

[Toffeewoffy]

hi!
We are going on a impromptu trip for my birthday in may!
Was wondering if anyone has done online check in recently and had problems with it? The last time i stayed at AoA they were testing magic bands and ours NEVER worked. We couldn't open doors our dining plan wouldn't work it was horrible. We ended up leaving the bands in room and just using our Key to the world cards and still had problems with those!
We are driving through the night to arrive in Disney the morning of my birthday and we have an 11am reservation at Akershus. Want to run my bags in and hop on a bus to EPCOT. Also we are staying in cars suit and I'm terrified we are going to get put in the middle of nowhere. Last time we were in Lion king and the room location was PERFECT.

Just wanting to see if Online check in will help make process go a little faster or if its going to cause a million problems that I'd really prefer not dealing with on my birthday lol.

thanks

We've been back a week, and had no trouble with check-in at all. We had to go to the desk as they don't ship the bands to the UK, but I would have wanted to go to the desk anyway as I changed not only our suite but the building we stayed in!

 

[smd8z]

Can anyone tell me if the suites have a DVD player?

 

[bluezy]

Can anyone tell me if the suites have a DVD player?

There wasn't when we were there in June 2013. However, our kids each use portable DVD players in the car, so we just took the appropriate cable along to hook one of those up to the TV in the room....though I don't think the kids ever watched any DVD's in the room. They were too busy watching Brain Games.

 

[shpooey]

Last time we were in Lion king and the room location was PERFECT.

Great to hear! What building/room were you in?

 

[Whitney08]

We were in building 6 close to the exit near nemo building. I can't remember the room number now that was October 2013 lol. The walk to bus wasn't long and it wasn't that far from nemo pool either.

 

[Brandiwlf]

What time do buses to mk start if park opens at 9? I keep seeing one hour prior to park opening but we have an 8 am breakfast reservation. We will have a car but hoping to avoid the whole ttc thing for mk so was hoping to ride the bus!

 

[lovingeire]

What time do buses to mk start if park opens at 9? I keep seeing one hour prior to park opening but we have an 8 am breakfast reservation. We will have a car but hoping to avoid the whole ttc thing for mk so was hoping to ride the bus!

Early dining reservation buses normally start around half 6, however I always recommend going to the concierge the night/day before and mentioning that you have an early ADR and they can provide you with more concrete information.

 

[dansdad]

What time do buses to mk start if park opens at 9? I keep seeing one hour prior to park opening but we have an 8 am breakfast reservation. We will have a car but hoping to avoid the whole ttc thing for mk so was hoping to ride the bus!

Just as @lovingeire stated, the buses start rolling at 6:30AM every morning.

 

[ColonelBulldog]

We are going as a family the first week on June this year. We are also staying in the AoA rooms. Can someone explain to me, to get to downtown Disney are their buses that run or is it better to use some other form of transportation (flying in)? And how complicated is the bus system? Ive looked at the map online but that only explains where they run. Thanks

 

[jcarwash]

We are going as a family the first week on June this year. We are also staying in the AoA rooms. Can someone explain to me, to get to downtown Disney are their buses that run or is it better to use some other form of transportation (flying in)? And how complicated is the bus system? Ive looked at the map online but that only explains where they run. Thanks

I'd say the bus system is generally pretty simple when you're heading out from your resort. Each resort, including AoA, has a bus you can take to go to Downtown Disney. On the way back, same thing -- there's a dedicated bus back to AoA.

What you can't do is take a bus from a park (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, etc.) to Downtown Disney, nor can you take a bus from Downtown Disney to a park. You need to take a Downtown Disney bus from a resort.

 

[BriarRose3]

Just got back from AoA yesterday. We had a wonderful time. The resort is beautiful and the theming is just fantastic. We stayed in Building 6 in the Lion King section. The location was perfect. We were on the first floor close to Nemo (near Pride Rock but facing the lake). We had a short walk to the pool and animation hall. The room was VERY quiet.

I thought the room quality was great. I actually felt the room was nicer than the rooms at CSR and POFQ - I stayed at both when they were freshly remodeled. The bathrooms are much nicer. The beds were comfortable. I slept on the sofa bed several nights with my 2 year old and the sofa was actually very comfortable. I was surprised. My kids loved the "magic bed." When we walked into the room, my 2 year old kept saying "I can't believe it!" She just loved it.

The feature pool is a lot of fun. It's very spacious and the zero entry is great. Perfect for little ones. My older kids got a huge kick out of the underwater music.

Landscapes of Flavor was good. We ate dinner there twice. Both times I had the CYO pasta. I really enjoyed it and the portions were huge. My friend had the tandoori fish the first night and thought it was good, though the portion isn't huge. The second night he had the steak sandwich which he enjoyed. My kids had the pizza a few times as well as the mac and cheese (available in the "Grill" area). We also did Pizza delivery from Pop Art one night for the kids and they loved it.

Bus service was great. One time we did take the Pop bus because we were leaving DHS mid-day and JUST missed a bus (we saw it pull away). The Pop bus came about a minute later so we took that and walked over to AoA. That took 5 minutes. The only negative I had with Bus service was that the AoA bus stops tended to be far from the park entrance - particularly at Epcot.

I'd DEFINITELY stay at AoA again. Thumbs up from everyone!

Just got back from AoA yesterday. We had a wonderful time. The resort is beautiful and the theming is just fantastic. We stayed in Building 6 in the Lion King section. The location was perfect. We were on the first floor close to Nemo (near Pride Rock but facing the lake). We had a short walk to the pool and animation hall. The room was VERY quiet.

I thought the room quality was great. I actually felt the room was nicer than the rooms at CSR and POFQ - I stayed at both when they were freshly remodeled. The bathrooms are much nicer. The beds were comfortable. I slept on the sofa bed several nights with my 2 year old and the sofa was actually very comfortable. I was surprised. My kids loved the "magic bed." When we walked into the room, my 2 year old kept saying "I can't believe it!" She just loved it.

The feature pool is a lot of fun. It's very spacious and the zero entry is great. Perfect for little ones. My older kids got a huge kick out of the underwater music.

Landscapes of Flavor was good. We ate dinner there twice. Both times I had the CYO pasta. I really enjoyed it and the portions were huge. My friend had the tandoori fish the first night and thought it was good, though the portion isn't huge. The second night he had the steak sandwich which he enjoyed. My kids had the pizza a few times as well as the mac and cheese (available in the "Grill" area). We also did Pizza delivery from Pop Art one night for the kids and they loved it.

Bus service was great. One time we did take the Pop bus because we were leaving DHS mid-day and JUST missed a bus (we saw it pull away). The Pop bus came about a minute later so we took that and walked over to AoA. That took 5 minutes. The only negative I had with Bus service was that the AoA bus stops tended to be far from the park entrance - particularly at Epcot.

I'd DEFINITELY stay at AoA again. Thumbs up from everyone!

 

[BriarRose3]

Booked our 1st AoA resort stay for early NOV. Right now at Cars fam suite but weighing Cars vs. LK. Would like to be able to walk to Nemo pool and food court. Having never stayed at this resort I'm finding it difficult to make a decision. Would appreciate DISers experience with both. Super excited to experience this resort Thx!

 

[bluezy]

Booked our 1st AoA resort stay for early NOV. Right now at Cars fam suite but weighing Cars vs. LK. Would like to be able to walk to Nemo pool and food court. Having never stayed at this resort I'm finding it difficult to make a decision. Would appreciate DISers experience with both. Super excited to experience this resort Thx!

You can walk to both the Nemo pool and the food court easily from either location. However, the Lion King rooms are generally closer to Landscape of Flavors than the Cars rooms because LoF is located at the LK end of Animation Hall (along with the bus stops). When we were there in June 2013, we had requested the Cars section and to be close to the bus stops (which automatically puts you close to the food court). We were assigned to a room in Building 2 that was about as far from the bus stops as you can get in that section. I took one look at the location on the map and knew we wouldn't be happy there because we get the refillable mugs and use them often. That room location was over 400 yards from the food court/bus stops (I mapped it out after we got home but I knew before we got there that anything in Building 2 was going to be further away from the food court & bus stops than we wanted to be). I asked if there were any available suites -- in any section -- that were closer to the food court/bus stops. We got reassigned to Bldg. 10 in Lion King and it was perfect for us. We were at the end closest to Animation Hall -- it was literally 100 yards from our room to the food court and only a little further to the bus stops. It was the perfect location for us and we were happy we switched from Cars to Lion King.

That being said, if you manage to get into buildings 1 or 3 in the Cars section, your walks would be similar in distance to the two buildings in the Lion King section. And the Cars sections is absolutely gorgeous at night. The whole resort is beautiful but the Cars sections was my favorite at night. Plus, while you're free to walk to the Nemo pool to swim, you have a pool (with cabanas!!!) in the Cars section. If we didn't use the refillable mugs several times a day, I wouldn't mind being in the Cars section, but because of our numerous trips to the food court each day, we prefer the LK locations because at worst, we'll be about 250 yards from the food court (and chances are, we'll be much closer).

 

[lovingeire]

Booked our 1st AoA resort stay for early NOV. Right now at Cars fam suite but weighing Cars vs. LK. Would like to be able to walk to Nemo pool and food court. Having never stayed at this resort I'm finding it difficult to make a decision. Would appreciate DISers experience with both. Super excited to experience this resort Thx!

We loved Cars. The theming is so much better thank LK. For us walking isn't an issue and we definitely utilize our mugs! I think it just depends how much walking you want to do, but I'm an odd duck and didn't find the walk to be that much further. So for a few more steps to LoF and the Nemo pool I'd rather stay in our preferred theming.

 

[Buddyex]

just a question with the Refillable drink stations at AofA, is it just at Landscape of flavours or is there one closer to the Little Mermaid rooms?

 

[newestkg06]

There is another refillable mug station at the Drop Off Pool Bar, but that isn't any closer to Little Mermaid.

 

[BellaBaby]

So looking at the map, should I not request lake view (Nemo building) since the lake is at the other end of the buildings and we want to be near the food court and pool? Also, is noise level higher being on the ground floor vs. higher floors?

 

[Brandiwlf]

How long does it take to get back and forth to mk (door to door). Trying to see if we have time for a mid day break.

 

[hulagirl87]

How long does it take to get back and forth to mk (door to door). Trying to see if we have time for a mid day break.

the bus ride takes about 20-25 minutes each way