Disney's ART OF ANIMATION RESORT Thread

[kiapepito]

Would you recommend taking an earlier bus from AOA to get to MK rope drop?

 

[kiapepito]

Are the snacks labeled with the snack label at Landscape of Flavors? Thank you!

 

[kiapepito]

We just got back and had a blast. We stayed in the Nemo section. I had done the online check in and put in a request for upper floor, lake view (or something like that). We were placed first floor right by the elevator. I asked if we could switch and were moved to a different room on the first floor, the last room on the hallway, which ended up really working out. No noise at all! The kids loved the splash area and the playground area. We spent a lot of time there!

Loved the food court and ate there several times. Never a really long wait until the last day we were there where I waited 45 minutes for a burger and pasta. Saw lots of people checking in that day!

We saw the construction outside, but it was nothing that interfered with our trip. A few long waits for buses, but nothing too horrible. I wish that the Magic Kingdom line was under a covering like the other park bus stops. It was super sunny and hot when we were there and waiting for a bus got a bit sweaty! I would definitely stay there again!

MK bus wait 8am last Thursday morning...

View attachment 237587
sorry for the random lady right in front, just wanted to capture the length of the line!

Glad we missed this guy though!
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/father-arrested-on-child-neglect-charge-at-disney-resort

What time did Magic Kingdom open this morning? Thank you.

 

[kiapepito]

Do they still have the artist of the day? Thank you again!!

 

[2010_Bride]

Do they still have the artist of the day? Thank you again!!

Would you recommend taking an earlier bus from AOA to get to MK rope drop?

Yes, they still have the artist of the day.

Yes, I would reccommend taking any bus earlier than you think you need right now. As others have said the road work is having an impact on busses. We were there three weeks ago and in general we found busses to all the parks were few and far between. In fact, we almost always saw two Pop busses to our one bus.

 

[barbliny]

Hi, looking for a little help with online check-in and room requests

We will visiting be Disney the first full week in June - starting out at Daytona Beach for a few days. So, we will be driving to AoA on Monday afternoon. If the weather is nice, we spend more of the day at the beach - probably will arrive at AoA around 4:00.

I plan to put our arrival time at 1:00 pm, allowing for the possibility of Monday not being a beach day (realizing check-in time is not until 3:00 and any room access before that is a 'gift'). I'm not going to mark the box that says early check-in trumps everything.

We are staying in a Cars suite. I would like to be somewhat near transportation, and not facing a parking lot. I would prefer a 'quieter' room - I'm thinking that I would prefer to look into the hotel grounds vs. the lake. People and theme watching vs. lake watching.

How do I better my chances at this with the 2 requests available on the online check-in? I can actually probably put up with whatever room I get, since it's my husband and me, and our 2 early-20's daughters (so everyone is independent and mobile), and we will be only staying 3 nights before moving to the Poly for the rest of the week. I don't really want to do faxes etc. - willing to roll the dice with what I can do with those 2 requests.

Thanks for any help.

 

[hulagirl87]

What time did Magic Kingdom open this morning? Thank you.

MK opened at 9 this day

 

[hulagirl87]

Hi, looking for a little help with online check-in and room requests

We will visiting be Disney the first full week in June - starting out at Daytona Beach for a few days. So, we will be driving to AoA on Monday afternoon. If the weather is nice, we spend more of the day at the beach - probably will arrive at AoA around 4:00.

I plan to put our arrival time at 1:00 pm, allowing for the possibility of Monday not being a beach day (realizing check-in time is not until 3:00 and any room access before that is a 'gift'). I'm not going to mark the box that says early check-in trumps everything.

We are staying in a Cars suite. I would like to be somewhat near transportation, and not facing a parking lot. I would prefer a 'quieter' room - I'm thinking that I would prefer to look into the hotel grounds vs. the lake. People and theme watching vs. lake watching.

How do I better my chances at this with the 2 requests available on the online check-in? I can actually probably put up with whatever room I get, since it's my husband and me, and our 2 early-20's daughters (so everyone is independent and mobile), and we will be only staying 3 nights before moving to the Poly for the rest of the week. I don't really want to do faxes etc. - willing to roll the dice with what I can do with those 2 requests.

Thanks for any help.

I had never done online check in before, but thought I would try it for this trip. We were staying in the Nemo suites and I requested 4th floor (or highest floor, I can't remember how it was worded) facing the lake/water. We got our text that our room was ready and it was the first floor, the room closest to the elevator, right by the pool. I asked at the front desk if we would be able to switch to something else, and they gave us the farthest room from the elevators, still on the first floor. Which ended up working out really well, but our initial online check in request definitely wasn't taken into consideration

Honestly, I would forgo online check in and just take your chances when you check in at the front desk. Then you would be talking to an actual person and if you don't like your room assignment maybe you could ask for something else.

Just my 2 cents

 

[barbliny]

I had never done online check in before, but thought I would try it for this trip. We were staying in the Nemo suites and I requested 4th floor (or highest floor, I can't remember how it was worded) facing the lake/water. We got our text that our room was ready and it was the first floor, the room closest to the elevator, right by the pool. I asked at the front desk if we would be able to switch to something else, and they gave us the farthest room from the elevators, still on the first floor. Which ended up working out really well, but our initial online check in request definitely wasn't taken into consideration

Honestly, I would forgo online check in and just take your chances when you check in at the front desk. Then you would be talking to an actual person and if you don't like your room assignment maybe you could ask for something else.

Just my 2 cents

Hmmm - this is me exactly!! In all of my visits to Disney I have refused to do online check-in - preferring to chat up the front desk CM. This time I thought perhaps I'd do online since I might not arrive until official check-in time has passed and I'd be stuck with leftovers. If only Disney would move to the Hilton online check-in where you can pick your exact room!!

 

[trouttigger]

Does AoA still do free 1 hour tours of the resort? If yes, what time? We are staying off site next week and won't be getting an activities schedule. We found an online article from 2015 that says this exists and that it is not required to be staying there.

 

[ansh08]

We are staying at AoA in third week of August with 3 adults and 3 kids(2, 6, 6 years old). All kids loves Cars movie so we have booked Cars suite.
I was thinking to stay in Building 1 because it looks closer to lobby, food and buses. Sort walk for kids.

What do you recommend for floor and room with kids? our kids are little noises so i want to disturb next door people. I like the view of Cars pool but not sure if we should stay on lower floor or higher floor?
So any advice is welcome.
Thank you in advance.

 

[John Marecek]

We are staying at AoA in third week of August with 3 adults and 3 kids(2, 6, 6 years old). All kids loves Cars movie so we have booked Cars suite.
I was thinking to stay in Building 1 because it looks closer to lobby, food and buses. Sort walk for kids.

What do you recommend for floor and room with kids? our kids are little noises so i want to disturb next door people. I like the view of Cars pool but not sure if we should stay on lower floor or higher floor?
So any advice is welcome.
Thank you in advance.

Check out Touring Plans. The photos of views from each room are invaluable if you are looking for something specific.

 

[StraightToDumbo]

So when we stayed at the GF in 2013, we spent a half a day just walking around AoA. We vowed to stay there on our next trip. Here it is FOUR years later already, and we're finally headed back in Sep. and staying in a Lion King Suite!!! Super excited. My question (probably been answered): I'm going to request a lake-side, top floor room. Does anyone recommend near the middle or on the end of a building? Is that even something you can request?

 

[bluezy]

So when we stayed at the GF in 2013, we spent a half a day just walking around AoA. We vowed to stay there on our next trip. Here it is FOUR years later already, and we're finally headed back in Sep. and staying in a Lion King Suite!!! Super excited. My question (probably been answered): I'm going to request a lake-side, top floor room. Does anyone recommend near the middle or on the end of a building? Is that even something you can request?

I don't think you can request "near the middle" or "near the end" on online check-in (they seem to change the options frequently) but you could certainly call and have that added to your reservation. Or, you could use the Touring Plans Room Request fax service to request a specific room/area that suits your needs.

We've stayed in the LK suites twice. Once in each building but both times we were on the fourth floor. We loved being on that floor -- it was really quiet and we didn't have any foot traffic in the hallway. (We also loved our first floor Nemo suite last year -- we were off the main hall so it was also a quiet location with no foot traffic.) Keep in mind that the elevators are in the center of each building. So if you end up in a suite that is in the "wing" of the building that is closest to Animation Hall, you will have to climb a few flights of stairs to get to your room *OR* walk "past" your room location (on the first floor) to the center of the building, take the elevator to your floor, and then walk *back* to your room. It's not a big deal, but it can feel like a lot of extra walking at the end of a long day. Both of our LK rooms were right by the stairs at the end of the building closest to Animation Hall and there were several times that I stood at the bottom of the steps thinking, "Hmmm...do I feel like climbing stairs or do I fee like going to the elevator.... What I really want is the elevator to be located where the stairs are." The advantage to that location is that it's a quick walk down the stairs and to the food court or bus stops. If you're anywhere else in the building, the elevators are on the way to your room so it's not a big deal. We always request "close to transportation" so that's why we ended up at that end of the building.

 

[StraightToDumbo]

I don't think you can request "near the middle" or "near the end" on online check-in (they seem to change the options frequently) but you could certainly call and have that added to your reservation. Or, you could use the Touring Plans Room Request fax service to request a specific room/area that suits your needs.

We've stayed in the LK suites twice. Once in each building but both times we were on the fourth floor. We loved being on that floor -- it was really quiet and we didn't have any foot traffic in the hallway. (We also loved our first floor Nemo suite last year -- we were off the main hall so it was also a quiet location with no foot traffic.) Keep in mind that the elevators are in the center of each building. So if you end up in a suite that is in the "wing" of the building that is closest to Animation Hall, you will have to climb a few flights of stairs to get to your room *OR* walk "past" your room location (on the first floor) to the center of the building, take the elevator to your floor, and then walk *back* to your room. It's not a big deal, but it can feel like a lot of extra walking at the end of a long day. Both of our LK rooms were right by the stairs at the end of the building closest to Animation Hall and there were several times that I stood at the bottom of the steps thinking, "Hmmm...do I feel like climbing stairs or do I fee like going to the elevator.... What I really want is the elevator to be located where the stairs are." The advantage to that location is that it's a quick walk down the stairs and to the food court or bus stops. If you're anywhere else in the building, the elevators are on the way to your room so it's not a big deal. We always request "close to transportation" so that's why we ended up at that end of the building.

I totally get what you mean. I think far end then may make that thought process easier.

 

[bluezy]

I totally get what you mean. I think far end then may make that thought process easier.

Yes. And I highly recommend using the Touring Plans room fax request service. We've had great luck with that. Last summer our Nemo suite was right next door to the exact suite I requested -- which was fine because I indicated in the comments that I didn't need the specific room, it was just important to us to be in that specific hallway. If I was requesting a 4th Floor LK room again, I'd request one close to or past the elevators (when coming from the bus stops/food court) so we wouldn't be back tracking every time we used the elevators.

 

[dansdad]

Hi, looking for a little help with online check-in and room requests

We will visiting be Disney the first full week in June - starting out at Daytona Beach for a few days. So, we will be driving to AoA on Monday afternoon. If the weather is nice, we spend more of the day at the beach - probably will arrive at AoA around 4:00.

I plan to put our arrival time at 1:00 pm, allowing for the possibility of Monday not being a beach day (realizing check-in time is not until 3:00 and any room access before that is a 'gift'). I'm not going to mark the box that says early check-in trumps everything.

We are staying in a Cars suite. I would like to be somewhat near transportation, and not facing a parking lot. I would prefer a 'quieter' room - I'm thinking that I would prefer to look into the hotel grounds vs. the lake. People and theme watching vs. lake watching.

How do I better my chances at this with the 2 requests available on the online check-in? I can actually probably put up with whatever room I get, since it's my husband and me, and our 2 early-20's daughters (so everyone is independent and mobile), and we will be only staying 3 nights before moving to the Poly for the rest of the week. I don't really want to do faxes etc. - willing to roll the dice with what I can do with those 2 requests.

Thanks for any help.

Your best chance would be to call the Main Reservation line and add those 2 requests to your reservation. Then skip the room request section during Online Check In.

 

[Nigel80]

Has anyone ever tried to get a 'complimentary upgrade' at check in? A bit like the $20 trick if anyone has ever done this in Vegas??

 

[wmoon]

How is the construction at AOA just now. We got an email from Disney advising us there was construction - we are staying in a Little Mermaid Room in about 4 weeks time.

Thanks.

 

[stindall]

Does anyone know when online 2018 booking will be available?