Disney's ART OF ANIMATION RESORT Thread

[kedz]

I never once thought about how long it would take to get food once we ordered from mobile app.. This is so crazy to hear how long it could take to get food!! I imagine placing an order in any of the could take forever to get quick service food??

 

[Jobelly]

Thanks for all the answers.
I was choosing between cb and AoA and went for AoA due to the extra space as there is 5 of us but maybe wishing I hadn’t as the sky liner doesn’t sound so much of a plus now if you have to queue at 2 places.

 

[robcaryh]

Have there been lines to get in the AoA pools lately? I go on tuesday and the first day we are there we wanted to use the splash pools in particular, but dont relish the idea of a wait to get in.

 

[Becky Mouse]

Thanks for all the answers.
I was choosing between cb and AoA and went for AoA due to the extra space as there is 5 of us but maybe wishing I hadn’t as the sky liner doesn’t sound so much of a plus now if you have to queue at 2 places.

I agree. I chose AoA because I think the Skyliner sounds safer in terms of COVID. However, it doesn't sound like it brings any advantage to park hopping at all and comes with a lot of waiting. It's a trade off I'm willing to take to feel safer in public transportation, but if rope dropping was my main goal, I wouldn't pick a Skyliner resort (except CBR since that's the hub).

 

[leannak]

I agree. I chose AoA because I think the Skyliner sounds safer in terms of COVID. However, it doesn't sound like it brings any advantage to park hopping at all and comes with a lot of waiting. It's a trade off I'm willing to take to feel safer in public transportation, but if rope dropping was my main goal, I wouldn't pick a Skyliner resort (except CBR since that's the hub).

We booked it thinking about the Covid risk, too. I wish they'd start the skyliner earlier in the morning to get people moving instead of piling up in line. I'm not sure if they have enough room to let people space out when they arrive at Epcot & HS but they could try and make it work. : )

 

[Koda]

Do buses run to all 4 theme parks from AoA? Or do you have to take skyliner to Epcot and DHS?
Thanks!

 

[WEDWDW]

Do buses run to all 4 theme parks from AoA? Or do you have to take skyliner to Epcot and DHS?
Thanks!

AoA does currently have buses to Epcot and DHS in addition to Skyliner.

 

[sunandsmiles]

Have there been lines to get in the AoA pools lately? I go on tuesday and the first day we are there we wanted to use the splash pools in particular, but dont relish the idea of a wait to get in.

Here now. Went to Flippin Fins pool at 3pm today and was told they were at 100% capacity but that there was only one family ahead of us. We waited about 2 minutes and a space (2 lounge chairs) opened up. Didn't try any other pools here so can't comment on waits for those.

 

[CableKC]

Glad that I was able to book my resort stay at AoA a few weeks back. With the Disneyworld promotion, I was able to get one of the Little Mermaid rooms with ticket packages before everything went up. Staying at Pop Century or even a Coronado Springs package costs a couple of hundred more.

What time do the pools close in the summer?

I'm sure that the kids will love to go swimming after a return from the parks.

 

[WEDWDW]

Glad that I was able to book my resort stay at AoA a few weeks back. With the Disneyworld promotion, I was able to get one of the Little Mermaid rooms with ticket packages before everything went up. Staying at Pop Century or even a Coronado Springs package costs a couple of hundred more.

What time do the pools close in the summer?

I'm sure that the kids will love to go swimming after a return from the parks.

It used to be Midnight but has been 11:00 PM for the last few years.

 

[JenniBarra]

We stayed at AoA April 27 - May 1.

Based on what I was reading here, I thought we had maybe a 50/50 chance of being upgraded from our Little Mermaid standard room (booked the package that gave you two free park days for purchasing four nights/three days.) We did not get upgraded, but they did honor our request for a single king bed.

We did find the room quite spacious, but the decor just wasn't for us, which I had expected would be the case. (The oversized figures and so on associated with the value resorts has never appealed to us and we think Port Orleans French Quarter is visually "loud." Port Orleans Riverside and Animal Kingdom Lodge are our favorite hotels.) My husband's comment is that he thought the room interior was like a nicely decorated child's room. This is definitely a personal taste thing as a local friend was actually quite taken with the room when she visited us and another said she knows someone who is very, very into Little Mermaid so it's her dream to stay there.

We only ate from Landscape of Flavors on our arrival morning and subsequently stayed away because we found breakfast to be extremely mediocre. I will say, though, that they do have some great CMs working there.

Using the Skyliner was mostly very smooth for us. We never waited all that long to board, though we did use the bus to go to DHS one day as I had snagged Boarding Group 6 for RotR and didn't want to risk a big line of people also all trying to be there for rope drop. Another morning we took the bus to Epcot because I specifically wanted to start out in Future World rather than at the International Gateway. The one hiccup - and it was big - was we went to Boardwalk one night for dinner and when we returned to International Gateway via boat, Epcot was near closing time and the Skyliner was stalled. Eventually, a CM told everyone it was down for the night and was telling everyone to catch busses at the nearest hotels to Disney Springs and then transfer from there. Of course, a lot of people had no interest in this, even if Disney claimed they were going to send additional busses so we and a lot of other people beelined to the closest hotel and paged Lyft or Uber to return to our hotels.

 

[nevergrowup826]

[QUOTE="Jenn

Using the Skyliner was mostly very smooth for us. We never waited all that long to board, though we did use the bus to go to DHS one day as I had snagged Boarding Group 6 for RotR and didn't want to risk a big line of people also all trying to be there for rope drop. Another morning we took the bus to Epcot because I specifically wanted to start out in Future World rather than at the International Gateway. The one hiccup - and it was big - was we went to Boardwalk one night for dinner and when we returned to International Gateway via boat, Epcot was near closing time and the Skyliner was stalled. Eventually, a CM told everyone it was down for the night and was telling everyone to catch busses at the nearest hotels to Disney Springs and then transfer from there. Of course, a lot of people had no interest in this, even if Disney claimed they were going to send additional busses so we and a lot of other people beelined to the closest hotel and paged Lyft or Uber to return to our hotels.
[/QUOTE]

What times were the HS and EP buses start coming to AOA. I was just at YC a week ago and was very disappointed in the AK and MK buses picking us up after 7am (definitely the first bus as i had waited since 615/620), missing rope drop 2 out of our 3 attempts. This is my first time at AOA, we're coming down with a big group for my bachelorette, and i want to make sure we get to rope drop without having to wait super long for the skyliner.

Thanks for any guidance!

 

[JenniBarra]

What times were the HS and EP buses start coming to AOA. I was just at YC a week ago and was very disappointed in the AK and MK buses picking us up after 7am (definitely the first bus as i had waited since 615/620), missing rope drop 2 out of our 3 attempts. This is my first time at AOA, we're coming down with a big group for my bachelorette, and i want to make sure we get to rope drop without having to wait super long for the skyliner.

I will be honest in saying that I'm not sure exactly what time we caught those two busses, but I'm pretty sure they weren't the first to arrive. DH can be kind of pokey in the morning so I just do my best to get him out the door as soon as I can.

 

[Becky Mouse]

We did find the room quite spacious, but the decor just wasn't for us, which I had expected would be the case. (The oversized figures and so on associated with the value resorts has never appealed to us and we think Port Orleans French Quarter is visually "loud." Port Orleans Riverside and Animal Kingdom Lodge are our favorite hotels.) My husband's comment is that he thought the room interior was like a nicely decorated child's room. This is definitely a personal taste thing as a local friend was actually quite taken with the room when she visited us and another said she knows someone who is very, very into Little Mermaid so it's her dream to stay there.

I'd agree with that assessment! This will be our first time staying at AoA, but we've stayed at All-Star Movies before. I agree that the decor is very "loud" at the values, but the kids definitely enjoyed it. They're huge fans of Toy Story, so staying at All-Star Movies was very exciting for them (they liked walking through the "Andy's room" door and by all the Toy Story statues). I know my daughter is going to love the Little Mermaid room. I had thought about staying at Caribbean Beach Resort for the better Skyliner service there, but I figured this is probably the last time I'll go when my kids will want to stay in these type of rooms. We have a whole future ahead of us at staying at the nicer resorts, but this is probably the last time my daughter will get excited about a Little Mermaid room! So, I'll use this trip for that now.

However, in the future, for my personal taste, I look forward to going back to Ft. Wilderness (our favorite resort so far!) and checking out other new-to-us resorts like Port Orleans and Caribbean Beach.

 

[matt&jakesmom]

Can anyone post a pic of the recreations going on for this month. Thank you.

 

[hulagirl87]

I'm just thinking... is the Nemo splash area open? My kids loved that the last time we went and I know they would want to do it again, but not sure how that is working with Covid?

 

[nevergrowup826]

I will be honest in saying that I'm not sure exactly what time we caught those two busses, but I'm pretty sure they weren't the first to arrive. DH can be kind of pokey in the morning so I just do my best to get him out the door as soon as I can.

thanks for responding! do you think you still made it to HS before open or at least early enough to make your ROTR time? Given Epcot's current hours, I'm not worried for the skyliner yet!

 

[Lizgistix]

Gotta say, that line for the Skyliner at CBR in the morning gets loooooong! I think the longest wait was about 25 minutes when I tried to get to HS before 9am (I didn't, I was still in line for the Skyliner at that point).

I think the splash pad is open? It seemed like the water was turned on over there so I assumed it was.

I had breakfast once at the food court, the breakfast sandwich, and it was.....fine, I guess.
The burger wasn't bad, the chicken sandwich was decent. The turkey dinner was pretty good, and the salmon dinner was just okay.
On check out day, I bought 2 cupcakes to take home with me.

The bus situation was different, It was a mix of Disney and chartered Academy busses. Academy cannot take wheelchairs or ecvs, and strollers have to folded and put in the luggage compartment under the bus.

 

[ktink]

We will be staying at AoA January 20-23 in a Cars suite. This is a birthday trip for me that DH & I had already booked at Poly. (Blended family here) We got the ok to bring DD & DS from their mom. She wanted to be there for their first trip but the plans never came together. Needless to say they wanted to stay at AoA instead of Poly so done At 16 & 12 we will need the extra room.

 

[CastAStone]

Can anyone post a pic of the recreations going on for this month. Thank you.

I posted one a page or two back