Disney's ART OF ANIMATION RESORT Thread

[MarBee]

This may have been discussed earlier?? How thin are the walls? I stayed at Pop Century and got no sleep. I could hear regular volume conversation. I’ve stayed at All Stars Movies and did not have that problem.

I’ll tell you that this answer will vary by person. I am a light sleeper who can hear a pin drop a mile away. My husband could have a freight train drive by and sleep through it. I will tell you the walls are thin, and he will tell you they’re soundproof.
If you are like me, I would suggest a travel white noise machine. One of the best travelers I have ever thought in my life. I think I paid $15 for it. It can fit in your pocket, and it lets me sleep

 

[hsmamainva]

If you have an iPhone it can serve as a white noise machine.

Look under General / Accessibility / Hearing / Audio Visual / Background Sounds

There’s a large selection of sounds like rain, ocean etc.

 

[bluezy]

This may have been discussed earlier?? How thin are the walls? I stayed at Pop Century and got no sleep. I could hear regular volume conversation. I’ve stayed at All Stars Movies and did not have that problem.

We've stayed in a suite at AoA on 6 different trips and never really had any issues with noise (and I'm a pretty light sleeper). One stay I think there was a CM "hangout" in the suite next to us. If we were in our bedroom during the day, we could hear people talking and laughing next door (and we saw CMs come and go from that room during the day throughout our stay). They weren't being obnoxiously loud, just "having a good time hanging out" loud. It wasn't a problem since it was during the day and we never heard anything after about 4:00. We had one trip where we heard a little kid above us bouncing what sounded like a small rubber ball for about 5 seconds until the mom said, "Stop bouncing that ball! The people in the room below us don't want to hear that!" That was the only noise we heard on that trip. All the other trips we had no issues with noise from either side or above/below us. But I will mention that we usually stay in the LK suites and I don't think those tend to be sold out when we're there. There have been trips that we've never even seen anyone else in our hallway the entire time we're there.

We also stayed at Pop Century for one night last year. Zero issues with noise there either and I know the room next to us was occupied because we saw the family going into the room when we arrived.

My husband travels for business several times a year and I go with him occasionally. The company puts us up in much better hotels than the Value Resorts at Disney and I've seriously had more issues with noise at some of those hotels than I ever have at Disney (we actually asked to be moved at the Ritz Carlton in Tyson's Corner because the people next door were so loud -- and I don't think they were *trying* to be loud, they just had loud voices.

I really think the "noise" issue often has more to do with how sensitive someone is to the noise and how loud someone's voice is in the room next door. I have friends who have voices that "carry" even when they're just having a normal conversation. They're not being loud per se, they just have a loud tone to their voice. Nothing they can do about it.

 

[cleophus12]

This may have been discussed earlier?? How thin are the walls? I stayed at Pop Century and got no sleep. I could hear regular volume conversation. I’ve stayed at All Stars Movies and did not have that problem.

We just got back from 5 nights at AoA. I found the resort to be remarkably quiet. We didn't hear anyone above or beside us and never heard doors slam during the night. The whole resort was a terrific surprise for us.

 

[Road_Dog]

Hoping to get some opinions from people who've stayed in both Family Suites and DVC accommodations!

We're booked in a Cars Suite at Art of Animation for early October — 4 adults (my wife and I, plus her parents) and 2 kids (ages 4 and almost 3). Our plan is to put the kids in the closed-door bedroom so the adults can have some downtime after bedtime. That said, the bedroom only has a queen, so depending on how the nights go, my wife may end up in there with them. That would leave grandpa and grandma on the Murphy table bed and me on the pull-out couch. Not ideal, but workable.

We paid roughly $3,400 for 5 nights after tax (~$680/night), which got me thinking about whether renting DVC points might get us better sleeping arrangements for a similar price. We own DVC but our points don't return until October 2027, so we'd be renting.

We need at least 3 beds: one for my wife and me, one for her parents, and one for the kids. From what I can tell, that almost certainly means looking at 2-bedroom DVC villas — but everything I'm seeing for Deluxe 2-bedrooms is well over $1,000/night, which blows past our budget.

So I've shifted focus to 1-bedrooms. Most of the DVC 1-bedrooms that sleep 5 seem to offer either a pull-out chair or a Murphy twin as the third sleeping option. This is not a huge upgrade over what we'd have at AoA. I can match or beat the Cars Suite price at a few Deluxe resorts, but the one that really stands out to me is a resort view at BLT which is roughly the same price: 2 bathrooms and access to the Monorail are real draws. But I'm unsure how easy the Resort category is to get via rental, plus being non-refundable isn't appealing.

I know the Family Suites at the other Value Resorts (All-Star) have 3 separate beds and likely come in at a lower price point, which sounds appealing on paper, but the photos make the rooms look noticeably smaller than AoA's suites. For anyone who's stayed in both, is the space sacrifice significant enough to matter for a group our size? I'm also not a fan of bus-only transporation--the skyliner is a big selling point!

Thanks in advance, any firsthand experience with these setups is super helpful!

 

[Kerr84]

Hoping to get some opinions from people who've stayed in both Family Suites and DVC accommodations!

We're booked in a Cars Suite at Art of Animation for early October — 4 adults (my wife and I, plus her parents) and 2 kids (ages 4 and almost 3). Our plan is to put the kids in the closed-door bedroom so the adults can have some downtime after bedtime. That said, the bedroom only has a queen, so depending on how the nights go, my wife may end up in there with them. That would leave grandpa and grandma on the Murphy table bed and me on the pull-out couch. Not ideal, but workable.

We paid roughly $3,400 for 5 nights after tax (~$680/night), which got me thinking about whether renting DVC points might get us better sleeping arrangements for a similar price. We own DVC but our points don't return until October 2027, so we'd be renting.

We need at least 3 beds: one for my wife and me, one for her parents, and one for the kids. From what I can tell, that almost certainly means looking at 2-bedroom DVC villas — but everything I'm seeing for Deluxe 2-bedrooms is well over $1,000/night, which blows past our budget.

So I've shifted focus to 1-bedrooms. Most of the DVC 1-bedrooms that sleep 5 seem to offer either a pull-out chair or a Murphy twin as the third sleeping option. This is not a huge upgrade over what we'd have at AoA. I can match or beat the Cars Suite price at a few Deluxe resorts, but the one that really stands out to me is a resort view at BLT which is roughly the same price: 2 bathrooms and access to the Monorail are real draws. But I'm unsure how easy the Resort category is to get via rental, plus being non-refundable isn't appealing.

I know the Family Suites at the other Value Resorts (All-Star) have 3 separate beds and likely come in at a lower price point, which sounds appealing on paper, but the photos make the rooms look noticeably smaller than AoA's suites. For anyone who's stayed in both, is the space sacrifice significant enough to matter for a group our size? I'm also not a fan of bus-only transporation--the skyliner is a big selling point!

Thanks in advance, any firsthand experience with these setups is super helpful!

Something you may not have thought about is just getting 2 rooms at a resort and requesting connecting rooms. It isn't guaranteed, but requests are usually met. We did this and had 2 rooms at POP, so we had 2 bathrooms and 4 queen beds.

 

[bluezy]

Hoping to get some opinions from people who've stayed in both Family Suites and DVC accommodations!

We're booked in a Cars Suite at Art of Animation for early October — 4 adults (my wife and I, plus her parents) and 2 kids (ages 4 and almost 3). Our plan is to put the kids in the closed-door bedroom so the adults can have some downtime after bedtime. That said, the bedroom only has a queen, so depending on how the nights go, my wife may end up in there with them. That would leave grandpa and grandma on the Murphy table bed and me on the pull-out couch. Not ideal, but workable.

We paid roughly $3,400 for 5 nights after tax (~$680/night), which got me thinking about whether renting DVC points might get us better sleeping arrangements for a similar price. We own DVC but our points don't return until October 2027, so we'd be renting.

We need at least 3 beds: one for my wife and me, one for her parents, and one for the kids. From what I can tell, that almost certainly means looking at 2-bedroom DVC villas — but everything I'm seeing for Deluxe 2-bedrooms is well over $1,000/night, which blows past our budget.

So I've shifted focus to 1-bedrooms. Most of the DVC 1-bedrooms that sleep 5 seem to offer either a pull-out chair or a Murphy twin as the third sleeping option. This is not a huge upgrade over what we'd have at AoA. I can match or beat the Cars Suite price at a few Deluxe resorts, but the one that really stands out to me is a resort view at BLT which is roughly the same price: 2 bathrooms and access to the Monorail are real draws. But I'm unsure how easy the Resort category is to get via rental, plus being non-refundable isn't appealing.

I know the Family Suites at the other Value Resorts (All-Star) have 3 separate beds and likely come in at a lower price point, which sounds appealing on paper, but the photos make the rooms look noticeably smaller than AoA's suites. For anyone who's stayed in both, is the space sacrifice significant enough to matter for a group our size? I'm also not a fan of bus-only transporation--the skyliner is a big selling point!

Thanks in advance, any firsthand experience with these setups is super helpful!

I will start off by saying that we *love* the AoA suites and have stayed in them on 6 different trips. However, in your situation, I would either switch to ASMusic (though they are 45 sq. ft smaller and you won't have the Skyliner, but they do have a full size refrigerator if that's important to you.) or switch to Pop Century and get 2 rooms. If you link the reservations and indicate you're traveling together and would like connecting rooms (and don't make any other requests), you have a decent chance of getting them. And if you don't get them, go to the front desk and nicely ask if there is anything they can do to help you get them. Even if they can't give them to you the first night, they might be able to move you to connecting rooms the next day. Pop Century has the largest number of connecting rooms, so you also increase your chances by booking there. Another option is to put the kids on toddler size air mattresses in the bedroom and then you and your wife can go in the room and sleep on the bed whenever you're ready. I'll also mention that at those ages, our kids were so exhausted at the end of the day that they would fall asleep as soon as their head hit the pillow and wouldn't have noticed if we had a party in the same room.

 

[Grace&Carolinesmom]

Hoping to get some opinions from people who've stayed in both Family Suites and DVC accommodations!

We're booked in a Cars Suite at Art of Animation for early October — 4 adults (my wife and I, plus her parents) and 2 kids (ages 4 and almost 3). Our plan is to put the kids in the closed-door bedroom so the adults can have some downtime after bedtime. That said, the bedroom only has a queen, so depending on how the nights go, my wife may end up in there with them. That would leave grandpa and grandma on the Murphy table bed and me on the pull-out couch. Not ideal, but workable.

We paid roughly $3,400 for 5 nights after tax (~$680/night), which got me thinking about whether renting DVC points might get us better sleeping arrangements for a similar price. We own DVC but our points don't return until October 2027, so we'd be renting.

We need at least 3 beds: one for my wife and me, one for her parents, and one for the kids. From what I can tell, that almost certainly means looking at 2-bedroom DVC villas — but everything I'm seeing for Deluxe 2-bedrooms is well over $1,000/night, which blows past our budget.

So I've shifted focus to 1-bedrooms. Most of the DVC 1-bedrooms that sleep 5 seem to offer either a pull-out chair or a Murphy twin as the third sleeping option. This is not a huge upgrade over what we'd have at AoA. I can match or beat the Cars Suite price at a few Deluxe resorts, but the one that really stands out to me is a resort view at BLT which is roughly the same price: 2 bathrooms and access to the Monorail are real draws. But I'm unsure how easy the Resort category is to get via rental, plus being non-refundable isn't appealing.

I know the Family Suites at the other Value Resorts (All-Star) have 3 separate beds and likely come in at a lower price point, which sounds appealing on paper, but the photos make the rooms look noticeably smaller than AoA's suites. For anyone who's stayed in both, is the space sacrifice significant enough to matter for a group our size? I'm also not a fan of bus-only transporation--the skyliner is a big selling point!

Thanks in advance, any firsthand experience with these setups is super helpful!

I agree with bluezy that 2 rooms connecting might be a better fit for your situation. Our family now travels getting connecting rooms for the extra space. The key to getting your request is 3 fold. 1. Make sure the reservations for the 2 rooms are linked as "traveling with", make connecting rooms your only "request." 2. Mark your arrival time as early in the day whether you will be there early or not. Why? Because you increase the likelihood of getting your rooms assigned to you earlier in the day so that if you have an issue, it is easy to get another set of rooms assigned before the inventory has dwindled with check-ins. 3. Do NOT open your room doors until it is confirmed that you have connecting rooms. Either look at a room map for the resort or ask at the front desk before going to your assigned rooms. If you open the door to your rooms and find they aren't connecting, you likely won't be able to get a reassignment until the next day because mousekeeping has to sign off on the room before it can be reassigned.

As far as resort recommendations, given the ages of your children, POFQ might be a good fit. The resort is small and dining, transportation, recreation and laundry are all centrally located. The resort pool is somewhat aimed toward younger children and it has a water splash play area and a playground just off the pool. You can get connecting rooms and have 4 real beds along with each room also having a small table and chairs or bench. The newly renovated rooms also have a moveable stool for littles to reach the sinks more easily. If grandparents want some time out of the parks, the boatride to Disney Springs is a nice diversion.

Good luck!