July 29 to Aug 14 Disney World trip report, primarily for Canadians

[Reepicheep]

To continue...

ROOM COMPARISON: ART OF ANIMATION VS ALL-STAR SPORTS

On this trip, we started out at Art of Animation for six days, followed by ten days at All-Star Sports. I thought I'd do a post comparing the two rooms. Both rooms were regular (i.e., non-suite) rooms.

I assume the Disboards forum allows links to youtube videos which give room tours, if the reviewer isn't affiliated with a travel agent. So, I'll provide links to two videos below (if I'm breaking a Disboard rule, then I imagine the links will disappear from my post). You may find it useful to refer to the videos to confirm the comments I will be making about the rooms.

Disney's Art of Animation Room Tour | Little Mermaid Standard Room

Disney's All-Star Sports Resort Room Tour

One minor interesting point: Art of Animation has a painting of Prince Eric and his dog on the wall, with the painting deliberately attached to the wall at an angle. Within minutes of entering the room, all three of us independently tried to straighten the painting, which of course can't be done. While it may be a trivial thing to complain about, the crookedness of the painting was kind of annoying, although I imagine not all guests would think that.

ROOM SIZE: The Art of Animation (from now on, Animation) room has a small round table at the room entrance which All-Star Sports (from now on, Sports) lacks. This additional piece of furniture implies that the Animation room is slightly larger. The Unofficial Guide to Disney World confirms this, with the Animation room having an area of 277 square feet vs 260 square feet for Sports (rooms at all three All-Star resorts and Pop Century are 260 square feet and have similar floor plans). Advantage Animation for room size.

MIRRORS: I didn't notice this myself, but my wife and daughter noticed that Animation has an extra mirror above the small table. They said this helped when multiple people are getting ready in the morning (we must all look our best when meeting Mickey and his friends). Advantage Animation for mirrors.

INTERNAL DOORS: Animation has a curtain separating the sink from the sleeping area, while Sports has a much superior sliding barn door. Likewise, the Animation shower/bathtub has a shower curtain, while Sports has sliding doors. Advantage Sports for doors.

STORAGE SPACE: Animation has a dresser which appears to contain six drawers, but three of the drawers are faux and hide the fridge. Both rooms have three drawers, but the ones at Sports are wider by an inch or two. The other half of the dresser at Sports contains the room safe and two additional shelves which contain two extra pillows. Removing the pillows would create two storage areas which are each roughly equivalent to a drawer. Animation has four coat hooks, while Sports has a mini closet with additional shelves for storage. Sports has many more shelves by the sink than does Animation. Rather than a small table, Sports has a narrow piece of furniture with the fridge at the bottom, coffee maker and supplies in the middle, and a couple of small shelves at the top. In terms of storage, a landslide victory for Sports.

MURPHY BED: I was a bit leery of the Murphy bed, but my fears were totally unfounded. It can easily be raised and lowered with one hand. When raised, the room seems to open up, and a table much larger than the small table at Animation magically appears. I slept on the bed, and there is no difference when comparing it to the regular bed. Game, set, and match to Sports for the Murphy bed.

The unanimous opinion of my family is that the All-Star Sports room is vastly superior to the Art of Animation room.

******

In my next post, I'll give my opinion on regular rooms vs suites, standard rooms vs preferred rooms, and give my final opinion on which resort is better over-all.

 

[kuhltiffany]

I’m curious to see what you think. We’ve done regular rooms at Sports, or a family suite at ASMU in the past. Our latest stay was split between POP and a Cars Suite at AOA.

 

[Reepicheep]

Sorry for the long delay in posting this next installment of my trip report. Those pesky real-life responsibilities are keeping my leisure time to a minimum.

In this post, I'll be talking a bit about the layout of the All-Star resorts, so those of you who aren't familiar with the resorts may wish to refer to the following map:

https://vipdisneytravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Disneys_All-Star_Resorts_80010402a.pdf


THE MOVE FROM ART OF ANIMATION TO ALL-STAR SPORTS

Changing resorts at Disney World during a split stay has always been a painless experience for us: on checkout day, drop off the luggage at bag services, tell them where to move the luggage to, and when we go to the 2nd resort at the end of the day, pick up the luggage at bag services.

My daughter, who was working at Disney World for the summer, made the reservation at All-Star Sports. Curiously, a preferred room (i.e., closer to the lobby) was less expensive for her than a standard room. Because of room availability, she had to book a total of three back-to-back stays (first, in a preferred room, then 2 days in a standard, then back to a preferred). As expected, at check-in they assigned us a preferred room for the entire ten-day stay, so we didn't have to pack up and change rooms at any point.

Disney castmembers have always been extremely pleasant when I've checked into a resort. On this occasion (and on two previous trips), it was one of my castmember daughters who was checking in. It is my observation that the castmembers are even more friendly with my daughters than with me, I assume because the castmembers felt a comradery with my daughters. On this occasion, at the conclusion of the check-in process, the castmember gave my daughter a nice set of Disney luggage tags, which was a nice bit of Disney Magic.

To get to our room, we headed south towards the football field, then at the first building turned east and walked to the end of the wing, which put our room adjacent to the road which passes the resort. This meant we had only a one minute walk to the park buses, which was very convenient. On our previous stay at Sports, our room overlooked the tennis court which contains statues of Donald and his nephews, which made the room feel more "Disney". I thought I'd be disappointed walking past the football field all the time, but it was actually very pleasent, especailly later in the day when there were usually parents with young kids, and on occasion teenagers, playing on the field. I've seen youtube videos which show three cheerleader squads simultaneously practicing their routines on the field, so if our stay had occurred during a cheerleading competition, my opinion would likely be different.

The walk to our room took us past the free marshmallow roasting area, which we took advantage of on three evenings.

I've already given a detailed review of our room in my previous post.


PREFERRED ROOMS VS STANDARD ROOMS AT VALUE RESORTS

The three All-Star Resorts and Pop Century offer what they call a preferred room at an additional cost of around $25/night. The only advantage to the preferred room is that it is usually closer to the hotel lobby/food court. I would argue that this additional cost is NOT worh it for the following reasons:

(1) we typically stay at Disney World for 14 days; I'd rather spend $350 on food or merchandise, than have a shorter walk to the room. Besides, we typically put in around 20k steps when we spend a day in a park(s). Making this 21k steps by staying in a standard room is no biggie, although I concede that at the end of a long day a shorter walk would be much appreciated.

(2) room location is a bit of a crap shoot; I'm sure the closest standard rooms are pretty well the same distance to the lobby as the farthest preferred room.

(3) on a previous trip, I booked a standard All-Star Sports room for part of our stay, but received a free upgrade to a preferred room.

(4) there may be advantages to a standard room; for example, on our first trip way back in 2019, we stayed for 16 days in a standard All-Star Movies room, which turned out to be at the far north end of the resort (in the Mighty Ducks section). This room had several advantages over a preferred room: we were beside a secondary pool which was always empty or near empty; there was a laundry room right there; most importantly, I realized after a couple of days that the walk to the All-Star Music lobby was actually half the distance of the walk to the All-Star Movies lobby. This meant that it was actually more convenient to go to Music for meals, to catch a bus at Music to go to the parks, and when returning to Movies from a park we could catch either a Music or a Movie bus, which ever arrived first.


SUITES VS REGULAR ROOMS AT THE VALUE RESORTS

I must admit that, with two adult daughters, a 270 square foot room is a bit cramped, although having a Murphy bed in the room alleviates this to an extent. I've never stayed in a suite at either Music or Animation, but it appears that the cost of two regular rooms is usually less than the cost of a suite. So, for my family of four, if we ever decide we need more room and are staying at a value resort, I think I would book two regular rooms (one for my adult daughters and one for my wife and I) rather than a suite.


FINAL CONCLUSIONS REGARDING ROOMS AT ALL FIVE VALUE RESORTS

A regular (i.e., non-suite) room with a Murphy bed is definitely superior to a similar room with a non-Murphy bed (currently, I believe Sports, Music, and Pop Century all have Murphy beds). Regular rooms at all five value resorts are all pretty well the same size, with Animation being larger by 17 square feet, although this advantage is lost because of a lack of a Murphy bed. The outdoor decor at the resorts differs widely between the five resorts, but I personally think that the decor at (say) Animation does not justify the much higher cost of staying at Animation, when compared to a much more affordable room at (say) Sports. So, for my family, if we are staying at a value resort, it will be at All-Star Sports.

**************

My next installment will get to the good stuff: what were the four parks like?

 

[Reepicheep]

to continue...

PARK BAG CHECK/SECURITY

My oldest daughter and I visited Disneyland for two weeks in December, 2024. They still used the system of manually checking each bag, followed by the guest walking through a metal detector. There was often a horrendously long wait to make it through security, even if the lines were short.

Disney World now uses those newfangled scanning machines that magically determine whether a person or bag contain any questionable items. I'd say that 90% or more of the guests go straight through security, with only 10% (probably less) being sent for a manual bag check (I'm not sure what happened to parents with large strollers and numerous bags, are they still checked manually?). Me, my wife, and my youngest daughter always sailed through security without a problem, even though we had shoulder bags carrying numerous items Alas, my older daughter was sent to secondary security 100% of the time. My wife and daughter attempted to determine what item(s) was causing the problem at security (by having my wife carry some of my daughter's items through the scanner), but they were unable to figure out the problem.

Anyway, going through security is very fast and efficient, much better than at Disneyland.


THE WEATHER

In my entire life, I've never experienced a more prolonged exposure to hot weather, made worse by the high humidity. It was hot even at 6:30am, when I'd head to the resort lobby for coffee. I talked to several locals about the weather, and they confirmed that it was much hotter than usual. They said that Orlando wasn't experiencing as many temperature-lowering thunderstorms as usual, which results in high temperatures all day. I didn't experience a thunderstorm until day 8 of our stay, and only experienced 3 storms total during our 15 day stay.


EARLY THEME PARK ENTRY

We sometimes took advantage of 30 minute early theme park entry, as detailed below:

Magic Kingdom: We'd join the line at 7 Dwarfs Mine Train around 8:25am. Unlike other MK rides, the ride was already in operation even though it wasn't yet 8:30am. The line is extremely long and winds all the way around the mountain, but the line moved very quickly, presumably because there is no lightning lane at that time. By 9am, we would have ridden Mine Train and Peter Pan, and then head over to Haunted for a walk on. A good way to start the day.

Animal Kingdom: We only did early entry at AK once. We arrived at the front entrance around 8:20am, made good time walking to Flight of Passage, and discovered that the line was already 70 minutes long and almost reached the "boardwalk" that connects Pandora to Africa. We had no back up plan, so we joined the line. 70 minutes turned out to be accurate. Later that afternoon, we did Flight a second time, when we saw a posted time of 40 minutes, which was accurate. At park close, we got in line for a third time with a posted wait of 50 minutes, but the actual wait was 20 minutes. My observation, which is confirmed by my daughters, is that wait times at park close at all Disney parks tend to be exaggerated, presumably to discourage guests from getting in line.

Hollywood Studios: We arrived at 8:20am and headed straight to Rise of the Resistance. There was a wait of around 30 minutes. On other days, we took advantage of the single rider option at Rise later in the day, but we wanted to experience the Rey Room and shuttle at least once this trip. Unfortunately, there was apparently a problem with the Lieutenant Bek animatronic, because on the shuttle there was a physical screen blocking the view of the flight deck. After Rise, we rode Slinky Dog Dash with a wait of (I think) 30 minutes (although maybe it was 40 minutes). All in all, not bad.

Epcot: Several years ago (prior to Cosmic Rewind opening), I headed over to Frozen at rope drop. By the time I joined the line, it was already 60 minutes long. This trip, my wife and I figured we'd do Frozen during early entry. Imagine our surprise when Frozen tuned out to be a walk-on. We did it a 2nd time as a walk-on, and a 3rd time with maybe 30 people in line ahead of us. At 9am we could have done the ride for a fourth time with maybe a 5 minute wait, but decided that 3 times was enough. I assume that most Epcot guests head to Cosmic Rewind at opening, they certainly didn't head to Frozen (a lot headed over to the just reopened Test Track).


SINGLE RIDER LINES: the big change this trip was the new single rider lines at Ratatouille and Rise. We took advantage of both lines numerous times during our stay. Ratatouille single rider never had a long lineup, Rise single rider seemed to be a crap shoot, with a 40 minute wait the first time we did it, and a walk-on the next day. Single rider at Test Track usually had a wait of around 30 or 40 minutes, presumably because the ride had just reopened after a long reburbishment.

LINES WHICH WERE SHORTER WHEN COMPARED TO EARLIER TRIPS: In general, the daytime lines at Soaring, Frozen, Spaceship Earth, Runaway Train, Star Tours, Jungle Cruise and Haunted seemed shorter this trip than on our previous trips. Tower of Terror and TRON were about the same as on previous trips (rarely shorter than 60 minutes). I don't ride Space Mountain, Guardians Cosmic Rewind, or Rock n Roller Coaster, so I won't give an opinion on those rides.

TRON: I had decided on my previous trip that, at age 66, TRON was too much for me. My daughters suggested that I try the "last row" option, which is a traditional seat with a lap bar. Much better, but still fairly wild. I should be able to ride TRON in the last row for a few more years.

PARKS EMPTIER? - There are many youtube vlogs and web articles which state that the Disneyland and Disney World parks were emptier this past summer compared to the summers of the past few years. I agree with that assessment.

to be continued...

 

[ottawamom]

Thanks for the report. So glad to hear of the new single rider lines. We will definitely take advantage of those. Good thing also to know about the "last row" for Tron. What is wild about Tron? How does it compare with Hagrid's ride at Universal (for those who know). I would love to give Tron a ride (at least once).

 

[hdrolfe]

Thanks for the report. So glad to hear of the new single rider lines. We will definitely take advantage of those. Good thing also to know about the "last row" for Tron. What is wild about Tron? How does it compare with Hagrid's ride at Universal (for those who know). I would love to give Tron a ride (at least once).

Tron is fast off the start, but it's a really short ride! Hagrid's was a lot longer and to me a little more exciting. I enjoy both though. I did NOT enjoy velocicoaster and thought I was going to pass out on that one.

 

[Reepicheep]

What is wild about Tron?

Speaking for myself, there are two ways that "wild" roller coaster type rides can cause me grief.

PHYSICAL BACK PAIN: The Matterhorn at Disneyland is the best example of a ride that causes me physical pain. I love the ride so much, however, that I still ride it 2 or 3 times during each 10 day trip. I'm at the point where, because of lower back pain, it can take me 10 or 15 seconds to slowly climb out of the toboggan at the end of a ride. Unless I can manage to lose some weight and get in better shape, my days of riding the Matterhorn are drawing to a close.

NAUSEA: There are three types of ride that cause me to experience nausea. A roller coaster in the dark (for example, Space Mountain) gives me grief because my brain is lacking the visual clues it apparently needs to process what is happening during the ride. I can't handle any sort of spinning (Tea Cups, Cosmic Rewind). Finally, any sort of corkscrew motion or even steeply banked curves (TRON) cause me trouble. In the case of TRON, leaning forward in a regular TRON seat amplifies, for me, the effect of the banked curves, but sitting upright with a lap bar alleviates my discomfort to an extent. Still, it won't be long before the discomfort I feel on TRON is greater than the enjoyment I get from the ride.

Many people have told me that they can't go on any sort of 3-d screen ride (Star Tours, Flight of Passage). Thankfully, those sorts of rides don't currently cause me any major discomfort, although some of the step dives on Flight of Passage are starting to make me slightly queasy. It will be a sad day when I can no longer ride Flight of Passage.

 

[Reepicheep]

My oldest daughter and I visited Disneyland for two weeks in December, 2024. They still used the system of manually checking each bag, followed by the guest walking through a metal detector...

Disney World now uses those newfangled scanning machines that magically determine whether a person or bag contain any questionable items.

This morning, one of the Disneyland vloggers I follow on youtube made an interesting comment about the time consuming security process at Disneyland. He claims that the reason security is as it is that "that is the union's choice, that is what the security guard union wants the bag check experience to be, and to that, I appeal to you, security union, please, PLEASE make it more efficient."

I have no idea whether or not this claim is true, but it seems plausible. Disneyland adopting a more efficient security procedure would certainly result in fewer bag checkers being needed, and the union would be against the possible layoffs that would result from a more efficient process.