Miffy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2002
- Messages
- 5,339
Hi there. My dh and I are just back (last night) from 11 glorious WDW days and I wanted to briefly post our impressions of the 2 resorts we stayed at. Please keep in mind, these are only my opinions. Also, we are two adults w/o children. We don't wake up at 7 am on vacation...more like 9:30 or so. And, finally, we are NYC residents who live in a small apartment, so the rooms at WDW seem big to us!
ASMusic Pros: Very cheap. We had an AP rate of $54/nights inc. tax. The room was clean and well cared for. Our mousekeeper was a gem, entertaining us with towel animals and keeping the room super spiffy. The room was plenty big enough for two adults. Excellent bus transportation to all points. Not-too-terrible food court.
ASMusic Cons: The noise level was, to me, unacceptable. We could hear everything going on in all surrounding rooms (next door, above, and below). The toilet flush is legend, so I'll skip it, except to say that closing the bathroom door helps a bit. We heard crying babies, people creating future crying babies, luggage carts, well, everything. We were not near a pool, so I don't know how the noise from the pools carries to the rooms. Our room (in Country Fair) was quite a distance from buses/ food court and although this wasn't really bad, after 5 nights of not much sleep, it seemed like a trek to me. I hesitate to mention this, but other than the exterior of Calypso (the front, preferred building), ASMu is not an aesthetic delight. I think you might get the picture.
ASMu Overall: I would not stay here again. On our first morning I was lying in bed scheming to switch resorts, stay off-property (horrors!), or (double horrors!) go home. I kept thinking that we could've had a standard-view room at AKL or WL for only $60 or so more a night and the 300 bucks would've been worth it, even though I'm generally a pincher of dollars. Even so, the 5 nights were not completely horrible and the place is convenient and clean. Nevertheless, never again.
ON THE OTHER HAND.....
AKL is fantastic! I have no "cons" for AKL, so let me launch into the positives: A gorgeous building, beautiful rooms (they seemed huge to us small-apartment dwellers), incredible animal viewing both from our room and from various places all over the resort, a superb staff, including a front desk that swiftly and happily moved us to another room after only 10 minutes in room #1 (it was too near the lobby for me...lots of people walking by and I was still shell-shocked from ASMu at the time) and a housekeeper who should be given the Employee of the Month award (if it exists). Well, I could go on and on. All the guides around the viewing areas happily spoke about the animals, their countries, their stay in the US, etc., and were cheery and informative. There are TONS of things to do at the lodge (we spent an entire day just there, hidden-Mickey hunting and animal viewing), a gorgeous pool (altho it was too cold to swim (for us) last week), many areas to sit and watch the animals. The Mara food court was perfectly fine, more interesting food selection than at the All Stars and a wonderfully accommodating staff. Bus service superb, never more than a 10-minute wait. The parks did not seem that far away to us--the MK is maybe a 12 or 13 minute bus ride from AKL. Epcot and MGM much closer and, of course!, AK is practically right there. Have I gushed enough? I didn't want to come home!
But here I am. At home, though, I have in-room viewing of three great kitties!
Happy to answer any questions about either resort. Please remember that these are just my opinions. I understand completely that people like the All Stars and enjoy their stays there. My dh was not affected by the noise the same way I was.
miffy
ASMusic Pros: Very cheap. We had an AP rate of $54/nights inc. tax. The room was clean and well cared for. Our mousekeeper was a gem, entertaining us with towel animals and keeping the room super spiffy. The room was plenty big enough for two adults. Excellent bus transportation to all points. Not-too-terrible food court.
ASMusic Cons: The noise level was, to me, unacceptable. We could hear everything going on in all surrounding rooms (next door, above, and below). The toilet flush is legend, so I'll skip it, except to say that closing the bathroom door helps a bit. We heard crying babies, people creating future crying babies, luggage carts, well, everything. We were not near a pool, so I don't know how the noise from the pools carries to the rooms. Our room (in Country Fair) was quite a distance from buses/ food court and although this wasn't really bad, after 5 nights of not much sleep, it seemed like a trek to me. I hesitate to mention this, but other than the exterior of Calypso (the front, preferred building), ASMu is not an aesthetic delight. I think you might get the picture.
ASMu Overall: I would not stay here again. On our first morning I was lying in bed scheming to switch resorts, stay off-property (horrors!), or (double horrors!) go home. I kept thinking that we could've had a standard-view room at AKL or WL for only $60 or so more a night and the 300 bucks would've been worth it, even though I'm generally a pincher of dollars. Even so, the 5 nights were not completely horrible and the place is convenient and clean. Nevertheless, never again.
ON THE OTHER HAND.....
AKL is fantastic! I have no "cons" for AKL, so let me launch into the positives: A gorgeous building, beautiful rooms (they seemed huge to us small-apartment dwellers), incredible animal viewing both from our room and from various places all over the resort, a superb staff, including a front desk that swiftly and happily moved us to another room after only 10 minutes in room #1 (it was too near the lobby for me...lots of people walking by and I was still shell-shocked from ASMu at the time) and a housekeeper who should be given the Employee of the Month award (if it exists). Well, I could go on and on. All the guides around the viewing areas happily spoke about the animals, their countries, their stay in the US, etc., and were cheery and informative. There are TONS of things to do at the lodge (we spent an entire day just there, hidden-Mickey hunting and animal viewing), a gorgeous pool (altho it was too cold to swim (for us) last week), many areas to sit and watch the animals. The Mara food court was perfectly fine, more interesting food selection than at the All Stars and a wonderfully accommodating staff. Bus service superb, never more than a 10-minute wait. The parks did not seem that far away to us--the MK is maybe a 12 or 13 minute bus ride from AKL. Epcot and MGM much closer and, of course!, AK is practically right there. Have I gushed enough? I didn't want to come home!
But here I am. At home, though, I have in-room viewing of three great kitties!
Happy to answer any questions about either resort. Please remember that these are just my opinions. I understand completely that people like the All Stars and enjoy their stays there. My dh was not affected by the noise the same way I was.
miffy
