Just back from ASMu 4/29 - 5/6....Any Questions?

Blue Skies

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Jun 28, 2000
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We arrived back yesturday afternoon :( from a wonderful Disney trip! :)

We stayed at ASMu from 4/29 to 5/6. This was the first time staying at an all star resort. Our previous on site trips we had stayed at the Caribbean Beach (1995) and the Beach Club (2000). I had been nervous to stay at an All Star and had said loudly "I'll never stay THERE!" Okay....I might have been a little bit of a resort snob. But no more! I am an All Star convert! I have been set free from my pre-conceived notiotions about these hotels! Some people (as with any Disney resort) can be pretty negative about the All Stars. Visions of cheerleaders on the ramapge at all hours were running through my head.

When we originally booked our hotel late last summer, we were planning on staying at thw WL. Then I thought, why not save some $$ and I switched to Coronado Springs. Then I thought, lets make this a budget trip (we have a new house I want to decorate! ;) ), so I took the plunge with one of the codes and booked ASMu (preferred room) for our stay.

When we arrived (even though I had checked out pictures on many different sites) the theming of the report was much better in person! We arrive at the report around 3 pm and a nice CM checked us in. I had requested on our reservation a first floor pool view room (I did not send a fax to the room controller). We got room 557 (building 10) a 2nd floor pool view. Wow! What a great room! We had a better view than first floor (there was a lot of foilage in front of the first floor rooms). Our room was three rooms from the end of the building closest to melody hall (food court, bus stop). Most of the time we were able to park our car in the small lot by our building (just a few steps to our room after a long day!).

The room was larger in feeling than expected. In our room was myself, my husband and young son (5 yr). We had no problems getting ready in the morning (I was up about 1/2 hr before them). Maybe if you had a family with more girls that need their bathroom time, it might be an issue.

Our only complaint about the room was mousekeeping. I tipped everyday and we were having issues where things were missing (cups, kleenex, liners for the ice bucket, etc...). So we would have to call housekeeping everyday. I stoped tipping for two days and I think our maid (on the card that was left it was always the same name, so I assumed we had the same mousekeeper each day) got the message.

On our last day she left my son's Pluto stuffed animal in his life jacket for the pool in a chair in the window awaiting our return. :) This was the only thing our mouskeeper did for us our whole stay. We noticed lots of stuff in other peoples windows, but I had not expected anything either. We never had anything like this done for us when we stayed at the Beach Club either.

The pool was very nice! We only swam in the main Clypso pool. We never had a problem finding any empty lounge chair (I read the thread about lounge chairs this morning :eek: ). We swam on three different occasions and had no problems with a young child (no unruly people, etc..). We swam before 7-8 pm everyday though. It looked like older kids hit the pool later in the evenings.

We never had a problem with noise from the pool. I can sleep through anything (even an earthquake once!), but my husband needs earplugs (he uses them at home too... and we live in a small town in a subdivision with no noise!). He never once complianed about the noise level at night.

We ate at the food court once. It was huge, but whenever we walked by it was never too busy. Food was okay... but we always had sancks, water, soda, beer in our room (we had stopped at Winn Dixie our first night).

The transportation was fine. We mostly used Disney transportation. I can't compare it to the Beach Club (we never used the bus...only a car), but the waits were simular to when we stayed at the CB. Once leaving EPCOT the wait was over a half hour (accoriding to the people in head of us in line at the bus stop). But none of the waits we experienced were intolerable. We had a great bus driver one night from EPCOT, Roger Dodger the old Croger! (that's what he told us his name was!) He was a hoot! Great fun and the most personality of any CM our whole trip! ASsp was always the first on and first off, followed by us then ASMo (they usually ended up standing becasue seats were usually filled by the time they were picked up).

Well, I think that mostly covers our stay. I would definately stay in an All Star resport again! :D I might even be brave and try Pop Century (if it's open by our next trip :rolleyes: :D !!)

I thought All Star Music was a great value for the $$. I had been disapointed in the Beach Club (in respect to the mucho $$ spent to stay there...great hotel...but wow.....not worth the $$$ you fork over for it ....IMHO).

Our son loved the hotel. Whenever a CM asked him, what resort are you staying at, he would reply "the green one!" (his fav color is green).

If anyone has any questions....I will try and answer them!

Melissa:D
 
Thanks Blue Skies!!! I too will be doing the value thing this month at the asmovies for the first time. And just like you were, I am nervous about what to expect.... My children, however, are sooo excited about staying there after they saw the pics... I would never have guess how excited they would be... my 11yr old told me (just between us momma) I am more excited about the resort this time than the parks!!!:p
You have no idea what your post has done for my peace of mind... I too am now more excited!!! Thanks:bounce: :Pinkbounc
I hope I will come back with just your resolve...it sure would save in the future to start to love the values!!!
Have a wonderful day!! and Thanks again!!!
 
Hi Blue Skies and Epcot Lady,
We have stayed in ASMo twice now and I can't think of a happier place to stay at disney. The whole place makes you smile. Yes, it feels really good saving that money for other things. I still would like to try a monorail hotel for convienience but cringe everytime I look at prices even with codes. You can't beat the bus service in my opinion. We really haven't had a problem with getting on a bus at movies, sometimes it is crowded and you may have to stand every once and a while so be prepared. If the buses are really crowded they go into a different plan I think and each resort gets a bus,.......like leaving MK. They will also send another bus sooner if there is a bigger line waiting and not much space left. I don't know though Pop Century still looks a bit too much like graffiti, clutter and cheesy. ya'll go try it and I'll stay with the 40 foot ballerina who weighs 1000 lbs. (CM told me that recently). We almost stayed in Music this time but had to change dates at the last minute and were able to get Movies. I think I would rather stay there than sports. There's just something about huge dalmations greeting you in the morning that I love. :Pinkbounc :bounce: :Pinkbounc :bounce:
 
Thank you! Its reassuring to hear good things about the All Star Resorts. We arrive at ASMovies on the 10th May
I presume all rooms throughout the AS resorts are similar size etc so might i ask you one question? I just wondered whether there was any hanging space for clothes in the room? Or do you dress out of your suitcases in the AS resorts. Also if there is hanging space are hangers required?

I know :rolleyes: these sound like silly q's and probably are...but knowing these things will affect what clothing i bring. ;)
 

disneydolphin2,

Not a silly question at all! There is a clothes rack (like in a regular closet) next to the sink. There was about ten wooden hangers provided. The hanging space was about 4 - 5 feet. If you plan on hanging a lot of clothes, I would bring additional hangers from home. Above the clothes rack there was a wide shelf. We stored one of our smaller suitcases and all our souviners we bought at the parks there.

In the wall on the side was a small safe with a key. Very handy to store credit cards, travelers checks, etc.

The room also had 6 small drawers. We used one for our snacks and the others for clothes. I was able to get all our stuff (I brought 7 changes of clothes for each of us since there was no way I was going to be doing laundry on my vacation!) in the drawers and on the hangers provided. I don't like living out of a suitcase either! :D

Melissa
 
Thanks for the info

Now i know to bring some hangers...otherwise we will be fighting over what gets to hang! I suspect even magical disney cannot prevent that kind of disagreement ;)

Glad to hear about the safe for keeping my travellers chqs etc in. Ive seen a few pics of the rooms and they look really nice...i especially like the 'stars' bathrooms! Didnt spot the hanging rail though :)

Karen
 
Blue Skies, thank you so much for your post i booked ASMU in feb for june 21-27 and have been questioning it ever since. your post made me feel more at ease with my decision and i am glad you enjoyed the resort. I CAN'T WAIT FOR MY WEEK THERE:p
 
Walmart has packages of coated wire hangers for $.88. They are twelve to a pack. They are perfect because they take up very little space in suitcase or closet, unlike Disney's large wooden hangers. Plus they are so cheap you can leave them if you like! (And they come in pretty colors...)
 















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