Okay here is a good one for us to hee and haw over....RESORTS AND WHY WE STAY?

[edk35]

oKAY WE ASK ADVICE ON THIS BOARD OF WHERE TO STAY ...WHY WE STAY AND SUCH. I think we all stay at various resorts for various reasons. Some people go to WDW and do PARK PARK PARK DAYS...some maybe a park or two but go for the fancy resorts and what they have to offer for their vacations. Some base their decisions on price and what they actually need the room for. We are the type family that every time we go to WDW we are never in our rooms......just showers and sleep. So sometimes it is hard to decide on a hotel because of that. BUT this trip we want to slow down and smell the DISNEY ROSES SO TO SPEAK.......we want to do a day or two of non park stuff like exploring the other resorts and DTD. So sometimes I think when we post 'HEY WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS RESORT OR THAT ONE we get comments all over the place. I know I have changed my mind a zillion times for our up and coming Nov. trip too. I have never been this indecisive for a trip to WDW. My kids are like "mom just do whatever". It is even making them nuts. DOES ANYONE ELSE FEEL LIKE THIS?????????? I literally change my mind so often that I am driving myself crazy. LOL I love the deluxe resorts...don't get me wrong......but we have always gotten a great deal on the ones we stayed at...THAT IS WHY WE STAYED. Now SOG is really nice.....the rooms are huge and they are cheap and no tax and the location next to Poly is great.....but we also MISS THE MAGIC OF DISNEY AT THE RESORTS TOO....so this time trip in Nov. we are staying 5-6 nights at SOG and 3-4 somewhere else. BUT we also have to have two rooms at mod. or values. So right now.......this very minute I am thinking of switching our reserv. to All Star Movies instead of POP for those last few nights.

SO FOR THOSE OF US THAT STAY AT VALUES OR MODERATES........WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT THOSE RESORTS?

THANKS FOR LISTENING TO ME RAMBLE.

 

[minnie61650]

I am 55 years old and I travel several times a year. I often stay at 4 star hotels.
So the deluxe resorts do not have anything special for me.
All Star is like being in the heart of Disney and that is where I want to be.I feel the magic at All Stars.
When I vacation at dDisney I spend my time in the parks, shopping, dining , exploring, or just taking in the sights so I don't need a large room to lounge around in.

All Star Music is my faveroite.It Is quieter because more couples stay there.I love the Clypso builing it is closer to the pool,food court and bus stop.

Here is a site with a map of All Star Sports and All Star Music.
http://www.wdwinfo.com/resortmaps/allstarmap.htm
Scroll down.All Star Music is at the bottom of the page.
The Calypso buildings at All Star Music are #1 and #10 are nearest to the food court and bus stop.
They are the preferred buildings and cost about $12 extra per night.
The Calypso pool at ASMU has Donald Duck.

Here is the map of All Movies.
http://www.wdwinfo.com/resortmaps/allstarmovie.JPG
The Fantasia Buildings are the preferred buildings.
The All Star Movie Fantasia pool has Mickey.
The buses are wonderful.
Bus ride times according to PassPorter.com

Bus rides are shorter from the ALL Stars than POP according to PassPorter.com

All Star Buses------------Pop buses
MK 20 min---------------MK 25 min
Epcot 10 min------------Epcot 20 min
MGM 10 min--------------MGM 15 min
AK 10 min----------------AK 15 min
DTD 15 min---------------DTD 20 min

The All Star resorts have 1960 rooms each.
Pop has 2,880rooms.
That means more people in the pools,food court and in line waiting for the bus at POP.
When phase 2 of POP is built it will be 2 bus stops at POP and the 2 POPs will have the same # of rooms as the 3 All Stars.

Also All Star is closer to the main road to get to parks and thats why bus rides are shorter from there than from POP.

A WORD ABOUT BUS SHARING:

It is usually just our stop and maybe one more on the way to the parks. On the way back sometimes its all 3 but often Sports and Music share and Movies has it's qwn bus back.

I guess some people who stay at POP see all 3 All Star names on the return sign of our bus stop when they head to the POP bus stop and think All Stars also has 3 stops on the way to the park.
(Even when we stop at another AS resort to load up it has not taken more than 5 minutes and we are on our way!)

I love the All Star Resorts --they can't be beat. I have visited WDW more than a dozen times with the 1st time in Oct. 1971. It was brand new. I've stayed at FW, Disney Inn, a few the of Hotels on hotel Blvd., CBR and the towers at the Contemporary. I got to see the MK from my balcony at the Contemporary and I'm happy I got to experience it once. I just prefer the All Star Resorts.
The theaming is pure Disney.
My last 4 visits have been at The All Stars and this fall when we take dd,dsil, and our grandson age 3 we are staying at the All Stars Music. I thought about AKL and even though we can well afford AKL I just wanted Alex to experience the Disney Magic at the All Stars on his first visit.
Where else can one find Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse at the pool?
I can hardly wait.
Linda
__________________

 

[bonnielynn]

I change my mind all the time.. I also drive my kids and husband nuts with the "what do you think of this resort" and "look at these pictures".. It sounds like you are also the one that makes all the arrangements for a family trip.

I have stayed at both a deluxe and moderate... PO and WL... both properties were fabulous.. although I have to say that I am never spending alot of time at the resort... I am always at the parks... We did however do a pool day at the WL...

I know it doesn't help, but I think it depends on if you want to spend the money, if you want to be at the hotel, etc...

 

[alwayspooh]

My husband's favorite is CSR. We like to stay at a nice hotel with nice restaurants but don't want to spend all of our money just in the hotel. We split our vacation between parks, experiencing great restaurants, pool and shopping. DH doesn't like change and trying new things is not his cup of tea but I am hoping that we will be able to stay at the AKL next year. We stayed at the Pop one time when it first opened. We stayed in the Jungle Book building which was close to the main pool and dining area. It was very crowded due to the time of year, Christmas and the hotel being so new. We also stayed at the Dixie Landings before the renovations. It really needed it so of course that just reinforced how my husband feels about change.

We always know what hotel we want to stay. Once our reservation is made we don't change because then we just start looking forward to our Magical Disney vacation starting!!! This includes making ressies, planning what we want to see at the parks etc.

I think where you stay really depends on each family and what they can afford and what they like to do at Disney.

 

[Buzz2001]

My favorite is CSR. So much so that I created a website with all the reasons why. You can visit it by clicking on the link below

 

[*Fantasia*]

I use to drive myself crazy... but not anymore. I knew I was going to fall in love with the Polynesian and the WL and the POFQ. So those are my main choices and since I do the split stay, it's not a problem for me to choose which one. I would do the Poly and POFQ during summer. And during winter, I would do WL and POFQ. It works out just fine.

 

[deacondarlin]

DH and I chose ASMu...a lot of it was based on price. With staying at a Value Resort, we could stay three or four days longer for the entire trip than if we'd picked a Moderate. I guess we're more of "quantity" over "quality" people...

As for why we chose ASMu over the others....I majored in music in college...it was a given!