our stay at ASMo was magical

[magic teacup]

 

[AnnaE4]

Glad to hear it! We will be staying there for the first time this weekend. Can you tell me where you stayed? How was the food court? How was the transportation with the buses?

Thanks.

Denise

 

[Magic2000]

Glad to hear you liked the AllStars! We've stayed in the Movies twice now, and its the absolute best hotel - according to my 6 yr old! We stayed in Love Bug & 101 Dalmations - both were quiet, and a short walk to the food court/bus stop! I think the AllStars have some of the best bus transportation on the property!!

What made your stay magical? Last Nov/Dec, we flew in and arrived about 12:30 AM. My little one had fallen asleep on the ride from the airport, and was asleep as I was checking in. When she heard the CM say we were in "102 Dalmations", she woke up and was so excited to be going to see Oddball! She danced all the way to the room! She hugged the puppy watching the TV outside our bldg. It was so cute and she was so happy! We've also had some magical time at this resort!

 

[magic teacup]

Well, the drive from Jackson, Ga. was shorter than expected for the first thing. We arrived about 1:30 and since check in wasn't till 4. I called the ASMo and the CM said of course we could check in anytime. We arrived to learn we had a room in the Dalmation wing on the first floor. (rm.1751). Our kids, 6 and 8 yr. were thrilled. They recieved balloons on arrival and watched cartoons in the lobby while mom and dad decided how many days of hopping we could provide them. There was an e ticket night coming but I refrained since they are still of course 6 and 8. From this forum I knew about the AmEx white glove treatment goodies so we now had lanyards and tradable pins. (I am really going to get into this pin collecting thing). Did I mention food?? At the food court everything we ate was truly a surprise. We expected cafeteria/ institution type food and *everything* we tried here was good. All we heard from friends was how expensive food was at disney and we really couldn't understand why. You do pay a bit for atmosphere and the mickey plates cups etc. but we were never disappointed with the portions. (if they have the asian chicken salad at lunch do not pass it up). One of my favorite things was my walk through the big dalmations every morning to get my mug refilled and stopping in the gift shop everyday. No I did not buy the store out. On the contrary, I didn't bring back enough souveniers so I have to go back soon. Transportation is a knock out. We never waited for more than 10 minutes anywhere we went. My hubby spends a lot of time in traffic and this was the most magical part about the whole trip for him. Yes the buses are always crowded but yes there is always a bus. I think the smaller resorts have fewer busses so maybe a longer wait so they will fill up before leaving? I thought the pools were fine. Of course they were filled with kids but we didn't spend that much time there anyway. Kids liked the mickey sprinklers overhead. We spent the most time at Fantasia pool. M. Duck pool is quieter. Why pay for something you just sleep in. Turns out, it rained everyday so we did spend a bit more time there but my son loved this hotels arcade so much............cringe he wanted to leave m.k.and go back to the hotel to play games. aaargh. ASMo had the best arcade of any of the hotels we visited as well. We did all meet back up again at m.k. for the spectramagic and fireworks. This was the last night for us so it truly made it magical for me especially. Since I haven't stayed in the other hotels my opinion is just that but we did have mickey soap everyday and a nice massaging showerhead. I was in heaven. And all that for that price??? We stayed 5 nights and our rooms were always cleaned when we returned. We went to every dis park so we wouldn't have been able to stay long if we'd picked a premium hotel. I loved the guest services desk as well. I think the ASMo has definitely got the most bang for the buck. And with the dis characters the most appeal of the All Stars in general. We just missed the character caravan so can't tell you much about that. My son doesn't particularly like that sort of thing and daughter already met Mr. and Mrs. Mouse so no biggie. (saw a big crowd in the lobby though on our way out so if you go, go early). Not a single complaint about the whole place. We expected very little and were overwhelmed at what a true value it was. Enjoy.

 

[WDW2002]

Glad to see you were allowed to check in early, we will arrive around noon and I am hoping to be able to check in and get our room when we arrive.

 

[AnnaE4]

Thanks for the mini-report. I can hardly wait to go this weekend.

Denise

 

[Luv2Roam]

We stayed at ASMo last January are will be there again next January. Agree -- it was magical, near perfect resort. Who wudda thunk it out of a Value resort?
The ONLY downside we had was their laundry facilities are too small. But otherwise, GREAT!

 

[Beanie]

That is great!! I am glad you had a wonderful time!

 

[bigsis1970]

Love those magical trips !!! we are staying at ASMo the end of Nov .. My DD (9) and DS (6) are quite excited! we have requested Toy Story but who knows might just end up someplace else... Were the pools very crowded ? I am glad to hear you liked the food court- did they have the Scan Bar on the mugs yet ?

Thands Michelle

 

[DISFANS3]

Allstar Movies for us, 15 days left until the big drive from SW MO. Staying 2 nights at Dolphin 10 nights at Allstar Movies. Try the Prime rib at the food court, great...... Time to pack the truck..CBR99 Allstar Movies Feb2001 Allstar Music Aug2001....

 

[tiggerfan6]

Thanks for giving us your great report on the ASmovies. We are staying there in November. We are hoping to get the toy story section as well. I agree with you about "why pay more for someplace you only sleep in ". We stayed in the ASmusic our last trip and we loved it ( ASmovies was all booked ) We are skipping the caravan, because if we really want to see a character will will see them in the parks.
I am glad to hear that the bus service was working well

 

[magic teacup]

for "Big Sis", no they didn't scan the mugs like they do in Typhoon Lagoon. Just went to the drink machine and filled up cafeteria style. Hope they don't do that. The bar code thingy at T.L. seemed to be sort of a pain for people waiting to fill up.
The ASMo pools were always full but they are big enough that it wasn't really a problem..........although I did on several occasions get splashed by someone elses kids. We really didn't swim for long periods of time though, just to cool off. It rained more in the afternoon when we would have needed pool time. I guess I would really consider the pools crowded but it is summertime afterall and every pool I know is crowded.
I am back now with my pictures and reliving the trip in my head. I didn't bring back near enough souvenirs and wish we could have gone to M.K. just one more day.......or two. And I need more pictures. I brought the wrong disposable camera to Fantasmic and have no pictures to remember it by...... how many more reasons do I need to be a legitimate excuse for going back??? I could go back and now use the meal coupons I've recently learned about. I could join disney club and get the room rate dropped. I am bad, I am finding loose change, putting it in a special jar and saying Disney here we come again". I want to buy multi day hopper passes just in case, so we'll have an excuse to use them. I got it bad. Mickey rocks

 

[April76]

Glad to hear you love ASMo too!!!!!


Any excuse is a good enough excuse to start planning the next trip! Funny thing is that once upon a time, our family went to WDW about once every 5 - 6 years..... seemed reasonable... now (that our kids are grown) DH and I go to WDW every 6 MONTHS! I would never have believed that I could convince him to go for that -- I suggested we skip our Oct trip and opt for a 2 week trip in the Spring and he actually got upset!

We love the All Stars (Movies is my favorite) and although I can understand how wonderful it can be to stay at the AKL or Grand Floridian, etc., I get upset that some people think you don't get the "MAGIC" at the value resorts. Oh well...let them think what they want.... more rooms for us!



PS - just want to say that we usually arrive at the resort before noon and have always been able to check in right away.... most of the time we were able to get into our rooms within an hour (so we settled into the food court for refreshments and brochure reading or checked out the gift shop)... other times we just left our luggage and headed for the parks!

 

[magic teacup]

One more thing about early check in:
When you have to tear yourself away from the hotel as you have no more money for spending on your trip they will hang a little envelope on your room door for express check out. On the card it asks you to please telephone the desk as soon as you are walking out the door. Please don't forget. This is their indication to go ahead and clean the room early. It gives us lucky early arrivals the perk of being able to check in early and get down to the serious pursuit of having fun.

 

[tiggerfan6]

Thanks for the heads up, Magic Teacups.!!!
I will make a note of that because we have to leave for the airport at 8:00am.
We arrive early too about 12:00 pm so hoefully we can check in as well.

 

[B3LM]

Thanks for the review! We've stayed at AsSp and AsMu previously, but this will be our first time at AsMo (also going in November). DS and DDs are very excited about it! We visited the resort when we were there in April and they fell in love with it.

Beth

 

[Ona]

Sounds great! We stayed at ASMo in 2000. We got the Mighty Ducks section. It was a bit of a hike to the food court and sometimes it was quicker to get off at the ASMu bus stop but it was really quite.

We are back at ASMo this sept. I can't wait. We have requested Toy Story or Fantasia buildings. Are they still adding that $10 charge for fantasia?????

Ona

 

[MegaDisney]

I have stayed on-site 3 times, and each time at a moderate, but I am thinking of staying at the All-Stars at some point. Reviews like this are great to hear. I am also one of those who really doesn't care about the room, as long as it is clean, and lately I've been hearing some horror stories about room conditions in the deluxes! Now, I realize bad things can happen at any resort, which makes me more convinced than ever that a trip to the All-Stars is in the cards for us! We love to eat at the sit-downs, so any money we can save on the resort would be put to great use.

Thanks again for the report.

Mega