Pop Century or All Star Music???

[Pooh_Girl]

I have a dilema. My DH and I are planning on going to WDW in either the end of September or the middle of October, and we're thinking of either Pop Century or All Star Music to save money. Which one is the best to stay at at that time of year?? Is one typically better than the other?? Any pros/cons??
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[HotMama]

We have never stayed at All Stars, but we loved Pop so much we booked our trip there again for this year! The food court is awesome. They have Petals Pool Bar, which my husband loved getting a few beers while we hung out at the pool. My kids were in love with all the fun decorations. And our standard room was the perfect size for our family of four.

 

[MisMikiNikiLynne]

Pop Century has a nicer food court, but it also has more rooms, so it tends to be a bit more crowded. I personally, love ASSports as it has its own busses if you are using Disney Transportation! A big perk if you are going to or coming from the parks early or late! But we have stayed at Music and it is also very nice... a perk of staying at the AStars resorts is that you can use any of the pools, sports, music or movies! This is unless things have changed since last year...

 

[minnie61650]

I have stayed at all levels of Disney Resorts.

All Star Music is my favorite Disney Resort. It tends to be the quietest of all the values.


All Star Music just underwent a refurbishment of all of the rooms and was completed in June 2007.


Here is a website with photos of the newly refurbished rooms at All Star Music.

Look at the Jazz Inn section with new posted:

http://allearsnet.com/acc/g_asmu.htm




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DH and I enjoy the landscaping and peacefulness of All Star Music.
We enjoy relaxing by the pool (there are plenty of chairs and lounges), and the beautiful lighting at the resort by night.

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I am 57 years old and travel several times a year for pleasure. I often stay at 3and 4 star and sometimes a 5 star hotels or motels.
So the deluxe and mod resorts are just another hotel/motel to me.

Staying at an All Star is like being in the heart of the Magic and that is where I want to be.

All Star Music is my favorite. It is quieter because more couples stay there. I love staying at the Calypso building. 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.

The Calypso pool at ASMu has Donald Duck.

The buses are wonderful.

Bus rides are quite short from the ALL Stars according to PassPorter.com

All Star Buses-CBR buses---POPbuses--PO buses--- Contemporary
MK 20 min---- 20 min-----25 min------10 min---20 min(mono)
Epcot 10 min-- 15 min-----20 min------10 min---15 min
MGM 10 min----12 min-----15 min------15 min---20min
AK 10 min------20min-------15 min----15 min---20 min
DTD 15 min----20 min------20 min-----15 min---35 min

It only takes 10 minutes to get to Epcot, MGM and AK from All Stars.
MK is 20 min away. That's the same amount of time it takes on the monorail from the Contemporary.

A WORD ABOUT BUS SHARING

To me Bus Sharing at the All Stars is really a non issue.

In the mornings during Park opening hours each All Star usually has a dedicated bus.
During mid day it is usually just our stop and maybe one more on the way to the parks. On the way back sometimes it is all 3 but often Sports and Movies share and Music has it's own bus back. Each of the All Stars usually has it's own dedicated bus back from the MK.
That is a big plus. It seems like the Music bus stop usually has the shortest of the three All Star bus lines.

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!)

The pools at The All Stars are very kid friendly.

When staying at the All Stars you can use any of the All Star pools.That means 3 main pools ,3 quiet pools and 3 kiddie pools to chose from.

The All Star Movie Fantasia pool has Mickey.

The Calypso pool at ASMU has Donald Duck.

And the Surfs up pool at All Star Sports has giant surf boards.

Here are a few pool photos.

All Star Sports pool.

All Star Music Donald pool.

All Star Movies Mickey Pool.

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 theming is pure Disney.

My last 7 visits have been at The All Stars and during the fall of 2005 when we took dd,dsil, and our grandson age 3(at the time) for 8 nights we stayed 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?

Have fun at Disney!

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

I will tell you that DH & I stayed at POP the end of September last year and definitely WON'T do it again. That's during free dining and the resort (which is huge) was absolutely packed to the rafters. Our experience this trip was the least magical we've ever had onsite with Disney. Yes, the food court and shopping is great, but with it being such a huge resort it is mobbed constantly. We had issues with unruley & unsupervised kids running up & down the halls of the buildings after 10pm at night, neighbors who flipped their lock out so they wouldn't have to use their key card so the door slammed constantly on the lock for more than an hour after 11pm. A "preferred" room which was certainly not in a preferred location (although according to Disney it was), and other minor issues. But putting them all together we decided we weren't going back there again.

That being said we opted to go back to ASMu a few weeks ago and it was perfect. The resort is much smaller and therefore much more quieter for DH & I. The room we had was a standard room, but actually in a much better location than the preferred room we had at POP. The shop and food court were great, no issues with them at all. The bus transportation was great - we only shared a bus with another AS resort one time so that was a "non-issue" with us. I definitely plan to go back there again, as soon as I can convince DH for another mini-vacation!

 

[travelin' tigger]

Having stayed at all the values, ASMu is still my favorite. I find it to be the most "adult-oriented" of all the values and tends to be quieter. Although I like PC, it's too big for me. ASMu is sandwiched between the other AS resorts so you have access to all the pools.

HTH!!!

 

[HopperFan]

We were in POP last year towards end of September during free dining for 10 days, and we felt we had the resort to ourselves. The pool was rarely crowded and always tons of seating, our lines at the food court were short considering many items are cooked to order, our room was very quiet and peaceful and little noise from kids (even though parks seemed very busy). Now we choose to stay by the lake in a non-preferred room and I do think the "more active" guests chose to be by the pools and food court.....so maybe that is why our resort stay was quiet.

We were in ASMu a couple weeks ago for a last minute trip for seven days. The food court had the longest slowest lines to the point that once I got my DS food, I just skipped eating a meal (picked up a fruit cup) because I simply couldn't wait in another line that long, check outs were slow but there was plenty of seating.........so it wasn't like it was crowded. The overall resort was very quiet, almost too quiet for me and very very dark at night. I was umcomfortable walking around the resort at night. In our room we had more of a problem with door slamming and voices than we have had in any other resort. The newly renovated room was nice (although mattress old) and the mousekeeping was excellent. But I found I missed the upbeat POP and can't wait to go back this fall.

Both resorts we basically have stayed at the back of the resort, and our walk to the main hub from our Music room was much longer than POP. I think if I stayed ASMu again I would request preferred, but will continue to book a standard lake view at POP.

Oh I did think all the activities and movies at the ASMu main pool were great. Even though it was cool there were many families enjoying it. It is a nice main pool size wise. I do wonder why the POP main pool is basically the smallest at the resort ?

I think it depends on what theme you prefer and what you want from the resort. I don't think that time of year will impact one more than the other.

 

[Kies99]

We were at PoP in April/May of 2007 and it was great.

POP also has it's own dedicated bus service as well to the parks. I think one bus makes a stop at Typhoon Lagoon but that it.