POP Century vs. ALL STAR Music

[novdisneydreams]

I am looking for any input on these two values - has anyone stayed at both? And how do they compare? The only place we've ever stayed is ASMo - LOVED it last November - but thinking we'd try something different next time. It has to be a value. I was all set on POP but I've heard that ASMu is less crowded, quieter, etc. We do have two small kids. Honestly we don't spend a whole lot of time at the resort - do swim a bit and love to walk around and take pics of the kids with all of the wacky props We'd probably eat a couple of food court meals but spend most of the time at the parks so buses are a big issue. Looking for any input ... Thanks!

 

[mickaholic4077]

If buses are a big issue-stay at Pop!! They don't share buses with any other resort. I love Pop Century. You will find alot of icons there to take pictures of your children.

 

[springandmac]

The only place we've ever stayed is ASMo - LOVED it last November

Would you consider the ASMo crowded while you were there?

 

[minnie61650]

When are going ?
All Star Music is being refurbished and the new rooms are really nice.

According to this link:

http://mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=wd060925mg

The standard rooms at buildings 3-8 at the All Star Music Resort has been postponed until after January 1. (Rooms in buildings 1, 2, 9 and 10 that have not been converted into suites are already done or being completed.) Rooms will be getting new furniture, drapes, coat racks, beds, and a privacy curtain on the vanity area. The rooms will have a more retro look.

Here are some photos of the new reburbished standard room taken by another DIS member:

From this thread:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1139297

Here are some pics from the redone rooms. Please excuse the lived in look and the three year old.

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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.

I have never had the unfortunate experience of running into the any of the large
groups of teens who sometimes stay at the values on school trips.
As long as you can avoid those large groups I do not think Noise will be an issue.

*HINT if you close your bathroom door at night you might not even hear the turbo toilets.
I close my bathroom door and I don't hear them.
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I love The All Star Resorts.

I am 56 years old and travel several times a year. I often stay at 4 star hotels.
So the deluxe and mod resorts are just another hotel/motel to me.
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 Music share and Movies 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 5 visits have been at The All Stars and last fall when we took dd,dsil, and our grandson age 3 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 a great time at Disney wherever you choose to stay!

 

[MinnieSummer]

I realize that everyone has their own opinion and bad experiences can happen at any resort but STAY AT POP!!! If you want specifics I can give them to you but suffice it to say that I have stayed at AS resorts 4 times, twice at Music. I've stayed at POP 4 times as well. ALL of my stays at AS resorts were horrible -- the last one being so bad that I got a full refund of my hotel stay. I've never had a bad experience at POP. I should point out that I have stayed at all the Value and Moderates resorts, and all but three of the deluxe resorts in 70+ visits to WDW so I do have something to compare.

 

[kaysmommie]

I realize that everyone has their own opinion and bad experiences can happen at any resort but STAY AT POP!!! If you want specifics I can give them to you but suffice it to say that I have stayed at AS resorts 4 times, twice at Music. I've stayed at POP 4 times as well. ALL of my stays at AS resorts were horrible -- the last one being so bad that I got a full refund of my hotel stay. I've never had a bad experience at POP. I should point out that I have stayed at all the Value and Moderates resorts, and all but three of the deluxe resorts in 70+ visits to WDW so I do have something to compare.

I would like to hear specifics as I love hearing others opinions and experiences at particular resorts. This can make or break your trip IMO. We have only stayed at deluxes so far but that may not be in the budget next time. I'm not the op but I'm curiuos.

 

[MinnieSummer]

OK -- First trip to AS Music when my DD was still a baby (she's 8 now). We made the reservation about a week in advance and requested a non-smoking room. Checked in, lugged all our stuff to our room (think baby for 4 nights) and realized the room was a smoking room. I called the front desk and they said they would switch us and to meet them at the next room which we did. We got there, and with the CM watching I put my DD down on the floor. She hit her hands on the carpet and dirt came billowing up. The CM was shocked. The sink hadn't been cleaned and there were dirty cups on the counter. I called the front desk again and told them the problem. There were no rooms available so they had to switch me to AS Sports. But there was no one available to help us so we had to take everything back to the car, go to the front desk at Sports, stand in line to check in even though I grabbed a manageer and told them what had happened. Then we had to crry everything to our next room which was at least clean. Of the four nights, we were there our trash cans were only emptied one time. Again, think baby in diapers. I ended up taking our trash out to one of the cans outside the hotel. Another time, we were in Movies and there was a couple next to us that had parties all nigth long. We complained both nights and nothing was done. One night the person I was talking to on the phone could hear the noise and still did nothing. Another trip the sheets were dirty -- and I mean dirty -- and it took over three hours for someone to come with clean sheets. And then they put the same bedspread over the clean sheets. That same trip, our DD was on special medication for arthritis and it had to be refrigerated. I reminded the front desk about the fridge at check-in, again when I called about the sheets, and finally at 10:00 pm. It showed up at 6:00 am the next morning. After that I vowed I would never stay in an AS resort again but this past month, I had promised my DD that I would take her on a Mother-Daughter trip. We were on a tight budget as I have been flying back and forth to PA to take care of my parents and we planned to stay at POP but there were no rooms available so, not wanting to dissappoint my DD I agreed to stay at Music. It had been several years and I hoped it had gotten better -- WRONG. We arrived at about 2:30 pm. The check-in line was all the way out the building. The people about 4 or 5 in front of me said they had already been standing in line for over 20 minutes. A manager came by and made the mistake of asking if I had any questions about the resort so I asked him if he could do something to expedite the check-in process. He pulled the last 10 people in line aside and checked us in at the concierge desk. Great for me but if I was the 11th person I would have raised a fit. Then we went back to our room -- all the way at the opposite side of the resort (which matters later) and discovered that only one of our keys worked. I figured it wouldn't matter as it was just the two of us so we put our bags in the room and headed off to MK. We stayed till closing, got the bus back and headed to our room by walking straight down to middle of the resort through the pools. The stench around the pools was so bad that my DD was gagging and I had to cover my nose. It smelled like a sewer had overflowed. We got back to our room and my DD got ready for bed only to realize that she had left her Minnie that she sleeps with in the car. I said I would go to get it but that she had to stay with both locks on. I ran to the car and back in record time only to discover that neither key worked now. If I hadn't left her in the room we would ahve either had to walk all the way back to check-in or call and wait for someone to get a new key. The next morning I had to go get breakfast with my DD again staynig in the room. It was 8:00 am on a Sunday. The food court was packed and there was only one register opened. At least 15 people were in front of me and there was no sign that another register would be opeining soon. It was absolutely ridiculous. There were other little things that just added to the experience but as a whole -- it was just really bad and I will NEVER stay at an AS again.

I could actually match the bad experiences at AS with really positive experiences at POP. My DD went face first into the pavement and all she wanted was a Mickey Waffle. Of course this was at 2:00 in the afternoon and the waffle maker was turned off but a CM heard her and next thing I know teh cook comes over to me and says they are firing up the waffle maker and should have waffles for her in about 20 minutes. Or the time I was there to escape the devastation after the hurricane hit my home and the CM's played with my DD for over an hour so I could get my laundry done. I've never had to complain about the rooms not being clean or sheets not being clean. The cleaning staff is incredible. They have actually asked us if we had enough towels. When we checked in once, the CM checking us in noticed that DD was limping. She asked her what was wrong and I explained about the arthritis. We were given a room close to the pool so she wouldn't have to walk as far.

So as you see, POP, for me at least, is way better than AS

Sorry this was so long but someone asked.

 

[pennylynn]

I guess you can have problems anywhere you go but I've stayed at all the All Stars with never a problem and I've stayed at Pop without any problems. But I prefer the All Stars simply because each one has their own food court. At Pop Century there is only one food court and it seemed to me that it was a lot nosier there and a lot more people. The All Stars were quieter. But that was the only thing that bothered me about Pop Century.

 

[novdisneydreams]

Would you consider the ASMo crowded while you were there?

No - we were there last year November 4-11 and it was great. Didn't know about Jersey Week and it was even during that time. We didn't have too long of a wait at the food court or check-in - although we checked in quite late at night - waited maybe 10-15 minutes ( we were with a large party so a lot of the waiting was due to other members of my own family who had come in on the same flight ) . The pools weren't too crowded. Buses were good, overall, I think my DH gave up his seat a couple of nights for people with small children but most of the time we all sat. Oh, we did let a couple of buses pass us a couple of nights leaving the parks when it was extra-crowded so that we could be in front of the line and get a seat for DSs who were usually conked out by that time! My ONLY complaint was that the "bar" area was smoky and noisy and I didn't like walking my DSs past there at night. But hey, it was a bar and people weren't behaving badly or anything so we just dealt with it. The longest waits were both later in the week when it did become more crowded due to all of the Jersey people (of which I am one, by the way - don't know why it didn't occur to me that if we were going during that time due to school break lots of others would be too!) --- the laundry area was a mob scene the night I tried to wash some stuff -- also the line to check in luggage for Magical Express heading back to the airport was REALLY long - I think we waited 45 minutes there. I'd say try to get your stuff there early because we waited until after breakfast and that seems to be when a lot of people were leaving. But overall - I wouldn't say that the crowds were bad at all. We really enjoyed ASMo - would certainly go back again - just thought we'd try something different since we don't get to WDW that often. That was actually our "once in lifetime" (or at least a 5 year period) trip - but since I am a totally Disney crazed obsessed Dis'er now I can't bear to wait that long... so I am determined to go back soon!