Tell me about AoA

[Donald Fan 2005]

Thinking about staying there next fall. I've always stayed moderate or better so I'm needing to hear about your stays. I'm all for the value and saving money but don't want to give up all on a vacation. are the beds still comfortable? Possibility of being pregnant during the stay so that could be important. Do the rooms have small frig's? Any input is appreciated. Thanks

 

[primrosea]

We just got back from 1 week at AoA Little Mermaid rooms and really enjoyed our trip there. My husband says that the beds there are the most comfortable on property. We all slept really well there. Also, the room sounds proofing is really good, we had a room facing the pool and never heard a thing. In fact, it was a littlt TOO quiet and we had to borrow a fan from housekeeping

There are small fridges in the rooms. We had a 1/2 gallon of OJ, 4 yogurts, a few ginger ales, 3 apples and 4 small containers of milk in there with plenty of room to spare. We even fit a whole 6 pack of cupcakes from Babycakes in there easy. Because the fridge is built into the dresser there are only 3 drawers for your clothes. It didn't bother us, but I could see how it could be a bit cramped it we had brought more.

Buses ran great, food was good but we prefered the food at Pop and ate there more often, Mousekeeping was amazing.
All in all a great trip!

 

[MelissathePooh]

We stayed in Cars Suite for 3 nights last month. The theming is fantastic and my kidse (8 & 5) loved it. We had 3 adults and 2 kids. Everyone had a good experience as far as the beds. The suites have the mini kitchen - I think LM rooms have a small fridge but not sure.

Housekeeping was excellent. I think it would have felt cramped if we had any more people in our room (we are DVC and used to larger villas). We had a horrible time getting a cell phone signal when we were in the room - we had to stand next to the window to use our phones. We have never had that issue before anywhere.

We heard people in the hallway more than I care too. They also have the turbo flush toilets that are very loud - even in other rooms. Overall though the room was nice and new.

I though the Big Blue pool was kind of overhyped. Zero depth entry was nice, but nothing overwhelming. It was not heated at the time and was FREEZING! I did find the need to have your key to get in everytime you move to be a hassle. The drink station didn't open until noon - we never used it.

Busses were fine - I do like the organzined queues to be honest. Been lined jumped too many times at other resorts

We explored one afternoon and I thought the walk to LM was fairly long. We wouldn't stay there, but that is personal preference. We wouldn't normally stay at any value in a regular room.

The food court was horrific. I'm sure some people have had good experiences there - ours was awful. Crazy busy at all times, dish returns were nasty and blocked the exit outside. CMs at the stations were fairly rude and rushing. The food was okay, but nothing too exciting. We ate 2 meals there to give it a chance at different times of day and that was enough.

Again - overall it was beautiful and new. The room was comfortable. The kids loved it and I'm sure if we ever got it for the CM discount again like we did this past time we'd stay there again.

 

[scdak]

We stayed in a LM room for 1 night 2 weeks ago, that was the one and only time we will consider staying there. FAR from the rest of the resort is a very appropriate statement. The bed as hard and uncomfortable. The towels were cheap and thin, they felt like they could have taken our skin off. You could hear the toilets flushing all around us. We could hear the muffled conversation in the room beside us and they weren't yelling. We could hear every word clearly of people walking by our room. There were some nice things in the room, the curtains, shower curtain and tub area were adorable as was the carpeting, otherwise the room was rather blah, solid blue walls with a picture on one all, an octopus cutout with knobs for hanging clothing on the connecting room door and once other wooden cutout on another wall. There were 2 plastic chairs at the table. As someone else said, the fridge is in the dresser, leaving 3 drawers to use and I could see where that might be a problem if you were there for a longer stay and had more than 2 people in the room.

I think the final nail in the coffin for me was the little sign that said the items that were in the room were for guests to enjoy but if you took them it would be charged to your account (not word for word but very close to the wording)...........I realize that might be common in some MOTELS but I think it was inappropriate in a Disney resort.

I will say that I had just spent 10 wonderful days at POFQ and yes, I am aware of the fact that its a moderate resort, I just found it very hard to believe that there is so much difference in a value and a moderate resort at Disney! I have stayed in "no-name" motels, cheap motels, family motels on up to luxury hotels so its not like this is my first night in a motel/hotel but my one night in LM as more than enough to convince me that AoA is NOT the resort for me.

I am sure that there are others that have stayed there and loved it, and I respect their opinions, to each his own as they say. Any stay as Disney is better than no stay at all, I will just plan on being able to stay elsewhere before I would opt to stay there again.

 

[disneydreamfan14]

Definitely give the resort a try if youre borderline...we personally had no problems with hearing others/toilets in other rooms, however if you are not quick enough to get away from your toilet before flushing, there will be a blast of air coming at you.

I found no problems with the food court, however everyone has different experiences. The gift shop is great, I personally don't feel LM is TOO far away, maybe a 5 minute walk at MOST if you walk slow. If you walk fast, maybe 2 minutes.

It is definitely a great resort, and if your kids like the movies the resort if themed for, it will be an awesome stay. They will love the statues of characters all around!

Have fun!

 

[Marthasor]

We always stay deluxe or in a villa and we decided to give AoA a try last June. It was fun when we first arrived - theming is great, pool is wonderful - but actually sleeping there was another story. The beds were fine, but the linens and pillows were awful. It was also incredibly noisy - did not get a good night sleep our entire stay. Theming is great, but I couldn't take CS food every single night. After our first night there, I started investigating switching to a deluxe. If I wasn't alone with DS4 in the middle of Tropical Storm Debbie, I would have switched. I like having TS options at my resort, full room service, more transportation options, etc. I don't want to be a downer on value resorts, but if you like and are used to deluxe WDW resorts and amenities, I think you will be sorely disappointed.

 

[dznygurl]

Here now staying in Cars Suite. Love the theming! The suites give us plenty of space to move about as well as storage.

The food court is overwhelming! It's super-busy and hard to handle a tray of food for myself and two kids and not bump into anyone. And I agree, the used dish stations are gross. Ask for "to-go" boxes and just eat out of those. Then u can throw it all away without having to scrape your plate into a garbage can.

The pools are heated; however, there was quite a breeze this evening that kept things a little too cool. Of course my nine year old insisted It was "not too cold at all" as he shivered around the pool

The beds are comfortable and everything is clean. The walk to the busses and food court is not too long for us (we are in building 1). The LM rooms have a much longer hike though.

Overall, the resort is amazing and we would definitely stay here again.

 

[chemnerd09]

We agree. AoA is not for us either. We stayed there for one night just to give it a try since it was brand new and would not be doing it again. We had high hopes for it since we had stayed at the POP for two nights earlier and loved it. scdak mentioned all the problems we had with it. I have stayed in pretty much all the resorts on property, expect BLT, and would say AoA and AKL Kidani Village, would be the only two we wouldn't stay again. We found POFQ to be the best value for our money, and the POP to be our preferred value.

 

[bek]

My sister and I shared a Finding Nemo suite so I could preview it as a possible place for my kids and grandkids -- a family of 5. I think my grandkids (ages 3, 5 & 6) would love it. The theming is very well done. But I'm not sure I'd recommend it to my adult children.

My sister's tall, so I gave her the bedroom and previewed the fold-out couch and table bed. My sister thought the bed has to be a double rather than a queen. She didn't think it was all that comfortable for a tall person (she's a smidge under 6 ft tall).

The food court was loud, the food mediocre and the overflowing trash bins very unpleasant.

Wifi was non-existent and between my sister and I we had 4 different WiFi carriers.

We were there during the F&W marathon, so I'll give the buses somewhat of a pass. But the lines were so long on Sunday late morning, I took one look and turned myself into a designated driver for our last Food and Wine day at Epcot so we could drive my car to Epcot. This was after the bus lines were so long on Saturday night at Hollywood Studios that we caught a Sarastota Springs bus, walked to DTD, had a drink at Raglan Road then caught a bus to AoA and I bet we still beat the line of people at Hollywood Studios -- and, yes, I checked the Pop line and it was just as long.

If you have young kids, then AoA is worth considering. But from a strictly adult perspective, I think the drawbacks out weigh the cute theming. I came back from the trip with my sister and moved my girl's trip with just my Daughter-in-law to the Grand Floridian. We'll be previewing the other resorts that offer options for a family of 5.

 

[Donald Fan 2005]

Thanks for everyones feedback. That's really good information and I'll have to weigh the pro's vs. con's. I understand everyone will have good and not so good experiences but the specific details (i.e., loud toilets, CS meals, etc) are all great information. Will most likely be going back next fall but not sure where we will be staying? I want to take my DD4 and stay on Disney. My parents have a time share off the property but want to have the whole disney expereince next time!! Thanks again!