Tips for All Star Movies stay

[christibelle]

We will be staying at ASMo for a week in just a little over 2 weeks! There will be 2 adults and 2 kids, one in a crib.
I am looking on any advice and tips you have concerning this resort. Everything from how to keep the small room more organized, to tips on eating at Cinema Hall, pool preferences, etc. etc. I read one fascinating tip on Deb's board about rearranging the furniture in the room to make it seem more spacious. Tips like this and any others will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

 

[CSX2]

We stayed at ASMo with a party of 10 in four rooms. The resort is wonderfully themed and the kids loved the larger than life characters. It was clean and the staff was very friendly. The rooms can be a little tight. My DSIS had 2 adults and 2 kids (6 & 9 mos.) and they were the only ones to find the room too small. We had 2 adults and a 5yo and had no problem with the room size.

The pool is large but plain. No slides that I remember.

Our only real complaints were with the bus service (terrible during our visit but it was a holiday weekend) and the food court. The food court was just too crowded and noisy to have an enjoyable meal. We could never coordinate a meal where everyone had there food/drinks/condiments etc. and were ready to eat together.

My tip would be to minimize usage of the food court and take advantage of the many other great places to eat in WDW!

 

[mco-missy]

I have stayed at the All Stars during the same time frame you are going. Luckily, we did not have transportation or food court problems during our stay.

A tip that I have for you is to use the microwave in the food court. My nieces (ages 7 & 9) used it for macaroni and cheese packets that we had brought from home. They like that better than the food in the food court for a snack and it was much cheaper. There is also a toaster in the food court that you can use. We used that in the morning for pop tarts.

There are two pools. One is considered a "quiet" pool and is smaller. My nieces just loved the pools. However, when we were there in Feb. it was too cold for us to swim. ( We are locals though and wimps about cold weather).

We enjoyed bringing pizza back to our room one night for dinner. I don't remember the price but I know it was relatively inexpensive (under $20 I think).

We used one drawer as a "food pantry" and brought lots of snacks for the room and to bring into the parks in their fanny packs. We also brought a cooler along with us. I brought some fresh fruit and fruit cups also.

Hope you have a great stay. If you have specific questions- ask away!

 

[dansyr]

The only problem we had with transportation was to MK in the mornings. If you have a ps for breakfast at MK, leave alot of extra time. It seems MK busses are usually the busiest. In the mornings sometimes we had to wait until the third bus stopped at the busstop. That is the only problems we had.

One tip I would give is to buy the refillable mugs....at least for the adults. It is great for coffee in the mornings and saved us alot on drinks. If your children don't drink soda or iced tea, I wouldn't get one for them.

If you are going to request a building I would request dalmatians or toy story. They are the closest to the main pool, lobby, food court, and bus stops without having to pay an extra $10 a night for a preferred building.

 

[Jordan's MOM]

We did a lot of the same things including using the drawers to keep our food in. We ate breakfast in the room from groceries from home but used the food court quite a few times too. We often had one of us go get food and bring it back to the room and then drank canned drinks from home. We aslo would sometimes get just a sandwich and eat chips and fruit from our room. We found the food court food OK and very easy to use but I like to use my food money for special fun and nice meals so I like to cut cost on quick meals at the resort.
The pool was fun and DS swims when we go in January. He also like the arcade.
We got take out pizza one night and found it delicious and very cheap!!
During the 2nd-3rd week of january, we have never had a problem with transportation. Longest wait for a bus was like 10 minutes and we never had to wait for the second bus or stand up, though a few people did.

We are doing the ASSp this year and hope to fiind it as nice as the ASMo


Jordan's mom

 

[CamColt]

If you stay at the Mighty Ducks(or even if not, but MD is closest) you can walk over to ASMU to catch the bus. This way you get on before the people waiting at ASMO and are more likely to get a seat during busy times. Also, if you are at a park waiting for a bus, you have the option of taking ASMO or ASMU, whichever comes first.
We thought the food court was wonderful(loved the taco salad) and the bus service too. It was better than POR. Once we had 3 adults, a 4yo and a 20 month (in a crib), in the room. We didnt find it too small. No it wasnt huge, but space was never a problem for us.
IMO, the theming of this resort cant be beat.
Hope you enjoy your stay!

 

[Magic2000]

We've stayed at the All Star Movies twice, and we really love it - especially my little girl!!!

In Dec 2000, it was my mom and I, and my two children. We were in the Love Bug section, and it was great! The room was very quiet, and it was a short walk to the food court/bus stop. We fit fine in the room - no space problems. When you first walk in the room, there is a little space straight ahead - and to the left, was the two double beds. Along the back wall, there was a table for two, and then the dresser w/TV. By the bathroom, the single sink was on the outside, and there was room for hanging clothes/luggage. We put our luggage there, and put the clothes away in the drawers. (There was plenty enough drawers for our clothes.) At night, upon our return to the room, I would leave my stroller "open" right in front of the window - and it wasn't in the way at all. At night, I'd put everything we needed to bring with us the next morning (snacks, sunglasses, blanket for my little one, etc); and we would get all our stuff, load up the little one, open the door and be on our way! If your little one is sleeping when you return to your room, you can just stroll right into the room and then put them to bed. You could put the "pack N play" along the wall, next to the dresser (like where the door would be for adjoining rooms). Bus service was great!!!

In Dec 2001, it was my husband and I, my two girls, and my oldest brought along a friend. We had two rooms (we just left the door open between the two rooms). We were in the 101 Dalmations section and my little girl was in 7th heaven!! Again - a very short walk to the food court/bus stop; and the room was very quiet! Excellent bus service!!! Because of the two rooms, we really had a lot of space; and with two teenagers, it was really nice to have two bathrooms!

Oh, and we did use the food court a few times during our stay - we never had a problem. It is busy, but we were always able to get a table. We did buy a refillable mug too!

We really enjoyed our stays at the All Star Movies!

 

[Bunchkin]

First off let me say that I hope you have a GREAT time at WDW!!!
Lucky you!!!

We stayed at ASMovies last Feb during the slow season. We had NO long waits for buses or at the food court.

We found the bus service to be adaquate, other than a few drivers who seemed to think they were at the Indy 500.
The food court was only it's busiest on the weekend. There are so many selections to choose from that even our DD (4yrs old at the time) had no problem finding something to eat. And sometimes we sent my DH to the food court to bring back breakfast or dinner for us while we got ready.
We too brought food from home in a seperate suitcase. We kept most of it in the suitcase or in a cooler. There is space above the armoire to store food and we also kept a toaster we brought on the armoire as well. (The toaster was only $6 at WalMart.)

We *didn't* put our clothes into the dresser drawers. We either hung up some of our clothing or left them in the suitcases. We decided to put things we purchased at the parks into the drawers instead. Which really helped keep the room neat & tidy. Along with park maps and the like. And considering just how small the table in the room is there isn't much room to keep anything on it and be able to eat at it.

The best thing to do to keep the room tidy and clutter free is to pick up as you go along. As in, we don't leave tioletries out on the vanity. They take up too much space and makes that part of the room look a big mess. So every morning after everyone was done with thier shower we all put everything back into a huge hanging toiletry bag we have.

The one major thing that can make a room seem small and confining is mess and clutter. So every night we made sure the room was nice and tidy so the next day we didn't have to worry about it.

 

[crusoe2]

We (2 adults & 2 8yo boys) stayed at ASMo a couple of years ago. We gave each of the boys a designated spot to put their stuff - they each took a chair and used the back of it for hanging their towels and waistpacks, they kept their refillable mugs on the table next to their chairs, and used their backpacks to store all the little stuff they brought from home or picked up along the way (stuff like their Gameboys, books, stickers, kid's meal toys, etc.). We got extra large shopping bags for a few of our souvenier purchases and I gave each of the boys one of those to hold all their souveniers so they wouldn't get scattered all over the room.

I've seen several good ideas for keeping the bathroom vanity organized. You could take one of those plastic shoe bags that hangs over the top of a door and use the shoe pockets to store things like sunblock, hairdryer, toiletries, etc. If you would like to keep everyones toiletries separate, you could use hanging toiletry bags or cheap plastic baskets that could be stored on the closet shelf. Next time I'm thinking about packing some of our stuff (the food, maybe) in a plastic laundry basket. After I unpack it we can put the basket under the vanity so that we have a handy place to toss the dirty laundry and a convenient way to haul it to the laundry room. Some people have mentioned using the little pop-up laundry baskets for this, too.

Hope this helps and hope you have a great trip.

 

[Madi100]

Since we fly, we don't have a lot of run to bring the whole kitchen. However, we do use one suitcase for food and juice boxes. Then, we have an empty suitcase for on the way home. We did use the drawers and we put our dirty clothes in our suitcase. The night before we left we went and did laundry.

My suggestions: make sure that you specifically request an area. I would go for either Toy Story or Dalmations depending on what theme you like better. I would also request a first floor room. This helped us TREMENDOUSLY.

My other suggestion is to pack breakfast food. All food is expensive in WDW. However, it seemed outrageous to pay so much for an orange or a banana. This time we will definitely pack more stuff like that.

 

[bobcat]

We love the All Stars. I second the food drawer. We were able to put all our food in a drawer and the seemed to lessen the cluttered look. A hanging shoe rack over the bathroom door is also a great idea and I will have to pick one up for our next trip.

We bought a pop up laundry basket for our room. It takes up little space and is easy to carry to do laundry. If you designate a spot for everything it makes it easy to keep house while on vacation.

 

[maryliz]

Congrats on your upcoming First trip to WDW !!! You will absolutely love ASMo. The rooms are not that much smaller than the mods (we've done both with kids in cribs, 2 strollers, etc) and you just need to make sure you store suitcases under the bed, etc. One thing we did the last time was push the bed closest to the bathroom against the wall so our little guy wouldn't fall out. This gave us more floor space between the 2 beds too. We've stayed at both Movies and Music and have found the food court to be less busy at Music. As well, they have more booths which is our preference for seating our family. We drive down so we almost always drive wherever we want to go on-site. I highly recommend it, but the busses are fine too. Sometimes each All Star resort has it's own separate bus, and other times they will stop at Sports and Music then Movies. The last 2 times we have stayed at Music during off-peak hours, Music had it's own bus (go figure). I agree about using the microwave ... we took the individual Kraft Dinners the last time and it was great for those days where we ate a big lunch, and only needed a little something around 8PM. Saved us lots of money. And the pizza is absolutely delicious, and very reasonable.

Have a great time !!!!

Mary Liz

 

[kaabost]

DH and I have stayed in all 3 All Stars Resorts at one time or another. We (especially me) are NOT good at keeping things tidy and we never ran out of space. Granted we are only 2 people. Last time we were there, we could only get a room with 2 double beds. This actually worked out pretty well because we slept on one bed and used the other as a large table.

 

[ibleedblue]

I've stayed at ASMo twice with DW, both times in the Toy Story section on the Buzz Lightyear side. My best tip, and this applies for me during any hotel stay, is to try and get a room on the top floor (if you and the others in your party don't mind). That way you don't have to worry about that overactive kid jumping on the bed above you while you're trying to sleep. Also, there's a little less noise from all the people running around below. When I get the opportunity to go to WDW, the only reason I have a room is to sleep, and when it's time to sleep I like it as quiet as possible!

Greg

 

[USA_mad02]

We went to the allstars music in 2001. I was okay but we didn't have a lot of room for a family with two kids (15,11) The pool and sunbathing area was spacious and clean. The food court was very overpriced although we had to get breakfast there a few times inorder to get to the parks early. There is a lot of variety at the food court though. I thought the transport was very good which was one of the main reasons we stayed in a Disney property.
Have a good holiday

 

[Disneymom2AA]

We were there 12/30-1/4 and stayed in the Toy Story section-Buzz Lightyear. Everyday that we had to go to the buses we saw Woody sitting in Andy's room!!!! My 6yo son loved this. So did my husband. This was our 1st WDW trip and 1st family vacation and this was wonderful. We also had my 1yo son and my 20 yo sister. We had plenty of room. I didn't want to freak out about not having too much room because we were on vacation and at Disney!!! We stored all our luggage under the sink and hung up our clothes. My son just pulled his clothes out daily as he needed them. Everything we purchased stayed in the WDW bags and on or around the table or chairs. We did bring snacks but mostly ate at the Food Court or at the parks. We did bring microwave popcorn that we ate while my husband and sons were swimming. You can easily share your meals because they serve so much. My sister and I shared almost every meal and we saved lots of $$. You can order a double cheeseburger with FF for about $6 and an extra bun for 60 cents. You get two burgers and split the FF. I did fax my room preference 4 days before we were to check in and did get the request!! Have fun on your trip and enjoy your stay!! I want to go back!!!

 

[pennylynn]

Just another little hint. We took breakfast food with us and discovered that it's cheaper to buy milk in the gift shop than it is to buy milk at the food court. They have other drinks at the gift shop but I don't know how the prices for other stuff compared. We stayed in the toy story section on the third floor and I never noticed that it was to noisy. I know that a lot of people complain about the noise.

 

[tricia]

Anyone have a link to where on Deb's board there are hints about rearranging the furniture. I have not been able to find it.

 

[christibelle]

Here is the site:

http://wdwig.com/faqgrpts.htm

Hope that helps.

By the way, thanks everyone for your wonderful suggestions. Keep them coming if you have more!