Which choice would you make and WHY? Update Post #12

[mom2grace]

Details:
4 night trip, early May 2006 (there will be a grad night event)
DD will be celebrating her 5th Birthday, this is her first trip

1. Stay at WL, woods view, no car. ($1300)
2. Stay at a Value (movies or Pop), preferred view, rent a car. ($500)

We expect to spend most of our time in the parks, will probably do a nap each day.

DH and I have stayed at Poly twice before without kids.

 

[PJV57]

My vote is for WL but I have to say that I have never stayed at a Value resort.

Have you seen the WL? It is absolutely beautiful. The lobby is awesome with its stone fireplace. Our daughter (at ages 7 and 9) loved the pool and the slide. We've stayed there twice and almost opted to go back for our next trip (decided on the Poly instead).

 

[HANDYMOM]

You could afford another 4 day trip with the savings if you stay at a Value resort. Besides, your daughter would enjoy it more at the value's too.

I would say go with WL too if you were planning a day to lounge and enjoy the resort but with only 4 days spent mostly in the parts.

 

[jelzie]

Hi,

I'd go with the WL - it is a beautiful resort, easy to get to a boat to get to the monorail to get to the parks. Even a standard view at the Wilderness Lodge is a good thing. The pool is fun, too. It will be relatively easy to get back for a nap or a swim in the afternoon. I'd rather just let someone else drive and take the monorail, a boat or a bus.

The Value resorts seem to work well for people who leave the resort in the early morning and go back at night. Besides, $500 seems expensive for a rental car.

Have a magical day!
Julia

 

[minnie61650]

Details:
4 night trip, early May 2006 (there will be a grad night event)
DD will be celebrating her 5th Birthday, this is her first trip

1. Stay at WL, woods view, no car. ($1300)
2. Stay at a Value (movies or Pop), preferred view, rent a car. ($500)

We expect to spend most of our time in the parks, will probably do a nap each day.

DH and I have stayed at Poly twice before without kids.

Try the All Stars! You won't even need to rent a car.

I am 55 years old and travel several times a year. I often stay at 4 star hotels.
So the deluxe resorts do not have anything special for 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 Clypso 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.
They are the preferred buildings and cost about $12 extra per night.
The Calypso pool at ASMU has Donald Duck.

Here is the map of All Movies.
http://www.wdwinfo.com/resortmaps/allstarmovie.JPG
The Fantasia Buildings are the preferred buildings.
The All Star Movie Fantasia pool has Mickey.
It is a great place to stay .
Preschoolers love it.
It is like being in the middle of a Disney Movie Fantasyland.
All Star Movies has pop up fountains now also.
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.

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 theaming is pure Disney.
My last 5 visits have been at The All Stars and this 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!
I know we did!

 

[Stitch1404]

I think the value resorts are great with kids and I know that if I was asking myself this question and I saved all the money by choosing a value, I would be pretty likely to use that to justify another trip! Although I fully rely on Disney transportation (hate driving anywhere), having a car might be convenient. But maybe staying at a value and not renting a car could allow for more souveneirs, character meals, etc. Just a thought.

 

[joelly]

I stayed at POP last month and I will never stay at a value resort again. There is something to be said about the atmosphere at the hotel, even if you are not there much.

POP's lobby, store and food court was crowded, even at 10:00 at night.

We normally stay at POR and thought lets try POP, it looks cute! Well we stayed 1 night and switched hotels.

About the car rental, if you are planning on going anywhere outside of Disney, you might be better off taking a shuttle bus and staying at the nicer resort.

 

[bonnielynn]

I would say WL.. it is so close to the Magic Kingdom (boat ride away).. but the resort is spectacular... I kid you not... stayed at the beach club just 2 weeks ago.. doesn't compare to the WL..

 

[mom2grace]

Hi,

Besides, $500 seems expensive for a rental car.

Have a magical day!
Julia

The $500 is for the value room.

 

[mom2grace]

My vote is for WL but I have to say that I have never stayed at a Value resort.

Have you seen the WL?

Yes, we visited there on our last trip. But, is it worth 3x the money?

 

[KeepSwimming]

DEFINITELY the value. My kids complain when we try to stay anywhere but the values.

 

[mom2grace]

Thanks everyone.

Some more background, I would consider myself a "deluxe snob", but with 2 kids (we are leaving the younger one at home), my priorities have changed a little. Plus, this will be a very short trip in the scheme of things. I would guess we will go back in 2008 with both kids for at least a week and probably do Poly and take fuller advantage of the resort.

I am grumping about spending $200/night for a Westin on Michigan Avenue in Chicago for pete's sake! Then I thought, "well, you're spending $275/night for WL!"

I am concerned about the noise and transportation the most at a value particularly if there will be a lot of teenagers there for the grad nights. But I think DD would like the theming of ASMovies the best. I haven't researched it well yet, but she loves Toy Story and the Princesses, and Pooh.

Any additional thoughts?

 

[lovevacations]

I would say WL.. it is so close to the Magic Kingdom (boat ride away).. but the resort is spectacular... I kid you not... stayed at the beach club just 2 weeks ago.. doesn't compare to the WL..

I'm glad to hear that! I just spent the last week trying to decide between BC and WL! I ended up picking WL and extending our stay from 8 to 9 nights AND saved $465. Now I just have to handle the crowds of late May early June!

 

[minnie61650]

Thanks everyone.

Some more background, I would consider myself a "deluxe snob", but with 2 kids (we are leaving the younger one at home), my priorities have changed a little. Plus, this will be a very short trip in the scheme of things. I would guess we will go back in 2008 with both kids for at least a week and probably do Poly and take fuller advantage of the resort.

I am grumping about spending $200/night for a Westin on Michigan Avenue in Chicago for pete's sake! Then I thought, "well, you're spending $275/night for WL!"

I am concerned about the noise and transportation the most at a value particularly if there will be a lot of teenagers there for the grad nights. But I think DD would like the theming of ASMovies the best. I haven't researched it well yet, but she loves Toy Story and the Princesses, and Pooh.

Any additional thoughts?

Not sure about the teens and Grad night but I have heard that most of the groups stay at Sports or Music. I enjoy watching the young ones having so much fun at All Star Movies. It is like a movie Fantasyland to them. As I said in my previous post I think the Transportation from All Stars is Great. I did not care for the transportaion from Fort Willderness at all. I have not tried WL because now I use an ECV and sometime the boats that travel from WL to the MK can not handle EVC's because of water levels.
Have fun at Disney!

 

[ChrisLei]

I would pick the value. I would only stay in the WL if I was going to be spending time at the resort. Makes no sense to spend all that money if you are only going to be bathing & sleeping. Save the money.

 

[disneymom2one]

You could afford another 4 day trip with the savings if you stay at a Value resort. Besides, your daughter would enjoy it more at the value's too.

I would say go with WL too if you were planning a day to lounge and enjoy the resort but with only 4 days spent mostly in the parts.

Although a lot of people say that kids would enjoy the values more my daughter LOVES Wilderness Lodge and couldn't care less about the values. The values are not our speed at all. Too crowded. Too far to the parking lots. No pool slide. No sit-down restaurant.

Wilderness Lodge is absolutely beautiful. It has a great pool. Whispering Canyon is one of the better family restaurants on property. You're close to Fort Wilderness with all its activities. It would be a very easy choice for us.

 

[5disneyfreaks]

We stayed at ASMu this past May, and I really don't think we will do that again. Next year, we are staying at Poly. We have 3 kids and they really didn't care for ASMu. We had a great time, but we want to spoil ourselves this time. We also want to stay closer to MK and have more ways to get around other than just buses. But that is just us.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

I vote for the values. Although we have never stayed at a deluxe for the price difference with it being a shorter trip I would go for the values. The amount of money you are saving could be used for many things! If your 5yr old has never been, then she is goingto think any hotel is great espically the values with thier bright colors and familiar icons. If you take her somewhere with so many hotel ammenities first and the slides in the pool, etc, then she might be disappointed to later visit a value.

We have never had transportation problems at a value, and many say all stars have quicker services than most.

If you had more time to explore then I would say WL, but since it sounds lilke you are not going to be in your room much, I would just stay at the values. They lack some ammenities that the deluxes or even moderates have, but it is still nice, clean, and in the middle of disney magic.

 

[Bugsmom73]

THis is tough. Your DD will like the theming of ASmo but the WL is beautiful. Another thing to consider is how old your youngest will be when you go in 2008. You may want to consider getting a deluxe then. However, if you are more of a deluxe kinda girl, you may end up hating the values.