Which Value Resort?

[PrincessDaisyDuck]

We are a family of 5 planning a trip in May 2016. We are two adults and 3 children who will be ages 4, 2 and 9 months. These are the resorts we're deciding between:

Art of Animation - DS really wants to see the Cars section, it is his favorite movie and it's his one must do. Also DD's favorite princess is Ariel so the single room would work nicely. I don't know if we'll like the food court choices though and we eat dinner pretty much every night at our hotel.

Pop Century - a little more affordable and maybe better food choices with a walkway to Art of Animation for Cars section. The theme doesn't really appeal to us though.

All Star Music - this is my favorite resort we had an amazing time last trip and we loved it more than the deluxe and DVCs we have stayed at! It would be a no brainer except we will probably skip a park day if we stay here so we can visit Art of Animation. With 3 little ones we are very slow moving so I don't think realistically it would happen on a park day. A break day could be nice though.

Which would you choose? We are driving so busses aren't a concern.

 

[JennyDrake]

ASMusic is my favorite value resort!!

I would not stay at AoA, especially LM room: been there, done that.... I think skipping a park day to visit here will be a let down. YES the theming is awesome, but once you walk around some--then what?? It's mostly "just looking" not a lot of play areas and the pool is fenced so it's hard to see for the little ones. The food court is nothing special except for the chaos and noise level.

But, you might be surprised at just how much you would enjoy Pop! The lake view is just lovely and the walk around the resort with all the trivia signs is really fun. IF you stay at Pop, it would be easy and probably worthwhile to walk over and see AoA, but I would not cancel a park day and drive over from another resort to do so.

 

[WEDWDW]

But, you might be surprised at just how much you would enjoy Pop! The lake view is just lovely and the walk around the resort with all the trivia signs is really fun.

And the Lobby Shadow Boxes are one of the most unique things at any WDW resort!

 

[Babsy]

I would not stay at AoA, especially LM room: been there, done that.... I think skipping a park day to visit here will be a let down. YES the theming is awesome, but once you walk around some--then what?? It's mostly "just looking" not a lot of play areas and the pool is fenced so it's hard to see for the little ones. The food court is nothing special except for the chaos and noise level.

But, you might be surprised at just how much you would enjoy Pop! The lake view is just lovely and the walk around the resort with all the trivia signs is really fun. IF you stay at Pop, it would be easy and probably worthwhile to walk over and see AoA, but I would not cancel a park day and drive over from another resort to do so.

I agree that you would probably really enjoy POP. It would be my choice. Request a room near the bridge and walk over to the Cars section of AOA. You won't need a park day for it, maybe a half day if you want to eat here. Even going as slow as possible, you won't fill more than a couple of hours looking, IMO

ENJOY!

 

[Pmlocke]

Just replied to RuthieT concerning my choice of best All Star and my vote always goes to Music. We have stayed at multiple resorts and have returned now to Music the last four years. The reason, the staff. Yes the staff at POP, Sports and Movies are nice but I have found the staff at Music to be far and above better than the others. I have had a few problems, who doesn't when you consider the size of these resorts but found Music to be so quick and professional every time I needed assistance. The concierge desk, the main desk, the girls in the gift shop (see my picture. That's me with the girls taking a welcome back pose last year) the staff in the restaurant, the cleaning staff. Everyone seemed to go out of their way to be helpful, friendly and most of all they truly seem to care. I asked my wife last year if we won a trip, all expenses paid, to stay at either Music or the Grand Floridian, where she would want to stay and she agreed with me that Music would be our choice. A hotel is just that, a building. What makes that building an experience is the staff and you will never go wrong with the people at Music. As a matter of fact, I received an email today from Nila, one of the girls in the gift shop asking how we were and saying the girls were talking and wondering when we were coming back. How many of you get emails from the staff just to say Hi? They are family to us and we always look forward to going back to visit family.