Are Disney World’s Cheapest Hotels Actually Good?
Since as long as I’ve been visiting Walt Disney World, the All Star Resorts have had a bad reputation among some guests. I remember hearing horror stories, some of which strained credulity (one that stands out involves an exploding toilet), even when I was a kid.
When Sarah and I started returning as adults, there were plenty more tales we were told about the overcrowded, dirty, poorly-maintained, low-quality motels. We even had our own unpleasant experiences during youth sporting events back in the day. It’s thus unsurprising that a common question essentially asks whether the All Star Resorts are “good enough” for a family on a tight budget traveling to Walt Disney World?
Yes. That’s the answer to the titular question. Disney’s All Star Resorts are adequate, at bare minimum. I’m not going to bury the lede, make insinuations, or lead you to question whether the All Stars are sufficient, safe, scary, subpar, and so forth. The point of this post is to debunk some of those ‘horror’ stories, and recast Walt Disney World’s “budget motels” in a different light. In other words, we’ll explain why the All Stars aren’t just “good enough,” but rather, are actually good.
We’ve stayed at every single one of the All Stars (Movies, Sports, and Music) multiple times in both the old and new rooms at each of the resorts. This includes multiple stays in the last year, with one reservation on the books for Summer 2026 and probably another this year after that. Bluntly, I would not keep booking a particular hotel if it regularly (or even occasionally) had exploding toilet incidents or other horrors.
With that in mind, let’s take this point by point and discuss the potential problem points that Disney’s All Star Resorts do not actually have, along with the strengths they do possess…
Value for Money
Above is a look at nightly room rates for the All Star Sports in Summer 2026 as part of the Deep Discount on Rooms Starting at $99 Per Night at Walt Disney World. This is an insanely good deal, even if it’s not as deep of a percentage discount as the Cars Family Suites at Art of Animation, which are almost 60% off.
While $99/night rates at the All Stars are not the norm, they’re also not completely unprecedented. This same sale was offered last summer for Disney+ subscribers and again this winter for Disney Visa cardholders. And in both cases, All Star Sports was included in the discount, with $99/night rooms.
All Star Sports is once again $99 per night for many dates this summer, including what’ll likely be the start of the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. (I’m already booked!) Here’s a look:
This deal is better than bouncebacks, Annual Passholder discounts, and Florida resident rates. With that said, it’s actually pretty common for All Star Sports to have rates maxing out at 35% off for APs, 30% off for Floridians, and 20-25% off for everyone else. This can put rooms in the $105 to $125 range depending on the date and whether you qualify for an affiliation discount. Still not as good as this deep discount for Summer 2026, though, which makes All Star Sports almost unrivaled.
The comparison where things get trickier for me is the All Star Resorts vs. Pop Century. The price gap between these can vary, but I’ve frequently found it to be about $30 per night after discounts. Other times, such as when Sports has $99/night rooms, the gap is greater.
For a price difference of over $50 per night at a time of year when I wouldn’t book a Skyliner resort, All Star Sports is a no-brainer. Other times, the call is much closer. See the above link for our comprehensive comparison.
All Stars vs. Off-Site Budget Hotels
A scenario we’ve experienced multiple times is finding that comparable off-site hotels cannot compete with the All Stars on all-in cost. In pricing out hotel options, we’ve found the least-expensive hotels in the Flamingo Crossings or Disney Springs areas are $115/night. To be sure, there are cheaper off-site options, but nowhere decent where we’d want to stay.
Even if the average general public promo at the All Stars is closer to $140/night than the deep discounts discussed above, that’s still only a ~$15/night surcharge over the options at Flamingo Crossings or Disney Springs. However, cost is not the same as value for money.
When you stay off-site, you’re probably paying for transportation to and from the parks. That means renting a car and paying for parking (potentially at both your third-party hotel and the parks) or using rideshare. The latter is usually the cheaper option, and we’d be using Uber or Lyft twice per day at an average cost of at least $15 per trip. That alone makes the All Stars more reasonable, and it’s before even accounting for the value of other perks (see below).
On-Site Perks
There are a lot of on-site perks for guests staying in Walt Disney World resort hotels. Everything from the Disney Dining Plan to on-site booking windows for Advance Dining Reservations to free parking and more. We’re not going to run through all of that, as this is already long and we have a separate guide to Staying Off-site vs. On-site at Walt Disney World.
The benefits that we view as most valuable are Airport Luggage Transfer, Early Entry, the Lightning Lane booking window. Let’s start with Airport Luggage Transfer, which as of Spring 2026, is still only available at the Value Resorts. This can be a huge advantage if you don’t want to hassle with handling your own luggage (and it’s now available from both your home airport and MCO).
Then there’s Early Entry, which is the 30 minute head-start before off-site guests can rope drop each of the parks. This is now valuable in all 4 parks, and it’s a good way to knock out headliners without buying Lightning Lanes. As we’ve said before, we think many fans really underestimate the value of Early Entry. I love it, and usually prefer Early Entry plus savvy standby strategy and staying late to paid FastPass.
If you want to supplement Early Entry with Lightning Lanes, you have an extended booking window by virtue of staying on-site. As discussed in Top 10 Tips & Tricks for Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World, many of the most popular Lightning Lanes are totally gone by the time off-site guests can book them. The bottom line is that biggest perk of staying on-site, including at the All Stars, is saving time waiting in line…and in general.
Reimagined Rooms
We’ve now stayed in the reimagined rooms many times (they’re pretty much the same at all three All Stars), and have zero hesitations to return. (See our Photos & Video: Newly Reimagined Rooms at the All Star Resorts.)
All of these new rooms at the All Stars are a huge upgrade from the previous design, which was more minor leagues than all-star caliber. The functional improvements are tremendous, with a variety of space-saving upgrades that make the rooms feel larger. They also look bright and airy, which is a sharp contrast to the old style.
We’ve found some diehard fans who have complained about the new rooms, and others who call them sterile and hospital-like. Respectfully, we think that’s mostly the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia. I chatted with a manager at All Star Sports about the resort refurbishment during a recent stay, and she told me that guest feedback on the new rooms at Sports has been universally positive.
Even though we still view these rooms as “new,” the next round of room refurbishments starts with All Star Movies in Summer 2026 (through January 2027) and is likely to be followed by All Star Music in 2027 and All Star Sports in 2028 or 2029. This will be a soft goods update, which should refresh the rooms and add pops of color, similar to the Pop Century refurbishment last year.
Food Quality
The food courts at the All Stars are nothing special. Suggesting otherwise would strain credulity and cast my credibility into doubt. With that said, they’ve all been refreshed in the last 5 years or so, and generally are more pleasant than they once were.
I cannot speak to breakfast, as it’s been years since I’ve wasted my money on powdered eggs and rubber bacon at a Walt Disney World food court. (Aside from ‘special’ breakfasts, we do grocery delivery and focus on fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods for our morning meal.)
However, I do think dinner has improved. In addition to the stereotypical fare, these food courts also serve up seared salmon, braised beef, pork loin, stir fry, and fried chicken. That’s better than I remember the options being a decade ago, but still hardly the pinnacle of WDW’s dining scene. Failing all of that, there’s the remodeled McDonald’s within walking distance of the All Star Resorts if you need a late night Filet-o-Fish fix.
Transportation
There was a time when we built in the cost of two to three taxi trips with each stay at the All Stars, as bus lines over a certain length meant the waits would be unbearably long. That was about a decade ago–before Uber and Lyft came onto the scene. This was also at a time when shared transportation among all three All Stars was common, even during busier times.
We have not had this issue of late with bus transportation anywhere at Walt Disney World. During our most recent stays at the All Stars, buses were frequent and efficient, and the only reason pickup times were ever inaccurate was when third-party Academy buses were dispatched (those aren’t connected to the wait times system), which was more like a “bonus bus” as opposed to an actual issue.
We’ve had zero problems making Early Entry or waiting in long lines when leaving the parks. Likewise, midday waits have been bearable, with no lengthy gaps or inconsistencies. The only caveat I’d offer here is that we’ve never left during the morning rope drop rush–our trips are always to arrive for Early Entry or later in the morning. Likewise, we never leave during the post-fireworks mass exodus. I’d imagine buses are still packed during those peak times, just like always.
Maintenance & Upkeep
There was a time from the aughts right up until the room overhaul began that the All Stars were in rough shape. Faded decor all around, woefully outdated posters, and details that had not aged well and were in need of outright replacement.
As someone who has actually stayed in shady motels around Orlando and Anaheim, I would stop well short of calling the All Stars that, even at their lowest point. Truly sketchy motels have an unsafe and unsettling quality to them; the All Stars never had that. They just were not up to Disney’s standards.
That has changed in the last 5 or so years. Along with the room overhaul, common areas were refreshed, oversized icons were thoroughly cleaned and given a fresh coat of paint, and everything looks crisper and nicer as a result. There are still elements of the hotels that are dated, but they’re little things–small cues that the hotels were built in a different era, and not major components of the properties.
Maintenance and upkeep are now every bit as good at the All Star Resorts as other hotels at Walt Disney World. There are no noteworthy cleanliness issue, and to the extent that anything is dated, the same type of thing exists pretty much every at Walt Disney World. One person’s dated detail is another’s nostalgia.
The oversized icons, exterior hallways, and general thematic style of the All Stars are certainly not for everyone, but “not to my tastes” is certainly not the same as “poorly maintained.” Upkeep is no better or worse at the All Stars on average than other hotels at Walt Disney World.
Guest “Quality” and Crowds
Few things drive me crazier than guests passing judgment or casting aspersions on their fellow guests at Walt Disney World. There’s a belief among certain people that they are “too good” for a Value Resort or want to stay at a more expensive hotel not for any substantive reasons, but so they aren’t around “lower class” guests.
This type of sentiment or the idea that Walt Disney World should be even more expensive to price out “undesirable” guests (these are all air quotes, by the way) is absolute nonsense at best, and downright offensive at worst. Money does not buy class. Bad behavior transcends income levels, and if anything, there’s a straight line between higher prices and more entitled guests.
Beyond that, whose place is it to pass judgment on the working class family that skimped and saved to afford a rite of passage trip for their kids to Walt Disney World, but could only afford the All Stars? Are they any more or less ‘worthy’ than the middle class parents who maxed out their credit cards to stay at the Grand Floridian?
This whole conversation makes me uncomfortable, but it’s nevertheless worth addressing because I’ve heard plenty of derogatory terms to describe the All Stars and their supposed clientele. It’s all BS. There is no material difference in the nature of guests at any of the resorts. I’ve witnessed obnoxious and drunken behavior out of business people at the Yacht Club and Gran Destino Tower, and have enjoyed perfectly peaceful stays at the All Stars.
There is one wrinkle to this that had a bit of validity in the past, which was/is crowds. It used to be the case that the All Stars had packed pools, overstuffed food courts during peak hours, tons of people loitering around the common areas, chaotic lobbies, and huge lines for the buses were problems. We’ve experienced all of these things ourselves, so I know they actually happened and weren’t exaggerated.
We’ve encountered this problem less at the All Stars in recent years. It’s still likely a problem when the ESPN Wide World of Sports is hosting a major cheer or dance event, so we recommend consulting the ESPN WWoS calendar before booking if this is a concern.
For whatever it’s worth, I stayed at Sports during one of those events last year and had no issues. Crowds weren’t bad, and the kids (and their parents) were better behaved than in the past. Anecdotally, I’ve heard that Disney has made it clear to chaperones that their groups need to behave, and be better supervised.
Ultimately, the answer to the titular question is an emphatic yes. If it’s been a while since you stayed at the All Star Resorts or you’ve never stayed after hearing horror stories, consider giving them a (second) chance. Bus transportation, rooms, maintenance, and more have all improved by leaps and bounds in the last several years at the All Stars.
Given quality of the reimagined rooms, efficiency of buses, on-site guest perks, and overall experience at the All Stars, a compelling case can be made for many parties on tight budgets to choose the All Stars over off-site accommodations. That’s without even addressing the emotional and subjective side of things–that emotional pull to be inside the Disney Bubble.
If you’re a frugal traveler wanting to get the “full” Walt Disney World experience but unable to splurge or spend extra on Pop Century or another higher-tier resort, the cheapest hotels on-site are actually good.
They’re not my first or even fifteenth choice among on-site accommodations I’d choose at Walt Disney World if money were no issue, but I don’t find myself regularly winning the lottery, so value does matter to me. I also don’t feel like I’m compromising on the quality of my overall experience when staying at the All Stars. If I did, I wouldn’t keep booking them!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you stayed at any of the All Star Resorts in the last few years? What did you think of the quality? What about the hotel(s) as a whole? How do you think these options compare to third party or off-site accommodations? What about relative to Pop Century or higher-tier hotels at Walt Disney World? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment that the All Stars are actually good hotel options for those wanting to be in the Disney bubble? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
I have gone to Disney World about eight times in the last 10 years. Pop century is our favorite.! When we go to Disney we are wide open from early in the morning to late at night. So all we really do at the resort is crash. The beds are very comfortable and I love that transportation is very easy. I would highly recommend pop century for the average family income.
We stayed at ASMovies for 3 nights the first week of January. I found a price sweet spot of $113 per night that became over $250 per night during marathon weekend. Since we spend the bulk of our waking hours at the parks All Stars are great for us. The refurbished rooms with the folding bed and actual sliding bathroom door are great for us.
We’re returning in June for a longer stay of 8 days this time in a family suite as my Mother in law is joining. You’re review of those rooms have us excited to try them. We usually would need 2 regular rooms and the suites are not only in the preferred area of the resort but have a real fridge plus microwave which we will definitely use. Would I stay at the Grand Floridian after winning the lotto, sure! but until then I’m all about the All Stars and maybe Pop too!
The only issue I have with All Stars is that, maybe because of their affordability, they can book up earlier and the prices can jump a lot over the weekends. As quasi-local APs (which admittedly is not most guests), we always check the prices of the values for quick weekend trips. Either they’re already sold out, or the prices are significantly more than the off property options. I know weekends cost more at all the hotels, including third party, but the cost comparison usually doesn’t work out for us at the All Stars. When we have stayed, though, we had no issues with cleanliness or transportation, loved the theming, and didn’t have any more problems with noise than we’ve had a moderates and deluxes (we’ve had some REALLY noisy Disney stays showing that you can’t just buy your way out of it).
It’s interesting that you mention this! I’m frequently booking last minute, but usually for weekday stays (rather than weekend), and I find the All Stars almost always have better availability than Pop Century or Caribbean Beach.
In fact, that’s how we’ve ended up here so much in the last year–we’d absolutely pay the premium for one of the Skyliner resorts (well, depending on rack rates and discounts), but they often are simply not an option. By contrast, we always seem to have our pick of the All Stars!
We stayed at the All Star Sports and Movies some years ago and my only real complaint was the bus transportation. Seemed we were end of line so first thing in the morning, they got filled before they reached us. That seems to have changed from one of your statements so that’s a good thing. We did a few moderate resorts after that and enjoyed them. They usually had less bus traffic returning late from the parks. This past November we stayed at Pop Century and I chose it mainly because of the Skyliner and it was a game changer to me also. Never a long wait outside of the initial rush first thing and even then it wasn’t more than 10 minutes it seemed. We got a first floor room next to one of the pools, the one not near the food court. That pool was wide open when we used it. Once in a while, I’d get a bad smell of cigarette smoke since they put the smokers right next to it. The food court wasn’t the greatest nor the worse so OK with us. Actually, having been to Caribbean Beach Resort a couple times before this trip, I liked the food court there. I read it got remodeled so we went there once on this trip, to me it was a step backwards and I won’t bother doing that again. Though I would like to go back to Port Orleans-French Quarter (my favorite mod resort to date), it doesn’t have Skyliner so we’ll see what happens if we go back anytime soon.
Disney needs to realize they could get family’s to stay longer if they tried to accommodate a wider range of options for all families. Michael Isner new if he kept people on property, they would make more money. Only building high end resorts will price out a large swath of families. There is a reason Universal is chipping away at the market, better options at better prices.
I have stayed at many Disney hotels including the Boardwalk, Animal Kingdom and most recently this year at the Dolphin but I have to say my fondest memories are of the All Star Sports Resort. Our first stay was for a baseball tournament at the Wild World of Sports Complex and we loved it so much we have stayed there three times since. Rooms and food court are great, pools are fabulous and my 6 kids had a blast playing on the football fields. If you want a finer meal there are many options at parks or other hotels.
All Star Sports is a homerun in my book?
We enjoyed our stay at Pop Century for all the reasons you noted. The only drawback not mentioned is the new flooring, in my opinion. While it must be easy to maintain, the laminate floors make it much louder than the resorts with carpeting. We were on the third floor and heard every step in the room above us and probably the people below us heard ours! I’m not sure if this is a trend for other refurbishments, but I hope they add rugs or something to dampen the noise issues!
We just stayed in early Feb at All Stars Music in a family suite (thanks to your review!) and loved it. We normally stay off-property to save money but after reading your review of those rooms I decided to look and we paid under $300 a night. I thought this was a pretty good deal considering it really was 2 rooms put together. The rooms were great and we had a full size frig and microwave and 2 full bathrooms. We are early AM to late PM park people so did not use any of the facilities besides the bus. The property was clean and well-maintained and cutely themed. We only heard noise when in the parking lot and that was from practicing cheer teams. Really have no complaints and it was a treat to be on-property, away from the Orlando non-magic. 🙂
I’ve stayed at All Star Music twice before and twice after the renovations, and never had a bad stay. Crowds, guests, and transportation were all fine. The last time I came there after staying at Old Key West for a couple of nights, which seemed very tired, dated, and much less functional compared to the new ASM room.
I’ve never had a toilet explode at WDW, but one trip I did have a toilet overflow at midnight the first night we arrived at the Beach Club! Thankfully they sent someone up from engineering right away to fix that problem.
I’m not sure there are any confirmed cases of exploding toilets at the All Stars. Perhaps at Sports–after all, it is the original A.S.S. at Walt Disney World.
But in all likelihood, what was said and what my 10-year old brain remembered are two different things.
“If you’re a frugal traveler wanting to get the “full” Walt Disney World experience but unable to splurge or spend extra on Pop Century or another higher-tier resort, the cheapest hotels on-site are definitely good enough.”
After making such a fine case for the All Stars (and having stayed at them many times I agree with all your points) I think calling them “good enough” might be the wrong choice of words. I don’t like the sound of “good enough”. “Good enough” sounds a bit condescending and I hear a big “IF” following it. I would prefer to end that sentence with”… the cheapest hotels on site will definitely give you that.”
I’ve always enjoyed my stays at the All Stars but then I get a kick out of giant dalmatians, staircases designed to look like goalie nets and walking down “Broadway” to a piano pool.
I find the All Stars perfectly fine. The All Star Disney resorts definitely remind you you’re at WDW in case you’d forgotten. Those rooms are especially exceptional for families who will only be there to shower and sleep.
Everybody’s different and their situations dictate their objectives. I’m not referring to financial situations though that obviously plays a huge roll. What I’m talking about is things like first time or 100th time, how many are you, how long are you’re staying. Our kids have grown up and we have jobs that allow us to go for weeks at a time. Therefore we prefer split stays. Our next trip will see us twice at POP (which I originally booked at All Star Movies but later changed because of the Skyliner (despite it being storm season) and a couple of days at Beach Club (1st time and we want to access that pool without hoping the fence) and then our favorite, Wilderness Lodge. On days at higher end hotels we spend more time there than the Parks to enjoy the amenities they provide. Monday night taking advantage of EPCOT evening hours within walking distance of BC sounds great to me. Doing Mickey’s NSSHP and then a boat ride back to Wilderness is the ticket.
As to the financial aspects, it’s only my opinion but no matter how much money you have it’s crazy to pay the price of high end resorts and spend all day and night away. Plus be very careful about using credit cards. This year the Fed will raise interest rates at least three more times. Many cards are nearing 30% (Best Buy 29.49%, LOWEs 26.99%, Paypal 28.24%, Amazon 29.74%, TJX 29.99%, BJ’s 28.74%). Actually our lowest cards are our Disney cards 20.24%. Don’t buy anything on credit unless you can pay it off before the interest hits.
Every chance we get we buy Disney cards at Target for 5% off. Then we go to Disneygiftcards.com and condense them up to $1,000 a card. Use them for EVERYTHING at WDW.
If you spend a couple of weeks or make a couple of trips each year to WDW the Annual Pass discounts almost pays for the AP.
But here’s my best tip.
If you want to save money and make the most of your trip you have to read year round the #1 Disney blog. I’m looking at you Mr and Mrs Bricker. Thanks.
“I think calling them ‘good enough’ might be the wrong choice of words.”
Great minds must think alike, because I actually edited that sentence and updated the post title while you must’ve been writing this comment.
The “good enough” parts just weren’t sitting well with me, so I modified some of the text to highlight that the All Stars are actually good. I know that’s a minor distinction, but I like it better. I didn’t like implying that these hotels are ‘less than,’ so to speak.
Oh, and totally agree about credit cards. We use them religiously to accrue rewards, but I haven’t the slightest inkling as to what the interest rates are on any of them because we’ve never paid a dime in interest. When used correctly, they are great tools–but they come with dangerous downsides. Sorta like a chainsaw, I suppose.
I knew a juggler who juggled gas powered chainsaws while they were on. Sounds like a set up with the punchline, he now goes by the name Lefty. I forget what the trick to it was or if there was one but what I remember vividly is how awful those exhaust fumes were. He also did sword swallowing (no trick) and ate fire. I can’t imagine he’s still alive.
Agree about the proper use of credit cards.
We pay EVERY BILL with our Disney cards for the points. Food and gas with the Premiere for 2% rewards and everything else with the regular Disney card, from the electric bill, insurance, apple (yeah 99 cents for the cloud) to the monthly kindle. Every household has at least $1200 in monthly bills alone which gives you $144 found money over the course of a year. Then there’s everything else: gas, food, car repairs, vitamins, clothing, gifts, Disney Tourist Blog recommendations on Amazon. We rack up at least $50 a month in Disney Rewards Dollars.
Folks if you’re reading this conversation about credit cards DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO THIS AT HOME unless you budget faithfully and have some knowledge of Dave Ramsey (who would tell you to use that chainsaw on ALL your credit cards).
Using a Disney credit card is ok I guess, but you can get similar rewards in cash using a non-Disney credit card. Why lock yourself in?
JOJO you are 100% right that there are credit cards with better options than Chase Disney and I believe Tom has even done a blog about them. Thing is I’m perfectly happy with Disney Reward dollars and my cards have pictures of Mickey on them.
I meant to end that last reply with What’s in your wallet?
My calculus on the Pop Skyliner premium is this. How much does two Ubers to the parks cost per day? Less than the Skyliner premium. So, as much as I love the Skyliner, it is not worth it to me. And, of course, it is not always running. And forget returning from Epcot to Pop after the fireworks. You’re looking at a long wait in line.
To each their own, but I’d estimate our average usage of the Skyliner is about 2.5 daily trips when we stay at those resorts. I leave when it first opens, return ~1 hour after rope drop, go back out midday, and return one final time 30-60 minutes after park closing. Almost never wait in a line more than 10 minutes long.
Even at 2.5 daily trips, you are probably correct that Uber or Lyft comes out about the same price or maybe even a little cheaper. Personally, I’d pay a premium for the Skyliner. It’s much more enjoyable than Uber or Lyft, and usually more efficient.
To each their own, though. Always worth discussing the pros & cons, and different planners’ cost calculus!
Can’t argue with your logic Matthew. I would point out that with the Skyliner you can park hop, or make a stop at CBR or Riviera for a lunch on a couple of different days. Bur all in all if you’re there for a week and only spend 2 or 3 days at HS and EPCOT you will be losing money on the other 4 or 5 days as compared to the All Stars which I love as well.
My family and I (2 adults 2 kids) spent 9 days and 8 nights at Disney Pop Century in Sept. We had a great time and found the resort well maintained. We were there for Hurricane Ian and the next day they had maintenance crews repainting anywhere that had chipped paint etc. We never had an issue with the cleanliness of the Food Court or our room.
It was our first time at Disney and we picked Pop Century because we felt we would not be in the room a lot so we didn’t feel the need for a huge room with lots of extras.
The buses were always on time and the Skyliner was great! We would book there again no problem!
Gonna stay at All Music Resort soon.
Stayed in almost all of the Disney Resorts at least one night.
Going back to the Value is for us right now with all the parks, golf and restaurant reservations, not to mention airline costs…
I LOVE All Star Music Resort. Love The Beach Club more, but not this year.
When I first started reading the article, I though you were going to trash the All Stars; but I was wrong. I am glad you did not. I have been taking girl scout groups to Disney since about 1998. The groups range in size from 30-135 girls and leaders. The All Star Resorts made it very affordable for these girls who saved over a one/two year period to be able to come to Disney. The only one I do not like is Sports because of the teams and the way they behave. The coaches and/or adults that accompany the sports team pay no attention to the kids. On the other hand, all the girl scouts I have taken know what is expected of them and knew I had the right to send them home (at the parent’s expense) if they caused problems. Of course, I can only speak for my groups. Sure, I personally have stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, but what teenager could afford to do that. All Star Music and Movies are a great place to stay especially for the girl scout groups I took to Disney.
Taking groups of up to 135 (!!!) Girl Scouts to WDW sounds like a challenging but fulfilling experience. My Boy Scout troop only had ~15 kids in it, and we were always up to mischief…thankfully, it was always confined to campgrounds and other outdoorsy places. I cannot imagine over 100 of us and at Walt Disney World. It probably would’ve turned into a scene from Lord of the Flies. 😉
I have a personal goal to stay at every resort at DW, but even with that goal I often just pick whatever is cheapest or most convenient to what I want to do. With the new room redesign, the All-Stars are actually perfect for trips alone or with my partner where I can work from the hotel room during the day and hit the parks at night. I love the Deluxe hotels, but man it’s hard to justify the extra few thousand dollars in overall price difference (even when booked through dvc.) I just don’t have a significantly more magical time for the cost. (Deluxe and club level is a great splurge for when you’re planning to spend the day at the hotel, admittedly…but if I’m spending the day at work or in the park, value are just too valuable, heh.)
That’s a good goal to have!
I also do a lot of hybrid trips where I go out in the morning for Early Entry, return for a few hours to work, and then head back out midday for the rest of the evening. For my purposes, a hybrid of Pop Century and Coronado Springs would be just about perfect…but often it’s tough to compete with the price of the All Stars (especially when I don’t “need” to revisit a different resort for room updates or whatever).
I love the value resorts,. In the real world, I prefer interior-door-style hotels to exterior-door motels but at Disney I prefer the opposite. And I enjoy the giant theming – I can get a “nice” hotel anywhere in the world. We’re also “park people”and not “resort people” so the pools, food options, and the like matter less to us than they might to others.
I’m fine with exterior hallways; it’s the lack of balconies that gets me.
We are both parks and resorts people, all depending upon the trip. With that said, I’ve found that we frequently spend time at resorts at which we’re not staying–and when we are spending a lot of time at our resort, it’s usually in the room to work. The one big exception seems to be Club Level-focused stays, with a lot of time spent going back and forth between the lounge and the pool.
I’m with you on this Tom. I don’t mind exterior “hallways”, in fact every one of the doors on my home open up onto the exterior BUT there’s something to be said to sitting on the balcony at Animal Kingdom in the morning with giraffes eating about 20 feet in front of you.
“People are alike all over.”
So true!!!
That’s actually the title to one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes. The episode is such a poignant and incisive that I’ve taken to using its title and key line out of context. I think it still works pretty well.
It’s been 15 years since we stayed at Pop Century. I don’t have any bad memories of it (granted we weren’t seasoned Disney travelers back then to make comparisons), but man, the creepiness of the abandoned Legendary side across the water has definitely stuck with me. Monochrome and in disrepair, it looked like something straight out of a horror game.
Interesting. I believe those rooms that were originally going to be the early 2oth century at pop are now the little mermaid non-suite rooms at art of animation?
Yeah, that was creepy–definitely had Silent Hill vibes.
And yes, the Legendary Years became Art of Animation. It would’ve been awesome to see that built as the second half of Pop Century, but I think the route they opted to go (with characters) probably made more sense.
Likely for the best. Can’t imagine many kids clamoring to stay in Depression-era digs.
I also spent my 21st birthday at Pleasure Island that trip – equally creepy and abandoned, but at least they had the mercy to demolish it the following year.
We’ve never stayed at All Stars, but stayed at Pop Century for our second trip with the kids (this was before it had the Skyliner). We had a great trip at Pop Century, but had one complaint with the rooms that isn’t any different at All Stars, so we never considered them. Our problem with the value resorts was the size of the rooms. We are family of four and are two of of us are not small people (former collegiate athlete sizing). We weren’t in the rooms very much the whole trip, but it still felt extremely cramped. I would still rather stay anywhere on property vs. offsite just to be in the bubble. As unpleasant as the buses can be, my idea of a Disney vacation involves never dealing with parking or parking lots.
The rooms are definitely on the smaller side for a family of 4, but they are much better now than they were pre-refurbishment. (With the exception of Coronado Springs and the family suites/cabins, I think this is probably an issue at all of the Value and Moderate Resorts.)
Value resorts, from my experience, are where large groups stay and are not for me. I have found adults fighting, swearing and teens running around at all hours, especially in the summer months when the kids from Brazil come.
They leave their food trays all over the food court, spill drink and food on the floor. and fail to pick up after themselves. Staff tell me it’s their culture and clean up after them. Not good. The group leaders of these tours are just as bad – young adults that like to party with the teens they are in charge of.
No thank you. Best to try to go when no groups are there, but Disney keeps coming up with ways to take kids out of school for sports and cheer and dance competitions to keep the money rolling in. You will find these groups in Feb., March, April, and even May in addition to the Brazilian groups that come June, July, and August. In sept. the UK floods in and pulls their kids from school because it’s cheaper to go to Disney in Sept. and according the the UK guests I spoke with, they get school fines each day their kids are out, but they don’t care because it is still cheaper to come in Sept. Sad. I can imagine these kids as adults blowing off work to travel when it’s convenient financially regardless of an employer’s needs.