TouringPlans needs your help on Value Resorts: How do you decide?

The only value we stayed in was Pop. We chose it because we liked the theming and the price was right :slight_smile:

Next on our list is either AS Movies or Music, again because of the theming.

Transportation is #1 ( we love pop and AoA for this). And party size and cost usually determine which one. will 2 rooms at pop be cheaper than aoa?

Picked PoP for Liner love, price, dedicated buses and LM rooms at AoA seemed so far from everything

A big reason I’ve never stayed in AoA is because the non-suites are never included in discounts/free dining. I like the layout/theming/pools of POP over the All Stars and find it to be worth the couple of extra bucks. I’ve stayed at ASS and ASMovies before and wouldn’t stay at any All Star other than Sports again simply because of the way the bus routes work when they use one bus for all of the All Stars. ASS is the first-in, last-out which means less riding around when you just want to get to the park or back to the resort. The theming of ASS doesn’t do anything for me, but we’re park commandos, so we only spend about an hour and a half of awake time there a day and don’t feel the need to spend big on a place to crash.

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Each trip has different parameters (cost, whether we’re renting a car, how many in our party, whether we’re park commandos or using the resort more), so each trip could have different reasons for which resort is picked.

Having said that… what @sethist said. :slight_smile:

Just booked our first WDW trip for October. I really wanted to say at AoA LM room for DD6, but on the day I called to book (over 200 days out) they were all booked. I picked POP over AS because of transportation- happy they have their own buses, rather than share with 3 resorts. Also, I think it was a good choice since LM rooms don’t get discounts and POP does. If I could budget a little more for the trip, I’d upgrade to the Royal Rooms at POR in a heartbeat.

We just booked our first value resort. Our decision was easy, we wanted to use our military discount and AoA does NOT offer that on the Little Mermaid rooms. We then went to POP because it has it’s own bus service.

Please Don’t mind me butting in… You could always check back with reservations and see if a LM room opens up! We have had great sucess doing that and Love LM rooms and AoA! :slight_smile:

I first go by transportation. The dedicated bus service at AOA and POP can’t compare with the All Stars sharing them.

The price at POP is better than AOA but it is close enough that I can still walk over and enjoy the theming. That is why I chose to go with POP. It also helped that many Liners recommended it. :smile:

I’ve been checking to see if any open up! The only bad thing I can see about these rooms is that they are usually not included in discounts, and pop is!

Very true about the discount but… The theme of the whole resort is worth the little extra imo :slight_smile: it’s pretty amazing especially for the little ones!!! Good luck :slight_smile:

Not to start an argument but there isn’t that much difference between the bus service at the values. I know people slam the All Stars all the time but, in reality they don’t always share buses, much like POR and POFQ. And, as Len’s post below shows, we are taking very very similar times for all the buses.

[quote=“NeedaTurkeyLeg, post:40, topic:10309”]
I know people slam the All Stars all the time but, in reality they don’t always share buses[/quote]
I’ve stayed at All-Stars a number of times and have yet to experience the reputed horrendous bus service that I keep hearing about. There are other things that may turn people off (like the higher probability you’ll share the resort with a large tour group/football team/cheerleader), but transportation isn’t much of a problem. At any Disney resort you’re likely to have one or two long waits for buses at some point during your stay, so I’m guessing when that happens to someone staying at an All-Star Resort then it feeds into the perception that their bus service is worse than other locations.

You’re right about rarely sharing buses. I posted my experiences with that on the transportation thread you linked to, but it doesn’t happen as often as many people think. Even when buses are shared among the All-Star, it doesn’t take any more time than moderates with multiple bus stops.

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Thanks, @FlyerFan1973! Our first four stays were at ASMo and, in fact, although we stayed POR last trip and WL/AKL this upcoming trip, my son was pining for the oversized icons and Sorcerer Mickey pool at Movies. During those roughly 40 days, we had about one bus problem per trip, same as our stays at POR. We never had the horror stories we have heard applied to the All Stars.

Nice to know we aren’t the only ones.

We have stayed at value resorts on 4 different trips. We actually went back to value after a few trips to moderate resorts. When picking a value resort, we consider two main factors: 1. Transportation 2. Walk to buses (very long walk from LM rooms to buses and main building). Our two favorite resorts are All-Star Sports and Pop Century.

We decide on 1) bus service and 2) noise level of other guests. For several years now we have stayed at Pop, and never consider changing to another value.

We have stayed in the Nemo suites at AOA and at POP. We like POP for the one bus stop and that we can walk to AOA for food at Landscapes. We have not considered any other value resorts because we liked our experience at POP so much! For the same price of the suites at AOA we can rent DVC points and stay at a deluxe resort so we have not stated at AOA since.

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Out of the All Stars we have always chosen Sports because it is the last pickup for buses for the Allstars and the first drop off.

We go with value resorts for long weekends trips when we know we will be maximizing our time at the parks. Our chief priority in these cases are getting to and from the parks quickly and easily. So for us, transportation is key, and then price, which makes Pop our first choice.

My husband and I enjoyed AS Music last trip. The price was good, and we are not too into sports, but chose the next one on the loop music. If transportation was the issue I would pick Sports because that is the first to get dropped off. Looking forward to going back.