Ahhhh to have such a dilemma. Ridiculous!
I picked AofA because my son LOVES Cars only to find out the Cars rooms are only suites. Settled on Little Mermaid and happy that at least they have a Cars pool. Now the discounts come out and AofA isn’t included. I can save $400-500 by changing reservations to Pop or one of the All Stars.
Is AofA worth it??
It wouldn’t be worth it for me. That much money can be spent elsewhere or saved for a future trip.
If this is your first (and likely to be only) visit, I would recommend sticking with AoA. If you’re a every year or couple of years type of family, do Pop. That’s a pretty large chunk of money.
Since you won’t be immersed in the Cars theme in the room, I’d switch to POP. You’ll be able to walk over to AoA to check out the Cars landscaping while taking advantage of the financial savings.
It usually comes down to the fact that so little time is actually spent in the room that to “settle” for Little Mermaid would be a waste. Plus, those rooms are the furthest from everything at AoA.
4 Likes
All Star movies is impressive in it’s theming. Giant movie characters and a huge Mickey themed pool. Maybe not as much so as AoA but outstanding and a bit cheaper. My boys LOVED it.
Tough call. We LOVE AoA and the Cars area is magical, the pool is awesome. It’s a bit of a hike from LM to Cars area (maybe 500 yards?) but worthwhile it you’ve got some pool afternoons planned. Food court is great, the splash pad and playground and theming are amazing. The family suites ARE awesome if they’re on your radar.
But is it worth $400-500? Probably not for us unless we were going to spend a lot of time at the resort. Also, there seems to be nice theming at many of the other values, as others have mentioned. If the $400 difference was for a regular double room, I’d likely stay somewhere else.
As others have mentioned, it’s a quick walk from Pop to AoA to explore the Cars area; only thing you (technically) can’t access is the pool.
We are trying to make the same decision… What is the difference in travel times to the park between AofA and AS Movies?
Travel time difference between AoA and AS Movies can get pretty significant (I believe) as AoA has a dedicated bus.
Can’t speak to ASM. AoA to parks is very fast since all buses are direct, and it’s such a huge resort that buses are frequent, and fill quickly.
I am not a fan of the AS-resorts. I love AoA and Pop. AoA has the leg up on pools, so if you are planning to do a lot of pool time, that is a factor. When we stay at Pop, we like to walk over to AoA just to visit the food court. Or we take the bus back to AoA and walk back to Pop. I agree with @Crasstastic that it partly should depend on whether you are a regular or a first and maybe only visitor. If the latter, I would say upgrade to the Cars suite! The suites are awesome. If the former, just go with Pop and walk over to visit AoA. Use the money you’ll save on the room to put towards a magical extra - or towards next year’s trip.
I just came back from my sevond all starys resort music trip. Personally i like the AS. And I plan on going back.
The buses can a bit of a pain sometimes, but I got along with it. You tend to share buses between resorts. Sports then music then movies. Mk gets its own bus except for the very early and bery late busses.
I find Disney to do a great job having lots of buses available at busy times. My only complaint was a rainy night at epcot. No one was there to guide the masses and the line was huge. People where unintentionally cutting in where they thought a line ended but it was the middle and it was winding around. There were about 5 buses in a row to load the crowd. Well done on moving peopel out.
AoA is wonderfully themed. That being said the first year AoA opened we actually got the Little Mermaid rooms with the free dining plan. We stayed 2 nights and switched to PoP. Where our rooms were located we could hop across the bridge and be at PoP. The Little Mermaid rooms are a long way from bus and dining hall. The bright side is you get to walk through some beautifully themed areas on your way to catch the buses with some great photo ops. We would stay at AoA if we were wanted to pay the extra for the suites but if we decide to go beyond the value resorts on our stays we are jumping on up to Deluxe. Which may be never since we like to go to Disney annually and to be able to budget that trip the deluxe price will not be in the immediate future.