I am currently booked at in a preferred room at Pop Century for a solo trip mid-late October and am now wondering if the Movies (also a preferred room) might be better seeing as it’s the only All Star resort reopening & the rooms have all be refurbished like the Pop rooms have been. When I price it out, the difference between Pop ($3,207.33) & Movies ($2,776.33) is $431.00. What do you think???
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Be mindful of the fact that lots of sports groups book at All Stars. And, with Pop you get Skyliner access to 2 parks (hence the upcharge). I probably would pick Pop. Then again I’ve yet to cross ASMo off my list so from a personal standpoint I might pick there so I can say I’ve stayed at all values (working my way through all resorts)
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I’d love saving $400, but personally after staying at both post-refurbs over the last 2 years I’d call them a toss up when comparing amenities - think my choice would come down to how much I value the Skyliner and AoA access.
I’d pay the $ to be able to use the Skyliner for ease of commute - except seeing reports how long it takes to get on at Pop (not too bad if early?), but then have to wait again at CBR transfer sounds like it ain’t a very efficient way to hit RD.
Would love to hear from those who have used it for RD to report whether they think the sky ovens were a real benefit or just a nice way to ride.
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Personally, I’d save the money and stay at Movies. The rooms are pretty much exactly the same and it’s a smaller resort, so there are fewer people. I also don’t see much value in the Skyliner. Every time I’ve tried to take it at the start or end of the day, I’ve had to wait 40 minutes or so to get on it. It’s just not terribly convenient and isn’t really a selling feature for me with any of the resorts its on.
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I’m having the same debate, except with ASM and AoA Mermaid Room (my daughter saw them and really wants to stay there. We’ve also done Pop, just wanting to do something different this time). The ASM refurb looks nice. It would save me about $240. Skyliner is the only thing…but during our stay at AoA we would probably only use it once for Epcot, because the other days we will be going to MK and AK in the morning. I am also somewhat concerned that my anxious daughter will be scared to ride the Skyliner (though we’ve watched videos and I’ve talked it up with excitement and in the context of being another “ride”).
The nice thing about AoA is that they run buses to the parks connected by Skyliner, but Pop does not. I’m not entirely sure why they do this, but if your daughter didn’t want to do the Skyliner, there are options at AoA you don’t have at Pop. And those LM rooms are adorable. We just stayed in January again and had a really great stay at AoA. I like it as a resort better than Pop or Movies, truthfully.
That’s good to know, thanks. I saw someone in a FB group say “just take the bus” if the Skyliner line was long, and I was so confused (they were at AoA). The rooms look cute…I don’t mind the walk (really)…I just hate that the price is so inflated over comparable rooms.
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I looked at AoA, but the standard Little Mermaid room would be another $300 more than Pop, and from what I have read, it’s far away from the buses, main building, main pool, etc. That’s fine at the beginning of the day, but at the end of the day & you’re wiped, the last thing you want to do is dragging yourself so far to get back to your room (just my opinion)
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LM rooms are very far from everything. I was closer to Pop than I was to the main stuff at AoA when I stayed there. I have a hard time recommending them to anyone as a result.
REALLY wanted to stay at Port Orleans French Quarter, but it does not appear that is opening this year. For the most part, I am at the resort to sleep, shower, swim & chill by the pool with a good book & cocktail in hand. Other than that, I’m pretty simple with my needs, so spending $400-$700+ a night on a resort is just a waste of money for me.
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I have NOT stayed at Movies. But we did stay at Pop. While the Skyliner might be a selling point, I felt more negativity for it than positivity. At RD times, the wait times (including at the “mixing bowl”) can be quite long, and it a good percentage of the time didn’t even run (3 mornings we were there, we had a voicemail saying the Skyliner would have a delayed opening).
Due to this inconsistency, I much preferred relying on buses.
Having said that, Skyliner is great when it runs. And I don’t know how frequent the buses are at Movies to compare to.
But if I were to go again, I’d likely save the money and stay at Movies instead of Pop.
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The resort just re-opened ?yesterday and reports are they are running the big busses there right now. Will that last? Dunno
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That might not be a good thing, actually.
During our stay, we got to ride both the “big buses” and the regular buses. They actually fit more people on the regular buses because the big buses have so much room dedicated to standing, which they weren’t allowing. (Once they are no longer social distancing, I’m sure the big buses will be better.) I counted available seats each time, and sure enough…regular buses could seat more people.
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what do I know
To be fair, this was several months back. It could be that they found a way to reconfigure the seating on the big buses since then. I’d be curious what others have experienced more recently in terms of available seating.
This is why we are staying at ASMo in 11 days, aside from cost. I’ve stayed at Pop pre-Covid and it was nice. But, I’m leery of having to depend on Skyliner for RD. Skyliner is great when it’s not crowded, if its running when you need it. If all the All Stars were open (buses more crowded and last stop) or sports events were going on I would probably have chosen differently. But this seems to be a good opportunity to try it without those downsides. I’ll try to give more feedback after our stay.
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Not to be a buzzkill but don’t want you caught blindsided: there have been reports of folks being pixie dust upgraded from ASMo to deluxes over the next several weeks because they are overbooked. There are some massive cheerleading groups coming up - so that one downside is actually still a thing.
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Hmmm well I guess we will see what happens. Thanks for the heads up!
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The long walk to the LM rooms was the only thing I didn’t love about AoA… it was much nicer when we were in a Nemo suite!
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