I’m looking at a 4-night stay in early September (9/7 late arrival, through 9/11 evening departure). I’d be having a crazy, no sleeping 4-Park Magic days + Halloween Horror Nights combo trip, because I’m a glutton for punishment.
My resort options are narrowed down to either:
ASM,preferred for ~$680
Pop standard for ~$740
I just need to decide if $80 more for Skyliner (but not preferred location) is actually going to be a useful spend.
My likely plan will be: Thursday - arrive around 10-11pm. Friday - RD MK (Friday after Labor Day is historically one of the lowest crowd days of the year and last year it was amazing) until 3pm, then head to Universal. I have an AP so I can enter early for HHN. Do as many houses as I can without waiting more than 30 minutes (hitting them early, and early in the season means that could be 4 or 5), then try some snacks and catch a show before calling it an early night. Saturday - RD AK until I feel like leaving, or 3pm, then head to Universal. This would probably be my night to close HHN… due to pass blockouts September Saturdays are really not busy, so they’re a great time to do lots. Sunday - HS, I don’t want to RD but I don’t care about Star Wars so priorities would just be ToT, RnR and maybe Slinky if I could get a LL (it was slow enough at this time last year that I wasn’t able to properly stack LLs) then a nap before later-start HHN. HHN would be just catching anything I’d missed or wanted to do again, or catch-up if the weather was bad. Monday - Epcot all day, but not RD, leave for the airport by 5:30.
Another option is to forgo the September HHN pass and just do one night with an RIP tour, which lasts 4.5 hours. That gets you into all of the houses and the shows without waiting, plus you get an express pass for the rest of the night. The one reason not to do that is storm season… it just makes things less flexible since you have to schedule in advance. That way I’d get full days at WDW 3 of my days, and more sleep.
I’m reading it like this:
bus
uber
uber
skyliner
skyliner
uber
skyliner
uber
Three skyliner rides for $80 - $26.67/ride
Plus in September, hurricane season, the added wheel of roulette in terms of whether the skyliner will operate or not at your preferred times
I don’t love the All Stars, and I personally wouldn’t prefer to stay there
But since your question is whether the $80 is worth it for skyliner, that was my focus
I say stay on the cheap. Buy some merch/food/bevvies with the $80
Thank you! I had forgotten about the iffy weather skyliner situation! This is why we pay you the big bucks!
The All Stars are one of the 3 places I’ve never stayed… what’s so bad about them? Keep in mind that this will literally just be a cheap place to sleep and maybe eat breakfast, and also if the SSR preferred studio that’s been listed over a month for $297 drops down to somewhere in the $250 neighborhood I might just bail on the cheap seats and go with that because we all know I’m a princess.
I thought the All Stars were just fine when I was there in January and eould stay at them again for a solo trip. The rooms are exactly like the ones at Pop! Never waited long for buses. The resort is reasonably small.
I felt like everything needed a freshening up (coat of paint) and I liked the Pop! Lobby and food court area better than ASSMo. That’s it.
Agree. For a solo stay that was about the parks, the savings made this fine. But I wanted some new carpet in the lobby, better landscapping and fresh paint on the outside themeing. The rooms, to me, were comparable to Pop.
Just booked All Star Movies for the week after Thanksgiving. I called my husband first and asked him if the Skyliner was a priority for him. Nope. So ASMov it is!
If this were a trip for Darling Son, we would have to go with a Skyliner resort. He loooooooooooves that thing. But he’s a grown-up and a CM, so he can book himself a stay at the Pop if he wants to. LOL!
Srsly, I stayed at ASMov with my sister a year ago and was just delighted at how nice it was. It was as nice as I remember it being in 2000 when I stayed there with a friend. The buses don’t shut down when there’s lightning, and the food court has the same Mickey waffles as POFQ. And yes, I was counting that extra $80/day when I picked ASMov over Pop! (So glad Disney doesn’t charge for parking any more!)
Fortunately during hurricane season it’s only $80 difference for my whole trip (mostly from being preferred at AS and not preferred at Pop)… if it was $80 per day there would be no question at all!
Well, hey, back!! I think of you quite often, too. Just got back from a dismal “Florida” vacation that I couldn’t cancel even though I really want to just give my money to Disney. (And not give it to any place that benefits from the massive boon to the state that Disney is.)
I’d rather be in Disney World!!
I would write more, but Woodrow just called to ask me where he should buy a pint glass. ROFL!!
I stayed in Music for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I picked Music since it was renovated after movies. The bed was comfortable and I would stay there again. There are so many plugs USB ports in those rooms!
FWIW I stayed (1 night) at ASMovies last summer, and then stayed at Pop for the first time in Febraury 23… the rooms were the same. I don’t know if one is bigger than the other or not… but they felts exactly the same.
My wife loves the skyliner and would pay $80 to ride it once… so we went back to Pop in April, but they felt the same. I have no opinions about pools and QS between them…
Reading this thread makes me lean towards booking ASMo in September We have 1 night before moving to a Timeshare, so I thought why not stay on property as I would not need to get a car rental then (my friend will have car rental for rest of the trip)
It was $300 more to fly out on a Saturday vs a Friday. So …in my mind it made more sense to put that money towards an extra night at WDW
With new discount, we are staying at POP for 14 nights at $149 per night. Now you may ask yourself if the Skyliner is a big deal. YES To us it is because we get out of riding the packed bus at closing. Even at MK you can take the mono Rail to Epcot, walk to the international gateway, then take the Skyliner to POP. Of coarse if you pla on staying for the fireworks then there is little time difference other than the fact you aren’t stuffed in a bus at park close and feel like a can of sardines.
But since I won’t actually be at any of the WDW parks until close that’s why it’s a bigger question. Like @OBNurseNH said, I’d only be using the skyliner 3 times, 2 of those in the morning and 1 in the mid-afternoon. If I really hated busses then for less than $80 I could just Uber those 3 times!
To add to the skyliner roulette, when it IS down (be it weather or mechanical) you might not have a way to know that before you’ve already walked all the way to IG, only to be told to take a bus. I believe they’ve added buses at BC or BW to take you to Pop/AOA when that happens.
Since you have to bus to MK and AK no matter which hotel, it could be mentally simpler to just plan on always needing a bus for the WDW parks - and stay at the All-Stars.
ETA: We love the skyliner, have stayed at Pop 3 times with it. But that was before the All-Stars got their rooms upgraded. Now it’s a tougher choice.
Pop was my go-to until I tried ASMo in December. The rooms are identical to the ones at Pop (so far as I could tell). I prefer the ASMo theming to Pop. I’m trying ASMu next month because ASMo is always more expensive for some reason. I wouldn’t stay at ASSp because I don’t think all the rooms have been Popified.
I love the Skyliner, but it’s a scam. Sure it’s nice to go to HS or EP from Pop via the Skyliner in the morning (if you get the timing right) but forget it for coming home after park close. The line at Epcot reaches back to BC and it’s a looong wait at the end of a night. Save the Pop premium and take an Uber from BW.
Also, I think preferred rooms are a scam, too. It’s not that much further. And you’re going to be walking 20,000 steps in the parks anyway. What’s another few hundred.
And yes, I was counting that extra $80/day when I picked ASMov over Pop! (So glad Disney doesn’t charge for parking any more!)
We have 1 night before moving to a Timeshare, so I thought why not stay on property as I would not need to get a car rental then (my friend will have car rental for rest of the trip)