Value vs. Moderate?

We are currently booked at Art of Animation in a Little Mermaid room. But now I’m having second thoughts and was thinking maybe we should upgrade to a moderate. I would choose the Port Orleans French Quarter, if we were to upgrade. But it is almost $500 more for the week to upgrade, so I was just wondering what others thought? Does anyone has experience staying in both and could compare/contrast for me? Thanks for your input!

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They both have their positives. If you have the extra money and the rooms are something important to you, I would definitely consider it. However, the rooms at AoA are some of the newest at WDW so that might be appealing. If you’re just going to be sleeping in the room, I wouldn’t change. We had originally booked at a moderate for our upcoming trip (Coronado because it’s our favorite) but after realizing how little time we spend in the room, we decided to just save the extra $$ and stay in a value. It really has a lot to do with the pace of your trip. Like I said, if you’re going to be relaxing, then I’d definitely do a moderate but if you’re going to be at the parks from open to close, it’s probably not worth it. Just my two cents

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I think @jeremy_patrick hit the nail on the head here. It all comes down to how much time you think you’ll be spending at the hotel.

The last time we visited WDW we stayed at POFQ, which was really nice. We looked around the hotel a bit, but we really spent most of our time at the parks. So this time around we’re booked at AoA in one of the LM rooms.

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The age old question…how much time are you planning to spend in your room…

We are travelling with our 6 year old daughter, so I know we will definitely there for breaks and while she is sleeping at 9pm on, plus she’ll want to do the pool if the weather cooperates. Now, I will say, I love Little Mermaid and it was my favorite movie growing up, but I do find the decor…a bit much. But do I dislike it $500? Not sure. Thank you so much for your input!

Agreed - depends on what you plan to do. If you plan to sleep - do value. However I would suggest that the real difference comes between Moderate and Deluxe. If you have four people - I may suggest moderate just for the extra room. If $500 is a stretch - I would probably just stay in the Value.

With each level or resort there is more room / more amenities / less crowds. However between Value and Moderate I find there to be minimal differences. I would probably save the $$

Wait, aren’t all value beds doubles, whereas the POFQ has queen beds? That might be a consideration for OP.

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I had almost this same issue. I ended up changing my reservation to POR, but I really really want to stay in a LM room so I added a room only res at the front end of our trip, just one night. I can experience it without overwhelming DBF. Going in less than two weeks so I can try to report back.

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We do choose base on bed size. Once we did move from Value to Moderate as pop warner was in town.

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This is exactly the reason we will be staying at a moderate when we go next month. Three grown adults and two double beds just wasn’t going to work

I stayed at a value while the yearly national high school cheerleading competition was going on once. Never. Again.
It’s a different event than Pop Warner, but I imagine Pop Warner would be much the same.
While I had no problem with the room itself (2 adults, so 2 double beds wasn’t an issue) the whole resort turned into a giant playground with boasterous high schoolers. Cheerleaders practicing routines, loudly, on every piece of available grass, at all hours of the day and night. Long story short, make sure you’re not staying there during the cheer competition (Feb 11-12, 2017) or Pop Warner (Dec 4-10,2016).

The biggest con for us was the beds. They were awful. Rock hard and we couldn’t even sleep in the same bed. Hated Pop. Por was better by a long shot. Worth every dime. Even though we don’t spend a ton if time at the resort I need a comfortable place to sleep in order to keep going day after day.

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That’s exactly what I was going to say, the beds are smaller. How many people and ages of kids will there be?

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The size & comfort of the beds is a big factor to me, so I’m with PP’s who make that a deciding factor.

Another one that hasn’t been mentioned is overstimulation/sensory overload. If you’ve got anyone in your party who requires a quiet environment - whether that’s about noise levels, visual noise, whatever - I think the Values are going to be really hard on those people.

A couple folks have mentioned beds. That’s the biggest difference, along with room size. The value resort rooms really are tiny (among the smallest rooms in relatively new hotels that I’ve been in anywhere) and the beds are also smaller than average. When I’m traveling alone, it’s not a big deal. If I were with a group, then it might be.

To a lesser extent, the pools are generally better at the moderate resorts, too. I don’t much care about a play area or waterslide, but if I were traveling with someone who did and were planning to use the pool, then I might lean toward a moderate resort. While traveling alone, there’s not much difference for me between the value and moderate pools, except the some moderate resorts have more “quiet” pools, that are more likely to be close to my room and less likely to be crowded. It’s also worth noting, however, that Art of Animation has a well-regarded pool area (though it’s located farther from the Little Mermaid rooms than the other buildings on property).

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Just back from Pop. We requested and got a king bed. That was very important to us and I stressed it in our room request. I also said it didn’t matter where we were in the resort if we could get a king. I did so without a real appreciation of how huge Pop is. We were approximately a six mile walk from the main building :joy::joy: Only a slight exaggeration. The bed was very comfortable but the long walk sucked. If I stayed there again I would definitely request a room much nearer to the main building. We barely saw the resort because we shaved several minutes off our walk by cutting through a parking lot.

Bed size matters. But so does location :wink::wink:

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It is me, my husband and my 6 year old daughter. Generally what happens is daughter and I share a bed so husband can luxuriate in a bed of his own (you should see the twinkle in his eyes when he doesn’t have to share a sleeping space). Having a queen sized bed to have space to move away from my daughter if she decides to kidney punch me in the middle of the night is probably not a bad thing.

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uh oh…what is this pop warner? I’m going to be in a value during that time!

That is a really excellent point. My daughter can get overwhelmed and when she gets tired she just gets more ramped up. But I could see the rooms being a bit of a sensory overload…especially at AOA

Here’s the information Touring Plans provides:
Each year, child athletes (and their chaperones) from around the nation gather to participate in Pop Warner Super Bowl and National Cheer and Dance Championships. The group’s events are held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex.
Participants are mostly there for the competition, so wait times in the parks are not impacted significantly. However, this group dominates the value resorts (especially the All-Star Resorts), so if you are staying there your experience will be dictated by your tolerance for the under-13 demographic. Expect hordes of kids around the food court and pools.

Thanks for the info! Our last day will be the 4th so looks like just that one day overlap. Good to know and be prepared for.