Best Value resort for what we want! Opinions please..

[EmmMOM2]

We are staying in a Value resort for the first time and don't know which one we should do. We will have a 4 year old and 16ish month old.

We want the following
1. Good/large cafeteria (as we want to save money by eating in it alot)
2. Good/fast/efficent transportation (perhaps it's own)
3. Kiddie Pool

Thanks in advance for any opinions. Like i said i have NO experience with value resorts at all so any suggestions are welcome.

[Beckybalz]

In my opinion, the Value resorts are all pretty much the same other than theming. But if I had to choose one I would say Pop Century because it is newer, I think it might have a bigger food court area, and when I stayed there last year our bus didn't stop at any other resorts. This may change with the seasons/crowd level, but I believe that the other Value resorts often do share a bus.

[CzepielCrew]

Me and my family just went at end of November. We stayed at All Star Movies. Sometimes it does share buses with the other All Stars, but my 6 yr. old boys loved the Toy Story themed area. Our room looked right out at Buzz and Woody. Great place for First Trip. The cafeteria is pretty large, busy for breakfast time. The cast members were on hand to help people find a table if necessary. There was a kiddie pool and it is open pretty late.

[playdead88]

i haven't stayed at a value resort but we have looked into them and from what i have read and seen the all star family suite looks awesome! i think the other thing that would make the difference for us would be the bus service and i have also read that pop century doesn't share busses with any other resorts - if you're not renting a car that may be a huge plus for that resort - whatever you decide im sure you'll have a great time :mickey:

[lightyearfan]

well we've stayed at the all star movies+music resorts, as recent as this past weekend(music), and they're the same accept for the themeing, and if you want a little more quietness, then i would suggest staying at the music, we've been there 2 times now and we've haven't had any problems. we'll probably go there again in our upcoming June 08 trip. plus the bathrooms seem better at the music, when we stayed at the movies, the bathroom was a combo shower, meaning that there was no tub, so if you didn't put a towel down the water came close to the toliet.

Victor

[azcavalier]

We've stayed at all three of the All-Star resorts, and we found Movies to be our favorite. As far as the layout/cafeteria/pools go, the three All-Stars are pretty much the same. All-Star Sports is where all of the kids groups stay, like little league sports teams or cheerleading squads or school bands, etc. So it tends to be noisier. We had kids running by, knocking on the doors and windows late at night. We'll never go back to Sports. Music is probably the least popular of the three, and is probably the quietest. We like Movies for the themes.

We have not stayed a Pop Century, but I know that they do indeed have their own busses. I don't know if that means that they come more or less frequently, either. I believe that I read that Pop Century is the largest single disney resort, unless you count the All-Stars as one resort.

[IamaDisneyFan]

Pop Century has a great interactive water spout area that my kids love! They can play for hours running around the water shooting out of the ground! I think we spent more time there than at the pool.

[DizHawk]

We just got back on Sunday from WDW. We stayed half the trip at All Star Sports and half at Pop Century. We've stayed at all three of the All Star resorts in the past.

1. I like the food court at Pop Century better than the one at Sports. I'm not sure if they've recently been remodeled or what, but I don't like the way Sports is now. Seems too small. When we last stayed at Movies (2004) I liked that one better. Someone else may have to chime in on that.

2. Pop Century has it's own bus, though there are more rooms at Pop than at the All Stars (2,880 vs. 2,016 if I read correctly). Technically this would amount to more people trying to get on the bus, but from what we saw last week, only MK ran three separate buses to the All Stars. Every other destination had one bus to all three. This made for some long lines and lots of standing on the bus. Also, Pop only makes one stop, where the All Star bus will make three.

3. We used the pool at both of the hotels, and really they weren't that much different. The kiddie pool was nice, as was the main pool.

[disneymom15]

We've stayed at all 4 values. We like Pop the best. Food court is larger and it does have its own bus service.

[Stich8818]

I know that I have only stayed onsite once but I definatly go back to Pop not just cause the resort was nice, But just for the transportation alone. That was the biggest plus. The cafeteria was nice also.

[Tink#64]

Our 1st trip we stayed at ASMo & we loved it! DS's were then 4 & 6 & they just loved everything Toy Story - so that was perfect! We decided to try Pop after it opened & we've stayed there our last 3 trips. We love it. It's now our WDW home!

I have no complaints about ASMo's except for the fact that the busses do in fact stop at all 3 AS's resorts! Granted from what I've read, this is no different than the busses making the multiple stops at the mod's! But Pop only has one set of bus stops and it doesn't share with any other resort. You will notice that the bus's next stop is typically Blizzard Beach! We think Pop is just so fun! We love the themeing, the lake, the view of SE from there, the water jets, etc. We've not yet wanted to even try some place else! But ASMo's is also great for young ones, they can easily recognize alot of the icons - which can be really exciting for them (& us parents too)!

I'm sure you will enjoy whichever you choose! :mickey:

[Taja]

We just returned from PC with a 9-year-old and 14-week-old! Both loved the food court--although the baby obviously didn't eat there! But he was thoroughly entranced by the sounds, shapes and colours!

The bus is not shared with other resorts, but can be very crowded at park closing--and quite likely at park opening. Haven't managed park opening while staying at PC yet! :) I can't stand on the buses, so I waited for three or four buses before I could board. If you can stand on the bus during peak times, you'll usually board the second bus max. They sometimes pulled two busses into the boarding area and boarded simultaneously.

I don't know if there is a kiddie pool, but I would love those fountains/spouts if I were a child! *LOL*

[magicofdisney]

We just got back from Pop and remembered why we've chosen not to stay there. The bus situation is awful. Like others have said, the resort is bigger therefor more ppl will be waiting in line to get on the busses. Additionally, the food court is more crowded because of this reason. As for food, you won't spend less money at any food court than you would at CS in any of the parks. The rates are comparable.

All Star Music has recently renovated their rooms and they're SPECTACULAR! I'd stay there over Pop, any day of the week.

[JerseyDad]

....POP....POP....POP!!!

Okay, now...let's do that again...POP...POP...POP!!

We've stayed at ASM during our second visit to WDW in 2004....after our first visit was to POP. We saw the differences immediately...and right then and there we decided that POP would be our resort hotel of choice. The food court is large...and the food is varied enough that no one needs to have the same thing twice...unless they want it that way. The Hippy-Dippy pool is fabulous...as is the adjacent pool deck area and Petal Bar. The Kiddie pool area is great too.....

[grumpycajun]

We like POP for many different reasons, not the least of which is the food court. We've never waited more that 15, maybe 20 minutes tops for a bus, even when the lines were very long. There is a kiddie pool near the Hippie Dippie pool, as well as the water spouts that a few other posters mentioned.

[mrsgaribaldi]

POP Century is my favorite value. Never used the buses or kiddie pool though, sorry:mickey:

[hoop de do]

Pop Century, Pop Century or Pop Century.
Hope I helped.
Have a great vaca. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[murphy1]

I have stayed at every resort just about and we have done value the most. My favorite is Music in value category. The reason is b/c I love being in the Broadway section in very back, it's very quiet, but close to the pools, which are great, the kiddie is right next to the big one and my kids loved it. The food court is good and not too far and the buses are good, but we only have about a 7 hr drive to WDW so we have our car a lot. I really like all of them, though and just think it's luck of the draw many times on your experience. I have one more thing, at Music, they had a nice balloon bouquet and autographed pic of Cinderella in our room. And the Mgr left a message to welcome us and to enjoy our stay. Our fave deluxe is Wilderness Lodge and our fave mod is Port Orleans in case you were wondering:mickey:

[CaptSmee]

Pop Century for sure for trasportation. They will not share with other resorts. (we had it happen once late after closing with Caribbean Beach Resort when there was a whopping 3 people on the bus).

[Verolovesdisney]

We've done PC, ASmovies and ASmusic and PC was certainly our favorite. Found the food court to be better, and just generally seemed to be a little more to do. We stayed in building C, ground floor facing the pool, which worked great as we could sit by the pool with the baby monitors. Also cool to go feed the turtle over at the Generation Gap bridge. And the arcade seemed to be the most generous by far with the tkts, maybe we just had a lucky week. :mickey: Did have a bit of a wait for the buses on occasion, but not as bad as what I remembered from the AS music.

[ktink]

We've only stayed at Pop so far. We really enjoyed Pop alot, it was our first onsite stay so it was wonderful. We are staying at ASMu this upcoming trip because of the refurbishments and we want to stay at as many of the resorts as we can. I'd say you can't go wrong for the money you'll be saving.

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

DH & I have stayed at all the values & up until September I would have said POP would be the resort of choice. However, in September it was overly crowded, too many unruley kids running around unsupervised, and alot of regular rude guests. It just was not a fun or relaxing vacation. We do like the transportation from POP, and the huge food court. But this next vacation in January we're staying at ASMu because we want somewhere alot quieter and wanted to try a different value. I'm not sure I'd go back to POP again. JMHO.....:mickey: