All Star Resorts

I have stayed all of the All Star Resorts. They are all basically the same. I like Sports because bus service you are first to pick up/drop off. I think the theming is different. I prefer Sports, Movies, then Music.

I have not stayed there since the food court refurb, so I don't know how different it is now.

Out of all the times I've stayed there, only one visit was unpleasant. We stayed at Sports right next to the pool where the "pretend" football field is. There were small children, under 8, playing real football out there at 2AM several nights in a row. They were with one adult and were extremely loud. I called the front desk and they sent someone out to make them leave.

I will be honest - the beds suck at all of them. It is a full bed, so it is smaller than a queen and they are not the best quality mattresses, but that is how they keep the cost low. We thought the beds were very, very firm.

Pros about All-Star: Price - you can't beat the value, Food Court has lots of options for breakfast and lunch, Pool is decent size, very clean, and more buses roll in more frequently than some deluxe resorts (we found this to be true)

Cons: Rooms are smaller, Beds are firm, could be long distance from lobby/bus transportation, Bus transportation is ALWAYS packed, could be loud depending on location

I've stayed at the All Star Movies and I thought the beds were really nice and comfy and large. After being in the parks for like 14 hours or so there is nothing wrong at all with those beds.

There was quite a bit of choice at the food court, just not that much that was appealing to us, a lot of junk food. And if you want to use the toasters for breakfast, some of them take forever to toast your bread.

There was a lot of people around, the resort shop was the busiest at the end of the night once the parks are closing. But we had no problem with noise, didn't hear any outside noise at all. The rooms are quite small, but for 2 adults with 2 queen size beds it was no problem. Besides we were really only at our resort to sleep and do laundry.

I stayed at All-Star Music the last week of August in 2012. The beds were definitely small. I was there with two friends and we were meeting another friend there. One person from our group ended up staying with the friend that we were meeting and it was a good thing. The room comfortably accommodated 2 unrelated adults. A third would have been too tight for my preferences. Even sharing that space with one other person for a long trip would not be preferable for me.

I didn't notice the beds to be all that terrible, but I'm not a good judge of beds--I can sleep pretty much anywhere at the drop of a hat. Especially after spending the entire day in the parks, any flat surface will do.

We found the bus service to be pretty decent. I didn't feel like we got the shaft on buses just because we stayed at a less expensive resort. In fact, we had better service that week than we had a Coronado a few months earlier.

We didn't eat at the food court, so I don't know about the quality there. The gift shop a each value resort is nicely themed, as are the pools. I can tell you from visiting to look at Christmas decorations that the lobbies of all of the value resorts are virtually identical as far as layout and function. The theming is vastly different and is very well done in an over-the-top fun kind of way.

We stayed at All star Music in May '13. We loved it.

things everyone says:
Rooms are Small
Some rooms are too far away from the lobby
the beds are small
buses are a pain

our experience:
the rooms are a good size and when are you in them anyway
we were the furthest room from the lobby it was a 3 minute walk, i know because i timed it
Beds were huge compared to what we are use to in the UK
the buses come ALL THE TIME, we never didn't get on one going in to the parks, coming out we maybe waited 40 minutes

the food court was nice, basic but tasty food, gift shop was very good for a hotel of the size.

Look at the end of the day the room, for most people is just a base. I would rather save money on a room i hardly use and spend it else where. Saying that our next two trips are staying deluxe so i might change my mind.

I've stayed at All Star Sports twice so I would say it's manageable if you're traveling by yourself or with another person. But for 3 or more, it'll be a challenge unless you're willing to book two rooms for your party. The resort rooms are 260 square feet and most of them have twin double beds, so it's smaller compared to a king or queen size bed though the Music resort is the All-Star resort with suites. I think you can get a room with a one king bed instead of the two doubles at All-Star resorts but it's probably subject to availability as usual. In terms of comfort, it's subjective. For me, it was much better than college dorm room beds because my body would sink into the mattress and that was not comfortable but compared to my king size bed at home, no comparison there!

As for the buses, depending on the times, you may have to share a bus with the All-Star resorts to the parks. The Magic Kingdom, however, has a designated bus line for each All-Star resort. But to and from Downtown Disney, you'll always share it with the All-Star resorts and the Downtown Disney bus stop is Sports, Music and Movies and that order never changes. I can honestly say one of the positives is that there is a chain link queues for every bus stop at the resorts so you actually wait in line as opposed to having muscle around with other people just to be able to get on the bus.

Food court is pretty much average at best. A lot of options but don't expect it to be the best food you'll ever have. I've eaten the food court at All-Star Sports before their recent renovation so I can't really judge how good is their food nowadays and I think All-Star Music will be getting a food court renovation of their own in August through December, I believe.

As for quietness, well, it's all about location. If you're in a room close by the pool or close to the lobby, then it'll get noisy but that depends on the time of year and time of day. A room facing the parking lot or further away from the lobby will be more quieter. Plus also consider that All-Star resorts are extremely popular with large groups. Schools, South American tour groups, cheerleading and dance squads, Pop Warner, etc so during those times when they are most prevalent, the level of noise will be amplified.

My advice: If you're going to stay at a value resort, stay at Pop or Art Of Animation...if you can afford it and you're willing to pay a little bit more because those two resorts are priced higher than all of the All-Star resorts. From what I understand, AOA has the best food court out all of the values, no shared buses for either resort but has all the amenities as the All-Stars. (Art of Animation has a lot more suites from what I've been told.)

I've stayed at AllStar Sports twice. once with a view of a natural area & once on the "football" courtyard. We don't spend a lot of time in the room when we visit the mouse, so the small size of the room is a non issue. It's a place to crash at night and launch into the next day in the morning.

Bus service is great, being first on & first off is a big WIN. As to the noise level, we only do Disney in the off season (October, early November, or February) & while there were no shortage of kids running around, evenings were just fine.

We stayed at Music in May. Our room was facing natural area towards the back of the resort (Rock Inn building 5 I believe), and was very quiet and peaceful. My mom, dad, sister, and her boyfriend all shared a room and had no problems. Granted, we have never been luxurious travelers (we usually camped of stayed in Super 8's on vacations growing up), so we are pretty easy to please. I was pleasently surprised by the decor and Disney touches of the whole resort
The buses were crowded on the way back from the park, but there were usually individual buses for each of the All Stars at that hour

We've stayed at AS Music and had no problems. There were 5 adults and Blondie. We had adjoining rooms and to be quite honest, I don't even really remember much about the rooms.
My only complaint was there was no microwave which when I CALLED and asked I was told there was. We brought popcorn and mac and cheese for Blondie and had no way to make it. Oh well, we had other snacks with us and we filled up the fridges with drinks.

We only use the room for sleeping and after staying at the parks until close, I would sleep on the bench outside. We don't use the transportation (personal preference) so we always parked close to our building. We were about a 5 minute walk from the gift shop/food court and after walking hours in the park it really didn't make a difference.

I would LOVE to stay in a high dollar resort but I would also much rather spend the moolah on fun stuff like tours, food, souvenirs, etc. Maybe one day...

There was quite a bit of choice at the food court, just not that much that was appealing to us, a lot of junk food. And if you want to use the toasters for breakfast, some of them take forever to toast your bread.

There was a lot of people around, the resort shop was the busiest at the end of the night once the parks are closing. But we had no problem with noise, didn't hear any outside noise at all. The rooms are quite small, but for 2 adults with 2 queen size beds it was no problem. Besides we were really only at our resort to sleep and do laundry.