Which Value Hotel? - 2020

[Emmymcw]

Hi,

Please can you help? We are planning to go back to Florida in 2020. We are really hoping that the dining plan will be offered but know there isn’t any guarantees. We have stayed at POFQ before but if the dining plan isn’t offered we are thinking of booking a value hotel and perhaps purchasing the dining plan. With this on mind which value hotel is your preference and why?

[gismo1554]

I love Pop Century! Buses run direct and its just a nice size resort.

Also Art of Animation looked nice but never stayed at.

[sky13]

Another vote for Pop from me, it's my resort of choice now in WDW!

Rooms all newly refurbished (though the other values seem to be getting refurbished one by one too). One single bus stop that only very rarely shares buses (with AoA, and only at extremely weird times like an hour after a late MK park closing). A really good food court, and you can also walk over to AoA for their food court. Upcoming Disney skyliner as an extra way to travel to Epcot and DHS.

Also currently Pop > AoA for me because newly refurbished rooms. And also at Pop I can get a preferred room that's close to the bus stop and check in, whereas at AoA the single rooms are all far away from bus stop and check in.

[salmon70]

we've stayed at both Pop and All Star Movies and loved each one. I wouldn't hesitate to go back to either and we are currently booked to stay at All Star Music in 2019.

[elmspenguin]

And another vote for POP, we stayed there for a few days in a refurbished room in August, it is a really nice resort with a good food court and the new rooms are very nicely done. It was the first time we have stopped in a value as only stayed at OKW before and without a doubt would stop there again.

[parkgirl]

If money is a factor then I would stay in the cheapest which when we booked was all stars music. I think the rooms in Pop look great after the refurb so if would choose there although my DH hates the theming so wouldn’t take him 😉

[sky13]

Oh as a follow up to my earlier comment - I also stayed at All Star Movies earlier this year and that was a disastrous stay, even though it was just for a night...

Check in was a nightmare (easily waited in that line for half an hour). My room wasn't ready yet as I had checked in early, so went to a park in the interim. Got an email telling me which room I had, so went back to the resort and went to the room. Thought the room seemed rather far from the main block for a preferred room (which I had booked) - turns out they had downgraded me without telling me (but had applied room credit to my room for the difference in cost, again without telling me - I wasn't even aware of this until I checked my room charges later on). I called the front desk and asked for a preferred room, only to be told that they were all out of preferred rooms. Though to be fair, they did give me some more room credit after... I think I would have been OK with the downgrade if it had been communicated at check in or even when my room was assigned, but I really didn't like how it was all somewhat sneakily done. If I wasn't familiar with Disney and also where a preferred room ought to be then I might have just thought the room I had been given was a preferred room...

Oh, and then the next day... Long queue to leave bags with bell services - I would estimate that queue to have taken about 20 minutes or so. Then went to the parks. Bus from Epcot was shared between the 3 All-Stars, so it stopped at Sports then Music before finally getting to Movies. Then the queue to get bags from bell services was another completely crazy queue that I would estimate was probably about 20-30 minutes or so - nearly missed my Magical Express because of this ridiculous line for bell services.

Generally, the whole of the check-in and bell services area was a mess on both days of my stay, with ridiculous crowds, no clear lines in some areas. It was such a huge contrast to Pop which I had just checked out of and where I've left and picked up bags from bell services with no queue whatsoever many times before.

I don't know if I was just incredibly unlucky with this particular stay at ASMovies (there were also a lot of cheerleading groups which I guess didn't help), but it was an incredibly jarring experience having just been at Pop before...

[Mr Tom Morrow]

We grabbed a sneeky 8 night stay in March 18 at Pop. Sadly we had a room that hadn't at that stage been renovated but it was still fine.

Well impressed.

[neatfrk]

Another vote for Pop... by 2020 the SkyLiner system will be up and running there too. So you'll have your choice of Pop bus, AoA bus (with lovely short walk back to Pop) or SkyLiner (basically the same walk back to Pop).

[married2mm]

In my order of preference:

Aoa

Pop

All star movies

All star music

Not stayed at sports.