resorts

[thejohn]

which one of the value and moderate hotel's are best.

 

[Master Yoda]

which one of the value and moderate hotel's are best.

For the values it it hard to argue with POP. Great location and a dedicated bus system edges out the All Stars. With the moderates it is really a matter of opinion. My choice would be POFQ or POR fro the sole reason of water access to DTD.

 

[Steamboat_Kevin]

I've never stayed at any of the value resorts, but I've eaten at Coronado Springs (Moderate Resort). That place is massive, and looked beautiful from what I saw. I know a lot of people here like Port Orleans, I've never visited there though.

 

[marni1971]

I`ve done the Carribbean Beach twice, and will stay there next time too. Lovely atmosphere, superb theming, and for a mod it`s what we`d call 4 star over here!

Tip - rooms overlooking the pool can be noisy, and try not to stay in Trinidad south; too far to quickly walk to Centertown / Old Port Royale (shops & food)

 

[bgraham34]

I have only stayed at the All Stars, but I will be staying at CBR this year.

 

[webmomom]

It's hard to beat the All-Stars, Pop Century, Port Orleans, Old Key West, Boardwalk, Beach Club, Yacht Club, Carribbean Beach, or Coronado Springs.

Since when did the Boardwalk, Beach Club, Yacht Club become moderate hotels? Aren't they the high priced hotels?

 

[col]

ive stayed at all star sports and that was way cool i loved it it was great.

but i had already booked for pop century for christmas 2006 back in january 2005 and stayed in all star sports in may 2005 coz my sister couldnt fly by herself. did enjoy my time at sports but i go the bus to pop century via downtown disney and only walked around the food court and got some tye-dyed cheesecake but i didnt walk out to the rooms or the pool coz i didnt want to spoil the surprise.

78 days to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:xmas:

 

[BRER STITCH]

I have stayed in all of the Value resorts and all of the Moderate Resorts and my picks for the best of each are:

VALUE: POP Century

MODERATE: French Quarter Port Orleans

:wave:

 

[erinuga]

For moderate resorts- my family loves Port Orleans:Riverside. There are five of us so the room is a little cramped, but we are in the parks so much it doesn't really matter. The landscaping and atmosphere is really nice- very relaxing and quiet. The food court is good too!

 

[righttrack]

We enjoyed Coronado Springs quite a bit. For a moderate, it was well-themed, and its layout circular with a bridge or two over the water to ease navigation. For resort choice of moderate/value, it comes down to this: Layout, Theming and Transportation. One value resort's room will pretty much be the same room (minus theming) that all the other values have. Same for the moderates. So how good the transportation is, how its laid out, and what theming you prefer pretty much decides it, IMO.

 

[crazygirley]

Pop Century is the best Value resort.

IMO, it is better because it has "learned from the mistakes" of the AS resorts, and made itself better as a result.

It has it's own bus line, which is a big plus.

The resort is newer, and thus, has cleaner rooms. The room decor is really the same, but for some reason, the rooms at Pop Century seem nicer and cleaner to me.

The food court is nicer... bigger... with better selections, more beverage islands, and more drink selection.

The pools are nicer.

The resort is set up in a way that, no matter where you are staying, you aren't that far from the main building and busses.

I love AKL... but I also really appreciate Pop Century.

 

[Craig & Lisa]

QUOTE/ but for some reason, the rooms at Pop Century seem nicer and cleaner to me.

that's because the resort is newer than the AS

 

[LesaGirlWalton]

I wonder why POR is the only moderate that accomodates 5 people. I don't forsee being in the room for anything other than sleep and showers but it would be nice to have a choice. It would give me yet another reason to ask questions and get opinions on this board, which I have grown way too addicted to!

 

[tracyandalex]

i've stayed in all of the as resorts & cs. i liked to as, but i prefer cs, the theming is nice and so is the layout. a little spread out, but not such a big deal. have a great trip

tracy

 

[Woody13]

For the values it it hard to argue with POP. Great location and a dedicated bus system edges out the All Stars.

Well, I don't think it's too hard. :wave: So, here I go.

The real problem with the POP, is that they cram too many people into too small a space. POP has a capacity of 2,880 guests while any one of the All-Star resorts (Sports, Music or Movies) only serve 1,920 guests. That's a 50% increase in the number of guests, yet the services at POP do not meet the increased guest load!

For example, take the All-Star Sports and add a 4th floor to each of the 10 buildings so it could accommodate 2,880 guests. Then enlarge the food court and gift shop areas by about 10%. Then reduce the parking lot area by 25%. Reduce the bus transportation availability. Well, now you have the POP Century resort!

Sure, POP gives you 27" RCA TV's to watch in your room vs. the Sony 20" sets in the All-Star Resorts, but otherwise they are the same rooms (yes, the All-Stars have done away with soap and shampoo dispensers, you now get little Mickey soaps and shampoo at the All-Stars too).

The bus system at the POP is terrible only because they can't move all those people with the same speed as the buses at the All-Star resorts. I don't want to get too heavy into the numbers game but it's rather obvious that the All-Star resorts have a much greater capability to move guests via buses than does the POP which I will explain herewith.

The WDW bus system is very dynamic and the bus skews change at the All Stars based upon demand. For example, each All Star resort has it's own set of buses going to and from the MK. The Sports has its own set of buses, Music its own set and Movies has its own set. If demand for MK (for example) is larger than expected, they have a pool of extra reserve buses (that stage in the north parking lot of Music) that can be immediately dispatched to meet the demand. They stage the buses at Music for speed because it is midway between the other two resorts. Conversely, if demand is less than expected, they free up those buses for other All Star destinations or other Animal Kingdom resorts (i.e. AKL or CSR).

A similar bus skew works at the All Stars for the other parks as well. Let's use Epcot for an example. Normally during the morning, the empty buses going from the All Stars to Epcot will first stop at Sports and pick up passengers. If the bus is not full, it will continue to Music to pick up more passengers and if still not full it will continue to Movies. However, if the bus reaches capacity at any time, it will head straight for Epcot. Then one of the aforementioned extra buses will be dispatched from the Music north parking lot to meet the extra demand.

Now, when the buses return from the parks it works differently. Again, the MK buses are separate for each All Star resort so you must catch the Movies bus (for example) to return to Movies (since the bus will not stop at Sports or Music). At the other parks and DTD, as the buses return to the All Stars, they stop and drop off passengers and also pick up passengers at each resort. They go in the order of Sports, Music and Movies most of the time although sometimes the driver will switch the rotation! However, again, the buses run on a dynamic basis that changes to meet demand.

In short, the All Star bus routes are very flexible and can easily be adjusted to meet guest demand. Many of the other Disney resorts have similar bus sharing routes.

Now, with POP the bus system is different. All the buses at POP are dedicated exclusively to POP. POP doesn't share with other resorts. Pretty good, right? Wrong. They end up having less buses than they need and, frankly, all the other resorts come first. The POP has no place to stage reserve buses because all of the POP parking areas are so small. The POP generally gets the bottom of the bus transportation barrel. I have seen several occasions when buses which were in route to the parks to pick up guests at the POP bus stop, changed their bus marques at the last minute and instead picked up guests from other resorts (such as the All Stars). The poor POP guests were left to wait for another bus.

In short, the POP bus system is less dynamic and more static than much of the WDW system. The current bus problems will not be solved until the other half of the POP resort opens. Even then, I doubt it will get much better.

Now, as for the guest capacity at the All Stars vs. the POP. Each All Star resort accommodates up to 1,920 guests. Of course, there are 3 All Star resorts so total capacity is 5,760. So, for 5,760 guests at the All Stars you have 3 separate resorts, 3 bus stops, 3 food courts, 3 game rooms, 6 swimming pools and 30 separate buildings.

POP is only halfway built, so it only accommodates 2,880 guests. They have 1 bus stop, 1 food court (640 seating capacity), 1 game room, 3 swimming pools and 10 buildings. When the other half is built the POP will accommodate the same number of guests as all 3 All Star resorts, 5,760. Yet the POP will only have 2 bus stops, 2 food courts, 2 game rooms, 6 swimming pools and 20 separate buildings!

Each of the POP buildings are 4 stories high while the All Star buildings are each 3 stories. The POP is clearly a WDW endeavor to cram as many people in as small a space as possible. If you have the herding instinct, then the POP is a wonderful resort!<!-- / message --><!-- edit note -->

 

[pinkrose]

POFQ is my fav. moderate

 

[HunnyPot]

Value, I would go with POP. I've only stayed at one moderate, and that was Coronado Springs. We really enjoyed it. We're staying at Caribbean Beach on our next trip and looking forward to that too. A lot of people on here LOVE Port Orleans,and it's hard to disagree with the masses, but I've never stayed there for various reasons. (Even though I wanted too, but I was out voted. )



Welcome to the Boards! :wave:

 

[marlaymike]

we've stayed in Pop Century and we like it. we will recommended to others

 

[GoofyFan1]

I stayed at the All Star Sports (tennis) once with school kids. It got very noisy.

As for moderates, we stay at the Caribbean every time. The atmosphere is great. If you don't mind a little walk to OPR, stay in Jamaica or Aruba.