Any Differences between All Stars?

[Lirael]

Hi everyone, I'm planning a solo trip in September and want to do a split stay with an All Star (to save money to splurge on dining or merch) then a non-standard room in a moderate. All points to All Stars being exactly the same except for theming but one never knows...

So I was wondering: is there any difference between All Stars? Such as distance to parks, service, bus frequency, how crowded, cleanliless etc?

 

[Master Yoda]

Not really. Given the option I would go with either Movies or Music over Sports

The rooms themselves are identical save for decor. The resort layouts are also nearly identical as well.

The only thing that might be different are the food courts. I know they were undergoing a refurb and I am not sure if all 3 have been completed yet. @wdwmagic will know for sure.

Bus service will depend on if the resorts are or are not sharing a bus route. They tend to have their own during peat season and at peak times (park opening and close) but can share at off times. When they do share, Sports will be the first to pick up and drop off. Movies will be the last. This results in you having to make 2 additional stops when you are going to a park from Sports or two additional stops when you are coming back at Movies.

The bad thing about Sports is it tends to be the resort of choice for kids sports teams visiting WDW. Google "Pop Warner All star sports problems" and you will find a number of bad stories relating to this. For this reason, I tend to avoid Sports.

You might want to consider Pop Century as an alternative. The room price is about $5 more per night than the All Stars, but it is a newer resort, has a great food court, dedicated bus service and a better overall location relative to the 4 parks.

 

[wdwmagic]

The only thing that might be different are the food courts. I know they were undergoing a refurb and I am not sure if all 3 have been completed yet. @wdwmagic will know for sure.

Music and Sports are done, Movies is not. The new refurbs are significantly better.

Here are pics.

All Star Music
PHOTOS - Intermission Food Court at Disney's All Star Music reopens after major remodel

All Star Sports
PHOTOS - All Star Sports Resort End Zone Food Court reopens after major refurbishment

 

[Master Yoda]

Music and Sports are done, Movies is not. The new refurbs are significantly better.

Here are pics.

All Star Music
PHOTOS - Intermission Food Court at Disney's All Star Music reopens after major remodel

All Star Sports
PHOTOS - All Star Sports Resort End Zone Food Court reopens after major refurbishment

Thanks!

@Lirael go with Music.

 

[Lirael]

Not really. Given the option I would go with either Movies or Music over Sports

The rooms themselves are identical save for decor. The resort layouts are also nearly identical as well.

The only thing that might be different are the food courts. I know they were undergoing a refurb and I am not sure if all 3 have been completed yet. @wdwmagic will know for sure.

Bus service will depend on if the resorts are or are not sharing a bus route. They tend to have their own during peat season and at peak times (park opening and close) but can share at off times. When they do share, Sports will be the first to pick up and drop off. Movies will be the last. This results in you having to make 2 additional stops when you are going to a park from Sports or two additional stops when you are coming back at Movies.

The bad thing about Sports is it tends to be the resort of choice for kids sports teams visiting WDW. Google "Pop Warner All star sports problems" and you will find a number of bad stories relating to this. For this reason, I tend to avoid Sports.

You might want to consider Pop Century as an alternative. The room price is about $5 more per night than the All Stars, but it is a newer resort, has a great food court, dedicated bus service and a better overall location relative to the 4 parks.

Thank you! Looks like Music it is then.

Music and Sports are done, Movies is not. The new refurbs are significantly better.

Here are pics.

All Star Music
PHOTOS - Intermission Food Court at Disney's All Star Music reopens after major remodel

All Star Sports
PHOTOS - All Star Sports Resort End Zone Food Court reopens after major refurbishment

Thank you! I thought all three had been refurbished already.

 

[parkhopper1213]

Hi everyone, I'm planning a solo trip in September and want to do a split stay with an All Star (to save money to splurge on dining or merch) then a non-standard room in a moderate. All points to All Stars being exactly the same except for theming but one never knows...

So I was wondering: is there any difference between All Stars? Such as distance to parks, service, bus frequency, how crowded, cleanliless etc?

We stay at the Sports- Good food at the food court. Closest of the 3 to McDonalds (if that's your thing) First on/off if the shuttles go to all 3 resorts.

 

[DisneyJoe]

The resort layouts are also nearly identical as well.

I am going to disagree here Master Yoda - while Sports and Movies tend to be wide, Music has a great depth to it's layout. If you are in the back in the Country Fair buildings, it can be quite a hike.

 

[Master Yoda]

I am going to disagree here Master Yoda - while Sports and Movies tend to be wide, Music has a great depth to it's layout. If you are in the back in the Country Fair buildings, it can be quite a hike.

There is no question that the distance from to the front to the back of Music is the longest, but it seems like all of the All stars have that one building that is so far away that you can't see it due to the curvature of the earth.

When we were in back side of the Mighty Ducks section at Movies, we used actually used the Food Court at Music as it was closer than the one at our own resort.

 

[Lirael]

We stay at the Sports- Good food at the food court. Closest of the 3 to McDonalds (if that's your thing) First on/off if the shuttles go to all 3 resorts.

Shuttle order is something to consider, since I'm not going at a peak time and they'll likely be sharing, thanks!

I am going to disagree here Master Yoda - while Sports and Movies tend to be wide, Music has a great depth to it's layout. If you are in the back in the Country Fair buildings, it can be quite a hike.

Thankfully distance isn't an issue, but it's good to know, thanks!

 

[LAKid53]

Other than theming and as @wdwmagic said, the food courts have been done at Sports and Music, not much. But if Disney transportation is important, such as not getting on a bus to MK that is already packed, then Sports wins out, because it is the first stop for the bus that stops at all three resorts.

 

[Disney4family]

We always stayed at Sports because of the bus schedule. The bus always stops at Sports first. If it fills up, it will go directly to the parks. If it doesn't, we had a seat for the kids when they were little. We even stayed at the preferred room section in Surfs Up to be close to the food court, shop & buses.

 

[DarthVader]

We stayed at the Movies resort last November and it was fine. I wanted the Music resort but it was filled up, so I lost out, but overall I was not disappointed with the Movies one.

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

There is no question that the distance from to the front to the back of Music is the longest, but it seems like all of the All stars have that one building that is so far away that you can't see it due to the curvature of the earth.

When we were in back side of the Mighty Ducks section at Movies, we used actually used the Food Court at Music as it was closer than the one at our own resort.

We did the same thing too on one of our visits last year. Our building was to the right and front of the check-in building. So that made the other resorts food court literally right across the street from our building. I think we were staying in Movies and ate at Music.

I kinda consider All Star to be just one big resort anyway. Just three different themes. We usually end up getting All Star Sports. Whether it is availability or pricing for some reason we end up there most times, I'd say about 90% of the time.

 

[Randy Hawkins]

We have stayed at All Star Sports for the past 3 or 4 years, and it has usually been just fine -- nothing special thematically, but that does not matter because we spend every waking moment in one of the parks.

However, when we stayed there last year in early December (the week after Thanksgiving), there was one problem that I had never run into before. The parking situation was awful! When we drove up late in the evening after spending the day in one of the parks, there was not one single parking space available.

We had to drive up and down every row and wait for someone to leave (and let me tell you, very few folks were leaving at 11:00 at night). We were staying in a room near the back of the resort (in the tennis-themed building), and one night, we had to park waaaaay up front, near the entrance to the parking lot. That necessitated a long walk (seemed like a half a mile) back to our room.

I wonder if anybody else had this problem. Was there something going on in Sports that made the parking situation worse than normal? Would the situation be better in one of the other All Star resorts? Would it be better over in Pop Century? I would be willing to pay $5-10 more a night to avoid that inconvenience again.

Except for that, I have nothing but good things to say about All Star Sports. As I mentioned above, my wife and I get back to our room late, we take our showers, we go to sleep, and then we get up as early as we can and head back to one of the parks to do it all over again. When used in that manner, the rooms at Sports are just fine.

 

[olie64]

We were at POP over thanksgiving although we used Disney buses the parking lot was so pretty full we lucked out and got a spot right in front of the room but did see a bunch of cars driving around.

 

[Disney Stine]

Music is always my first choice. Especially if you get the Jazz Quarter- it's a pretty garden and fountain view. Plus, I've always received a room here with a standard room booking.
One thing I thought was odd was their policy on king beds for each resort. Music and Movie will give you a king bed or two doubles for a standard room (and I've never had a problem when calling in for a request for a king bed). But the Sports will not. Just something I've noticed.

 

[YozhikRoth]

Hi everyone, I'm planning a solo trip in September and want to do a split stay with an All Star (to save money to splurge on dining or merch) then a non-standard room in a moderate. All points to All Stars being exactly the same except for theming but one never knows...

So I was wondering: is there any difference between All Stars? Such as distance to parks, service, bus frequency, how crowded, cleanliless etc?

A couple of years ago, I stayed at sports at the same time a cheerleading competition was being held at ESPN. We were woken up every day at five by teams practicing their cheers in the courtyards...

 

[Lirael]

Thank you everyone for your opinions! I considered your suggestions and experiences and in the end decided to go with All Star Music, mainly to avoid kids sports teams

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

If staying at All-Stars, you have made the right choice with Music. Several reasons:

1) IF the buses happen to be shared (we have STILL never experienced this!) you could jump off @ Sports (after leaving the Parks) and have a short walk to Music. If the buses are not shared, you could choose any of the three (3) when leaving the Parks; being the "central" All Star Resort your room is approximately equa-distant from both Sports and Movies (depending on your Music Building).

2) As mentioned earlier, sometimes parking can be a challenge at the All-Stars. The last time we stayed, we had the same issue of being able to find a parking space. I can tell you, the parking issue seems to be the parking lots between Music and Sports, and seems to be less of a challenge in the parking lots between Music and Movies.

3) Sports DOES attract the youth groups!! Anyone who has experienced "one of those groups" would tell you they are as bad as ANY tour group from South America, HANDS DOWN! We only experienced bad youth groups once or twice, but we planned future trips AWAY from Sports for that reason alone.

For your Music Building I would suggest Broadway and request room 8411-8432. While the view is the parking lot, the walk to busing almost the same distance for Movies as it is for your own Music busing.

See pics below

Music Resort is on Top, Entire All - Star Resort bottom

Lastly, here is a pic of the actual building layout. Rooms 01 and 64 start at the elevator and work outward, rooms 11/20 and 45/44 are in inside corners, and end units are rooms 10/11, 32/33, and 54/55. It is generic, and you will have to make sure the building you are choosing is in correct orientation with the diagram below:

More Specific Movies pic:

Hope this helps and sorry for rambling......

 

[Lirael]

If staying at All-Stars, you have made the right choice with Music. Several reasons:

1) IF the buses happen to be shared (we have STILL never experienced this!) you could jump off @ Sports (after leaving the Parks) and have a short walk to Music. If the buses are not shared, you could choose any of the three (3) when leaving the Parks; being the "central" All Star Resort your room is approximately equa-distant from both Sports and Movies (depending on your Music Building).

2) As mentioned earlier, sometimes parking can be a challenge at the All-Stars. The last time we stayed, we had the same issue of being able to find a parking space. I can tell you, the parking issue seems to be the parking lots between Music and Sports, and seems to be less of a challenge in the parking lots between Music and Movies.

3) Sports DOES attract the youth groups!! Anyone who has experienced "one of those groups" would tell you they are as bad as ANY tour group from South America, HANDS DOWN! We only experienced bad youth groups once or twice, but we planned future trips AWAY from Sports for that reason alone.

For your Music Building I would suggest Broadway and request room 8411-8432. While the view is the parking lot, the walk to busing almost the same distance for Movies as it is for your own Music busing.

See pics below

Music Resort is on Top, Entire All - Star Resort bottom


View attachment 128624 View attachment 128625

Lastly, here is a pic of the actual building layout. Rooms 01 and 64 start at the elevator and work outward, rooms 11/20 and 45/44 are in inside corners, and end units are rooms 10/11, 32/33, and 54/55. It is generic, and you will have to make sure the building you are choosing is in correct orientation with the diagram below:

View attachment 128626


More Specific Movies pic:

View attachment 128627

Hope this helps and sorry for rambling......

Thanks for the great tips and maps! I'll ask them to add a preferrence to Broadway!