AoA Little Mermaid Walking Distance

[muse1983]

My wife and I will be going to WDW with my parents next year and it will be our first time staying at AoA. We are looking to book separate (of course) standard rooms in the Little Mermaid themed area. My question is after looking at the map it seems to be a decent distance from the main building/buses and I was wondering how far of a walk it actually was. My parents are in decent shape but still after a long day at the parks I didn't want to take a hike just to get back to the room. Any insight would be appreciated, Thanks!!

 

[seafoodbuffet]

It's appreciably far that I wish we didn't stay in the little mermaid section. I'd estimate that for our reasonably active family, it was about a 10 minute walk from our room to the bus stop. Not too bad in the morning when everyone's excited and energetic, but it was brutal in the evening after a long day to think of the long walk back to the room.

 

[muse1983]

Thanks for the reply. Does anyone else have an opinion on this?

 

[Master Yoda]

It is a pretty good hike. I think the distance measures roughly the same as the walk from the turnstiles at Epcot to World Showcase. At the end of a 12 hour Disney day it can seem about a mile longer than the Appalachian Trail. However, most of the rear buildings at the value resorts will be a similar distance from the bus stop.

If you have parents with mobility issues you might want to look into either a preferred room at one of the other value resorts or possibly switching to a moderate with multiple bus stops scattered around the resort.

Another less appealing option is renting a wheel chair in the parks. We had to do this for my mom on her last few trips and it helped quite a bit. We used it kind of like a stroller. Getting pushed around the common areas of the parks left her fresh for where walking was easier.

 

[muse1983]

Thank you sir. Yeah, I think POP is looking more appealing now..it's always our "go to" and after a solid day at the parks the last thing we want is a hike back to the room. Thanks again

 

[momof1princess]

I, as usual, agree with @Master Yoda on this one. We stayed at AOA in a mermaid room on our last trip and found the walk to be too far for our child (and ourselves) at the end of a long day.
We just returned from another Disney trip and stayed at Coronado Springs and very much appreciated their multiple bus stops for that reason.
However, by the end of our AOA stay we started moving our car each morning from a spot near our room to one near the bus stop so we could drive back at night. Just an idea, if it might work for you.

 

[Courtney6682]

Rats! We are planning on staying at AOA for the first time in April with my 83 yr old gram. Now I'm not sure what to do...are there preferred little mermaid rooms there?

 

[ginadee]

Im planning on AOA next visit and heard about the walk as well. Ive stayed at All Star Music in the broadway section and according to the maps, that looks a bit farther from the entrance than the mermaid section does and I didn't think that walk was anything. Of course its just me. I didn't travel with parents or kids.

 

[Master Yoda]

Rats! We are planning on staying at AOA for the first time in April with my 83 yr old gram. Now I'm not sure what to do...are there preferred little mermaid rooms there?

Even the closest ones are pretty far from the bus stop.

 

[momof1princess]

@ginadee AOA is a really cute resort with many great features, we were dragging an almost five year old, so you may not have any worries with the walk! Hope you're enjoying the planning!
Sorry, @Courtney6682 I don't know about preferred rooms.

 

[durangojim]

We stayed at AoA Little Mermaid rooms about a year and a half a go. We're all in good shape but it was still a hike. After we stayed there, we decided we actually preferred Pop and haven't stayed there since. We usually do deluxes but when we don't Pop is our favorite. It's a little less expensive than AoA but we prefer the room layout (the 50s or 60s are our favorite) and if you want to eat at AoA, it's right across the bridge.

 

[Courtney6682]

Even the closest ones are pretty far from the bus stop.

Thank you...I am def looking elsewhere!

 

[ToTBellHop]

I wonder why they designed the resort like this. At least at Pop, the far away room buildings angle into the parking lot, toward the bus stop so you can take a short cut through the parking lot to the buses to save time if you don't want to go to the food court. At AoA, they angled Little Mermaid away from the bus stop, ensuring a longer walk. Odd choice.

90s rooms can easily cut over toward the bus loop.

No such luck for the Mermaid rooms.

Pretty confident the lake is manmade, so they didn't have to use this orientation.

 

[Master Yoda]

I wonder why they designed the resort like this. At least at Pop, the far away room buildings angle into the parking lot, toward the bus stop so you can take a short cut through the parking lot to the buses to save time if you don't want to go to the food court. At AoA, they angled Little Mermaid away from the bus stop, ensuring a longer walk. Odd choice.

90s rooms can easily cut over toward the bus loop.

No such luck for the Mermaid rooms.

Pretty confident the lake is manmade, so they didn't have to use this orientation.

Most likely a combination of site conditions combined with simply not thinking about it.

I am pretty sure the parcel of and it is built on was hemmed in on at least sides to begin with making is narrower on the Pop Century side. This makes the layout of Pop short and fat and AoA long and thin. A smaller lake could have fixed this, but its size very well might have been dictated by what was needed for drainage.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Most likely a combination of site conditions combined with simply not thinking about it.

I am pretty sure the parcel of and it is built on was hemmed in on at least sides to begin with making is narrower on the Pop Century side. This makes the layout of Pop short and fat and AoA long and thin. A smaller lake could have fixed this, but its size very well might have been dictated by what was needed for drainage.

The point is moot now, anyway, and clearly the scarcity of standard rooms at AoA has created demand, so Disney can charge more for those rooms than any other standard value resort room and still sell out without the need to discount. Good for them. If I could build hotel rooms in less ideal locations and still charge more, I'd do it, too.

 

[Jessica Meier]

This adds another mark against AOA little Mermaid for our next trip. Pop is winning now for sure. Just hope they don't exclude two thirds of Octobernext year from free dining

 

[Disney Shib]

We stayed at AoA last July and has a standard room in the LM section in the Ursala Building. The morning walk for coffee or a late night walk for a beer got old after the third day. Luckily for us we had a rental car and were able to park a bit closer than the bus stop which cut our walk to our transportation in half. The heat obvious didn't help either lol.

 

[The Crickets]

My wife and I will be going to WDW with my parents next year and it will be our first time staying at AoA. We are looking to book separate (of course) standard rooms in the Little Mermaid themed area. My question is after looking at the map it seems to be a decent distance from the main building/buses and I was wondering how far of a walk it actually was. My parents are in decent shape but still after a long day at the parks I didn't want to take a hike just to get back to the room. Any insight would be appreciated, Thanks!!

We stayed there when it first opened....never again....too far to walk to bus stop & food court....unless you get a suite.....they r closer....I suggest Pop Century preferred pool view if you want a good location @ a value resort!!! We did that many times!,

 

[englanddg]

AoA is convex, Pop is concave. But, as was pointed out, it's sortof a limitation of the plot.

That being said, it's about 1200 feet from the furthest building of Pop to the Food Court / Busses

It's about 1400 feet from the Mermaid buildings to the Food Court / Busses.

You have to remmeber, the entire complex (both resorts) is about the same size as Hollywood Studios (shocker!)

200 feet isn't that much...but, for those who don't like to walk, here's a comparison.

It's about the same as the walk from the monorail station at Magic Kingdom to the Castle.

 

[Victoria]

The walk to the Mermaid rooms is probably the number one reason why I won't stay at AoA again. My traveling party is either just me and my sister or me, my sister, her husband and her 2 teenagers. When all 5 of us are traveling we use DVC points for a 2 bedroom so we would never have the need for a family suite at AoA. When my sister and I travel we will do DVC studio if points allow otherwise we will do a Value. Shortly after AoA opened we stayed there and were assigned the closest possible Mermaid room. Closest corner of closest building on the first floor. We loved the room. Ariel is my favorite Disney character and The Little Mermaid is her favorite movie. What we didn't love was the 15 minute hike to/from the room every day. Even in the morning it was unpleasant. We normally get a refillable mug if we are at a value resort. Generally we will bring them, have our coffee and one person will run the mugs back to the room after breakfast so we don't have to lug them around all day. That was out of the question for this trip. We ended up renting lockers every day to put the mugs, jackets, etc in. I guess I would consider AoA again if it was a trip where we rented a car. Never again without a car.