Art of Animation

[Let_It_Go]

Hi everyone. My 3rd trip to WDW is coming up in about a week and a half. The last two trips have just been my sister and I going, and we have stayed at moderate resorts (Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans Riverside), but this trip 3 other family members are going with us so we decided to stay at a suite at the Art of Animation instead. Will it be a different atmosphere than the moderate resorts? Thanks for any thoughts!

 

[PHS79]

The atmosphere will be no different than is it between the mods that you have stayed at, for instance CBR has a different atmosphere than POFQ and CSR is yet again. AoA is a great resort, it in no way feels "cheap" everything is very nice. We stayed at AoA in 2013 in a Lion King suite, on our next trip we are staying at CBR 4 nights (just 3 of us for this portion) and then going back to AoA in a Nemo suite for 5 nights (for 5 people). We were thinking of doing AoA for the our either trip since our DD enjoyed it so much, but we decided to switch it up a bit.

 

[Master Yoda]

The biggest difference you will notice is pretty much strictly superficial. The moderate resorts tend to follow a design theme and there are Disney elements slipped in. The values are pretty basic utilitarian buildings with over the top Disney theaming on them.

There is also less in the way of adult entertainment. The moderates tend to have a decent bar, Coronado even has a night club, and the also have table service restaurants.

AoA has a better bar than the other values, but it is poolside and there are no table service restaurants, clubs etc.

 

[Matt_Black]

The food court is, for my money, one of the best QS spots in all of WDW.

 

[Scott10]

For our family vacation this past summer we started our stay at AOA for 2 nights and then moved over to POR for 5 nights.....I don't know if it was just sensory overload or what while we were at AOA, but I felt so much more relaxed at POR. I really enjoyed AOA, as did my entire family, but there is just something about the beautiful grounds and theming at POR that makes the walk to the room or the food court so relaxing. At AOA, the theming is awesome, but it seemed like my eyes were going every direction and we would snap a picture and then, BOOM, the kids were off and running to the next photo opp. I must say however, we were completely in awe of the Cars section at AOA and the theming that they have created....it makes you feel like you are right there in the movie and is the one section where we kinda just strolled down the road like they gently cruised down the road in the one part of the movie!

 

[Matt_Black]

One other thing- the staff occasionally does "flash mob" routines, and young guests are sometimes invited to join in.

 

[TeamRodriguez]

After staying at most mods as single adults, we decided to stay at AoA for our DD 1st trip. She loved it and so did we. The theme (in the cars suite) was great! The pool had games for the kids & movies at night. It felt like we were in the movie!