Best Standard Room In Value Resorts?

[Raineman]

Can anyone give me some advice on what would be the best standard room at the value resorts at WDW? Last March, my family and I (5 people) stayed in a family suite at Art Of Animation, Lion King. My wife, daughter and I are planning to go back next spring, but with only the 3 of us, we won't need the extra cost or space that comes with the family suite. We are probably staying for a week, and will not be spending much time at the resort itself. We loved the Art Of Animation resort but wold be willing to try Pop Century, All Star Music etc, if the standard rooms are a better deal. Thanks!

 

[JasonDeyoung]

Pop century or AoA have nice standard rooms. They will be a bit of a walk to the lobby areas but I've been to both and didn't mind it at all

 

[HollyAD]

Pop would be my first choice. The AOA does have standard rooms in the little mermaid section but they are a long walk from the main building. I have stayed at Pop many times and I think it's great. It doesn't share a bus with other resorts like the all stars do!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Pop would be my first choice. The AOA does have standard rooms in the little mermaid section but they are a long walk from the main building. I have stayed at Pop many times and I think it's great. It doesn't share a bus with other resorts like the all stars do!

Pop's buildings are more or less a mirror image of DAAR. The 90s section at POP is just as far from that main building as Mermaid is at DAAR.

Regardless, "long walk" might be a bit of a stretch when you consider that each building has its own parking and the Mermaid area has its own pool so you only need to make that walk for busses and food (it's about1/4 mile FWIW).

I'd recommend DAAR for "best" standard value room but it won't be the cheapest.

 

[WedwayPM]

Pop.

 

[JohnD]

Staying at Pop May 11-18. My online checkin choice for a standard room is "water view" in "60s building."

 

[bethymouse]

When we stay at a value or even a moderate, we always ask for the "closest" standard room to the main pool/food court area ( POP was nice).

 

[graphite1326]

Pop. personally I prefer a standard room. It's away from the pool and noise.

 

[Tinkerfan4ever]

I am going to give a shout out to All Star Movies. (We have stayed at Pop as well). We stayed in the Mighty Ducks section and could easily walk to either Music or Movies bus stops and food court. It had a pool in that section. There were tons of great places to get pictures, Toy Story section, Herbie section, etc.

I know one of the biggest complaints people have about the All Stars is the shared buses. My experience, they shared in the middle of the day when traffic back and forth was light. During the morning and at park close, we found that each resort had its own bus.

Have a great trip!

 

[Plowboy]

We've stayed at Pop several times and it seems to have become our "go to" resort (although, this fall we are splurging and staying at AKL). We usually go for top floor, lake view in either the 50's or 60's building. Nice view and it's relatively quiet.

 

[Flippin'Flounder]

AoA, the walk to Nemo is very enjoyable.

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

Pop is my fav, and don't think the Value section at AoA is any different and not worth the extra $$$.

With that said, All Star Music's rooms at Rock or Broadway Inn offer a mid size walk to ANY of the three food court/bus stops....1st 2 buildings in Music are Calypso and Jazz respectively; Rock is actually closer to Sports Food Court than Music's own...







I have never experienced the shared buses at All-Star, and if that is a concern of yours, stay at Music, and walk to Sports in the morning, then take the 1st All-Star bus out when leaving the parks....

 

[jpittore1]

PoP because of dedicated bus

 

[cinderellafan6]

I love Pop Century,,but also really like All star Music in the Broadway section

 

[Nick Pappagiorgio]

I Like Pop Century building 6 (in the 70's) stayed there three times. Close to the lobby but no possibility of a parking lot view. Supposedly the rooms that are perpendicular to the pool area in the 60's are standard as well, but this was new info to me and I have never tried requesting one. Bus service at Pop (if you use it) is one of the best as well.

Dedicated bus line gives it the edge over the All Stars

(Link to Pop map http://www.themouseforless.com/tripplanning/images/resortmaps/WDW_PC.pdf)

 

[bee]

DW and I love Pop Century. We have stayed in 50s and 80s and neither was a long walk from the buses and food court. We too appreciated the dedicated bus service. We hope to be back soon!

 

[fireworksandfairytales]

Pop Century is my favorite value. It's the newest (other than AoA) and I just really love the atmosphere at the resort overall. I don't notice much difference in the standard room between all the values though, except in the theming

 

[Cosmic Commando]

Two sections in which I have stayed that I would highly recommend:

1. The 60s at Pop. Close to the main pool, close to the lobby, close walk to the AoA food court. I could even see/hear Illuminations from the balcony outside our room... it was awesome (it was small and faint, of course)! We had stayed at Pop for about 6 or 7 trips before we got the 60s; we were ALWAYS (and I mean always) put in the 90s. It's close to the computer pool, and close to parking, but the walk to the lobby or bus stop was very long and the shortest way was next to the parking lot almost the entire time. Not very magical. I finally got fed up on our last trip when the cast member handed us the map and showed us the 90s; my wife and I looked at each other, and I said, "Is there anything else?". That was how we got the awesome 60s room. I didn't even know there were standard rooms in the 60s. I loved that the easiest way to get around was to walk next to the pool and through the lobby; it feels like more of a "resort" that way, and less like a motel room in a sea of parking.

2. The Mighty Ducks section at ASMo. The thing that we really enjoyed here was that the Music bus stops are an extremely short distance away from the Mighty Ducks section, just by crossing a service road. If Mighty Ducks was part of Music, it could probably be a preferred section. It was very nice to have your pick of two different buses you could take; there were at least a couple times leaving a park where we saw a Music bus waiting at a nearly-empty stop, while there was a crowd with no bus at the Movies stop. If you're not going to use the Disney transportation, then this is probably just an average location. You would have easy access to the two different food courts, but I don't know how different the menus are. Movies doesn't make you pay extra for a pool view in a standard room (Pop does have a separate category), so you can get a pool view more cheaply.

 

[Squigglove]

Don't know if anyone already said this, but with the value resorts you can also request/pay for a "preferred room" if you want to be closer to the main lobby, bus stops, etc. It's usually about a $125 (give or take) upgrade.

 

[crosswagon]

PoP Century in building #9. We usually request 9137, 38, 39, or 40...(somewhere along those numbers).This section of the layout has the rooms facing building 10 and the stairwell (rubics cube) facing the bus stop. Takes about 2-3 minutes to the buses and about the same to the Classic Hall food court and none of these rooms are classified as preferred. We are too tight to add $17 a night for location.