Looking for your VALUE resort recommendation

SanFrancisco

SanFrancisco

Member
Original Poster
I am starting to plan a WDW trip for my birthday in January and it's looking like the best way for us to swing it financially is to stay at a Value resort. In the past I've stayed at AKL, Port Orleans Riverside, the Polynesian and the Contemporary. We're an adult couple without kids so I'm a little worried that staying at the Value could be a bummer, too obnoxious, etc.

I figure that we're going to try a value resort and see if we enjoy it. We'd like to take the money we save and spend it on finer meals at some of our favorite restaurants like California Grill and anything at the AKL. We'll rent a little car so that we can get to other resorts with ease. This way we still get to enjoy our favorite resorts even though we're not staying there.

1. What's your best value resort recommendation? Are they essentially all the same?
2. Do you think we'll be disappointed?
 
JenniferS

JenniferS

Time To Be Movin’ Along
Premium Member
We have always stayed at POP, when staying at a Value.
Added bonus, you can cross the bridge and dine at AoA food court as well.

Arriving at POP in one week.
 
acishere

acishere

Well-Known Member
Pop has its own dedicated bus line and has a lake that you can go for strolls along. The AoA only has regular rooms in the Mermaid section, which is the farthest area from the lobby. If you are willing to spend the extra $ on a suite then I'd do AoA. Otherwise stay across the lake at Pop.

Also if you want a preferred room: Avoid pool views. The pool noise drifts in. Otherwise its not bad for a home base. If you aren't planning on spending much time hanging around the resort, Value lives up to its name. The rooms are small, but a couple will fit fine.

It totally depends on what you expect out of your resort.
 
Gabe1

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
Consider the Hilton next to DTD. For around $100 a night you can stay in an upscale hotel, rooms are large with wonderful beds and linens. You are granted EMHs while staying at the HIlton just like Swan and Dolphin. Transportation to parks is good, back, not as good so we have taken Disney buses back to Saratoga or POR and ferry boated to DTD. Saratoga you can actually walk if you wished back to the HIlton. At times they offer a free full breakfast too.

I've only stayed at one value and I can't say I enjoyed it after staying mostly at POR and intermittently some of the deluxe resorts. We stayed at Pop which is the least obnoxious to me of all the values. I don't mind looking at them, I enjoyed walking around AoA but I had no desire to look at that for many days let alone wake up to it.

It is all about personal taste. Some hate the GF but love AoA.
 
deanaandrich

deanaandrich

Well-Known Member
Go with AoA or Pop. Don't get a room near the pools. I find the value resorts have very thin walls. One stay at the all stars I heard a baby crying all night and then heard the family up talking at 6am. I don't stay at values anymore. I stay in DTD hotels which are cheaper and not so obnoxious.
 
HollyAD

HollyAD

Well-Known Member
I am a POP fan too! Don't pay for preferred room because they are close to the main pool and it can be a little loud. They have a good bus service and the food court has always been consistent. I have not stayed at AoA so I can not compare it to that one. Not a fan of AS Music or AS Sports because they do not have consistent bus service and sometimes share buses with Movies as well. It can make for a long bus ride and jammed packed buses.
 
Ava83

Ava83

New Member
Love POP. It is clean and there is ONE bus stop.

We have never paid for preferred and have never found it necessary. Our last room there was in the 80's facing the parking lot. It was a quick trip across the lot to the food court and bus stop. (Our room on the 3rd floor also had a view of Illuminations (a little one, but a view)

Have never stayed at AoA or All-Stars. AoA because it wasn't opened and all stars because I refused.
 
Mainahman

Mainahman

Well-Known Member
POP! We got a standard room, and ended up with a room just around the corner from balu. Room number 5134 i believe ( im crazy and took a photo to remember to request it next time.) its away from the pool, and outlooks onto the lake, and when we went we could see the construction of AoA. It was also on the first floor! It was just that for us "home base" we were there very little, only one night that we had to ride out a nasty storm that was flooding the studios. We never had any pool noise or anything, yet was still close to the food court and the buses.
 
jw24

jw24

Well-Known Member
Yeah either Pop or AOA simply because they have one designated bus individually as opposed to the All-Stars which share on occasions. But since you said you're renting a car, I assume you'll use that as transport to and from the parks unless you're not willing to fork over additional money for parking and are just going to use it for resort to resort transport. If that's the case, then definitely pick Pop or AOA for buses. Not only that, the All-Stars from what I've been told are very popular for groups like schools, sports teams, cheerleading groups or dance teams or whatever major sports competition in Disney is going on. (To be fair, all of them are noisy compared to the deluxes and moderates but the AS resorts seem to be the worst ones from what I've heard.) But like everyone said, request a room away from the pools if you really value peace and quiet. On a different note, AOA from what I've heard has the best food court out of all of the values if you value food. Pop's food court is okay but not something special per say like California Grill. The layouts for values pretty much all the same for the most part and as stated earlier, the standard rooms at AOA are a long walk from the main lobby where the buses and food court are at.
 
aeillill

aeillill

Active Member
We love Pop Century!

We always get a preferred room, I'd rather spend that little extra and guarantee a closer room instead of putting in a request and maybe not getting where we want to be. Also the fact that there's a bus line just for the resort is great. We don't mind having less perks at Pop, all we use the room for is sleeping and showering so we don't really need all that extra.
 
englanddg

englanddg

One Little Spark...
aeillill said:
We love Pop Century!

We always get a preferred room, I'd rather spend that little extra and guarantee a closer room instead of putting in a request and maybe not getting where we want to be. Also the fact that there's a bus line just for the resort is great. We don't mind having less perks at Pop, all we use the room for is sleeping and showering so we don't really need all that extra.
Click to expand...
I'd agree...outside of the Preferred Room. That means you are by the Hippy Dippy pool...which is loud during the day, and stays busy (randomly) during all periods of the night. I'd much rather have a Garden view in the 4000 or 5000 building in 60's, or the 50's 3000 or 1000 (no parking lot view) building than have to deal with a kiddo and try to sleep near the Hippy Dippy pool ever again.

It was so bad that I went with a Moderate for this years trip.

That being said, I also enjoyed the bus service at Pop (especially since you can also use AoA's busses and walk back over...very nice for late night departures from Parks). Hands down best bus service I've had in 4 visits over the years.
 
steamboatjosh

steamboatjosh

Well-Known Member
It's been a long time since the last time I was there but have stayed in both the All Star Movies & All Star Sports and I don't remember a ton of noise. I really loved the Movies resort because I'm a huge cinema geek, especially when it comes to Disney movies!
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom