Growing up, I only ever stayed in Deluxe resorts- Beach Club, Yacht Club, Boardwalk Villas, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Treehouse Villas at Saratoga Springs, and more recently we'd stayed at moderate resort Port Orleans Riverside.
It wasn't until May of this year that I stayed in a value resort for the first time. Ean and I stayed at Pop Century during our Star Wars Weekends 2015 trip. This time we chose to save a little more moolah and stay at an All-Star resort. We really loved Pop Century back in May. Sure the room wasn't cushy and plush like I'm used to, and it didn't have amenities out the wazoo, but the value resort was NOT bad! We were excited to try a new one!
There are several different sections you can stay in. We stayed in Calypso. It was closest to the transportation area (which is why we chose it). During the day, fun Caribbean-styled music played over the speakers in the hallways and at the cute pool area. The outside walls were a bright, fun green, and the area was decorated with giant drums and maracas.
The inside wasn't super overly themed. One wall was the Calypso green, and the rest were tan. There were musical "things" everywhere, such as the wallpaper, the photo on the wall, and the shower curtain. It was all just music, and not specifically Calypso.
Other sections of the hotel included:
Jazz, complete with shadows of men playing saxophones, a giant drum set, and cute courtyard area.
Rock, complete with giant guitars and jukeboxes, and of course, old rock music playing on the loud speakers.
Country, complete with oversized cowboy boots and Dolly Parton playing on the speakers (we felt right at home there.)
And Broadway, complete with posters of various Disney Broadway shows, and a cute street with New York street names.
A few pros of staying at the All-Star Music resort:
- Very good pricing
- Great transportation- because the value resorts are so big, they run busses VERY often
- Rarely had to share a bus with other resorts
- Inexpensive food court in the lobby that opened early and stayed open late
- Since there was just two of us, they gave us a room with a king bed at no additional cost
- In-room pizza delivery
And of course a few cons:
- No coffee pot in the room (we discovered this while staying at Pop Century, so we brought our own!)
- Only provide bar soap and a shampoo/conditioner blend
- Decreased quality of bath towels
- Decreased quality of bed sheets
- "Motel-like" accommodations
- Value resorts bring in some crazy/weird guests
For us, the pros out-weigh the cons. The cons aren't a big deal to us. If they are to you, then All-Star Music is NOT the hotel for you. We don't spend a lot of time in our room anyway, so paying $90 per night rather than $500 per night is much more logical!
Overall, our experience was wonderful.
