Originally Posted By mousegeezer Ok I know I may start something ugly with this one. But, I need honest answers. Are the Value resorts the motel 6 of Disneyworld? In other words is it worth the price to stay at a moderate or deluxe resort? In the past we have stayed off property and at Port Orleans Riverside. But, some traveling with our group on the next trip may not be able to afford higher priced resorts.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom <<Are the Value resorts the motel 6 of Disneyworld?>> Absolutely! <<In other words is it worth the price to stay at a moderate or deluxe resort?>> It depends. A big consideration for me is bed size. I want a queen size bed and the only way to get that at Disney is staying at a Deluxe Hotel or off property. Normally I travel to WDW with other family or friends and we share a room. So getting a King size bed is NOT an option. Also I prefer staying at Hotels with inside doors. I just hate having to go from my room walk a distance outside in rain, cold weather or hot weather just to get a cup of coffee in the morning. I just want to drop down an elevator please. So again to accomplish this at Disney you have to stay at a Deluxe hotel or off property. This becomes very important if your there in dead summer or dead winter. I don't mind walking to get a cup of coffee or food, just not in the rain or extreme weather. Having said that, I think you will find that the Value resorts are all going to be comfortable, Moderate resorts are going to have more ammenities than Values and the Deluxes are going to have queen size beds, inside doors more sit down places to eat, etc. I don't want my post to sound like I consider Value resorts to be "trashy" because they certainly are not. Althought I have never stayed at one, I have considered it. Its just more cost effective for me to stay at a Downtown Disney Hotel with queen size beds, inside doors, tons of food options, bus service ( and I always drive to Disney so I have a car to get to the parks if I feel the need to drive ) at the same price as a Value resort. I just don't get to use the Extra Magic Hours.
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub I have never stsyed at a Motel6 but I have stayed at the Best Western Park Place on Harbor at DL which I consider comparable to the WDW Values. I used to be a Disney Hotel snob and would only stay on the monorail resorts or DL Resorts. Then I started traveling by myself and discovered the Pop Century Realizing I could feed my addiction monthly instead of seasonally I learned to have fun at POP preferred locations which is a little more cost but closer to check-in,busses,pool,casual restaurant and giftshop...For some reason it makes me very happy in a childish way to return from the resorts to see families still enjoying the pools and the poolside bar...even doing the laundry at midnight. and when I check in to see the castmembers stop what they are doing to dance to the Twist or hula hoopers playing as I get off the bus and children having fun with chalk hopscotch or ping pong poolside...And I think the extra Magic Hours are important. Nothing like entering early early to walk around in the parks or late late at night.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 I have stayed at just about every resort on property. I have stayed at All Star Music and All Star Sports and Pop Century. I liked Pop Century best of all of them. I have stayed at all of the moderate resorts. The rooms at the moderate resorts are a step up from the value resorts but we found the accomodations at the value resorts to be nice. I think the themeing at the moderate resorts are much nicer and I find the moderate resorts to be less frenetic. The value resorts just seem busy and buzzing everywhere. I dont think you can compare the value resorts with the deluxe resorts. They are apples and oranges. If the intention of the group is to get up and head to the parks and not be back to the room till the evening, I think the value resorts serve that purpose well. If the pace is more leisurely with a day at the pool and stuff like that the moderate resorts are a better fit out of the two in my opinion. Lastly, the value resorts may be the Motel 6 of Disney but the value resorts are head and heels above most any motel outside of WDW.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip We've stayed at the All Star Music twice and the All Star Sports once. We were more than satisfied with the accommodations. They are what they are, but I think they offer good value for the money. The only WDW hotel I haven't liked was the Yacht Club, and that was primarily due to guests who were WAY too impressed with themselves. I suppose part of that came from being on the concierge level. God no, I would never pay for that. We were given a free upgrade. Next time I'll stay with the riff-raff. ;-)
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I pretty much agree with everything that's been said here. My family was always trying to save a few bucks, so we never stayed on property when we went. I went with a group of friends about a month and a half ago, and we stayed at the All Star Sports, and I would say that it was totally worth it. From the time I got onto the shuttle from the airport until I got back to the airport, everything was taken care of for me. It was great not having to worry about renting a car and all that, as it would have been an additional expense with little value to us. We were there in the week leading up to (and through) Memorial Day weekend, so it was pretty empty for the first part of the trip, and packed at the tail end. I don't think the busses were ever really an issue, except in a couple instances. One was at the end of the night, and there were really long lines for all the busses to all the hotels leaving from the Magic Kingdom. I think we ended up waiting close to 30 minutes, which was by far the longest wait of the day (the next closest was probably around 10 min), so we decided it wasn't too bad. The other time we had bus trouble, we were going from Epcot (International Gateway) to the Studios by boat, but since it had rained so much, the water was too high for the boats to make it under one of the bridges along the way, so they had us get off at Boardwalk to wait for a bus. We ended up waiting through several boat loads of people getting to the bus stop and getting frusterated and heading to another park before the bus finally came, but the concierge there had offered to get us a free cab by that point, so they were doing the best they could in very unusual circumstances. We were definately the types who were in the parks all day (we were there from opening to closing most days), but I thought that the ammenities were quite adequate. Near the end of the trip, the food court got to be quite crowded during the peak times when were there (breakfast and around 10pm just after everybody got back from the parks), but not unmaneagable. We were used to be outside all day in the parks anyway, so another 4-5 minutes to get back to the room was no big deal. We were fairly close to the main building, but at the far end of our building, so I think we were one of the furthest rooms. It made it nice and quiet at our end, but it wasn't like we could just hop over and grab a quick snack from the food court. For us, it was the perfect place to stay. It was cheap enough, yet extremely convenient. It was not crowded through most of our trip (even the parks were packed the last few days, so the hotel just stayed with the trend for each day), and very easy to navigate. There were a couple draw backs, but I would stay there again in a heart beat.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 <<The other time we had bus trouble, we were going from Epcot (International Gateway) to the Studios by boat, but since it had rained so much, the water was too high for the boats to make it under one of the bridges along the way, so they had us get off at Boardwalk to wait for a bus. We ended up waiting through several boat loads of people getting to the bus stop and getting frusterated and heading to another park before the bus finally came, but the concierge there had offered to get us a free cab by that point, so they were doing the best they could in very unusual circumstances.>> That's just too funny.(the bridge) I never would have thought of that problem occuring.
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub Especially when you consider the drought was so severe during the Flower and Garden Festival they almost had to discontinue the ferry due to low water levels and weight of the ferry filled with fuel and passengers!
Originally Posted By FerretAfros That's great! We were there near the end of the F&G Festival, so that's interesting that both extremes happened so close together. When we were there (10 days) it rained over 2 feet, so there was definately no drought (it poured at some point every day except one).
Originally Posted By topperfan We've stayed at GF, AKL, Beach Club, Boardwalk, POFQ, POR and CBR. All have pros and cons (even the GF, believe it or not). Our favorite, for price and convenience, is POFQ. Its small size makes it easy to get to food court, pool and buses. Location is great for Beach Club and Boardwalk. You can't beat being within walking distance of Epcot and DHS. Location, amenities, atmosphere and restaurants help make GF the flagship resort. For us, it's worth the price to stay at a moderate instead of value (bigger rooms, more food choices), but it's not necessarily worth it to pay for deluxe instead of moderate.
Originally Posted By ImaginingDisney001 >>>>> One was at the end of the night, and there were really long lines for all the busses to all the hotels leaving from the Magic Kingdom. I think we ended up waiting close to 30 minutes, which was by far the longest wait of the day (the next closest was probably around 10 min), <<<<< The Resort is the very best way to go if you want to use internal transportation. We had an odd occurance happen to us on two occasions. We tend to cut thing close to the end and we were running close to the bus cut off and heading to the garage. We were staying at Fort Wilderness Campground and had to switch buses at Wilderness Lodge. We were dropped off and waited for the connection. The bus to connect had gone off shift. We called Disney Service and they sent a bus just for us and took us to our destinations. The other time, yes we did the same thing, came from the magic kingdom, ended up by the settlement and the connecting bus did not come. We were going to walk it when another bus came by in the wrong direction, stopped and asked where we were going. We told him our site number and he told us to get on, turned the bus around and took us to our camper. You wont get that kind of service off property. I had stayed at the Carribean Resort when it was the value resort. It was very nice. Now they value resorts are available and are of similar value and convenience. Check MouseSavers.com for resort pricing and other savings. id
Originally Posted By yekcim KennesawTom wrote: It depends. A big consideration for me is bed size. I want a queen size bed and the only way to get that at Disney is staying at a Deluxe Hotel or off property. Normally I travel to WDW with other family or friends and we share a room. So getting a King size bed is NOT an option. yekim wrote: HI KT. Just wanted to tell you that I believe WDW has finished replacing all of the beds at Coronado Springs' Queen Beds rooms with Queens. No doubles at CSR! That is one of the perks you would receive if you stayed there. KT wrote: Also I prefer staying at Hotels with inside doors. Yekim wrote: CSR won't help you with the inside doors though. But, CSR does provide an in-room coffee maker! You could have hot coffee in the morning with a yummy muffin that you picked up on your way back your room the night before!
Originally Posted By ORD84 Personally I tend to stay at Old Key West...everytime I stay there it's nice, quiet I almost always get a nice sized bed sometimes it's only a full-sized bed but it's large enough for me and my girl, I like that it's set up like a small apartment and the larger ones are set up like 2 bedroom condos with a nice sized kitchen that I can wake up and make my own breakfast in.. If I don't stay there I stay at Saratoga Springs but that's only depending on the availbility of Old Key West...
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom <<yekim wrote: HI KT. Just wanted to tell you that I believe WDW has finished replacing all of the beds at Coronado Springs' Queen Beds rooms with Queens. No doubles at CSR! That is one of the perks you would receive if you stayed there. >> Thanks yekcim! Looks like I may have a new "home" resort in CSR. I have always wanted to stay at the resort <smile>.
