by Daisy Diva
Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort is one of the Value Resorts on Disney’s property and is one of three All-Star resorts (along with Music and Sports) located near the ESPN Wide World of Sports area. Our family had a weekend stay there back in September, and I’m here to share all the details and tips with you.
The All-Star Movies Resort is obviously themed after some of Disney’s most iconic movies: 101 Dalmations, Love Bug, Fantasia, Toy Story, and The Mighty Ducks. As with all of the Value Resorts at Disney, the exterior décor is very kid-friendly, kitschy, and larger than life—think giant Fantasia broom sticks, huge duck-shaped hockey masks, and seemingly 40-foot tall dalmatians. The rooms are pretty standard as far as a motel goes; each room has two double beds, a small table with two chairs, a tv, a mini-fridge, a small bathroom with a tub and a small dressing room with a mirror a sink. Each room also has a small safe (smaller than a shoe box), a hair dryer and an iron and ironing board. Our family stayed in one of the Mighty Ducks rooms, but our family of four immediately flopped on the beds and dropped our bags everywhere and had basically trashed the room to an un-photographable state approximately 5 seconds after opening the door. But thanks to Fairy Diva, I have a presentable picture of both the room and bathroom areas to show you. She had a Fantasia room, but the rooms are exactly alike—the only difference is the framed artwork which matches the movie theme of the building.
As far as amenities go, All-Star Movies is pretty standard. The main building, known as Cinema Hall, contains the lobby for check in, bathrooms, a gift shop, a food court, and an arcade.
The gift shop is called Donald’s Double Feature. It’s a pretty standard gift shop with toys and souvenir items like magnets and postcards, but they also have some toiletry items like powder, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and swim diapers.
The only restaurant on the resort property is the World Premier Food Court which offers your typical fast food faire. Our family only dined here once, and we enjoyed a nice breakfast that included Mickey waffles. Pizza is also available to be ordered and delivered to your room for a reasonable price.
We also spent a small amount of time in the Reel Fun Arcade. This arcade differs a bit from a standard arcade in that you put your money in a machine that gives you a card with a specific number of credits on it. You scan that card at each game to pay to play with credits. We found the credit system to be a little odd because we had leftover credits on our card, so we just gave them away to another kid in the arcade instead of buying more.
The All-Star Movies Resort has two pools on property. The main pool is the Fantasia Pool and Kiddie Pool, but there is also the Duck Pond Pool by the Mighty Ducks buildings. Even though we had a Mighty Ducks room, we chose to walk to the Fantasia Pool because it was bigger and had the Mickey shooting water into the pool, which my kids thought was super cool.
The All-Star Movies Resort also has a playground and laundry service area for guests to take advantage of. The bus stop area is right in front of Cinema Hall and is convenient for guest to travel around the entire Disney World property at no additional charge.
Daisy Diva’s Tips and Tricks for Staying at the All-Star Movies Resort:
- There are no queen sized beds at this resort. For our family, the double beds are a pretty uncomfortable option. This is true for nearly all of the Disney Value Resort hotel rooms, so take this into consideration before making your reservations.
- Many of the rooms are adjoining, so larger families can reserve two adjoining rooms and split their family. Honestly, a family of five with the youngest still being a crib sleeper is the largest family I would put in a value room. You can comfortably put two small people in each double bed and the little one in a pack-and-play in a corner. I do not think there is room for a roll away bed in these rooms. A group of “Pooh-sized” adults would not be comfortable squeezing into those double beds.
- Most of the preferred rooms are in the Fantasia and 101 Dalmatians buildings. If you reserved a standard room but still want to be as close to Cinema Hall as possible, request one of these buildings during online check-in. The property isn’t huge, so staying in one of the other buildings is not that bad, but it was a pretty long walk for us from our Mighty Ducks room to the lobby. It was actually closer for us to walk to the All-Star Music Resort’s bus stop.
- Speaking of busses, the All-Star resorts share a bus system. We were not there during a busy time, so stopping at All-Star Sports and All-Star Music, before getting off at our resort was not that big of a deal, but it would probably be really inconvenient during the peak seasons (holidays and summer). If you are looking to stay at a value spot that doesn’t share busses, you may want to try Pop Century or Art of Animation.
Overall, All-Star Movies is a great spot is staying on property and staying on budget. If you know you will be at the resort or in your room for a large part of your stay, then you may want to look into a Moderate or Deluxe Resort. But it’s a great option if you don’t plan to spend much time in the room because you will be in the parks.
Contact Patricia at All For Dreams Travel to plan your vacation.
