Disney's Art of Animation Resort reviews

Epcot Resort Area

Reader rating Reader rating 9.4 / 10

Average Reader Rating: 9.4

"Great Resort for Larger Families "
Reviewed on Dec 31, 2012 by Nickslic
Rating: 9

We recently stayed at AOA for 5 nights. There were 6 of us (me, DW, MIL, DD5, DS2, DS1). We had a Finding Nemo room. The good: * Resort layout. The Finding Nemo Rooms are very close to the main pool, food court, and Disney Buses. It is nice to have a value resort with all doors on the interior of buildings. The Cars rooms are also close to the main building, but if you want a quieter section of the Resort then I would try Lion King or Little Mermaid- these have somewhat longer walks to the main building but not nearly as far as some of the other resorts. * Theming. Very fun especially for kids. The outdoor characters are huge and look great. The Finding Nemo and Lion King Section have a lot to look at and interact with. The Cars section however, really steals the show. There is a nice tribute to radiator springs and the Cozy Cone Motel. Several (replicas) of the cars from the original movie are also displayed and look amazing- they had no visible wear or tear even after some months of the Resort being opened. Inside the rooms the great theming continued; from fish pictures made from smaller fish, to bubbles in the chairs, to ocean themed paint schemes, you could almost forget that this is a value resort. The picture of Nemo and his dad sleeping in the hideaway bed was the kids' favorite. *Room layouts. AOA manages to get a lot of amenities/accommodations in their rooms without it feeling cramped. The separate bedroom was nice to split the kids up. The kitchenette is enough to get by- the sink could be a little bigger as we had sippy cups to wash. We had no problem sleeping six- DS1 was in a crib in master bedroom and the adults took turns sleeping with the other kids in the couch bed and hideaway bed. The kids especially liked the hideaway/table bed and called it the "magic" bed. Having two bathrooms is also very nice- something that some of the Deluxe villas lack. *Dining. Great for families with young kids. The "Landscape of Flavors" has a great variety of foods from standard burgers and fries to tandoori infused options. We thought this food court is second only to the Pepper Market at CSR. *Misc good stuff. The queues for the buses have overhangs which provides some shade while waiting. The souvenir store is large with many options for gifts or treats. The poolside bar serves great Sangria and is open late! The poolside games looked like fun, probably best for ages 4+ Overall, this resort was quiet for a value resort- the pool is not crowded during the day while most guests are at the parks, however the food court can get crowded at dinner time. The Bad: Price: We stayed at this Resort partially to save money over a Deluxe Villa, and as nice as this Resort is, no one would mistake it for a Deluxe. However, even with a pin code and staying during Dec. value season, the room still ran @ $250-280 per night. This resort felt more like a $175-200 value- even at Disney prices. As cool as the rooms are, I did sleep on a table bed several nights and the pizza delivery was marginally edible. When I think of the step up we took on the second half of our trip to the Villas @ Kidani Lodge for a price increase of only $120 more it calls into question whether AOA can truly be called a "value" resort. Overall score: 9/10 We gave this resort 1 less star than perfect due to the high room rates. On future visits we will have to see if the rates come down a little when the Resort isn't so new, otherwise we may book adjoining moderate rooms or bite the bullet and pay for a Villa. Our family is about to grow again, so space for a bigger family will probably take precedent over price. Hopefully Disney can come up with a happy medium between value family suites and deluxe villas- Moderate villa? Moderate family suites? Hint Hint Disney. Otherwise the Resort is great, especially for families with little to pre-teen kids.

"AoA Resort and Mermaid Section"
Reviewed on Sep 25, 2012 by ratherbeinwdw
Rating: 8

We stayed in the Little Mermaid section of AoA from Wednesday until Sunday. The good about AoA: The theming is amazing. Everything inside and out is color coordinated including the lamp posts, garbage cans, outside pipe's and even the flowers. The color scheme is beautiful. The rooms are so very cute. They are directed at children. Even the toilets are the tiny ones you see in kindergartens. I have a pic to show just how short they are in the Resort forum. The toilet only came 2/3's of the way to my knee, and I'm barely 5"4". The chairs are shaped like shells. The mirrors and coat hanger are themed and the picture by the bed is really nice to wake up to early in the morning. The safe is much larger than the ones in the mods and it is digital. The food court is the best I've seen. You can easily eat well there and stay on a good diet; if you have the will power. The main pool is a dream come true for kids. They have all kinds of activities out there for the kids. There's also a themed play area with slides and a cave. The pool in the Mermaid section was also very nice. The theme in the Cars section is even better than it looks in pictures. Every little detail is there. The character cars are sitting on some kind of soft foam. It's fun just walking on it. They have the large cones around the pool as sitting areas. They left nothing out. They even have the metal shed that the military car would come out of in the movie. The cm's are really nice and helpful. Even the cm's in the food court went out of their way to be helpful. Even though I did online check-in, the cm took time to talk to me and see if I had any questions. The lobby is something to see. Once again, they thought of every little detail. They have a very large chandalier in the main hall and every light cover is a drawing like the ones on the walls. They have a nice little computer area for public use. The bad about AoA: The toilets are short. The sink area is only big enough for one at a time. The curtain between the sink area and the room doesn't close all the way, so there is no privacy for changing if needed or to keep the light from waking others who are sleeping. The beds are only fulls; not queens. My feet were almost over the edge. There's only three small drawers because they used the other side for the fridge. The ugly about AoA: The bus service is terrible. We had to wait forever going and coming, but particularly coming back to the resort. Heads up -- the bus from AK back to the resort had Blizzard Beach on it when it finally came. The reason for that is that it goes there first. The route assigned from MK back to the resort is an extremely long ride. I suppose that's because they have so many buses on the roads now they had to have different routes. The time we drove, it didn't take us even half the time as it did the bus. The noise in the Mermaid rooms was terrible also. I'm not talking about unruly people. I'm talking about normal noise. You hear the toilet above, beside and behind you. Everytime anyone went in the room beside or above us, we could plainly hear them just as if they were in our bathroom. You could hear people walking, shuting doors, moving chairs, babies crying, etc. all around us. It would be 2 or 3 until the noise finally stopped and then the bathroom noise would start again around 5 or so. My daughter slept right through it, but if you have a problem sleeping through noise, as I did, I recommend earplugs. It is a really beautiful, fun place, but the bad outweighs the good for us. My daughter is 17, but if I had young children, I would stay there again. But since I don't have young children, we will be going back to the mods or deluxes for our next stay. I have photos of the inside of the rooms and some outside shots in the Resort forum.

"Best Disney story resort"
Reviewed on Aug 17, 2012 by JEANY031
Rating: 10

you're will love the newest resort Art of Animation Resort and I will love to stay in this newest resort in Dec 2012! you're rock it!

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