Disney's ART OF ANIMATION RESORT Information & Questions

[goofymoma]

Just to let you know. I am currently staying at the Cars resort on the 3rd floor with my wife and kids and it is very quiet here. I have no problem sleeping during the night and housekeeping doesn't bother us as long as we put the Do not disturb sign. Enjoy your stay here.

What is the view like? Can u see fireworks from the parks?
Thanks - only request my DH has made through all my planning is a nice view!
Thanks

 

[Carrie772]

Well, we are here! We've been here for 3 hours and it's been anything but smooth, but we are here. 2 hours to check in and we've already had an "incident" with a guest. More later...

Ooohh...Cliff Hanger! Hope your trip smooths out!

Two questions!

1. I heard the Big Blue Pool is salt water?!?

2. Do they talk under water at night or do they turn that off at some point?


Thank you!!!

I wanna hear too! We have recordings of the Poly underwater music. It would be fun to have that of AOA as well!

We were in a LK suite in November. I remember we had 1/2 gallon milk, 1/2 gallon orange juice, beer, Gatorade, juice boxes, water bottles,pack of strawberries, 4 pack of yogurt, pack of ham, pack of cheese. We put about 12 cans/bottles/juice pouches at one time in the fridge with the other items. There's a tiny freezer section too. Held about 3 frozen breakfast sandwiches. We didn't get a picture but that would have been a good idea to show people.

Dog! That's a lot of food! I wonder if the fridges in the Suites are larger than the standard rooms since they are part of a kitchenette.

 

[bluezy]

Dog! That's a lot of food! I wonder if the fridges in the Suites are larger than the standard rooms since they are part of a kitchenette.

Yes, the refrigerators in the suites are larger than the standard rooms. You can fit quite a bit of food/drinks in the refrigerator in the suites....especially if you played a lot of Tetris. :-D

ETA: I believe the standard rooms have refrigerators that are about 2 cu. ft. while the ones in the suites are about 4.5 cu. ft.

 

[AthenaBolina]

How does garden grocer work? Would I just have them deliver my order and then we pick it up at the desk? Our flight doesn't get in till 8pm so I was wondering if we should have it delivered the next day what do they do with the food if you aren't there yet? Thanks!

 

[G719]

How does garden grocer work? Would I just have them deliver my order and then we pick it up at the desk? Our flight doesn't get in till 8pm so I was wondering if we should have it delivered the next day what do they do with the food if you aren't there yet? Thanks!

If the food is delivered before you get there, bell services holds it. They have a large fridge to hold it. Bell services will bring it right to your room. Ours arrived while we were at DTD and we called when we got back to the room. Garden grocer sends a text or email when they drop off your order. My sister handled the ordering part so I'm not sure of that detail but I know she was notified. I was relieved to find out the bell services would bring it to the room. We had ordered a case of water, Gatorade, and 12 pack of beer. I was worried about how we would cart that all back.

 

[sadiwest]

I am sorry if this has been asked 100 times already. My 4 year old is looking over my shoulder so I'm trying to do this ASAP.

1- My DH and I aren't small people. These beds don't look very big. I know you don't know us, personally, but would you say these beds are big enough for two larger people? We sleep in a queen size at home, but for some reason these beds look smaller.

2- We're looking to book a package deal in March '15, but no packages are available to even see on line yet. How far in advance do they generally publish package prices? Even the AAA agent I spoke to didn't know the answer to this question.

Thanks in advance!

Sandi

 

[rymahoney]

I think you will be fine with beds. As far as packages. Discounted packages won't come out till atleast September.

 

[firsttimer4]

I'm sure this has been asked but I couldn't find the answer. Are all the standard rooms in the little mermaid section? When I look online that's the way it looks. I'm thinking about booking AoA for our may 2015 trip but not sure if my DS would be overly excited about the girly room

 

[pens4821]

1- My DH and I aren't small people. These beds don't look very big. I know you don't know us, personally, but would you say these beds are big enough for two larger people? We sleep in a queen size at home, but for some reason these beds look smaller.

We stayed in a Nemo suite and the Murphy bed and bedroom bed were big enough for 2 big people. The pull out couch maybe not, but we slept well on the murphy and "bedroom bed."

 

[JubileenaBingBing]

I'm sure this has been asked but I couldn't find the answer. Are all the standard rooms in the little mermaid section? When I look online that's the way it looks. I'm thinking about booking AoA for our may 2015 trip but not sure if my DS would be overly excited about the girly room

Yes...all standard rooms are Little Mermaid. However, we stayed there in 2012 and didn't find the room to be overly girly. Ariel is on the shower curtain, but other than that it features Prince Eric, Flounder, and a fish theme in general.

 

[firsttimer4]

Yes...all standard rooms are Little Mermaid. However, we stayed there in 2012 and didn't find the room to be overly girly. Ariel is on the shower curtain, but other than that it features Prince Eric, Flounder, and a fish theme in general.

Thank you! I'm trying to decide between POP and AoA.

 

[ama223]

How is the bussing at this resort? Are you looking at super long wait times or is it reasonable?

 

[treemi01]

Hi sandiwest, my name is Sandi, too! It wouldn't let me quote you, but I also think you will be fine with the beds. The bedroom has a standard queen, and the other 2 beds are bigger than they look. We got here yesterday, and I love the room! As for the rest if this place, it better get better or I don't think my family will be back. (and we are huge fans, DH and I have done 8 trips in the last 9 years and I've been here more than 30 times!)

I was all for magic bands and FP+. We aren't the type to not like change, and we just go with it, but this has been a nightmare! We got to AoA at 11:20am yesterday. I had done online check in, so I got in line. Well, they lost the online checking so we had to re-check in. NBD, it went quickly. But, then they noticed we didn't have any park tickets. It took an hour, but we got that fixed and went up to our room. It was now 12:40 and we had been there 1 hour 20 minutes in line checking in. Got up there, and our MB wouldn't open the room. Back down, waited in line. They couldn't connect me or my kids to our room, just DH. 2 hours later (2:50 if you're keeping track-so far we had been here almost 3.5 hours and done nothing but fix MB issues), and 3 calls to tech support and he fixed it. Oh, and by the way, in the process he noticed we had no park tickets (again!) and relinked those, too.

Well, now it was 3:00 and the kids were starving (we planned to have lunch at noon). We went down to eat, and there were huge lines even at 3:00. We waited about 15 minutes in the pizza/myo pasta line, which was the shortest line overall. Then a CM came over and explained that they were separating the line and moving MYO pasta to a new station and making 2 additional lines-1 for pizza and 1 for sandwiches. He split everyone up, and I just happened to be first in the pizza line (everyone in front of me for the "new" lines were there for pasta.). So, he directs us up the middle, where it says "exit only" and the sandwich people up the side to the other exit, and he moved the pasta people to a new station. There were still a handful of people in the "old" line, too, so one CM helped them and 2 more went to help the "new" lines. Well, since I was first, everyone started yelling at me that I was in the exit and to get in line! I explained that the CM told me to come here and the CM at the food station explained that they were separating the line, so most people were ok. But, there was this one lady muttering about how I cut in line and thought I was better than everyone else...easy to ignore...until, I went to get our beverages. She was there, too, and I had called o we my DS 7years old to help me carry them. She opened the beverage case door and knocked my son over!! So I picked him up and then I just started crying. I was so frustrated about the day! So she starts yelling, "I DID say excuse me! And I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't CUT in line!!" DH was pissed and yelled at her, which brought a manager over ASAP. He was really nice and ended up giving us our food for free, which was totally unnecessary and I told him so at least 10 times.

Okay, so now it's 4:00, and we headed over to MK. We had missed our first 2 FP+ for the day but hoped to use our third. We got there...and... any guesses??? We couldn't get in because we had no tickets (keep in mind I had already "fixed" this twice!), so we were sent to guest services. Another 40 minutes of dealing with it, and voila, we got in the gates! Now it was 5:00. Our FP was at Peter Pan so we headed there. Tried to get in, and it said we didn't have FP. I pulled it up on my phone and it was there at 4:50-5:50 but only for one guest so he let us ride, but I thought I should check on it. By this time MIL, FIL, and SIL had met us there from another hotel. I left DH with the kids and headed to guest services to see what was up with the FP. It was now 5:35pm. No line, walked right up. Took the CM a minute and....long story short all of our FP were wiped out for the entire week!!

She started trying to rebook what we wanted and I was trying to remember everything, but the system kept crashing (she said due to FP opening for SDMR, actually), so she was having trouble. At 7:00pm, an hour and a half later, she gave up. She wrote down which park we were going to each day and assigned us generic FP for that park. She also gave us an extra each day, which was really nice. By now, I had spent the whole day in line, though, so we missed a whole day of vacation, but it was fixed.

Well, I just got up now and looked at MDE. She assigned them to the wrong park every single day!! I'm not kidding, so we have no usable FP still for the week, (we are here with family and have meals booked so it's tough to just switch parks). So now I'm headed down to see how much of day 2 I spend in line. DH and I are both ready to go home, so if things don't improve today, we will be seeing what we can do to just get out of here. I doubt we will be back, but maybe in 5 years or so after they fix their crappy system. I'm just thinking about our family riding Soarin now and how we can't be with them!

Anyway, only partially related to AoA, but that's the story! Our room rocks! Cars, Luigi building, 2nd floor overlooking the lake. The buses were great to/from MK. The CM are very helpful but not very knowledgable on the new tech stuff. The food court was great (aside from our issue with a guest) but very crowded at a no meal time. Happy to answer any AoA questions if I can.

 

[tinkerbell615]

"treemi01, Sandi" I am so sorry yesterday was such a bad day for you. I DO hope today gets better. I am also very sorry that some mean person intentionally knocked your son down with a door. I can't imagine no matter what she thought you did ever knocking someone down, especially a child, on purpose!! You must be a very patient and understanding person going through all of this. I really don't have any questions. We are headed to AoA this summer and are so super excited. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we don't experience any problems. Please keep sharing your thoughts of AoA and I really do hope the rest of your stay is Magical!!

 

[Redarrow5150]

We had to switch our ressies from LM to POP to take advantage of the dinning offer during our stay of 12/23-12/30. Kinda of bummed as this is the second time we had to switch out of AoA for the dinning offer but upgrading to FD is going to save us OP expenses for food. Cya.

 

[Mrspeaks]

What all is there to do at the hotel on a Thursday? We will have the majority of our arrival day to spend at the hotel. Our daughter is 2 and we are traveling with her grandparents. We will be planning on going to the pool, eating lunch at Aoa. What else will we have to do at the resort? Should we plan to leave for dinner to get a change of scenery? Maybe Downtown Disney?

 

[Disfan1968]

What all is there to do at the hotel on a Thursday? We will have the majority of our arrival day to spend at the hotel. Our daughter is 2 and we are traveling with her grandparents. We will be planning on going to the pool, eating lunch at Aoa. What else will we have to do at the resort? Should we plan to leave for dinner to get a change of scenery? Maybe Downtown Disney?

Well, Thursdays you can take a drawing class for free in the main building. Classes start on the hour between 10 and 6 (last I knew). There are pool games and activities directed by CM's, especially in the afternoon. There is also a lot to just look at, at the resort. Kids will like simply touring the different wings and seeing everything I imagine, especially if they are being pushed in a stroller. But 2 is pretty young for drawing classes I imagine.

The food at AoA is pretty good for counter service, but if you are looking for a nicer dinner DTD is a great option.

 

[DisneyFanSherry]

Well, Thursdays you can take a drawing class for free in the main building. Classes start on the hour between 10 and 6 (last I knew).

Is this drawing class just on Thursdays?

 

[Disfan1968]

Is this drawing class just on Thursdays?

I believe it runs Thursday through Sunday. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[bluezy]

I am sorry if this has been asked 100 times already. My 4 year old is looking over my shoulder so I'm trying to do this ASAP.

1- My DH and I aren't small people. These beds don't look very big. I know you don't know us, personally, but would you say these beds are big enough for two larger people? We sleep in a queen size at home, but for some reason these beds look smaller.

2- We're looking to book a package deal in March '15, but no packages are available to even see on line yet. How far in advance do they generally publish package prices? Even the AAA agent I spoke to didn't know the answer to this question.

Thanks in advance!

Sandi

1. The bed in the master bedroom is a standard queen-sized bed. The pull-down table bed and pull-out couch are standard full-sized (double) beds. The couch one *looks* small, but I have a picture of my 4 kids (ages 25, 15, 14, & 9) laying on it to watch TV one night so if it's smaller than a standard double-sized bed, it's not by more than an inch or so because there was room for basically 3 adults and a child to lay side-by-side on it.

2. Promotional pricing doesn't typically get released until 6 months or less before the travel dates. We always book the room we want when we know our dates and then our Disney Travel Agent takes care of applying the discount when/if it becomes available. Sometimes you'll need to change resorts/room location to get the discount.