Which Walt Disney World Value Resort is best? This answers that common question, ranking Art of Animation, Pop Century, and All Star Movies, Music & Sports. Our #1 hotel might surprise you, but we’ll cover why it’s our top pick–plus pros & cons, photos, transportation, and other info about each! (Updated October 23, 2019.)
Walt Disney World’s Value Resorts are great hotels for people who won’t be in their rooms much, families with small children who enjoy Disney animated films, and guests doing WDW on a budget. To be sure, the Value Resorts are more expensive than off-site accommodations, but the added perks like park transportation, Extra Magic Hours, and Disney’s Magical Express can tip the scale in their favor from a money-saving perspective.
Let’s start by discussing the single biggest differentiator among the Value Resorts, which is transportation. Previously, this simply focused on bus transportation, which tends to be better at Pop Century and Art of Animation. This is the case because the three All Star Resorts sometimes (but seldom) share buses. However, now there’s a much bigger reason…
That’s the newly-opened Disney Skyliner gondola transportation. This offers aerial transportation from a shared station between Pop Century and Art of Animation to Caribbean Beach, where guests transfer for either Epcot or Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Total Skyliner transit time from Art of Animation or Pop Century is under 10 minutes to DHS or under 15 minutes to Epcot. This is a considerable improvement over buses.
We’ve already used the Skyliner countless times, including a couple of times from Pop Century to rope drop Epcot. Read our Skyliner Gondolas Review: Disney World’s Most Magical Flight on Earth for everything you need to know about this new transportation system for getting from CBR to Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and other resorts.
The biggest upside to All Star Sports is that when the All Star Resorts are sharing buses, it’s the first stop the buses make. During busy hours, the bus will often fill up completely at All Star Sports, skipping All Star Music and Movies completely. For this reason, the bus service at All Star Sports is the best of the three. However, buses are almost never shared in scenarios where they could fill up completely, almost totally nullifying this “advantage.”
We’ll start with the reimagined rooms mentioned in the All Star Sports section. All Star Music is currently receiving the new rooms, with work beginning in October 2019 and most of the new rooms slated to open throughout the course of 2020. The old room is pictured above, and while it looks fine in that photo, the reality is most are much more worn, tired, and dark.
All Star Movies was the first of the trio to receive the new rooms, a process that is 95% finished as of October 2019. Above is a photo of the new room from the exact same perspective as the old room (above that) at All Star Music. We’ve stayed in one of these new rooms this spring, which you can read about in our Photos & Video: Newly Reimagined Rooms at the All Star Resorts post.
For the sake of this comparison, we’re only looking at the common areas and standard rooms in Art of Animation, all of which are in the Little Mermaid section of the hotel. While nice, the family suites (which are the majority of the hotel) arguably don’t even belong in the Value Resort category, since their nightly rate is considerably higher, approaching Deluxe Resort territory in some cases.
When it comes to rooms, the Little Mermaid rooms fall short of the newly-redesigned rooms at Pop Century and All Star Movies. You can read all of our quibbles with these in our Little Mermaid Room Review. Suffice to say, these are minimally decorated, a long walk from the lobby, and way overpriced.
In the course of discussing the other Value Resorts, we’ve more or less touched upon the biggest upsides of Disney’s Pop Century Resort, which has been the long-time top pick for Value Resorts among Walt Disney World fans. To reiterate: new rooms, Skyliner transportation, lower price points, and convenience to Art of Animation via Generation Gap Bridge all make Pop Century a winner and our #1 pick.
Pop Century’s biggest downside is that the cartoony, oversized icon style simply works better in the context of Disney animation. This style appeals primarily to kids, and Disney characters will resonate with them more than pop culture references.