If you've read our Resort Guide Basic Overview, and think a Value Resort might be right for you, but you're still undecided, this guide post is a must read. If you have no idea where to even start with booking a room, read our Resort Guide: The Basics first before reading this. Already know that you want to stay at a Value Resort but have no clue as to when is the best time to go? We can help you with that too with our Seasons of Disney post. If you are ready to book your Disney Vacation, reach out to Jillian at Destination Dreaming Travels for a FREE travel agent to handle all of the details for you.
Value Resorts include:
All-Star Movies
All-Star Sports
All-Star Music
Pop Century
Art of Animation
The Basics
Value resorts are designed to give you a room on Disney property, taking advantage of the perks of staying on-site, while still sticking to a tight budget. They are definitely geared to families with kids. Price ranges start in the $125 per night range during slower seasons. During holiday's and weekends, prices can get up into the mid $200s per night. Looking ahead to Christmas week this year, prices at the All-Star Resorts are around $250 per night. Keep in mind that prices will always be higher when kids are out of school. Disney will offer different discounts throughout the year, so sign up for Disney World emails or check their website often to check promotional discount offers. Discounted rooms are always only available in limited numbers (only x number of rooms will be discounted), so if you are on a tight budget and know you want to be at Disney during a specific week, book a room as soon as you see a discount pop up.
While there are only five Value Resorts, each resort is massive and have almost 2,000 guest rooms each, with Pop Century having almost 2,900 guest rooms!!! In contrast, most of the Deluxe Resorts have less than 600 guest rooms each. With this many people, this category resort tends to be on the noisier side. We have never had a problem with noise to the point we needed to file a noise complaint, and we have never been kept awake at night due to noise problems. If you are concerned with having a quiet room, request a room further away from the pools as those rooms tend to be the loudest.
The Rooms
The rooms themsleves are the smallest on property. All standard room will sleep up to 4 guests (with a very few only sleeping 2). Rooms are offered as standard rooms or preferred rooms with the only difference simply being location. Preferred rooms cost extra and will be located closer to the lobby, shopping, food, and transportation. We've never felt the need to spend the extra money on the preferred room, but have been pixie dusted the upgrade for free before. We have also stayed in one of the furthest from the lobby buildings before and it's a long walk when you are lugging a luggage cart around with you. If you don't want to risk making the trek to the furtherest ends of the resort multiple times a day to get to the bus/parking lot, then you may want to look into booking a preferred room.
Rooms are basic hotel layout with a bed and a small table and chairs that convert to a queen size table bed. For the rooms that sleep two only, there will just be one bed and no table bed. Table beds are a fold down Murphy bed that uses the table top as the base. If you are like us, the table bed stays unfolded the entire time, so we do not get use out of the actual table and chairs. It's just too much work to fold and unfold every morning and night. Bathrooms are basic with a shower and toilet behind a door and sink that is separated from the common area with a curtain. All-Star Movie also offers Family Suites that can sleep up to 6 with one regular queen bed and two pull down Murphy beds. If you have a larger party and/or want to splurge a bit while still staying within a tighter budget, Art of Animation resort has really cool themed Standard Rooms and Family Suites. Choose from a Cars theme, Lion King theme, or The Little Mermaid theme room. Family Suites at Art of Animation have two separate room to offer the parents a little more privacy. One room contains one queen size bed. The living room has one double sleeper sofa and one double bed table bed. The big draw of these family rooms are that they have two bathrooms!!! Art of Animation is the most expensive of the Value Resorts, rivaling prices of Moderate Resorts. However, it is the only way to sleep six people in the same room for under $700 per night on Disney Property.
Parking and Transportation
Free nightly parking is included with your room. We almost always drive down and appreciate this offering once again being free. It's also nice to have the car handy, as the only transportation option at Value Resorts is the bus. We often find that it's more convent for us to drive to the parks when we stay Value than to wait on the bus. I'm not discounting the bus. They are wonderful. However, wait times in the morning and nights can't pretty long. Pop Century is the only Value Resort with a second option. It has a Skyliner stop which will take you to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. Being on the Skyliner route, Pop Century is priced higher than the All-Star Resorts.
The food
Food options at Value Reosrts are cafeteria style food courts. You can find your standard kid friendly chicken tenders, pizza, burgers, etc. for lunch and dinner. There are grab-and-go sandwiches and salads type foods as well. Breakfast is a variety of grab-and-go options along with some hot dishes such as the fan favorite Mickey waffles. There are not sit down table service options at Value Resorts and you won't find Character Meals here. This is a cost saving option since the food is more affordable and you do not have to spend extra money by leaving a tip. The food will not be anything to write home about. It's there to satisfy general kid palates at a reasonable, by theme park standards, pricing.
There is a pool bar at the main pool at each Resort. No other bars or lounges are located at Value Resorts. If relaxing at a bar or lounge is something you really see yourself doing on vacation, you will need to upgrade and stay at at least a Moderate level Resort.
The Pools
If you survey kids, they will usually tell you that their favorite part of vacation is pool time. Disney is exhausting, so make sure you take a day, or at least half of a day out of your park time to relax a bit at a pool. There are fun poolside activities throughout the day. We love trivia or Disney Bingo while lounging by the pool. All of the main pools will have an accessible lift. Ask a Cast Member for assistance. The one great thing about Value resorts is that since they are family focused, most people will be at the parks during the day, leaving the pools relatively empty. Taking a day out of park time can be very relaxing and a great way to recharge.
The Extras
Value Resorts don't have much in the way of extra activities to take advantage of during your non-park days. I always recommend you take at least one day to skip the parks and just chill. Offerings will include movies under the stars and campfire activities in the evenings after dark. Campfire activities basically means standing around a fire and roasting marshmallows. As a good souther girl, this is something our family really enjoys. They also all have a playground available. I remember having a little kid who just needed to blow off some energy and do normal kid things instead of being drug from line to line all day. These playgrounds are a lifesaver when you have littles. There is an arcade at each Value Resort. We have no experience with any of these. I would assume they are your standard quarter operated games.
In Summary
Value Resorts are not our go-to option when it comes to Disney Vacations. We like to have a little more space with more amenities and good food is one of our top reasons we keep going to Disney. Value Resorts don't offer any of those things. However, if budget is your main concern, these resorts offer the perks of being on Disney property with the cost that most families can afford. We have stayed off Disney Property twice and will prefer to stay on Disney property in a Value Resort and have the Disney benefits vs staying off property and forgoing services like extra hours in the parks and transportation to and from the parks.
I hope this helps to give you a starting point when trying to plan your Walt Disney World Vacation. For help booking a room or Disney Vacation Package, check out Jillian with Destination Dreaming Travels. She's a FREE travel agent waiting to help you book your most magical vacation ever.
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