McLarenblog

All Star Music, at Disney World in Florida (4-14-07)

This facility is not a time-share but cost per day facility and considered for people on a budget. The cost of our room during spring break of 07, considered high season was expensive at $265 a day for a “suite” (with tax, $299.45). This “suite” is listed as being able to sleep six. We had to move to this facility, our last day, to extend out vacation to ten days. I was somewhat happy we did to see the contrast in facilities and provide more information to you.

The facility did have a music theme but the overall impression was gaudy almost clashing building colors. It was like a child gone crazy with a paint set. The reception area, cafeteria, and most public spaces were harsh, fast food decor, nothing soft in the building presentation. Disney was not going to let you forget that you were in a budget facility because everywhere you looked it was not pleasing to the eye. This was definitely down scale from Old Key West.

Our luggage was waiting for us in our room, which was quite nice. We had five people in our party. Boy this “suite” was tight for this many people. I liken it to being on a cruse ship, that tight. My son remarked that while at Old Key West he liked just hanging out in our apartment and not rushing out to the amusement park areas. Here at All Star Music, I do not think anyone wanted to hang out in the “suite”.

Here is the list of the rooms in our “suite”.

Living room had a very small round table with two chairs. By small I mean two people can use it but no more. To continue, the living room has a large TV housed in a wood enclosure that took up way too much floor space. Disney needs to switch over to flat panel TV’s for these rooms to provide more space in this room. This living room has two sofas, two seats and a three seat, which can be extended out for the use as beds. The two-seat bed was good for one person sleeping and two-person sofa was good for two people sleeping. There was also a chair footstool, an ottoman that can be opened up for another single person bed. Problem is when the two sofas are extended where do you put the ottoman bed? We placed it in the short hallway connecting living room and the kitchen. With the beds extended out fully, the living room is pretty much toast for moving around.

A separate bedroom was not very large. It was provided with a door from the rest of the “suite”. Mom and dad would certainly take that separate bedroom and the children would sleep in the fold out beds and ottoman in the living room. This separate bedroom had its own TV housed in a sort of dresser unit.

A small desk was to the side of the TV and there was a row of AC outlets provided, which was nice. This desk offered Internet for a cost of $9.95 for 24 hours contiguous use, meaning the clock ran, non-stop from when you started the service. It was quite easy to use this Internet service. All you had to do is plug an Ethernet cable from a small desk box to your laptop and then start up your computer and launch any web browser. A startup screen would present a Disney screen offering the Internet service for a fee. The bed would sleep two and at both sides are nightstands. Each stand had a lamp and one stand had an alarm clock.

There are two separate bathrooms next to one another. A sink is just outside of each bathroom and there is a curtain that can be drawn for a dressing area. There was a closet area in each bathroom. The vent fans for both bathrooms were quite noisy. To turn on the light in the bathroom would also turn on the vent fan. One had to practically climb over the toilet to get to the shower, a slight exaggeration.

We found that the air condition unit for our bedroom was not as quiet as we would prefer. The sounds from the other units around ours, we did not notice. We could hear people walking up and down the outside second floor balcony walkway but this was not bad just barely noticeable.

Unlike the Old Key West Resort rooms there were very few AC outlets. I had to move the night sand away from the wall to get to plug in my laptop computer. I would strongly suggest that you bring an AC outlet strip if you have any number of technology gadgets that need charging.

An alcove offered a pretty small and very limited kitchen for us. The coffee pot could provide only enough for two cups of coffee. The refrigerator was very small as was the microwave. Only two people could fit into the kitchen area at one time. Some basic utensils were provided. We especially appreciated the corkscrew.

A major problem with this “suite” is there were only two areas that one could use, the living room area and the separate bedroom. A vacation consists of, I believe, being able to escape from other family members when one needs to. At the Old Key West Resort, I counted at least four separate areas for a person to choose and get away from the rest of the family. It appeared to me that most families used the large pool area as an escape from their ‘suite”.

Review conclusions: I am at a loss to figure out why Disney did not try to make this facility more visually and functionally pleasing. They seem to be using a device that fast food establishments use to move customers along, in and out, that being, loud obnoxious colors, huge boring wall surfaces and very little to no acoustical noise reduction treatment. I am guessing but this just might be a sophisticated marketing ploy to get families to sign up for time-share. It is all about money isn’t it for corporate America. Disney does not seem to care about their employees one bit, from conversations we had with employees during out stay, so keep that in mind when looking at the time-share program. Disney just might treat you the way it treats the people working for it. For us, the Disney time-share at Old Key West was at one end of the continuum and this facility was at the other end in a lot of ways. I think this facility is ok for young families that are raising children and are climbing up, hopefully, the ladder of success but cannot yet afford expensive resort prices. The time-share concept is one solution but I have yet to figure out if it makes sense for us and for whom else does it make sense? I would personally look to facilities outside of Disney property before you come here. Use the Internet to compare prices and then decide. If you do choose to come to Disney’s budget facilities, you do get a wonderful, “free” transportation system.

Tip: Once you are inside this park, no one will ask you where you are staying so you can use any Disney bus to take you from one park to another. If you even want to crash a resort, you probably could do so and no one would be the wiser. The resorts have a LOT more for you to do than just a pool.