By the co-author of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2020, the best-reviewed Disney World guidebook series ever.

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Theming and Accommodations at Disney’s All-Star Music Resort



By Dave Shute

For the first page of this review of Disney’s All-Star Music Resort, click here.

ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S ALL-STAR MUSIC RESORT

Disney’s All-Star Music Resort is one of 5 value resorts at Walt Disney World:

Among the five, for most first-time visitors who may never return, Art of Animation is the best choice, followed by Pop Century. All-Star Music comes in last among the values.

Jazz Stairs Disney's All-Star Music Resort from yourfirstvisit.net

Two value resorts also have six-person family suites–

–and for family suites, too, for most families, Art of Animation is the best choice, although in some circumstances those at Music are the better choice.

Among the five value resorts, for standard four person rooms Art of Animation rooms are the most expensive, and next Pop Century.  Standard rooms at all the All-Stars have the same, lowest pricing, on average $45 less per night than Pop Century, and $90 less per night than Art of Animation. Family suites at All-Star Music are much less expensive than Family Suites at Art of Animation, on average $185 per night less.

All-Star Music completed a room refurb project in 2021, replacing in its standard rooms the old full beds with queen beds, and adding coffeemakers to the rooms.

All-Star Music Family Suites were also renovated, switching to much more comfortable fold-down queen beds in the living room area, and re-shaping the second bath and kitchenette area so that the second bath now works as a private master bath.

Standard Four Person Room

Four person room sizes are similar across all five value resorts.  Art of Animation has the best theming, and All-Stars Sports and Music the weakest (unless your family particularly resonates with the depicted themes at these two).

Until recently, all four person value resort standard rooms offered two full beds (the beds at Music are shown above), but you will now find queen beds in Pop Century, All-Star Movies, All-Star Music, and in refurbed rooms in All-Star Sports.

Above is the floor plan of a refurbed standard four person room at All-Star Music. There’s a full photo tour of a standard room at All-Star Music here.

There’s two price classes of four person rooms here–preferred rooms and standard rooms. Preferred rooms are closer to the main pool and the central services in and bus stop outside Melody Hall.

Family Suite, Living Room Side

Family Suites at All-Star Music accommodate six in a space twice the size of a standard four person room.  Half the space is a living area and bath that includes two fold-down queen beds–one behind the couch, and a second behind the table.


The other half of the All-Star Music Family Suite space includes a kitchenette and a master bedroom with a queen bed with a private bath. The floor plan above is out of date, but gives a sense of the proportions of the spaces.

Family Suites are available in the Calypso and Jazz areas of All-Star Music. A detailed review of an All-Star Music Family Suite begins here.

THE THEMED AREAS AT DISNEY’S ALL-STAR MUSIC RESORT

Disney’s All-Star Music Resort officially pays homage to “classic music genres—including Broadway show tunes, calypso, country, jazz and rock n’ roll…Guest rooms are divided into 5 pairs of 3-story buildings—each bright, whimsical pair is themed after one of the featured music genres and decorated with massive musical instruments.”

Disney’s All-Star Music Resort has 1604 rooms in ten identical three-story buildings, all with elevators.

These buildings are in five areas, each themed with external decorations and structures about a different musical genre:

  • Buildings 1 and 10, Calypso
  • Buildings 2 and 9, the Jazz Inn
  • Buildings 3 and 4, the Rock Inn
  • Buildings 5 and 6, Country Fair
  • Buildings 7 and 8, Broadway Hotel

The buildings don’t distinctly draw fans of their genres.  Line dancing does not spontaneously break out at Country Fair, nor is there the equivalent of the Notting Hill Carnival at Calypso.

Map Disney's All-Star Music Resort

Rather, the distinction among these areas is the tradeoff of distance from the main services at Melody Hall versus peace and serenity.

Calypso at Disney's All-Star Music Resort from yourfirstvisit.net

Calypso is closest to the main services, and is thus sold as “preferred” rooms.

Calypso at Disney's All-Star Music Resort from yourfirstvisit.net (2)

It offers both standard rooms and family suites. I don’t recommend Calypso for two reasons:

  1. Unless your family has mobility issues, the nearness to Melody Hall isn’t worth the extra money
  2. About a third of the rooms in each building face the main pool, and hence suffer from noise issues

All-Star Music (and the other values) is often dinged for being “too large and spread-out.” This is an inaccurate criticism, as each of the values fits into a much smaller footprint than any of the three larger moderates, leading to much less walking than at the moderates.

Moreover, All-Star Music has a particularly compact and charming layout.

The Country Fair area is the most distant from Melody Hall–see the map. It and the rest of the building areas other than Calypso are symmetrically built around the lovely walkway from Melody Hall to Country Fair, and equally surround the smaller Piano Pool.

This design leads to a more understandable layout, and also yields a strong central axis to the resort that makes it feel more coherent than the other All-Stars.

Jazz at Disney's All-Star Music Resort from yourfirstvisit.net (4)

The Jazz Inn is the first set of buildings along this axis after Calypso.

Jazz at Disney's All-Star Music Resort from yourfirstvisit.net (2)

It combines the loveliness of its courtyard, nearness to Melody Hall, and distance from pool noise into the better choice among the two preferred areas here. Like Calypso, you’ll find both standard rooms and family suites here.

Rock-Disneys-All-Star-Music-Resort

After the Jazz Inn, you’ll see the Rock Inn on your right.

Rock Inn guitars.

On your left is the Broadway Hotel.

Broadway at Disney's All-Star Music Resort from yourfirstvisit.net (2)

It has a charming little garden right at the edge of the parking lot.

Country at Disney's All-Star Music Resort from yourfirstvisit.net

Country Fair is ahead…

Country Courtyard at Disney's All-Star Music Resort from yourfirstvisit.net

…with a large cactus-garden area separating its two buildings…

…and banjos.

The symmetry of these three sets of buildings around the Piano Pool makes them about equally preferable. Country Inn feels more remote–particularly its woods-facing rooms in the back–but the rooms in Rock Inn and Broadway Hotel nearest to the parking lots are only a little bit closer to Melody Hall. The Rock Inn parking lot can be subject to noise from youth groups that stage here, making Broadway Hotel a better choice than it.

Because of the family suites, All-Star Music can hold a slightly smaller number of people than the other two All-Stars.  This can make it a tad less crowded.

Moreover, its lower kid-appeal, and higher adult-appeal, can make it a tiny bit less noisy and boisterous than the other All-Stars.

Among the All-Stars, Music’s strength for first time family visitors is the availability of family suites.

Its negatives compared to the other values include less broadly interesting theming and sometimes inconvenient transportation.

PHOTO TOUR OF A STANDARD ROOM AT DISNEY’S ALL-STAR MUSIC RESORT

This review continues here.

MATERIAL IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S ALL-STAR MUSIC RESORT

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4 comments

1 John { 08.03.13 at 10:30 pm }

Dave,

We are planning a 12 day trip. I have a family of 5 so we would get a suite. My mother and sister will be joining us for the last 6 days and would only need a regular room. My mom has had both knees replaced and will be using a wheelchair for some of the parks. Is there a section of the hotel where the suites and regular rooms are close to each other and what would you guess are the chances of getting a suite and regular room close to each other. We are thinking about November 13 – 24 dates.

2 Dave { 08.04.13 at 9:15 am }

Hey John, as noted both the Jazz and Calypso sections have both room types. As I recall–but my memory is weak–my suite in Calypso was right next to a standard room, so it’s possible you’ll be very close. DIsney won’t guarantee this, and the different arrival dates make it even less likely that you’ll be real close, but I don’t know enough to quote any odds.

I’d suggest for your mom that you pony up for the preferred rooms in Calypso, which are closest to the main resort services and bus stops. Standard rooms are about $16/night (plus tax) more expensive there.

Then link up your reservations on the My DIsney Experience site, and when you do online check in 60 days before for the suite, request either or both of Calypso and “near transportation.” (Both choices may not be offered, but at least the second will.)

Hope this helps…

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3 Shannon { 08.11.13 at 6:54 pm }

We stayed in jazz last year. 2 teens and 2 adults. Had joining rooms and worked out great.

4 Dave { 08.12.13 at 8:39 am }

Thanks, Shannon!

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