Category — q. Reviews

This is the third page of this review of the Little Mermaid rooms. For the first page, see this.

BEST AND WORST PLACES TO STAY IN THE LITTLE MERMAID AREA OF ART OF ANIMATION

The Little Mermaid Section of Art of Animation has three buildings, numbered 7, 8 and 9.

Seven is the best, and 8 the worst.  Specifically, ask for an Hourglass Lake view room in building 7 closer to the Lion King area.  This will give you the shortest walk, least pool noise, and best views.

DISTANCE, NOISE AND VIEWS IN THE LITTLE MERMAID AREA

Distance. All three Little Mermaid buildings are further away from the core Art of Animation services—the main pool, food court, gift shop, concierge desk, and bus stops—than any other buildings at this hotel.

See the map—where the Little Mermaid buildings are on the left, circled in orange.

For most, this distance will matter little, adding five minutes to ten minutes per round trip of walking.  Many more expensive Disney World resorts have even longer walks.

But anyone aimed at a standard-sized value resort room with a mobility issue ought to consider either renting a wheelchair or scooter, or getting a room closer to core services at another value resort.  (Pop Century is the next highest ranked value resort.)

Of the three buildings, rooms in 8 all have longer walks than rooms in 7 and 9. Seven and 9 are tied for distance, and in 7 and 9, rooms closer to the Lion King area will have a shorter walk.

Noise.  Unlike in the Family Suites at Art of Animation, corridor noise is not much of an issue in the Little Mermaid section. This is because there are twice as many corridors, none are walled on all sides, none are air conditioned, and thus none has a real draw as a pathway to  the resort’s central services.

Noise, to the extent it is an issue, comes from the pool.  One-third of rooms in building 8, and one-sixth of rooms in each of 7 and 9, face the pool.

Views. Two thirds of the rooms in both buildings 8 and 9 have parking lot views; there are no bad views in building 7, though as noted above the pool-view rooms in 7 can be noisy.

Art of Animation and Pop Century are the only value resorts on a lake—Hourglass Lake separates the two.  While there may be some obtuse views of Hourglass Lake from a few of the pool-facing rooms of building 8, a third of building 7 rooms have a view of the lake.

All in, building 7 is the best and 8 the worst of the Little Mermaid buildings.  So ask for a lake-facing building 7 room, as near the Lion King area as possible.  This will give you the shortest walk, least noise and best view!

The best rooms specifically are 7513-7524, 7613-7624, 7713-7724, and 7813 to 7824. The image above is taken from outside of 7813.

On the online check-in form, click “Lake View” and “Near Transportation.”

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MORE ON WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• For where to stay, see this
  • For your next best choices, in order, see this
  • For picking your resort based on appeal to kids, see this
  • For picking your resort based on convenience, see this
  • For where not to stay, see this

• For what you get in each resort price category, see this
  • For Walt Disney World resort price seasons, see this
  • For resort reviews, see this
  • For the value resorts, see this
  • For the moderate resorts, see this
  • For the deluxe resorts, see this
  • For suites at the deluxe resorts, see this
  • For the Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) Resorts, see this

• For a (geeky) overview of comparative room size, see this

• Large families should look at this, and also at
  • Large Families Looking for Value Pricing at Walt Disney World
  • Large Families Looking for Deluxe Accommodations at Disney World
  • Beds and Sleeping Spaces at the Walt Disney World Resorts
  • Renting Disney Vacation Club Points
  • Suites at Walt Disney World

• Military/DOD families should look at this

• Tightwads should look at this

• Families seeking the most comfortable place to stay should see this

For the first page of this review of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, see this.

A PHOTO TOUR OF A STANDARD LITTLE MERMAID ROOM

Standard 4-person Little Mermaid rooms have the same size and a similar layout as those in the other value resorts. It still has full beds, though–with n\most other values having or moving to queen beds.

What’s particularly different is the specific decor, and the deep Disney theming that you won’t find in the other values.

You are “Under the Sea” in this room, a position that the carpet and how it works with curtains  and the beds is meant to reinforce.

Closing your eyes and saying “I believe in orange as an undersea color!  I do!!” helps a bit in getting this.

The room has two full beds, with Sebastian and Flounder between them. The “pearls” on the headboards are reading lights.

Here”s a closer view of the headboards…

…and of Sebastian and Flounder.

Towards the end of the beds, there’s a painting of Prince Eric.

On the other side of the room, you’ll find a table and chairs with a fun light fixture and mirror above, and a dresser with a TV above and a fridge inside. No coffee maker, though…

The chairs are fun for kids, but cheap looking…

…while the table has these sheets from a musical score embedded.

The dresser has the TV above, drawers on one side, and a mini-fridge on the other.

Here’s the drawers and mini-fridge. Note only three drawers. There’s a shelf above the hanging rack in the bath with more storage, and also room for suitcases used for storage on the floor between the fridge and the bath.

The bath is separated from the main living/sleeping area by a curtain.

There’s also coat hooks in this area.  The wall where the coats hooks are is where the door would be in a room outfitted with connecting doors.

Here’s a closer view of the coat hooks.

The bath has a single sink…

…and a large hanging area to its side, with a shelf above it, and an ironing board, iron, and safe.

The toilet and tub are closed off into their own space.  The shower curtain presents the first appearance of Ariel in the room.

The tub surround is themed to Ariel’s lair.

THE FAMILY SUITES AT DISNEY’S ART OF ANIMATION RESORT

This review continues here.

MATERIAL IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S ART OF ANIMATION RESORT

• Overview of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• The Little Mermaid Area and Rooms
• Photo Tour of a Little Mermaid Room
• Overview of the Family Suites Areas
• Accommodations in the Family Suites
• Photo Tour of a Finding Nemo Family Suite (plus bed dimensions, storage, etc)
• Photo Tour of a Lion King Family Suite
• Photo Tour of a Cars Family Suite
• Amenities at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• The Pools at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 150+ stays in them

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

For the first page of this review of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, see this.

LITTLE MERMAID ROOMS AT DISNEY’S ART OF ANIMATION RESORT

Note: guests at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort are eligible for Disney World’s Early Entry program, and for early access to its paid individual system for access to certain rides, but NOT for its Extended Evening Hours.

Disney’s Art of Animation Resort has two very different types of rooms.

One room type, Family Suites, fills the seven most convenient buildings at Art of Animation.

These spaces sleep six in over 500 square feet, and cost $450 to almost $800 a night including tax. See this for more on these Family Suites.

The other room type, standard rooms in the Little Mermaid, is the subject of this page.

Standard rooms at Art of Animation are found in its three least convenient Little Mermaid buildings, and sleep 4 in full beds in about 260 square feet. These rooms cost $180-$330 a night including tax—less than half of what the Family Suites are going for.

These two room types are profoundly different—anyone reserving one but expecting the other is in for a shock.

And you can’t really compare them to each other.  The relevant comparison for standard rooms at Art of Animation is standard rooms at the other four Value Resorts: Pop Century, All-Star Movies, All-Star Sports, and All-Star Music.

Based on this comparison, standard rooms at Art of Animation outshine the alternatives, (except possibly queen bed rooms rooms at Pop Century, All-Star Movies, and All-Star Music) and are this site’s most highly recommended value resort standard rooms.  They have the highest kid appeal of any value resort—for both boys and girls—and this kid appeal outweighs for almost all families their slight deficits in convenience.

That said, Little Mermaid rooms average $80/night more than All-Star rooms, and $40/night more than rooms at Pop…and in the summer approach the prices of moderate resorts. So you are definitely paying for the kid appeal there rooms present.

Note that the long-time travel agent partner of this site, Kelly B., can help you book your Disney World vacation at Art of Animation or anywhere else–contact her at using the form at the bottom of this page

REVIEW: LITTLE MERMAID STANDARD ROOMS AT DISNEY’S ART OF ANIMATION RESORT

Resorts are ranked on this site for first time visitors based first on their kid appeal, and then on their convenience.

On this basis, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort is the best value resort for first time family visitors.

Kid Appeal. Several of the deluxe resorts–notably, the Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge, and Polynesian Resort–have spectacular kid appeal. None of the moderates do.

All of the value resorts–Disney’s All-Star Sports, All-Star Music, and All-Star Movies,  its Pop Century Resort, and Art of Animation–have terrific kid appeal.

This appeal comes from the approach to theming they all share: bright and vibrant exteriors, framing much larger than life objects of interest to kids. These objects reinforce that these resorts were designed for the sake of kids…and not necessarily for adults!

While Art of Animation has taken this theming to a whole new level, both in exteriors and interiors, the exterior theming in the Little Mermaid area is similar in scope and scale to what you will find at the other value resorts.

As you walk into the Little Mermaid area, you are greeted by Prince Eric.

Then you’ll find three large accommodation buildings surrounding a pool.

Outside of each of the three buildings there’s a four-story statue of a character from the movie:

Triton outside of Building 9…

…Ursula outside Building 7…

…and Ariel herself outside of Building 8.

As at the other value resorts, attached to the facades of the buildings are other reminders of the theming.

What distinguishes the Little Mermaid area form the other value resort standard room areas is the pervasive theming inside the rooms themselves.

For example, the Little Mermaid Standard rooms are meant to be “under the sea.”

So the carpet mimics the sea floor, and the window curtain extends the sea floor and brings undersea plants to it…

As a result, Art of Animation has the deepest level of Disney theming ever created in a hotel. If your kids like the movies it represents–Nemo, Little Mermaid, Lion King, Cars–they are going to love this place.

Convenience.  Convenience on this site means transportation convenience in carrying out its itineraries. By that standard, Art of Animation overall is tied with Pop Century Resort for being the most convenient value resort.

Among the values it shares with Pop Century both the most convenient buses and the only value resort access to Disney’s new Skyliner gondola system, which–after a transfer at Caribbean Beach–offers fun, simple routing to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

However, the standard rooms at Art of Animation are the least convenient of all this hotel’s offerings.

See the map.  The standard rooms at Art of Animation are all in the Little Mermaid section, highlighted with the orange circle.

These rooms are by far the least convenient offerings at Art of Animation, being five minutes further away (at worst) from the Skyliner station, central pool, food court and bus stop than other (Family Suite) Art of Animation options.

For most families, this extra few minutes won’t matter; but those with mobility issues might want to consider Pop Century, the next most highly ranked value resort, especially if they are targeting a summer visit or need the queen beds or coffeemakers found in its refurbed rooms.

At Pop, as at the other value resorts, rooms can be found that are much more convenient to the central resort services.

THE LITTLE MERMAID ROOMS THEMSELVES

Little Mermaid room layouts at Art of Animation are pretty much identical what was formerly found in standard rooms in the other value resorts.

However, refurbs at Pop Century, All-Star Movies, and All-Star Music have added queen beds and coffeemakers to those resort.  So the only clear comparable these days is All-Star Sports, which like these rooms still has full beds and no coffeemakers–but even All-Star Sports may be getting queens soon.

See the floor plan. These rooms have two full beds, a table and chairs, a dresser with a TV on top and a mini-fridge inside, and a divided bath.

And as in the other value resorts, this room is about as small as it can be and still fit two beds.

Note that some says that these rooms are slightly larger than other value resort rooms, at 277 square feet, rather than 260.

In fact, these rooms are no bigger than those at the other value resorts.

My tape measure got all the major dimensions as within an inch or so of those at Pop Century.   For this room to have 17 more square feet, it would need to have been a foot and a half longer, or nine inches wider, or 6 inches more in both dimensions, or some such, than All-Star Music.

My measuring isn’t perfect, but I would have noticed that big a dimensional difference…so I’ve got it as 260 square feet, same as the other value resorts.

BEST AND WORST PLACES TO STAY IN THE LITTLE MERMAID AREA OF ART OF ANIMATION

The Little Mermaid Section of Art of Animation has three buildings, numbered 7, 8 and 9.

Seven is the best, and 8 the worst.  Specifically, ask for an Hourglass Lake view room in building 7 closer to the Lion King area.  This will give you the shortest walk, least pool noise, and best views.

Distance. Building 8 is furthest from the Skyliner, central services and bus stop, Buildings 7 and 9 closer.

Noise.  Unlike in the Family Suites at Art of Animation, corridor noise is not much of an issue in the Little Mermaid section. This is because there are twice as many corridors, none is walled on all sides, none is air conditioned, and thus none has a real draw as a pathway to  the resort’s central services.

Noise, to the extent it is an issue, comes from the pool.  One-third of rooms in building 8, and one-sixth of rooms in each of 7 and 9, face the pool.

Views. Two thirds of the rooms in both buildings 8 and 9 have parking lot views; there are no bad views in building 7, though as noted above the pool-view rooms in 7 can be noisy.

Art of Animation and Pop Century are the only value resorts on a lake—Hourglass Lake separates the two.  While there may be some obtuse views of Hourglass Lake from a few of the pool-facing rooms of building 8, a third of building 7 rooms have a view of the lake.

All in, building 7 is the best and 8 the worst of the Little Mermaid buildings.  So ask for a lake-facing building 7 room, as near the Lion King area as possible.  This will give you the shortest walk, least noise and best view!

The best rooms specifically are 7513-7524, 7613-7624, 7713-7724, and 7813 to 7824.

The long-time travel agent partner of this site, Kelly B., can help you book your Disney World vacation at Art of Animation or anywhere else–contact her using the form below:

A PHOTO TOUR OF A STANDARD LITTLE MERMAID ROOM

This review continues here.

MATERIAL IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S ART OF ANIMATION RESORT

• Overview of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• The Little Mermaid Area and Rooms
• Photo Tour of a Little Mermaid Room
• Overview of the Family Suites Areas
• Accommodations in the Family Suites
• Photo Tour of a Finding Nemo Family Suite (plus bed dimensions, storage, etc)
• Photo Tour of a Lion King Family Suite
• Photo Tour of a Cars Family Suit
• Amenities at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
• The Pools at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 150+ stays in them

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

For the first page of this review of the Family Suites at All-Star Music, click here.

THE FAMILY SUITE BEDS AT ALL-STAR MUSIC

One key difference between the Family Suites at All-Star Music and those at Art of Animation is the number of beds.

Each has a queen in the master bedroom and a two-person fold-out sofa. After that come the differences:

• The final two spots at Art of Animation are together in a fold-down dining table sleeping two
• The final two spots in All-Star Music are in two separate beds, one folding out of an ottoman, the other folding out of a chair

These last two sleeping spots are much more comfortable at Art of Animation, but–so long as one of your kids is short and light, and also has not named you in his or her will–much more flexible at All-Star Music. [Read more →]

THE 2013 UNOFFICIAL GUIDE: BEST DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOK IN A DECADE

The 2013 edition of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World came out in late August.

This installment of the series of guidebooks that has been ranked #1 on this site since it opened is the best in a decade.

The 2013 update includes

• Nice material on potential ways FASTPASS+ will operate (85-86)
• Good updates on the Art of Animation Resort and on the Fantasyland expansion, and
• Some other updated frank assessments—e.g. sharp fresh material on the Downtown Disney Resort Area (197).

Most importantly, it’s finally taken the old presentation of the Studios—which combined it with Universal and Sea World, an approach that has made no sense since 1999 (when Islands of Adventure opened), and little sense even before then—and divided it so that each of these parks has its own section.

This puts the Studios at the same level as the other three Disney World theme parks, while at the same time giving appropriate prominence to the non-Disney parks.

Another nice change is much more detail in the Table of Contents, with 11 pages compared to last year’s 4, making it work nicely as a topical index, and the material of the Guide more findable.  (The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2013 still has almost 40 pages of indexes at the back, a page more than last year.)

These last two changes together fundamentally improve the usability of the Guide–and are why it’s the best Disney World guidebook released in the last decade.

The team also did a really nice job at fixing last year’s errors, although a few new ones have crept in (and/or I’ve noticed them for the first time). (Frequent readers of this site know that my expertise is more in creating errors than in noticing or fixing them…)

Overall, the work is nicely updated—including late breaking (at publication date) stuff like the 2013 shift of evening Extra Magic Hours from 2 hours to 3 (39). This makes it all the more surprising that there’s a lot of outdated or just incorrect schedule info—e.g.

• The schedule of “typical” Extra Magic Hours (40) is anything but—shifting the second Animal Kingdom morning EMH from Friday to Wednesday would have made it indeed typical.
• Neither of the first two sentences in the second full para on 539 “The evening parade is staged once or twice each evening, depending on the season. During less busy seasons, the parade is presented only on weekends…” is correct, and of course the first essentially contradicts the second. An accurate statement would be “Evening parade performances vary by season, happening as often as twice a night during the busy times of year, to two or three times a week during the less busy seasons.”
• The material on Fantasmic staging is less factually incorrect, but only because it uses the words “at least,” and in its overall impression is similarly outdated (618)

There’s many other updates and additions—see Len Testa’s highlights of what’s different for 2013 here.

OTHER TYPOS, ERRORS, AND QUESTIONABLE JUDGMENTS

Accommodations.  As usual, most of the errors I’ve noticed are in the “Accommodations” section…perhaps because I’m one of the few geeks on earth to have recently stayed for multiple nights in every single Disney World owned and operated hotel…

Errors, or questionable interpretations, in the 2013 material on accommodations include:

• I don’t see how the Port Orleans resorts are “centrally located,” but Coronado Springs is not. (115)  The Port Orleans resorts were centrally located until Animal Kingdom opened, perhaps…but Coronado Springs is about as close to Epcot, the Studios and Magic Kingdom as are the Port Orleans resorts, and is much closer to the Animal Kingdom. So both are central or neither is…
• The Cabins at Fort Wilderness are not “the most cost-efficient Disney lodgings for groups of five or six persons” (116).  For five people, the Alligator Bayou rooms at Port Orleans Riverside are the most cost efficient, and for six, the Family Suites at All-Star Music are the most cost efficient.
• The floor plan for the Contemporary (119) has been out of date for a while—although the write-up beginning on 146 is correct.
• The material at the bottom of 120 is much improved compared to the equivalent last year, but it still gets capacities of 4 vs. 5 and 8 vs. 9 wrong, and has comically promoted the Treehouses to Grand Villas
• The dining room chairs in the Art of Animation Family Suite floor plan have been randomly scattered around the suite (122), creating a false impression that the master bedroom can double as a conference room.
• Saratoga Springs has some real weaknesses, but it seems a bit much to ding it three times for lacking character meals (table on 168)
• The final sentence in the para on 178 that begins “Each of Riverside’s 2,048 rooms…”—“All rooms feature two queens or one king”—should be corrected to include the 5th sleeping spot in Alligator Bayou rooms.
• The material on the Animal Kingdom Lodge has a strong discussion of the Kidani vs. Jambo villas…but seemingly at the expense of enough material on standard Jambo rooms.
• The Family Suites at All-Star Music don’t have “two chair beds”—they have a chair bed and an ottoman bed.

Other errors

• Captain EO is “Not to be Missed” (554)? I fear this is a typo copied over from another book in the Unofficial Guides series, the “Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World for Zombies”
• There’s no “Magic Kingdom” at the Disneyland Resort…there’s a Disneyland! (94)
• The reader comment on free admission on birthdays (773) should be eliminated, since the program has stopped

The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2013 doesn’t have the gorgeous images and sprightly prose of The Complete Walt Disney World, nor the clarity and fun design of PassPorter’s Walt Disney World.

What is has, instead, is the most comprehensive and best-organized Disney World vacation information you can find in a guidebook. The 2013 edition started from a strong base, made it much better, and is in sum the best Disney World guidebook I’ve seen in years!

(Disclosure: As noted here, since summer 2011 I’ve had a business relationship with TouringPlans.com, part of the Unofficial Guide intergalactic empire.)

For the first page of this review of the Family Suites at All-Star Music, click here.

THE FAMILY SUITES AT ALL-STAR MUSIC FOR FIRST-TIME VISITORS

Resorts are ranked on this site for first time family visitors based first on their kid appeal, and then on their convenience.

On this basis, the Family Suites at All-Star Music are the second-best choice for larger families seeking value pricing, after the Family Suites at Art of Animation.

Art of Animation has much more kid-appeal than All-Star Music, and a bit more convenience. (For more on All-Star Music, the overall resort within which the Family Suites at All-Star Music are found, see this.)

However, the Family Suites at Art of Animation are not just a clone of those at All-Star Music.  There are differences in floor plans and livability that may make a difference to some families, and Art of Animation is on the order of 20% more expensive.

So I’ll do a space by space comparison by means of a photo-tour of the All-Star Music Family Suites. To avoid confusion, all the images on this page will be of Music; you can find the equivalents from Art of Animation here.

PHOTO TOUR OF ALL-STAR MUSIC FAMILY SUITES

Starting outside the room itself, the corridors at Music are outside, and the corridors at Art of Animation are inside. This means heated and cooled, so in general that’s a plus for AofA.

However, the design also means that any corridor at Art has twice as much traffic as at Music (because there are half as many of them…), and there’s more reason for people to use them (since they are heated and cooled).

This results in much more corridor noise at Art in general, and particularly on the first floor corridors that lead from the elevator bank to the direction of the main building, main pool, and bus stops.

Inside the rooms, Music has a larger and more livable living space than Art of Animation.

The smaller chair (the red one) is much larger than the equivalent chair at AofA, and as a result the chair and sofa together can seat 5, compared to 4 at AofA.

The two large, cushioned ottomans have no real equivalent at AofA.  Overall, the living room Music can comfortably seat a family of 6, while the living room at AofA can seat six, but not comfortably.

The other side of the Music living room has an area with drawers and a TV, and a small table and chairs.

The table is much smaller than the equivalent at Art of Animation, which has a real dining table, and  Music has only chairs for three (the third chair coming from the desk in the master bedroom).

The Art of Animation dining table will fit six–though two will be uncomfortable, as only four of its seating spots have knee space.

Art of Animation has a little more drawer space than Music, but this is a little deceiving, as Music has more overall storage space, with much larger closets, and many more storage shelves and cabinets in its mini kitchen than AofA.

The baths at Art of Animation win over those at Music in every way but one.  They have actual doors for privacy and quiet, and decor that’s both lovelier and more kid-appealing.

The dimension where some families may find a difference is that one of the two baths at AofA is entered from the master bedroom, while both baths at Music can be accessed without entering the parent’s room.

Some parents will prefer the AofA private bath; others, on the theory that the kids will use both regardless of their wishes, will prefer that at Music, where the kids don’t have to come into their room to use either bath.

The mini-kitchen at Music is much better than that at AofA.

At Art of Animation, it’s a 4×2 foot space in the corner of the living room; Music has an alcove mini-kitchen with much more counter and storage space.

For first time family visitors–who won’t be using this space much–it hardly matters, and both spaces have the same equipment.  But for families intending to really work out their microwave and store a lot of food, All-Star Music prevails.

Overall, the master bedroom at Music is better than at Art of Animation.

The beds are equivalent, but Music adds a desk and easy chair, both of which AofA lacks.

This lets the master bedroom serve better as a retreat from the kids than the equivalent space at AofA.

The master at Art of Animation has more in-room storage than Music, has closet rods in the room itself (at Music they are in the bath area) and, as noted above, has “private” access to the second bath.

So here’s where we are so far: compared to those at All-Star Music, Art of Animation Family Suites have MUCH better kid appeal, and slightly better convenience; the dining space at Art of Animation is much better and the baths largely better.  Music Family Suites have more livable living rooms and master bedrooms, and a more flexible mini-kitchen.

THE FAMILY SUITE BEDS AT ALL-STAR MUSIC

This review continues here.

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