We won’t make you wait for our conclusion. Yes. In our opinion the All Star Resorts are absolutely worth the price… if you are on a budget and want to get the Disney experience.

Now, are the All Star Resorts the best value you can get from a Disney World resort? Well, that’s another question. Depends on what you value. The following post is just our opinion. We’ll try to be clear about our own preferences and explain why we feel the way we do. There are some caveats that we’ll add. Read on to find out more.

What are the All Star Resorts?

The All Star Resorts are not one, not two, but three hotel complexes sharing the same grounds in the Animal Kingdom area of Disney World. Each All Star Resort is quite large on its own, featuring 10 buildings that are three-stories tall. Combined, they are Disney World’s largest resort complex with over 5000 rooms (second place is Pop Century with just under 3000 rooms). The All Star Resorts are also the three cheapest of the Disney World value resorts. The other value resorts are Pop Century, Art of Animation, and Fort Wilderness Campsites. In comparison to moderate and deluxe resorts, using Disney’s classification system, the value resorts have the smallest rooms, no pool slide, and fewer dining and recreation options, like no table service, spas, or bike rentals. They still offer some recreation activities like scavenger hunts, arts and crafts, and poolside games.

As their names suggest, the three resorts are themed to sports, music, and movies. The buildings in each resort are decorated to a specific subtheme. All Star Sports features football-themed Touchdown Hotel, baseball-themed Homerun Hotel, basketball-themed Hoops Hall, tennis-themed Center Court, and surfing-themed Surf’s Up. All Star Music has Calypso, Jazz Inn, Rock Inn, Country Fair, and Broadway Hotel. All Star Movies has Toy Story, Fantasia, Love Bug, 101 Dalmatians, and Mighty Ducks.

So, what do the All Star Resorts do right and where might they fall short? We’ll explore key aspects such as the experience they provide, the rooms, dining options, and transportation. After that, we’ll compare the three resorts, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. Lastly, we’ll share our final verdict.

The Disney Experience

If you’ve never stayed at a Disney World Resort and you’re looking for the Disney Experience on a budget, then in our opinion, the All Star Resorts are a no brainer. The main reason we feel this way is that Disney really tries to give you the “Disney Experience” even though you’re paying considerably less than you would to stay at a moderate or deluxe resort. Disney does a good job of keeping the price down without bringing the Disney-ness down. Sure, you might get rooms with less “rizz” than you would at a higher end resort, but you sure get a whole lot of Disney vibes for the price. In fact, more than most Disney resorts, we’d say.

The Disney atmosphere at All Stars hits you when you enter the resort grounds. It doesn’t matter which section you stay in, it feels like Disney. The landscaping is beautiful, and the buildings are adorned by giant iconic statues that are impressive in size and design. The statues at All Star Movies directly reference Disney characters, like Woody and Buzz from Toy Story and Pongo and Perdita from 101 Dalmatians. All Star Music has giant musical instruments and a Broadway section with marquees featuring musicals like Aladdin, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Frozen. All Star Sports has statues representing football, tennis, baseball, and basketball, with grounds that resemble playing fields and courts. Although not Disney-specific, these statues still feel like Disney theming.

Even the pools have statues of Disney characters. The baseball-themed Grand Slam Pool at All Star Sports features Goofy on the pitcher’s mound firing a water cannon. All Stars Movies has the Fantasia Pool with Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice summoning water jets that spray swimmers. All Star Music has the guitar-shaped Calypso Pool with a statue of Donald Duck as part of the Three Caballeros.

The Disney vibe continues when you get to your room. Like other resorts, when we entered the room, the TV was displaying a personalized welcome message to our family. But one thing we don’t always get at the other resorts were towels wrapped into the shape of Mickey ears on our bed. It was a nice greeting. Hung on the wall above the headboard was Disney art featuring Minnie, Mickey, and Donald. Their happy expressions brightened up the room almost as much as the lights incorporated into their picture frames.

In short, the All Star Resorts are actually some of the best resorts for theming in all of Disney, in our opinion. We recommend Movies if you want the strongest Disney vibe. It has the most recognizable Disney characters and settings, but each resort has its own charm (see the section below where we compare and contrast them).

The Rooms

What can we say? The rooms were pretty standard. They reminded us a lot of the rooms at Pop Century, another value resort. While not as nice as the moderate and deluxe resorts we’ve stayed at (obviously!), they were still good. There was enough room for the 4 of us and the furnishings were clean and comfortable.

All of the rooms are motel-style rooms with exterior entries and stairwells and no inner hallways. If stairs aren’t your thing, each building has a set of elevators to bring you up to your floor. The standard rooms sleep up to four adults and have a queen bed and a queen-size Murphy bed that pulls down from the wall. When retracted the murphy bed functions as a table and when lowered it reveals more Disney art hidden above the headboard. The queen bed we slept on was comfortable enough, and our kids had no complaints about the murphy bed (Disney calls these “table beds”). Just don’t expect luxurious linens and plush duvets. The room also had a TV, dresser, safe, hairdryer, beverage cooler, and coffee maker. The coffee maker in our room was a single serve Cuisinart model that came with Joffrey’s coffee pods, not K-cup style capsules.

The only All Star Resort to have suites is All Star Music. They have Family Suites with a queen bed and two pull down beds that sleep up to six adults. One pull down bed acts as a table, and the other as a couch. This arrangement is nice because it provides lots of seating when stowed. The queen size bed is in a separate room with its own bathroom. The suites also have a kitchenette with a refrigerator, sink, and microwave oven. The only other value resort to have family suites is Art of Animation.

We’re happy to report that the air conditioning was very effective at keeping the room cold during the hot summer month of our visit. In fact, it was too cold for some of us, which turned the thermostat into a bit of a battleground. Suffice it to say, you should be able to find the right temperature for your comfort levels.

Although the walls were not exactly soundproof, they offered reasonable privacy. The one thing that did not give privacy were the doors in the bathroom area. There is a barn door leading to the sink area, then another barn door leading to the toilet and tub/shower space. Whoever thought of putting such non-private doors in such private spaces needs to rethink their decisions! We still made it work.

Dining

The dining options at the All Star Resorts, to be honest, are not very exciting. Each resort has its own quick service restaurant. All Star Sports has an End Zone Food Court, All Star Music has Intermissions Food Court, and All Star Movies has the World Premiere Food Court. Guests at any of the All Star Resorts can dine at any of the restaurants, and they all have mobile ordering. We always found plenty of seating and the dining areas were clean, for the most part.

All of the food courts are pretty similar in our experience. The menus are very kid friendly with plenty of burger, chicken, pizza, and hotdog options. There are also quick grab sections where you can find food and drinks to take on the go.

Each food court has its own signature dish, which during our visit were three different specialty hamburgers. The food court at All Star Movies was the only one to have a sundae station where you can order hand scooped ice cream. In fact, it’s the only value resort with such an option. We treated ourselves to the sundaes on several nights of our stay and found them to be a nice treat at the end of a long, hot day at the parks.

Transportation

We’ve grown spoiled from our stays at the Epcot and Magic Kingdom resorts where you can hop on the Skyliner, boat, or monorail to get to a variety of destinations. At the All Star Resorts, guests only have access to bus transportation. This is not a bad option and beats driving yourself as the bus dropoff at the parks is often much closer than the parking lots to the front gates. Still, it can feel restrictive to Disney World veterans if you only have one way to get around.

When we stayed in the summer of 2024, each All Star Resort had its own bus. This was great because we didn’t have to compete for seats with the other All Star guests. We also didn’t have to make extra stops at the other resorts on our way to and from the parks. However, we have heard of times when Disney will have the three resorts share a bus so there is a risk that this could happen during your stay. We make no promises!

Movies, Music, or Sports? Which is the Best Disney All Star Resort?

Ah, the age-old question. Ok, so maybe this isn’t an age-old question, but it was one of the top of our minds before our first stay here. We don’t think this is a one-size-fits all situation, so read below for our recommendations and logic behind them.

All Stars Music has the most central location of the three, which is why we chose this resort for our stay. It gave us the best access to the pools and food courts at the other All Star resorts. They weren’t exactly short walks from our room, but they weren’t too bad. We managed it on hot days and even in the rain by finding shady paths and using covered walkways along the buildings. We recommend All Star Music resort if you have a similar intention of trying everything at All Stars.

All Stars Music is also the only one that has family suites that sleep up to six adults. For this reason, it’s the best option for large families or groups that don’t mind sharing a room. If you’re not interested in taking advantage of the family suites or its central location, we suggest passing on All Stars Music and going with one of the others.

All Star Sports is great if you’re a sports fan. The sports theme is larger than life, with amazing attention to detail. It’s fun just to walk around the grounds. You can request rooms in buildings with these themes: football, baseball, basketball, tennis, and surfing. However, you’re not guaranteed to get your choice. If hockey is your sport, you may want to consider staying at All Star Movies and asking for the Mighty Ducks sections, which even has a hockey themed pool.

The biggest advantage of All Star Sports is that it’s the resort that is closest to the front entrance of the resort area. This means it has the shortest bus ride to the other parks. This may sound like a minor advantage, but when buses are the only mode of transportation, saving a few minutes means more time having fun at the parks.

All Star Movies has the best Disney theming, hands down. This is the best option for people who really want to be surrounded by the most Disney adornments. It’s also the least spread out so the walk to the main lobby building and food court is, on average, the shortest.

Another perk of All Star Movies, as we noted earlier, is that it’s the only All Star Resort to have hand-scooped ice cream. Although all All Star Resort goers are free to get the ice cream, it will just be a longer walk. Maybe not such a bad thing if you want to burn off those calories!

As far as pools go, we can’t make any strong recommendations here. The pools were all great. Any guest can go to any of the pools. We liked the Grand Slam Pool at All Star Sports because of its square shape, fun water cannon, and it wasn’t as crowded. The most spectacular was the Sorcerer’s Apprentice pool, which was spacious and had a nice backdrop. None of the pools were bad in our opinion, although the piano pool at All Stars Music was probably the smallest and seemed crowded for its size. But it did have great music!

Final Verdict

Overall, we enjoyed the All Star Resorts. We think they’re great options in 2024 for the price. You could surely find something cheaper “off property”, but it wouldn’t be Disney. The theming and convenient bus transportation make this a great option for guests that crave Disney and plan on visiting the Disney parks during their stay. Guests also get 30 minute early entry access to the parks. Plus, there’s something nice about heading back to your Disney-themed room at the end of the day that will make you smile.

We also suggest considering All Star Resorts even if you have a bigger budget. If you’re not picky about your room, you might be able to cram in a few extra nights for the same price. Six nights at an All Star Resort might be cheaper than four nights at a moderate resort or even two nights at a deluxe resort. While not right for everyone, that’s a value that’s hard to ignore.

That said, we will likely not be staying at All Stars very often. The lack of transportation options is a bit of a deal breaker for us. We’d prefer to pay the extra money to be able to walk, Skyliner, boat, or monorail to the parks. As locals and annual passholders, we prefer to save up and splurge on our Disney World stay-cations.

So there you have it: our honest opinion of Disney’s All Star Resorts in 2024. We enjoyed our stay and don’t regret giving it a try. It’s a good value and will give you the Disney experience you crave. Try it out if you think it’s right for you!