All Star Movies: Not So Bad After All

Arriving at All Star Movies last Wednesday night was rather anti-climactic. It always looks like such a fun place, with all those giant movie icons. But as I waited to check in, I couldn’t help but notice how poorly the reception area was aging, how the printer they were using for Guest parking passes was leaving black smears along the side of each print, and just how much less glamourous the whole place felt compared to my beloved Pop Century. Sigh. I’d booked All Star Movies because I wanted to try something new, and because I didn’t want to stay at Pop Century without my son, as its our usual pick and I knew I’d be plenty homesick for him even without those giant 8-track tapes staring me in the face.

The resort did grow on me, though, after a day or two. I was staying in the Mighty Ducks building, so I used the All Star Music food court and bus stop far more often than my home resort. The fact that I was reasonably close to both of those bus stops came in handy later in the week, as the bus system kept dynamically rearranging itself. Some days all three All Star Resorts were served by a single bus, some days each resort had its own bus back from the parks, and some days Sports and Music shared a bus (with a super-long line on at least one occasion) while Movies had its own. And I never saw any real crowding in the food courts, though that might be because I was rarely in them after 8:00am.

The Housekeeping Cast was superb. I’ve already written to Guest Communications to express my thanks for a job well done, and I hope the notes and tips I left also let the Cast Member know how Magical they’d made my stay. The room was very well-kept, and happy surprises greeted me almost every evening. I have never seen such lovely towel animals! Is this one a reindeer? A swan with horns? Perhaps its identity crisis is what draws me to it.

I knew that Pop Warner was in town, and a little research online told me that their blocks were at Sports and Music, but not Movies. Still, the uproar on the interwebs got me a little paranoid….would I be able to hear Illuminations over the roar of Cheer? Would I be woken up at 2:00am by some sort of disturbance, or at 5:00am by Cheer practice? But truly, I never would have known they were. Shockingly enough, something that sounded like a big deal over the Interwebs turned out to be a boggart, at least if one is not staying in Sports itself.

Pop Century remains my favorite of the Value resorts, but I wouldn’t mind staying at the All Stars again.

Three gay caballeros at All Star Music

Woof!

The Fantasia Pool at night