Politics aside, the kids are getting their wish to visit Disney World in a few months. I've never been, apparently anyone I ever talk to has gone before. We are going to stay at the Art of Animation resort. Has anyone stayed here? Pros or cons? Any words of wisdom?

Thanks!

How many days and how many parks? Arts of Animation is a decent hotel on property. It's much better than Pop Culture hotel and the food is good too.

How many adults and children in your party?
What size room and amenities did you get?
Are you getting a rental car?

Much more to come in my next post...

-Tony

This message has been edited. Last edited by: benny6,

Mrs.BurtonRW and I enjoy AJ's videos and, like AllEars, she has a team down there pretty much 24/7, so it's good, current information.



-Rob

5 days for fun, plus 2 travel days. 2 adults and 2 young kids. We are staying in the Finding Nemo Villa/Suite. Appear to be decently sized for our stay.
No rental car is planned. We have plans to access each of the 4 parks with a "rest" day squeezed in.

Not a Disney fan myself, but my wife is and we have 2 kids. We've stayed at Art of Animation both times we've visited. It's a no frills, value property, which is why we stay there. My wife likes to go to the parks from sunup to sundown, so we spend very little time at the hotel. The busses leave frequently and you can get to all of the park directly. Their cafeteria is decent with quite a few options. If you're fine with a no frills property and just need a place to crash, or perhaps 1 day at their pool, I think it's fine.

The rules have changed over the last couple of years, so I'll try and keep you updated with current information. For a pleasant day at the parks, it's all about early planning.

Connecting to the system:
If you don't already have it set up, create a My Disney Experience (MDE) account here:
https://disneyworld.disney.go....returnUrl=%2Fplan%2F
Once you have done that, make sure you link your reservation to your account. You can call guest services if you're having difficulty doing this. You should be receiving "magic bands" before your trip. Your magic bands will be used as your park admission tickets and will be linked to your Disney account for lighting lane reservations and virtual queues as well as the memory maker (Disney's on-site photographers).

Use MDE before your trip to get a layout of the park and be sure to look at the restaurants and food vendors to see what foods your family likes.

Hotels and getting around:
Since you're staying on property, use the busses to get everywhere on Disney property, including Disney Springs and the water parks. You only need a rental or your own car if you plan on going off-property for anything else. Busses run an hour or two before the parks open and shut down an hour or two after parks close. There should be a schedule posted and sometimes they have a monitor showing when the next bus is expected to show up. Busses for each park show up in 15 to 30 minute intervals, depending on how many people get on and off between stops and if anyone has a scooter or wheelchair.

Since you're staying on property, you can get into any of the theme parks 30 minutes before opening. It's a perk that only guests staying in Disney hotels get. Use this time to get on the popular rides and get those out of the way early before the line backs up after general admission gets in. Rides like Seven Dwarf's mine rid and Magic Kingdom (MK), Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom (AK), Slinky dog dash at Hollywood Studios (HS) and Ratatouille in EPCOT. The wait times for those rides can easily be 90 minutes to 3 hours.

More to come...

-Tony.

quote:

Originally posted by squad13:
5 days for fun, plus 2 travel days. 2 adults and 2 young kids. We are staying in the Finding Nemo Villa/Suite. Appear to be decently sized for our stay.
No rental car is planned. We have plans to access each of the 4 parks with a "rest" day squeezed in.

How young is young? 0-4 years, 5-8 years? 9 and up? Are strollers involved?

quote:

How young is young? 0-4 years, 5-8 years? 9 and up? Are strollers involved?

5-8. No strollers.

Magic Kingdom is geared toward small kids, 8 and under, the most. For small kids, I'd recommend these rides:
-Peter Pan (use lightning lane)
-Winnie the Pooh
-The Philharmagic show (a nice break from the sun)
-The Little Mermaid ride (I have a friend who is a ride operator for that ride)
-Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (use lightning lane)
-The Mad Teacups
-Dumbo
-Tomorrowland Speedway
-the Carousel
-Pirates of the Caribbean
-The Haunted Mansion (use discretion depending on your child's age and fear factor)
-Jungle Cruise (use lightning lane)
-Magic Carpet Ride (right next to Jungle Cruise)
-Small World

I'll have more tips through the day. Gott a run or I'll be here another hour typing.

-Tony.

Plan, Plan, Plan, then be prepared to change your plans, Disney can be a great vacation or a miserable one. If you just show up without a game plan you will miss a lot, wait in longgg lines and be disappointed. Review Parks, resorts, and entire property maps. Get up and out early. It's going to be HOT when you go. So afternoons at the pool are a good thing. Plenty of forums and trip info on the net. Make restaurant reservations if you want sit down dinners as soon as you can. Visiting their deluxe resorts and dining there is expensive but rewarding. Have Fun.

We were at Disney World back in February, it has changed since the last time we were there in 2019.

They do not have the FastPass system anymore, it’s been replaced by Disney Genie which is a ride reservation system that gets you into the Lightning Lanes, I highly recommend using this there.

Bring a phone battery charger like a FuelRod, between using the Disney app for Genie and taking pics, you’ll run your phone down pretty fast.

quote:

Originally posted by squad13:

quote:

How young is young? 0-4 years, 5-8 years? 9 and up? Are strollers involved?

5-8. No strollers.

Okay. Just a heads up, at the minimum with a half day at the park, we typically walk 3 to 4 miles. You will do A LOT of walking! For a full day and depending on how long you wait in line, you will easily walk 7 miles and as much as 12 miles for the day. Little ones may have trouble with this but you can rent strollers which will be useful for carrying anything your kids might need for the day as well as sunscreen and extra water. if I remember correctly, Kingdom Strollers was a popular stroller rental.

What month will you be here? If it's one of the hotter months, you want to avoid cotton at all costs and carry umbrellas for the sun and the evening rains and large hats with lots of sun cover. I told my friend that you want your clothes to be so light and breathable, you feel as close to naked as possible.

Despite how I feel about Disney, my wife is a Disney nut and bought annual passes for us this year. On her days off, she likes to do a park, so I'm probably at the parks once every 2 to 3 weeks as well as eating at Disney Springs once or twice a month. Plus some of our homeschooler groups do passholder homeshchool meetups at Disney

Tony.

Listen to what Tony has said. And then listen to what Tony has said.

I will add;

Consider a double stroller. We took a double stroller up until the kids were like 6 and 10 years I believe. Not only does it give the kids a break and rest, it also carries stuff like water, food, ponchos, etc and then all that stuff doesn't have to go in a backpack on a hot summer day.

Sunscreen. Carry it, reapply often. Repeat, repeat.

Buy some cheap ponchos on Amazon and bring them. In the summer, it is almost guaranteed that you will get rained on at some point.

In the past you could be here 5 days and play it by ear and wake up and visit which park you wanted based on how you felt. Nowadays, it is all about planning. Check the park hours for all the parks for each day you are here and lay out a plan of attack. Having plans will greatly improve your experience.

If a park is open early and late, do not be afraid to get there when it is open to you as a resort guest, head back to the hotel for lunch and a quick rest, then back to the park in the later afternoon for the evening festivities.

And lastly, have fun. Some of the best memories I have are from when my daughter was around 3-5 years old. Every time we would do a princess meet and great, the look of awe, and I mean true reverence and awe on her face at being able to meet this character she had seen in the movies.... well, it was something so special, that even though she is now 15 years old, I can feel it in my heart as I type this.

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:
Not a Disney fan myself, but my wife is and we have 2 kids. We've stayed at Art of Animation both times we've visited. It's a no frills, value property, which is why we stay there. My wife likes to go to the parks from sunup to sundown, so we spend very little time at the hotel. The busses leave frequently and you can get to all of the park directly. Their cafeteria is decent with quite a few options. If you're fine with a no frills property and just need a place to crash, or perhaps 1 day at their pool, I think it's fine.

This.

I stayed there in August. No frills, but you aren't going to spend time in your room anyway. Just a place to sleep and nothing more.

In August, we didn't get maid service every day. so beds were not made and no new towels unless you asked. Just the nature of cheaper service these days Not sure if they do daily maid service now or not.

we were there during a severe lightning storm which was interesting. We rarely get such storms were I live.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

we were there during a severe lightning storm which was interesting.

The summer thunderstorms make central FL the lightening capital of the world.

But not to worry, it will be black as all get out, windy, lightening, rain coming down sideways and then 45 minutes later it will be clear blue sky and the sun shining bright.

As soon as you create a My Disney account on the computer and the app on your phone start looking at dinning.
You can make dinning reservation in advance at table service restaurants and popular restaurants fill up fast.
If you are going to dine in the parks it is also highly recommended you make reservations.
What kind of food does your family like to eat?

lots of excellent advice, and I'll reiterate the advice on sun screen,
Best to apply it in the room well before you get outside, before you start sweating, because you will sweat, or get rained on LOL.

Take it with you and reapply, if your smaller kids will wear a hat, all the better, FL sun can be deceiving and northern folk with fair skin can burn before you know it.

Having a few sun burnt kids isn't fun times

quote:

What kind of food does your family like to eat?

The kids will be picky per usual. Wife and I are committed to making this trip about the kids, the fine dining experiences are not a requirement.

We are going to try and create a gameplan/itinerary for our stay. Definietly aware that our resort isnt the Ritz, but firmly believe based on what I've read that the kids are going to be over the moon with our selection. Drenched in the Disney experience.

Planning to order some basic grub/snacks through the wal-mart or amazon delivery services. Been told by a few folks that the front desk will accept and hold those packages.

quote:

Originally posted by squad13:

quote:

What kind of food does your family like to eat?

The kids will be picky per usual. Wife and I are committed to making this trip about the kids, the fine dining experiences are not a requirement.

We are going to try and create a gameplan/itinerary for our stay. Definietly aware that our resort isnt the Ritz, but firmly believe based on what I've read that the kids are going to be over the moon with our selection. Drenched in the Disney experience.

Planning to order some basic grub/snacks through the wal-mart or amazon delivery services. Been told by a few folks that the front desk will accept and hold those packages.

If it is about the kids then look at some of the character dinning experiences.
One of the more popular one is Chef Mickie's at the Contemporary Resort. They used to do breakfast and dinner.

Here is a link to the character dinning restaurants listed on the Walt Disney web site.

https://disneyworld.disney.go..../#/character-dining/

Not having a car can make it a little bit of a challenge getting to some of the restaurants however most can be gotten to by using the busses. You first may have to go from your location to a park or Down Town Disney than another bus to the hotel the restaurant is located. From there when you are ready to leave you do something similar to get to where you want to go. Also watch the park operating hours. busses only run a certain amount or time before and after the park operating hours.
If you do this give your self plenty of travel time.

Disney also have a service called the "Minny Van Service" kind of like an Uber. I have never used it so you might want to find out how it works before you arrive at Disney.

I stayed in art and animation a couple of years ago in a suite as well. There was a coffee maker microwave and a mini fridge in the room.

One thing I did to cut costs was ordered groceries through amazon and had them delivered to the room. I think the front desk will hold them if you haven't arrived yet. This allowed us to have snacks for the day carried in backpack and breakfast in the room.