All three of the All-Star resorts at Disney World are taking turns to be refurbished. The three hotels are Disney’s All-Star Movies, All-star Music and All-Star Sports resorts. They are part of the 5 Value family resorts at Disney World.
To be honest Disney is slowly doing an overhaul/refurbishment of all of its 25 hotels at Disney World. With all these different hotels going through different refurbishment schedules, plus changes as construction schedule shifts, it is difficult to keep track of every hotel’s status.
So for those who know they want to stay at one of the All-Star’s, you will want to find out which one of the 3 has been renovated.
All-Star Movies room refurbishment schedule
All-Star Movies was the first one to go through renovation. The refurbishment began in 2018 and was originally scheduled to finish in 2019. But it is now finally fully complete. That means when you book a room at All-Star Movies resort, you will get one of the new refurbished rooms. No more making special requests and fearing your request may or may not get honored.
On the Disney World website, for the longest time Disney has not replaced the official room pictures for All-Star Movies. I can understand why they wouldn’t update the pictures yet for a hotel that is not quite done with all of the rooms, in case some guests may still end up getting one of the older ones. But those pictures have now finally been updated to attract more guests.
And the look of the new rooms will definitely draw bookings. As we have covered in this post where we review all 5 Disney’s Value resorts at Disney World, the refurbished rooms at All-Star Movies represent a huge improvement over the old rooms. The work done on these was a complete overhaul of the interior (unlike the refresh done on the rooms at Art of Animation for example).
Given this, this post is dedicated to cover the newly refurbished rooms at All-Star Movies resort.
Décor, coffee area and sleeping area
In these newly renovated rooms, gone is the old carpet. Flooring is now laminate which in my mind is better and cleaner. The room’s main color scheme is white and brown – clean and sleek. Highlight colors are dark red and orange.
You will find a refrigerator, a Cuisine Art 2-cup coffee maker, and an ice bucket. The cupboard is stocked with tea, coffee, creamer, and disposable cups.
We noticed extra shelves in the coffee area as well as the bathroom/dressing areas.
These thoughtful designs are always a bonus for guests, especially for families with young kids who are hauling around a bunch of luggage and diaper bags. Luggage can go underneath the bed.
The sleeping area had the most dramatic improvement from the renovation. The 2 dated tiring looking double beds were replaced with one regular queen-sized bed plus a fold-down queen-sized Murphy bed. The Murphy bed is used as a table when it’s folded up.
If you have only one or two persons in your party, then you can leave the second bed folded up the entire stay, giving yourself much more area and walking space. Even if you are a family of four with 2 young ones, you can fold up the Murphy bed during the day and give the kids a bit extra room to just run around before bed time. Either way this arrangement gives you more flexibility. Given one of the complaints about the old rooms before (be it All-Star Movies or other Value resorts) was that the rooms were tiny, the guests can now feel the rooms are more spacious.
When you do want the Murphy bed pulled down, you just have to pull aside the two chairs. It is super easy for just one person (and we are not talking about Superman or Superwoman) to pull down the Murphy bed and set it up. The mattress for the Murphy bed is comfortable. Don’t mistake the Murphy bed as a sofa bed or anything like that. Both beds are real beds.
Continuing with the rest of the room:- to make sure there’s enough for four people, Disney housekeeping would leave what looks like a gazillion pillows on the one bed when you check in.
Above the headboard on the wall you may find Mickey & Friends above the regular bed. And if you pull down the Murphy bed, then you are greeted by Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck which is quite cute. On the night table next to the bed there’s a phone, power and light switches, and the much-needed upgrade – USB ports.
Who can survive without USB ports these days. When we are on the road, we typically have 5 to 6 devices that need USB ports to charge. We usually bring a splitter with us to make sure that most or all of them can be charged at the same time.
And of course we have a brand new flatscreen TV that’s a pretty good size, and then two more power outlets with another two more USB ports on each side of the table. There’s also a safe and then some more storage in this area.
Right outside the bathroom area is a small dressing area with closet space. You’re going to find an extra pillow, extra blankets and hangers.
Bathroom
The bathrooms are what I consider to be the second biggest improvement from the refurbishment. In the bathroom area you will find an iron, ironing board, hairdryer, and extra toilet paper. You will also find the other usual items such as Kleenex and soap.
In the sink vanity area there is an illuminated mirror. The bathroom actually now has a sliding door compared to a thin curtain before. This is a significant upgrade. You will also find a full-length mirror.
They’ve done some changes to the layout in the dressing area, which actually allows more than one person to get ready at the same time. This could be really useful for families of three or four when the whole family is trying to rush to the theme park in the morning.
In the shower area you’re going to find towel racks with plenty of towels on both sides of the wall. The shower stall is of course brand new with a glass door. You will find both standard hand held as well as rainfall shower head.
And it is stocked with large bottles of Disney H2O+ set of shampoo, conditioner and body wash. Paragraph overall, Disney has done a really good job in the refurbishment of the rooms at all star movies. From the new comfortable queen size Murphy bed, to the new bathroom with more space and amenities, if you have stayed at all star movies a few years ago before the refurbishment, you will be pleasantly surprised if you visit again.
Finally
These refurbishments will definitely make a tremendous difference to your comfort during your vacation. Therefore you should always choose Disney properties that are complete with refurbishment over other hotels. At this point, out of the All-Stars, only Movies is completely done. All-Star Music is mostly done but at All-Star Sports, the renovation hasn’t even started. At All-Star Music you have a good chance of getting a refurbished room, but you are still taking a chance.
To guarantee yourself a refurbished room, book at All-Star Movies. But then if the price difference for the rooms at Pop century is not that big when you book, our recommendation for you is still Pop Century > All-Star Movies > All-Star Music.
To remind all of why we want to get a nicely refurbished room, here’s a picture of the old All-Star movies rooms.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Do not miss our Disney Value Resorts Guide – Family Edition.
Head to Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort Map for the essentials for this resort including a downloadable pdf map.
Don’t forget to check out All-Star Movies resort secret menu item.
What do you think of these new refurbished rooms at All-Star Movies? Were you luck enough to stay at one of these during the last year – then please leave us your thoughts. Or perhaps you have stayed at the All-Star Movies before the renovation. Let us know if the improvements to the All-Star Movies rooms are making you excited enough to bring you back to the resort.
source: Disney
Mother of 2 who disguises as a 9 to 5 finance professional on most days. She loves to travel, is an amateur website builder and cook. And given her day job, she loves travel planning and saving money. Follow along!