All Star Music Resort Review and Guide – Walt Disney World
Our full All Star Music Resort Review and Guide has all the details you need to know about one Disney World’s most budget-friendly resort hotels! Walt Disney World currently has five Value Resorts located on Disney property, three of which showcase the same general theme but with a slightly different topic focus. Sharing the same land area as All Star Movies and All Star Sports, Disney’s All Star Music Resort features the overall feel of its two companion resorts with a musical twist. This resort offers all of the value level amenities, along with special activities, fun theming, and newly refurbished rooms.
You can often find Standard Room rates at Disney’s All Star Music Resort for around $100 per night before tax, although this can change depending on availability and time of year. All three All Star Resorts typically have a similar price range for Standard Rooms, while Pop Century and Art of Animation Resort are usually a bit higher in price per night. All five Value level resorts are great options if you are looking for a budget-friendly hotel on property, and you can often find the best deals at the All Star Resorts.
Unique to this All Star Resort are the Family Suites. Out of Disney’s five Value hotels, only All Star Music Resort and Art of Animation Resort offer Family Suite rooms, and out of these two resorts, All Star Music tends to be a bit cheaper in price. Having these larger rooms available in the Value category makes All Star Music a good option for larger families on a budget.
All Star Music Resort Overview
Each of the five Walt Disney World Value Resorts have their own unique theming, but the three All Star Resorts are all quite similar to each other. Each resort in this trio highlight well-known entertainment, icons, and people related to their specific topics. In the case of Disney’s All Star Music Resort, you’ll find that each section of the resort’s hotel buildings are themed to popular genres of music, while the main common areas feature famous singers, musicians, and albums throughout different decades.
All Star Music sits between the other two All Star Resorts (Sports and Movies), and is closest to Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park. This resort is considered to be a part of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Resort Area with Animal Kingdom located nearby in one direction. Hollywood Studios is also close by in the other direction. ESPN Wide World of Sports is also located near these resorts, making Disney’s All Star Resorts a popular choice for visiting sporting groups.
Melody Hall
The lobby and check-in desks for Disney’s All Star Music are located in Melody Hall, which is the main building of the resort’s common area. As the name suggests, the main topic of this resort is music. All along the walls of Melody Hall guests will find portraits of famous singers, bands, and musicians, as well as a few nods to popular songs and albums from highlighted artists. A couple of small “Hall of Fame” galleries also decorate the wall of the main pathway between the front entrance and the doors that lead out to the feature pool.
In front of the Melody Hall is where guests will find a large parking lot for those who are checking in or visiting the main common areas, as well as Disney bus stations that transport guests to and from other Disney properties. Disney’s Magical Express transportation pick up and drop off is also located just outside of Melody Hall for guests who have traveled via the Orlando International Airport.
Across from the resort’s food court you’ll find Note’able Games Arcade. Each of Disney’s Value resorts have arcades located in the main building that feature many classic and modern games. You will need to buy ticket points to play these games just as you would in most other newer arcades, but you can easily purchase the amount you would like right inside the arcade room.
Maestro Mickey’s
All Star Music has a single gift shop, which is located in the Melody Hall building. Guests walking through the front doors of the main building will find this gift shop located on the left as soon as they enter. Maestro Mickey’s offers a variety of Disney merchandise, including apparel, souvenirs, and park necessities. They sell everything from ears to bags to suitcases at this shop, all with recognizable Disney style. If you like to pin trade, you’ll also want to check resort gift shops for specialty pins and pin trading accessories that may be unique to that resort – you just might not be able to find them elsewhere on Disney property!
Guests will also find snacks and care items such as medicine and sunscreen. This is a great thing to keep in mind if you’ve forgotten to pack a necessity and you are unable or prefer not to leave Disney property. There are Walmart and Target shopping locations not far from Walt Disney World, but if you’re in need of only one or two specific items for your stay and don’t mind paying a bit higher price, you can usually find what you need at the resort gift shops.
Our Review of Maestro Mickey’s
We really like Maestro Mickey’s because it had some unique items. However, it is a much smaller shop as compared to the shops in the other Value Resorts. Our favorite shop in the Value Resorts is the Everything Pop shop at Pop Century Resort. You can check out our review of that resort where we talk about the shop and read about the great dining over there. If you get a chance to visit Pop for the shopping and food, even if you are staying at one of the All Star Resorts, we think it’ll be worth your time.
Intermission Food Court
Intermission Food Court is All Star Resort’s dining hall and is located next-door to Maestro Mickey’s gift shop in the main building. This food court is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and offers a variety of snacks, pastries, and desserts available throughout the day. This dining area features multiple large seating areas for guests to relax and eat their meals, which they can either order from the numerous quick service counters or bring themselves.
For guests who want to bring their own meals to eat at their resort, the dining hall offers microwaves and water stations for preparing any food items that need to be cooked. Otherwise, guests can choose from a whole host of meal options offered at the quick service counters including various pizzas, sandwiches, pastas, breakfast platters, and full dinners complete with sides. Disney World resorts also offers several options for those who have special dietary preferences and needs, including Gluten Free and Vegetarian meals.
Our Review of Intermission Food Court
Since we gave Everything Pop Dining 5 stars because it is our favorite Dining in the Value Resorts, we are giving Intermission Food Court 4 stars. It isn’t as large and the food, while good, didn’t have quite the flavor and theming as Everything Pop. It is our opinion that the breakfast is very similar at all the Value Resorts, and we love the Mickey Waffles of course! But the lunch and dinner offerings are Intermission don’t seem to have as many options. But look at that yummy pineapple flavor cupcake’s icing! You really can’t go wrong with most Disney themed deserts and treats everywhere on Disney property.
The food prices at all at the Value Resorts is very comparable, and certainly many meals are shareable, even between the two of us. Keep in mind that prices and selections seem to change fairly often at all Disney Resorts. So you might find a dish you love one day of your stay and only that day. So we recommend getting what you think looks yummy when you see it, in case it doesn’t make it onto the menu offerings the rest of your stay!
Calypso
The first section located directly outside of Melody Hall and Intermission Food Court is the Calypso themed area. There are two “T” shaped hotel room buildings in this section decorated with larger-than-life-sized instruments like maracas, drums, and xylophones. This section of the resort is home to the Preferred Rooms (see “Types of Rooms and Amenities“) as it is the closest to all of the main areas of the Resort and the complimentary transportation options.
Guests will also find the giant guitar-shaped feature pool (referred to simply as the “Calypso Pool”) located in the middle of this section. This pool features The Three Caballeros in statue form near the center of the guitar that sprays water, and the resort’s only Kiddie Pool completes the top of the guitar. The Singing Spirits Pool Bar is actually attached to Intermission Food Court but can be accessed outside near the Calypso Pool. We love the pool theming and colors at All Star Music!
Jazz Inn
If you walk straight through the Calypso section passed the Guitar Pool, the next area you’ll come to is Jazz Inn. Like the other themed areas of this resort, Jazz Inn features two “T” shaped hotel buildings, though they sit on either side of a small park-like seating area with a fountain rather than a pool. This section is decorated with ginormous drum kits, saxophones, trombones, and trumpets along with three-story tall silhouettes of musicians playing various instruments.
Located on the backside of one of the Jazz Inn room buildings is the resort’s only playground. This playground is just like all other Value Resort playgrounds and features small slides and other fun activities for young children.
We think this part of the Resort is very relaxing, but actually all the Value Resorts all have great spots to sit and take in the view with relaxing atmospheres.
Rock Inn
After walking through the Jazz Inn area of Disney’s All Star Music Resort, you can find the Rock Inn section off to the right. Once again, there are two “T” shaped room buildings in this section, but this time there is no central pool or seating area. Instead, guests will notice that the pathway between the two buildings looks like a road made of grass, and a vintage-style automobile can be found sitting on one side of this road for photo ops.
In keeping with the music theme, large guitars, jukeboxes, and microphones line the outside of the buildings, while record designs and checkerboard patterns are painted onto the concrete below the building entrances. At night, the towering jukeboxes glow with bright neon lights reminiscent of the 50s style decorations featured in this area.
The Jazz section is so cool if you are true music lover and enjoy the history of music! Just check out how cool it is in our pics below.
Broadway Hotel
Directly across from the Rock Inn section of the resort on the other side of Jazz Inn is Broadway Hotel. All of this resort’s main areas are well themed, but Broadway Hotel stands out perhaps even more than the others with its marquees and posters showcasing some of Disney’s well-known theater productions throughout the years. You’ll find displays for Mary Poppins, Newsies, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid in the center of the Broadway Hotel section leading to the entrances of each of the two “T” shaped room buildings.
Other decorations guests can in this section are top hats, gloves, and canes all highlighting an earlier time in theater, while outside staircases lead up to the “Stage Door” on each of the two buildings. The main pathway between the buildings represents the street of Broadway itself, and famous street signs extend out from vintage-style lampposts.
Okay, so the two of us, as mother and daughter who have been extremely active in theater and performing in one form or another for over twenty years, might be biased, but we love, love, love the Broadway section. It’s just so fun to walk through and look at all the awesome show references.
Near the end of Broadway Hotel section is a small park area similar to the seating area found at Jazz Inn. Occasionally, local food trucks may visit Broadway offering specialty food and beverage items not available at Intermission Food Court, and guests will find picnic tables sitting near the marquees between the two buildings at which they can relax and enjoy their meals.
And did we mention the food at the food trucks that show up on Disney property? Of course we did! Who doesn’t like the Food Truck experience!
Country Fair
Located at the very back of Disney’s All Star Music Resort is Country Fair. In this section, guests will find larger-than-life boots, fiddles, and banjos lining the sides of the two “T” shaped buildings. These two buildings surround a park area that is quite a bit larger than the park areas located in either the Broadway Hotel or Jazz Inn sections.
Not much else can be found in the Country Fair section of the resort and it is the furthest away from Melody Hall and all of the main common areas. For this reason, it may not be the best section if you would rather have only a short walk to the front of the resort and all of the available Disney transportation options. However, Country Fair is often very quiet and a great option if you’d like to spend more time outdoors at your hotel away from the crowds.
Piano Pool
All Star Music’s second pool, the Piano Pool, is located in its own area surrounded by Jazz Inn, Rock Inn, Broadway Hotel, and Country Fair. Even though this pool is the smaller of the two, Disney’s website states that it is 106,036 gallons. It is also considered a “leisure pool” and often sees less crowds, which is a good thing to keep in mind when the Calypso Pool is especially busy.
Types of Rooms and Amenities
– All Star Music Resort Rooms
As with all Value Disney Resort hotels, All Star Music Resort offers both Standard and Preferred Rooms. Unlike the other Disney Value Resorts, however, only All Star Music Resort and Art of Animation Resort offer Family Suites. All of these rooms include basic amenities such as a hairdryer, coffee maker, mini-refrigerator, in-room safe, an ironing board and iron, and a telephone.
According to Disney’s website, a regular Standard Room at All Star Music is available with two double beds and the pictures featured are pre-refurbishment. Our pictures below are also the old version of the Standard Rooms, but many of the Resort’s buildings have recently undergone a complete room re-style. Now, refurbished Standard Rooms at All Star Music are basically identical to those at All Star Movies, which are also very similar to the standard rooms offered at Pop Century Resort. As far as we know, construction is still ongoing and not all room refurbishments have been complete as of yet.
The newer rooms at All Star Music Standard Rooms now offer one regular bed and one table bed that folds up into the wall and has a fold-out table attached. These rooms have views of either the courtyard, parking lot, or the smaller of the two resort pools. These rooms are located further from the main building and complimentary transportation options than the Preferred Rooms are, so this is a good thing to keep in mind if you’re looking to book a room here. Take a look at our video tour of the All Star Movies refurbished Standard Rooms to get an idea of what the All Star Music Standard Rooms look like now:
A Preferred Room at All Star Music is the same as a Standard Room in style, but are located closer to Melody Hall, Intermission Food Court, and Maestro Mickey’s. These Preferred Rooms offer views of the courtyard, parking lot, or the Calypso Pool, depending on which side of the Preferred buildings the room is on.
Because of their central location, all Preferred Rooms are also quite close to Disney’s complimentary transportation options. Disney buses have pickup and drop-off locations at the Melody Hall, as does Disney’s Magical Express.
As we mentioned above, only All Star Music Resort and Art of Animation Resort offer Family Suites out of Disney’s five on-property Value Resorts, but All Star Music often tends to be much cheaper in price than Art of Animation. All Star Music’s Family Suites are divided into two main rooms plus two bathrooms and a small kitchenette area. According to Disney’s website, these rooms feature one queen bed, one twin-size sleeper chair, double-size sleeper sofa, and one twin-size sleeper ottoman.
These Family Suites appear to be a little different after their full refurbishment, however, as these additional beds now pull down out of the wall and it appears that there are now three beds per suite instead of the four variations listed on Disney’s website (at least from what we have seen). It would appear that these rooms still sleep six people however, so we don’t think room capacity has changed. If you’re interested in booking a Family Suite at All Star Music Resort, we recommend calling first to find out exactly what you can expect should you receive one of the newly refurbished rooms.
As always, you can expect to pay a bit extra per night if you’d like a Preferred Room and quite a bit extra if you’d like a Family Suite. Overall though, All Star Music tends to be one of the most budget-friendly options no matter what room style you choose when you compare each with their equivalents at Pop Century Resort and Art of Animation Resort.
All Star Music Resort Room Types:
- Standard Room – Old Rooms: Two Double Beds / Refurbished Rooms: One Regular Bed and One Murphy-Style Table Bed; Courtyard, Pool or Parking Area
- Preferred Room – Old Rooms: Two Double Beds / Refurbished Rooms: One Regular Bed and One Murphy-Style Table Bed; Views of the Courtyard, Pool or Parking Area; Close Proximity to Melody Hall, Intermission Food Court, Maestro Mickey’s Gift Shop, and Bus Transportation
- Family Suite – Old Rooms: One Queen Bed, One Twin-Size Sleeper Chair, Double-Size Sleeper Sofa, and One Twin-Size Sleeper Ottoman / Refurbished Rooms: One Regular Bed and Two Murphy-Style Beds; Views of the Courtyard, Pool or Parking Area; Close Proximity to Melody Hall, Intermission Food Court, Maestro Mickey’s Gift Shop, and Bus Transportation
Our Review of the All Star Music Resort Standard Rooms
Now that most of the All Star Music hotel rooms have been fully refurbished, they all have a fresh, modern new look. Even with this new design, though, you’ll still find fun Disney details featured throughout, and we love it! We even thought the non-refurbished room we stayed in right before the renovation was one of the very cleanest and nicest rooms of ANY hotel we’d every stayed in … anywhere!
We find these rooms to be a nice size, particularly for shorter stays, and are certainly the same in sizing as compared to the other All Star Resorts. While we have certainly stayed at Disney’s Value resorts for longer trips, you may want to consider a Moderate or Deluxe resort if having more space is important to you – especially if you are staying for five or more days. You can learn more about what you can expect in a Moderate level resort stay in our full Caribbean Beach Resort Review and Guide.
In our non-refurbished room, both double beds were comfortable, but we could tell they were a bit older. In contrast, both the regular queen bed and the pull-down table bed in the refurbished rooms at Disney’s All Star Movie Resort (which are identical to those in All Star Music’s refurbished rooms) were quite new and comfortable. We also didn’t notice any difference between the regular bed and the pull-down bed in terms of quality. However, keep in mind, as with any bed, they can sag over time, especially as pull down beds and as many people as these rooms see in a year’s time. Folding one bed into the wall and using the fold-out table is also a great benefit of these newly refurbished rooms as it can provide some extra space. This is especially helpful if you are spending some time in your room during the day or if you do not have a need for a second bed.
The bathroom area is a pretty good size for a Value resort, and is nearly the same size in all the Value resorts, and certainly in comparison to the other two All Start Resorts. Unfortunately, in both the old-style rooms and the refurbished rooms there is only one sink. So if you’re trying to make it to the parks before opening and have several people who have to get ready at the same time, you might want to consider staying at a Disney Resort that offers two sinks. Our room at Caribbean Beach Resort did offer two sinks with a larger counter space. While this isn’t really a deciding factor for us personally overall when choosing a resort, you may want to keep this in mind if having more space is a higher priority for you.
There is a sliding door that separates the bathroom from the bedroom area in the new refurbished rooms, which we think that is a major upgrade from the curtain separator that are in the older-style rooms. The sliding door helps provide both a bit of a sound barrier and a light barrier. We like that when one of us feels like getting up a bit earlier than the other.
All Star Music Standard Room – Review Summary
Pros
- Nice size room for 2-4 people
- Comfortable beds
- Refurbished rooms provide extra space with table and chairs when Murphy-bed is not in use
- Sliding door to separate bathroom in refurbished rooms
- Many rooms recently renovated
Cons
- Only one sink
- Rooms are quite a bit smaller overall compared to Moderate and Deluxe resorts
Review of Our Complete Resort Experience
– All Star Music Resort Review
Out of all of the resorts we have stayed in at Walt Disney World, All Star Music didn’t disappoint us at all. In fact, we should mention again, it was great theming and certainly super clean. The resort theming is chock full of color and fun music references from the rooms to the shopping and dining to the pools. We enjoyed our stay very much. We like the layout of the resort because it is not too spread out, just like the other All Star Resorts, and most rooms are not that far from parking lot spaces, dining and shopping, and transportation options.
It’s important to note that the Standard Rooms are quite a distance from most of the main resort areas. We always take the room distance in to consideration at every Disney resort because of our health issues, as none are very small overall, however there are many reasons to consider walking distance. We recommend viewing the official Disney resort maps to help you decide which section you’d like to request (as we discuss below), and if you’re comfortable paying a bit more you might want to consider a Preferred Room.
If you do book a Standard Room, we highly recommend asking for a room in the section you prefer to stay in, especially if walking a longer distance to the main building and transportation might be a concern for you. While requests aren’t 100% guaranteed to be fulfilled, we have always found the Cast Members to be very helpful and accommodating, and they really try to meet guest requests if at all possible.
A unique benefit is that it is next door to the other two All Star Value Resorts, so checking those out and maybe even eating and shopping at all three is very easily done as far as proximity is concerned.
The shop, while small, has a good, and often unique, selection of items. The quick service restaurant meets the basic food needs, as well as offers some unique desserts. It also has a variety of hot and cold foods and snacks to choose from for every meal of your stay.
The recent refurbishments have made these rooms better than ever. With these room refurbs came several upgrades, but yet didn’t bring a huge price increase, in our opinion. We enjoy staying and visiting All Star Music Resort very much! Overall, Disney’s All Star Resort offers great value for anyone visiting Walt Disney World on a budget.
Watch our All Star Music Review Video Walkthrough Tour to See a Complete Overview of the Resort!
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