Upon arriving at the resort, we were immediately greeted by a cast member with an IPad. He immediately completed our check –in (we did the on-line check-in). He was very helpful in answering all of our questions. He even asked about any celebration and gave my son a Happy Birthday pin. Our room was ready but my brother’s family was not (it was around 1:30pm). We decided to drop our carry-ons in our room and grab lunch while we waited for our luggage to be delivered.
We chose the Finding Nemo suites. The finding Nemo section is where the Big Blue pool is and our room was just steps away from the entrance. It also has a very convenient proximity to the main building. The Cars section is off to the right and though very adorable to walk thru, I was glad many days not to have to trek that much further back to my room. The Lion King section is off to the left with no pool and again another hike from the main building. I never took the journey to the Little Mermaid part of the resort.
The rooms themselves are very spacious and perfect for a family. The bedroom is large with a queen bed and its own bathroom and the main living area has a table with a Murphy bed over it and a couch that easily turns into a sleeper. The main bathroom has a tub. There is a refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker in a little kitchenette. We were supplied with plenty of plates, bowls, flatware and cups.
The maid service was wonderful. They even arranged the kid’s toys into funny scenarios every day.
The Big Blue pool was very nice. It has a zero point entry and goes up to 4ft in the middle. There is a splash area at one end with a little playground. The Cars pool was very nice. It is a horseshoe shape and 3-4ft deep. There are nice Cone cabanas to use to stay out of the sun. The Cars pool did not have as many swimmers as Big Blue. There is also a pool side bar at Big Blue and some table games (ping pong, etc.) for the kids. They also have movies every night poolside (but we never managed to make one!).
The dining was at the Landscape of Flavor was surprisingly good. We ate quick service meals there multiple times and everything was very good. There are multiple stations to choose from so even my picky eaters found something to make them happy every time. The portion sizes are pretty big and my husband and I shared some lunches and were both satisfied.
The buses are all out in front of the main building. The signs clearly mark which park each bus is for. We rarely had to wait for a bus and the longest we did was maybe 15 minutes. The bus drivers were very friendly and helpful.
We did have to wait close to 4 hours before our luggage was delivered to our room but it was very nice not to have to handle it from the airport. There was a very long line to check in to our flight home but again it was nice to be able to drop our luggage there and not have to worry about it until we were off the plane.
This resort it perfect for families with younger children. The average age in the pool was probably around 7. The few teenagers we saw were with Dance and Cheer teams that were staying in the Little Mermaid section. There was not a lot of noise in the halls but you also didn’t feel like you had to restrain your child’s excitement as to not to bother others. We did not experience any problems with unruly kids or rudeness. The only problem was when the large dance groups came thru, they took over everything. My kids enjoyed the art work and the colorfulness of the whole resort. I would very much recommend this resort and would stay there again if we were to go back with the kids before they are teenagers.
Want to see more pictures of the Art of Animation Resort? Check out my tour here and here!
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