ASMu after owning DVC

[SWofDisorder]

I have booked my first trip back to WDW after selling my DVC. We have booked at ASMu as it was cheap. It is just 2 of us and we need a clean place to put our head at night.

Is ASMu as bad as everyone makes it out to be?

 

[Marionnette]

I have booked my first trip back to WDW after selling my DVC. We have booked at ASMu as it was cheap. It is just 2 of us and we need a clean place to put our head at night.

Is ASMu as bad as everyone makes it out to be?

No. It's not bad. But it's not anything near the Deluxe Resort you're accustomed to, either. I have booked Value Resorts for my arrival night on a couple of trips when I have a DVC stay either because I lack the points or because there's no availability at a DVC resort. The last time, it was ASMu. And all I could think was "Thank goodness this is only for one night!"

My personal experience was that the room was clean. Everything was in okay shape. But, it was noisy. You hear the people in the room next door. You hear the people passing by your door (and the bed is right...by...the...door!). You hear the housekeeping staff as they arrive for the morning. You hear maintenance zipping by in their golf carts. The food court is crowded. The CMs work hard to keep it clean but people are messy and when you have a large number of people all using one food court, well... The pools are not as relaxing. I don't think that I would be able to stay for an entire week there.

However, the staff is every bit as nice as at the Deluxe Resorts. And in some cases, I would rank them above those at a few Deluxes.

 

[keishashadow]

Nope it's not bad by any imagination. Even landing in the far-flung country bldg last Friday night pre our DVC stay, we had no complaints. Well, the sounds from the swamp were interesting lol

You stated it in your post "we need a clean place to put our head at night". It will more than suit your purposes

If you've never experienced a disney value you may be in for a bit of a change in mindset. Not sure of your reasons for selling but you may find that nothing quite lives up to your standards initially until you adjust.

Let pre-conceived notions go and have a great time.

 

[Dakota731]

We had no complaints at all. The food was fine and the pool movies were great. We are in the parks for all but eight hours a day so it doesn't psy us to go too expensive on lodging.

 

[dansdad]

I have booked my first trip back to WDW after selling my DVC. We have booked at ASMu as it was cheap. It is just 2 of us and we need a clean place to put our head at night.

Is ASMu as bad as everyone makes it out to be?

We have thoroughly enjoyed all our stays at Music, as have plenty of our friends and relatives. Who is this everyone that you speak of?

 

[SWofDisorder]

I believe having expectations and going in with my eyes wide open will help. Knowing this is not BCV or OKW, but in fact a value. I will request top floor end unit so we can have some peace while sleeping. It is only for 3 nights until we switch to Bonnet Creek for one week. Thank you for helping me feel more informed.

 

[Simba's Girl]

We also sold our DVC. We sold it over 5 years ago and haven't looked back.

I can't help you with ASMU but do want to say that there are pluses and minuses to everything including DVC vs not. We haven't been happier since we've sold our DVC and are about to visit for the 3rd time since selling. Selling DVC doesn't mean you will never go back, especially since Disney is constantly offering discounted rooms.

 

[stobaugh6]

We stayed at ASMu back in January. We've stayed deluxe and moderate in the past as well. We really enjoyed ASMu. It's a small resort so everything is a fairly close walk. It's got a really fun and festive vibe to it. Granted we have small children so we enjoyed the over the top theme. It's a great resort to stay at if you plan on spending most of your time in the parks because of the low price. We are going back in September and staying at the Poly, but we plan to spend a lot of time at the resort this trip. I think the main thing is to go in with a positive attitude and don't let other people's negative reviews predetermine your opinion before you even get there. Have a fantastic trip!

 

[Wild4Walt]

The biggest difference I noticed when I stayed at the values was the theming is so much different. Still very themed - just in a completely different way. Almost more like being dropped into a cartoon. Oversided saxophone's, etc. The food court may be something new for you too unless you did a lot of QS when staying at the DVC. All that said, we found it a charming and fun atmosphere. The rooms were clean and pretty comfortable. Enjoy your trip!

 

[Rory_Chapman]

We also sold our DVC. We sold it over 5 years ago and haven't looked back.

I can't help you with ASMU but do want to say that there are pluses and minuses to everything including DVC vs not. We haven't been happier since we've sold our DVC and are about to visit for the 3rd time since selling. Selling DVC doesn't mean you will never go back, especially since Disney is constantly offering discounted rooms.

As someone who has rented DVC but has no interest in owning, this sentiment is one of the reasons why I'll probably never buy in to DVC. What was your primary motivation for selling? The main reasons I hear are a lack of availability on top of ever-increasing dues.

Sorry to have derailed the conversation a bit, but I'm curious.

 

[goofy4tink]

Well, I own at BWV and BLT. I'm staying at Music the first week in November! Music isn't my favorite value, but it's certainly not terrible! I prefer Movies, but that wasn't an option this time. You'll be fine. After all, you're in WDW!!!

 

[Simba's Girl]

As someone who has rented DVC but has no interest in owning, this sentiment is one of the reasons why I'll probably never buy in to DVC. What was your primary motivation for selling? The main reasons I hear are a lack of availability on top of ever-increasing dues.

Sorry to have derailed the conversation a bit, but I'm curious.

Primary motivation was that it was costing us the same amount of money to "maintain" (we paid dues and were using Disney's mortgage system) it as it was to visit for a week at rack rate at a moderate or with a decent discount at a deluxe. We basically realized that we weren't saving anything by owning DVC and getting the same amenities. There came a point where as a family of five we could no longer fit in most of the studios as well. We didn't really prefer SSR (too spread out and pool was not great) after staying a few times and although we liked OKW it wasn't our favorite either because of location.

Since selling we've stayed at Poly CL, YC CL/SSR (with DH's parents), and CBR. We have an upcoming trip to BCCL. We feel like when we owned DVC it got to be too much Disney for us, not to mention the travel expenses for a family of 5. We have discovered that we now like to vacation to WDW every 2-3 years not every year or twice a year. With DVC you still have to pay for plane tickets and park tickets. Yes, no one is forcing anyone to go to a park but with 3 kiddos at WDW a resort staycation doesn't work so well.

So basically it boils down to this: We are now vacationing to WDW every 2-3 years and spending close to the same amount of money it would cost us to own DVC and staying longer at (mostly) the same "level" of resort but on a CL floor with housekeeping every day. We don't get the paltry "discounts" that are available to DVC owners but that's fine with us because we have a Disney Visa discounts and we don't get free washer/dryers but that is chump change compared to a vacation that costs in the upper thousands. We have been able to get good discounts on our rooms every time we've gone. (Exception is upcoming trip but that has special circumstances and we do have a slight discount through runDisney)

 

[keishashadow]

I believe having expectations and going in with my eyes wide open will help. Knowing this is not BCV or OKW, but in fact a value. I will request top floor end unit so we can have some peace while sleeping. It is only for 3 nights until we switch to Bonnet Creek for one week. Thank you for helping me feel more informed.

In the eyes wide open category, i've yet to ever get a coveted top floor end unit @ an AS or moderate despite requesting multiple trips over nearly 20 years. Pixie dust is out there tho

Many who do say DVC doesn't work for them are those who did finance it. I paid cash & slowly saved to purchase mine. DVC certainly doesn't work for everybody's budget or travel pattern.

As for the 'paltry' discounts/perks DVC offers, well...I'm happy with the huge discount off APs and really enjoy the 'free' member events such as TL last week & the discounted 4th of July FW.

The APH room only rates for bonus trips has produced well for me over the last few years since rack rates have skyrocketed. Dining discounts nice too. IMO since the discrepancy between resale and direct is so great DVC will likely keep offering them. Even if they don't, we've been in so long, it's part of our life at this point

Enjoy disney however you do it, it's all good. WBC is one of our fav offsite resorts!

 

[Simba's Mom]

I have booked my first trip back to WDW after selling my DVC. We have booked at ASMu as it was cheap. It is just 2 of us and we need a clean place to put our head at night.

Is ASMu as bad as everyone makes it out to be?

I'm afraid that, for me, it was as bad as everyone says. As a matter of fact, I wasn't a DVC owner when I went there, but I joined while I was there. I'd booked POR (Dixie Landings at the time) but it closed, so I stayed at ASMusic. The worst part for me was that getting from the bus stop to my room meant I had to go through the pool area and the pool bar. Unfortunately, there were lots of loud drinkers, using very un Disney-like language. I felt like I was in a college dorm-"Hey, let's see how many we can cram into a room at Disney." In all fairness, it was during Christmas vacation, January, when public schools had returned but many colleges were still out, so maybe a different time of year wouldn't be so bad. But boy, those DVC rooms looked great to me after that!

 

[SWofDisorder]

As someone who has rented DVC but has no interest in owning, this sentiment is one of the reasons why I'll probably never buy in to DVC. What was your primary motivation for selling? The main reasons I hear are a lack of availability on top of ever-increasing dues.

Sorry to have derailed the conversation a bit, but I'm curious.

Hi Rory,
I rented out my points for about 5 years and used it to pay the fees and then used the rest for our holidays. I paid cash for my DVC so it was never an issue of making payments. However I moved overseas and don't visit the USA very much. We rather drink beer in Germany than at Epcot. I will say when we needed the DVC we used it a lot and we had many great memories. Now with only going to Disney for the first time in 5 years, I am enjoying the discounted rooms. It will be different but we are ready.

 

[stinkpickle]

Hey, the good news is that you'll get your trashed emptied every day without paying extra.

 

[Magalex]

We had a lovely stay at ASMU in June. It was our first time staying at the All Star Music Resort. It was a last minute trip with a discount code. We were in Broadway Bldg 7 in the back. Very nice. What stood out the most about this resort was the cast members. All cast members were super nice and friendly. Updated food court clean with nice colors. Bus transportation was on time with no problems! Have fun! It is a cute resort.

 

[bumbershoot]

We own dvc and have regularly supplemented our trips (Dh gets quite a bit of vacation) with value stays. I could easily go from GFV to Pop to POR to an all star. Biggest issues I've ever had were at Jambo and SSR (the latter took care of us much more promptly than the former) but we've had zero issues at values or moderates.