Join me for a photo tour of Disney's All Star Movies Resort!
The resort's marquee and bus stop area.
All of the All Star Resorts have the same huge letter marquee in front of their respective main buildings. At the All Star Music Resort, Melody Hall is the location of the main resort facilities including the check-in area, resort shop, food court, and arcade. In front of each of the “halls” is the resort's Walt Disney World transportation area. This is the only bus stop for the All Star Music Resort. This area gets VERY busy in the mornings and evenings when a large proportion of the guests that are staying in the All Star Movies' 1920 rooms are trying to travel to and from the theme parks.
Walking inside Melody Hall, a sight very similar to the one at the All Star. With the large number of rooms that each All Star Resort has, it's not unusual to see long lines in the lobby for front desk and guest relations services. Even so, the line seems to move at a steady pace.
The resort's check-in lobby.
There's room for plenty of cast members to be on duty, so during the busiest times, there's sufficient staffing to get the job done. Just don't expect to check in as quickly at the All Star Resorts as you might at one of the premium resorts (but that's fair, since you're not paying a premium price, right?)
Maestro Mickey's Merchandise and the Intermission Food Court are very similar to their counterparts at the All Star Movies Resort. I didn't take pictures of them, but then — you've seen Disney shops and food courts before. They are functional and nicely maintained.
Noteable Games, shown here, is the resort's arcade. It's well equipped — and usually very busy with teens keeping up those joystick stills while on vacation. I'd love to own stock in the company that services WDW's resort arcades. I bet they do quite well.
Noteable Games.
Walking outside of Melody Hall, you'll find the Singing Spirits walk-up lounge to the left, just across the walk from the calypso pool, which is shaped like a guitar…complete with a kiddie pool located up at the top of the fingerboard. Obviously, it's a popular place for resort guests to hang out during the hot hours of the afternoon.
Guitar pool.
The All Star Music Resort has Calypso, Jazz Inn, Rock Inn, Country Fair, and Broadway Hotel. The front of the buildings (the sides facing the main courtyard areas) are decorated with huge icons that represent that particular style of music.
The Calypso building has a three-story high pair of maracas and a xylophone. It's a very colorful display, and even includes Donald (from “The Three Caballeros”) cavorting near the guitar pool. Hey, it's fair…Mickey got to star at the All Star Movies Resort in his Sorcerer's Apprentice roll, so why not the famous duck, too?
Calypso.
Walking back from the guitar pool toward the back of the resort area (and directly away from Melody Hall), you end up walking through an area that is pretty reminiscent of Port Orleans. Jazz Inn is dressed up to look like Crescent City. It's not a mardi gras dress-up, like Port Orleans has, but it's definitely the French quarter.
Jazz Inn.
The oversized saxophone, trumpet and drum set are the icons that decorate the buildings.
A example of additional detail that has been included in the resort is the great fountain that is nestled in the middle of the Jazz Inn courtyard. It provides some additional atmosphere, and some nice, soothing “white noise” to the peaceful square. It also provides a mental bridge to the piano pool that sits in between Jazz Inn, Rock Inn, Country Fair, and Broadway Hotel.
Jazz Inn's French Quarter-style fountain.
The piano pool is a much smaller pool than the guitar-shaped calypso pool. It's still pretty busy, though, perhaps because of it's location right in the middle of so many guest buildings (in contrast to the Mighty Ducks “Pond” pool at All Star Movies, which is well-located only for guests staying in the Mighty Ducks buildings).
The Piano pool.
One thing to point out about the All Star Resort pools is that, although they are themed to an extent, with decorations and / or whimsical design (like the guitar or piano shape or the baseball diamond-shaped pool at the All Star Sports Resort), none of the All Star Resort pools have slides or other water features that add to the fun of using the pool. They are great for swimming, but don't have the added touch of the serpent slide or the watering hole slides at Port Orleans.
Rock Inn is decorated in a retro-50's style with electric guitars, jukeboxes and a late 1950's Chevrolet cruising down a grassy avenue. There's no drive in, a pity since the Intermission Food Court at Melody Hall is such a long hike away.
Rock Inn.
Country Fair gives a nod to the country and western fan. Cowboy boots, fiddles, and a rail fence provide the decor. Country Fair was placed at the far extreme end of the All Star Music Resort, as far from Melody Hall as possible. I'm not sure if that was an attempt to make it a quieter area, with the “country” theme, but if so, it's a bit odd because country music is no less loud and boisterous than rock 'n' roll.
Country Fair.
Walking away from Country Fair provides another look at the piano pool. That palm-lined avenue is the main pedestrian thoroughfare to get from this end of the resort to Melody Hall. You can see the Jazz Inn courtyard, and might even be able to pick out the fountain in the middle of the Jazz Inn Square. The calypso pool lies beyond the fountain courtyard with Melody Hall just beyond that.
The Piano pool again.
The last stop on our tour takes us to Broadway Hotel. Broadway Hotel is one of the best executed themed areas in this resort, in my opinion. The area in between the two guest buildings is dressed to appear like a New York City street, complete with taxi cab and theatre marquees. Oversized top hats and sticks decorate the buildings. That's real asphalt paving the ground, too. They've really built a street here, even though there's no where near the traffic that you'd find in the Big Apple during the afternoon (or evening, when the theatre district really gets going.
Broadway Hotel.
There you have it. The All Star Music Resort is whimsical and nicely maintained. It's not a premium resort by any means, but with the nice attention to detail and the great room prices available at each these value resorts, it's just the ticket (pardon the concert pun) for a large number of guests each day.
