I love a good Disney trip and this past May we stayed at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort while the Huz had a conference on Disney property. We weren’t Disney Vacation Club members at the time and I stumbled upon Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. We needed a suite since MeMe and my aunt from San Fran were joining us (read: free babysitting LOL). It’s a great value for families needing more than just a standard hotel room so I wanted to share my thoughts on the resort with you guys.

We were at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort at the beginning of May for seven nights. For reference, there were four adults and two kiddos in our room. Our kiddos are preschool/elementary school age (aka adorably cute and viciously temperamental within the same 60 seconds).

Room

Disney’s Art of Animation Resort has standard hotel rooms in The Little Mermaid section of the resort and Family Suites in the Cars, Lion King, and Finding Nemo areas. We stayed in a Finding Nemo Family Suite. I thought the size of the room was sufficient for the price. The suites will run you somewhere around $400-$450/night depending time of year etc. (with the exception of major holidays) and the cost effectiveness of the suite compared to other Disney resorts was huge for us this time around.

Each suite has two full bathrooms (all the praise hands emojis!), a separate master bedroom with a queen size bed, a kitchen table area that converts to a full size Murphy bed (the kids were obsessed), and a living room area with a kitchenette and a sofa that converted to a full size bed. There was enough room for us to not feel on top of each other, but not super large.

Since decisions aren’t my strong suit, I may or may not have switched our suite from Lion King, to Cars, to Lion King and finally to Finding Nemo in the months leading up to our trip. The kids loved the Finding Nemo room and it was closest to the big pool, food, and buses which was a plus. Finding Nemo rooms are a little bit more per night than the other suite themes for these reasons.

The kitchenette was awesome and a must in my opinion when traveling with kids. First of all, they usually don’t finish a meal and the mini-fridge meant leftovers and less food waste. We also were able to order some groceries from Amazon Prime Now and Garden Grocer for breakfast in the room and snacks to bring into the parks.

Pool

There are three pools at the Art of Animation. The Big Blue Pool is the main, Finding Nemo themed pool. It’s the largest on Disney property and is a zero entry pool. It’s a lot of fun and definitely the most popular pool. The splash zone for kiddos is also in The Big Blue Pool area. There are life jackets available to borrow and plenty of lifeguard staff on duty. It even has underwater speakers playing Disney music that you can only hear when you go under! So much fun!

If you’re looking for a quieter pool experience, the Cozy Cone Pool and Flippin’ Fins Pool are good choices. Cozy Cone is in the Cars area and we spent some good time there. There are giant cone-shaped cabanas that are first-come, first-served to lounge in and get out of the sun. We didn’t get to the Flippin’ Fins pool over in The Little Mermaid area but we would love to check it out on another trip. Too much park, not enough time! LOL.

Dining

We only utilized Landscape of Flavors, Disney’s Art of Animation quick service and only dining option at the resort a couple of times. What we did experience was tasty. Expect long waits during busier meal times.

Like I mentioned before we ordered some groceries to the room via the internets. Milk, cereal, fruit, bread, snacks, bottled water, hummus, etc. Our kids are fairly adventurous eaters but it was a lifesaver to have some standards on hand when they were hungry (every 15 minutes) for a snack. Not having to constantly go down to the food court was a nice break.

Disney does dining really, really well. There are something like over 400 dining options on Disney property. There are literally options for everyone and then some. I’ll write about some of them in the future but for now, if you’re not reading Disney Food Blog, you should be.

Activities

Disney’s Art of Animation is not short on activities. There are ping pong table and pool volleyball plus movies by the pool each night. There are several outdoor play areas as well as a jogging trail. In the main building, they offer daily animator lessons and you can’t walk through without being greeted by the arcade. Definitely a good array for activities for a Disney Value resort.

Theming

This is where Disney’s Art of Animation shines. The theming of this resort is second to none and will wow you no matter your age. From the main chandelier made from actual artist renderings to the life-sized ‘Mater, Sally and Doc its a fully immersive experience. Each of the four themed areas goes all out to make you feel like you’re the animated film they are based from. We all agreed that the theming was the absolute best thing about the resort and was perfect for our young kids.

Park Transportation

Disney’s Art of Animation Resort offers complimentary bus service to/from all four theme parks, the water parks and Disney Springs (side note: we LOVED the all new Disney Springs….we hadn’t been since it was still called Downtown Disney and we were blown away at everything offered there. I’ll talk more about it in a future post). There is also ample parking for $/day. It varies by time of year, day of the week, and time of day but we felt that there was fairly ample bus service during our stay. Magic Kingdom is the farthest park from the resort and thus, the longest bus ride. Pro tip: if you feel like you’ve been waiting awhile and you’ve seen multiples of every bus but the one going to the park you want, hop on a different one and use the other forms of transport to get to your destination. For example:

• Take a bus to Magic Kingdom then hop on the monorail to Epcot or vice versa
• Take a bus to Hollywood Studios then walk or take the boat to Epcot or the Boardwalk
• Going to dinner at resort on the monorail? Take the bus to Magic Kingdom or Epcot then hop on the monorail to your restaurant.

Overall Impression/Would we go back?

We would! We’re a Disney family through and through and LOVE to be on property. This was our kids first trip to Disney and I think for their ages, Disney’s Art of Animation was a perfect choice. The theming was a huge hit for them and we loved the amenities the suite style room had to offer. The price was a total bonus too! I would definitely recommend Art of Animation to families with more than two kids or anyone who wants or needs more space than a standard hotel room can offer. If you’re debating whether you should stay on Disney property for your visit, you should. Check out my post on Three Awesome Reasons to Stay at a Disney Resort! You’ll be so happy you did!

Have you stayed at Disney’s Art of Animation? I’d love to hear where you stayed and what you loved so comment below so fellow readers (and I) can learn even more about this great option. And as always, do you have a friend who could benefit from this info? Sharing is caring and our blog’s mission is teach families how to make travel a part of their lives and not a stressful extra. Cheers!