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Hotel overview
The incredible Disney’s Art of Animation Resort will create for you, as never before, the sensation of being a character inside some of the most popular and beloved animated films of all time. From the magically themed family suites (especially designed to accommodate up to six Guests) and rooms to the spectacular courtyards, this Resort draws its inspiration from four classic Disney Animated films: The Lion King, The Little Mermaid and Disney Pixar's Finding Nemo and Cars.
Location
Lake Buena Vista, FloridaProperty information
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Hotel details
Hotel advisories
General policies & fine print
Smoking Policy - All Disney owned and operated resort hotels are smoke-free environments. Smoking is permitted in designated outdoor smoking locations only.
Guest Names Policy - Walt Disney World reservations must be booked with the correct guest names. A complete name change to the lead name is considered a cancellation and will require a new reservation.
Deposit Requirements - A major credit card and photo I.D. is required upon check-in to cover phone or incidental charges.
Convention Policy - Guests attending a convention at the hotel may not use this package for their stay. If found attending a convention, guests may be charged directly by the hotel.
Room Taxes - Room taxes are included in the vacation price.
As to Disney artwork, logos and properties: ©Disney
Ratings & reviews
TripAdvisor traveler rating
8837 reviews
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Apr 07, 2025A Disappointing Experience at Disney's Art of Animation
I rarely leave negative reviews, but after our recent experience at Disney World, I feel compelled to share my frustration. My family and I had an incredibly stressful and disappointing time, which has severely altered my perception of Disney Resorts as a whole. I’ve been visiting Disney since I was a child, and this was the first time I brought my two young daughters for their first magical experience. Sadly, what should have been a memorable and joyous trip turned into an exhausting series of mishaps. Here's a detailed account of what went wrong. We checked into Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort on March 27, 2025, and had an amazing experience for those first two nights. However, due to unforeseen circumstances with a family member falling ill, we needed to extend our stay, and we booked the Art of Animation Resort for two more nights. This would be our first stay at this resort, and I hoped it would continue the magic. Unfortunately, it was anything but. Upon arrival at Art of Animation, things started off smoothly, but soon, we were hit with one problem after another. I had originally booked a Little Mermaid room, but when we received confirmation that the room was ready, we found ourselves in a Cars-themed room instead. This wasn’t the biggest issue—my daughters love princesses—but it wasn’t what we had expected. To add a small silver lining, we were upgraded to a suite, which we appreciated. However, as the evening went on, things began to unravel. The situation grew more complicated when I realized I had mistakenly booked only one night instead of two. This error was entirely my fault, and I called to resolve it immediately. The staff member informed me that I had exceeded checkout time and that I would be charged for another night at the full rate, which was significantly higher than what I had originally paid. I immediately called back to apologize, and I was told I’d need to visit the front desk later that evening after our time at the parks. The day at Epcot was already stressful—we were managing my wife’s pregnancy (she’s high-risk) and handling two young kids. On top of that, we experienced a delay when my wife’s rented scooter went missing, requiring help from cast members to locate it. After a long day, we rushed back to the resort, only to encounter multiple issues at check-in. First, I was double-charged for the room. The front desk staff initially told me no charge had gone through, but I could see from my bank statements that I had been charged multiple times. Even after showing them my bank confirmation, the situation was dismissed with little explanation. As I tried to resolve this, I was told there was a system error, and I was asked to swipe my card again. This resulted in three separate charges, which took hours to sort out. I left the front desk feeling completely disoriented and without a sense of resolution. To make matters worse, when I finally made it to our room, I found that the room key wasn’t working. A note on the door stated that our key had been disabled, and I had to return to the front desk to resolve this issue. After more confusion and a lengthy wait, I was escorted to the wrong floor and had to make another trip to the front desk. Even when I finally got into our room, I couldn’t access it via the app, as it showed that I had no active reservation. At this point, it was past 1:00 AM, and my family and I were exhausted. My wife and children had been waiting in the car, and we were too tired to handle the mounting issues. After everything, we finally got into our room, and the app miraculously worked. But by then, we had missed out on a lot—the day’s magic was gone. To top it all off, there was no apology or acknowledgment from the staff. In fact, it felt as though the cast members were more interested in covering up the mistakes rather than resolving them in a meaningful way. The entire experience left us frustrated and disillusioned with Disney’s supposedly top-tier customer service. The lack of communication, misleading information, and errors in the billing system were incredibly disappointing. I never expected to face such a chaotic and exhausting situation at a Disney resort. I’ve always trusted Disney for their attention to detail and guest experience, but this trip has certainly changed my perspective. I’m incredibly disappointed by the lack of care and professionalism we received, especially considering this was our first trip as a family with young children. I hope Disney takes a long, hard look at their operations at Art of Animation and trains their staff to better handle these types of situations. Until then, I cannot recommend this resort to anyone, and it has left a sour taste on our overall Disney experience. If you value smooth and efficient customer service, I suggest looking elsewhere.
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Apr 06, 2025
Just awful
To say the room was the size of a closet is an insult to closets. Not enough room for two people to move at the same time. One person would have to sit on the bed while the other person would move about. The door was extremely heavy. We could not check in our room when we arrived so left our luggage with the concierge and were told it would be delivered to our room when the room was available. We get in our room and still no luggage. We call and they said it was on the way. Several minutes later, an attendant showed up, but unfortunately, not with our luggage. He stated that he would return with our luggage. After waiting more than an hour, my wife and returned to the registration area and after looking through the luggage there, found ours sitting in a back area. Also, they must love the game of finding your car as none of the lots are marked and with each building looking like all the others it was very difficult to find our car. Is it asking too much to put identifiers on the poles so folks could find their cars. No microwave in the room. It may have been one of the worst rooms I have ever stayed in, and I stayed in countless hotel rooms, and this is supposed to be a resort.
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Mar 24, 2025Ac shut down at middle if the night … they don’t care about anything after everything is paid !
Not worth it the over $500 per night . We stayed in a finding Nemo suit. First night around 2:00 am the ac stopped working, called and no even a fan was offered, we had to call a second time because the kids were miserable. Concluding, we barely make it through with the 2 fans that were delivered, ac was fixed passing 7:30 am , no one slept, had to cancel the plans for that day and just chill at the pool. They never called back to check on the kids, never provided an explanation, worse customer service ever, will not recommend this resort to anyone.
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Mar 16, 2025Surprisingly Great Stay
This is the second time we’ve stayed at AoA, the last time being in 2015. This trip, we stayed in a Little Mermaid room for just two nights. I was pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed our stay. The room is definitely small. We are a family of 4- it was tight, but just fine for a short stay. I think a week for four people in these rooms would be harder, but as long as you keep your room clean and picked up, they surprisingly have plenty of storage in the closet, under the bed and in the dresser. The biggest negative on the mermaid rooms is how far they are from basically everything. It’s a long walk out there after a long day at the parks. We were in building 9 and it was quiet, and the beds were comfortable. We are big fans of Ariel, so we really enjoyed the over the top theming, and thought it was a lot of fun. The room was very clean, we actually like the giant food court- although the floors were filthy by the evening so Disney could definitely do better in that department, the pools looked like fun, and the staff was all very friendly. The only other negative is the skyliner. It took us an hour door to door to get back to the resort from Epcot. We waited to get on the skyliner at Epcot, then we had to transfer at Caribbean Beach, then we had to wait at CB to board again to get on the line which took us to AoA. An hour travel time to get from Epcot to our hotel is ridiculous…. I miss the busses for sure. Our bus rides to Magic Kingdom and back took less than 15 minutes- much more efficient and quick. We decided if we stay here again, we’ll rent a car and just drive to Epcot and DHS to avoid the skyliner. We’ve never stayed at another value resort, but AoA felt more upscale than what I imagine the all stars are, and even though our other trips have all been deluxe stays, we didn’t find ourselves wishing we were at the GF or Poly. Not at what they’re charging for those resorts these days. I think we’d upgrade to a Nemo suite next trip- the Nemo buildings are so much closer and much more spacious.
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Feb 25, 2025
My daughter’s 7th birthday experience and 1st time to Disney.
For the amount of money you’re spending it would be reasonable to expect a clean, pleasant room and hallway. Upon entering the hotel (The Lion king suites) the hallways stunk like years of trash build up. I held my breath every time we’d leave and come bk. Also the fixtures in my room were extremely dusty and my daughter ended up having an asthma attack.