We stayed here for 14 nights in a little mermaid room.
Check in was easy as always and the staff were very friendly! Our room was very far from the main reception building as are all of the little mermaid rooms. We was placed in a room facing the hour glass lake with the new skyliner (sadly not quite open) operating. First of all we heard little noise from these when outside and certainly couldn’t hear them from in the room!

The room was clean and big for just us two but I have to admit the room layout is a little cramped when you compare it to a pop century room. The TV is a good size and the fridge was plenty for cans and bottle of drink for use in the parks. The room had two double beds which seemed quite small for us and we are not the biggest of couples! The bathroom was a nice size with bath shower combo, the shower being very powerful and nice and hot. The sink area was large and is separate from the toilet shower room. The theming of the room is nice as it isn’t over powering but is definitely themed well.

The resort itself is very large especially if you are in a little mermaid room! The reception area is about a 5-10 minute walk depending how quick you walk. Definitely 10 minutes in the hot weather! The theming of the buildings are just amazing to walk through from the lion king to cars and finding Nemo. It’s great for kids and pictures! Their are 3 pools. One at the little mermaid, one at finding Nemo and one at cars. There’s no pool for the lion king suites and the same goes for a washing room.

The canteen has a wide variety of fresh tasty food so always something to eat for everyone! Also the canteen was much less crowded that’s pop century one across the lake. There is a bar by the pool which I felt was a little pricey but a nice way to end the day. There is an arcade with plenty of games too.

Driving wise we was about 10 minutes from animal and magic kingdom and 5 from Epcot and studios. Disney springs is 10 minutes away and a gas garage is at the end of the road. The nearest Walmart is about 10 minutes away also so the resort in my opinion is one of the best placed resorts for being in the middle of it all.

I did have a few negatives, with this being the most expensive of the value resorts I think pop century had nicer rooms however facilities were easily better at Art of Animation.
I also found the room we had was so far from both the car park and the reception but this is more the way the place is designed.

Overall with the new skyliner in place as of tomorrow I believe this has to be one of the best and cheapest resorts to stay at. In the value category I would say Pop century is better value (and also a short walk from art of animation for the facilities) so if you want the best stay probably pop century just beats this place due to price And the new style rooms! But in terms of the rest art of animation is amazing and well worth a stay!

This is the second straight year we have stayed at the Art of Animation - Ariel room. We stay 1 night each time before heading to our DVC resort. For the second straight year, our room was dirty and I was not happy about this. The resort is nice with the pool and theme, but the cleanliness of the room is a big turnoff for a future stays there. The bed had dirt stains, there was glitter all over the carpet, the walls had stains (came off when I rubbed with a wash cloth so housekeeping could have done this). I am very disappointed that for the second straight year our room was dirty. We did not say anything since we arrived at 6:30PM and staying one night but if I planned to stay for more than 1 night then I would have complained. I expect better than this from Disney. I would not recommend Art of Animation to anyone for this reason.

Overall, the hotel itself is nothing special other than the heavy themes. We stayed in a standard Little Mermaid room. Everything about this hotel was placed as far away as possible from everything. We were assigned a room that was at the farthest away from transportation and the cafe/lobby building. Transportation from MK or DS, it was assigned the very last very farthest bus station possible. After a long day at the parks, i dreaded the walk back to the bus. Im glad to say that I have experienced this iconic hotel but i will not be staying here again. On the bright side tho, the room was clean and the pools were enjoyable. Our favorite was the "finding nemo" pool. The little mermaid section is also the quietest which was nice as well.