By Christie | Shoot for the Moon Vacations
Okay, I need to paint you a picture.
It’s a Sunday afternoon. My two kids and my best friend Wendy are piled into the lobby of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort at Walt Disney World. We’ve been traveling since the crack of dawn, and we are beyond ready to drop off our bags and head to Hollywood Studios! So, after baggage claim and a Lyft to Disney’s Art of Animation, we finally walked through those resort doors, and I saw all the beautiful artwork in the lobby and heard the kids absolutely lose their minds with excitement. I exhaled for what felt like the first time all day.
That feeling? That right there is why I do this.
Over the next week, we visited six theme parks across both Disney World and Universal. I took notes, paid attention to the details, and asked myself the whole time: what would the moms I work with actually want to know about this? So that’s exactly what I’m going to tell you.
Let’s start with Disney.
First Things First: Disney’s Art of Animation Check-In Day Tips
Pro Tip: Your room won’t be ready until 3pm. Here’s what to do instead.
Drop your bags at the resort’s luggage storage desk and go do something! Head over to the Big Blue Pool (yes, before you even check in, you can use the resort amenities as soon as you arrive), take the Skyliner over to EPCOT or Hollywood Studios, or hop on a bus to Disney Springs for lunch and some shopping. By the time you’ve done all that, your room will practically be waiting with a welcome mat.
We used that window to decompress a little before the real fun started, and it made check-in feel celebratory instead of chaotic.
Art of Animation Finding Nemo Family Suite Review
Let me be real with you: Art of Animation is one of Disney’s value resorts. And in the world of Disney, “value” can sometimes mean small rooms, basic amenities, and a whole lot of “well, we’re barely in the room anyway.” So I want to make sure I’m clear about this:
The Finding Nemo Family Suite is not that.
If you are a family with two or more kids and you have ever stood in a hotel room doorway doing the mental math of where is everyone actually going to sleep and are we all going to survive each other for a week, this suite is going to make you cry happy tears.
Here’s how it’s set up: you walk in, and there’s a living area with a sofa bed, coffee table, TV, and a couple of chairs. There’s also a dining table for four that folds down into a Murphy bed (and here’s the part I love) it comes already made. You literally just unzip a storage bag for the extra pillows and blankets, and you’re done. No wrestling with a pull-out mattress at 10pm while everyone’s exhausted. Right off this space is a full bathroom. Not a half-bath. A full bathroom. Perfect when you have a teenage daughter.
Then there’s the kitchenette: microwave, mini fridge, sink, coffee maker, and plastic plates, cups, and plasticware. Now, can I tell you what you absolutely should do with that kitchenette?
Order grocery delivery to your resort. Instacart and Amazon Fresh both deliver directly to Disney World resorts.
Snacks for the parks, milk and cereal for a quick breakfast before you head out, juice boxes, easy lunch stuff for days when you don’t want to spend $18 on a theme park sandwich… it adds up to real savings and real sanity. We didn’t do it on this trip, but we are definitely doing it when we stay at Old Key West this summer.
In the back, there’s a full bedroom with a queen-size bed (it was big, I slept well, that’s all the review I need), a dresser, a TV, hanging space, and a second full bathroom.
Total sleeping capacity: six people. Two in the king, two in the Murphy bed, two on the sofa bed.
Six people. In a beautifully themed, Finding Nemo-decorated, one-bathroom suite at a value resort price point. If that doesn’t make you want to book it right now, I don’t know what to tell you.
Disney Skyliner from Art of Animation: What You Need to Know
One of the best perks of staying at Art of Animation is access to the Disney Skyliner, the gondola system that connects several Disney World resorts to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios.
Quick geography lesson: it’s not a direct shot. You’ll transfer at Caribbean Beach Resort.
You’ll ride the Skyliner from Art of Animation to Caribbean Beach Resort, hop off, and switch gondolas to head to either EPCOT or Hollywood Studios. It sounds like more steps than it is. In practice, it’s seamless and honestly kind of delightful. The gondolas run continuously, the views are beautiful, and most of the time you get your own car.
Most of the time. At park closing when they’re trying to move thousands of people back to their resorts as fast as possible? You’ll be making some new friends in your gondola whether you planned to or not. It’s fine. You just survived a full day at a Disney theme park, you can handle sharing a gondola with strangers for ten minutes.
But seriously: no parking, no bus lines, no waiting in a crowd while someone’s kid screams. The Skyliner is a genuinely lovely way to travel, and it’s one of the things that makes Art of Animation such a great location choice.
Landscape of Flavors Food Court: Honest Review
The resort’s main food court, Landscape of Flavors, is solid. Good variety, the food is actually tasty (that chocolate croissant is not a joke, and the breakfast bowl is huge and delicious), and it feels in keeping with the fun theming of the whole resort.
Here’s the thing though. It doesn’t open until 7am.
I know, I know. 7am sounds totally reasonable. Except when you’re a mom who wants to grab breakfast for the kids so they can eat while you shower and actually get yourself ready in peace before charging into a theme park… 7am feels like it’s being personally unhelpful…especially when you want to make it to rope drop!
I walked over to Landscape of Flavors at 6:30am thinking I’d beat the crowd and maybe even have a quiet cup of coffee. Reader, it was closed. I walked back at 6:55am thinking I’d be first in line. There were already people waiting at the door.
Lesson learned: shoulda ordered groceries and made it a cereal kind of morning!
If an early start is important to you (and it really should be if you want to hit rope drop) either use that kitchenette microwave for a quick breakfast, stock the mini fridge the night before, or mentally accept that the food court is going to be a little chaotic right at opening. Go in with a plan and a sense of humor and you’ll be fine.
Hollywood Studios Tips: The Fantasmic! Dinner Package Is Worth It. Full Stop.
We arrived at Hollywood Studios on check-in day, heading straight to the park once our room was ready around 3pm. We stayed until 10:30pm. Yes, we did a full evening at a theme park after a travel day. We are built different. (Or maybe just extremely caffeinated. One of the two.)
Book the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater and Fantasmic! Dinner Package. It is worth every penny.
Book your late lunch/early dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine-In. You sit in actual vintage car booths and watch old campy sci-fi film clips and the most charmingly cheesy retro drive-in commercials on a big screen. The food is classic American: burgers, milkshakes, nothing that’s going to win a Michelin star, but honestly good and the kids thought the whole setup was the coolest thing they’d ever seen. The atmosphere IS the experience.
Then at showtime, your dinner package voucher gets you to reserved seating for Fantasmic! They direct you right to your spot, front and center, no scrambling, no arriving an hour early to claim territory with your stroller. The show is spectacular. It was our first time seeing Fantasmic! and it blew us away! If you have kids who have never seen it, prepare yourself emotionally because their faces are going to wreck you.
Other Must-Dos at Hollywood Studios
Galaxy’s Edge: Build a Droid experience. My son Jackson did this during our visit last summer, and the Cast Member who helped him was phenomenal: patient, enthusiastic, and walking him through every single step like it was the most important thing she’d done all day. That’s the Disney Cast Member magic in action, and it never gets old. Building your own lightsaber at Galaxy’s Edge is another experience worth the splurge.
Slinky Dog Dash is a must-ride: great for all ages, beautifully themed in Toy Story Land, and a fun coaster that won’t send your anxious kid into a tailspin.
Roundup Rodeo BBQ in Toy Story Land: served family style, genuinely good food, and there’s a moment where a Cast Member calls out, “Andy’s coming!” and everyone in the entire restaurant freezes on the spot. Adults. Kids. Everyone. It’s one of those pure Disney moments that sneaks up on you. We’ve been here a few times and is at the top of my list of places to eat!
EPCOT Tips for Families: Go During a Festival
This is me, as your travel bestie, strongly encouraging you to time your EPCOT visit around one of their seasonal festivals if there is any way to make that happen.
We were there during the International Flower and Garden Festival and it elevated the whole experience. The character topiaries throughout World Showcase are stunning. The Moana topiary this year was absolutely gorgeous, and they also moved the Toy Story display near the front of the park.
Beyond the festival: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is still one of the most unique coaster experiences at Disney World, so if your kids are big enough, don’t skip it. We played a game of who could guess what song would be played…Jackson won with Disco Inferno! Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure has been updated so you no longer have to wear AR glasses, which makes it a much smoother experience for the whole family.
Pro tip: Book a sit-down restaurant in the late afternoon. It’s the best mid-day reset you can build into a park day or take a ride on the monorail and visit another resort!
We had a lull in Lightning Lane passes so we hopped on the Monorail and visited Disney’s Polynesian Resort to get a Dole Whip and look around. It was a nice break from the park and the Dole Whip Swirl was so yummy! After we rode Test Track and Guardians, we ate dinner at Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria in the Italy pavilion and it was delicious. The pizza is legitimately amazing (we were walking around afterward with our leftover box and multiple strangers stopped us to ask about it). We sat down in air conditioning, had a real conversation, rested our feet, and came out the other side relaxed and refreshed.
Magic Kingdom Tips: Rope Drop Strategy, Lightning Lane, and Hidden Gems
Magic Kingdom was our final Disney park day and we went in with a plan.
We hit rope drop and went straight for Space Mountain, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure before the lines had a chance to build. Then we started layering in our Lightning Lane reservations: Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean first, and we ended up riding both Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Haunted Mansion twice each.
Lightning Lane strategy: get the Multi Pass and Individual Lightning Lane at a minimum.
I’ll also be honest about this: last year I splurged on the Lightning Lane Premier Pass for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Is it expensive? Yes. Is it worth it? For me, completely. I was not glued to my phone strategizing. I was not zig-zagging across the park chasing the next 60-minute window. I was just… there. Present. With my kids. If that sounds like something you need on your vacation, it might be worth every penny.
Hidden Gems You Might Not Know About
The Pirates of the Caribbean Treasure Hunt: Just past the attraction heading toward Tiana’s Bayou, there’s a small hut that opens at noon. A Cast Member sets you up with a map and walks you through the whole thing. Interactive with MagicBand+, but they give you a token if you don’t have one. Free with park admission. My son Jackson asks for it every single time we go. I think you get a special surprise if you do all of the maps!
The Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover: Zero wait time, completely shaded, air-conditioned, gives you a little aerial tour of Tomorrowland, and requires exactly zero energy from anyone. When it’s 3pm and everyone’s tank is running low, the PeopleMover is your best friend. No notes.
Dining at Magic Kingdom
Be Our Guest restaurant gets mixed reviews and I am here to push back on the skeptics. We’ve eaten there three times and it’s been great every time. This trip we specifically requested the Beast’s Wing (the West Wing) instead of the Grand Ballroom. It’s darker, moodier, and just a completely different vibe. Ask for it when you make your reservation or when you check in.
Our server KT was extraordinary. She brought signed Beast autographs to the table and quietly surprised my daughter Madison with an extra goblet even though Madison hadn’t ordered the drink it came with. No fanfare, no asking. Just thoughtful. If you get a Cast Member who makes your experience special, leave them a compliment through the My Disney Experience app under “Share a Compliment.” It takes two minutes and means the world to them.
Don’t miss The Confectionery on Main Street. Get the specialty popcorn. You pick your base and toppings. People WILL stop you in the park to ask about it.
Is Disney World Right for Your Family?
Honestly? Yes, for every family. I’ve done Disney with toddlers, tweens, multi-generational groups, and with a group of friends. There’s no wrong age for it. My kids are 9 and 14, and they both had an absolute blast, in completely different ways, for completely different reasons, and that’s the magic of it.
If you’re planning to do Disney AND Universal back-to-back as we did, just know going in: it is a lot. Build in a real transition day to breathe. We spent the afternoon at the pool, did a quick load of laundry, and didn’t rush anywhere. That reset made the Universal leg of the trip feel fresh, rather than like we were running on fumes.
More on Universal (including my first full visit to Epic Universe, and SO much to say about it) coming in Part 2.
Frequently Asked Questions: Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
How many people does the Art of Animation Finding Nemo Family Suite sleep?
The Finding Nemo Family Suite sleeps up to six people. Sleeping arrangements include one queen bed in the master bedroom, a full-size sofa bed, and a convertible table that folds down into a full-size bed.
Is Art of Animation worth it for families?
Yes, especially if you have four or more people. The Finding Nemo, Cars, and Lion King family suites offer two full bathrooms, a kitchenette, and significantly more space than a standard hotel room, all at a value resort price point.
Does Art of Animation have a kitchenette?
Yes! The family suites include a kitchenette with a microwave, mini fridge, sink, coffee maker, and basic plastic dinnerware. Grocery delivery services like Instacart and Amazon Fresh deliver directly to the resort.
Can you use the Disney Skyliner from Art of Animation?
Yes. Art of Animation has a Skyliner station that connects to Caribbean Beach Resort, where you transfer to reach EPCOT or Hollywood Studios. It’s scenic, easy, and runs continuously.
What time does Landscape of Flavors open at Art of Animation?
Landscape of Flavors opens at 7am. If you’re planning an early park day, consider stocking your kitchenette the night before so you can grab a quick breakfast without waiting.
Ready to Plan Your Own Disney World Trip?
Whether it’s Disney, Universal, or the full “let’s do both” adventure, this is exactly the kind of trip I love helping families plan. All the details, all the decisions, all the “wait, which Lightning Lane do I actually need?” questions… that’s my job so it doesn’t have to be yours.
Reach out and let’s start talking. You deserve to show up to this trip excited, not exhausted from planning it.
🌙 Part 2: Universal Studios, Epic Universe, and Portofino Bay Hotel Review — coming soon!