POP Century~Unofficially the Grooviest FAQ Thread #7~Sept 2012

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The dreaded BTG is here in force this morning. Saw them last night taking pics. This group is all teen girls in pink and white with backpacks. They swarm, but have not been pushing. Look out for the backpacks when they turn suddenly though! This was the scene at the register

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I despaired of getting breakfast when a CM directed me to a different register around the corner.

Saved!
 
I just got back Thursday from spending 7 nights at Pop Century. We had booked a Preferred Pool View, and had requested a King Bed(with hopes that it would be a (non-accessible/non-handicapped room) on the highest floor possible.

When we did check-in, there seemed to be a lack of excitement from the cast-member behind the desk. Perhaps there was a bit more fanfare from the individual who helped me out on my last trip. The cast member kept the small talk to a minniumum. I did ask if our requests were met and if the room was non-accessible. The cast-member said yes. the whole check-in process was a lot quicker than I had expected...probably no more than 10 minutes tops. We were then on our way to the room...

Once we got a glimpse of the Hippy Dippy Pool from the main building, the area between the two 60s buildings felt smaller/cozier than I remembered it. The buildings felt shorter...but perhaps it was just me being so used to being at Pop from my last trip, that the initial feeling of being blown away had left me. It could have also been the slightly warmer weather than we were expecting.

We arrived at our room, 5403, in building 5. It was pretty cool to see the RFID thingamajig on the door. Apparently, according to the map provided on the Pop thread...this was a "Preferred Room" but it still provided a view of the Hippy Dippy Pool, so it was good enough for me...we didn't want to get too nit-picky. Plus, we were on the 4th floor, which was great as well. When we opened the door to the room, we realized that we had ended up in an accessible room. The King Bed was pretty low to the ground, and there were quite a few handrails in the bathroom. The main reason we requested a non-accessible room was because we wanted to have a tub. Luckily, we scored a room that had one! :thumbsup2 I guess the plus of having an accessible shower/tub was that the showerhead had a surprisingly wider range of motion. The extra handrails didn't bother us and we eventually got used to it. Most importantly in regards to the room, it was clean and kept that way, by "Blanca".

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Our room number.

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The RFID Thingamajig.

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A snazy panorama of outside our room.

We had left tips for Mousekeeping everyday in envelopes. We aren't that messy of people, and tried to clean up as best we could, but Mouskeeping always found a way to keep things one step up more organized than we thought we could. We were left a few towel animals throughout our stay and even some of our toys were left brought into the fun. Here are a few examples of the great work done by our Mousekeeper:

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The little green men from the Toy Story movies have landed in our room.

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A close-up of said green men.

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This was left on our bed...the same day that the little green men had landed on our bed!

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Another close-up!

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Not quite sure what type of animals are...they're either bears or some animal of the rodent kind...still pretty awesome!

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Not-so-hidden mickey toothbrush holder!

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Our army of soaps and shampoos that we accumulated by the end of the trip!

The bus transportation was great as expected. We never had to wait more than 10 minutes for a bus. It was real simple to make it to an 8:05AM ADR at Crystal Palace...with tons of time to take pics in front of the castle to spare! :hyper: Bus transportation was almost better than my first trip, which I had a great experience with as well. It felt like there were more buses readily available and a wider variety(theme-park destination wise). Apparently there were large groups of international teenaged tour groups(you probably have heard of them), staying at the resort. But we managed to always avoid the parks they were going to. They were also mostly concentrated inthe 90s section of the resort.:goodvibes

We purchased refillable mugs at Everything Pop and used them quite a bit. My new favorite refillable mug "hack"(not really) is to get some hot chocolate with some ice at the beverage islands. We found ourselves eating at Everything Pop almost everyday, mostly for breakfasts that weren't spent elsewhere. The Bounty Platter was surprisingly good and mor ethan enough for us. We also had our more than our share of the legendary tie-dye cheesecakes than we'd like to admit. ;) I tried to take on "The King"...but it was just too rich for my liking.

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More legendary than the backside of water...it's the tie-dye cheesecake!

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It makes sense that the "The King" would be so rich...

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Bacon, bananas, peanut butter, chocolate and a hint of diabetes!

On one morning, we decided it was great enough weather to take a dip in the Hippy Dippy Pool. We loved how warm the water was kept, especially in the morning. We had a chance to see the "opening ceremony" of the pool where the shower flower nozzles are "magically turned on". The water from the nozzles was not heated, but it was kind of fun to see people being shocked to find that out for themselves. It got a little breezy outside of the pool so that warm feelign of being in the pool quickly went away and we quickly dashed into the hotel to get warm again.

Everything had gone great until the time of our checkout. :worried: Apparently there was an issue with the card we had on file for room charges. Something about it being put on hold because of charges being made out of state(we're from California). So we received a note on our door the night before checkout to just see the front desk to resolve the issue before checkout. We showed up the morning of our departure and talked to the front desk. Their system was down(this happened quite a few times during our stay while asking to get a print-out of charges made to our rooms so far).

The cast members behind the desk were very friendly and helpful with the whole process...they even said that the situation we were happens all the time, even with themselves when they make purchases with their banks outside of their home states. We tried to put another card on file and that got declined as well. I asked if getting billed the balance was an option and the cast member helping me out had to ask for a manager to check. The manager then told me that it was not an option. But then her tone of voice changed quickly to a very "unfriendly one" :( saying that we had to what we had to do because we couldn't leave until that balance was taken care of, pointed out that there was an ATM was just around the corner and then she asked us if she needed to call security to go through our luggage to take back any souvenirs that we may have purchased(we didn't have any...mostly food related purchases).

This just really rubbed me the wrong way. :eek: I can understand if that's the procedure when a guest is checking out and there's a problem with the card on file, but I thought the delivery of the news could have been done a little better. This manager was getting very accusatory and didn't really go over any options that we eventually found out were available through the front desk cast members and another manager. Luckily, things eventually got resolved and we never did meet up with security. ::yes:: The whole situation took quite a while to resolve/sort out, that we didn't have time to use our last day of tickets in the parks before our DME departure time of 1:25PM. :headache:

So with everythng said and done...for the most part, we enjoyed our stay at Pop Century. That last day however left a big enough impact on us filled iwth embarassment and stress that it almost overpowers the memories we made over a week at WDW. I probably won't be staying at Pop anytime soon because of it unfortunately. Not because of the lack of quality at Pop, but because of the memories that may associated with our last day of this trip. :worried:
 
So horrible that last day must have been!! I would have felt the same way. That kind of thing stresses me out.

I'm glad that the majority of your trip was great. So sorry that last day was so bad.
 
I would write to let them know how you were treated. So sorry you have a cloud hanging over you memories. Time for a do-over!
 


Kuyajeff-thanks for your review. So sorry about your checkout experience. I too think you should write Disney a note. Disney needs to know they have a manager speaking to their guests like that.

Loved all your photos. How did you do the panoramic one?
 
lovesdumbo said:
Kuyajeff-thanks for your review. So sorry about your checkout experience. I too think you should write Disney a note. Disney needs to know they have a manager speaking to their guests like that.

Loved all your photos. How did you do the panoramic one?

Thanks for the kind words about my pics. I took all my pics in my phone with the camera on here. There's an option to take panorama pics that took a lot of trial and error to figure it out. If it matters, my phone is an HTC One X.

I'm strongly considering writing Disney about the whole checkout experience I had.

Sent from my HTC One X using DISBoards
 
o_O I can't believe how poorly you were treated over the credit card issue! It's not like that situation is unheard of, especially when on vacation. You might have figured this out already, but often if you call the card company and verify your personal info/identification, they will lift the hold.

I would write to Disney about how you were treated, because it is not right at all. I work in retail/customer service and that is one of the number one rules - NEVER accuse the customer of any wrong-doing (theft, fraudulent card usage, etc). Seems that manager needs to be retrained on the fine art of customer service!
 


H & I stayed at Pop from 1/24-27. Our only room request was a king and we didn't get it. It wasn't earth shattering, but we would have appreciated a bigger bed. H and I were spoiled by the AoA suites and he's since said we're never staying anywhere but AoA. As for cleanliness, the room was clean, but it looked run down. In fact, it reminded me of a motel down the Jersey shore. It worked for our short 3 night stay but we cold never have fit 4 people in that room.

The resort was huge and we got lost twice in the dark. I also walked to the store for some tums around 6:30 on Friday morning and a rat - not a mouse, a full grown rat - ran across the path right in front of me. I know it's no reflection on the hotel, that there is wilderness around, but it really freaked me out.

There were tour groups and dancers/cheerleaders there. I never saw much of the tour groups around Pop, they used their own bus, but I had my fill of preteen girls and their non-attentive "chaperones." Riding the buses with them in the evening was torture. I felt so bad for the parents with sleeping children because these girls were out of control and the adults they were with never once asked them to quiet down.

We really did have a great adult only trip, but I don't think we'll go back to Pop, if its ever just H and I again we will do a mod. In this instance, we got what we paid for - a place to shower & sleep on the property.
 
The values are included :) The BB we rec'd earlier this month were 35% Deluxe and Deluxe Villas, 30% moderates, 25% values. States "offier valid for most nights highlighted in the calendar" -- which are noted below. :goodvibes

Dates
2/1-2/12/13
2/24-3/9/13
4/14-5-21/13
5/28-6/8/13
8/4-10/5/13
10/20-11/2/13
11/17-11/23/13
11/30-12/4/13
12/15-12/19/13


Note: Did not include the January dates

I booked a couple of days ago for 11/17-11/23 and was not aware of the offer. In order to qualify do you have to be given a pin or something? We were there in October and not advised of any BB offer for this year.
 
Everything had gone great until the time of our checkout. :worried: Apparently there was an issue with the card we had on file for room charges. Something about it being put on hold because of charges being made out of state(we're from California). So we received a note on our door the night before checkout to just see the front desk to resolve the issue before checkout. We showed up the morning of our departure and talked to the front desk. Their system was down(this happened quite a few times during our stay while asking to get a print-out of charges made to our rooms so far).

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Sorry you had such a rough time at checkout with the credit card issue. That's a great reminder for everyone to notify their credit card companies that they will be traveling so they can put a notice on your account. We nearly had a similar situation happen to us on our last trip. The day before we left for Disney I had used our card to fill up the gas tank on the van at a local gas station; my husband had to make a business purchase in CA (we're in PA) and it was over the phone so the charge showed up as actually being made in CA -- not online; and my husband also takes care of all the IT stuff at our church and had ordered 3 new computers so they would be ready for set up by the time we got back from vacation. Then we left for Disney the next morning -- driving through more states and making food purchases along the way. Needless to say, this looked "suspicious" to the credit card company (and I totally understand why). They called our house 3 times (obviously, we weren't home.) and sent e-mail notifications saying if we didn't contact them by 5:00 that afternoon, they would put a hold on our card due to suspected fraud/theft. Luckily, my son wasn't with us on that trip and he got the phone message when he got home from work. All it took was a quick phone call to the credit card company to straighten it out, but it could have been a disaster if my son hadn't been at home to relay the message. We now make sure to notify the credit card company before we travel (never had a problem with it before that incident) *and* we added our cell phone numbers to the file so they can contact us more quickly.

Glad the rest of your trip was great!!
 
I booked a couple of days ago for 11/17-11/23 and was not aware of the offer. In order to qualify do you have to be given a pin or something? We were there in October and not advised of any BB offer for this year.

Bouncebacks are promotions that are offered to guests staying on property, as incentive to come back or "bounce back" to Disney at a future date and must be booked by the last day of your vacation. In October, this bounceback was not available.

Often times, public codes will include some BB dates, and since Thanksgiving is later this year (11/28) your dates will surely be included for some promotion. :) Free dining has been offered before Thanksgiving, so that is another option too. :goodvibes

For future reference -- Disney is now including the bounce back information in your booklet that you receive at check in. Much better system than the previous one, thus ensuring that all guests are given the information. ::yes::
 
For future reference -- Disney is now including the bounce back information in your booklet that you receive at check in. Much better system than the previous one, thus ensuring that all guests are given the information.

I'm glad someone figured this out. I did not enjoy missing my free dining bounceback last time. After I got home I called twice and they did not want my $$$. :( So I went to Disneyland instead. :)
 
So with everythng said and done...for the most part, we enjoyed our stay at Pop Century. That last day however left a big enough impact on us filled iwth embarassment and stress that it almost overpowers the memories we made over a week at WDW. I probably won't be staying at Pop anytime soon because of it unfortunately. Not because of the lack of quality at Pop, but because of the memories that may associated with our last day of this trip. :worried:

KuyaJeff, thank you for your review, your pix are amazing!! Love your mousekeeper's sense of style with your room. :goodvibes Alien green dudes are favorites of mine. :love: (Perhaps the rodents were .... mice?? :))

Happy you enjoyed your stay at POP, and wish the ending could of been so much different. I do hope you follow up with Disney and explain how you were treated, Disney needs to know what there managers are doing. It would please me if Disney was able to make amends in some way to you. And just think, by you taking the initiative to report this manager, it may impact the way this manager may handle this same issue for future guests. :goodvibes

Again, thank you for your mini review. I enjoyed reading it. :hippie:
 
I'm glad someone figured this out. I did not enjoy missing my free dining bounceback last time. After I got home I called twice and they did not want my $$$. :( So I went to Disneyland instead. :)

Well Disney World lost out!!! :cool1:

And it took how long for Disney to do this?? :) We been booking FD since 2007 ... this past August our great housekeeper went in search for our FD BB flyer (she is a treasure :)) But we knew to ask for it... how many others lost out booking early over the years? True Disney offers the public FD later on, but with the BB it's nice to have your guarantee in advance of the public offering. Plus, FD BB historically begins a week early than the public FD offers. :goodvibes

And the BB is so nicely presented in the booklet. You'll see on your next visit. :goodvibes
 
Oh, the king cupcake! My kids would love that!

Is it a dessert or snack on the dining plan?

3 weeks and a day til vacation!
 
SwimBikeRun said:
Oh, the king cupcake! My kids would love that!

Is it a dessert or snack on the dining plan?

3 weeks and a day til vacation!

On August we redeemed a snack credit for the KIng :).

But I know other snack desserts can be used for desserts using the DP. Has anyone done this?
 
Nearly in single digits for our first wdw trip :cool1: we are going to try and do most breakfasts in the room so I was wondering is it worth doing garden grocer for milk, cereal and snacks or just get them from pops shop :confused3:confused3 we can't bring anything with us and are relying on disney transport
 
We are still enjoying our stay at pop. Have figured out which the register to use if the giant tour groups are present. Room clean and in a far but quiet location, which was our preference. We got lucky and we got a king bed, which is comfy. The tub does drip a bit, but quietly. I was so busy and tired that I didn't being it to their attention until tonight, but they promise to fix it up tomorrow.

It's nice to go by the pool bar and get a nightcap.

Buses have been prompt and courteous. Never had any tour group on same bus. Even got pixie-dusted with a free pic on Buzz Lightyear in honor of our 17th anniversary. And got my pic taken with The Beast in Be Our Guest. Not the best pic but it was taken with iPhone and free!

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