Just back from Pop... The food court was a nightmare...

[preschoolmom]

Before you judge my post too harshly, this was our fourth trip, and our third stay at Pop (the first trip, we stayed at the Contemporary).

We always loved the food court, because I have picky kids - and I just loved that everyone could have exactly what they wanted. Considering we were there during a lower crowd time (our last trip was during spring break 2012, so 9's and 10's all week), the food court was just a nightmare.

A) I just hate that you can only get fries at one of the stations. So, for every meal, we had to wait in numerous lines to put our meals together. I realize it was like this before, but it seemed easier to get all my kids' meals together on our previous trips.

B) It was always so crowded we never once ate all at the same time. DH and I would get the kids settled first and then go back for our own food. Nightmare.

C) The food quality left something to be desired.

D) I get that it is free dining, and that has impacted the quality/quantity of the food - but watching them weigh fries for every order was ridiculous.

E) The employees seemed to have no leeway with making snacks meals or meals snacks. Frustrating! On previous trips, we never had issues with this.

We had issues with getting our luggage (Our fault, we'll never travel on a Saturday again). Our flight landed at 11:30am. We took Magic Express to Pop. Our luggage did not make it to our room until 6:30pm. Then that was just two bags. The third bag came around 8:30pm. I was worried that the bags weren't coming! I felt better when I called at 6 - and they confirmed they had them and were out for delivery. But then I worried again until our last bag arrived. Whew.

We did have a WONDERFUL housekeeper. Just fabulous! Had her all week long She added magic to our vacation. I tipped her every day, and also left her a nice note at the end of the week.

The pools were less crowded than our last trip.

I would stay at Pop again, but we would plan to eat all our meals in the parks. I would also pay more for preferred rooms and request as close to the main building/Hippy Dippy Pool as possible. This was our second time being far, far out - and while it isn't a huge deal - it would just be nicer to be closer.

I might even consider staying off-site for a future trip.

 

[dawnhaze]

I did not enjoy the Pop food court on my recent trip either. I've heard that since they changed the menus it has gone downhill, but I never stayed there before then to compare. The food didn't impress me, the dessert and drink cases were always empty, and more than one CM was rude to me.

I don't really use the resort food courts much, so it wasn't going to make or break my trip, but it was frustrating. I ended up leaving one CS credit unused because there was nothing in the food court I wanted to eat on my departure day, though.

 

[navyblue8]

I despised the Art food court on our last trip. It was the only bad part of the whole week. Even going at 10 at night was bad.

 

[preschoolmom]

I despised the Art food court on our last trip. It was the only bad part of the whole week. Even going at 10 at night was bad.

It's actually a relief for me to read this (even though I'm sorry it was terrible for you!)... I kept saying to my husband, "Am I doing it wrong?" "It wasn't this hard last time, was it?" It didn't help that they replaced the traditional Disney Pizza (still available everywhere but Pop) with some kind of french bread version that none of my kids would eat.

Every single station always had a long line. The food always seemed to be running out/a long wait. The prices are just plain offensive (I know, I know, it's Disney)...

It really was bad enough for us to consider staying off-site. And one of the things we loved most about our trips was that "all-inclusive" feel.

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

We have stayed here many times and not had any issues but I'm with you. The food is not good and the prices are ridiculous. I was so angry when I saw them weighing our fries, we didn't eat there for the rest of our stay. At almost $10 for a crappy burger and fries?? Weighing fries?? Seriously?


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[Liberator]

the food court at POP was very slooooooooooow...the CMs were friendly, but slow.

Lines were very long at most times of the day

I had something called "Bounty Platter". This tasted like fried garbage found and collected at the resort at night...

 

[jimandami]

We did our first stay at value in the family suites at AoA last September, and even though we loved the room and enjoyed the hotel overall, I told DH "NEVER AGAIN at a value" simply because of the chaos of the food court. It is just too much trouble to corral 2 children while trying to get everyone something different to eat, make sure you have all the stuff you need for the DDP, etc...Though I will say everything we tried there was of good quality, it just added too much stress.

 

[TJA]

That is sad to hear because the food courts are a big draw of the values. While we have never stayed at a value, we've stayed at 2 moderates and really enjoyed having a food court available. We love the deluxes, but whenever we've talked about possibly staying moderate or trying a value, the first thing that comes to mind is "Yay! We'd have a food court!" So if that goes downhill, then we'd probably never do it....

 

[kydisneyfans]

Pop has always been on the top of the food court list for us.....until last October.

The tie die cheesecake is now in a cup about 1/3 of the size it was before at the same price.

The beef stir fry is gone.

It's no longer worth making the trip to Pop to eat....

 

[DizneyLizzy]

Something must have changed there recently in terms of management that went along with last spring's menu change. I've stayed at Pop 6 times, and most recently in June, the food court was just as terrible as described here. Trips to the food court during my other 5 stays were easy and delightful. I don't know what happened!?

 

[Lorien728]

I had some "nachos" there last June---It was awful. They were in no way nachos--some kettle chips with meat slapped on it and canned cheese whiz.

 

[DSNY4ever]

We hated the AoA food court. It wasn't that the food was so bad, it was that it was chaos and hard and to get all of your food and with toddlers it was very hard to wait in line and carry your trays and sit down to eat before it was cold- if you had to push a stroller too, forget about it! And it was SOOOO crowded in the evenings even until late at night like you said. Some of the longest lines of our whole trip were at the food court.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

I am staying at Pop for the first time on my next trip. I believe some folks might have free dining as part of bounce back but not for general public. This is just a friend trip so no littles to get ready in the morning. I plan on eating breakfast at the resort and then rest of the meals at the parks. Do any of you know how busy it is around 7/7:30. I wanna leave on the first bus around 8 so I can be at parks for rope drop.

 

[Sparkly]

What's the problem with weighing fries? They're portioning them out, surely. In McDonalds they only give you a certain amount of fries.

 

[JennyDrake]

I despised the Art food court on our last trip. It was the only bad part of the whole week. Even going at 10 at night was bad.

My experience there was the same.

However, zero issues at ASMovies and ASMusic this year!

 

[maxiesmom]

That is sad to hear because the food courts are a big draw of the values. While we have never stayed at a value, we've stayed at 2 moderates and really enjoyed having a food court available. We love the deluxes, but whenever we've talked about possibly staying moderate or trying a value, the first thing that comes to mind is "Yay! We'd have a food court!" So if that goes downhill, then we'd probably never do it....

I've never stayed at the Pop, but I have nothing but good things to say about the food courts at the Sports and Music. Everything has always been very tasty, and how you get your food is no different than how you get it at a moderate food court.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

What's the problem with weighing fries? They're portioning them out, surely. In McDonalds they only give you a certain amount of fries.

As you read, the problem is that them weighing fries to order shows a lack of proper management and organization. Which is showing in the comments posted here. Weighing fries to order IS NOT the way to control cost and at the same time give FAST proper service to your guest. It may control cost, but then helps to clog up the lines. As you stated McDonald's give you a set amount of fries, because uses a portion control devise to make sure they are giving the proper weight of fries. Maybe someone should suggest this simple fix to the management here and speed up the service.

 

[preschoolmom]

What's the problem with weighing fries? They're portioning them out, surely. In McDonalds they only give you a certain amount of fries.

There has to be a better way for them to portion out the fries appropriately. It was kind of irritating how they would have all the fries in these little containers, then put one container on a scale, and then move fries around... They were just handling the fries a lot. Same with the chips for the nachos.

Fries can be portioned out easily in numerous ways - based on the container, or heck, weigh them - but then do it "back stage" so I don't have to watch.

 

[preschoolmom]

That is sad to hear because the food courts are a big draw of the values. While we have never stayed at a value, we've stayed at 2 moderates and really enjoyed having a food court available. We love the deluxes, but whenever we've talked about possibly staying moderate or trying a value, the first thing that comes to mind is "Yay! We'd have a food court!" So if that goes downhill, then we'd probably never do it....

Yes, we always appreciated having a food court. It was definitely a draw for us.

 

[preschoolmom]

I had some "nachos" there last June---It was awful. They were in no way nachos--some kettle chips with meat slapped on it and canned cheese whiz.

Yeah, I made the mistake of trying the nachos our first night there. Gross. The chips were gross. It was basically inedible.