No longer a Pop Century fan - The DIS Discussion Forums

CraftyMommy · 01-05-2013, 03:47 PM

I have stayed at Pop 9 times and have always enjoyed it in the past for its value. This last visit has severely tainted my view on this resort. The day we checked in it looked like there were drops of blood or something reddish/brownish in the tub. I was still in "Yay, I'm at Disney World" mode so I overlooked it and rinsed out the tub myself. 2 of the 7 nights we were there the trash was not emptied in our room. We had several maintenance issues with the tub faucet not shutting off and hearing running (steady stream, not trickling) water all night even with the bathroom door shut. You had to hold onto the handle to keep it in the warm zone because it would slip into the scalding hot zone if you didn't hold it up. The drain would not stay open, so the tub would fill up with water as you took a shower. In order to keep the tub from filling up you had to bend down and hold the drain open. So, if one hand is holding the drain open and the other hand is holding the handle so the water doesn't scald you, how does one take a shower? We ended up holding the water in the warm zone with one hand, leaving the tub fill up with water, and wash with the free hand. We called maintenance several times and still didn't have our issues resolved when we left. One day the guy told us there was nothing he could do to fix the handle, it would have to wait to be replaced. The tv kept messing up and losing the signal due to a faulty cable that was replaced twice. There was mildew on the bottom half of the tile in the bathroom. The whole way around the tub the grout around the tiles were mildewed. The top half was white, the bottom half was green.

I feel like Pop Century's rooms need a major rehab. I paid for a preferred pool view. I liked being real close to the pool since we spent a lot of time at the pool this trip, but I did not like feeling like I was staying in a roach motel. Pop Century is really starting to show its age and is no longer my favorite place to stay.

This was DH's first Disney trip. I wanted to wow him but Disney dropped the ball so many times on this trip. With Pop being the biggest disappointment we also dealt with several ride breakdowns on this trip. I still love Disney but it seemed like an excessive number of ride breakdowns. DH was not wowed in the least. He kept asking me where those "Disney details" were that I had been raving about. Lukily I convinced him this trip was my worst ever and he needs to give Disney another shot...with a nicer resort next time. One day we went to the Grand Floridian and he checked out the lobby bathroom. He came out and said, "Finally I found a clean restroom!" So he is now convinced we need to stay at a Deluxe resort next time. I'm Super Ok with that! Good bye Pop Century, thanks for being crappy. I never thought I would get to stay deluxe!

The CM's in the food court have no clue what they are doing. One person would tell us which items were considered snacks or quick service meals on the DDP. We would get to the register and the cashier would tell us they were wrong. We ran into this kind of trouble the whole week. We ended up picking a cashier, asking her what was ok to get, then get our food, wait in her line (no matter how long) so we knew we wouldn't be stuck with a cashier that would tell us something different. I never encountered so many discrepancies in what each CM considered a snack or QS credit in the past like I did on this visit.

No longer a Pop fan.

FantasiaMagic · 01-05-2013, 03:53 PM

Oh no! That does not sound good! I'm sorry the POP was not giving you magic. Did you ever ask the front desk to change rooms? They might have let you given the horrible circumstances you were asked to deal with

I have always stayed deluxe and have never stayed in a mod or value. Deluxes are really wonderful in all ways. They all have their own special perk. All have great pools and restaurants and always give me that Disney magic every time - never fails.

Would you ever consider staying another value, besides POP again?

I hope your ext trip turns out a lot better! Any ideas on what Deluxe you would love to try?

-FantasiaMagic

CraftyMommy · 01-05-2013, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FantasiaMagic

Oh no! That does not sound good! I'm sorry the POP was not giving you magic. Did you ever ask the front desk to change rooms? They might have let you given the horrible circumstances you were asked to deal with

I have always stayed deluxe and have never stayed in a mod or value. Deluxes are really wonderful in all ways. They all have their own special perk. All have great pools and restaurants and always give me that Disney magic every time - never fails.

Would you ever consider staying another value, besides POP again?

I hope your ext trip turns out a lot better! Any ideas on what Deluxe you would love to try?

-FantasiaMagic

I would consider Pop again in the future if I heard from several sources that they got their act together. I have always gone on budget trips in the past because I was using my spending money. Now that DH has started going with me and is willing to put out the money for better resorts, I'm very ok with that as well. I stayed at All Star Sports in 2001. I returned several years later and they seemed so small and dark compared to Pop Century, so I always kept going back to Pop. Now that I had a crazy bad experience with Pop and DH is willing to add more money to the budget I probably won't look back. I did talk to the desk several times about it. I kept hinting that perhaps they should just move us but they said No, they'd send maintenance again.

I would love to try Grand Floridian, but I know that's way out of our budget. I'm thinking Contemporary or Wilderness Lodge.

MeeskaMooshka · 01-05-2013, 04:23 PM

Wow! that's really unfortunate! We LOVE POP! My family goes about once a month and we only stay there. Did you talk to the GM. We adore him. Had a problem there once with a reservation, he gave us 10 free day passes to the parks for our troubles. I was shocked, defin. didn't expect it.

disnut1149 · 01-05-2013, 04:47 PM

Hi
I've always loved Pop, but the mattresses are new and they were so hard, we asked if we could be switched to a moderate and pay the difference. The manager was so nice and arranged for us to stay at AKL free and with a free taxi ride to take us there. That was my 7th trip to Pop and most likely my last. I'm sad that I won't be staying there anymore, but the beds gave us such backaches!!

Mousemommy1 · 01-05-2013, 04:52 PM

That stinks!!! We stayed at POP in 2009, but that was after a 7 year hiatus from Disney so we could start a family. We loved it! But again, we would have been happy in a cardboard box on Main Street on that trip!

Hope you have a better trip next time.

alecshawn · 01-05-2013, 05:35 PM

Hmm. We were just these 2 months ago.. Thought it was VERY clean and everything went well.
Maybe im way easier to please. It almost seems like we stayed at different resorts.. POP to me, was as good as ever.

ginny_lynn · 01-05-2013, 05:41 PM

I agree with the food court....when we stayed there in August they were very hard to deal with....5 sandwiches later we finally got our breakfast sandwich with no cheese....We will not be back to POP.

GaSleepingBeautyFan · 01-05-2013, 05:58 PM

The food court is always annoying there to me but I usually only eat breakfast there. I don't do the DDP - I just think it's overcrowded in there with no room to move.

I also asked for a hamburger without cheese once years ago (they only made cheeseburgers at that time) and it took forever to get so that's why I stopped eating any other meals other than breakfast there.

I just stayed at Pop for 2 nights in December 2012 and also had a maintenance issue with my room. The sink was missing the stopper. I called maintenance and they put a new stopper in while I was at the parks.
Other than that, I enjoyed my stay so much I'm thinking of booking there on my next solo trip instead of a moderate to save money.

I always check to be sure the toilets flush, the shower works properly and the sink works properly before I unpack. I guess I'll be adding does the TV work properly to that list.

I would have asked to switch rooms if there was a mildew issue. Yuck.

At least you'll be getting a deluxe stay out of it sometime.

Karabee · 01-05-2013, 06:11 PM

OP - I have to agree with you, my sister and I went to POP for one night and I was disappointed. Last time I stayed there I was nervous about a value but it was fine which is why I was fine going back. However, once my sister and I got there I was less than happy. The front desk was rude when we were checking in, at one point asking why we were checking out the next day (with a smile) and when we said we were switching over to SSR he stopped smiling and said, "we'll, isn't that nice" in a not so nice tone. My sister and I then went to our room, passing multiple people who had pulled pool chairs and put them in front of their doors as if it was their own personal balcony or patio. The cook then looked at me as if I asked him to bake a cake from scratch when I asked for the veggie burger. It just felt so cold and lacked the Disney spirit. I was always fine with POP but honestly, we were SO relieved to get to SSR.
On another note I also brought my BF to Disney last year for his first time and we had a horrible experience at the WL with checking, or room and service. He also asked where the Disney spirit was and I was so upset. So I feel your pain about that! He just said yesterday that we can go back though so I get one more shot - I guess my excitement about my stay at SSR with my sister this year convinced him to give it another shot - thank goodness

Debrn · 01-05-2013, 06:11 PM

I stayed for a night in October and thought it was a great resort, room was very clean, no problems at all.

minnie mum · 01-05-2013, 06:18 PM

I have to ask- why were you just hinting around? Why didn't you just tell him that the maintenance/room condition problems were unacceptable and you demanded to me moved to another room?

CraftyMommy · 01-05-2013, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by minnie mum

I have to ask- why were you just hinting around? Why didn't you just tell him that the maintenance/room condition problems were unacceptable and you demanded to me moved to another room?

Because my husband wouldn't let me. Believe me, I wanted to. If something upsets me I make sure people know about it. But he kept telling me just to forget about it, they wouldn't do anything to make it right anyway. I told him they would do something, but he was convinced they wouldn't. He is very non-confrontational in public and would rather stew about it all week and vent to everyone at home after the fact. I would have preferred to ask for management and get things taken care of properly. We clashed about that several times on the trip.

mlittig · 01-05-2013, 07:37 PM

Sorry you had such a bad experience at Pop

Bravesfan · 01-05-2013, 07:46 PM

We have stayed at Pop many times and won't again. We arrived Nov. 14 for 11 nights and only stayed 1 before moving to POFQ. It wasn't really anything specific, just didn't seem as clean and updated.

01-05-2013, 03:47 PM	#1
CraftyMommy Mouseketeer Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 239	No longer a Pop Century fan I have stayed at Pop 9 times and have always enjoyed it in the past for its value. This last visit has severely tainted my view on this resort. The day we checked in it looked like there were drops of blood or something reddish/brownish in the tub. I was still in "Yay, I'm at Disney World" mode so I overlooked it and rinsed out the tub myself. 2 of the 7 nights we were there the trash was not emptied in our room. We had several maintenance issues with the tub faucet not shutting off and hearing running (steady stream, not trickling) water all night even with the bathroom door shut. You had to hold onto the handle to keep it in the warm zone because it would slip into the scalding hot zone if you didn't hold it up. The drain would not stay open, so the tub would fill up with water as you took a shower. In order to keep the tub from filling up you had to bend down and hold the drain open. So, if one hand is holding the drain open and the other hand is holding the handle so the water doesn't scald you, how does one take a shower? We ended up holding the water in the warm zone with one hand, leaving the tub fill up with water, and wash with the free hand. We called maintenance several times and still didn't have our issues resolved when we left. One day the guy told us there was nothing he could do to fix the handle, it would have to wait to be replaced. The tv kept messing up and losing the signal due to a faulty cable that was replaced twice. There was mildew on the bottom half of the tile in the bathroom. The whole way around the tub the grout around the tiles were mildewed. The top half was white, the bottom half was green. I feel like Pop Century's rooms need a major rehab. I paid for a preferred pool view. I liked being real close to the pool since we spent a lot of time at the pool this trip, but I did not like feeling like I was staying in a roach motel. Pop Century is really starting to show its age and is no longer my favorite place to stay. This was DH's first Disney trip. I wanted to wow him but Disney dropped the ball so many times on this trip. With Pop being the biggest disappointment we also dealt with several ride breakdowns on this trip. I still love Disney but it seemed like an excessive number of ride breakdowns. DH was not wowed in the least. He kept asking me where those "Disney details" were that I had been raving about. Lukily I convinced him this trip was my worst ever and he needs to give Disney another shot...with a nicer resort next time. One day we went to the Grand Floridian and he checked out the lobby bathroom. He came out and said, "Finally I found a clean restroom!" So he is now convinced we need to stay at a Deluxe resort next time. I'm Super Ok with that! Good bye Pop Century, thanks for being crappy. I never thought I would get to stay deluxe! The CM's in the food court have no clue what they are doing. One person would tell us which items were considered snacks or quick service meals on the DDP. We would get to the register and the cashier would tell us they were wrong. We ran into this kind of trouble the whole week. We ended up picking a cashier, asking her what was ok to get, then get our food, wait in her line (no matter how long) so we knew we wouldn't be stuck with a cashier that would tell us something different. I never encountered so many discrepancies in what each CM considered a snack or QS credit in the past like I did on this visit. No longer a Pop fan.

01-05-2013, 03:53 PM	#2
FantasiaMagic DIS Veteran Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 785	Oh no! That does not sound good! I'm sorry the POP was not giving you magic. Did you ever ask the front desk to change rooms? They might have let you given the horrible circumstances you were asked to deal with I have always stayed deluxe and have never stayed in a mod or value. Deluxes are really wonderful in all ways. They all have their own special perk. All have great pools and restaurants and always give me that Disney magic every time - never fails. Would you ever consider staying another value, besides POP again? I hope your ext trip turns out a lot better! Any ideas on what Deluxe you would love to try? -FantasiaMagic __________________ "It's kind of fun to do the impossible" - Walt Disney

01-05-2013, 04:23 PM	#4
MeeskaMooshka Earning My Ears Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 43	Wow! that's really unfortunate! We LOVE POP! My family goes about once a month and we only stay there. Did you talk to the GM. We adore him. Had a problem there once with a reservation, he gave us 10 free day passes to the parks for our troubles. I was shocked, defin. didn't expect it. __________________ ME - Mama Papa Myles (6) Harper (2) Franklin AKA Caca My son tells people he lives at POP Century! My daughter Says "Disney World" instead of "Hello"! My Husband finally can't deny his love of the MOUSE! I lost count of how many kids I have had to peel of my calf because of my Disney world tattoo! A Month without a DW trip is way too long for this family!

01-05-2013, 04:47 PM	#5
disnut1149 DIS Veteran Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Broomall, PA Posts: 2,284	Hi I've always loved Pop, but the mattresses are new and they were so hard, we asked if we could be switched to a moderate and pay the difference. The manager was so nice and arranged for us to stay at AKL free and with a free taxi ride to take us there. That was my 7th trip to Pop and most likely my last. I'm sad that I won't be staying there anymore, but the beds gave us such backaches!! __________________ 1972 Offsite, 1978 Offsite, 1980 Dutch Inn, 1989 Comfort Inn, 1990 CBR, 1993 Peabody, 1996 AllStar Sports, 1997 Dixie Landings, 2000 Holiday Inn Family Suites, 2001 Marriott World Center, 2004 Pop Century, 2005 Pop Century, 2006 Pop Century Aug & Dec, 2007 Pop Century Aug & CSR Dec., 2008 WL & POFQ Aug. & AS Sports Dec., 2009 Pop Aug., Pop Oct & CBR Dec., 2010 POR Sept & CBR Oct., 2011 CSR May & Pop & AKL Nov.

01-05-2013, 04:52 PM	#6
Mousemommy1 DIS Veteran Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: NH Posts: 6,953	That stinks!!! We stayed at POP in 2009, but that was after a 7 year hiatus from Disney so we could start a family. We loved it! But again, we would have been happy in a cardboard box on Main Street on that trip! Hope you have a better trip next time. __________________ Me DH DD(9) DD(6) 7/1985 OFFSITE • 7/1989 OFFSITE • 3/2000 ASMO • 9/2000 ASMU • 9/2002 ASSP • 11/2009 POP • 2/2011 CBR • 7/2012 WL CL 4/2013 YC CL • 9/2013 AOA • 4/2014 WL CL

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01-05-2013, 05:35 PM	#7
alecshawn WDW Fanatic Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Ohio Posts: 215	Hmm. We were just these 2 months ago.. Thought it was VERY clean and everything went well. Maybe im way easier to please. It almost seems like we stayed at different resorts.. POP to me, was as good as ever.

01-05-2013, 05:41 PM	#8
ginny_lynn Mouseketeer Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 287	I agree with the food court....when we stayed there in August they were very hard to deal with....5 sandwiches later we finally got our breakfast sandwich with no cheese....We will not be back to POP. __________________ Me- (28) and DS- (6)

01-05-2013, 05:58 PM	#9
GaSleepingBeautyFan DIS Veteran Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Georgia Posts: 6,560	The food court is always annoying there to me but I usually only eat breakfast there. I don't do the DDP - I just think it's overcrowded in there with no room to move. I also asked for a hamburger without cheese once years ago (they only made cheeseburgers at that time) and it took forever to get so that's why I stopped eating any other meals other than breakfast there. I just stayed at Pop for 2 nights in December 2012 and also had a maintenance issue with my room. The sink was missing the stopper. I called maintenance and they put a new stopper in while I was at the parks. Other than that, I enjoyed my stay so much I'm thinking of booking there on my next solo trip instead of a moderate to save money. I always check to be sure the toilets flush, the shower works properly and the sink works properly before I unpack. I guess I'll be adding does the TV work properly to that list. I would have asked to switch rooms if there was a mildew issue. Yuck. At least you'll be getting a deluxe stay out of it sometime. __________________ Me DD13 DS17 DH Lola Rocky Connie WDW: 14 family trips, 7 solo trips - resorts stayed at: AKL, BWI, CR, WL (twice), CBR, CSR, POFQ (twice), POP (twice), POR (five) ASMo DISNEYLAND: 1 family trip, 2 1 day trips chaperoning US/IOA: 5 family trips

01-05-2013, 06:11 PM	#10
Karabee DIS Veteran Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Northeast Posts: 914	OP - I have to agree with you, my sister and I went to POP for one night and I was disappointed. Last time I stayed there I was nervous about a value but it was fine which is why I was fine going back. However, once my sister and I got there I was less than happy. The front desk was rude when we were checking in, at one point asking why we were checking out the next day (with a smile) and when we said we were switching over to SSR he stopped smiling and said, "we'll, isn't that nice" in a not so nice tone. My sister and I then went to our room, passing multiple people who had pulled pool chairs and put them in front of their doors as if it was their own personal balcony or patio. The cook then looked at me as if I asked him to bake a cake from scratch when I asked for the veggie burger. It just felt so cold and lacked the Disney spirit. I was always fine with POP but honestly, we were SO relieved to get to SSR. On another note I also brought my BF to Disney last year for his first time and we had a horrible experience at the WL with checking, or room and service. He also asked where the Disney spirit was and I was so upset. So I feel your pain about that! He just said yesterday that we can go back though so I get one more shot - I guess my excitement about my stay at SSR with my sister this year convinced him to give it another shot - thank goodness __________________ Missing the Mouse! Places checked off the hotel list : Poly, Poly CL, SSR, BC, DI, AKL, OKW, GF, WL, CBR, POR, POP

01-05-2013, 06:11 PM	#11
Debrn Mouseketeer Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: MA Posts: 494	I stayed for a night in October and thought it was a great resort, room was very clean, no problems at all. __________________ Many Trips as a kid MANY offsite, 1996 ASMO, 04 ASMu 03/09 Poly GV, 12/09 WLV/BLT, 10/10 BWV/BLT 03/12 Poly TPV, 10/12 Pop/Dolphin 02/13 AKV 03/13 YC CL,Dolphin/CSR ME &DBF DD 13DS 10

01-05-2013, 06:18 PM	#12
minnie mum Unapologetic Disney Fan(atic) Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: WAY too far north Posts: 8,154	I have to ask- why were you just hinting around? Why didn't you just tell him that the maintenance/room condition problems were unacceptable and you demanded to me moved to another room?

01-05-2013, 07:37 PM	#14
mlittig DIS Veteran Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Northern Massachusetts Posts: 5,145	Sorry you had such a bad experience at Pop __________________ 5/87 Polynesian 5/90 Polynesian 12/02 Off site 8/08 French Quarter 6/09 French Quarter 8/09 All Star Sports 4/10 French Quarter 12/10 Old Key West 4/11 Old Key West 8/11 Pop 9/11 Pop 4/12 Old Key West 8/12 Old Key West 4/13 Old Key West 8/7/13 Old Key West

01-05-2013, 07:46 PM	#15
Bravesfan Earning My Ears Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 54	We have stayed at Pop many times and won't again. We arrived Nov. 14 for 11 nights and only stayed 1 before moving to POFQ. It wasn't really anything specific, just didn't seem as clean and updated.

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