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.