Notes on Pop Century

[Amore Disney]

Just wanted to share after my week-long stay at Pop Century, especially things that I didn't hear from blogs or DISboards.

1. BUGS/GNATS - Unfortunately, the humid and warm environment of Florida is ideal for bugs too. There were gnats/midges all over our door every single night, and a ton would fly in everytime we would open the door. It was also unpleasant to see many of the dead ones stuck all over our door. My advice is to stay AWAY from rooms near/facing the lake.

2. BUSES - The Disney transportation system has its up and downs, but Pop Century almost always had it worse. When heading back to the resort, Pop Century was always the farthest or second farthest bus station from any park besides Blizzard Beach. Also there was always an incredibly long line each time, no matter what time of day. Though, all the values tend to be farther away.

3. ELEVATORS - I took the stairs for most of my trip, but noticed that there were only two elevators services each building (60's, 70's, etc.). This is way too few for the amount of people staying in each building. If you have a member in your party that uses a wheelchair, this might be a really long wait in the morning/night.

Otherwise, I would recommend Pop for the reasons listed throughout the forums here and well-known blogs. CM's were very friendly and helpful.

 

[Shanti]

Just wanted to share after my week-long stay at Pop Century, especially things that I didn't hear from blogs or DISboards.

1. BUGS/GNATS - Unfortunately, the humid and warm environment of Florida is ideal for bugs too. There were gnats/midges all over our door every single night, and a ton would fly in everytime we would open the door. It was also unpleasant to see many of the dead ones stuck all over our door. My advice is to stay AWAY from rooms near/facing the lake.

2. BUSES - The Disney transportation system has its up and downs, but Pop Century almost always had it worse. When heading back to the resort, Pop Century was always the farthest or second farthest bus station from any park besides Blizzard Beach. Also there was always an incredibly long line each time, no matter what time of day. Though, all the values tend to be farther away.

3. ELEVATORS - I took the stairs for most of my trip, but noticed that there were only two elevators services each building (60's, 70's, etc.). This is way too few for the amount of people staying in each building. If you have a member in your party that uses a wheelchair, this might be a really long wait in the morning/night.

Otherwise, I would recommend Pop for the reasons listed throughout the forums here and well-known blogs. CM's were very friendly and helpful.

We stayed at Pop once, and it's the only WDW resort we've stayed at that we never want to go back to. Cute exterior, but the room was not something we enjoyed. I'd rather stay offsite than at a value again.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Just want to say that the bugs may be a seasonal thing. We stayed at Pop three years in a row during August/September. Each time, we had a lake front room, and we never experienced a gnat problem.

But glad to hear that you enjoyed it overall.

 

[New England Mickey]

I think you guys except to much from the resort. Listen, i've stayed there many times and found a no frills decent place to stay. Also, the bus stop might be far out but buses come often.

 

[maxiesmom]

I don't think the Pop has the worst bus transportation. The stops may be the farthest out, but at least during my stay the buses came often.

 

[New England Mickey]

I don't think the Pop has the worst bus transportation. The stops may be the farthest out, but at least during my stay the buses came often.

I Agree.

 

[samsteele]

I don't think the Pop has the worst bus transportation. The stops may be the farthest out, but at least during my stay the buses came often.

Also agree.

 

[JerseyJanice]

Are Pop's bus stops still the closest at the Studios?

 

[twoplustwins]

We also had terrible bus service when we stayed at Pop. Super long lines every time. It took almost two hours once we got in line at Epcot to get back to the resort. We counted and ended up getting on bus number 7.
It happened again the next four nights. The mornings were slightly better. We'd usually wait in line for an hour before we could get on a bus. We didn't go at a particularly busy season either. I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer or at the holidays.

 

[Amore Disney]

Are Pop's bus stops still the closest at the Studios?

When I went to Hollywood Studios two days ago, Pop's buses were at the very last stop. It actually wasn't a bad walk, but any bus coming to pickup Pop Century guests had to go all the way around the roundabout, making the wait for each successive bus very long.

 

[WEDWDW]

Just my experience,but I have never had problems with elevators being full-I've always just hopped on one.

 

[Disneylover99]

We also had terrible bus service when we stayed at Pop. Super long lines every time. It took almost two hours once we got in line at Epcot to get back to the resort. We counted and ended up getting on bus number 7.
It happened again the next four nights. The mornings were slightly better. We'd usually wait in line for an hour before we could get on a bus. We didn't go at a particularly busy season either. I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer or at the holidays.

You'd usually wait for an hour for the bus in the mornings? Yikes!!!! Did you complain? Pop is a huge resort and many people rely on the buses to get around. I can't imagine what the lines looked like with that kind of wait.

So far we've stayed at Pop five times - three times in the summer and two times over Christmas. We typically stay 10-14 days and we take the buses daily. We've never waited more then 10 minutes for a bus to take us to a park,(even if we just missed it) no matter what time of day we've taken one. It's been the best bus service we've ever experienced.

 

[happymommy]

I found that the bus service at Pop was actually much better than the AKL in our recent trips. Also, my DD uses a wheelchair, and it was more convenient at Pop than AKL. We were on the top floor at Pop, and the elevators were fine; we didn't ever wait long to get in one.

Yes, it has less frills. We went there knowing this. We did have some gnats come in during August, but it wasn't bad. We didn't have any over Easter (were only there 2 nights of that trip, in August we were there a week).

Only thing lacking for me was a coffee maker, but I bring a small travel one so no real big deal.

 

[moodyeeyore]

We've stayed at Pop twice, once in May and once in December, and we rarely waited more than 5 minutes for a bus. There was once we waited maybe 10-15 minutes for a bus to Disney Springs, but that was the exception. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience! I wonder if during slower seasons they don't have as many buses running?

 

[ellie05]

We have two Disney resorts we won't got back that is ASMo and POP. Housekeeping issues in both and bad coustumer service. I don't expect much from the values, but I do expect a clean room.

Unfortunately Florida weather brings a ton of bugs and it is very hard to control them when there is outside halls. That is downside of the values and moderates.

The busses for the values always seems to be the furthest ones. I do think Disney does this on purpose and puts deluxe and moderates closer, which is understandable. When you are tired at the end of the night that extra distance seems so much worst. Also the no shade while waiting is probably the biggest issue specially in summer just 10 min under direct sun light is killer.

 

[HopperFan]

As you can see below have had many trips to POP, most of them alone with my DS who is disabled.

BUGS: It's Florida, Value & Moderate have exterior doors, depending on the time of year you may have more bugs than other times of year. This time of year is buggy and often love buggy. Most my stays are on the lake, and we find no more problems with that view, actually we find the air moves more. You can be sitting on your deluxe balcony and have issues with bugs.

BUSES: POP has some of the better transportation. I have had two issues. Staying during BTG season, yes the buses are an issue. They should have to have their own buses since they travel in packs of 50. I don't stay that time of year anymore at all since they impact the resort so hard. Once at DHS when park was closing, POP seemed to get the bus shaft while AKL had one after another leave empty. I had to feel it was a total glitch in system. Other than those two situations I've always been happy with the buses there. Bus stop location ..... you know, we get what we pay for. Deluxe should have closer bus stops. Value should be the farthest.

ELEVATORS: Obviously two elevators is up to code. I have never stayed on the first floor. I've spent more time in an elevator alone than I have with other guests. Am sure any given day many can show up at the same time to head to parks, but that can happen at any resort. We just haven't had this issue. If you are really concerned make 1st floor your only request but then you will be at ground noise level.

ANY hotel at any level is going to have issues for any given guest. My worst experience with noise from other guests was at Deluxe resort. It could be the reason the issues are not regularly addressed by forums and blogs is that they are not ongoing/major issues.

 

[New England Mickey]

We also had terrible bus service when we stayed at Pop. Super long lines every time. It took almost two hours once we got in line at Epcot to get back to the resort. We counted and ended up getting on bus number 7.
It happened again the next four nights. The mornings were slightly better. We'd usually wait in line for an hour before we could get on a bus. We didn't go at a particularly busy season either. I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer or at the holidays.

It's Disney World, there are lines everywhere.

 

[Amboo]

We've stayed at POP 5 times. Buses have always been decent. Yes they're often one of the furthest stops, but we usually don't have to wait more than 10 minutes. And we've never stayed on the ground floor and have relied on the elevators for our stroller. Never been an issue. Most times we're the only ones on the elevator.

 

[Chaoticsweetness]

While I am not a fan of Pop Century, my sister & I never had any problems when we stayed overnight last October. We stayed first floor facing the Pool. Very close to the main building. Never had more than a 10 minute wait for any of the buses; to and from the parks.

 

[Chott]

I have stayed at Pop 3 times, CBR once and CSR once. Buses at CSR were fine but CBR was not good in my experience based on the stop for our building. I was surprised taking the bus to Wilderness lodge (resort hopping) that it was a long, unpleasant ride. The bus was shared with multiple deluxe resorts and was painful. After they opened AoA we noticed that the Pop and AoA stops were right next to each other and used the AoA bus to get back to Pop when the line was long/no bus at Pop stop. Had to walk from AoA to Pop but that was fun because we took the time to check out the Cars section at AoA and loved it.