Preferred or not at Pop?

[LovinPooh]

I am going back in forth as to whether to keep my preferred room at Pop. I would love to have the convenience of being close to the pool and food court. But is it worth the extra money??? Has anyone actually said, 'geez I am glad we had that preferred room?'
My package is paid in full, if I drop the preferred room, would it screw with anything? It would all stay the same, just switch to a regular room right?

 

[Poohbug]

I have stayed at Pop twice-once with preferred room and once without. I much preferred the regular room. It was much quieter, still close to a pool, and the extra walking did not bother me at all. Sometimes you can cut across a parking lot and the walking is not any farther anyway.
Our preferred room was very noisy from the pool and people walking by the room. It was also far from parking if you are taking a car.
I would save the money and just get a regular room.

 

[LovinPooh]

I think I am going to drop it. Makes complete sense about the quietness with the room being in the 'perfect' location. I know I will have to pay $50 for taking something 'off' the package, but there is so much other stuff I could do with the $$$. It sounded so good when I was booking the package, but after a few months to think about it, $$$ or walking.... I think I am going to drop it when I call tomorrow... oh that poor cast member having to deal with me, adding crap, and taking crap away LOL!

 

[CruznLexi]

We have always stayed in the 90's section. We stayed again last Sunday. The parking is very close and take no time to get to the pool or to walk to everythi ng Pop. For our Jan stay we have a prefered room but have requested eiher the 90's or 50's.
Lexi

 

[goofy4tink]

I've stayed in 50's (bldg 2, way in the back, third floor), 50's (bldg 1, ground level, now considered 'preferred'), 60's (bldg 4, fourth floor, facing the lake), 80's, ground floor, facing parking/lake, 70's (bldg 10, preferred room, ground level)...I have to say that I will not be booking prefered again. I much prefer (sorry about the pun) a standard room.

 

[denisegold]

Looking at the map layout, I really wanted to stay in the 60's building. I changed my reservation to preferred (I know it's not a guarantee that I will get 60's, but I requested it). It was a $50 difference (for 5 day stay). But it make sense, if you really prefer a quiet area, to just go down to standard. (from what others say). We are arriving this Saturday (!) and I have never stayed at the Pop, so the room placement is all new to me.

I would be interested to know if they refund to difference to you as easily as they charged me the difference!

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

We LOVED preferred - room 5162 - ground floor next to the pool. Very quiet and 30 seconds to the food court and 1 min to the buses! At the end of the day, you will say 'OMG it was so worth the extra $ for preferred!'.

 

[WDWBlaze]

I am not big on the preferred rooms either. At most you are saving 3-4 mins in walking even at a slow pace. Not worth the money to me.

 

[Baltazar]

We had a preferred room at Pop and felt it was a waste. We were on the ground floor at the back of the building, close to the 70s building. The following year we stayed in the 70s building. It was the second floor with a great view of the pond.

There are four other buildings just as close to the lobby.

I don't think the extra cost is worth getting a preferred room. We use it to sleep and shower so most of the time we're either sleeping or swimming.

 

[MovingThemOut]

April 2006 we had a preferred POP room and with more than 15 stays on Disney property it was the only time I actually went and complained about a room and asked to be moved. We had neighbors on both sides that we were able to hear EVERYTHING they did. Screaming children, screaming parents, blaring tv, loud phone conversations, banging doors, flushing toilets you name it, and these folks were still going strong at 2 am.

I must say that IF we had of had the same neighbors once we had been moved to the opposite side of the building (non-preferred), I doubt I would have felt any differently, these buildings lack soundproofing in ways that I have not experienced at any other Disney property. But even when our next door neighbors were quiet when we were at the preferred location you could still hear children in the pool and a bit of resort "foottraffic" noise so if your stay is during a busy season you might want to rethink it.

I LOVED our non-preferred room. We faced the lake and the walk to our room was just around the corner of our original room. We were visited by the ducks with their babies and even a rabbit one morning. Most importantly, we were able to sleep!


If you call to change your reservation though, I would not do so if they are going to impose the $50 room change fee (ask very nicely and they probably wont I've been granted one time changes with no penalty). If they wont change you for free by phone, I think that most likely they will do so at check in with no charge. When I was moved after my complaints, I had prepaid my room but was refunded the difference and no room change penalties were imposed. Enjoy your stay.

 

[Christine9125]

We had 3 preferred rooms right by the hippy dippy pool. We loved it. We did not have much walking to do to get to the buses or back to our rooms. I wish I could always have that room, I would never stay any where else. We did not have any noise. Once we were in and the door was shut, we heard nothing

 

[mickeystoontown]

We are booked to stay at Pop next year. We normally stay at the CBR which is a huge resort. We are used to walking so we didn't book a preferred location at Pop. I am glad to read that the non-preferred locations actually sound like great locations.

 

[Danemom]

We had a preferred room at Pop and felt it was a waste.

There are four other buildings just as close to the lobby.

I don't think the extra cost is worth getting a preferred room. We use it to sleep and shower so most of the time we're either sleeping or swimming.

I completely agree with Baltazar. We paid for a preferred room once and didn't three times. Two of the three non-preferred rooms were actually closer to the food court and bus stop.

 

[Momto2PrncChrmgs]

We did once standard (overlooking the computer pool-90's I think), and then we paid preferred when we were there in May. We're doing preferred again in January. We LOVED it. We overlooked the Hippy Dippy Pool, 3rd floor, it took us two minutes to get to the food court and busses. It was wonderful!!! (There was only a few times when kids were loud in the pool when we were trying to sleep, but we just turned the tv on for background noise and it worked like a charm). The walk we had to our standard room was horrible, we had rented a stroller which meant we didn't have one at the resorts so we were carrying a sleeping 4 yr old a VERY long way. We hated it! Will never go standard again!

 

[kaytieeldr]

We had a preferred room at Pop and felt it was a waste. We were on the ground floor at the back of the building, close to the 70s building. The following year we stayed in the 70s building. It was the second floor with a great view of the pond.

There are four other buildings just as close to the lobby.

I don't think the extra cost is worth getting a preferred room. We use it to sleep and shower so most of the time we're either sleeping or swimming.

And eight of the ten buildings at Pop Century face a pool; and, um, what was the other thing? Oh, right - some standard rooms in the fifties and seventies can be closer to "everything" than some preferred rooms in the sixties.

 

[aubriee]

I've stayed at POP several times, but only once in a preferred room. Two of the standard rooms I had in the 70's were closer than my preferred room and they were MUCH quieter. POP is one resort I would never book preferred. (The same thing happened to me at AS Sports. My standard room in the football section was closer to the buses and food court than my previous preferred room in Surf's Up was ). The only time I would book a preferred room in one of the Values is at AS Music. Because of the way the resort is built you know your preferred room would be in Calypso, which is always closer than any of the other buildings. A preferred room at POP is just not worth it, to me.

 

[Luv4Disney]

After staying at Pop in a non preferred room, I sure wish we'd gotten one!!