All Star & Pop Experience

[jchrapcyn]

Pop rooms are all newly rennovated and really nice. The pools are great. The bus situation for Pop is the best IMO! have fun!

 

[Hoopfamily]

Thanks everyone, It's nice to hear the good of things. I think sometimes people hold Disney to a standard that's much to high to attain, and they tend to be more vocal than people who liked it.

 

[Hoopfamily]

Does anyone have bus stop pics from these resorts?

 

[BebopBaloo]

Does anyone have bus stop pics from these resorts?

Go to waltdisneyworld.com and click on Places to Stay - Value Resort Hotels and look at the pics for Movies and Sports on that page...it's the front of the building/ bus stop.

 

[maxiesmom]

I've stayed at both Sports and Music, and have enjoyed them both.

I like the fact that each All Star is smaller than the Pop, by quite a bit. That means fewer people in the food court, on the busses, and by the pool. The hot italian sandwich form the food court is a must for me during my stay. Yum!

I found too that we had our own bus way more often than we shared with the other All Stars. And even when we did share it wasn't a big deal. The resorts are right next door to each other, so stopping at the other resorts adds hardly any time at all to your ride. Plus at night if the line is long for one resort you can hop on any of the sister resort busses and just walk back to your room from that bus stop. My niece and her dad did that one night, and said it was a 5 minute walk from the Sports to the Music.

Another thing I really loved about the Music was the fact that they show movies at night by the pool. And they are the only Value resort to do that. It was a great way to end the day, swimming and watching a Disney movie.

 

[tina.tina]

With 2,880 rooms, Pop was in the top 10 largest hotels in the US until they built another huge hotel in Vegas. However, we had no problem walking around it looking at the cool icons & soaking up the atmosphere. That said, I am glad we had a preferred room. We got off the bus, walked straight thru Classic Hall & out the back. Headed to the right for our stairs & went around the corner & to the end for our 2nd story room- a great location & never too far to go at the end of the night. As for construction noise, we heard a vehicle running & a truck backing up a couple of times at the pool and that was it. The lake & bridge were very romantic at night & we strolled around there a couple of nights. We stayed an extra night in the 90's section & it wasn't too far if you cut through the parking lot. We just "preferred" the other room location. I would pay for the preferred section again- we liked it that much. We heard only VERY minimal noise in both rooms & I know we had neighbors. At the Holiday Inn express on the way home, we heard lots more noise from the corridors & our neighbors than we did at Pop.

Before our trip, I read posts where people said if you just need a place to sleep & shower, the values are okay. I tried to not expect too much so I wouldn't be disappinted but I can't stand staying somewhere that I'm not comfortable with cleanliness, etc & I worried (I always worry). Everything was absolutely fine. The only difference between this & other hotels like Holiday Inn where we've stayed are the towels are thinner and the room is a tad smaller. It was a nice standard, comfortable, & clean hotel room & all 4 of us, DH, me, DD10, & DS9, spent time resting & relaxing while watching Stacy in our room.

I just saw another thread where someone said you should take an afternoon break-- if you're staying at a Moderate or Deluxe. Well, we walked through the Grand Floridian and it was dead silent except for the kids' activities director talking non-stop on a loud speaker at the pool. We could hear her from far away & that was pretty loud & annoying. Other than that, it just seemed desolate albeit peaceful. It would probably be pretty relaxing but I wouldn't classify it as fun. The QS food place was tiny & packed when we popped in to use the restroom. I know part of the price there is the proximity to MK, but we caught a bus from there to DTD and had to wait 40 minutes. The only other bus that came through was one to Hollywood Studios after 20 minutes of waiting. At Pop during our visit, these would have been ridiculous & unusual waits! Maybe not many people there take buses? Limos & town cars were everywhere & there weren't very many people waiting for the buses.

To sum all this up, I wouldn't pay $400 more (which is the price difference when I was pricing my vacation for 7 nights) for any Disney hotel over Pop. Even if I wanted to stay somewhere with a different theme, the money would not be worth it in my opinion.

 

[Kim1964]

I've stayed at Pop and ASMu. Between the two, I would choose Pop. I like the theme at Pop better, and I think the food court is the best of the values (we've eaten at all of them because my kids love to go to food courts). We always rent a car so I can't comment on buses, except to say that the resort bus stops that I saw are not shaded in any way.

My favorite WDW resort so far is YC, but a couple of years ago when I talked DH into letting the kids and me go without him, I booked Pop to keep the cost down. We had spent one night there a couple of years before, but the 2009 trip was the first time we stayed there for a whole week. I really liked it and would stay there again (if it was just the kids and me). We were in the 50's section toward the back. It was a great, quiet location, close to the bowling pin pool but not facing it. It was a hike from the parking lot with our luggage, but that's not a big deal to me.

 

[Magalex]

Another fan of the value resorts. No complaints here. Our last stay was at POP Nov. 2010. Extremely nice & we were in one of the farthest buildings/rooms in the 90's. Our room was on a corner in the back facing landscape/trees. No issues for us. We walked across the parking lot to the bus stop. Very Pleasant experience with resort & all the CMs at POP

 

[Lees3rwe]

We stayed at ASMu last October and had a wonderful experience. Very clean, great staff and we LOVED the poolside games and movies.

We are staying at Sports in June.... part of me is wondering if I should switch back to Music....

Had no problems with Value resorts as we mainly shower and sleep in our rooms and that is it.

 

[Nefferz]

My kids and I stayed at POP in '09 and had a wonderful time there. We were there in September and had no problems with the bus service, the crowds at the food court (just avoid the peak times), mousekeeping or anything.

One of the days that we were there, in fact, my youngest son became ill. We ended up coming back from the parks early and after putting him to bed, (he was almost 14 at the time) I trotted down to the gift shop to find some pretzels or crackers or something that I thought he could keep down- I was talking to one of the girls behind the counter about it and she made a few suggestions and I went back to the room. A few minutes later, there was a knock on our door and the same girl was standing there with a Halloween Mickey mug in her hand, filled with pretzels and a note saying how sorry they all were that he was sick and wishing him a speedy recovery! I was so touched at her thoughtfulness!

Anyway- that's my added magical moment from POP.

We're trying a moderate for the first time when we go back this September. Truthfully? I'm kind of wishing we were going back to POP...