Anyone Disappointed With POP?

[goofy4tink]

I've been to POP four times now....50's twice (bldgs 1 and 2), 80's way to the back and the last time, last month, in 60's, bldg 4, on the back by the lake. THe walk from the 50's section was about 7 mins...but I was on the third floor, as far to the back as humanly possible in bldg 2. Bldg 1 I was ground level, towards the parking lot area, about a 3 min walk to the main bldg. The 60's room was about 4 mins, and the 80's room was close to 8 mins, but it was a nice walk.
Noisy? Yes, I guess so. But, I found the food court to be the same at POR...just as noisy. I liked the offerings at the POP food court. But, I tend to eat at off hours..breakfast before 7:15, lunch after 1ish..that sort of thing.

The rooms are about the same size as the moderate rooms. I do miss the double sinks though. I own DVC at BWV, but when I'm not there, I'm at POP. It's fun, bright and well-kept. The CMs are fun, and very helpful. Some of the best housekeepers I've had in WDW have been in POP. The housekeeper I had in room 4441 from Jan 12-14 was incredible.

 

[CapeCodMouse]

We stayed at POP last trip (Nov. 07) and will be back this Nov. We love POP! Stayed in the 70's building last time. Not a long walk. Food court is busy but so is everywhere else. We still managed to eat and find a seat every time. Pool is awesome especially for my DS6 - it was warm and pleasant to swim in at night - even in November. I couldnt' get him out of it. I just think that every resort is busy - we stayed at AKL one trip and the line at check in was longer than the line at POP checkin. Plus, after about two days of the savannah view the animals just became sort of ho-hum. (when you've seen one zebra - you've seen them all.....)

We have also stayed at CBR and talk about a lot of walking- phew! It seemed like miles to the bus stop.

We are going to stick with POP I think - best bang for the buck and we only needed the room for sleep and a shower anyway. The only complaint I have is the small, small, small double beds. Have you ever slept with a wiggling, moving six year old in a too small bed? Can you say bruises?

 

[christa112]

I have neved stayed at the POP, but we stayed at the All Stars Movie and then the next year decided lets stay a Moderate and chose Carribean Beach. We had a longer walk at the CB then at the ASM. Also, at the CB there were no elevators and we actually had to change our room, because we were traveling with 3 children and I was not carrying them up 3 flights of stairs at night!!! So not only did we have a long walk to get to our room, we had to take all of our luggage go back to the lobby and them move it all again.

I do agree the dining areas were more busy in the ASM, and the busses seem to busier, but I really so no perks to spending more money at the Moderate vs the Value resorts.

 

[jenseib]

We stayed at Pop last March and now are thinking of going back this March or April. Great place! Our DD was 2 last year and still talks about the trip. I would recommend it to anyone. I don't need fancy hotels though. I like them, but I don't need them and our trips to Disney are mostly spent at the parks. We did the pool one day and it was fun, but we aren't spending alot of down time since our trips tend to be shorter.

 

[TiggerFamily]

We stayed at the POP 2 years ago and LOVED it. We stayed in the 70's building and it was close to the bus and food court. We would have stayed there this May but DH really wants to stay at AKL so who I'm I to fight him. I would be just as happy in the Pop. We are going to Disney I just happy about that.

 

[spalady]

We stayed at POP 2years ago and loved it had no problems at all but we like to try the different resorts out and see what they are like so this time I booked WL.

 

[julm26]

we were really looking forward to staying at POP last september. WE were completely disappointed. Mind you we were there during Free Dining. The parking lots were always full when we got back to the parks, so we had to drive around and around. The walk to our room was long. The food court was utter chaos and loud. The themeing was cool, but after fighting the food court or a long day at the parks the last thing we cared about was the big yo/yo.

We have a DD3 (she was 2.5 when we were there), but she didn't seem to care what it looked like, just so we had a pool to swim in and a TV to watch.

We are either going to try ASMusic (we heard its not so chaotic) or return to CSR (which we love for its quietness!!, we even ask for the way far out buildings there, if we are that desparate to go to the food court there we jump in our car)

We won't go back to POP anytime soon and less we are desperate...

 

[travlnman1]

Long walks from room? I can deal with that.
Room decor and layout? It's fine with me.
What I did not like about POP was that the food court is so crowded. There were some mornings we would actually be standing around waiting to jump on the next available table. Way too crowded. Not the way I wanted to start my mornings.
The other issue we had was that the bus stop actually had a weaving lane to get on the bus in the morning. We often had to wait for 3 or 4 buses to come before we could get on one.
We're trying ASMFS in a few weeks. I hope it's a better experience than what we had at POP.

 

[kykatt2]

We have only stayed at POP so I have no comparisons. We have stayed in the 50's and the 60's. And at peak times and never was it EXTREMELY noisy. 50's as I understand it are quieter. We like Bld. C 50's at the back facing "Hourglass lake" very pretty and the quietest rooms we have ever had. We also stayed in a "Preferred" room Bld. A 60's not facing the pool but just sround the corner from it. Also not too noisy

What we did not like was staying on the top floor( asked to be moved next day) it seems the heat of the day makes it hard to cool the room down.
None of Rooms seemed THAT far away from the food court. Lots of people complain about CSR. You can always ask for 50's or 60's. Cast members are very accomodating.

It is just a Small hotel Room. Unless you are plannng to spend a LOT of time in the room, Give it a try. How much space do you really need for sleeping ??

 

[notsosnowwhite]

We have not stayed at Pop, but have visited twice to check out Christmas decs and try out the food court. We prefer the general feel of the All Stars. I have a feeling at the All Stars that everything is just a bit smaller and more managable with my two kids. We also did not like the feel of the check in area / food court / gift shop. We'll stick with the All Stars (when we can't afford an upgrade!)

 

[grinningghost]

Let's just say I didn't LOVE it. I liked it, it was OK, but I just didn't get the Disney feeling there. Something about the place seemed disconnected to the rest of WDW. I've stayed at ASMu and ASMo and loved both of them, but POP just didn't float my boat that much. We were in the 50's Building #1 - very short walk to the main building from there.

However, that being said, I would absolutely stay at POP over anywhere offsite again. It's clean, the CM's are friendly, the transportation was good, food court was good, pool was really cool. Definitely beats offsite.

 

[sl_underwood]

My kids are a little dissapointed we are staying at POR this time. They say they are going to miss POP. They think POR is not disney themed enough. I hope they will enjoy it once they get there.

 

[mom2my3kids]

We love POP but with my youngest older now we have to rent two rooms. I rented points this year at OKW and my hubby and kids were disappointed we were not staying at POP..We loved loved the food court.

 

[michygoomy]

I'm always surprised when people complain about the food court being too crowded, because we ate there about every other day (in JUNE!) and never had a problem.

It must be the times--we eat breakfast in the room and just fill up our refillable mugs, and we often have lunch there after coming back from the parks for a break. We must not hit the busy times.

Just thought I'd clarify that...

 

[guelde96]

We have only stayed at Pop and ASMo. We preferred ASMo. Basically for the reasons stated previously. The food court was terribly crowded all of the time. So much so that your food would get cold waiting to pay. You had to wait in line to get drinks. I did not mind the noise and the recreation areas were great. The bus service was another story. We stayed for 9 nights and probably got to sit on the busses 4x. I thought the bus service was much worse than the AS resorts.

 

[DisneyGirlie]

I love Pop Century!
I stayed there 3 trips in a row and loved each time. IMO it's definitely the best value resort. If I couldn't stay at Pop then I'd have to upgrade to Moderate or Deluxe. I can't handle the All Stars. I love the theming at Pop and I've never had a problem with walking to the food court or having to wait a long time for buses. No complaints, except mabye the sizes of the rooms. I stayed at the Poly last time and got spoiled on how much bigger the rooms are compared to POP's. Room size aside, I love Pop Century.

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

Up until last September I was definitely on board to stay at POP for all our trips. However, this last trip to POP was so "unmagical" we decided that was it - on to another value resort. Yes we loved the shopping, the food court (and it was unbelievably busy every single time we were there & we had to be table "vultures" to get a seat) and bus transportation was "ok". But it was the guests and some other situations that totally turned us off of POP. Rude, unsupervised kids running up & down the halls after 10pm at night (where are the parents??????????), neighbors who are too lazy to use their key card so they flip the lock out and allow the door to slam back on that lock for over an hour after 10pm at night, and on & on...................... Also, we paid for a preferred room & the room we were given was about as far away from being in a preferred location as we've ever had. The room was also very run-down looking, too. Sent an email to Disney over the many issues we had & got a great informative phone call from Disney CRO with reparations over the incidents and oversights which was greatly appreciated.

All that being said we stayed in January at ASMu and that is now our favorite value resort. It's been refurbished, the food court was great. No issues with bus transportation (we only shared 1 time). Our room (standard) was in a perfect location - very short walking distance to everything. Since we're AP holders we like to scoot over for the 3 day week-ends and this resort was so nice and quiet that it was a great Magical vacation! Wouldn't hesitate to recommend this one to anyone wanting to stay at a value because I definitely wouldn't recommend POP! JMHO!!