Back from 9 days at Pop Century

[Real Loser]

We had never stayed in a value resort before. In the last five years we have done at least a week each at the Poly, Swan, Dixie Landings, Coronado Springs and on the Wonder. This time we decided, what the heck, our annual passes will get us two guaranteed connecting rooms at Pop for less than $1000 for nine nights. We booked for 2/6-2/15. My husband and I had a king room or ten year old had a standard double. Room to spread out was wonderful. Tucking our daughter into bed and being able to keep the lights on to read and watch tv was wonderful. It made for a nice vacation.

We arrived Friday evening at about 6 pm. We had no wait at check-in. The experience was fine. They gave us connecting rooms in the eighties, second floor over the computer pool. We were in rooms 9202 and 9203. The rooms were clean and attractive. Not so much different from the moderate rooms. I have no complaints about the look or cleanliness of the rooms. They were just fine.

Being near the pool was just awful. One night we were repeatedly woken by screams in the pool. Not adult screams, kid screams at midnight and 1 am. I have never known my husband to complain about anything, he finally called the front desk about this. Security came and quieted things down.
We were told it is a constant problem around the pool. Once the life guards leave, the pool is a free for all and people forget others are sleeping ( or trying to).

The second problem was lines and seating in the food court. One night we waited half an hour on line for nachos and some Lo Mein. The checkout lines in the morning tended to be very long and then there were not enough tables.

The busses were prompt but always crowded. I stood for all but one trip to the parks.

All in all it is a nice motel-like property The price was certainly right. We will not return there. We found we seemed to work harder on this vacation then we have on others. For breakfast our last morning we headed over to Wilderness Lodge. We will be staying there in November. It simply is more relaxing- what a vacation is supposed to be.

 

[hyzdufan]

Hmm...you're the first to give it a negative review. Now, why'd ya have to go and do that? I was all set to stay there in June with no reservations about it...

 

[castlegazer]

Well - I think what is going to happen is that it is going to be getting more crowded for people at PoP as we get farther into the season and it gets more word of mouth bookings. This is a very large resort thus making lines for everything pretty long during peak times. We have heard people remark about crowds at Everything PoP and about pool noise. Make sure you read the threads about room numbers and look on a map and request a room away from the pools.

I think this review was fair coming from someone who has not stayed in a Value previously. Essentially they said the room was clean and probably comparable to a moderate room (except for that outdoor hallway thing). I agree with the OP that staying at a crowded value resort is a lot more stressful than staying at a Deluxe - food courts and crowds do that to me too. But - Disney makes these resorts great fun and very value friendly. A much better experience than staying off-site. I can't shake a stick at the price I am getting to stay here, a brand new clean resort, and that is what is worth any craziness caused by crowds to me.

 

[Figaro]

I'm pretty sure that both the moderate as well as the value resorts have the outside walkways instead of inside hallways. It is so interesting to read different people's perceptions of a resort that we also were at at the same time. Our room at Pop Century faced the pool in the 50's area and we never once heard a sound from there after the door to our room was closed.

Since in our experience, all hotels have various noises, we bring along a white noise machine for sleeping and that takes care of that particular problem(smile). Pop Century was a VERY noisy resort, but no more or less noisy than many other places that we have stayed.

Because I am in a wheelchair, it is very important to me how the bus system works in whatever Disney resort I am staying at. And Pop Century was great because it doesn't share buses with any other resorts and only has the one set of bus stops. Some of the worst bus situations I have been involved with are at the deluxe resorts that share buses.

And while we were there, we listened to some people complain about how far the Pop Century bus stop at Epcot was from the other bus stops. Which made my spouse and I laugh, because at one time ALL of the buses used that last bus area at Epcot and the closer areas that are used for buses now once were the handicapped and AAA parking lots. So, everyone used to have to walk that far to catch a bus(smile).

We don't eat in food courts, mostly because we don't like food court type food, so I have no idea how crowded it got at Pop Century. It never seemed all that bad to us when we saw it passing by, but then we were most likely passing by at different times than the average guest.

I love reading the resort board because I love getting all of the different reviews of the resorts people have stayed at. We've stayed at most of the resorts on Disney property at one time or another and a fair number of the resorts off property. And I know that the resorts I don't care for are often someone elses favorites and vice versa(smile).

So much of it comes down to personal preferences and knowing what is really important to a person when they are on vacation. Since I can't use most of a resorts amenities, those don't mean a whole heck of a lot to me. How many hot tubs (or if there are hot tubs)(smile), is meaningless to me, but very important to some people.

Which is why this board is so great...all of the information is available and it is so easy to be able to figure out which resort is the kind of resort that is right for us and which is not right for us!

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I would stay at Pop again, but would request a room that is not facing a pool or other common area. We had quite a bit of foot traffic past our 70's room, and it amazed me that people could be so noisy late at night. Of course a person could have people walking down the hall making noise at any resort, but with the inside hallways it's harder to hear people who are walking outside, depending on the layout of the resort.

T&B

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

They don't close the pool area after a certain time? Who sends their kids to the pool at 1 a.m.??? I'll be sure to request a room away from the pool.

 

[Real Loser]

Hi Everyone,

Original Poster here.

Your comments are all so thought provoking.

I think traveling with a white noise machine is a really good idea. So thanks for that tip.

I did not intend to write the "first negative review" of Pop Century. In fact, the accomodations for the price we paid were very good.

The pool is open all the time. I was surprised at this. It is only guarded between 10 am and 10 pm. I have no explanation as to why young kids were swimming at 1 am, but they were.

The differences between the rooms at the value and the rooms at both moderates were small indeed. The differences in the feel of the resorts and noise levels are striking. I have had rooms quite near the "quiet " pools at both Dixie Landings and Coronado Springs. There was never a noise issue. Perhaps because the feature pool at the moderates is were all the action is. ( Are the big pools at the moderates open all the time now, too?) We have not experienced any uncomfortable noise at the moderates ever. I did not find noise from people just walking by the room at PC a problem even though plain old footsteps could be heard. It was the over the top screams at the pool that woke us up repeatedly. In fact there was so much noise from the pool one night it took four security guards to quiet the place down. Something we were told by cast members happens regularly.

If I were planning a visit to Pop Century, I would be picky about my room location. I would also try to be in a third or fourth floor room.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

We were in a first floor room, which I liked because it was easy to access with a stroller. However, we would have heard the noise of people passing by a little less if we had of been on a higher floor.

T&B

 

[jessmom]

We stayed in the 50's building C on the 4th floor overlooking the bowling pin pool and it was always quiet. THe food court was good but I do agree crowded, had to have my 9 yearold save a table for us. It seems like the other pool was busier and noisier than the bowling pin pool. The buses were really busy, but the hotel was almost 90% occuptancy and every bus going to magic kingdom was especially crowded. Nice thing about the buses at Pop is that the return after the fireworks at Epcot and MK was quick they always had more than one bus waiting for you. Pop was nice, but rooms were small (but we really did not spend much time in them until night when we crashed after running around). THis was my first time to go to disney world and next time we are looking to stay at the resorts that have the monorail because we loved that transportation.

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

Originally posted by castlegazer
Well - I think what is going to happen is that it is going to be getting more crowded for people at PoP as we get farther into the season and it gets more word of mouth bookings.

Actually, Pop Century has had very high occupancy since opening day. Even during the slow January season, we've had many nights of 100% occupancy, with most of the middle weeks being very much up there. So it won't get any more crowded than what has been reported.

 

[TnKrBeLlA012]

I think if your staying by the pool anywhere u go its gunna be like that....so obviously dont request a pool room!

 

[jaysue]

I always use express checkout to avoid the lines in the morning

I feel sorry for your food court wait

thanks
jaysue

 

[becka]

We were there at the same time as you and I can certainly agree about the food court lines. They were not terrible but much longer than I have experienced at the All Stars.

Then there was the CM in the food court who apparently didn't know how to handle travelers cheques and fiddled with it so long (10 minutes) that our food was cold by the time we got to eat.

My biggest issue with Pop Century was service issues especially in the Housekeeping area. It kind of felt like a comedy of errors our first night when we kept having to request and re-request, etc. to get what we needed. It is not great to request a crib and then not have it show up. It is worse that when you call back 1 1/2 hours later and re-request the crib, along with 2 extra blankets and a request for pre-noon housekeeping the next day and you get a CM at your door with one blanket and no crib. He then comes back with the crib (finally) and then later than night you get a knock on the door waking you up and the Housekeeping CM wants to know what you need cleaned since you requested early housekeeping. Since when did early housekeeping in the morning equal showing up at your door around 9:30 at night the night before?

We had some other issues as well including the check-in CM who told me our room was in a different location than it really was and our room apparently has a minor flooding problems outside the door when they wash the sidewalks. We came back from the parks one afternoon to find a rather large pool of water outside the door. I thought our room had flooded at first. There was so much water there that it took 2 days to evaporate.

The rate was great at $55/night but I really wished we had stuck with the All Stars. The theme at Pop was great and we really wanted to love it but we were just so disappointed with some of the service. We have always had good service in the past so either our luck ran out or there are some issues at Pop.

 

[trola2]

I've really held off saying much about our stay there. We were only there one night. We had similar housekeeping issues to the previous post...called housekeeping to request towels because my child was sick. Asked for four adn they brought one hand towel. Then asked for BATH towels and maybe a new bath mat...came back with ONE bath towel.

It was noisier in the hallways than the allstars, but maybe that is because you are stacked 4 high instead of 3 high? We were away from the pool so that wasn't it.

Also, the noise level in the foodcourt and shop was way too great for us to eat dinner in there. And we decided to leave the resort and go to DTD to shop in a calmer atmosphere!! The only thing I bought at POP were some charms and usually we do quite a bit of our shopping at the resort.

Anyway, Pop is cute, but I think if we go value again we'll probably be at the all stars. Oh, and I do think all the lines were much longer at pop, but at least they have those queus set up so that helps.

And, although I know the music is to put you in the mood of the resort, that certainly contributes to the noise factor. It was loud enough that everyone had to speak louder to talk over the music. I think it could be turned down just a notch and still have been festive without making it difficult to carry on a conversation.

Sorry...I know no one wants to see any negative, but that is just our $.02. And I think we all felt that way. Even my 8 yo DD said she liked pop and would love to come back to visit, but would rather stay elsewhere.

 

[wiskband]

I arrived at POP on opening day. I had none of those experiences but that is probably because they were not full, and slowly filled to capacity the day I left. I think that the reason for the crowds is simply because it is a new hotel and everyone is flocking there. I was fortunate tog et there on that day and the hotel was virtually empty except for a few guests and folks that came to see what it looked like. So my experience was lovely there due to that fact. I have mostly stayed at value and moderate and I really dont see the difference. the room sizes seem to be the same I noticed the only difference is perhaps the theme and a slide at the pools vs. no slide. For anyone who is not used to staying at a value resort this should not steer you away from it because I simply think that POP is just crowed with people trying to stay at the newest hotel. I too have stayed at a deluxe (POLY) and really did not like it much. Of course my main issue is $ and that is not the case for everyone but I would defintily not pay for deluxe anymore. It all depends on our individual lifestyles and expectations of what a vacation should be. This year we plan on staying at the fort wilderness cabins. Although, they are a bit out of our price range we are looking for a little more suclusion and plan not to go to the parks as muchas we normally do.
POP is COOL in my book though!

 

[Figaro]

We stayed at Pop Century for 11 nights (31st of January through the 10th of February. As nearly as I could tell, it was pretty much completely full. We had a second floor room facing the 50's pool area and the weather was sunny and pretty warm for all but a couple of the days.

Since we are night owls (go to the Comedy Club most nights), we were usually not back at Pop Century until after midnight most nights and after 1 a.m. the other nights. It was very, very quiet in the 50's area. We did our laundry twice at midnight and were usually the only ones around. There was once in a while a few people in the pool that late, but they were quiet and respectful of the fact that most people were sleeping. The vast majority of the noise that we heard was just people and kids getting up and getting ready to head out to the parks and we solved that by using a white noise machine and having the privacy please thing on the door.

It just goes to show that people staying the same nights in a different area of the same resort can have such different experiences(smile)! I remember commenting to my spouse every night when we got back to the room that it was so incredibly peaceful and quiet at midnight(smile) and it was kind of fun to walk around the resort when it was so peaceful like that. But I am wondering if we would have arrived at 11 p.m. instead of midnight, we might have had a completely different perception about the noise(smile).

 

[Poohbear123]

And requested the 4th floor, end room. I got plenty of rest, as it was very quiet! The food court is ALWAYS crowded from 7:30 to 9:00am after 9:30, there is no one there! I went at 6 am one morning and I was the ONLY one there! Also, there are a lot of Cheerleaders/dance groups there now, which makes it bad for noise.