Hi DISers!
Just back from a 4 night stay at Pop! Had a great time (of course!)! Have stayed on-site in the past at the All Star Music (2012) and the Polynesian (2014). Here's my observations:
*Had great CMs at the concierge desk, especially Barb and Laurie. Helpful and thorough.
*Enjoyed the food court and felt there were healthy options to be found. We had roast chicken with string beans, a grilled veggie sandwich, a make-your-own salad with tofu, edamame, hard-boiled egg and cheese!
*No Diet Sprite or Sprite Zero and no soda water/seltzer/club soda/sparkling water at the fountain.
*Enjoyed mixing coffee and hot chocolate for mocha in the mornings.
*Swam in the flower pool.One lap petal to petal is about like one lap of a 1/2 olympic pool. Roughly. You just need to keep your eyes open with goggles and dodge small floating children.
*Pools have lifeguards until 10pm, but are open until midnight!
*We saw some of the new DHS Star Wars fireworks from the flower pool at 8:15pm!
*Stayed in building 6, 70s section. Great location, right next to the building that borders the flower pool. First room they gave us had a broken safe lock and a peeling/moist ceiling. Got moved to a room one level up which was fine. Had a view of the lagoon but didn't get much chance to stare at it since we weren't in the room a whole lot!
*Magical Express bus stopped first at AoA then Pop. All the buses to the parks were just for Pop.
*One day we just missed a Pop bus when returning from the parks, so we got on an AoA bus. Had dinner at their food court, and walked back, enjoying the scenery and the Generation Gap bridge. Very quick walk, maybe 10 minutes.
*Regarding buses, we did have to stand a few times when taking the bus during peak periods. Not so bad.
*On last day we had our boarding passes waiting for us at our room (SW Airlines) but one of them didn't work at the airport. They said this happens a lot. If you want to make sure, just print out a new one before you get on the security line at MCO.
On the whole, the place was shiny and clean and colorful and happy, and the price was right!
We would stay there again!