Disney's POP CENTURY RESORT Information & Questions

[Disneylover99]

I was in exactly that room. But 2 weeks later for the thermostat to still be on it... Ridiculous. There should be a standard it is set between guests.

That’s so funny you were in that exact room.

It was 2am and I had been up since 6am (I had to teach before flying down.)

I know for me, when I’m up super early and check in super late on travel day, I’m often over tired and can’t sleep. That could have been part of the problem for you.

 

[Dug720]

That’s so funny you were in that exact room.


I know for me, when I’m up super early and check in super late on travel day, I’m often over tired and can’t sleep. That could have been part of the problem for you.

I might have had some trouble, but it was exacerbated by my nose and my toes being frozen. And taking a shower to warm up would have just woken me up even more.

 

[la la limon]

I just wanted to leave a quick note after our first stay at the Pop. We normally stay at a Deluxe but we planned a spur-of-the-moment budget trip. While I was not excited to stay at the Pop, we had a great trip. Clean, well-designed rooms. Comfy beds. Good transport to the parks (especially the Sky Liner). The kids were a little bored by the pool but we really didn't have much time to enjoy it anyhow. Just my two cents!

 

[WelshMorgan92]

I am hoping to book a bounce back for next year's Wine & Dine, but there is speculation that the race weekend will fall the weekend after Halloween since Halloween is on a Saturday. I am going before they will announce the race dates, so I think I will be booking bounce back for both weekends just in case.

oh, I hadn't thought of that! I have only put a deposit on the room so I can change the dates if needed. Hopefully they announce it next month

 

[scrappinginontario]

Based on years past, the next BounceBack offer should start Nov 1st.

 

[Elizamarie763]

Can someone confirm that towels are available at the pool? The info at the beginning of this thread says they are not provided but I thought I read somewhere that they are. I want to make sure I don't need to pack a towel in my carry on as I'll be arriving around 10 a.m. on my arrival day and plan to use the pool.

 

[momma2ethan]

Can someone confirm that towels are available at the pool? The info at the beginning of this thread says they are not provided but I thought I read somewhere that they are. I want to make sure I don't need to pack a towel in my carry on as I'll be arriving around 10 a.m. on my arrival day and plan to use the pool.

Yes, all three pools have towel carts.

 

[Elizamarie763]

Yes, all three pools have towel carts.

Thank you!

 

[scard192]

Changed to Standard Pool view to get the Gift of Magic discount. How loud might it be? I am a light sleeper.
Is there are specific Pool that is Standard Pool View vs Preferred? Had been booked at Standard View and was planning to request 50's facing the lake.

 

[Disneylover99]

Changed to Standard Pool view to get the Gift of Magic discount. How loud might it be? I am a light sleeper.
Is there are specific Pool that is Standard Pool View vs Preferred? Had been booked at Standard View and was planning to request 50's facing the lake.

Standard pool view will face the bowling pin pool in the 50’s or the computer pool in the 80’s/90’s.

Preferred pool view is the Hippy Dippy pool in the 60’s.

 

[evlaina]

Just got back from our first stay at POP. We usually stay Deluxe, and were booked at Beach Club for this trip, but my in-laws decided to join us so we changed resorts to accommodate their budget.

I’m disappointed to say we really didn’t like anything about POP. At all. We were in room 7116, which is first floor in the eighties and just about as far from the buses, main building, and Skyliner as possible. We only had a standard so I get that, but boy it was a walk to everything, and my family is in pretty good shape. It was .5 miles to the buses, It was also a smoking area, and none of us smoke. We were out in adjoining rooms, which was very helpful with my elderly in-laws.

We didn’t like the styling, the tiny rooms, the long bus waits, the long front desk waits, the lack of good food/restaurants, and the sheer massive amount of people. My kids missed a pool slide.

So, while we won’t stay here again, I do appreciate reading this thread for the past 8 months and I hope everyone enjoys their stays. Different strokes!

 

[SaintsManiac]

Just got back from our first stay at POP. We usually stay Deluxe, and were booked at Beach Club for this trip, but my in-laws decided to join us so we changed resorts to accommodate their budget.

I’m disappointed to say we really didn’t like anything about POP. At all. We were in room 7116, which is first floor in the eighties and just about as far from the buses, main building, and Skyliner as possible. We only had a standard so I get that, but boy it was a walk to everything, and my family is in pretty good shape. It was .5 miles to the buses, It was also a smoking area, and none of us smoke. We were out in adjoining rooms, which was very helpful with my elderly in-laws.

We didn’t like the styling, the tiny rooms, the long bus waits, the long front desk waits, the lack of good food/restaurants, and the sheer massive amount of people. My kids missed a pool slide.

So, while we won’t stay here again, I do appreciate reading this thread for the past 8 months and I hope everyone enjoys their stays. Different strokes!

Sorry you didn't care for it. We find that walking through the parking lot from the 80s is the fastest way to the buses.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Just got back from our first stay at POP. We usually stay Deluxe, and were booked at Beach Club for this trip, but my in-laws decided to join us so we changed resorts to accommodate their budget.

I’m disappointed to say we really didn’t like anything about POP. At all. We were in room 7116, which is first floor in the eighties and just about as far from the buses, main building, and Skyliner as possible. We only had a standard so I get that, but boy it was a walk to everything, and my family is in pretty good shape. It was .5 miles to the buses, It was also a smoking area, and none of us smoke. We were out in adjoining rooms, which was very helpful with my elderly in-laws.

We didn’t like the styling, the tiny rooms, the long bus waits, the long front desk waits, the lack of good food/restaurants, and the sheer massive amount of people. My kids missed a pool slide.

So, while we won’t stay here again, I do appreciate reading this thread for the past 8 months and I hope everyone enjoys their stays. Different strokes!

I’m sorry you didn’t like it. I hope your visits at the deluxe resorts better fit your needs in the future.

I will say that in all of my years on this board you are the very first person who says they did not like one single thing about Pop. It takes a lot to not like ANYTHING a location has to offer. That’s difficult for me to understand as I cannot think of a single experience in my life where I can’t find something positive about it.

The majority of us on this board cannot afford deluxe accommodations so we can’t really compare what is offered there to what we can afford.

I agree they building 7 is far from both the buses and skyliner. We stayed there once and ever since then I If we were assigned a room in that building I requested to be moved which they were happy to do.

The rooms are not large but it also depends on what you use your room for. Our family doesn’t spend a lot of time in the room so we don’t need a lot of space.

Bus waits are hit and miss and I find very subjective. Having stayed st Pop more than 25 times I’d say about 20% of the time we wait 15 mins or longer waiting for a bus and to me that is reasonable.

I hope you enjoyed your trip in spite of not being a fan of your accommodations.

 

[MinnieMSue]

We were going to take a break from Disney World until the summer after the 50th but I have been depressed not having a trip planned so I booked us a short trip Sept 5-9 so we can hopefully catch a Halloween party. It is our favorite time to be there (hopefully no hurricanes then). Looking forward to the Skyliner! So happy to be returning to pop again!

 

[Disneylover99]

Just got back from our first stay at POP. We usually stay Deluxe, and were booked at Beach Club for this trip, but my in-laws decided to join us so we changed resorts to accommodate their budget.

I’m disappointed to say we really didn’t like anything about POP. At all. We were in room 7116, which is first floor in the eighties and just about as far from the buses, main building, and Skyliner as possible. We only had a standard so I get that, but boy it was a walk to everything, and my family is in pretty good shape. It was .5 miles to the buses, It was also a smoking area, and none of us smoke. We were out in adjoining rooms, which was very helpful with my elderly in-laws.

We didn’t like the styling, the tiny rooms, the long bus waits, the long front desk waits, the lack of good food/restaurants, and the sheer massive amount of people. My kids missed a pool slide.

So, while we won’t stay here again, I do appreciate reading this thread for the past 8 months and I hope everyone enjoys their stays. Different strokes!

I get it. I bet a less then desirable room location really affected your perception of the resort. It can happen on a first time stay. My sister stayed in the same location as you, while we were in the 60’s once. She was okay with the location, but I remember thinking I would hate to be there.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Just got back from our first stay at POP. We usually stay Deluxe, and were booked at Beach Club for this trip, but my in-laws decided to join us so we changed resorts to accommodate their budget.

I’m disappointed to say we really didn’t like anything about POP. At all. We were in room 7116, which is first floor in the eighties and just about as far from the buses, main building, and Skyliner as possible. We only had a standard so I get that, but boy it was a walk to everything, and my family is in pretty good shape. It was .5 miles to the buses, It was also a smoking area, and none of us smoke. We were out in adjoining rooms, which was very helpful with my elderly in-laws.

We didn’t like the styling, the tiny rooms, the long bus waits, the long front desk waits, the lack of good food/restaurants, and the sheer massive amount of people. My kids missed a pool slide.

So, while we won’t stay here again, I do appreciate reading this thread for the past 8 months and I hope everyone enjoys their stays. Different strokes!

I've stayed at POP 7 or 8 times now and have also stayed mod and deluxe. There was one time we stayed in building 7 and I hated every minute of it. We even had the last room right along side the parking lot. It was the absolute furthest point from Classic Hall. All our other trips we have been building 1, 4, 5 or 6....mainly 4 and 5. I will never again stay in any of the 80/90's.

 

[bluezy]

Just got back from our first stay at POP. We usually stay Deluxe, and were booked at Beach Club for this trip, but my in-laws decided to join us so we changed resorts to accommodate their budget.

I’m disappointed to say we really didn’t like anything about POP. At all. We were in room 7116, which is first floor in the eighties and just about as far from the buses, main building, and Skyliner as possible. We only had a standard so I get that, but boy it was a walk to everything, and my family is in pretty good shape. It was .5 miles to the buses, It was also a smoking area, and none of us smoke. We were out in adjoining rooms, which was very helpful with my elderly in-laws.

We didn’t like the styling, the tiny rooms, the long bus waits, the long front desk waits, the lack of good food/restaurants, and the sheer massive amount of people. My kids missed a pool slide.

So, while we won’t stay here again, I do appreciate reading this thread for the past 8 months and I hope everyone enjoys their stays. Different strokes!

I get it. I bet a less then desirable room location really affected your perception of the resort. It can happen on a first time stay. My sister stayed in the same location as you, while we were in the 60’s once. She was okay with the location, but I remember thinking I would hate to be there.

I agree. I think the room location can make a big impact on ones perception of any resort. Our first stay at Pop we were in 60s building 4, lake-view room. At the time, it was a preferred room and we got pixie dusted with that location (we had booked standard). This location was awesome!!! Close to the pool but quiet because it was on the back side of the building; close to the main building/food court (we use the refillable mugs A LOT); and a quick walk to the bus stops. And now it would have the added bonus of being close to the Skyliner station. On our second visit, we were in building 2 in the 50s . Compared to our original room, it felt really far away from EVERYTHING other than the pool (which we really don't use very often during our stays anyway). It was literally almost a 1/4 of a mile from our room to the bus stop (same as building 7) but it felt like a mile. If we had been in building 2 on our first stay, I don't know if we would have come back for a 2nd stay. I will add that I would not be happy to be located near a smoking section and would definitely have asked to be moved.

I can't say we've ever had really bad bus service at Pop (or AoA for that matter), rarely waiting more than 10 minutes for a bus with most waits being less than 5. And the waits that were long were almost always at park closing when we expected there to be long waits. But a lot of bus wait time success/failure has to do with timing and luck. Our worst wait times have actually been at Deluxe resorts after eating or visiting there -- waited 35 minutes for a bus from GF to DTD/DS in the middle of the afternoon (and it was actually a 45 minute wait for some people -- we weren't the first ones there). Waited 25+ minutes for a bus to *anywhere* at Yacht Club after an Illuminations Fireworks Cruise on two different occasions. We just needed to get *somewhere* to be able to transfer back to AoA. And we waited over 50 minutes for a bus from AKL to DHS at about 7:30 one evening (while seeing 2 or 3 buses for every other park come and go during that same time frame). We obviously do not have good luck with buses at Deluxe resorts. Those few bad experiences (compared to all of our great bus experiences at Pop/AoA make us have no desire to stay at Deluxe resorts. We could afford to stay at a Deluxe resort, but we like the bus service, variety of QS food options, and atmosphere at the Value resorts. Don't get me wrong, I love a luxurious hotel stay (recently stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington DC. Highly recommend it!!!), but at Disney, we like what the Value resorts offer. But we realize that whole scene isn't for everyone and it's great that Disney provides a lot of options.

 

[Disneyhanna]

So excited to be back at POP for my trip next year! I originally booked at Movies since the 2020 POP rack rates were getting to be a bit too much...an extra $280 for the Skyliner for a week just wasn't something I could justify. But POP was available under the AP discount released yesterday (and my standard room at Movies was sold out) so I upgraded to POP for only $47 total more than what I was going to pay for a rack rate at Movies. I can definitely justify the $47 .

 

[kaytieeldr]

We didn’t like the styling, the tiny rooms, the long bus waits, the long front desk waits, the lack of good food/restaurants, and the sheer massive amount of people. My kids missed a pool slide.

Respectfully, these would seem to be issues that would have been researched before booking.

I’d say about 20% of the time we wait 15 mins or longer waiting for a bus and to me that is reasonable.

More than reasonable, given that the expected interval is 20 minutes. Plus, it's not necessaarily that the bus took a long time to come, but that the guest arrived at the stop moments after a bus left.

It was literally almost a 1/4 of a mile from our room to the bus stop

Honestly, that makes more sense than the half mile cited above - unless the PP stuck to paths (it appears walking to the building core, then the core of the opposite building, would have been shorter). Last time I was able to find a map online That allowed me to measure, I think I got 2,000 feet across.

but it felt like a mile.

 

[evlaina]

I agree. I think the room location can make a big impact on ones perception of any resort. Our first stay at Pop we were in 60s building 4, lake-view room. At the time, it was a preferred room and we got pixie dusted with that location (we had booked standard). This location was awesome!!! Close to the pool but quiet because it was on the back side of the building; close to the main building/food court (we use the refillable mugs A LOT); and a quick walk to the bus stops. And now it would have the added bonus of being close to the Skyliner station. On our second visit, we were in building 2 in the 50s . Compared to our original room, it felt really far away from EVERYTHING other than the pool (which we really don't use very often during our stays anyway). It was literally almost a 1/4 of a mile from our room to the bus stop (same as building 7) but it felt like a mile. If we had been in building 2 on our first stay, I don't know if we would have come back for a 2nd stay. I will add that I would not be happy to be located near a smoking section and would definitely have asked to be moved.

I can't say we've ever had really bad bus service at Pop (or AoA for that matter), rarely waiting more than 10 minutes for a bus with most waits being less than 5. And the waits that were long were almost always at park closing when we expected there to be long waits. But a lot of bus wait time success/failure has to do with timing and luck. Our worst wait times have actually been at Deluxe resorts after eating or visiting there -- waited 35 minutes for a bus from GF to DTD/DS in the middle of the afternoon (and it was actually a 45 minute wait for some people -- we weren't the first ones there). Waited 25+ minutes for a bus to *anywhere* at Yacht Club after an Illuminations Fireworks Cruise on two different occasions. We just needed to get *somewhere* to be able to transfer back to AoA. And we waited over 50 minutes for a bus from AKL to DHS at about 7:30 one evening (while seeing 2 or 3 buses for every other park come and go during that same time frame). We obviously do not have good luck with buses at Deluxe resorts. Those few bad experiences (compared to all of our great bus experiences at Pop/AoA make us have no desire to stay at Deluxe resorts. We could afford to stay at a Deluxe resort, but we like the bus service, variety of QS food options, and atmosphere at the Value resorts. Don't get me wrong, I love a luxurious hotel stay (recently stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington DC. Highly recommend it!!!), but at Disney, we like what the Value resorts offer. But we realize that whole scene isn't for everyone and it's great that Disney provides a lot of options.