Disney's POP CENTURY RESORT Information & Questions

[PaladinButters]

Perhaps they would change that & a lot of other things if guests held them to a higher standard. To be fair, I have never had a problem with my room being ready. But, since my reservation confirmation DOES actually say that check-in as at 3 & the average guest is not likely to be up-to-date on the industry “standard”, most ppl would expect their room to be ready by 3.

If a hotel tells me that paying for a night has check-in starting at 3 and check-out ending at 11 then I’m sure as heck going to expect the room I paid for to be available to me for all of those hours from 3-11 if I so choose to use them. Earlier would be a great perk, later would be unacceptable because that’s “my” time.

This is freaking me out now for our upcoming trip because I’ve never had a problem at WDW with getting a room at the time I expected, but I’ve also never stayed at Pop. Is it common to have problems with this? Have I just been lucky all the other times?

 

[mekay1012]

If a hotel tells me that paying for a night has check-in starting at 3 and check-out ending at 11 then I’m sure as heck going to expect the room I paid for to be available to me for all of those hours from 3-11 if I so choose to use them. Earlier would be a great perk, later would be unacceptable because that’s “my” time.

This is freaking me out now for our upcoming trip because I’ve never had a problem at WDW with getting a room at the time I expected, but I’ve also never stayed at Pop. Is it common to have problems with this? Have I just been lucky all the other times?

The last time we stayed at Pop, our room was ready when we arrived that morning (around 9:00 am). We are arriving very early this time (probably around 8:00 and I'm crossing my fingers we will have good luck again this year). When I do room request, I always choose room ready early as my first choice.

 

[Mome Rath]

Good morning I have a couple questions about the magical express to Pop Century. Our flight arrives at 7:30pm and I understand we just get on the magical express and the luggage will be delivered to the room later that night. Does anyone know how long it usually takes to get the suitcases delivered? I have young children and don’t really want them waking up the kids up at 11pm at night to drop off the bags. Can we request to have them held somewhere until the next morning? Also just to confirm do we have to prebook the magical express? Or do we just show up?

Yes, if you plan to utilize ME, then do prebook. That's the only way to have the option of using the yellow ME tags, and to set up a return trip to the airport (you can manage without prebooking but it's a pain and slows everything down, and you have to prebook your return trip anyway).

You can choose to pick up your luggage at the baggage claim at the airport and bring it on the ME bus with you if you want to, just don't put the yellow tags on your luggage, and retrieve your luggage as normal from baggage claim. If you do put the tags on, they will head to the hotel, and it can definitely take up to 4 hours from landing to get them. I believe you can have bell services hold them (I've never done this, but I've read others here on the board have, if you do this, go speak to bell services when you get to the hotel).

 

[kelpricer]

Good morning I have a couple questions about the magical express to Pop Century. Our flight arrives at 7:30pm and I understand we just get on the magical express and the luggage will be delivered to the room later that night. Does anyone know how long it usually takes to get the suitcases delivered? I have young children and don’t really want them waking up the kids up at 11pm at night to drop off the bags. Can we request to have them held somewhere until the next morning? Also just to confirm do we have to prebook the magical express? Or do we just show up?

Call and give them your flight info for magical express. You can call and ask them not to deliver until morning. We did A few years ago, unfortunately they noted it and ended up waking us up at 1:00 in the morning with our luggage anyway I dont think that’s normally a problem though

 

[DisLiss]

Why would it take longer? I can't imagine that not cleaning a room every single day is going to cause so much more mess that it would take a significant amount of time to clean. Definitely not more time than is saved by the people opting out.

I just know from my own home that a room touched every day takes minutes to clean each day, but let a week go by, and then it takes longer than that cumulative time in the end. For us, the recent holidays are a prime example of when we tend to do the bare minimum day to day only to groan about the catch-up when they're over.

I just think there's a good possibility that if a family, in particular, stays in a room with no mousekeeping during the stay one night (Sorry for the confusion folks. I totally typed the wrong thing here, originally!), they leave the room in a less noticeable state of use than if they were there a week or more with no one doing any cleaning in between their check-in and check-out dates.

 

[Izzy4672]

Thank

Yes, if you plan to utilize ME, then do prebook. That's the only way to have the option of using the yellow ME tags, and to set up a return trip to the airport (you can manage without prebooking but it's a pain and slows everything down, and you have to prebook your return trip anyway).

You can choose to pick up your luggage at the baggage claim at the airport and bring it on the ME bus with you if you want to, just don't put the yellow tags on your luggage, and retrieve your luggage as normal from baggage claim. If you do put the tags on, they will head to the hotel, and it can definitely take up to 4 hours from landing to get them. I believe you can have bell services hold them (I've never done this, but I've read others here on the board have, if you do this, go speak to bell services when you get to the hotel).

Thanks for your reply. One more question, how many other resorts does the magical express stop at before pop century.

 

[Mome Rath]

Thank


Thanks for your reply. One more question, how many other resorts does the magical express stop at before pop century.

It varies, but last time I was on it (October) it was 3.

 

[LSUmiss]

If a hotel tells me that paying for a night has check-in starting at 3 and check-out ending at 11 then I’m sure as heck going to expect the room I paid for to be available to me for all of those hours from 3-11 if I so choose to use them. Earlier would be a great perk, later would be unacceptable because that’s “my” time.

This is freaking me out now for our upcoming trip because I’ve never had a problem at WDW with getting a room at the time I expected, but I’ve also never stayed at Pop. Is it common to have problems with this? Have I just been lucky all the other times?

I guess that’s me too. I have never had a problem with my room being ready in any other Disney hotel, but I have never stayed value. I’ll be traveling with a 22 mon old so I’ll need a room when we get here. But, we are driving so I might just plan to get there later just in case. I guess I’m mostly surprised by just how much leeway ppl are willing to give wdw.

 

[Disneylover99]

I guess that’s me too. I have never had a problem with my room being ready in any other Disney hotel, but I have never stayed value. I’ll be traveling with a 22 mon old so I’ll need a room when we get here. But, we are driving so I might just plan to get there later just in case. I guess I’m mostly surprised by just how much leeway ppl are willing to give wdw.

Rooms not being ready by 3 or 4pm is not a Pop or value thing. It can happen anywhere. I’ve had multiple stays at Pop even at the busiest time and I’ve gotten my room anytime between 11am - 3pm.

FWIW, I’ve gotten rooms well past 5pm twice at POFQ.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I guess that’s me too. I have never had a problem with my room being ready in any other Disney hotel, but I have never stayed value. I’ll be traveling with a 22 mon old so I’ll need a room when we get here. But, we are driving so I might just plan to get there later just in case. I guess I’m mostly surprised by just how much leeway ppl are willing to give wdw.

It's. Not. Just. Disney.

 

[LSUmiss]

It's. Not. Just. Disney.

Maybe but Disney used to pride themselves on being better than the industry standard. There are countless threads about how that’s not the case anymore in many areas not just this topic & I find that disappointing.

 

[ellbell]

I just know from my own home that a room touched every day takes minutes to clean each day, but let a week go by, and then it takes longer than that cumulative time in the end. For us, the recent holidays are a prime example of when we tend to do the bare minimum day to day only to groan about the catch-up when they're over.

I just think there's a good possibility that if a family, in particular, stays in a room one night, they leave the room in a less noticeable state of use than if they were there a week or more with no one doing any cleaning in between their check-in and check-out dates.

Would you want mousekeeping to spend less time on your room before you stayed there if the family only stayed one night versus a week. Honestly I expect the same thoroughness regardless of how long the previous family stayed or if they had daily mousekeeping. I guess that's why I don't expect them to take more time if the previous guest decline mousekeeping. I expect them to do a deep clean regardless. If you guys don't think that's happening then maybe I'll be requesting an allergy cleaning before my arrival. If you guys weren't expecting that to begin with then I guess my standards and expectations are just higher.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Would you want mousekeeping to spend less time on your room before you stayed there if the family only stayed one night versus a week. Honestly I expect the same thoroughness regardless of how long the previous family stayed or if they had daily mousekeeping. I guess that's Iwhy I don't expect them to take more time if the previous guest decline mousekeeping. I expect them to do a deep clean regardless. If you guys don't think that's happening then maybe I'll be requesting an allergy cleaning before my arrival. If you guys weren't expecting that to begin with then I guess my standards-based and expectations are just higher.

Unreasonable and unrealistic. You can't decline housekeeping every day and have your room cleaned every day. Never mind dep cleaned. Even for guests who don't decline housekeeping, the bedding isn't changed daily, often the towels aren't, housekeeping isn't throwing away trash tbe guest forgot or taking care of items accidentally !eft...

A deep, turning-over room cleaning takes more time than a daily cleaning; it takes even more time in a room that hasn't bee cleaned for 2 or 7 or 10 or 14 days. Where in al! this are you getting the impression that rooms aren't thoroughly cleaned between guests? And just so you're aware, an allergy deep clea ing takes even more time.

 

[Disneylover99]

Would you want mousekeeping to spend less time on your room before you stayed there if the family only stayed one night versus a week. Honestly I expect the same thoroughness regardless of how long the previous family stayed or if they had daily mousekeeping. I guess that's why I don't expect them to take more time if the previous guest decline mousekeeping. I expect them to do a deep clean regardless. If you guys don't think that's happening then maybe I'll be requesting an allergy cleaning before my arrival. If you guys weren't expecting that to begin with then I guess my standards and expectations are just higher.

I don’t think most people are suggesting they don’t expect a thorough cleaning, they are only suggesting it probably takes a bit more time to do a thorough cleaning on a room that hasn’t been serviced at all in two weeks in comparison to a room that has been serviced daily for two weeks. That’s all.

 

[DisLiss]

Would you want mousekeeping to spend less time on your room before you stayed there if the family only stayed one night versus a week. Honestly I expect the same thoroughness regardless of how long the previous family stayed or if they had daily mousekeeping. I guess that's why I don't expect them to take more time if the previous guest decline mousekeeping. I expect them to do a deep clean regardless. If you guys don't think that's happening then maybe I'll be requesting an allergy cleaning before my arrival. If you guys weren't expecting that to begin with then I guess my standards and expectations are just higher.

I think that what you're saying and what I am saying are different. First of all I am not talking about different length stays, but instead about different lengths of time between cleaning. And I realize that I messed up at the end of my post when I said that. I apologize. Because what I was really talking about cleaning a room that's not been touched in a certain amount of time vs. cleaning one that has. But my brain left me and I said the wrong thing at the end of my post.

So here's what I really meant: Let's pretend you & I are cleaning the rooms. We each are told that we need to meet XYZ cleanliness standards. We have the option of cleaning a room where 4 people stayed for two weeks, with housekeeping stopping in each day to work on it; or cleaning a room where 4 people stayed for two weeks with no housekeeping done in it whatsoever during that time. If you think they will take the same amount of time to reach XYZ standard, then I invite you to take the one that's had no housekeeping and I will take the other.

Think of a room where dirt has been tracked in for two weeks and never removed. Sand (if at a resort with a beach or sandy pool feature) has been tracked in for two weeks. Dust has accumulated for two weeks. Anything spilled at the beginning of the stay has had 2 weeks to set into the upholstery or the carpeting (if applicable). Same with anything splashed onto walls, tiles, furniture, etc. Little bits of trash that went unnoticed or simply left, have accumulated for 2 weeks. To me it simply sounds like a job that will be more work and take a longer amount of time.

 

[mikegood2]

If a hotel tells me that paying for a night has check-in starting at 3 and check-out ending at 11 then I’m sure as heck going to expect the room I paid for to be available to me for all of those hours from 3-11 if I so choose to use them. Earlier would be a great perk, later would be unacceptable because that’s “my” time.

This is freaking me out now for our upcoming trip because I’ve never had a problem at WDW with getting a room at the time I expected, but I’ve also never stayed at Pop. Is it common to have problems with this? Have I just been lucky all the other times?

Honestly I wouldn’t let it freak me out at all. The likelihood of you not being able to get your room until after 3pm is extremely likely. It’s just that someone posted that the 3pm checkin isn’t guaranteed and that created the discussion that lead to some people getting freaked out.

We’ve only stayed at the POP once and while we had to wait about an hour for our room, we still had our room(s) assigned to us at 1pm. I think the holdup/delay for us was because we needed connecting rooms and we were more than willing to wait a little longer to get them.

Actually I’d guess that the rare occasions someone doesn’t get a room until after 3 is because they’re asking for, or in some cases demanding a certain type of room and the hotel is trying to accommodate that? Things like connecting rooms, a specific room/floor/building, king bed, etc. can really complicate things. Those are the situations where you might have to wait a little longer and if that’s important to you, while annoying, you should be fine waiting a little longer.

I guess that’s me too. I have never had a problem with my room being ready in any other Disney hotel, but I have never stayed value. I’ll be traveling with a 22 mon old so I’ll need a room when we get here. But, we are driving so I might just plan to get there later just in case. I guess I’m mostly surprised by just how much leeway ppl are willing to give wdw.

Maybe but Disney used to pride themselves on being better than the industry standard. There are countless threads about how that’s not the case anymore in many areas not just this topic & I find that disappointing.

In general it’s not a issue and like I said to @PaladinButters I wouldn’t worry about it. The last few pages are just your typical someone makes a statement, someone else mis-reads or over reacts, OP my over react in response and the discussion snowballs from there. In general Disney hotels are really good at this process. Also, I don’t think anyone is ”willing to give WDW to much leeway”.

Do I want my room ready when I arrive? Sure I do and I the longer I’d have to wait the more annoyed/upset Id probably get. That said, I always expect that there might be a slight delay and build that into my expectation.

Edit: like @scrappinginontario posted below, I also think this conversation has run its course. I just wanted assure others, that getting a room by 3pm shouldn’t be a problem.

 

[mamamelody2]

Good morning I have a couple questions about the magical express to Pop Century. Our flight arrives at 7:30pm and I understand we just get on the magical express and the luggage will be delivered to the room later that night. Does anyone know how long it usually takes to get the suitcases delivered? I have young children and don’t really want them waking up the kids up at 11pm at night to drop off the bags. Can we request to have them held somewhere until the next morning? Also just to confirm do we have to prebook the magical express? Or do we just show up?

In your situation, I would definitely just pick up my luggage and take it to DME myself. That way, you know for sure you won't get woken up by luggage delivery, AND you will have it right away and be able to unpack before bedtime. We arrived later once and had to pick up our luggage. It only took a few minutes. No problem at all and it was nice to have it from the start.

You should definitely prebook DME. You can call, but also a quick google should give you the website to sign up. I prefer that, because I hate making calls. LOL.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I believe the conversations re: room ready at 3pm and how long it should take to clean a room have run the course on this thread. If you would like to discuss further, please open anew thread specifically about that topic.

Lets move back to specific questions and answers about Pop Century.

Thanks.

 

[mikegood2]

What drinks are available at Pop with the refillable mug? We stayed at Yacht club last time we had them. Do they have the same machines?

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Take a look at @RaySharpton post I quoted from last November. He was kid enough to post pictures of the fountain machines and beverage coolers for us!

Sadly the POP beverage selection is pretty limited and they don’t have Coke freestyle machines. Basically your looking at fountain machines that dispense Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, Orange Fanta, Minute Maid Lemonade and Powerade. They also have 4 flavors of Gold Peak Tea, coffee and hot chocolate. Not sure if I’m missing anything else?

When we stayed at the POP in June 2017, we ate at AoA foodcourt a few times because they had Mellow Yellow and I believe Cherry Coke.

For our trip in July, our current plans are taking our refillable mugs with us to HS/Epcot and using the freestyle machines at the Caribbean Beach and/or Riviera Resort (think they have FS machines?) and filling them up, to or from, those parks. We’re a Pepsi family and honestly rarely even drink regular Pepsi, so the added options like Cherry Coke or Mr. Pibb would offer us much needed change.

Does anyone know if there are any places on the Boardwalk that offer Freestyle Machines that can be used with resort mugs. That might also be a nice option and let us visit the boardwalk too! We miss taking that walk from our 2 stays at the Swan Dolphin.

 

[ellbell]

Unreasonable and unrealistic. You can't decline housekeeping every day and have your room cleaned every day. Never mind dep cleaned. Even for guests who don't decline housekeeping, the bedding isn't changed daily, often the towels aren't, housekeeping isn't throwing away trash tbe guest forgot or taking care of items accidentally !eft...

A deep, turning-over room cleaning takes more time than a daily cleaning; it takes even more time in a room that hasn't bee cleaned for 2 or 7 or 10 or 14 days. Where in al! this are you getting the impression that rooms aren't thoroughly cleaned between guests? And just so you're aware, an allergy deep clea ing takes even more time.

I never said when the same family is in the room. I'm talking about between guests.
I don't care how long it takes. If my room isn't being deep cleaned after the previous guest regardless of I'd they had mousekeeping the whole time then I'll request it.