First Time Staying Onsite at a Non-DVC Property

[hertamaniac]

I used my AP discount of 25% and decided we'd try a different resort. Previously, we stayed at the Cabins, Treehouse, VGF, SSR and Kidani. This time we wanted to be on the Skyliner route and chose Pop Century. The premise was simple. We'd only do EPCOT and/or HS due to the Skyliner transportation.

Check-in
We got in a little early, I'd say about 12:30 PM and had no lines to get to the front desk. The CM explained that the rooms weren't ready and gave us an idea of where our rooms would be. She circled the map and told us how the room numbering system works and gave us our keys. I paid, in full, for the rooms and then as we walked away the infamous 30 seconds later text comes saying our rooms are ready. I look at the text and we were in a different building from what the CM just told us. It didn't matter as one of our parties had a preferred room while I took the standard room. We were both in the 1970's section.

Since luggage carts are only available at the main lobby, I thought here we go again (like the SSR failure I had). What is it that some luggage carts couldn't be located in the actual buildings were guests could more readily use them? So I go to my car (which was in the check-in lot) and drove to the 1970's parking lot. I thought that was so simple by matching our building (#10) in the 1970's section with the 1970's parking lot. Ah...but lest I be fooled. The parking lot was closer to the 1990's building and was quite a distance from our rooms. So I hauled a few luggage bags, without hauling a luggage cart from the main lobby, and made it to one of the rooms. That has a pretty good distance and decided I'd move the car from the 1970's parking lot to the 1990's or 1980's parking lot which was closer to our 1970's building and rooms. Uh.....that was confounding. So I got my luggage, found my standard room (which is $20 cheaper per night) and noticed it was about 80 steps (20 seconds) from the preferred room. Neither room had a "view".

 

[hertamaniac]

Rooms
Since I had no baseline of these rooms before the recent refurb, I will say the room was well planned out. The barn doors work well and the colors, though simple, were fresh and uplifting. The storage cubes/boxes were plentiful and the whole room was immaculately clean. The tub/shower combo. was nice, but I would have preferred a shower only. My H2O shampoo/soap rack came apart so I managed to keep the bottle in position the entire time by moving them before each shower.

The entry doors are incredibly heavy (great sound deadening) and the table with chairs murphy bed worked really well. The television was huge and crystal clear and the sink was oversized. The beverage cooler worked for me and the coffee/tea stand was adequate. The bedding was very comfortable. So the room itself was above average to me. Where it sort of failed is that my key stopped working the first night. I then thought to myself, what a perfect time to test the 50/50 shot that my phone can unlock the door. All my previous resort stays were so frustrating when it comes to unlocking my resort room. I'm happy to report that my entry door at Pop worked every time with my phone (and reasonably quicker than other resorts). But now I'm scratching my head as to how/why a card would stop working. Again, no matter, as I used my phone from then onward.

 

[hertamaniac]

Housekeeping
My room wasn't made after a split day at EPCOT. I called earlier in the day inquiring about service and was told it is every other day. A little disappointing, but completely understandable. I'm not going to focus in too much on our park's experience other than to say they were wonderful. The flower and garden festival is so vibrant.

The next day, I went to DHS after breakfast and calling housekeeping again since my room still didn't receive service. They told me they are busy taking care of rooms for incoming guests and are short-handed. Again, this sounds reasonable and off to DHS for the afternoon. After a wicked storm and armed with my poncho, it was off to RotR, Docking Bay 7 and then MMRR. Once the storm passed, I squished in my wet sneakers to MMRR and was a walk-on; what a pleasant surprise.

Skyliner at DHS was closed. We got inline and waited about 25 minutes while they cycled through testing. The all-clear was given and back to Pop.

I checked the preferred room and the bed wasn't made yet although towels were replenished, and trash removed. Good! I get to my standard room and voila'...nothing done. It is now about 4:30 PM so I decided to take a shower before calling housekeeping for a 3rd time. But I learned from my previous experience at SSR to use the Hey Mickey robot to request items (like Joffrey's which I was now out of). I know, it's not a national emergency, but I have built up a frustration. As I'm punching in my requests, there's a subtle knock on my door. I thought....Hoorah.....it's finally housekeeping. But, no. It was security to do a room inspection. This poor CM/gentleman didn't know what he was about to literally walk into. I graciously invited him in, and he did his scan which gave me a perfect opportunity to voice my displeasure. I went through the sequence of events and asked him which day it was and his eyes knew I honed in on the every-other-day policy. He calls a manager and then comes....

 

[hertamaniac]

Housekeeping Part 2
I told him we are going to dinner and that it would be nice if housekeeping came. It was now about 5 PM and off to the Riviera we go. We got back around 8:45 PM and notice my entry door was ajar. The latch was moved in position so that the door was open. There was no housekeeper or cart around. Now I'm miffed and borderline angry. My room was left open for I don't know how long and someone with nefarious intentions could have done some serious damage. Fortunately, I have been trained to ALWAYS USE THE IN-ROOM SAFE. I can't imagine how this trip would have turned out if I left my wallet and vehicle keys on the desk or dresser. This is a major failure and inexcusable. I did sleep well that night knowing I'd have fresh coffee in the AM, some new towels and a garbage can that wasn't overflowing.

Final Thoughts
The Skyliner saved this resort from a being a much lower score from me. The food court was adequate (I had the overnight oats one AM and the chicken teriyaki bowl one evening). The landscaping is really well done and I was glad to see they left some native pines between buildings. I can't comment on the pools as we didn't do any of them. The grounds were immaculate and there weren't any lines anywhere. Parking, once I was able to decipher it, was fairly close and unremarkable. The vibe of each building is not my style. The oversized toys/trinkets, though interesting to look at, clearly aim towards someone other than us. The children at this resort, specifically the main pool and splashpad, were having a blast.

I jostled with a score to try and give a fair assessment. I would have given this resort a 6.5, but the housekeeping debacle weighs heavily on my mind. Factoring that in I'm going with a 3. The very thought that I could have no wallet and no keys and wondering how Disney would handle that is bewildering.

Would I stay here again even at 25% off? I won't say never, but would say only slightly above never.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Housekeeping Part 2
I told him we are going to dinner and that it would be nice if housekeeping came. It was now about 5 PM and off to the Riviera we go. We got back around 8:45 PM and notice my entry door was ajar. The latch was moved in position so that the door was open. There was no housekeeper or cart around. Now I'm miffed and borderline angry. My room was left open for I don't know how long and someone with nefarious intentions could have done some serious damage. Fortunately, I have been trained to ALWAYS USE THE IN-ROOM SAFE. I can't imagine how this trip would have turned out if I left my wallet and vehicle keys on the desk or dresser. This is a major failure and inexcusable. I did sleep well that night knowing I'd have fresh coffee in the AM, some new towels and a garbage can that wasn't overflowing.

Final Thoughts
The Skyliner saved this resort from a being a much lower score from me. The food court was adequate (I had the overnight oats one AM and the chicken teriyaki bowl one evening). The landscaping is really well done and I was glad to see they left some native pines between buildings. I can't comment on the pools as we didn't do any of them. The grounds were immaculate and there weren't any lines anywhere. Parking, once I was able to decipher it, was fairly close and unremarkable. The vibe of each building is not my style. The oversized toys/trinkets, though interesting to look at, clearly aim towards someone other than us. The children at this resort, specifically the main pool and splashpad, were having a blast.

I jostled with a score to try and give a fair assessment. I would have given this resort a 6.5, but the housekeeping debacle weighs heavily on my mind. Factoring that in I'm going with a 3. The very thought that I could have no wallet and no keys and wondering how Disney would handle that is bewildering.

Would I stay here again even at 35% off? I won't say never, but would say only slightly above never.

Wow I’ve never heard of anyone getting 35% off at Pop usually the the 35% discount is for the Deluxe properties and the values only get 10-20% off. Once I did get a 25% off discount at Pop,

 

[hertamaniac]

Wow I’ve never heard of anyone getting 35% off at Pop usually the the 35% discount is for the Deluxe properties and the values only get 10-20% off. Once I did get a 25% off discount at Pop,

You are correct. I adjusted the percentage to reflect 25% although the story doesn't change.

 

[Lsdolphin]

You are correct. I adjusted the percentage to reflect 25% although the story doesn't change.

25% off is a great discount for Pop

 

[DizneyFamof4]

Sorry that you did not like POP, but the great thing at WDW is that they offer a lot of resorts that we can choose from. Mousekeeping is like transportation, very hit and miss nowadays at all the resorts, I just read a post about AKL where they had to go down to the lobby and talk to the CM after 4 days of no mousekeeping. The mousekeeping and the door ajar has happened at all levels of resorts, so it's not like it only happens at POP specific. How was your friends experience with POP?
For the price to stay at POP and you get the skyliner to 2 parks, is BIG for us. We enjoy their FC and the fact that we can just walk over to AOA and eat there, or stop at CBR or RR using the skyliner for a change of pace is a great bonus. We have liked it so much, that our last 3 trips have been at POP and we had a great time.

 

[hertamaniac]

Sorry that you did not like POP, but the great thing at WDW is that they offer a lot of resorts that we can choose from. Mousekeeping is like transportation, very hit and miss nowadays at all the resorts, I just read a post about AKL where they had to go down to the lobby and talk to the CM after 4 days of no mousekeeping. The mousekeeping and the door ajar has happened at all levels of resorts, so it's not like it only happens at POP specific. How was your friends experience with POP?
For the price to stay at POP and you get the skyliner to 2 parks, is BIG for us. We enjoy their FC and the fact that we can just walk over to AOA and eat there, or stop at CBR or RR using the skyliner for a change of pace is a great bonus. We have liked it so much, that our last 3 trips have been at POP and we had a great time.

The Skyliner access to Riviera worked perfectly for our meals too. We did Primo 3X for dinner and was ultra-impressed. The other room (preferred) had no housekeeping until a 2nd phone call and literally having them come to the door since they were already working that area. It's a real shame as the value proposition at this resort is quite good.

 

[bluezy]

Housekeeping Part 2
I told him we are going to dinner and that it would be nice if housekeeping came. It was now about 5 PM and off to the Riviera we go. We got back around 8:45 PM and notice my entry door was ajar. The latch was moved in position so that the door was open. There was no housekeeper or cart around. Now I'm miffed and borderline angry. My room was left open for I don't know how long and someone with nefarious intentions could have done some serious damage. Fortunately, I have been trained to ALWAYS USE THE IN-ROOM SAFE. I can't imagine how this trip would have turned out if I left my wallet and vehicle keys on the desk or dresser. This is a major failure and inexcusable. I did sleep well that night knowing I'd have fresh coffee in the AM, some new towels and a garbage can that wasn't overflowing.

Final Thoughts
The Skyliner saved this resort from a being a much lower score from me. The food court was adequate (I had the overnight oats one AM and the chicken teriyaki bowl one evening). The landscaping is really well done and I was glad to see they left some native pines between buildings. I can't comment on the pools as we didn't do any of them. The grounds were immaculate and there weren't any lines anywhere. Parking, once I was able to decipher it, was fairly close and unremarkable. The vibe of each building is not my style. The oversized toys/trinkets, though interesting to look at, clearly aim towards someone other than us. The children at this resort, specifically the main pool and splashpad, were having a blast.

I jostled with a score to try and give a fair assessment. I would have given this resort a 6.5, but the housekeeping debacle weighs heavily on my mind. Factoring that in I'm going with a 3. The very thought that I could have no wallet and no keys and wondering how Disney would handle that is bewildering.

Would I stay here again even at 35% off? I won't say never, but would say only slightly above never.

Did you tell the manager about your door being propped open?? My son had the same thing happen at AKL last year with his door being propped open when he returned to the room in the afternoon. There was a housekeeping cart at the far end of his hallway so he went to the housekeeper and asked her if she had cleaned his room. She said no, that that area had a different crew (he didn't believe her). So after making sure nothing was missing from his room (he also uses the safe), he made the long hike to the front desk and spoke to a manager. She apologized and comped him for his trouble (nothing major, just a little "here's a little something for free to make up for our mistake and for you having to take time out of your day to come down here and talk to me.").

 

[hertamaniac]

Did you tell the manager about your door being propped open?? My son had the same thing happen at AKL last year with his door being propped open when he returned to the room in the afternoo ton. There was a housekeeping cart at the far end of his hallway so he went to the housekeeper and asked her if she had cleaned his room. She said no, that that area had a different crew (he didn't believe her). So after making sure nothing was missing from his room (he also uses the safe), he made the long hike to the front desk and spoke to a manager. She apologized and comped him for his trouble (nothing major, just a little "here's a little something for free to make up for our mistake and for you having to take time out of your day to come down here and talk to me.").

I did get a call back from a Pop manager who works in the back. She apologized profusely and assured me she will speak to housekeeping to try and prevent this from happening to other guests.

I thanked her for being a sounding board.

 

[ExcitedForWDW]

That is a great discount. We received about the same with our bounce back and booked pop again without hesitation. Guessing those issues could have happened anywhere and that wouldn’t deter us from returning. For the price and the convenience of the skyliner, pop is our current go to resort Hopefully you still had Great time!

 

[Counting Stars]

Your stay sounds like it was certainly adequate for the price- not great and not awful. And your report is very objective given the events. Just speaking for me, but the propped room door is an absolute deal breaker IMHO. I am normally not in the "make Disney pay camp" cause mistakes happen. But at this level of risk I totally would have expected more than an apology. It is possible you could have been robbed, or worse, hurt. Not acceptable in any measure. There are very good reasons to be cautious at large venues like WDW.
So glad your park experiences were wonderful though! Thanks for taking the time to share and reminding all of us to be cautious even when we are at Disney World.

 

[gottalovepluto]

You had a fairly typical Value experience- aside from the leaving your room open part. That would have left me at the front desk in about 1 min flat requesting for security or a manager to enter my room asap. I would not have gone in on my own not knowing what could be going down in there.

Values & mods get every other day housekeeping. Which is typically more of an -ish situation whether or not it actually happens so that part was normal.

 

[mickeymom629]

Wow I’ve never heard of anyone getting 35% off at Pop usually the the 35% discount is for the Deluxe properties and the values only get 10-20% off. Once I did get a 25% off discount at Pop,

I lucked out a few months ago and got POP for $100/night for April 6-13 but I had to cancel due to my dad's failing health. I doubt I will see that price again.

 

[hertamaniac]

I have scheduled another stay at this resort in a few weeks. I am going to check-in at the front desk and inform them of what happened a few weeks ago. I want to give them a chance at redemption and as I said before, the room and Skyliner/location are wonderful for my needs.

I will report back on my Pop v2.0.