Freaked out about staying at POP

[spiceycat]

the CM's are better, the bus service is better, the food court is better, I even liked the pools better than at all star.

the things I loved about Pop that All Star didn't have.

the Lake - I love that Lake - it is fun walking around it at dusk and dawn.

the outlay - everything is easy to get too.

the food court - loved the frozen cokes and with the refillable mug they are FREE.

Now I was born in the 50's and I really, really love that section.

Lady and the Tramp was the first Disney movie I remember seeing.

to get up each morning and be greeted by Lady or Tramp - well that really make my day.

now my stays have been 4 days or less.

I would want a place to cook and store food for more time than that. Have you considered renting points from a DVC member and staying at OKW?
I would only recommend OKW - because of the bed problem.

at the other DVC resort - there is a queen bed and a double sleeper sofa in their studios

at OKW there are 2 queen beds in the studio.

 

[iluvdizknee]

THANKS!....I really enjoyed the other value resorts last few times we stayed. I always second guess myself (bad habit). I have stayed at the moderates, and to tell ya the truth, they didnt impress me. We had a longer walk to the food court at the POFQ then we did at the ASMU.
Thanks all, again these boards helped me.
Dee

 

[kimmbagley]

I'm FREAKED OUT too, but for another reason. I switched from POR to POP because I am saving........$755.00!!!!!! over 7 days. Noise, no noise, good busses, cowded busses, whatever! $755!!!!!

 

[Troy08]

11 days at POP in the summer-it's going to be hot and crowded. And 11 days is a LONG time. As another poster suggested, you might want to split your stay, have a change of scenery, try POP for 6 days and move up to a MOD for the last five.

It will feel like a whole new vacation. At a MOD you will at least have the option of a sit down meal plus I think the MOD food courts offer a more varied selection.

Plus, the MODS will offer better amenities and after six days or so you will be ready to try bike rentals, water craft, etc.

 

[Luv4Disney]

We hated the Pop, but that's just us. I had heard nothing but good things, and then had the complete opposite experience. We were there for 11 days as well. 11 long days especially when the bad started the 2nd day. We definitely should've split up our stay, but now we know for the future. Sure, there are definitely good aspects of the resort that we found, but unfortunately for us the bad outweighed the good. I'm hoping you'll have a much better experience. Maybe we were just unlucky.

 

[whacked]

We've stayed at the Pop's a number of times.

Yes, the rooms are small.

Yes, there's a lot of people there.

Yes, I would MUCH rather stay at the Pop's than ANYWHERE off site.

We've always had a good time when we've stayed there.

 

[iluvdizknee]

I really cant afford to split my vacation and stay 6 nights at POP and the other 5 at a moderate. We love staying 11 days,.....take it slow.....water park one day.... pool 1/2 a day.....not have to rush to do everything. It is a much more relaxing vacation. And the thought of packing us all up half way through the 11 days and move to another hotel..YIKES!... I will really have to think about that option. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

WE LOVE THE POP! that's all i'm going to say, i'm getting tired of defending a great resort!haha have fun

 

[riu girl]

Frogfuzz: please tell me about watch 3 sets of fireworks at the same time at POP. Would that be only the midnight fireworks or could we possibly watch the earlier ones all at the same time? I will have to check the disney web site and see if the Dec 31 fireworks are posted yet (they weren't yesterday).

How is the view? Can you see them pretty well is we are sitting down by the POP lake?

We check in to POP on Dec 31 and thought about going to the Poly beach to watch the early MK fireworks and then the electrical water parade but perhaps we can stay at POP and watch the 3 sets of early fireworks instead.

Any info. would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Suzy V

 

[heathpack]

My husband and I just returned from a 10 night stay at Pop at we had a great experience.

The room itself was nice, although for the first three days of our stay our neighbors had a toddler daughter who frequently SHRIEKED for long periods of time, which we could unfortunately hear quite well through the walls of our room. She also shrieked outside out room more than once, which we could hear quite well. Walls are thin, as previously reported, and we could certainly hear plumbing noises from other rooms quite well. I am a light sleeper, so usually this would be a problem for me, but somehow it would wake me and then I'd get right back to sleep. Not with shrieking girl at 5am, but yes with neighbor's shower at 6am...

The food court food was good we thought (for food court food, that is) but it could be a bit of a zoo there during busy hours. We are very into peace and quiet, by the way, and even find even small doses of chaos to be very jangling. During slower times, the food court was great.

We thought the pools and ambience were nice, although we personally could have done without anything "giant" or "brightly-colored." However, we knew going into things that "giant" and "brightly-colored" pretty well sums up Pop's theming, so no complaints there.

Never used the busses. We did encounter moderately long lines at check out and in the concierge line. The resort was definately no where near full when we were there, by the way. In our travels around the world, we found Pop's location to be quite convienent for a value resort and it never seemed to take long (15 min or less) to drive from Pop to anywhere we needed to go.

Our overall assessment is that Pop is a great value for us, but we always travel in the offest possible season. I would be concerned that crowds at the food court, pool, busses, and on the walkways outside one's room could make for a less pleasant experience during the busy season. But keep in mind that my husband and I are somewhat extremists about the crowd-nosie-peace issue, and that we can tolerate far less than many people can (but obviously our tolerance is not so low that we don't enjoy a theme park vacation!).

Hopefully, this will help.

H

By the way, we have stayed at AllStars twice and really hated it. We were traveling during busier times of the year (were not on trips we'd organized perosnally, but with larger groups) and our memories are of crowds to the point of our being unable to enjoy anything (pool, food court, etc) at the resort, garish theming (Pop seemed more restrained to us, but we honestly could have been jangled by the crowds to the point of excessive negativity), and an out-of-the-way location.

 

[Schmeck]

We stayed at Pop Century last year, and loved it. We had a room on the top floor, very quiet, never heard a toilet flush, except our own. CMs were great!
The food court had great selections, varied selections - they have a 'special' for dinner, which is different each night. Very clean, very efficient. Had to stand up on a bus once. Pop Century seemed to have plenty of buses.

Stayed at Beach Club this year. Heard every conversation the people in the next room had. Want to know anything about their 6 yr old son? I could tell you all about him! Heard their toilet flush in the middle of the night, etc. Smallish food court, doesn't offer much for breakfast, except pastries/bagels/muffins, but we loved the berries you could get by the container. No Mickie Waffles. Long lines at the registers. Buses were very crowded, as this resort shares with Swan, Dolphin, Yacht Club and the Boardwalk.

I think we'll stay at Pop Century next trip...