Help!! Did I Make A Mistake Booking Pop??

[bella-alexander]

hi! i'm new here. my family and i are going for our 3rd stay in wdw at the end of april. first was my honeymoon (no kids) in 2002 we stayed at the boardwalk resort (loved it) and last year (march 2007) stayed at the animal kingdom lodge with our kids. the ak in my opinion was incredible!! i don't think anything can compete. however both visits were very pricey. so this year we decided to go "budget" and we booked the pop century. from the homework i did, i thought the pop century would be the best for us. but, here is my problem. my previous 2 stays in wdw have been at beautiful delux resorts that we fell in love with. this leads me to think we are going to be dissapointed with the pop! my children are young(3 & 6) so we neede something kid friendly. also, i like the idea that it's new. one good thing is that when we are in disney we don't see much of our hotel (another reason we decided to do a value resort)we are pretty much out from 9 am to @ 12 am. any advice?? any input, PLEASE!!!

 

[jmcross]

I have stayed at POP and AKL so I can compare them for you. AKL is gorgeous and so unique. I thought POP was really cute but the room is very small. Just be prepared for that. POP was better than what I was expecting. We had a good time there. If you are not in the room that much then I think you'll be fine.

Have a great trip!

Joanne

 

[VAgal76]

You are going to the most magical place on earth! C'mon on - say it!

Will you miss AKL? Sorry, but I have to be honest. I did miss it but then again I didn't. I never thought I'd stay at a value...ok, I didn't think I'd ever stay anything but deluxe. I went out on a limb and decided I wanted to have more experiences outside the resort. I booked CSR and dined at V&A. It was an AWESOME trip. I even tacked on a 3 night cruise to top off our adventure. Now that I've seen a little of Pop and had all my buddies tell me about it I want to stay there.

I'm sure once you are there and get all wrapped up in your trip you won't notice where you lay your head at night. If you must, book breakfast or dinner at AKL and go "visit" like we do.

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

I have stayed at Wilderness Lodge and Pop, they are both very different, but we enjoyed both trips just the same! I enjoy Disney no matter what resort I'm at. If you are at the parks so much it really should not spoil your trip at all.

 

[tipsytrtle]

I think that if you go into it with realistic expectations everything will be magical..
is it AK no way.. but its fun and bright and the kids will like it.... be positive and think of how the budget vacation allows you to bring your family to the world and enjoy magical moments..
we're staying at pop, for 15 nights for the price of what a deluxe would have cost for less than half that time!!!

 

[Sunflower38]

we stayed there at pop for 2 nights so a quick trip but I liked it thought it was clean and very family friendly. The workers were nice and helpful. The room was small but we didn't spend much time in the room so it didn't matter too much.

 

[Nikisha421]

my first stay at Disney as a Mommy was at Pop Century. I loved it Loved Disney so much from that stay that I decided to become a DVc member. So I will be staying at Saratoga Springs this May, but the point is is that I loved POP I loved it, of course.

You will enjoy it but it was tiny.

 

[karemore]

Relax. You are going to WDW AGAIN!!!

Your story sounds a bit like ours. We honeymooned at GF, then last April stayed at FQ with our 2 year old, and this April we're sneaking in another trip, but need to go budget. So we will be trying Pop for the first time.

The way I see it, this will either allow us to take further budget trips between the deluxe or Moderate trips, or make us realize that we would rather come less often and stay somewhere with more ammenities.

Every time I wonder if it's the right thing, I go to the Pop photo thread and look at the pics.

 

[septbaby]

Well there are those "Moderate" resorts. If your Value anxiety is too much seriously consider one of those. It might be the tweener you're looking for. You're still outside of your 45 day window so there shouldn't be any penalty if you decide to switch. Depending on the length of your stay you'd probably spend $200-300 more.

CBR doesn't have a main pool at the moment, but there are 8 quiet pools close to the clusters of rooms. I believe two of them now have slides added. There are playgrounds and beach and just a lot of space for little people to move. We found the food court very inviting and ate 3-4 meals there. The moderate rooms are bigger and come with a fridge. Beds are still full size, not Queen.

Do the research and talk it over, good luck with your decision.

 

[stan]

While we haven't been at a deluxe resort before, we have been at a moderate, and just got back from a trip at POP. POP is very kid friendly and we had a great time. The rooms are smaller and not very posh, but there was plenty of room for four of us, and we weren't spending much time there anyway. It's a very nice place to walk around with the giant icons (and nice lake). We didn't miss the moderate at all.

Besides the difference in room amenities, I think the main advantage of the deluxe resorts is location (walk to Epcot, monorail into MK, etc.).

So, if you don't mind the smaller room, go for it and have fun!

 

[bella-alexander]

thanx for the input. the reason that we didn't go with a moderate hotel is because alot of people said that besides the room size, the pop is a better choice than any of the four moderates. do you agree?

 

[sixisenough]

Just be prepared for lots of people and long lines. We just got back from trip in Feb. I think the buzz has caught on and many people are staying there because it is a value. We made the decision that once was enough for us. AKL will be our home. The food court was crazy and the lines to the buses were the longest and farthest away. Just be prepared and plan accordingly. Good luck and make the best of it. You are still in Disney!!

 

[Hunny]

I have never stayed at a deluxe before so i cannot compare the two. We did stay at POP in 06 (thanksgiving week) and yes the bus lines were long (the weather was NASTY!!) and even tho the food court was busy we never had a problem finding a seat. Now we got a room very close to the food court so walking to and from wasn't a problem. When i stayed at AS Music we were WAAYYYYY in the back and i vowed NEVER to get a standard room again. When you check in ask them if they can give you a close room. You might be surprised!!! And i have lots of pictures of my kids hanging around the giant foosh ball, mr and mrs potato head and oh my the BIG wheel!
Think of POP as a standard hotel room with a lil pinch of Disney! and you are like us, we wake up, we get dressed, and return to the room 14 hours later.....lol no wonder we slept through the last night when we were only supposed to be taking a nap

 

[donaldndaisy]

My dh and ds are deluxe people, too. They won't even consider a moderate, anymore.

But, I loved Pop Century. I thought the grounds were light-hearted and whimsical. I enjoyed strolling down "Memory Lane", even though, most of the memories are older than I am. On the day we checked out, there were children playing with hula hoops and sidewalk chalk. It was a little refreshing to me because, for the first time in a long time, I saw children having fun with a simple form of entertainment and, genuinely, having fun just being kids, with no expectations to behave beyond their years or break even, for that matter. Unfortunately, that's when the true feeling of Pop Century hit me....at the end of the trip.

 

[Willow1213]

I started thinking the same thing after reading reviews about the noise at POP. We stayed at POR last August and despite large crowds, we found our room to be quiet. We will be traveling alone for the first time and want the trip to be romantic. With our budget, however, we were left to choose offsite or value resort. I chose the value, despite the noise levels, since we will have the *magic* of staying on property. Here's hoping for a great trip for all of us

 

[Jessma9902]

hi! i'm new here. my family and i are going for our 3rd stay in wdw at the end of april. first was my honeymoon (no kids) in 2002 we stayed at the boardwalk resort (loved it) and last year (march 2007) stayed at the animal kingdom lodge with our kids. the ak in my opinion was incredible!! i don't think anything can compete. however both visits were very pricey. so this year we decided to go "budget" and we booked the pop century. from the homework i did, i thought the pop century would be the best for us. but, here is my problem. my previous 2 stays in wdw have been at beautiful delux resorts that we fell in love with. this leads me to think we are going to be dissapointed with the pop! my children are young(3 & 6) so we neede something kid friendly. also, i like the idea that it's new. one good thing is that when we are in disney we don't see much of our hotel (another reason we decided to do a value resort)we are pretty much out from 9 am to @ 12 am. any advice?? any input, PLEASE!!!

We really enjoyed our stay at POP in December. I wouldn't stay any where else... (unless I could afford GF!) The rooms are kind of small, but since we were only there to change and sleep, it didn't matter to us. The busing system for POP is fantastic- a real plus for the resort since the buses do not stop at any other resorts- you get direct transportation to and from the parks and POP.

Enjoy!

 

[CapeCodMouse]

We have stayed at the AKL, CBR and various other places when I was younger. We chose POP last year and again this year. We chose a preferred room only so we could be closer to the bus and food court. We love POP! That being said, you should not in any way expect it to be AKL or a moderate. The only complaints we had were the beds are truly double beds (not queen), the rooms are small but not horrible, and there is no hot tub! But, the pools are large and warm, the rooms are comfortable and clean and all the CMS and mousekeepers are as nice there as they are in any other resort. It's a room - we didn't spend much time in it and it suited our needs for our time there. We got daily towel animals - or the Mousekeepers would arrange my son's stuffed animals in funny poises (like the day we came back and they were all lined up on the pillow with the tv remote in their paws and the tv on - those bad animals - watching tv all day while we were gone - Not to say we would never do a deluxe or moderate again - but the amount of money we saved was worth it! I hope you have fun.

 

[bas71873]

We just returned from Pop a few weeks ago from out first trip to WDW so I have nothing to compare it too, but, we LOVED Pop. We have a 4 year old and yes, the rooms are small, but we only slept and showered there. Otherwise, we were at the parks or playing in the pool. Plus, my daughter loved all of the over the top theming...especially Lady & the Tramp and Big Baloo. If you aren't going to be at your resort to enjoy it, why spend the extra cash just to sleep & shower Go with an open mind and everything will be fine!

 

[septbaby]

thanx for the input. the reason that we didn't go with a moderate hotel is because alot of people said that besides the room size, the pop is a better choice than any of the four moderates. do you agree?

I have not stayed at Pop or any Value so I cannot say Pop is or Pop isn't other than it's Disney so I'm sure it's nice. I don't get much vacation time and I want more creature comforts when I do so I can't ever see choosing a Disney Value hotel. I prefer the fridge in the room as well as a bit of extra space and a hot tub/whirlpool. For my vacationing habits Disney Values don't work. When we stayed at CBR I did not book Preferred as I was simply happy to be taking the vacation and the luck of the draw didn't bother me, we ended up in Martinque. The CM said "its as close to preffered w/o being preferred". All I know as it was never a bother to walk to the food court and we had great spot for the bus stop too. Our stay was pleasant and we had a great vacation. There are nicer places to stay on site (you've done some of them), but CBR would definitely make my "Yes" list again. I'm sure other moderates have their appeal as well.

I understand there is the fridge swap at the Values, but for me that's work and I don't want to do that on vacation. I also cherish ME and Disney transportation as I don't want to drive if I don't have too and I don't mind letting someone else handle my luggage.

When I was a kid a good hotel had a pool. A great hotel had a pool with a slide. Guess as I've gotten older I've added more things to the list.

I suggested the Mod as I "heard" the angst in your post. If it's really bothering you and you can cover the added expense I say go for it. After all it is vacation, you don't want to be stressing so much or irritated when you should be relaxing and having fun. Don't lose too much more sleep over this decision.

 

[typhoonlagooner]

We were "deluxe/moderate" people with past stays at AKL, Poly, POR, and CBR. We choose Pop for the exact reasons you did... newer resort and great reviews...

Needless to say... we were extremely disapointed Now, let me say that we LOVED what the value resorts had to offer for the price and it was perfect for our needs.

Later that year we agreed to try another value and stayed at ASmu... I still call it the best disney vacation I ever made! ASmu has brand new rooms that have so much more of a whimsical moderate/deluxe feel than Pop's. The resorts have brand new bedding, linens, furniture, decor, paint, and carpet plus added benefits like a coat rack and privacy curtain in the vanity. With the room quality alone, we felt like we got twice our money's worth at ASmu.

Overall, we recieved much better service at ASmu and preferred that resort, especially with the poolside games and evening movie on the inflatable screen. ASmu had so much more of a Disney resort feel that we had been used to... that we just couldn't find at Pop.

To each their own though... and know that I have no regrets in my decision to try Pop! It's really hard to find a resort that best suits you without personally staying there... so give Pop a chance! The best thing to come out of it for us was a love for the values, a second chance at ASmu, and a new favorite resort.