Help me decide - POP or a moderate?

pjupton

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May 3, 2005
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I'm trying to plan a trip for the first week of October for me, DH, and our twin DS's (almost 2 at the time of trip).

I'm planning on a 8 night stay with 7 day MYW hopper tickets with dining plan. I just can't decide between POP and one of the moderates. AAA told me the POFQ has no availablity, so I guess I've just got PORS, CBR, and CSR to choose from. I've stayed at all three All-Stars, but never POP. I've also stayed at PORS and CBR. Never stepped foot on CSR.

When I ran the numbers on disneyworld.com, I came up with about a $500 difference between value and moderate. AAA got about a $400 difference with their discount.

I know moderate rooms are slightly larger. Did I read here that all moderates now come with a coffeemaker and refrigerator? Fridge is at least $10 extra at value resorts, right? And moderates all have table service locations... any other reason to pay $400 more?

Any advice on which building at POP (standard) would be best for us? Or which of the available moderates? I actually want to be as close to the parking lot as possible since we'll probably be carrying sleeping kids in from the car.
 
We've stayed at Pop and at POR and enjoyed both! POR is much more quiet and relaxed. The rooms have been recently refurbished with coffee makers and fridges; beds are great! I think there was a better food selection at the Pop food court but the food there was fine. POR does have the boat service to DTD which is nice, and there's a guy named Bob who plays piano in the bar Wed through Sun and worth seeing with the whole family!

It's a tough call I guess...depends on what you're looking for but you can't go wrong with POR as your moderate choice!
 
If you stay in the Pop you will have more money to spend in the parks on meals and extras. All the rooms are nice and how much time do you really spend in the hotel??? :confused3
 
I have stayed at both and have to say that POR was probably the most enjoyable hotel/resort experience my family has ever had. Still, $500 is a lot of money. Your kids are too young to take advantage of the pool slide so that's not an issue I suppose. Also, while the rooms at POR are a bit bigger, we didn't notice the added space that much. However, the privacy curtain in the bathroom area was great for our family but we have a boy, 10 and a girl 8, and they needed privacy way more than your two year old sons will. The double sinks were also nice but again, with the age of your kids that might not matter that much. The theming at Pop would probably appeal to your kids, so bright and colorful. POR is absolutely beautiful, much more low key and we liked the food court better because it wasn't a zoo. Every time we ate at Pop's no matter what time of day, it was packed and this was off season. POR on the other hand was almost sold out and the food court never felt crowded. I guess my thinking is that if you want a lot of peace and quiet, plan on spending time at the resort just hanging out and the $500 difference won't mean you have to cut back on fun character meals or other things you want to do, then stay at POR. If however, that price difference is going to hurt at all and you plan on spending all your time at the parks and therefore won't have time to enjoy the offerings at POR then I would go with Pop. I hope this helps. Either way, you will have fun and love your resort I am sure!
 

we always stay at pop and this last time we decided lets try por..well never again.....pop is contagious...its such a fun resort..its got everything you need....hubby and i leave in two weeks for a long weekend at pop and then we will be going back with the whole family in october and you can bet we will be at pop.....
 
Minnie1156 said:
how much time do you really spend in the hotel??? :confused3

Well, with two not-quite-2 year olds, I think we'll be spending more time at the resort than we did in our pre-kid travels.

Also, I really feel like we need the mini-fridge so we can keep some milk and snacks for the boys. If a moderate comes with one but a value doesn't, that's $80 added to the cost of the value resort.
 
I think that with your sons you would have more fun in Pop, imagine them seeing all the bright colors, the Dalmatiens, the wonderfull pool.

We are going at the end of june with our DS 8 year old and our twins girls 5 year old and we would of love to go to Pop or All Star Movie, but we had to choose POR because we are 5. Have a nice trip!
 
We are staying at the POP in July and had first made reservations at CBR. We decided that we could fill a cooler with ice every day for milk for the little ones and save the extra money from switching to a value and not renting a fridge and do an extra character meal and not have to worry as much about the "extra" spending money. I have heard such wonderful things about the POP and am definitely looking forward to our stay! :flower:
 
we've stayed at both and definately preferred por to pop...pop was too busy, noisy, wild for us. We prefer to wind down a bit after a full day at parks, por was great for the kids with the pool and restaurants...just enjoyed it more.
 
mom2two said:
We are staying at the POP in July and had first made reservations at CBR. We decided that we could fill a cooler with ice every day for milk for the little ones and save the extra money from switching to a value and not renting a fridge and do an extra character meal and not have to worry as much about the "extra" spending money. I have heard such wonderful things about the POP and am definitely looking forward to our stay! :flower:

The cooler idea worked great for us. We just got back from POP on Saturday. We purchased a softside rolling cooler from SAMS CLUB for only $25. We brought milk, cheese sticks, carrots, apples all from home. We ate breakfast in the room (cereal, poptarts, granola bars) or on the bus. Each night we rolled our cooler to the ice chest and refilled. We also purchased the Disney dining plan. Because of the cooler and the plan we did not buy any food while there. The dining plan made the vacation an all inclusive for us. We purchased the dining plan for $630 and actually used over $1000 in retail value in meals. Anyway the POP is great for kids, our DD4 and DD6 loved it. :cheer2:
 
I've stayed at POP and CSR with a two year old. Both are great resorts, but I have to say that I enjoyed CSR better.
I loved having the fridge and coffee maker. We tried the cooler thing at POP and at the end of the day after spending all that time in the parks, DH and I never wanted to go down the hall for ice. (We usually played rock-paper-scissors to see who had to).
Also bus transportation was much better at CSR. The longest we ever waited was 10 minutes and we never had to stand (which you will really appreciate with a two year old!). It seemed like we were always standing on the buses when we stayed at POP.
I agree that the themeing is a lot more fun at POP, but CSR has a beach and a sandy play area that DS really loved!
 







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