Just Back from POP...NEVER AGAIN

[Amy&Dan]

I am so sorry you had such a miserable time. We really enjoy the values but they aren't for everyone.

I think I read there was some huge problem with rooms keys/park tickets/meal credits that was all over at all the resorts due to some system upgrade. Maybe that was what you experienced too. Still it had to be very annoying to keep going back to the desk to get it taken care of!

I also want to add that sadly I have seen what you described at all sorts of Disney resorts and for that matter restaurants and mall food courts. Disgusting messes left by rude guests. The last time we ate at the CBR food court, it looked like that scene in Animal House when there was a food fight. I think this sort of thing is more apparent at the values and mods not because value and mod guests are as a whole more likely to be messy and rude, but they are larger food service areas. More people = more possiblitites.

I hope the rest of your trip was better than the resort. I'll also add the last time we did MVMCP and MNSSHP, the crowds were insane. Disney sells so many tickets and gone are the days it felt like you were at some sort of exclusive event. Now it just feels like another hectic night at the MK. Too bad, they are still fun but nothing like they used to be.

Now you know values don't work for you, but please also know what you experienced is not the norm. In over 10 value stays, I have never had anything like what you described. If I had, I wouldn't keep going back to them. Sorry again your vacation was ruined.

 

[MickeyNicki]

I agree...we will never stay at the values again! They are way too crowded, the food court has terrible food and is too packed with people. The rooms are small and old, the noise you hear from your neighbors is annoying....give me a mod any day!

 

[hansel1]

I've never stayed at pop, but if you've ever read these boards at all you would know what to expect.

Key problems occur at all the resorts.

Walking distances is the name of the game at disneyworld.

Flowers! Nice, if you ask me! Something more substantial was expected? "WE ARE A SPOILED SOCIETY" Yes you are.

Generally, food courts are not the best for fine dining but I doubt it tasted like vomit.

Strollers are never going away, ever! I'll take getting hit with a stroller over a scooter anyday.

MVMCP is very popular. Luck of the draw on crowd levels.

They really should close that place down! Disneyworld is nothing but trouble.

No one was happy? Really? Not one man, woman or child?

 

[chwgmjay]

We're here right now, and I understand your disappointment. We booked preferred, but it's still quite the hike from both the parking lot and everything pop.

Our first day here, when we checked in they made our keys wrong. We tried to charge to our keys, and it came back as "over credit limit." Went back to the desk, they made new ones and said they should work. Tried again. "Over credit limit." Went back and did the same thing all over again. "Over credit limit." The 4th time we went back, and asked for a manager, and the cm asked what was wrong, and tried to remake the keys saying "It should be all good." As we were about to walk away and attempt again, a supervisor came up to the desk and the CM asked him if he could see anything wrong with our reservation that would be causing the "over credit limit". The supervisor clicked something on the screen, and said "All fixed, someone forgot to set your credit limit." If he hadn't walked past at that exact moment, we'd have had the same problem AGAIN!

Tonight, my mom waited in line at the grill in everything pop while 14 other ppl were served in front of her. She counted. Not 14 ppl that were ahead of her, 14 ppl WHILE SHE WAS WAITING FOR A CHEESEBURGER! No apology, nothing. They just gave her a nasty look when she started counting out loud how many ppl got their food ahead of her.

It's pretty insane.

 

[Chuck S]

.....Tonight, my mom waited in line at the grill in everything pop while 14 other ppl were served in front of her. She counted. Not 14 ppl that were ahead of her, 14 ppl WHILE SHE WAS WAITING FOR A CHEESEBURGER! No apology, nothing. They just gave her a nasty look when she started counting out loud how many ppl got their food ahead of her.
It's pretty insane.

If the 14 people were ordering food that was already prepared, prepacked, or took less prep time, I could see that happening, and would haave no problem with it. Did any of the 14 people that were served order a cheeseburger, and receive it before your Mom received hers?

I wouldn't expect the entire queue to come to a halt if they could be served.

 

[calablovedisney]

sorry you didn't enjoy your resort. We have stayed at POR 3 times and loved it. Due to a pin code we just returned from AKL and LOVED that even more. Just enjoyed the whole ambiance there. But as some previous posters mentioned there were still a few rude guests, leaving their trash around and one time I went to dump my tray at the same time as someone else, my husband told me to "be careful" and I backed off, apologized to the other person (mind you we did not bump each other, I didn't even get close, but my DH thought we might.) she gave me the rudest look ever, and kept scowling at me. WE just laughed it off.

I have to strongly agree...too many tickets sold for MVMCP and we were rammed by several strollers. Seems many people with strollers assumed this gave them some priority or something.
still can't wait to go again though!!

 

[chwgmjay]

If the 14 people were ordering food that was already prepared, prepacked, or took less prep time, I could see that happening, and would haave no problem with it. Did any of the 14 people that were served order a cheeseburger, and receive it before your Mom received hers?

I wouldn't expect the entire queue to come to a halt if they could be served.

Yes. Several people got cheeseburgers. There was pretty much next to nothing pre-made since it was a mini-rush when we were in there. They kept looking at her "Whoops, forgot her cheeseburger." Someone else would order one from another of the CM's and they'd grab her cheeseburger and give it to the next person instead of her.

 

[SarahKate]

I've never stayed at pop, but if you've ever read these boards at all you would know what to expect.

Key problems occur at all the resorts.

Walking distances is the name of the game at disneyworld.

Flowers! Nice, if you ask me! Something more substantial was expected? "WE ARE A SPOILED SOCIETY" Yes you are.

Generally, food courts are not the best for fine dining but I doubt it tasted like vomit.

Strollers are never going away, ever! I'll take getting hit with a stroller over a scooter anyday.

MVMCP is very popular. Luck of the draw on crowd levels.

They really should close that place down! Disneyworld is nothing but trouble.

No one was happy? Really? Not one man, woman or child?

Thank you!!! I can be sympathetic with people who truly have a horrible experience yet can be gracious at the same time.

OP and spouse are a little older than the traditional family. Not sure why they would drop a level from CSR to POP. Of COURSE it's going to be loud, noisy, and chaotic at times. We've stayed there 3x and have loved it.

It's 100% clear that room requests are just that - requests. There's no guarantee.

Just based on the tone of the OP's post, I sense that he expected the world on a platter. Disney is what you make it. If you go there expecting everything to be perfect, it won't be. The room key issue, yes frustrating, but it does happen everywhere. The drain thing, it happens. Did you want your room totally comped? Not sure what you meant by compensation. A clogged drain is NOT worthy of that. Maybe some sort of discount somewhere. I'd be 100% satisfied if they just FIXED the drain. The fact you got flowers is great, but it sounds like you weren't even happy with that gesture.

When I read these types of posts, it makes me wish to be a little fly on a wall and really see how some of these people are in real life.

Burgers that taste like vomit? Sigh.

I do agree about the strollers though. People use them as tanks and push their way through the crowds. Luckily, not everyone is like that and are considerate of others. I certainly wouldn't expect to go to Disney though and NOT see strollers.

 

[australiankaren]

I have to agree with OP.
We stayed at POP for 7 nights in Oct 2010 and really hated it. We had stayed the year before at the same time and it seemed different...more crowds, more uncontrolled kids, the staff at front desk were just plain rude, I waited in line to pick up a parcel at front desk for nearly an hour as they only had one person on in the dining dept, there was rubbish on the footpaths/ lobbys and the resort just didnt seem clean this time. The pool had stuff floating in it, and the laundry change machines were out of order 5 out of the 7 days.
Do you think maybe the food court needs a refurb as well??? Have you noticed how nasty the carpet is loking???
I had the good fortune of staying at wilderness lodge after my DH had to fly home for business for 5 nights by myself and it was magical.Thank God he didnt make me stay on at POP....
Anyway, my DH made the decision to buy me a DVC membership at bay lake tower, so staying at POP wont be an issue ever again
We are at BLT next sept 2011, so fingers crossed WDW will agan be as magical as ever

 

[willowsnn3]

I agree...we will never stay at the values again! They are way too crowded, the food court has terrible food and is too packed with people. The rooms are small and old, the noise you hear from your neighbors is annoying....give me a mod any day!

Hmmmm, our last stay at POP.....brand new carpet, new bedding, fresh paint...Last September stayed at CR (loved it) but made special trip to POP for that fabulous vegetable lasagna & of course the tye dye cheesecake. Chef Mickey's at CR was terrible & the food court at CR had very little selection for snacks or quick serve meals. Much preferred POP over CBR & POR.

 

[Chuck S]

Yes. Several people got cheeseburgers. There was pretty much next to nothing pre-made since it was a mini-rush when we were in there. They kept looking at her "Whoops, forgot her cheeseburger." Someone else would order one from another of the CM's and they'd grab her cheeseburger and give it to the next person instead of her.

Then that was just wrong.

 

[Tara]

Tonight, my mom waited in line at the grill in everything pop while 14 other ppl were served in front of her. She counted. Not 14 ppl that were ahead of her, 14 ppl WHILE SHE WAS WAITING FOR A CHEESEBURGER! No apology, nothing. They just gave her a nasty look when she started counting out loud how many ppl got their food ahead of her.

It's pretty insane.

At some point did she say "I believe you've forgotten me." Or "I've been waiting for my order for some time now." Or did she just go to passive-aggressiveness as her first response?

I say this because I know in a rush of customers, mistakes happen. One person orders a cheeseburger, it gets made and a CM brings it to the front of the counter but doesn't remember who from the group of people standing there ordered it. Someone pipes up that they ordered a cheeseburger, so the order goes to them. That's just one of the many ways it could have played out.

 

[Revan]

Our first day here, when we checked in they made our keys wrong. We tried to charge to our keys, and it came back as "over credit limit." Went back to the desk, they made new ones and said they should work. Tried again. "Over credit limit." Went back and did the same thing all over again. "Over credit limit." The 4th time we went back, and asked for a manager, and the cm asked what was wrong, and tried to remake the keys saying "It should be all good." As we were about to walk away and attempt again, a supervisor came up to the desk and the CM asked him if he could see anything wrong with our reservation that would be causing the "over credit limit". The supervisor clicked something on the screen, and said "All fixed, someone forgot to set your credit limit." If he hadn't walked past at that exact moment, we'd have had the same problem AGAIN

We were down Dec 3rd - 9th at POR and everyone was having the same problem - it was a systems upgrade issue and definitely not isolated to your resort. I think the new system is called LILO, so maybe Stitch was monkeying around.

 

[Chuck S]

We were down Dec 3rd - 9th at POR and everyone was having the same problem - it was a systems upgrade issue and definitely not isolated to your resort. I think the new system is called LILO, so maybe Stitch was monkeying around.

It was even worse if you checked in on the 1st. They couldn't even tell you if your room was ready for occupancy until the system came back online. And no room charging that day, temporary hand written key cards, only one per room. What a mess. That was at OKW.

 

[Memories2make]

Sorry to hear about your experience. We have stayed across all resort levels, although we have enjoyed staying at POP and All Star Sports, at the end of the day we all get what we pay for. You can't beat the cost of a value resort versus the Poly, but when we stay at the Poly everyone bends over backwards to make our stay memorable. We had never had a chance to eat at CRT and went to concierge and she said let me make a couple of calls and was able to get us in... at the value they just say there are no tables. I understand you get all sorts of people, but the experiences are much different.
Overall there has been nothing that would prevent us from staying at a value resort again.

 

[Jenny Wren]

I will never stay at POP again after our experience there the first week of December. We arrived in the wee hrs of the morning. We had a room only ressie for the first night. It took 2 hrs to check in because they had us down for staying 114 days. At 2 am we were finally given our room, which was in the 80s building. We carried our luggage the entire way. Finally got to sleep at 3 am. At 7 am, there was a family trying to get in our room. They told us that the front desk told them that their room was ready. Another family arrived at 8 am, they tried to get in, they said the same thing when we opened the door. Needless to say, the next morning they moved our room again to the 50s building. This is the building that we requested. Hubby had a nerve block done on his back on Nov 5, was pain free until the morning after hauling all of our luggage clear across the resort. It was one horrible week, and he was in no mood for any fun, or walking. The food court was so crowded. The food was alright. Found out that the best was the breakfast food. The pizza was horrible. Never again will I use 2 QS credits for a pizza at DW again. When I got the pizza back to our room, it wasnt even cut. After I waited for 45 minutes to get my pizza, because the buzzer they gave us didnt work, I was in no mood to walk back down to the food court for them to cut my pizza. We put our camcorder in a vault behind the desk a few days, and one evening when we returned to our room from being at the park, we had a message on our phone stating that we had to come down to the front desk and get a new key, they broke the key off in the lock and had to change the key. Why was they in the vault anyway? That took an hr to get a new key because the paperwork came up missing. This was the first time we stayed at POP, we usually stay CBR. If there is ever another trip, we will definently go back to CBR. One good thing I will say is, the mousekeeping was excellent and the resort was clean. But thats about it. Wasnt impressed at all.

 

[dmoore718]

Wife and I usually stay at CSR but wanted to try others and chose POP...our reservation was for a room in the closest 50's building to lobby and a bottom floor due to hip problem...ended up with 50's building 2 rm 2309...a long walk with bad hip...3rd floor...so much for requests...day 1 wife went to use snack credit did not work...got new keys...then would not work in door..,.went back a 2nd time...told all was ok...my key worked hers did not...another long walk...we had to walk 4 times to lobby...to get keys straightened out...day 2...took shower...tub did not drain...another waqlk but this time we were going to a park...asked to be compensated...got flowers in room...somethying more substantial was expected....1 good thing house keeping was excellent....
on to the food court...hello....anyone ever hear of manners...guests there were the most impolite rude people...kids running...screaming....kids pushing me a 56 yo man out of way to get to soda...got a bacon cheeseburger....tasted like vomit.....only halfway decent food was pizza ...but not that good....and another thing was the piggyness of families....throwing things on floor....saw one family get up and leave and floor looked like it blew up...WE ARE A SPOILED SOCIETY....I could go on and on but will not....all I can say is Never again at POP...now on to MVMCP....again does anyone have manners...strollers must have hit my feet 100 times...note to DISNEY....YOU ARE SELLING WAY TO MANY TICKETS TO THESE EVENTS....
One more general comment...we were in the happiest place on earth and NO ONE WAS HAPPY....just my 2 cents....want to flame me...BRING IT ON!!!!!

WOW

 

[wish*i*was*in*the*vi]

Sorry to hear you had a bad trip. It's always so disheartening to pay and plan for a trip and to look forward to it and to have it, well, just suck.
I hope that no matter where your next vacation is to that it's better and you have a wonderful time. Merry Christmas!

 

[time4Mickey]

Sorry that you had a bad trip. We stayed at ASmu and it was awful. The staff was wonderful and our room was fine but other people staying there were terrible. We have stayed at mod and deluxe and can honestly say I have never seen anything like we did at the value resort. Never again for us also. This makes me sad because it means we won't be able to go as often. What ever happenes to having manors?

 

[maxiesmom]

Sorry that you had a bad trip. We stayed at ASmu and it was awful. The staff was wonderful and our room was fine but other people staying there were terrible. We have stayed at mod and deluxe and can honestly say I have never seen anything like we did at the value resort. Never again for us also. This makes me sad because it means we won't be able to go as often. What ever happenes to having manors?

When did you stay at ASMu? I'm wondering because I have had great stays at Value resorts, but my stay this month at the Music was not one of them. And there have lately been many posts about how horrible all of the Value resorts are! Makes me wonder what the heck is going on.