Just back from POP

[OhMickey]

Just returned from POP and here are some thoughts. I will be glad to answer (or try to answer any questions).

First, don't request a room. It is a waste of time. I requested 50's or 60's but ended up in 90's. This was a little disappointing but decided that this wasn't going to ruin our vacation.

If you do not smoke and need a non-smoking room, insist on a first floor room. We had to move 2X because of smokers rooms below us. This was a major inconvenience.

Housekeeping did a fantastic job.

The food court had a variety of choices and we ate their several times. We had pizza, fried chicken, chicken fingers, hamburgers, hot dogs, cheese fries, Havarti and ham flat bread. Everything was good to excellent.

As mentioned before, smoking is a problem. People smoke everywhere - at the bus stops, pools, balconies. Disney needs to address this problem.

Laundry can be expensive. But unlike our experiences at other resorts, the clothes dried in one cycle!

Again, I will be happy to try to answer any additional questions.

 

[G's mommy]

Same thing happend to us on our last stay at Pop, I requested 50's, 60's or 70's and got stuck in 80's facing the parking lot, about as far from the main building as possible. We did have a first floor and didn't notice the smoking, but the noise from the room next door was awful and the mattress quality was also horrible, worse than I remember from previous stays. I won't say I will never stay there again, but I'm in no hurry to return.

 

[DisneyYahoo]

Wow....bummed to hear about the smoking issue. My family and I will be staying at POP in a few weeks.

Since the rooms are 'non smoking' do people just step outside there room and light up? I was hoping there was a smoking area and I'd just stay far away from it. It sounds like you are saying it isn't a good idea to request a top floor room because the smoke just travels up? I was thinking on the bottom floor I'd just hear a lot of noise from my neighbors above. Was it that way for you?

I guess I am a Pollyanna and always figure people will do the right thing...smokers will move away from others (and the doors of others) before they light up. I guess it isn't a surprise.

 

[sillysassy]

Hi, I also just came home from the POP. I too saw how people did NOT follow the rules about smoking outside of the designated areas. I was at the Hippy Dippy Pool, under an umbrella, and of course at the very next umbrella the woman decides to light up, and all her stinky smoke blew into my direction ( very offensive). I just wanted to enjoy the pool,read, and not have to deal with that. Than on another occasion, we were doing an ice-machine run and two early 20somethings were out on the same balcony as we were located at, just puffing away, and we had to travel through their smoke to get back to our room. Obviously they did not want to read the insert in the packet that everyone receives at check-in time that clearly states the NO Smoking policy except for the designated areas. As I told my son, some people are just losers and think they are above following the rules. Other than that, the POP was very nice and we were very satisfied

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Thanks for the review. POP does have it challenges at times for sure!

I feel bad for smokers and non-smokers alike - wish Disney had kept certain building/areas (rooms) smoking, but enforced the rule (which was a written rule, but never enforced) that no smoking would be allowed on balconies of non-smoking rooms and walkways of non-smoking rooms in the moderates and values.

It is no fun for smokers to have to walk to who knows where to smoke or for non-smokers to walk through all the smoking areas now. It is awful to be a non-smoker, be in a non-smoking room, but cannot stand on the walkway or sit on the balcony because guests are smoking. What is the point of having non-smoking areas?

If Disney is going to make such a non-smoking policy, then it should be enforced or everywhere will be a potential smoking area. Guests are no longer allowed (in writing anyway) to smoke in rooms, on balconies/walkways etc, but rather a designating smoking area. So far, it does not seem to have made the issue better for anyone.

What was Disney thinkin'!!

 

[tripplanner2]

Does Pop have the movie screen by the pool like ASMu?

 

[LittleFlounder]

If you do not smoke and need a non-smoking room, insist on a first floor room. We had to move 2X because of smokers rooms below us. This was a major inconvenience.

A week ago I called to make reservations for POP,and then a couple days later called back to make sure I got a non-smoking room. I was told that all their rooms are non-smoking... but now I'm confused.

 

[CanadianGuy]

All the rooms ARE non-smoking.

There ARE designated smoking areas at various locations around each resort.

Some people are not yet up to speed on this and others have just flat out ignored it and are smoking on the balconies, or the exterior hallway just outside of their room.

Disney obviously wants to enforce this but it's hard to have 'smoking police' running around. I have personally witnessed, at the very beginning of the policy, a CM advising a guest of the new policy and requesting they comply -- which they did.

I'm a little confused about the OP's comment tho.

If you do not smoke and need a non-smoking room, insist on a first floor room. We had to move 2X because of smokers rooms below us. This was a major inconvenience.

I presume this means you had smokers on the exterior hallway, not IN their rooms ??

In either case, Disney should have handled this by addressing it with the guests below you rather than having to move you.

Knox

 

[jenseib]

It sounds like you had a bad experience. Did you ask if one of your requested areas had a room? When we went we were put in the 80's area, and I said I would rather have a area closer to the baby pool, and they got us in a 70s building. Disney is all non-smoking in rooms, but I knew that policy would be more of a pain than it was worth. I KNEW smokers would just step out there door and smoke. I would if I still smoked. I haven't for 3 years, but if the hotel didn't offer a smoking room, I would just exit out to the closest outside spot and smoke. I have no clue where they put the designated area is now, but I'm sure for some, it is a far walk. I don't think this was thought through very well.
When we went in March. my DH still smokes, and he went for a walk every morning and smoked. He just would stroll the grounds. I ahd to tell him at the parks where the spots to smoke were though, becuase he grew up where you could smoke anywhere, and he finds it hard to beleive that you can't do that anymore. He follows the rules when he knows them, but he is a little slow at getting it! LOL

 

[PrincessKitty1]

Disney needs to get it together and enforce their new designated smoking areas. My experience with Pop is that people smoke anywhere and everywhere, even back when there were smoking rooms (most smokers don't want their families exposed to smoke, hence the lack of demand for smoking rooms).

May I suggest that you post a review to TripAdvisor? I posted a review referencing the smokiness of Pop several months ago. Maybe Disney will start enforcing their policies if enough people complain.

Pop used to be our favorite resort. It's really a shame that Disney does not employ enough staff to enforce their own rules.

 

[poeticdiabetic]

We were at POP the end of May and we didn't notice a smoking problem there. Of course, we don't really hang out at the resort as much as some people, but no one smoked at the bus stop (at least not in line or where it would effect people in the line.)

And they didn't smoke by the pool either (I was only at the pool a good 20 minutes though... at night one night.

Now, we stayed in the 70s on the 3rd floor. I didn't request a room, though. I just want a long walk to my room, because we normally close the park that has extra evening hours and my kids are normally asleep on the bus ride back.

Our only problem were two-fold:

1. The parks were PACKED!!!! I mean, it was ridiculous! There were lines for folks who had ADRs, and the CMs were actually telling those poor souls withour ADRs to just get out of line... they were simply not getting in. And the Extra Magic Hours were almost as packed as normal hours during the average spring break.

2. The love bugs were EVERYWHERE! It looked like something out of a Hitchcock movie! It looked like a biblical plague. These things were swarming and mating and seemingly feeding on hair gel. People were swatting them and trying to keep their mouths closed... just terrible! All we needed was some long haired guy in a robe, carrying a staff yelling for all of us to repent and many would have been converted to whatever he was promoting.

Anyway, I digress...

I didn't see a smoking problem (Thank God!)

 

[lookingforward]

My son has terrible allergies and can't be near smoke. When I make ressies I do state this and always ask for first floor. Last time we got the 50's building with a parking lot view but a great location for us since we had our car. Thanks for the smoking update, I would never have thought of it. First floor it is!