Just got back from a week at POP yesterday (1/1-1/7), and since I got so much help here when trying to decide whether to stay there a few weeks ago, I thought I'd post on my time there. It was GREAT!!!! For more details....okay, keep in mind that I'm probably on the low-threshold end of easily irritated, so things that bugged me probably wouldn't faze many others...otoh, also keep in mind that even though I mention things that bugged me, it was still great. Also keep in mind that as this was my first Disney trip in 30 years, I don't really have anything to compare it to - I stayed at the Contemporary at my last trip, but don't remember that many details about it, and at 8, wasn't paying that much attention to the room anyway probably...
We loved our room, and space was no problem for us. However, "us" was just me and my 2 1/2 year old. I could definitely see how a family of four would feel pretty cramped. I would have liked a bit more surface space - we ended up using the second bed as an extra table. The room itself was really nice - nothing majorly special, but clean, bright, etc. The pillows were way too big and poofy for me, which was pretty uncomfortable, but Sarah was fine with them. The water pressure was better than mine at home, so I was pretty happy with the shower, and loved my little Mickey soaps. My only major complaint is the lack of a coffee maker. I just cannot live without a coffee maker - I need my coffee to be able to get out of the room, so getting it at the food court was just not going to work. So I ended up packing mine from home, along with a bunch of purloined coffee packets from past hotel visits (I always take the extras, which are usually just the decaf ones, but a few times I've had extra regular ones too, luckily). What a pain to pack. But worth it to have my coffee first thing. It seems really weird to me that they'd put the irons and ironing boards in each room now, but still not hairdryers, although you could request those at least (although I didn't), and no coffee options even by request. I mean, I can see wanting people to get the coffee at teh food courts instead, but it seemed to me that every single person there had the mug anyway, and I doubt too many only got it for coffee, yk?
We were in the 70s building, which I would definitely stay at again, and would recommend. It was a great location - right next to the main bldg, with the walk between them a fun one. Sarah loved walking under the Big Wheel in front of our elevator area, and walking through the foosball players when we left. We stopped at the (working) Twister area each time, and I have great photos of Sarah twisting herself up on the board (she's never played a real twister game, but does like playing with the spinner on my game at home...our first day though she saw a family there and quickly learned what you were supposed to look like when playing, so each time we went over there she'd bend down with her hands and feet all twisted up...supercute!). AND, the pop jet pool (we called it the fountain pool) was on the way also, so we also stopped there a lot. So, although it was a short distance, it could be a pretty long walk.
But a very fun one. Also, the playground was right behind our building, so if we took a bus back that parked farther from the main entrance, we'd usually just walk around the back of the bldg instead and stop at the playground too.
The 70s bldgs were also pretty near the Hippy Dippy pool, and I really didn't feel like we were walking to some whole other area to use "their" pool (there's not a 70s bldg pool other than the pop jet one). We never tried the 50s bowling pool or the 90s computer one, because we were happy with the 60s one, especially with the kiddie one right behind it. The first day we went the kiddie pool was so cold, but Sarah loved it anyway - it's gently sloping, and lined with the same playground surfacing rubber stuff as the area around the pools, which was nice. There are little turtle-like spraying things around it, and the kids would play on those and have a blast. The main pool was much warmer, and not at all crowded or splashy. I know some people have said that the pools at the mod/deluxe resorts are better, but these were perfect for us - I wouldn't want a pool wtih slides and such, because those would more likely have splashing kids, and Sarah wouldn't have gone on them anyway.
Administrative stuff: checking in was kind of a drag - I thought that getting in relatively late (around 7.30 pm) we'd have avoided check-in crowds, but even though there weren't tons of people, it moved really slowly. And though I'd requested a ground-floor king-bed room in the 70s, I at first had a ground-floor 2-dbl-beds room in the 90s. But they immediately gave me several choices - I couldn't get the room I wanted in the 70s, although I could in the 90s - I could get an upper floor in the 70s with dbl beds, and change rooms the next day, so I opted for that cos I really wanted 70s. But then we ended up staying in our room the whole time, in part because I wanted to just unpack and not deal with it again, and in part because we liked where we were just fine. I usually prefer king beds in hotels because well, 1) they're just nicer, and 2) because we have bed rail at home to make sure Sarah doesn't roll off the bed, so I like a little more room at hotels to ensure her safety. But then I was happily surprised to discover that they had bed rails there! I read it in the guest services paper they gave me at check in, called, and they brought them to me within 10 minutes. And they were really nice Safety First mesh rails! So then I felt much better abt sleeping in the double, and like I said, we ended up using the other bed as extra surface for storage, diaper changing, etc, since there was only one little table otherwise which we used for food storage and eating. We also really liked being on the fourth floor. I'd wanted ground floor because of the stroller, but since there were elevators, fourth floor was fine, and Sarah loves elevators anyway. Plus, fourth floor gave us a much better view of stuff. We could see the Rubik's Cubes on the 80s bldgs from the top, and look down on the lake and the Potato Heads, and across at the Mickey Mouse phone, and take them all in.
Luggage assistance was fabulous. We had a ton of stuff when we checked in, especially having stopped at Goodings on the way from the airport, and it was great just handing it all over as we got out of the car. While we were unloading, two CMs were there, one getting info from me, and one doing ball tricks to entertain Sarah. They said the luggage would be brought to my room within an hour, and they'd keep my perishable stuff in their fridge until then. Since we wouldnt' have our stuff anyway, we didn't go right to the room after check in - first we stopped at the food court for dinner, then at the fountain pool (not really my choice...), and when we got to the room our stuff was there, and we had a message from luggage saying that when they'd brought our stuff the fridge hadn't been in the room yet, so they brought it back to their fridge, and to call when it arrived and they'd bring it back. Wow. The fridge was there when we walked in, so I just called them back then, and about an hour later the rest of our food was brought over. The day before we left I called for luggage assistance for the morning, and that went super smoothly too. I raced over to them when we got back from breakfast barely in time to meet our driver (and got to meet Tyler, albeit briefly - Hi Tyler!) - I had to race up to our room where I'd left a few things (stupidly - more in a bit), and by the time I was back they'd already loaded my stuff into the car for me.
Check out was also sort of a drag. THe day before leaving, I'd called to ask abt a late checkout, because I'd thought we might want to try swimming if possible, and if not, then to just relax a bit after our Chef Mickey's breakfast before leaving for the airport. The front desk person told me they only take those requests on the checkout day. So that morning, I called back, adn the woman I spoke with was really obnoxious. When I said I was calling ot request a late checkout of 12.30, she asked me "why? do you have some problem with being able to leave at the regular time?" I've NEVER been asked to provide a reason for wanting a late checkout in ANY hotels ever before. Don't always get it, but have never had to give a reason! Anyway, I explained why I was asking, and she said "well, we don't do that - I don't know why you're even asking. Check out is 11." Her attitude really put me off, and so I was getting sort of pissy back, and said that I'd callled the day before, and was told I'd have to call back that day, and so clearly SOMEONE knew what a late checkout was since they told me the policy was that they could be requested on checkout day only, but that she was making it sound like they didn't ever do them there. She said they could only be done with a supervisor's permission. AFter a pause, I said "so, could you please go ask a supervisor then?" DUH. Finally, she came back and said that 12.30 would be fine. I have no idea what was up with all of that - it was my only negative interaction with a CM at the whole hotel. As it turns out though, I'd have been better off not having had the late checkout! What a dumb idea. Time to relax after breakfast???? Who was I kidding?! We barely made it back in time, I was panicking the whole bus ride back, and my cell phone wasn't working so I couldn't even call ahead, and then I had to race up to the room to get the last of our stuff...if I'd just let luggage take it all life would have been much easier when we were leaving. Oh well. Live and learn I guess.
Mousekeeping: I was pretty disappointed in our mousekeeping for the first few days. The first day, we came back from the park around 2 or so for naps, and it wasn't made up yet, so I put up the privacy please card because I didn't want Sarah to get woken up, and of course it was during those two hours that they came...we did get a message though that they were there and didn't want to disturb us but I could call for them to come later if I wanted. And we got a bag of fresh towels left at the door. The next day, we came back to our room around noon or so I think, and again it wasn't made up yet, but the carts were just two doors down from us, and since we'd been swimming and Sarah was happy to go back to the pool after getting changed, I figured we'd just stay out of the room a little longer so it could get made up. We came back over an hour later and the carts were gone, with our room untouched. Sigh. So again I put up the privacy sign for naps, and again that's when they came by. We got yet another bag of fresh towels left. We had a lot of towels by then! Since the room wasn't all that messy, I didn't bother having them come back that day. The days after that we were out much longer, and the room did get made up, but with none of the cute touches that I kept reading about and seeing in others' windows. Sarah's Mickey Mouse and baby doll were never in our window, or touched at all - no towel animals, nothing. It seems silly to complain about really, but it made me feel sort of snubbed to see all the animals and towel creatures in so many other windows. And while Sarah didn't realize that it wasn't just that the other kids hadn't put them there this time, if she were older she would have figured that out, and I'd have hated that. It makes me think that they should either have to do it for everyone each day, or not at all, cos that could be so sad for a little kid! Our mousekeeper the day before we left did make a cute towel puppy on the bed with Sarah's baby doll leaning against it, and I loved that. And left a thank you note along with a tip.
Food court - loved it. Prices were high I guess for the offerings, but not anywhere as high as they could have gotten away with charging, so I thought it was a pretty good deal. The first night we had the nachos, which were abt $6 and pretty tasty. We bought our mug then too. I'm not sure that was such a great buy though, because then I felt like I should be getting more and more soda all week, instead of drinking more water like I would have otherwise. The next day I got the tuna fish from the little grocery store (so convenient, having that right by the food court - I wanted to find something light to eat by the pool, and could browse through the food court and then the grocery...) - $3, and delicious. We also had, at various times, the pizza, cheeseburger/fries, carrot cake, chocolate cake, and tie-dyed cheesecake. All in all, I liked the food court and grocery store a lot. I wanted to browse through the rest of the store more, but just never did. I was bummed that the make-your-own-potato-head section there turned out not to have a teacup bottom like the one at downtown disney did...we had to make a return trip to downtown disney the night before we left to get Sarah's potato head, cos she loved the teacups so much. But I did decide at the last minute to get her a Sorcerer MIckey headband, it was nice to be able to get it right at the hotel...
Buses: having lived in cities and used public transportation a lot previously, I've got to say that I wish all public transportation could be as clean and efficient as the buses were. OTOH, I'm not in a city any longer, and spoiled by driving or walking everywhere now. So the time spent waiting for and on buses was frustrating at times, and having to keep folding the stroller and shlepping the folded stroller, the toddler-who-wouldn't-walk-on-her-own, and our stuff on and off each bus was a total drag. The last few days were much better though, as I got a routine going, and Sarah got more willing to go up and down the bus steps herself. Mostly the waits weren't bad at all, and often we managed to just catch a bus to or from the hotel, so no wait at all (although a bit of a run to catch it!). The ride to MK was the longest, but the others weren't so bad. And while a few times there were pretty big crowds, most of the time we had a lot of room, which was nice. To be honest, I think the transportation thing would be the only reason I'd possibly stay at a deluxe rather than the POP again - I think it'd be great to be on the monorail line.
All in all, I'd give the POP an A. Fun, festive, very few annoying people, and a great price (we had the first night, 1/1, at the $77 rate, but the rest at $55). I pay more than that to stay at grungy roadside chains at times, and this was SO much more than that. In fact, when we were just hanging out at the hotel all day Saturday, swimming and stuff, I was thinking that for that price, I'd think of coming down to Orlando and staying there for a week just for the hotel, without even needing to do any parks or anything. Loved the nostalgia kick, loved the pools, loved the whole atmosphere, and no real complaints that took away from that.
Wow - this ended up being much longer than I'd planned on! Hope it's helpul to someone!
- Elizabeth
We loved our room, and space was no problem for us. However, "us" was just me and my 2 1/2 year old. I could definitely see how a family of four would feel pretty cramped. I would have liked a bit more surface space - we ended up using the second bed as an extra table. The room itself was really nice - nothing majorly special, but clean, bright, etc. The pillows were way too big and poofy for me, which was pretty uncomfortable, but Sarah was fine with them. The water pressure was better than mine at home, so I was pretty happy with the shower, and loved my little Mickey soaps. My only major complaint is the lack of a coffee maker. I just cannot live without a coffee maker - I need my coffee to be able to get out of the room, so getting it at the food court was just not going to work. So I ended up packing mine from home, along with a bunch of purloined coffee packets from past hotel visits (I always take the extras, which are usually just the decaf ones, but a few times I've had extra regular ones too, luckily). What a pain to pack. But worth it to have my coffee first thing. It seems really weird to me that they'd put the irons and ironing boards in each room now, but still not hairdryers, although you could request those at least (although I didn't), and no coffee options even by request. I mean, I can see wanting people to get the coffee at teh food courts instead, but it seemed to me that every single person there had the mug anyway, and I doubt too many only got it for coffee, yk?
We were in the 70s building, which I would definitely stay at again, and would recommend. It was a great location - right next to the main bldg, with the walk between them a fun one. Sarah loved walking under the Big Wheel in front of our elevator area, and walking through the foosball players when we left. We stopped at the (working) Twister area each time, and I have great photos of Sarah twisting herself up on the board (she's never played a real twister game, but does like playing with the spinner on my game at home...our first day though she saw a family there and quickly learned what you were supposed to look like when playing, so each time we went over there she'd bend down with her hands and feet all twisted up...supercute!). AND, the pop jet pool (we called it the fountain pool) was on the way also, so we also stopped there a lot. So, although it was a short distance, it could be a pretty long walk.
But a very fun one. Also, the playground was right behind our building, so if we took a bus back that parked farther from the main entrance, we'd usually just walk around the back of the bldg instead and stop at the playground too. The 70s bldgs were also pretty near the Hippy Dippy pool, and I really didn't feel like we were walking to some whole other area to use "their" pool (there's not a 70s bldg pool other than the pop jet one). We never tried the 50s bowling pool or the 90s computer one, because we were happy with the 60s one, especially with the kiddie one right behind it. The first day we went the kiddie pool was so cold, but Sarah loved it anyway - it's gently sloping, and lined with the same playground surfacing rubber stuff as the area around the pools, which was nice. There are little turtle-like spraying things around it, and the kids would play on those and have a blast. The main pool was much warmer, and not at all crowded or splashy. I know some people have said that the pools at the mod/deluxe resorts are better, but these were perfect for us - I wouldn't want a pool wtih slides and such, because those would more likely have splashing kids, and Sarah wouldn't have gone on them anyway.
Administrative stuff: checking in was kind of a drag - I thought that getting in relatively late (around 7.30 pm) we'd have avoided check-in crowds, but even though there weren't tons of people, it moved really slowly. And though I'd requested a ground-floor king-bed room in the 70s, I at first had a ground-floor 2-dbl-beds room in the 90s. But they immediately gave me several choices - I couldn't get the room I wanted in the 70s, although I could in the 90s - I could get an upper floor in the 70s with dbl beds, and change rooms the next day, so I opted for that cos I really wanted 70s. But then we ended up staying in our room the whole time, in part because I wanted to just unpack and not deal with it again, and in part because we liked where we were just fine. I usually prefer king beds in hotels because well, 1) they're just nicer, and 2) because we have bed rail at home to make sure Sarah doesn't roll off the bed, so I like a little more room at hotels to ensure her safety. But then I was happily surprised to discover that they had bed rails there! I read it in the guest services paper they gave me at check in, called, and they brought them to me within 10 minutes. And they were really nice Safety First mesh rails! So then I felt much better abt sleeping in the double, and like I said, we ended up using the other bed as extra surface for storage, diaper changing, etc, since there was only one little table otherwise which we used for food storage and eating. We also really liked being on the fourth floor. I'd wanted ground floor because of the stroller, but since there were elevators, fourth floor was fine, and Sarah loves elevators anyway. Plus, fourth floor gave us a much better view of stuff. We could see the Rubik's Cubes on the 80s bldgs from the top, and look down on the lake and the Potato Heads, and across at the Mickey Mouse phone, and take them all in.
Luggage assistance was fabulous. We had a ton of stuff when we checked in, especially having stopped at Goodings on the way from the airport, and it was great just handing it all over as we got out of the car. While we were unloading, two CMs were there, one getting info from me, and one doing ball tricks to entertain Sarah. They said the luggage would be brought to my room within an hour, and they'd keep my perishable stuff in their fridge until then. Since we wouldnt' have our stuff anyway, we didn't go right to the room after check in - first we stopped at the food court for dinner, then at the fountain pool (not really my choice...), and when we got to the room our stuff was there, and we had a message from luggage saying that when they'd brought our stuff the fridge hadn't been in the room yet, so they brought it back to their fridge, and to call when it arrived and they'd bring it back. Wow. The fridge was there when we walked in, so I just called them back then, and about an hour later the rest of our food was brought over. The day before we left I called for luggage assistance for the morning, and that went super smoothly too. I raced over to them when we got back from breakfast barely in time to meet our driver (and got to meet Tyler, albeit briefly - Hi Tyler!) - I had to race up to our room where I'd left a few things (stupidly - more in a bit), and by the time I was back they'd already loaded my stuff into the car for me.
Check out was also sort of a drag. THe day before leaving, I'd called to ask abt a late checkout, because I'd thought we might want to try swimming if possible, and if not, then to just relax a bit after our Chef Mickey's breakfast before leaving for the airport. The front desk person told me they only take those requests on the checkout day. So that morning, I called back, adn the woman I spoke with was really obnoxious. When I said I was calling ot request a late checkout of 12.30, she asked me "why? do you have some problem with being able to leave at the regular time?" I've NEVER been asked to provide a reason for wanting a late checkout in ANY hotels ever before. Don't always get it, but have never had to give a reason! Anyway, I explained why I was asking, and she said "well, we don't do that - I don't know why you're even asking. Check out is 11." Her attitude really put me off, and so I was getting sort of pissy back, and said that I'd callled the day before, and was told I'd have to call back that day, and so clearly SOMEONE knew what a late checkout was since they told me the policy was that they could be requested on checkout day only, but that she was making it sound like they didn't ever do them there. She said they could only be done with a supervisor's permission. AFter a pause, I said "so, could you please go ask a supervisor then?" DUH. Finally, she came back and said that 12.30 would be fine. I have no idea what was up with all of that - it was my only negative interaction with a CM at the whole hotel. As it turns out though, I'd have been better off not having had the late checkout! What a dumb idea. Time to relax after breakfast???? Who was I kidding?! We barely made it back in time, I was panicking the whole bus ride back, and my cell phone wasn't working so I couldn't even call ahead, and then I had to race up to the room to get the last of our stuff...if I'd just let luggage take it all life would have been much easier when we were leaving. Oh well. Live and learn I guess.
Mousekeeping: I was pretty disappointed in our mousekeeping for the first few days. The first day, we came back from the park around 2 or so for naps, and it wasn't made up yet, so I put up the privacy please card because I didn't want Sarah to get woken up, and of course it was during those two hours that they came...we did get a message though that they were there and didn't want to disturb us but I could call for them to come later if I wanted. And we got a bag of fresh towels left at the door. The next day, we came back to our room around noon or so I think, and again it wasn't made up yet, but the carts were just two doors down from us, and since we'd been swimming and Sarah was happy to go back to the pool after getting changed, I figured we'd just stay out of the room a little longer so it could get made up. We came back over an hour later and the carts were gone, with our room untouched. Sigh. So again I put up the privacy sign for naps, and again that's when they came by. We got yet another bag of fresh towels left. We had a lot of towels by then! Since the room wasn't all that messy, I didn't bother having them come back that day. The days after that we were out much longer, and the room did get made up, but with none of the cute touches that I kept reading about and seeing in others' windows. Sarah's Mickey Mouse and baby doll were never in our window, or touched at all - no towel animals, nothing. It seems silly to complain about really, but it made me feel sort of snubbed to see all the animals and towel creatures in so many other windows. And while Sarah didn't realize that it wasn't just that the other kids hadn't put them there this time, if she were older she would have figured that out, and I'd have hated that. It makes me think that they should either have to do it for everyone each day, or not at all, cos that could be so sad for a little kid! Our mousekeeper the day before we left did make a cute towel puppy on the bed with Sarah's baby doll leaning against it, and I loved that. And left a thank you note along with a tip.
Food court - loved it. Prices were high I guess for the offerings, but not anywhere as high as they could have gotten away with charging, so I thought it was a pretty good deal. The first night we had the nachos, which were abt $6 and pretty tasty. We bought our mug then too. I'm not sure that was such a great buy though, because then I felt like I should be getting more and more soda all week, instead of drinking more water like I would have otherwise. The next day I got the tuna fish from the little grocery store (so convenient, having that right by the food court - I wanted to find something light to eat by the pool, and could browse through the food court and then the grocery...) - $3, and delicious. We also had, at various times, the pizza, cheeseburger/fries, carrot cake, chocolate cake, and tie-dyed cheesecake. All in all, I liked the food court and grocery store a lot. I wanted to browse through the rest of the store more, but just never did. I was bummed that the make-your-own-potato-head section there turned out not to have a teacup bottom like the one at downtown disney did...we had to make a return trip to downtown disney the night before we left to get Sarah's potato head, cos she loved the teacups so much. But I did decide at the last minute to get her a Sorcerer MIckey headband, it was nice to be able to get it right at the hotel...
Buses: having lived in cities and used public transportation a lot previously, I've got to say that I wish all public transportation could be as clean and efficient as the buses were. OTOH, I'm not in a city any longer, and spoiled by driving or walking everywhere now. So the time spent waiting for and on buses was frustrating at times, and having to keep folding the stroller and shlepping the folded stroller, the toddler-who-wouldn't-walk-on-her-own, and our stuff on and off each bus was a total drag. The last few days were much better though, as I got a routine going, and Sarah got more willing to go up and down the bus steps herself. Mostly the waits weren't bad at all, and often we managed to just catch a bus to or from the hotel, so no wait at all (although a bit of a run to catch it!). The ride to MK was the longest, but the others weren't so bad. And while a few times there were pretty big crowds, most of the time we had a lot of room, which was nice. To be honest, I think the transportation thing would be the only reason I'd possibly stay at a deluxe rather than the POP again - I think it'd be great to be on the monorail line.
All in all, I'd give the POP an A. Fun, festive, very few annoying people, and a great price (we had the first night, 1/1, at the $77 rate, but the rest at $55). I pay more than that to stay at grungy roadside chains at times, and this was SO much more than that. In fact, when we were just hanging out at the hotel all day Saturday, swimming and stuff, I was thinking that for that price, I'd think of coming down to Orlando and staying there for a week just for the hotel, without even needing to do any parks or anything. Loved the nostalgia kick, loved the pools, loved the whole atmosphere, and no real complaints that took away from that.
Wow - this ended up being much longer than I'd planned on! Hope it's helpul to someone!
- Elizabeth
Thanks for sharing 
I can't wait untill we go, hopefully in July
My family thought I was crazy but they were so fluffy I couldn't sleep!
