pktbMouse
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2009
- Messages
- 1,622
I thought I would just do a quick trip report of what I can remember the week went in so fast. We just got back Sunday after spending a week at the World.
Disney itself wasnt too busy...20 max ride wait times with most of them walk on. Weather was perfect. We were on a tight budget this year so decided to give POP a try as we had been there 2 years ago and loved it. We went under the premise of "how bad can a value resort really be"...boy did we find out this week!!!!!!
We checked into our room that to start with was not very clean. Still crumbs on the carpet, no big deal. We had a room overlooking the hippy dippy pool as we had booked preferred. When we arrived we didn't notice the noise going on around the pool so much...we just thought it was gardeners blowing up mess and shrugged it off. Next morning very early we would find out what the noise was. They were sanding/buffing down the giant Baloo and mowgli at the pool with electric sanding machines. The noise was terrible...VERY loud and shrill, it woke everyone up. This was no ordinary noise..believe me when I say it was so loud it went through every cavity filling you had in your teeth loud!! It was earsplitting!!
Again no big deal..we would be at the parks for most of the day and they would probably be finished pretty soon (WRONG).
At this point I would like to point out the food court. It was just a mess. Food all over the floor, I nearly slipped twice getting food...queues out the door for food, by the time you payed for your food it was stone cold. The ketchup/condiment counters were messy, pizza was soggy as it had been sitting too long, carrots in little baggies that came with the kids meals were so dry they had turned white in the bags..I could go on and on..it was just terrible. The soda machines were either watered down so much you could hardly taste them or they had no gas in them. Hubby and I joked each day ( gas or taste..take your pick). The cheerleaders were there in droves too and some of the parents were worse than the kids.
Anyway back to the noise...the noise went on all day sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday and it was finally wednesday morning that the dam burst with me! I could no longer take it. I called the front desk who explained that the noise would be going on for at least another 10 days!!!!
I demanded they move us. They did offer us a room wayyy at the back of the resort. I walked round that way to see if I could still hear the noise...YEP...still as loud as ever. Not only that but at the back of the resort we had the added bulldozers from across the lake. It was only later that day when my 2 year old stepped on a sharp piece of trash in the pool that we checked out and moved over to CBR.
As I mentioned before...CBR was NOT in our budget and we hit the credit card really hard by doing this but we dont regret it one bit. CBR was like a breath of fresh air. I cant say enough good things about this resort. Its so pretty and it just has an overall cleanliness to it. Food court was wonderful, no long lines clean and voila! good soda!! The room was spotless and even when my 2 yr old threw up all over it the maid was there on three occasions that day and changed the bed and towels for us. Even asked after my little boy to see if he was feeling better. (hubby left her a good tip)
I really dont know what happened to POP this year, we were so dissapointed with it. Even the Cms at the desk were not very helpful. They were all young kids that didnt seem to have a clue what they were doing nor did they care. Its sad as we used to really love POP.
What really got my goat was when we got to CBR there was a note in the room telling us that the gardeners would be there the next morning for an hour and they apologised for the upcoming noise..yet POP couldnt even warn you or apologise for a noise that is apparently still going on as we speak, let alone warn you when booking and paying for a preferred room. Maybe thats what you get with a value resort I just dont know, what I do know is we wont be going back to POP any time this century, even if it means breaking the bank we will be going Moderate all the way next time.
We did not use the Transportation system but I notice there are plenty of complaints about it from last week at POP. We encountered people on the boat coming back from the Magic Kingdom on Monday night who had been waiting for an hour and 45 mins and decided to get the boat and then look for a taxi. We gave them a ride back to POP that night.
Everything else was just amazing..we had a great vacation despite a rocky start. I have to comment briefly on something that amused my hubby no end. I was on the Nemo ride with my 2yr old son. Now if anyone has ever ridden this ride they will know what bit Im talking about...the bit where you go through the tunnel of the EAC with crush...the tunnel appears to spin when you go through it with crush saying "fin, noggin, excellent little dude"..well...just as we got in the middle of the tunnel the ride broke down.
After 25 mins of fin noggin dude...fin noggin dude...fin noggin dude..and trying not to vomit due to the spinning motion...if I even see or hear Crush the turtle again it will be too soon!!!! I had to hide my 2 yr old eyes as he started to feel sick..I nearly threw up myself....what a ride!! Another little quick warning...we booked a mini van with Hertz...when we got to Orlando airport we had to wait along with another 30 people about 2 hours as none of their cars were ready...scratched Hertz off my list too!
On a final note...we did the Wishes Dessert Party and thought it was a totall waste of time. 3 times we went up to the rail to take a picture and they cleared our table...there was no name card and disney confetti on the tables. Just very rude staff that couldnt wait to get you out of there. The fireworks were at 10pm that night...by 9.40 they had cleared eveything away. As we were standing watching the fireworks all we could hear were tables and chairs getting dragged across the floor back to the wall, it was hard to hear the wishes music at all. I guess you live and learn. Sorry to have complained so much...there were so many other good things that outweighed the bad though..these were just some of the things I remembered that I will avoid in the future. If anyone has any question please dont hesitate to ask.
Disney itself wasnt too busy...20 max ride wait times with most of them walk on. Weather was perfect. We were on a tight budget this year so decided to give POP a try as we had been there 2 years ago and loved it. We went under the premise of "how bad can a value resort really be"...boy did we find out this week!!!!!!
We checked into our room that to start with was not very clean. Still crumbs on the carpet, no big deal. We had a room overlooking the hippy dippy pool as we had booked preferred. When we arrived we didn't notice the noise going on around the pool so much...we just thought it was gardeners blowing up mess and shrugged it off. Next morning very early we would find out what the noise was. They were sanding/buffing down the giant Baloo and mowgli at the pool with electric sanding machines. The noise was terrible...VERY loud and shrill, it woke everyone up. This was no ordinary noise..believe me when I say it was so loud it went through every cavity filling you had in your teeth loud!! It was earsplitting!!
Again no big deal..we would be at the parks for most of the day and they would probably be finished pretty soon (WRONG).
At this point I would like to point out the food court. It was just a mess. Food all over the floor, I nearly slipped twice getting food...queues out the door for food, by the time you payed for your food it was stone cold. The ketchup/condiment counters were messy, pizza was soggy as it had been sitting too long, carrots in little baggies that came with the kids meals were so dry they had turned white in the bags..I could go on and on..it was just terrible. The soda machines were either watered down so much you could hardly taste them or they had no gas in them. Hubby and I joked each day ( gas or taste..take your pick). The cheerleaders were there in droves too and some of the parents were worse than the kids.
Anyway back to the noise...the noise went on all day sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday and it was finally wednesday morning that the dam burst with me! I could no longer take it. I called the front desk who explained that the noise would be going on for at least another 10 days!!!!
I demanded they move us. They did offer us a room wayyy at the back of the resort. I walked round that way to see if I could still hear the noise...YEP...still as loud as ever. Not only that but at the back of the resort we had the added bulldozers from across the lake. It was only later that day when my 2 year old stepped on a sharp piece of trash in the pool that we checked out and moved over to CBR.
As I mentioned before...CBR was NOT in our budget and we hit the credit card really hard by doing this but we dont regret it one bit. CBR was like a breath of fresh air. I cant say enough good things about this resort. Its so pretty and it just has an overall cleanliness to it. Food court was wonderful, no long lines clean and voila! good soda!! The room was spotless and even when my 2 yr old threw up all over it the maid was there on three occasions that day and changed the bed and towels for us. Even asked after my little boy to see if he was feeling better. (hubby left her a good tip)
I really dont know what happened to POP this year, we were so dissapointed with it. Even the Cms at the desk were not very helpful. They were all young kids that didnt seem to have a clue what they were doing nor did they care. Its sad as we used to really love POP.
What really got my goat was when we got to CBR there was a note in the room telling us that the gardeners would be there the next morning for an hour and they apologised for the upcoming noise..yet POP couldnt even warn you or apologise for a noise that is apparently still going on as we speak, let alone warn you when booking and paying for a preferred room. Maybe thats what you get with a value resort I just dont know, what I do know is we wont be going back to POP any time this century, even if it means breaking the bank we will be going Moderate all the way next time.
We did not use the Transportation system but I notice there are plenty of complaints about it from last week at POP. We encountered people on the boat coming back from the Magic Kingdom on Monday night who had been waiting for an hour and 45 mins and decided to get the boat and then look for a taxi. We gave them a ride back to POP that night.
Everything else was just amazing..we had a great vacation despite a rocky start. I have to comment briefly on something that amused my hubby no end. I was on the Nemo ride with my 2yr old son. Now if anyone has ever ridden this ride they will know what bit Im talking about...the bit where you go through the tunnel of the EAC with crush...the tunnel appears to spin when you go through it with crush saying "fin, noggin, excellent little dude"..well...just as we got in the middle of the tunnel the ride broke down.
After 25 mins of fin noggin dude...fin noggin dude...fin noggin dude..and trying not to vomit due to the spinning motion...if I even see or hear Crush the turtle again it will be too soon!!!! I had to hide my 2 yr old eyes as he started to feel sick..I nearly threw up myself....what a ride!! Another little quick warning...we booked a mini van with Hertz...when we got to Orlando airport we had to wait along with another 30 people about 2 hours as none of their cars were ready...scratched Hertz off my list too!
On a final note...we did the Wishes Dessert Party and thought it was a totall waste of time. 3 times we went up to the rail to take a picture and they cleared our table...there was no name card and disney confetti on the tables. Just very rude staff that couldnt wait to get you out of there. The fireworks were at 10pm that night...by 9.40 they had cleared eveything away. As we were standing watching the fireworks all we could hear were tables and chairs getting dragged across the floor back to the wall, it was hard to hear the wishes music at all. I guess you live and learn. Sorry to have complained so much...there were so many other good things that outweighed the bad though..these were just some of the things I remembered that I will avoid in the future. If anyone has any question please dont hesitate to ask.
Across the lake noise is a bit of a given right now, but just outside my door would be a headache. Was the 60's pool still closed when you were there? 
We were polite about expressing our issues, so Disney MORE than made up for it. 
I'm a little surpised nothing happened for you if your son was injured in one of the pools. 
Did you physically go to the front desk, or just use the call center on your room phone? (Just curious)
