My Thoughts On Pop Century (Review)

[Madi100]

We just arrived home from our stay at Pop Century. This is our 3rd visit to WDW. We have stayed at ASMu and ASMo. We pretty much knew what to expect as far as the room goes.

We arrived at about 2:00 pm. I did the checking in because I was in charge of all reservations. We took my mom and step dad on this trip with us. We paid for the rooms, so they were both under my credit card. My mom wanted to be able to charge to her room, so we put her credit card on her room. BIG MISTAKE! They couldn't figure out how to do it. They ended up cancelling our reservation and making new ones. Then they needed a code, so they had to find it. We arrived in our room at 4:30. Did you notice that I said we arrived at about 2:00, 2:30 at the latest? I was not a happy camper. At one point, I told her to forget the whole room charge thing, but they couldn't because they still had to make a new reservation. To top it all off, we were put in the 80/90's buidlings. Not only that, but we were put in the 3rd one that is behind the others on the far side of the resort. It was not a good way to start our vacation.

Sorry, Tyler, but from our first night's experience the counter people did not have a clue what they were doing. After I had waited and waited and waited, the CM also stopped helping me to help another CM. The CM came over to her when she was done with her guest and whispered that I sure didn't look very happy. So, not a good way to start our trip.

After we walked to our room, I was even more unhappy. Unless you enjoy walking, do not request a room in this area. It was quieter. It was a nice area. There is a pool and laundry area there. HOWEVER, it might as well be its own resort because it is not close to anything. Again, I have to disagree with Tyler on that one. We did cut through the parking lot, which was great advice from Tyler. But, it took away from the experience of being at the resort. And, it was hard to get a stroller through the parking lot with the cars parked.

Luckily, I requested to be moved, and we were the next day to the 70's buildings. It was great, and we were part of the magic. I love the larger than life icons, and I love the outside entry to rooms. I want to stay at the Contemporary, but you waste so much outside time there, I think. The walkway was beautiful, and we enjoyed walking around the resort on our last day looking at everything. It was nice that you could walk over to the lake and escape the noise and brightness.

The bus service was super! We hardly waited for a bus. The only downfall to PC and the buses, was that we had to walk the longest distance

The foodcourt was nice. We were disappointed not to see some of our favorites from ASMo. Every other time we had to go to guest services, they were very helpful. We had a package we were waiting for, and one CM spent a good ten minutes searching for it. He was very helpful.

Luggage assistance was great. Sorry to say, I did not tip the guy when we arrived. I was not happy at that minute. He paused when he left like he expected one. When we left, my husband went ahead and got our luggage from Luggage Assistance. He walked up to me and told me he was going to tip the guy because he was very helpful. He said he went above and beyond to answer questions. I looked over, and it was Tyler! So, I got to meet him, and he was super friendly.

Overall, we'd stay at PC again. I'm sure that the help will be better trained, and things will run more smoothly. We liked Movies better, but it was fun to stay in a brand new resort. The icons were neat. The location of the resort was great. We could see Spaceship Earth from the walkway. My only advice I can give is to not stay in the 80/90's buildings!!!

If you have any questions, let me know.

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

Originally posted by Madi100
Luggage assistance was great. Sorry to say, I did not tip the guy when we arrived. I was not happy at that minute. He paused when he left like he expected one. When we left, my husband went ahead and got our luggage from Luggage Assistance. He walked up to me and told me he was going to tip the guy because he was very helpful. He said he went above and beyond to answer questions. I looked over, and it was Tyler! So, I got to meet him, and he was super friendly.

Sorry to hear about your check-in experience... hopefully that is an isolated glitch. We've had a lot of new cast members, plus a lot of deployed cast members coming in. It's a big challenge to get everyone on the same page, and I assure you that we are working frantically to make sure it does happen.

And of course, it was a pleasure to meet y'all. Am I correct in thinking y'all were the group with the black FL Tours van? (I get the pleasure of meeting an average of 3 people a day from here, so it's sometimes hard to keep track of everyone!)

 

[HappyMommy2]

Thanks for the review! Sorry the beginning of your vacation was a hassle, but I'm glad everything worked out.

 

[jimed90]

We also had a very bad first impression of Pop Century last week. We arrived on Thurs Jan 15th at 11:45pm after a long flight. We had to wait in line over an hour to get up to the check-in counter. They only had 2 people working the counter and every single person in line seemed to be having trouble because the line just would not move. There were either computer problems or a lack of knowledge by the CMs.

Finally, after the kids had fallen asleep on the floor waiting, we woke them up to walk to our room (the absolute farthest room on the resort back by the lake). We try to open the door and the key card for our second room would not open the door! Maintenance came promptly to fix it, but by this time, we were exhausted. We didn't get to bed until 2 am. We have never had poor service like this at a Disney hotel, so I hope it is something Pop Century is working hard to improve upon. On our particular night they definitely needed more staffing. When we first got into line, there were 4 CM's, but two of them must have been off shift at midnight because they just left and noone replaced them. Supervisors would walk in and out of the back room and saw the huge line, but none of them bothered to assist the 2 remaining CMs. It looked extremely unprofessional and UnDisney.
When we finished in line an hour later, the line behind us was twice as long as when we began.....I really felt sorry for those people!

Otherwise, our stay was everything we have come to expect from a Disney resort. Transportation was great.

 

[Brer-Rabbit]

I have had a similar experience TWICE checking into the AS resorts. The front desk staff both times was unable to complete the simplest task of adding charging privledges to our rooms.

We travel to WDW about 8 times a year, always stay onsite, and generally stay at the deluxe resorts. We have stayed at the AS resorts three times for stays one day prior to checking into another resort. TWO of those times it took us 1 1/2 to 2 hours to check in because it was clear the CM had no idea what they are doing.

I have found (No offense to the CMs at these resorts) that the front desk staff at the value resorts are the least experienced on property. They are NOT at all practiced with dealing with the public, nor are they the freindliest CMs I have delt with. I find it very interesting that when I check in at the value resorts they cover the costs of all the phone calls, and explain that the calls will be billed to the room and they act suprised when you have a credit card to add charging privledges to your room.

We are going to stay at POP Century for a couple of nights in Feb. We toured it in October -- the rooms seem nice. I hope our experience is better at PC than AS.

 

[DMRick]

Madi..we were in 6303 in the 70's..we prob passed each other!!
..although I didn't see another lime green ribbon in all 9 days.
Luckily our check in was perfect. Did you notice when walking on the memory lane, how fast the workers went with their carts? Zooommm. One man kept yelling at them.
Doris

 

[Madi100]

Did you notice when walking on the memory lane, how fast the workers went with their carts? Zooommm. One man kept yelling at them.

We only walked around Memory Lane on our last day. There were quite a few vehicles zooming by, and yes, they were going quite fast. It took away from the quaintness somewhat. Plus, it was a bit unsafe with my two year old who wanted to go just as fast, but in a zig-zag pattern.

I didn't notice any lime green the whole time I was there either except for some lime green ponchos.

 

[Madi100]

And of course, it was a pleasure to meet y'all. Am I correct in thinking y'all were the group with the black FL Tours van? (I get the pleasure of meeting an average of 3 people a day from here, so it's sometimes hard to keep track of everyone!)

That was us!!

Sorry to hear about your check-in experience... hopefully that is an isolated glitch. We've had a lot of new cast members, plus a lot of deployed cast members coming in. It's a big challenge to get everyone on the same page, and I assure you that we are working frantically to make sure it does happen.

I would just think that the people that do know what they are doing would not allow a check-in to be that time consuming. There was a lady who was standing back and just watching the CM's She looked like someone in charge. I was quite jealous. There was a CM two people down who was helping people. I believe his name was Jason. He was enthusiatic, very friendly, and offered quite a bit of information. The person that helped me didn't speak very clear English. That was a big issue for us while at PC also. I think diversity is great, but I was a little saddened at the language barrier. We encountered quite a few people who didn't speak English very well. In the past, we have enjoyed visiting with the different CM's about Disney. It was hard to do with a quite a few of the CM's at PC. They were mainly in the gift shop and food court area, but also the person who helped us check in.

 

[Gillian]

Originally posted by jimed90
We arrived on Thurs Jan 15th at 11:45pm after a long flight. We had to wait in line over an hour to get up to the check-in counter.

If we arrived close to midnight and had to wait over an hour to check in, my husband would kill me. Or at least try, LOL! And if he didn't succeed, and actually let me plan another WDW trip, we would never stay on Disney property again.

I've heard this often happens at the All-stars, which is the main reason I've avoided booking a room there. I just can't imagine waiting on line for a hour with little kids. We don't even do that for rides!