New here with questions about Pop

[pepperderr]

We are going in June. No idea when yet, but we are new to WDW. We are driving.

It is possible to get a room in the 80s and be able to see the fireworks? I noticed it says you can see them from the 4th floor of 50s and 70s but that was all.

Is there a baclony for each upper room?

How early do we need to get on the bus if we are using early hours at the park? How long is the longest ride to the parks from the hotel? Is it really trouble to get our own stroller on the bus?

How far away is chef mickeys if we go there for a dinner? Is it quicker to go from the hotel on the bus or to go from one of the parks on the bus?

Are the 70s or 80s rooms really far from the check in or resturant there?

Can we take food from the CS back to our rooms to eat? I have read that it is very crowded and loud where you get the food at.

What is the tv like? Do they have basic cable? Can we take a dvd or vcr player? Not that we would want one, but if we eat in the room we will probably watch a movie.

Do we have to pay daily to park? Since we are driving, we will have our van there but plan to take the bus to the parks. If we have to pay to park, do they add it to the bill at checkout or how do we pay it?

Are the refillable cups all the same for every resort or would ours say Pop on it or something? I want to get one of those gift baskets for when we get there and was thinking about ordering the cups in the basket but wasn't sure if they are the same as what we would get at the resort???

TIA.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Hi! I've stayed at Pop only twice, but I can try to answer some of your questions. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable can answer the others!

There are no balconies for any rooms at Pop, but the rooms are all outside hallways, which is like a balcony, it's just not private at all.

I made sure to be leaving the resort at least one hour before the scheduled park opening, and I usually had to wait. I like to be early!

You will not be able to get to Chef Mickey's directly from the hotel, I would suggest taking the bus to Magic Kingdom and then the monorail to the Contemporary. That's what I did when I went last year.

Yes, you can take food from the food court to your room. I've seen people with covers on their food when they took it out. The only food I took was a pizza.

There are plenty of channels on the tvs there. I am pretty sure you could hook up a dvd player or vcr to the tv, but I'm not sure if it would be easy or not.

Parking at the resort is free for guests, and then you have free parking at the Parks if you choose to take your car.

The mugs this year (I believe) are the same at all the resorts for the Year of a Million Dreams. I don't have a mug like that, I have a Pop Century mug. That's what the refillable mugs were like last year.

I hope you enjoy your stay at Pop Century, my DN and I love it.

 

[jm-mom]

We are going in June. No idea when yet, but we are new to WDW. We are driving.

It is possible to get a room in the 80s and be able to see the fireworks? I noticed it says you can see them from the 4th floor of 50s and 70s but that was all.
I don't know the answer to this question.

Is there a baclony for each upper room?
Each floor has a walkway that is railed off. It's not actually individual balconies nor is it a space where you would sit out in chairs necessarily. However, it's a nice spot to stand and take in the view if you have one. We stayed recently in the 60's section, building 5, facing the lake and saw some awesome sunrises and sunsets. The location was also VERY peaceful.

How early do we need to get on the bus if we are using early hours at the park? How long is the longest ride to the parks from the hotel? Is it really trouble to get our own stroller on the bus?

The wait in line will vary depending on the park and time of day. Having said that, I'd say we almost always experienced the longest lines for the Magic Kingdom bus regardless of time of day. The Magic Kingdom is also the longest bus ride, probably about 20 minutes or a bit more. The nice thing about the Pop Century bus is that it is the only resort that uses it so it's always straight there and straight back. We didn't use a stroller but saw many people who did and it didn't seem to be a problem. All strollers have to be folded up and held by you on the bus and we saw some pretty big strollers that didn't seem to have much problem.

How far away is chef mickeys if we go there for a dinner? Is it quicker to go from the hotel on the bus or to go from one of the parks on the bus?
We have gone to Chef Mickey's from Pop Century the last two trips. We take the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then the monorail to the Contemporary. It's very easy to do. If you happen to be at Epcot you could take the monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center and then transfer to resorts monorail. From Animal Kingdom or MGM you'd have to take a bus to one of the resorts and then to Magic Kingdom or take the bus to the Contemporary.

Are the 70s or 80s rooms really far from the check in or resturant there?
I think there are close rooms and far rooms in all of the sections. If you were in one of the end rooms closest to the main building then you might actually be closer than were you in a farther back room in another section. When you check in, ask for a section you want and then specify you want to be as close tot he main building as possible. If being close is more of an issue than the building section choice then specify that first thing. We tell them we want as close to the main building as possible and both times we've been put in the 60's section.

Can we take food from the CS back to our rooms to eat? I have read that it is very crowded and loud where you get the food at.
Definitely. We almost always did this. It was a lot more comfortable to kick back and eat in the room in front of the tv. The food court has trays and all you have to do is ask the server to package your food to go. If you don't specify that, they don't cover the plates.

What is the tv like? Do they have basic cable? Can we take a dvd or vcr player? Not that we would want one, but if we eat in the room we will probably watch a movie.
You can hook up dvd players etc from the jacks on the front of the tv. Otherwise I'd say they have basic cable. They have all the major networks, WB, TBS, Disney Channel, PAX, etc. They had some ESPN too. I don't think they had channels like TLC or Food Network, stuff like that. We brought our portable dvd player for the kids to use on the plane and then we used cables to plug it into the front of the tv. For us it was hard to watch tv because everything we wanted to watch came on an hour later than we were used to and we were usually too tired by then. Movies work out great.

Do we have to pay daily to park? Since we are driving, we will have our van there but plan to take the bus to the parks. If we have to pay to park, do they add it to the bill at checkout or how do we pay it?
You don't have to pay to park at Pop Century, only the parks. If you don't mind it, I'd encourage you to just use the Disney buses. It's so much more convenient.

Are the refillable cups all the same for every resort or would ours say Pop on it or something? I want to get one of those gift baskets for when we get there and was thinking about ordering the cups in the basket but wasn't sure if they are the same as what we would get at the resort???
Yes, the mugs are specific to each resort so yours will say Pop Century on it. The ones they have out now are white with blue lids and are commuter mug style so they fit in the cupholder of the car. They also say on them that they are only good at that resort for that trip.


I hope this helps. We really enjoyed Pop Century. The food court can get a bit loud and chaotic and the pool are noisy but it's still a nice resort for a value resort. We've stayed at All Star Movies and All Star Music and much, much prefer Pop Century. If you get a chance, wander around the resort. At the rear of the resort is a bridge that will eventually cross the lake to a new part of Pop Century. It's just a gorgeous, peaceful spot to take in the sun, feed the ducks, and have a quiet moment.

Garland

 

[pepperderr]

that sounds cool. my kids would love to feed ducks thanks for the info!

 

[beroh2253]

Also staying at POP and going June 1-7. We were there this past Sept. and decided to drive to the parks and it worked out great for all but the MK. Easier to take the resort bus because you bypass the transportation center where you have to take either the momorail or boat over (this takes additional time) park bus take you real close to the park enterance. Other parks we drove and had the AAA diamond pass which closer then the regular parking arer just benind the handicapt parking. If you belong to AAA check into this pass its free.
I'll attach the POP map and you can check out building locations to the foodcourt and pool locations. And attach the property map for driving directions.
We stayed in the 50's and this had a great bowliing pin pool. You can fax in a room request a few days before check out allears for an example letter. This worked for us unless we were just lucky.

http://willcad.org/maps/resorts/resort_pop.pdf#page=02

http://willcad.org/maps/misc/2006-12/wdw-trans_2006-12.jpg

 

[BamaFan121s]

We are going in June. No idea when yet, but we are new to WDW. We are driving.

It is possible to get a room in the 80s and be able to see the fireworks? I noticed it says you can see them from the 4th floor of 50s and 70s but that was all.

No, the view from the 80's buildings would be obstructed by the other buildings.

Is there a baclony for each upper room?

There are no balconies for any rooms at Pop.

How early do we need to get on the bus if we are using early hours at the park? How long is the longest ride to the parks from the hotel?

Depends. In the AM, I'd say you need to get to the bus stop at the resort 45 min in advance. That gives you time to wait for the bus itself, and you may not get on the first one. Time to actually get to the park and walk to the gate area. The longest ride from Pop is to AK or DTD. Both are located far in comparison to the other parks and have stops at water parks on the way. There have been MANY times where wait and travel time combined to and from these two places has taken close to (or more than) an hour.

Is it really trouble to get our own stroller on the bus?

No, not that much trouble, depending on what kind of stroller you have...if it's a smaller one, it's not bad at all. It's the big, cloth, padded Graco type strollers that people seem to struggle with.

How far away is chef mickeys if we go there for a dinner? Is it quicker to go from the hotel on the bus or to go from one of the parks on the bus?

It's quickest IMO to drive to the Ticket/Trans center and take a monorail or to take a bus to MK and walk to the Contemporary.

Are the 70s or 80s rooms really far from the check in or resturant there?

There is not a restaurant, but there is a food court. Check in is in the same area. And all of the buildings are within a 5 min walk from the main area.

Can we take food from the CS back to our rooms to eat? I have read that it is very crowded and loud where you get the food at.

Yes.

What is the tv like? Do they have basic cable? Can we take a dvd or vcr player? Not that we would want one, but if we eat in the room we will probably watch a movie.

Not sure about the dvd/vcr, but they do have cable and about 50 variations of The Disney Channel

Do we have to pay daily to park? Since we are driving, we will have our van there but plan to take the bus to the parks. If we have to pay to park, do they add it to the bill at checkout or how do we pay it?

No, you dont' have to pay to park. Parking at the resort is free and you will get a parking pass when you check in that will enable you to park for free at the parks as well.

Are the refillable cups all the same for every resort or would ours say Pop on it or something?

I think that right now they are all the same--Year of a Million Dreams--with the occasional resort specific design if you get lucky.

 

[BamaFan121s]

You don't have to pay to park at Pop Century, only the parks.

Actually, parking is free at all of the parks if you are staying on property--they give you a parking pass to display in your window when you check in.

Yes, the mugs are specific to each resort so yours will say Pop Century on it.

Right now the mugs at ALL resorts are the same--YOMD design with a variation of handle/top cover in either silver, black or blue. But you are correct...for years and years before, each resort had a specific design.