POP CENTURY AC units POOR!

[!@#$%]

Just got back last night and I'm gonna be listing lots of little various tidbits of info. We LOVE the PC, but I can say I HATE to AC units. They are preset at 68 degrees, which is apparently OFF. Here at my home, we have a brand new HVAC unit. Just installed. We keep ours set at 75 degrees. That 68 degrees at the pop was much hotter than the 75 degrees I'm accustomed to at home. The AC units have a thermostat on the wall with a motion sensor that only kicks it on if you move around, which means at night (at least in our room) no movement, not much AC. I'll stay at the All Stars next time. The wife said it was fine, my son agreed with me that it was generally too hot in there. I like to sleep in a freezer!
The shower heads were a joke, I could get more wet at testtrack cool station! As a plumber, the whole water conservation thing stinks to me. It only causes upset customers. I dont believe in wasting water, but thats ridiculous.
Note: weve stayed at other rooms in the POP that didnt seem to be nearly as bad. I wonder if it was that we were on the 4th floor(?) The last time I noticed poor water pressure there we were up high.
See my other posts for good points about the pop.

 

[goofy4tink]

We were in the 50's bldg group..number 2, on the third floor way to the back of the bldg. We had no issues with the AC though. It was actually pretty cold in our room! My dd was chilly and asked to have me make it warmer in there...which I did. I set the thermostat at about 72 and it was much better. Maybe we lucked out and got a good AC unit. But, I have to agree with the water pressure. It was pretty bad now that I remember it. I don't think I have ever had such weak pressure in a WDW resort room. I used the shower pretty early each morning...around 7. Wonder why some resorts have better water pressure than others.

 

[!@#$%]

As a plumber, I can speak with authority and say it could be a number of things. A home residence uses a standard PRV set at (in our area) 50-60 pounds. Adjustable of course. It could be that they were set by different people at different times at different levels. I assume they use a central system per building or floor. Theyre way too many things to consider there, and I'm sure Disney knows about advanced plumbing that I dont, as I only do residential, and very little business plumbing. I'm sure there was a LOT of planning that went into those buildings, maybe too much! I never noticed the warmer rooms till this trip, and weve stayed there 3 times this year. Probably the room thermostat.

 

[Msslaydbug]

I am sorry you had problems with your unit. We never had any issues there !

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

I'm sorry you had AC troubles, I know that is extremely frustrating in the FL heat. Last year when we were at POP we didn't have a problem with our AC but my cousin and her hubby where in an adjoining room to us and their room was always warmer even with the thermostat set on same degrees. We eventually ended up leaving our doors open so they could get a little cooler air over there. We were in the 50's 4th floor, I don't remember building number but our room overlooked the bowling pin pool and the back of "Lady's" head.

 

[DisneyMom5]

It must vary from room to room, or floor to floor, as we were on the first floor and our rooms were like a freezer. Never turned off on its own, ever.
It is one of the "World's" great mysteries, I guess.

 

[spereira]

I felt the same way about the AC....I can't stand how it goes buy motion detectors..I like to come back to a nice cold room......

 

[peter11435]

I'm sorry you had AC troubles, I know that is extremely frustrating in the FL heat. Last year when we were at POP we didn't have a problem with our AC but my cousin and her hubby where in an adjoining room to us and their room was always warmer even with the thermostat set on same degrees. We eventually ended up leaving our doors open so they could get a little cooler air over there. We were in the 50's 4th floor, I don't remember building number but our room overlooked the bowling pin pool and the back of "Lady's" head.

That is building 1.

 

[BigDaddy1]

as I like to come back from a hot day at the parks to a frigid hotel room. Looks like this is not gonna happen. What can I do to 'trick' the motion detector??? Any help would be appreciated!!!

 

[WDWAurora]

We are recently back and had NO a/c problems! What building were you in? We were in building 7 of the 80s, on the 4th floor. It was fabulously cold in there the whole time, and we kept it on 68 or higher. We also had a good showerhead...Maybe you just got a bad one? Also, our room didn't have the motion sensors. Our a/c was on during the night when we slept and when we came in after being gone all day. I would have requested a new room, because something had to have been wrong.

 

[yxe dad]

I got this awhile ago, I hope it helps to keep us all cool at night.
"On the thermostat push the power button and the down arrow (that adjusts the temp) at the exact same time. If you do this correctly there willbe the letters "bp" where the temp numbers usually are. You are now bypassing the sensors in the room. You can then set the temp to whatever you want and it keeps the room that cold whether you are in it or not. The maintenance man said that you might have to do this once a day as the thermostat tends to go back to sensor mode after 24 hours. We found that it stayed on bypass for a couple of days at a time. It was great to come back to a cold room or not wake up in the middle of the night in a sweat again. The CM that did this for us said it was not a problem doing this as they do it for pople all the time. Guess they get a lot of complaints."

 

[dyna]

We was at the far end of building 1 just 2 weeks ago and NO A/C problems for us. In fact it was a bit annoying that everytime we left the room and many other AC areas our glasses fogged up that was from the humidity outside not the A/C

Water pressure for the shower was better than my shower at home on a good day. Sink wasn't bad either tho my sink does have better pressure than the sink at Pop did.

If you shower at a peak showering time then maybe you might notice a bit of a difference in water pressure I never did tho and I showered in the AM sometimes and other times mid afternoon yet sometimes again just before bed in the PM didn't notice no diff in water pressure.

To many differences goin on here I think. Maybe it just some ppl expect more than others or something.

 

[!@#$%]

Thats great advise about how to bypass the motion detectors! Im going to add that one to my Disney tips page on my PC. The kids birthdays are very close together this month, and they both got balloons and a card from the front desk. We tried putting some balloons in front of the vent, which is, coincidentally above the sensor. The balloons moved all night, but the sensor apparently didnt see them. The temperature was livable, but it could have been much cooler. As far as the showerhead, I am accustomed to taking 2-3 showers a day since my job is basically a nasty one. (No complaints, thats where the money is!) I took on average 2 showers a day. I cant stand feeling even a little greasy, so on hotter days I always take 2 showers, one in morning, one at night. The pressure was the same reguardless of when, and we got up at different times each morning as well. Most of the time poor water pressure (at least on newer buildings) is caused by water saving heads and aerators. I actually brought a showerhead with me, as Ive experienced this problem before at Disney. (SSSHHHHH.... theres a NON disney showerhead somewhere in the POP that has AWESOME pressure from a previous trip) but the one at this room was on there VERY tight. I only brought my pliars. LOL Not my Ridgid pipe wrench!!! You can usually go into most showerheads and remove the water saver from the inside with a pair of pliars. Once removed it triples your pressure and is undetectable from outside the head <its just a washer with a tiny hole> Its one of the services I provide my customers free of charge with any service call, and 99% of them jump on it. (I then have the chance to sell them a better showerhead if it doesnt make much difference. Common business practice). Though I will admit that most of the time that cures it and I dont have to sell them a new one. The humor is that I sell the EXACT same showerhead off my main plumbing van that is on many of the disney resorts and I know for a fact that it has a water saver washer because I always remove it prior to installation. This water saver thing isnt endorsed by plumbers, its endorsed by the gov. The plumbers hate water conservation. It just makes for angry customers.

 

[wfloyd]

We never had any problems in our room at Pop. It would always be cold when we returned and on a couple of occasions it was a little too cold.

 

[vfb2girls]

I can understand the OP being disgusted with the water pressure from the showers since he is in the plumbing business, it is the same with the A/C units at any place that my husband and I stay at, he is a HVAC man and he expects the A/C units to be in perfect working order. The same goes for the heating units. The nice thing about this is he can usually adjust whatever system in the room where we are staying to meet our needs.

 

[gigi1313]

as I like to come back from a hot day at the parks to a frigid hotel room. Looks like this is not gonna happen. What can I do to 'trick' the motion detector??? Any help would be appreciated!!!

here's my best advice to "trick" the motion detector cooling systems... buy a balloon... or two... as the balloons float around the room, they will always create motion... as they lose their helium (go for latex, not mylar!) they will be even more helpful...

that being said, even w/out the balloon we had no problem at pop keeping cool and actually had to up the thermostat a few degrees to keep from shivering! (i also like to sleep in a freezer! keep my home thermostat at 68-70 when i can do so w/out dh changing it! LOL!) the room was always cold when we came back from the parks...

now, water pressure, that's a different story... i have yet to find a hotel w/decent water pressure!

 

[kelscross]

We stayed at Pop last xmas and I didn't notice the AC issue there. However, we switched to the Poly and it was freezing that week so when we came back to the room it was freezing in the room. I had no idea that everything was controlled by motion so I called the front desk immediately telling them that the heat wasn't working etc. They sent someone to the room and much to my embarassment we found out it was controlled by motion..ha!