Pop Century connecting rooms

[goofy4tink]

I don't have time to find it atm, but there was a poster on these boards who was traveling with a single adult and enough minor children that they were over occupancy. They did not get connecting rooms because there were none available. The resort was able to move them the next day, but at check in they were out of luck.

And it is not being a worry wort... it is planning for something that could realistically happen. It's called being informed on the way things work.

It always pays to plan ahead, for all possible eventualities!! Makes those who plan ahead that much further ahead if and when something does go 'wrong'....or that just doesn't fit their situation. If you understand that 'stuff' happens, you can also plan for it. You can have alternatives in mind, rather than standing there, being upset. You're absolutely right...it's not being a worry wart..it's just smart!!

 

[weswife]

My 2 cents.

We are a family of 5. I request connecting rooms. I was told that Disney count not guarantee it BUT would try their best to make it happen. Like others have said 2 adults can be split to have an adult in each room. I even explained our DD is disabled and alot of times her care involves both DH and I. Even with that they explained the policy. I worried too! Fast forward, yes we got the connecting rooms! CBR, WL and POP! The year we went to CBR our older DD's BF came so we actually had 3 rooms. We had connecting rooms and about 3 doors down was his room.

All the best on your trip. This site is full of information, like others said it keeps you prepared.

Enjoy!

 

[kkyle60]

Thank you. I addressed this in post nine. Yes, "half" the rooms in Pop Century are connecting rooms, but they connect to each other. In actuality, a quarter of the rooms are connecting rooms.

Each floor of a typical POP building has 72 rooms. Of those rooms 36 rooms are connecting rooms. 72/2=36 Half of the rooms in the resort have a connection to another room. You can count them here - http://disneyworldlinks.com/tools/PopCenturyRoomLayoutLarge.jpg

Half means half, not a quarter.

• When rooms were assigned by people, it was done two or three days prior to Guest arrival.
• Rooms are now assigned by computer (which shouldn't have any negative effect on connecting room requests and should, if the programming works right, actually be beneficial).
• When anybody calls that number, they get a call center where the person answering the phone sees that "Pop Century" is being called and answers appropriately.
• When there were Room Assigners - and there were more than one given Pop's potential 700+ daily turnover - they were too busy doing that job to come to the phone no matter how nicely anybody would have asked to speak to one - if the caller had been ever able to get through to the resort itself.

If they have made a change it has been in the last 9 months. I followed this exact procedure in April 2010. Yes the first person who answers the phone is at a call center, but they transfer you to the resort when you ask for the room assigner. I called, requested, and received two adjacent rooms. The adjacent room was for friends who traveled under a different reservation and arrived on a different day than us. So unless they have completely changes the system since then, my suggestion should still work.


What is the point of having a hotel with half of the rooms connecting to an adjacent room if you can't provide those rooms to the guests who want them?

 

[TheRoyalPaynes]

Don't worry Op, while the booking CM's should not tell people that any request is *guaranteed*....they really will try very hard to accommodate your family at check-in.
FWIW, I always request connecting rooms & have always gotten them.

I was coming to post this very thing. Everytime we've travelled with our boys and asked for (true) connecting rooms, we've gotten them, no problems.

 

[maxiesmom]

If they have made a change it has been in the last 9 months. I followed this exact procedure in April 2010. Yes the first person who answers the phone is at a call center, but they transfer you to the resort when you ask for the room assigner. I called, requested, and received two adjacent rooms. The adjacent room was for friends who traveled under a different reservation and arrived on a different day than us. So unless they have completely changes the system since then, my suggestion should still work.


What is the point of having a hotel with half of the rooms connecting to an adjacent room if you can't provide those rooms to the guests who want them?

Ok, you are confusing Disney terminology. Connecting rooms are rooms that have the inside door between the 2 rooms. Adjacent rooms are rooms that are next to each other without the inside door. Did you have connecting or adjacent rooms?

And the change over to computerized room assigning is indeed a very recent one.

Disney does try to provide people with connecting rooms if they request them. Sometimes, as I can verify, it is an impossible request to get. There is a limited number of rooms that connect. Once they are gone, they are gone. If you read thru Disney's web-site you will find that they tell you things like room location or conecting rooms are requests only. They do not guarantee you will get them, but it doesn't hurt to ask!

 

[catne]

The change to computer-assignment HAS occurred in the last few months. Don't know what day they actually went "live" with the computer-assignment facet of their system upgrades, but I do know all those computer issues during the Fall of 2010 were related to the upgrades that were made to all the reservation systems (if you google search it, I'm sure you can find numerous threads regarding the mess the on-line system, and the phone-in system too, had throughout the Fall...including times when the entire system was down. Usually the phone people could help when the on-line was down, but there were times when they could not "see" information, too. And lengthy delays. And lots of glitches in the various systems and on Disney's various websites. All that seems to be vastly improved now.)

By the way, both times we stayed at POp Century we were given connecting rooms...and we didn't actually want them. We'd prefer not to have that interior door, because we find we hear a lot more noise from the next door room when that inside door is there. But anyway, every time they assign someone to a room with a connecting door, then 2 rooms come out of the connecting-room supply. So I can see how it is completely possible to run out of connecting rooms...if they end up assigning those rooms to people that did not request them.

 

[kaytieeldr]

But anyway, every time they assign someone to a room with a connecting door, then 2 rooms come out of the connecting-room supply. So I can see how it is completely possible to run out of connecting rooms...if they end up assigning those rooms to people that did not request them.

Every one of those king bed handicap-accessible rooms is a connecting room. In fact, every king bed room is a connecting room. Yes, I'm positive.

So when you have a Guest who needs (or requests and gets) one of these rooms and isn't traveling with others, you take a pair of connecting rooms out of the pool.

Each floor of a typical POP building has 72 rooms. Of those rooms 36 rooms are connecting rooms. 72/2=36 Half of the rooms in the resort have a connection to another room. You can count them here -

I can count. I probably have the Pop floor plans memorized, thank you .

Yes, there are 36 connecting rooms - but half of those connect TO EACH OTHER. There are eighteen PAIRS of connecting rooms on each floor. It's impressive to have 36 connecting rooms, but when you're considering them AS connecting rooms, there are only eighteen sets per floor.

 

[kkyle60]

Ok, you are confusing Disney terminology. Connecting rooms are rooms that have the inside door between the 2 rooms. Adjacent rooms are rooms that are next to each other without the inside door. Did you have connecting or adjacent rooms?

No confusion. In this case I wanted adjoining rooms, not connecting rooms, because we were traveling with friends, not family. The request was accommodated even though we had two separate reservations and checked in on different days. I have asked for and received connecting rooms in the past using the same method.

Yes, there are 36 connecting rooms - but half of those connect TO EACH OTHER. There are eighteen PAIRS of connecting rooms on each floor. It's impressive to have 36 connecting rooms, but when you're considering them AS connecting rooms, there are only eighteen sets per floor.

If you were to be randomly assigned a room at POP there would be a 50% chance that the room would be a connecting room. If you count them as pairs there are 18 pairs of connecting rooms on each floor and 18 pairs of non-connecting rooms on each floor. If you have a pair of shoes, you have two shoes. Just because two non-connecting rooms can be assigned in many more variations than connecting rooms doesn't mean there are more of them.

 

[cruisingkat]

We have stayed at POP 8 times over the last four years where we have asked for a connecting room (and another 3 times where we didn't request one). Out of all those stays, we have gotten a connecting room once (on our visit 2 months ago). The other times we have gotten rooms next to each other (where the outside doors to the room were in the same indentation).
In fact, we were checking in and were about to be assigned a king room connecting to a double bed room, when the cast member told us there was a problem, the connecting double was taken while she was booking us into our king. She was able to get us two connecting doubles. We were really glad, next to us was an extended family group checking in and they were having a problem getting rooms even near each other.