angelkisses
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2005
Just returned from a 5 night stay at POP Century. This place was wonderful. I was a little skeptical about the POP until we arrived. To me looking at some of the pictures I thought it looked a little Cheesy to be honest with all the big icons but soon after arriving I realized this would become one of our families favorite resorts.
We had requested a room in the 50's building facing the lake. We read on the boards that this was one of the best locations and there was no need to pay the additional $10 a night for the preferred rooms. Our family of 4 (dh47, dd12, ds19) disagreed. There was nothing wrong with the 50's building but the kids just had a fit over the "hippy dippy pool" in the 60's building. Also the walking distance to the fabulous food court, exciting game room, gift shop and bus stops really made a difference to us. After seeing the difference we requested to change to a preferred location. We ended up on the 4th floor in the 60's building number 5. Our room number was 5465. We were pleasantly surprised that we could see fireworks from the walkway in front of our room at night. Our room overlooked the pool and I felt very safe at allowing my 12 year old swim without me constantly being at poolside. At any given time we would count 6 lifeguards! They also constantly walked around the pool keeping them alert rather than just sitting in a lifeguard chair. The lifeguards stayed on duty until 11pm and the pool was open until midnight. As far as safety my biggest concern was my daughter walking down the walkways from the room as the room doorways are set back a little from the walkway and it's hard to see around corners. I would walk my daughter to the pool and walk back to get her. This area of the hotel was a bit more noisier than the 50's but being on the top floor certainly helped and by midnight all was quiet. I never heard the flushing from the toilets from other rooms as some have described, in fact I did not hear any room noise only noise from the kids by the pool. It was nice having the refillable mugs however if we had stayed in one of the other buildings I'm sure we would not have used them nearly as much. It was great having the soda machines near the pool we were using.
My 12 year old was so delited with the hotel that it was no problem getting her to leave the parks to return back to our room. As soon as I mentioned going back to the hotel she was ready. In fact, she asked if we could return to the POP sometime even if we were not going to Disney. We looked at the outsides of many of the other resorts at Disney and with exception of the Grand Floridian she liked the looks of our hotel the best. It really is colorful and kid friendly.
Our maid service was pretty good. Each day we tipped the maid, she would leave us a bag of 12 soaps and shampoos however if we left in a hurry and did not leave a tip we would just get the basic towel service and our beds made. This happened twice. We never got any towel animals however she did make us a cute toothbrush holder out of the towels. On our last day, the maid came into our room while we were taking things out to our car. She sit down in a chair and started eating her lunch while we were doing this which I thought to be kind of odd. My daughter and I were at the gift shop while the men were taking things to the car. When my husband came to meet me in the gift shop the maid came after him. She accused him of taking her black bag which contained her ID, wallet, etc.. It was very confusing as we do not speak Spanish and she was having difficulty speaking English. Finally my husband and the maid found someone that could interpret for them. She was very excited in tears and we felt sorry for her but we had not taken her bag. In the meantime I was contacting management to see if we could get some assistance in getting this little problem resolved. When everyone went back up to our room, the bag was behind the chair she had been sitting in eating her lunch. The maid was very embarrassed and grateful that we did not get upset with her.
We checked out one day early due to illness at home. Pop was very nice in refunding one night of our stay even though it was 2pm (after regular check out time) when we checked out. We had also used a couple of our dining credits already for the following day. We did not ask for the refund it was generously offered.
I would also like to add that the rooms now have hairdryers, ironing boards and irons. I read on a few boards where there seemed to be a question as to whether the rooms had these items. The maids also keep you generously stocked with towels to be used around the pool. The rooms were small but we had ample space.
We had no problems using the bus service. Our maximum wait time was about 15 minutes but usually we waited no more than 5-10 minutes. We never moved our car the entire stay. We went to the contemporary a couple times and noticed that the bus service was much poorer from that hotel possibly because they have other means of transportation with the monorail and boats and they shared with the polynesian.
Would I recommend and go back to the POP .... just as soon as I get another FREE dining plan offer. I'll be writing a review on that real soon.
We had requested a room in the 50's building facing the lake. We read on the boards that this was one of the best locations and there was no need to pay the additional $10 a night for the preferred rooms. Our family of 4 (dh47, dd12, ds19) disagreed. There was nothing wrong with the 50's building but the kids just had a fit over the "hippy dippy pool" in the 60's building. Also the walking distance to the fabulous food court, exciting game room, gift shop and bus stops really made a difference to us. After seeing the difference we requested to change to a preferred location. We ended up on the 4th floor in the 60's building number 5. Our room number was 5465. We were pleasantly surprised that we could see fireworks from the walkway in front of our room at night. Our room overlooked the pool and I felt very safe at allowing my 12 year old swim without me constantly being at poolside. At any given time we would count 6 lifeguards! They also constantly walked around the pool keeping them alert rather than just sitting in a lifeguard chair. The lifeguards stayed on duty until 11pm and the pool was open until midnight. As far as safety my biggest concern was my daughter walking down the walkways from the room as the room doorways are set back a little from the walkway and it's hard to see around corners. I would walk my daughter to the pool and walk back to get her. This area of the hotel was a bit more noisier than the 50's but being on the top floor certainly helped and by midnight all was quiet. I never heard the flushing from the toilets from other rooms as some have described, in fact I did not hear any room noise only noise from the kids by the pool. It was nice having the refillable mugs however if we had stayed in one of the other buildings I'm sure we would not have used them nearly as much. It was great having the soda machines near the pool we were using.
My 12 year old was so delited with the hotel that it was no problem getting her to leave the parks to return back to our room. As soon as I mentioned going back to the hotel she was ready. In fact, she asked if we could return to the POP sometime even if we were not going to Disney. We looked at the outsides of many of the other resorts at Disney and with exception of the Grand Floridian she liked the looks of our hotel the best. It really is colorful and kid friendly.
Our maid service was pretty good. Each day we tipped the maid, she would leave us a bag of 12 soaps and shampoos however if we left in a hurry and did not leave a tip we would just get the basic towel service and our beds made. This happened twice. We never got any towel animals however she did make us a cute toothbrush holder out of the towels. On our last day, the maid came into our room while we were taking things out to our car. She sit down in a chair and started eating her lunch while we were doing this which I thought to be kind of odd. My daughter and I were at the gift shop while the men were taking things to the car. When my husband came to meet me in the gift shop the maid came after him. She accused him of taking her black bag which contained her ID, wallet, etc.. It was very confusing as we do not speak Spanish and she was having difficulty speaking English. Finally my husband and the maid found someone that could interpret for them. She was very excited in tears and we felt sorry for her but we had not taken her bag. In the meantime I was contacting management to see if we could get some assistance in getting this little problem resolved. When everyone went back up to our room, the bag was behind the chair she had been sitting in eating her lunch. The maid was very embarrassed and grateful that we did not get upset with her.
We checked out one day early due to illness at home. Pop was very nice in refunding one night of our stay even though it was 2pm (after regular check out time) when we checked out. We had also used a couple of our dining credits already for the following day. We did not ask for the refund it was generously offered.
I would also like to add that the rooms now have hairdryers, ironing boards and irons. I read on a few boards where there seemed to be a question as to whether the rooms had these items. The maids also keep you generously stocked with towels to be used around the pool. The rooms were small but we had ample space.
We had no problems using the bus service. Our maximum wait time was about 15 minutes but usually we waited no more than 5-10 minutes. We never moved our car the entire stay. We went to the contemporary a couple times and noticed that the bus service was much poorer from that hotel possibly because they have other means of transportation with the monorail and boats and they shared with the polynesian.
Would I recommend and go back to the POP .... just as soon as I get another FREE dining plan offer. I'll be writing a review on that real soon.
& when you are tired from a day of walking in the park & head to the stop, see the bus there.... you can't run to catch it 
! Thanks 
