Pop Century--- Second Visit Terrible

[CDizney]

I've stayed at Pop Century twice now. Once one month after it opened and then again two weeks ago. I liked my first visit just fine. The room, of course, was new and efficient and thought it was a great deal for the money and that is why I returned again for my trip two weeks ago.

I have to first say that I have stayed at both value, moderate, deluxe, and home-away-from home resorts. However, the conditions at the Pop were appaling this time around. The room I had was left semi clean with the bathroom being the worst. During my stay I found overall tha the maintenance of the resort was really lacking. I found a little girls pair of underwear laying at the side of the pool for two days on the ground and no one picked them up. I eventually did the second day and threw it in the trash. I saw a soiled baby diaper at the foot of the pool bar.

I found that it took about half a day for maintenance to clean up a table pool side that someone left about the peelings of 5 oranges at along with other trash. Cigarette butts galore on the ground around the entrances and pool area too were not pleasing. The condition of the food court was just sloppy and unorganized. The carpets in there need a cleaning so bad it's not funny. The overall experience of what I saw during the trip just really turned me off to this place which is hard because I really love Disney.

I know value means value but I can't believe how my second stay differed from the first.

 

[maxiesmom]

It does sound like they could use more maintainence help.

But--IMHO people are getting sloppier and sloppier. I work in retail, and I still find it hard to beleive how messy people are! They will be right next to a trash can, but throw their trash on the ground. They leave used diapers in the changing rooms, and some of them even use the changing rooms for their own personal bathrooms. Disgusting!

There have been many comments lately on how messy the parks are, and how messy the food courts are. You can say that Disney needs to hire more help to keep up. But when do we become responsible? Why is it ok to leave your garbage behind when you are on vacation? It is too easy to say that it is someones job to clean up. Why should someone have to be paid to clean up behind you?

You may have guessed that this has touched a nerve. Getting of my soapbox now.

 

[madison66]

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[fsu]

OH BOY! That is not what I wanted to hear we leave tommorrow for Disney and PC. 1st night we will be off property but then June 1st PC for 4 nights. I hope it is ok when we are there.

 

[madison66]

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[melomouse]

I am so sorry to hear about the conditions at Pop. i think maybe you ought to consider firing off a letter.

Do you think it makes any difference because it's a "value" resort? I hope not!

I agree about personal responsibility - but are guests really getting more and more sloppy and careless and disrespectful - AND has WDW cut WAAY back on cleaning/maintenance crews???

TWO days? Dirty diapers? Never - anywhere in the old WDW. Any housekeeper for a hotel will tell you that in general, people are slobby. Maybe they're getting worse. And I still agree that everyone should clean up after themselves. But some NEVER have, and never will. Mousekeeping and maintenance always made us believe there was at least ONE place in the world where - if slobby folks did exist, we would've never known they were there! Part of the magic?? KWIM?

Many many soapboxes today!!!

 

[Ava]

It does sound like they could use more maintainence help.

But--IMHO people are getting sloppier and sloppier. I work in retail, and I still find it hard to beleive how messy people are! They will be right next to a trash can, but throw their trash on the ground. They leave used diapers in the changing rooms, and some of them even use the changing rooms for their own personal bathrooms. Disgusting!

There have been many comments lately on how messy the parks are, and how messy the food courts are. You can say that Disney needs to hire more help to keep up. But when do we become responsible? Why is it ok to leave your garbage behind when you are on vacation? It is too easy to say that it is someones job to clean up. Why should someone have to be paid to clean up behind you?

You may have guessed that this has touched a nerve. Getting of my soapbox now.

ITA! Several times during my recent trip I saw people get up after eating at a counter service restaurant or in the resort food court (ASMusic) and just leave all of their trash on the table. Who does that?? I suppose that someone from another country may not know that you are supposed to dispose of your own trash in that type of restaurant, but I would hope that after one or two meals they would see others throwing their trash away & catch on. I also saw a bunch of food trash left on a few of the loungers by the main pool. Some people really turn into pigs when they're on vacation. Whenever I see something like that I always wonder if those people would leave trash like that laying around at home.

 

[noseybuddy]

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Do you think it makes any difference because it's a "value" resort? I hope not!
:

No it doesn't. I stayed at the GF August 2002. Went to my room, and it was dirty, looked like it had never been cleaned. Opened food, clothes, etc. Went back to desk and told them, they gave me another room. This one had been cleaned, but not good enough in my opinion. I was there for a week. It all depends on who cleans your room. For the first 5 days, it didn't look like she/he did a thing but make the bed. I left little things on the floor just to see if they got vacuumed (sp?) up, They didn't until the 6th day, when someone else had cleaned the room. The foyer to the building I was in was dirty everyday as was the counter service meal place (forget the name) we had to clean our table off every morning. Even the new pool was dirty, to the point that we didn't go there anymore, went to the other one instead. People can be slobs, see it more and more everyday, but I still think it is the Hotel's responsibility to keep the place clean, especially for the people who are NOT slobs.

 

[wicked_maleficent]

Ooo..this is so NOT what I wanted to hear! Which value hotels seems the best? I'd heard so many good things about POP, but now I'm wondering if we should pick a different resort.

And as far as people picking up after themselves, I will join you on that soapbox! I really don't know what is wrong with people that will just leave a dirty diaper laying around. ewww!

 

[spiceycat]

some people expect others to pick up after them.....

I have never had your problems at the Pop. So sorry you did....

If it was a diaper - I think I would have called the manager at the time.

after you leave it is hard to prove these things were there....

definitely write a letter.

the manager at Pop really seems to care and tries his best. I can guaranteed he didn't know.

 

[luvu8]

My family also stayed at Pop when it was just about one month old. At that point, we had stayed at several moderates, and one deluxe. Pop was the only one at which I had serious complaints with mousekeeping. The floors weren't vacuumed the entire week, and the beds weren't made several times. We have always been generous with tipping, but I don't think that should even matter. Mousekeeping should be attentive regardless of the tip.

We also found that the Food Court was a complete mess every time we went there to eat. Dirty floor, dirty tables, sticky drink area. The disappointing thing is that we were there during one of the slowest weeks of the year, so large crowds weren't the problem.

I had chalked it all up to the fact that the resort was so new, with new staff, working out the "kinks", etc., although I resolved to not stay there again. I'm sorry to hear that the same issues seem to still get mentioned when Pop is discussed.

 

[goofy4tink]

I was at POP last August, my first stay there, then for one night in early Dec. I just got back on May 21 from a week long stay there. I was in the 80's bldg. I thought everything was fine, with some few exceptions. The computer pool was continually left a mess at night. I did laundry one morning and one table beside the pool had about 10 empty beer bottles on it. Ashtrays full of butts on the tables, stuff just left lying around the pool area. Not sure why people can't pick up their 'leavings' when they leave the pool area.
But, the food court was very tidy and clean. The drink stations were full of people and I saw many cases of CMs trying to keep up with the mess...it was like throwing snow into the wind!!! I have found a general lack of personal responsibility everywhere at WDW. Lots of people just leaving stuff on table, rummaging through merchandise in the shops and just letting it stay on the floor rather than put it back where it was pushed from.
I don't think POP is alone in this problem. I saw evidence of it all over the place.

 

[Schmeck]

Wow - when we were at Pop Century we had almost complained because they were cleaning too much, LOL! They were using power washers, power fans, etc, to do the exterior hallways and it was noisy and dusty.

I've noticed a lot of poolsides at WDW are unkempt - Stormalong Bay had tables of empty food containers for most of our weeklong trip. Not the same containers for the whole trip, but there were always at least 1/3 of the tables with trash on them. We ended up cleaning off a table so we could eat every time we went to Hurricane Hanna's.

 

[Holly]

We stayed at the Pop in march, and found it to be very clean, especially for how crowded it was.

The only complaint we had was the long waits for busses that were always packed full to capacity.
We had a split stay at Pop and SSR and the SSR busses were empty compared to PC's.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

We are huge POP fans after staying at all levels of the WORLD i'm sorry you had a bad experience, but have to also agree that soo many people are just slobs. I think me being a hotel major and working many hotels including WDW resorts makes me a bit of a clean freak, and when i see a table or such as you described, i usually just pick it up myself and go on about my day. The clean room upon check in though, i would have definately reported, that's uncalled for.

Good luck whereever you stay next We're thrilled to do POP again this year and next!!!

 

[minnie61650]

No it doesn't. I stayed at the GF August 2002. ..... I was there for a week. It all depends on who cleans your room. For the first 5 days, it didn't look like she/he did a thing but make the bed. I left little things on the floor just to see if they got vacuumed (sp?) up, They didn't until the 6th day, when someone else had cleaned the room. ......People can be slobs, see it more and more everyday, but I still think it is the Hotel's responsibility to keep the place clean, especially for the people who are NOT slobs.

I agree.

I have also noticed a trend with housekeeping in the last few years.

I do not think they routinely vacuum rooms anymore.
Only when a guest checks out or if it is really trashed.

I think this trend is not only at Disney but all over the country,
I have noticed it at Myrtle Beach, Tunica, Macinaw Island, Las Vegas, Disneyland, San Diego, and Reno just to mention a few.

So a word to wise-try not leave crumbs and if you do call housekeeping and request a "special" cleaning saying you need to have your room vacuumed..

 

[slbeaute]

That is so dissapointing! It's been 5 yrs since we've been to WDW but I remember everything being very clean. We only had a problem one time at CR resort upon check in. It wasn't clean when we checked in. Then again when we arrived later, it still wasn't clean. We complained and received a credit! So...I'm hoping POP will be OK. As for the parks, I'm used to seeing the mess at Six Flags, etc. but don't can't ever remember seeing that at WDW. I just don't understand why people can't walk four feet to throw away their stuff! Seriously!

 

[lonegungirl]

It's an odd thing, but I had a similar experience at ASMu--the first time I stayed there, everything was wonderful--the room was clean, they left me a towel animal, I never heard a peep out of anyone else around there, even though I think there was some sort of cheerleading thing going on...it was great.

The second time, the ice machine was broken, and even though I reported it at the beginning of the week, it was never fixed while I was there. Housekeeping came by at around 0630-0700 each day yelling "HOUSEKEEPING!" into each room, so even if you had your "do not disturb" sign up, you woke up anyway, from hearing them all the way up and down the walkway. When I tried to ask one of the housekeepers about something (I forget exactly what) it became evident that none of them--not even the supervisor she brought over to assist me--spoke more than very basic English and were consequently unable to help me. (Note: It was certainly not that they were unwilling to help me, and certainly not their fault that I'm not bilingual...but...I still couldn't get helped.) Sometimes we got extra towels and sometimes not. This was possibly because we put the tip in the Mousekeeping envelopes and on a few days they didn't pick it up! We tried putting it everywhere--by the housekeeping sign, on the nightstand, on the TV, on the sink edge--they just didn't seem to know what it was.

Anyway, I guess it just depends on luck who your housekeeper is and what they're willing/able to do. I did stay at Contemporary once, and found a used diaper out on the patio there too, so it must not just be the values. We're trying Pop this time, so we'll see how it goes.

 

[SLDL]

Please please please, if you have had problems at the POP (or any resort!) please write a letter of complaint. For all those who are coming behind you, let management know of your bad experiences. Maybe people that are vacationing are less tidy and not picking up after themselves as they should?? I also seem to notice that the older I get, the less I can tolerate uncleanliness. Not washing hands after the restroom, spitting on the sidewalk, etc. etc. yuck!! Not that I ever approved of those things, but now I can enter any hotel room & just imagine all those germs floating around. Maybe that's thanks to those dateline type shows that make you want to stay at home forever. I guess I just have to bring my own clorox, mini vacuum, bedspread from home, etc. and have a great vacation!

 

[all4disney98]

We stayed at Pop for the second time a few weeks ago and didn't encounter any of these problems. I thought it was pretty clean and even watched them from the pool as they sprayed down the huge icons that are found on the railings (the people dancing, CDs etc.). Our room was clean and mousekeeping was great in my opinion.

I did notice when I was up early one morning that the laptop pool had a lot of trash around, but as I walked back to our room a little later I noticed a maintenance person cleaning everything up. I think that was due to people using the pool after it closed. Unfortunately I think some people go on vacation and take it a little too far and don't clean up after themselves. I feel bad for the CMs, I can just imagine what they encounter!