Pop Century vs All star sports?

[casjen]

I am planning a trip for August 08 and for budget reasons we are staying in a value. I was reading Pop can be noisy (in the rooms, as in hearing your neighbors). Is this true? Is Sports quieter or busier?

I have 2 boys, so I think they'd like both.

Pros and cons to both?

 

[daninalismama]

I have to tell you, we just returned from our stay at Pop this year and I wasn't all that impressed. I did love the decor and all the huge icons, and the fact that I'm a child of the 80's (born in the 70's), and we stayed in the 80's building was cool; however, I have never in my life seen so many people, families, kids, everyone, always in the food court!

Last year was my first year and we stayed at AS Sports. Now, maybe we got spoiled because at check-in, the CM upgraded us to a preferred room for free, so we were in Surf's Up, which was right by the pool and the food court, but even being down there at the same time as this year, the crowds at Sports were nowhere near PC. PC was loud every night. The walls are so thin we could hear the crying baby next door (which became our wakeup call) and every time someone flushed the toilet or took a shower upstairs, we could hear the water running. Nothing like that in Sports. Very quiet, even by the pool area, and the only time we really heard any outside noise was when the people would be walking right outside our door.

Lot's of people will probably disagree with me here, but I was so excited to try Pop this year, but I wouldn't go back. I would definitely do Sports over Pop any day!

 

[minnie61650]

I have to tell you, we just returned from our stay at Pop this year and I wasn't all that impressed. I did love the decor and all the huge icons, and the fact that I'm a child of the 80's (born in the 70's), and we stayed in the 80's building was cool; however, I have never in my life seen so many people, families, kids, everyone, always in the food court!

Last year was my first year and we stayed at AS Sports. Now, maybe we got spoiled because at check-in, the CM upgraded us to a preferred room for free, so we were in Surf's Up, which was right by the pool and the food court, but even being down there at the same time as this year, the crowds at Sports were nowhere near PC. PC was loud every night. The walls are so thin we could hear the crying baby next door (which became our wakeup call) and every time someone flushed the toilet or took a shower upstairs, we could hear the water running. Nothing like that in Sports. Very quiet, even by the pool area, and the only time we really heard any outside noise was when the people would be walking right outside our door.

Lot's of people will probably disagree with me here, but I was so excited to try Pop this year, but I wouldn't go back. I would definitely do Sports over Pop any day!

We stay at All Star Music and my DH who is a builder remarked about how quiet the rooms are. We never our heard our neighbors and I only heard a toilet flush once when I was awake during the night.

I had read that the ventilation system at Pop is set up different than the system at the All Star resorts.
6 rooms at Pop all share the same ventilation system.
That is why Pop had a lot of problems with guests smelling smoke when smokers would smoke in neighboring rooms.

I think the room noises are also traveling through the ventilation system at Pop.

So even though the walls may not have bean any thinner at Pop the rooms seem to be noisier there.

Just my 2 cents

Have fun at Disney!

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

I never stayed at Pop but we certainly didn't find Sports noisy at all! The rooms are very quiet and we also stayed at Surfs Up near the main pool.

 

[maggs]

I had read that the ventilation system at Pop is set up different than the system at the All Star resorts.
6 rooms at Pop all share the same ventilation system.
That is why Pop had a lot of problems with guests smelling smoke when smokers would smoke in neighboring rooms.

I think the room noises are also traveling through the ventilation system at Pop.

So even though the walls may not have bean any thinner at Pop the rooms seem to be noisier there.

Just my 2 cents

Have fun at Disney!

Thnaks for that explanation. We stayed at Pop last year and were plagued by smoke coming through the aircon. The noise was pretty bad too. In fact it spoiled our stay. I have never stayed in Sports (we love Music) but would like to try it some day.

Maggs

 

[yngsj]

I have stayed at both and really can't say I found any difference between the two, except for liking the food court at Pop slightly more.

 

[KitKate]

We stayed at POP in July 07, during the July 4th period. I found our room quiet but we were on the back side of the building away from the pool side, on the top floor. We heard nothing from our neighbours either voices or flush noises. We were close to the food court / bus stops but not involved in any traffic or noise. For a value hotel, we will definitely stay here again. The food court was busy as we passed thorugh the hotel but since we were on the dining plan we ate mostly in the parks anyway.

 

[KNovacovschi]

I was just looking on the boards and noticed that people are undecided in regards to Pop Century. My family and I went to WDW for the first time this year in August and stayed at Pop Century and I can tell you we loved it. We are planning to go back next year. We could not hear anything from other rooms and were very close to the pool. We were located in the '50's building A on the first floor. The room was clean and the cleaning staff would leave towel animals in our room each day. Not only that my daughter had collected some stuffed animals while we were there and the cleaning staff would arrange them nicely in the window or on the bed for her. Also when we went it was about 105 degress out the whole time and the room was a nice relief from the heat. The pools were fun. My daughter enjoyed the flower pool the most. Also the food court I thought was great. The food was fresh and was not as small of a porportion like you would think seeing it is a cafeteria.

So all in all the only place I think we would be staying would be Pop Century.

 

[karmalicousss]

We are staying at POP Century

 

[JoyMouse]

We've stayed at Pop several times as well as at ASM. We loved both, but our fave is Pop. We've never found it to be overly noisy and the food at is great fun there. We really love the icee machine. (I know, but small things sometimes delight us...). I also like that it has it's own bus route. The other values share a route. I can't wait to go back.
Happy Thanksgiving!!

 

[CanadianGuy]

With two stays at Pop in the last 12 months.. one was ground floor room, about 42 steps to the pool. I never heard a peep with the door shut. From the pool, our neighbors or anything else.

Maybe my hearing is going.. I am getting older now..

 

[aubriee]

I love POP and have stayed there six times. Last May I decided to try AS Sports just for a change and was very pleasantly surprised. This past Sept I also tried ASMusic and liked it. I've been at POP in Jan, May, Sept, and Dec so it didn't have anything to do with the time of the year I went, but POP just seemed so much more busier than the All Stars. The lines for the buses were always alot longer too. The food court at POP was always busy and we had to look around for a seat, whereas at the All Stars there was always quite a few seats available. With POP the food court and gift shop are sortof connected, so that makes both areas seem really busy. Don't get me wrong I still love POP, but it is more crowded and noiser.

POP does have the better food court though and also has the frozen slushies, which I missed at the All Stars. I originally booked POP for my upcoming Dec trip, but it was not available with the Chase Visa discount code I used, so moved to AS Sports. I didn't hesitate to make the switch and have no reservations about it. For my upcoming May trip I am undecided where to stay, but will probably go with either POP, AS Sports, or AS Music (unless a really good code comes out for a moderate ). If I go with AS Music I will get a preferred room, but not if I go with POP or AS Sports.

 

[RllngRckBrw]

I have stayed at both, and I prefered Pop for the following reasons. I thought the Pop food court was nicer and I liked the pools better. Although both are extremely similar even in the areas I just mentioned, so there is not a huge difference. I didnt experience any noise probs at either. Every now and again you would hear voices walking by the room, or a phone ring, water running etc, but nothing more than I have experienced at any other hotel.