Pop Century's bad rap - is it deserved?

[RachaelA]

DF and I love POP. We don't pay for a preferred room because that's where a lot of families stay and we don't want to be on the 1st floor because that has more traffic. We're going back in '09 and that will our regular resort after we have a few trips at some deluxes for our honeymoon and 1st anniversary.

 

[Stitch2007]

DBF and I LOVE Pop Century. We've stayed there the past 2 years and will stay there again in January and I can't wait. I've asked DBF the past 2 years if he wants to try somewhere else, but he always says Pop. We usually stay in the 70's building which I think is quieter because there is no pool.

 

[ARC]

I have stayed in both Pop & ASMu. I am a huge Pop fan!!

 

[Mick&Minn]

POP CENTURY the best value resort stayed there 6 times in the last 4 years
and after we stay at the contemporary for four days we will then go there again. You will love it there.

 

[goofy4tink]

Just the opposite for DH & I we won't be back to POP ever again. We had the most unmagical experience we've ever had onsite at POP last September. The resort is huge, overcrowded, rude, unruley, unsupervised kids. Kids running up & down the halls after 10pm at night screaming, no parental control. Rude & lazy guests slamming doors on locks instead of using keys. Preferred room had view of absolutely nothing, far away from elevator, food court, pool & bus transportation. As far as the bus transportation, no matter what time of day we went to a park you normally had to wait for at least 2 buses before you could get standing room only to a park. The food court was always slammed & you had to play table vulture to get a seat & pray that your food was still hot when/if you found a table to eat at.

Now at ASMu it was the total opposite. It's a much smaller resort, rooms have recently been refurbished. Overall it had a more magical appeal to it than POP did. (Pop's beginning to look really run down in the rooms). Food court was much better. Activities around the pool for kids daily. No issues with the buses. They only shared 1x while we were there & that was to AK.

Overall ASMu wins hands down for us over POP. I know that won't upset anyone because it'll leave more rooms for everyone else, but JMHO........

Your POP stay sounds exactly like my one Polynesian stay!! Man, those kids, running in the halls at park closing or first thing in the morning, banging on doors as they passed by was really annoying. I still can't understand why parents never did anything about it.
Anyway....a 'preferred room' will get you closer to the food court/main bldg/bus stop area, as well as very close to the pools. It does not give you a better view. I had the best views at POP while in standard rooms. I am trying a preferred room later this week but that's pretty much in the way of research.
POP is a large resort, but is is pretty well laid out. I have stayed there 4 times now...in 50's (bldg 2, third floor way to the rear of the bldg), 50's (bldg 1, ground level towards the back/side), 80's (ground level, facing the parking lot/lake) and 60's (bldg 4, 4th floor, facing the lake). I have to say they were all good locations. Not once did I notice my neighbors. Okay, the first time we stayed there, 50's, bldg 2, we were the last room on the floor, right up at the bowling pin stairways. We had no neighbors when we checked in, but 2 days later, our neigbors checked in....a ton of that closing door against the latch going on. I was really ticked and planned on saying something if it continued. However, after about 20 mins, it stopped. It seems they had a car, and were going back and forth to the car to lug their bags up the three flights of stairs. I never heard them again..at any time!!

I'm sure that there are noisey, ill-behaved people at all resorts. You find them at the deluxes as well as the values. Sometimes you just get unlucky in room location and your neighbors.

 

[Christine9125]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1629396

Check out this site.

 

[kaysmommie]

Definitely no construction going on at Pop. I just stayed at Pop last week and LOVED it! Great CMs, wonderful layout, awesome pools, wonderful bus service. I've done deluxe resorts (Poly, AKL) and Pop is my favorite value.

I agree with MsStinkerbelle, We are usually a deluxe family at Poly or WL but we liked Pop alot and would stay again.

 

[kadesha]

I didn't realize that Pop had a bad rap! We had an opportunity to move up to a mod this trip, but we all decided that we wanted to stay at Pop. We love it there, I'm sure you will too!

 

[marybeth200]

We stayed in POP last summer and loved it! We didn't have any issues and the bus service was great! We stayed in the 70's Big Whell building. The food court had a good variety. The construction on the other half, Lengendary Years, across the lake, has been on hold for quite some time. At least that was my understanding. We NEVER heard one peep of construction noise.

 

[tink771]

We love POP, it's our value resort of choice!

 

[Davey Jones II]

We stayed at All Star Music last year, and liked it a lot. What I would like to know is whether the bus service from Pop is better than from the All Star resorts. I understand that Pop doesn't share buses with other resorts, so do you get to the parks faster?

 

[wdw4us2]

If I need to stay in a Value resort, Pop is my choice.

We only stay there when there are less than four of us on the trip. I have never had a bad experience there. We always stay in the 70's buildings.

As to Eeyore's My Favorite's comments about the unruly behavior, slamming doors, no parental control, kids running up & down the hallways after 10 pm screaming, etc. I have experienced that at all the levels of guest accomodations at WDW during the past few years.

I think that thoughtless, selfish behavior at WDW is starting to be the norm rather than the exception to the rule as it once was.

 

[Vickmeys]

We also LOVE Pop!!!

 

[Gina]

My bad -- I started the "bad rap" rumors, so that I would have Pop all to myself!!!

 

[shane&jakesmom]

Pop is awesome, you will not be disappointed
I think it is better than all the all-stars

 

[EnnEss]

Still curious why the OP thinks there is construction there? Never saw an answer.

 

[tdryl98]

We love POP. When magical express started I tried POP on the recommendation of an employee (our first time on property too). It was so much fun. My DD couldn't believe that she could leave the parks and go back to a hotel that was just as much fun. We have been back there everytime except once when we tried POFQ. It was beautiful but lacked that unique form of charm that POP has. We have never really waited for any bus, not unless we were crazy enough to stay until park closing and waiting just comes with the territory when you choose to stay.
I never found POP loud, there was a little more noise around the 60's building. We have stayed in the 80's and 90's the last 4 or 5 times and it was really quiet.
We are headed off for another trip in 39 days. I get to bring my 4 year old niece for the 1st time and I can't wait to see her face when she gets off the bus at POP. MNSSHP here we come!!

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

We went the 3rd week in September last year, and about the same time 2 years prior to that & had the same experiences both times. Our first stay was in the 90's in a standard room & that's why we chose to pay for a preferred room last year. We were in the 60's last year but not an area that we would have considered preferred even though Disney did. We did discuss the many issues we had at POP with Disney CRO & did receive a phone call from a CM who took care of our issues.

We went the same exact time last year and didn't experience that trouble. One time out of our entire 2 week stint we had to wait for the thrid bus and that was at MK when everyone suddenly and unexpectidly started getting drenched by rain but every bus was packed for every resort. I noticed that Pop Century seemed to be one of the only resorts that had two buses parking in it's loading zone as the others only had one. Sure, the lines got long while waiting for the bus sometimes but WDW Transportation usually sent more than enough buses to move us all through very VERY quickly.

Sometimes I felt like going 'hahahaha' other resorts, you paid more money, but we never have to stop anywhere else and we usually get more buses!!!

 

[angeleigh]

We went to Pop in July- like another poster I did notice rudeness from fellow guests. We had people knocking on our door at all hours and the decorations on our door were stolen. The loud running and shouting at night was not that much fun either. That being said aside from some rude and unthoughtful guests we did like Pop. I would give it another shot. However my DH will be hard to convince on that one as he said we did not notice this behavior to this extent at the moderate resorts (not saying that it doesn't happen just that we did not experience it) and now he does not want to stay at a value again. We did stay at ASMu and enjoyed our time there very much.

My dh is said exactly the same thing. His first time at Pop was last month (I stayed back in 05). The kids begged him to get Pop because they loved it so much. For my dd birthday he booked it for one night before our package stay. I didn't notice any major problems but dh was not happy their at all. To him it wasn't real relaxing and he thought that other guests were rude.
I enjoyed Pop but understand that it is not for everyone.

 

[gris gris]

Still curious why the OP thinks there is construction there? Never saw an answer.

He is probably talking about the video on youtube - there is a 3 minute or so video showing close ups of the abandoned construction over at the Legendary side. It's pretty creepy. I wonder when they will get around to finishing it. When were at Pop in 06 they told us there was an issue with the contractor but now the line is apparently tourism dropped after 9/11. We just got home from Pop last night and it's a great place to stay!

Am I allowed to post a link here? Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSc1fG0ETeY