Pop Questions

[Tink2312]

Ok, so just booked Pop for 11/30-12/03 before our stay at POFQ (although I'm not sure whether to change that to CSR - but that's another story....!)
We've never stayed at Pop and just had a few q's for all you seasoned Pop'ers:

1. We're thinking of requesting buildings 60s or 70s as we want to be near the foodcourt and buses. Are all of the rooms in these preferred (we've booked standard)? Could we request the lakeside rooms, as although we want to be close to foodcourt etc, we don't want to face the noisy pool area? (BTW I know you're not guaranteed to get your room requests)

2. We've requested a fridge, how big is it? Does anyone have any photos?

3. What's the busiest time for breakfast in the food court? (We're not "rope-drop" people so look to eat at 8.30-9.30am)

4. Similarly, when are the buses most crowded in the mornings?

TIA

 

[joyjoy]

We were Sept 1 - 8 at PC. Here are my pov's:

1. We did have a preferred room, but I also asked specifically for first floor, maybe near Goofy/Corvette because I didn't want pool noise either and I have an injury right now that keeps me from doing stairs. We got exactly what we asked for (70s Bldg, room 6011). It was a two minute stroll to the food court. VERY convenient.

2. Fridges are pretty tiny - small dorm size. We did fit 1/2 gallon of milk, 3 bottles of water, 3-4 beers, a bottle of wine and some leftover desserts in it every night though.

3. Not rope-droppers here, either. We were there every morning around 8:15 and it was packed. The lines move quickly, though. Two of us picked up bagels/pastries for 4, heated or toasted them and refilled mugs and were back on our way to the room in 20 mins or less. The lines for the hot food stations were usually 8-10 people long. Not bad. I imagine it drops down to nothing around 10 a.m.

4. We got to the bus everyday around 9:30 and waited for about 15 minutes. It was HOT because there is no shade over the bus queues. We often had to stand on the bus, but not always. I imagine the buses are busiest between 9 - 10:30 a.m. I wish we could get up and at 'em earlier, but I won't delude myself on that one.

Have fun!

 

[C-CMom]

Tink2312 -

Re: #1, I did a search in this forum, and found a link to a picture/map of which room locations are preferred: http://willcad.org/disney_maps.html#values

As you can see, preferred and non-preferred rooms can be quite close to each other, and some non-preferred rooms are still nice and close to food court, buses, parking, etc. Hope this helps.

 

[jenrose66]

1. I was in the 50's room bldg 3. This was very close to the foodcourt and busses, it was not a preferred location. Our room faced the inside walkway and not the pool.

2. The fridges were tiny black dorm fridges and they also looked pretty banged up. Maybe try to budget board for fridge swap!

3. Food court seemed to get more busy between 8 and 8:30.

4. Bus stops are full from 8:30 till around 10ish, maybe longer. Expect not to get on the 1st bus and expect to wait in the sun as the stops aren't covered. A car may be very worthwhile!

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

For those of you that just returned from POP - how early do the buses run to the MK? We have 9:25AM ressies @ CP & I'm debating whether to drive my car there & catch a tram, or get up early & catch a WDW bus. When I made the ADR the girl to me to allow at least 45 minutes to get from resort to MK.

Thanks for any input...........................

 

[clkelley]

The buses to MK start at 6:30 in the morning regardles of EMH or not.

The buses to Epcot, AK, and Studios start at 7:00 in the morning regardless of EMH or not.

These buses are to get folks to their early breakfast seatings at the parks and nearby resorts.

 

[PittypatBR]

1. We're thinking of requesting buildings 60s or 70s as we want to be near the foodcourt and buses. Are all of the rooms in these preferred (we've booked standard)? Could we request the lakeside rooms, as although we want to be close to foodcourt etc, we don't want to face the noisy pool area? (BTW I know you're not guaranteed to get your room requests)

We stayed in a non-preferred room in the 70's and thought it was terrific! Easy walk to everything and quiet to boot. It was just beyond the elevators facing into the courtyard.

2. We've requested a fridge, how big is it? Does anyone have any photos?

Small but adequate. Medium dorm size, not the super small ones.

3. What's the busiest time for breakfast in the food court? (We're not "rope-drop" people so look to eat at 8.30-9.30am)

The food court can be pretty busy but because of the different stations it moves fairly quickly. I didn't find it a problem, but I didn't expect super speed either! It was faster than any of the CS in the parks!

4. Similarly, when are the buses most crowded in the mornings?

Whenever you are trying to get on them! It depended on which parks had EMH, etc. When there were a lot of people trying to get on, they would often send an extra bus, so most of the time we didn't wait too long. At least there was only one stop at the resort, not several like CSR.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

 

[Mom2Evie]

For those of you that just returned from POP - how early do the buses run to the MK? We have 9:25AM ressies @ CP & I'm debating whether to drive my car there & catch a tram, or get up early & catch a WDW bus. When I made the ADR the girl to me to allow at least 45 minutes to get from resort to MK.

Thanks for any input...........................

I don't think 45 minutes is enough. Last Saturday, We had 9:55 ressies at Epcot and almost missed them! We got to the bus stop an hour before our reservations and made it to the podium at Akerhaus 10 minutes after our reservation time. Granted, we stood in line at the podium for 10 minutes so that didn't help. We really thought Disney should have been running more busses that close to park opening.

On Friday, We had 9:25 ressies at CP and again left an hour before our reservation. We weren't nearly as pressed for time with this one but only because we didn't have to wait so long for a bus. We checked into the CP 5-10 minutes before our reservation time. Our pager went off almost immediately, that place runs like a well oiled machine!

 

[tlhbdm]

fridge:

We were in the 50s section it is considered standard and we really liked the location, it was quiet and it didn't take too long to get to the Food Court.

 

[Tink2312]

We were Sept 1 - 8 at PC. Here are my pov's:

1. We did have a preferred room, but I also asked specifically for first floor, maybe near Goofy/Corvette because I didn't want pool noise either and I have an injury right now that keeps me from doing stairs. We got exactly what we asked for (70s Bldg, room 6011). It was a two minute stroll to the food court. VERY convenient.

2. Fridges are pretty tiny - small dorm size. We did fit 1/2 gallon of milk, 3 bottles of water, 3-4 beers, a bottle of wine and some leftover desserts in it every night though.

3. Not rope-droppers here, either. We were there every morning around 8:15 and it was packed. The lines move quickly, though. Two of us picked up bagels/pastries for 4, heated or toasted them and refilled mugs and were back on our way to the room in 20 mins or less. The lines for the hot food stations were usually 8-10 people long. Not bad. I imagine it drops down to nothing around 10 a.m.

4. We got to the bus everyday around 9:30 and waited for about 15 minutes. It was HOT because there is no shade over the bus queues. We often had to stand on the bus, but not always. I imagine the buses are busiest between 9 - 10:30 a.m. I wish we could get up and at 'em earlier, but I won't delude myself on that one.

Have fun!

Thanks for the imput, the fridge sounds perfect for what we want it for! As we're going in Nov/ Dec it's not going to be as hot waiting for the buses and 15 mins sounds fine

Joyjoy -

Re: #1, I did a search in this forum, and found a link to a picture/map of which room locations are preferred: http://willcad.org/disney_maps.html#values

As you can see, preferred and non-preferred rooms can be quite close to each other, and some non-preferred rooms are still nice and close to food court, buses, parking, etc. Hope this helps.

Thanks - I did a search but didn't find anything like that - that's great! I definitely fancy either 60s or 70s - particularly the ones overlooking the lake - it's great that they're the standard rooms

1. I was in the 50's room bldg 3. This was very close to the foodcourt and busses, it was not a preferred location. Our room faced the inside walkway and not the pool.

2. The fridges were tiny black dorm fridges and they also looked pretty banged up. Maybe try to budget board for fridge swap!

3. Food court seemed to get more busy between 8 and 8:30.

4. Bus stops are full from 8:30 till around 10ish, maybe longer. Expect not to get on the 1st bus and expect to wait in the sun as the stops aren't covered. A car may be very worthwhile!

Thanks We've got a car, but as we always do the car thing we want to try it on the buses and see how it goes. We're not early risers so would probably be eating further towards half nine

We stayed in a non-preferred room in the 70's and thought it was terrific! Easy walk to everything and quiet to boot. It was just beyond the elevators facing into the courtyard.


Small but adequate. Medium dorm size, not the super small ones.


The food court can be pretty busy but because of the different stations it moves fairly quickly. I didn't find it a problem, but I didn't expect super speed either! It was faster than any of the CS in the parks!

Whenever you are trying to get on them! It depended on which parks had EMH, etc. When there were a lot of people trying to get on, they would often send an extra bus, so most of the time we didn't wait too long. At least there was only one stop at the resort, not several like CSR.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

I hope we enjoy it too I've heard about the new bus GPS thingy which is supposed to deploy a bus to where it's needed so hopefully that will be in full swing by the time we get there!

fridge:

We were in the 50s section it is considered standard and we really liked the location, it was quiet and it didn't take too long to get to the Food Court.

Thanks for the photo We liked the 50s theming but didn't want to get stuck in the far building...decisions, decisions


Thanks everyone for all your replies - only 66 days to go

 

[C-CMom]

Tink2312 -

The first time we stayed at Pop, the preferred rooms were all in the 60's. We had a 70's room that I thought we had magically been upgraded to since the location was so fantastic. It has since become a "preferred location". However, the 2nd time we stayed there, we had a 70's room that was only a tiny, tiny extra walk to food court, buses, and parking lot - and it was non-preferred. Both locations were excellent. Another thing to consider, is that especially if you will be taking the elevator (with stroller, or high floor), it almost doesn't matter which "wing" of a building you are in, because you go the middle to catch the elevator anyway. We're talking fairly minimal differences. We were fairly close to the "food court/bus side" both times, so we often took the stairs

 

[madbrad76]

Check out this thread. It has lots of good answers to a lot of questions and then some.

The GROOVIEST New Pop Century FAQ Thread!

 

[snoopy two]

Anyone know which buildings used to be smoking buildings?

 

[goofy4tink]

Anyone know which buildings used to be smoking buildings?

I don't think any one building was considered smoking, but could be wrong. I believe that there were specific sections in each group that were smoking.

The food courts get really busy from about 730ish until 8:45ish...I tend to head there about 7:00, grab my stuff and head back to the room.
The buses run very early, to all the parks. There are early seatings at both Epcot and AK, so buses have to get you there. But, be sure to allow plenty of time. The buses that are running more than an hour before park opening, tend to come less frequently. If you have an 8:30 ADR, be at the bus stop by 7:15 or so...better to be early than late. At both AK and Epcot the walk to the restaurants can take a bit of time, so be sure to factor that in as well.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I don't think any one building was considered smoking, but could be wrong. I believe that there were specific sections in each group that were smoking.

You would be surprised what seemingly trivial information I have, practically at my fingertips: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=698727&page=80&pp=15