POP vs All-Star any difference?

[DISfanboy]

From what i can tell these 2 resorts seem almost identical. Does anyone know what is different between them? which is nicer? also is Pop going to have more rooms added i heard there is suppose to more "years" added. please help thank you

 

[mousiemom]

we've stayed at all the all stars and pop more than 10 times. we just recently stayed at all star movies in dec. pop is newer than the others and a lot bigger! a lot of the times, the all stars share a bus. we would stop at each property because movies is last in line and i didn't like that. the food court is bigger at pop. everytime we are @ pop, we look back there at the new section so i know it's going to happen, i just don't know when. someone told me they will have a food court and bus depot too.
mousiemom

 

[maxiesmom]

Each individual All Star resort is smaller than the Pop. So at the All Stars you have less people trying to use the common spaces like the pools and the food court.

It is true that the All Star resorts do sometimes share a bus, but not always. And in my experience never leaving the parks at closing time. Even when they do share it is not a big deal. You can easily walk from one All Star resort to another, so it maybe takes 8 minutes to stop at all 3 All Star resorts. What is nice too is that if you just miss your own resort's bus leaving the parks at night and another All Star bus pulls up, you can just hop on it and be back to your resort after the bus ride and a very short walk.

And while the Pop building itself is newer, the rooms at both the All Star Music and Sports have been recently refurbed, making them fresher than those at both the Pop and the Movies.

I stayed at the Music in May, and the Sports in November. And they were both great resorts.

 

[guelde96]

I have the complete opposite opinion of the pp. I thought the bus service was much better at ASMo. Yes occasionally you would stop to drop off people at the other 2 AS resorts. This did not take any amount of time at all. We would not stay at POP again for 2 reasons.
1. The bus service was very overcrowded. Standing room only 90% of the time. Huge lines. This was in Sept. a low time crowd wise.
2. The food court was good but again always packed. Your food was cold by the time you got it paid for.

I think POP is much bigger then the individual AS resorts. POP only has 1 food court and bus service. So even though you may share bus service once in a while ( I think 4 times total in 6 days) I much prefer the AS resorts.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

We haven't stayed at the All-Star resorts only Pop. We never had any problems with buses. Sometimes they were crwded, but I would expect that to happen at any resort. Our room at Pop faced the lake (no lake at the AS) and was very quiet. My kids also LOVED playing in Goofy's water fountain. I think that the kiddie pool at Pop is nicer too. It's zero entry with fountain jets in it. I think that if you had small children it might be a better choice.

 

[darlak]

We stayed at Movies for the first time in November for Thanksgiving. It was a spur of the moment trip and Pop was fully booked and overall the parks were insanely crowded. Yet we never waited long for a bus and our resort itself wasn't terribly crowded. I really enjoyed the smaller resort. The food court offerings were about the same, but with slightly fewer options (namely no frozen coke).

We paid for a preferred room, but honestly since the resort is so small, I'm not sure it was really necessary. We enjoyed our stay there so much that I'm looking at planning another trip for just my daughter and I for March.

Still though, I do love Pop. Pop and the Poly both feel like home to me and I've never had a really bad experience at either. We stay at Pop every September as a grand gathering with all my kids and grandkids; usually about 12 of us.

 

[PixieAngel]

We have stayed at Allstar sports and POP. Pop is larger and the lake side is quiet. However I found no preference in room size or quality. We stayed at the sports because the shared buses would pick up and drop off there first. When we stayed at POP I asked about the "Classic Years" buildings across hourglass lake and I was told it was under construction during and ceased after the 9-11 attacks. According to cast members, they will not resume until POP operates at almost full capacity for 180 days straight. We like to stay at a new place everytime we go and will be trying ASMusic next! We have also stayed at CRB, Riverside and the Saratoga. No matter where you choose~enjoy your trip!

 

[Chkultr]

You won't have a choice because Pop is closing....The story about the unfinished section....A legal battle with the construction company that was contracted to do it. That put a halt to that section.

 

[maxiesmom]

You won't have a choice because Pop is closing....The story about the unfinished section....A legal battle with the construction company that was contracted to do it. That put a halt to that section.

The rumor about the Pop closing has bee floating around for a while. there is no sense in panicking about something that probably won't happen, and that you definately have no control over.

 

[TheAngelForever]

The rumor about the Pop closing has bee floating around for a while. there is no sense in panicking about something that probably won't happen, and that you definately have no control over.

Someone else just posted this interesting article about Disney and it included information about Pop construction.

We will be staying at Pop in May and switched there from ASMo. There seems like more for our kids to do and it is a little more fresh.

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

I have the complete opposite opinion of the pp. I thought the bus service was much better at ASMo. Yes occasionally you would stop to drop off people at the other 2 AS resorts. This did not take any amount of time at all. We would not stay at POP again for 2 reasons.
1. The bus service was very overcrowded. Standing room only 90% of the time. Huge lines. This was in Sept. a low time crowd wise.
2. The food court was good but again always packed. Your food was cold by the time you got it paid for.

I think POP is much bigger then the individual AS resorts. POP only has 1 food court and bus service. So even though you may share bus service once in a while ( I think 4 times total in 6 days) I much prefer the AS resorts.

Totally agree with this post........our experience at ASMu in Jan. 08 was much, much more "magical" than any of our 3 trips to POP. The bus service at POP is such that you might have to wait for 2 or 3 buses to cycle through before you can get standing room only to go to any of the parks no matter what time of day. At ASMu, we only shared 1x going to AK our entire resort visit. ASMu has been recently refurbished and the room we had in the Jazz building was so nice and relaxing. So much more magical......the rooms at POP need to be refurbished as they're definitely showing their age!

The food court at ASMu was great - at POP you had to be a table vulture to get a table to eat at (no matter what time of day we went), and then you had to hope that your food was still hot when you found a table. No issues at all like this at ASMu.

So for us we'd definitely take an Allstar resort over POP any day!!

 

[edwardsfire]

You won't have a choice because Pop is closing....The story about the unfinished section....A legal battle with the construction company that was contracted to do it. That put a halt to that section.

Actually, Disney is going to finish POP.
However, We prefer All Star Music Much more than ANY POP.
Just our opinion.

 

[Rachie]

I am staying at POP in March- do they provide soaps and shampoo/conditioner, or do I have to bring all that?

 

[cndnchicky]

Yuppers they do have conditioner and shampoo and bars of soap. Enjoy your stay!!!!!!

 

[goofy4tink]

I've stayed at AllStarMusic and POP. I prefer POP. The bus service at POP is wonderful. I've stayed at every level of resort at WDW, and own DVC at BWV.....if I'm not staying on my DVC points, I'm at POP. Why? The bus service is one of the reasons. They share with no other resorts. Yes, the lines can get long. And the buses get crowded. But, I'll tell you something. The buses at the other resorts are no different. They get just as crowded and guests have to stand as well. POP has more buses running to and from the parks.
The resort itself is a bit more 'upscale' that the AllStars...at least in my opinion. You can enjoy a nice walk around the perimeter of the resort, along the lake. It's really beautiful. The three pools are a nice plus as well. Yes, the main pool can get crowded but the other pools tend to be nicely less crowded.
The food court serves more people than the ones at each AllStar. But, I prefer the POP food court. Their offerings are quite nice. I have never been disappointed.
All in all, I love POP. Would I stay in an AllStars again? Sure, but if I had the choice I would always go with POP.

 

[Bell30012]

We stayed at ASMo in October and POP the three years running before that. Pop may have more rooms but it also has three swimming pools, the Remembrance Walk, the Goofy's Pop Jet Area, etc. POP Century is still my favorite resort. Oh, and POP is a tiny bit cheaper (lower tax rate for that county).