Staying at Pop for the 1st Time/Any advice

[Jasminetigger]

We will be staying at Pop Century for the first time in March. We will be there 4 days for my Dd's 10th birthday. I haven't done much research on this resort yet. We usually stay at WL for our summer trips. Any advice for a Pop Century Newbie? How's the food court? What is a good room/builiding to possibly request? Any activities for the kids? I am really excited after looking at the pictures on the Pop Century picture thread. I can't wait to show them to my DD tonight. I always love trying new resorts for the 1st time. Any info would be appreciated.

 

[alldiz]

We will be staying at Pop Century for the first time in March. We will be there 4 days for my Dd's 10th birthday. I haven't done much research on this resort yet. We usually stay at WL for our summer trips. Any advice for a Pop Century Newbie? How's the food court? What is a good room/builiding to possibly request? Any activities for the kids? I am really excited after looking at the pictures on the Pop Century picture thread. I can't wait to show them to my DD tonight. I always love trying new resorts for the 1st time. Any info would be appreciated.

Pop century food court is awesome.....IMO...
much bigger and more selections than WL...

I would request top floor, and quiet location.....dosen't matter where.
nobody running above you.....and nowhere near a pool...very noisy.
Have a great trip....
Kerri

 

[dydo2424]

And the portions were huge! I would also suggest staying away from the pools if you like a quiet stay. Read up on POP on the Groovy POP thread and it is full of information. Have fun! We stayed there last August and had a great time. I've stayed there and at POR and while both were nice for different reasons, the kids loved POP. The bus service and gift shop were good also. Wish I was there now!
Diane

 

[TruBlu]

Pay the extra $ for a preferred location. We were waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the 80's section. That is a very long walk with a 50lb kid sleeping on your shoulders!

The food court is fantastic!!! I wish a had a tye-dyed cheesecake right now...

 

[kroche22]

Our 10 year daughter had a great time in '04 when we were there. We are going back this summer. We were on the 3rd floor over looking the bowling pin pool, sorry forgot building number. It did get noisy at times but it did not really affect us. We were up early and out late. We came back during the day to use the pool. Kids loved the hugeness of everything

 

[alldiz]

Be careful with the preferred rooms....
they might be by the pool.....which is VERY noisy.....

trust me.....the extra 2 min walk is worth the peace and quiet.

We stayed in 50's section top floor......overlooking parking lot....
NEVER HEARD ANYONE....priceless
Kerri

 

[alldiz]

Be careful with the preferred rooms....
they might be by the pool.....which is VERY noisy.....

trust me.....the extra 2 min walk is worth the peace and quiet.

We stayed in 50's section top floor......overlooking parking lot....
NEVER HEARD ANYONE....priceless
Kerri

 

[Jasminetigger]

Thanks for all the info everyone. Glad to hear about the nice food court. That's the only thing about WL that I would change. I definitely don't want a room near the pool if possible. I enjoy my quiet. I don't mind a little walk though. I am really looking forward to our trip. My dd will be turning 10 and is so excited she will be considered a Disney adult. She is most excited about having to now use the finger scan with her ticket at all the parks!

 

[GQ's Ghost]

switch resorts

sorry, not being a snob, but the pop is ugly. Move to a moderate, or al stars at least.

 

[kaysmommie]

subscrbing since we are staying at Pop for a long weekend for DD's Bday too. My DD will be turning 8 though. I'm a bit worried as we usually stay at poly or WL. The post above has me discouraged too

 

[Taja]

subscrbing since we are staying at Pop for a long weekend for DD's Bday too. My DD will be turning 8 though. I'm a bit worried as we usually stay at poly or WL. The post above has me discouraged too

As long as you don't expect deluxe amenities at a value resort, you'll be fine.

Go in with an open mind and accept it for what it is--a clean room with fun theming--and a very good food court!

I usually request a room on the top floor, but had to settle for second floor in December. Did not hear anyone tap dancing on my head!

 

[luvpalmtrees]

We stayed at POP in July 2007 and had a great time. We stayed in the 70's building on the first floor. It was very close to the bus stops and not a far walk to main pool and food court. We also loved the food court, but it was very, very busy. That's expected though in the summer. Have a great time!!

 

[darlak]

I've stayed at all levels of WDW resorts. Pop is fine, but you need to realize that you're at a value level resort. The amenities are fewer, which is to be expected. Kids generally love the over-the-top theme there. The only resorts at WDW where I don't ever want to stay again are the All-Stars. I've only stayed at ASMu, and it wasn't that bad, but fell far below Pop, in my opinion.

I actually like being near the pool and usually request a first floor room right by it. The food court at Pop is, in my opinion, the best at any of the many WDW resorts where I've stayed.

For a quick trip, where we don't spend much time at our resort, Pop is my preferred resort. Look for the rabbits everywhere at night. Take a walk around the lake and read the signs in the different decades. My kids got a kick out of realizing that when I was born, there were only 48 states!

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

We've found people either love POP or hate it. We honestly prefer POP over any of the moderates or deluxes we've stayed at. Here's a thread of pictures from POP Century so you can see what it looks like - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1424996.

 

[Jasminetigger]

I'm really encouraged by most of these replies. We've stayed at AsMu before and I thought it was pretty good. I was really amazed at how clean the room was.

This trip started out really simple, got expensive and then when I came to my senses got simple again. My oldest dd has a convention in Orlando 3/7 and 3/8. My dh is taking her. I noticed my youngest dd had that Friday and Monday off from school. So I thought before our AP's expire at the end of March we could squeeze one more trip in. So my plan was to stay at a value with my youngest DD. Then my DH said why don't we all stay together. The only thing my DH doesn't like about the values is the double beds. So I get on the phone with CRO and start playing with the rates. I got the best CM. He spent about 45 minutes on the phone with me trying to get me the best deal. If we were going to go deluxe we could only stay two nights. We booked the BC. Then I thought, no that's too expensive for just two nights. Then we booked WL (our favorite) with bunkbeds. But then when the CM checked he said I can get you AKL savanah view for just $100.00 more. So we are going to AKL. But then I asked him to look at the Poly. For just $125.00 more we can get the Poly. So I booked the Poly for two nights and put down the deposit. As soon as I hung up the phone I knew I had made a big mistake. Don't get me wrong I love the Poly. But the amount of money I had just spent for two nights was making me ill. I don't mind spening money for the resort when I know we will be taking advantage of all it has to offer. But this trip we will be mostly in the parks. So I tell my DH the whole scenario, were we started out at and were we ended up and how I wasn't happy with my decision. He just laughs at me and says, "I never listen to you for the first 48 hours after you start making our reort reservation. It usually takes you about two days to go through all the changes and end up with your final choice." Then he says, "I am sure I will know were we are staying the day after tomorrow." And he's right. The next day, I call CRO, and get another great CM. We are now staying at POP, we have two rooms, so my DH can have his own bed, we are staying for 3 nights instead of two, and I still got a better deal than two nights at WL with 1 room.

So POP here we come.

Thanks everyone for the great info. I can't wait to try the cheesecake.

 

[cancer_survivor_06]

Pay the extra $ for a preferred location. We were waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the 80's section. That is a very long walk with a 50lb kid sleeping on your shoulders!

The food court is fantastic!!! I wish a had a tye-dyed cheesecake right now...

I AGREE 100% you have to take a picture w/ Mr & Mrs Potato Head.

 

[Jasminetigger]

Pay the extra $ for a preferred location. We were waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the 80's section. That is a very long walk with a 50lb kid sleeping on your shoulders!

The food court is fantastic!!! I wish a had a tye-dyed cheesecake right now...

Do you know which buildings are the preferred location and do you know how much extra for the preferred location?

 

[dancin Disney style]

I'm a POP first-timer!!!! We have done ASMo, POFQ and CSR in the last 3 years.

I'm having a hard time trying to decide on what request I should make pertaining to room location. I do realize there are no guarantees. What I was thinking was 1) ground floor 2) as close to Classis Hall as possible 3)60's.

Now...after reading the posts I'm thinking that if I were to get what I ask for it will be noisey. Ground floor is the most important to me but quiet is equally as important. What do you think?

Oh....I have a joint problem so I have booked a preferred room to minimize the walking and we will be there the first 2 weeks of July.

Thanks

 

[cancer_survivor_06]

The 60's and 70's are considered preferred view. I don't know if all of the 70's is but its still a good section.

resort map
http://www.kingdom-travel.com/Walt_...Pop_Century/Disney_Pop_Century_Resort_Map.pdf


Mr & Mrs Potato Head
http://allearsnet.com/acc/pcss.htm

ETA~ I just clicked the link above and it is not just that pic so they are pic #59 of 78

 

[darlak]

All of the 60's are a preferred location, as well as part of the 50's buildings and part of the 70's buildings.

If you want preferred room location, but quiet, I would suggest that you request to be in the preferred section of the 70's. The 50's and 60's each have their own pool. The 70's doesn't, which tends to make it quieter. If you're in the preferred section, you'll still be close to the 60's area, which is directly behing the lobby and food court. Other buildings in the 70's section will also put you closer to the bus stop area, if that matters to anyone.

A preferred room location was $10 extra per night, but I think it may have gone up a little. It's still worth it to me though. As I said in a my previous post, the noise doesn't bother us. We're usually so tired when we go to bed that if there is noise, we've never even been aware of it. I like being right by the pool, close to the food court to refill our mugs and close to the laundromat. While the kids swim (mine are teens) at night, I usually do a little laundry and read a book. The other perk for me is that we can walk straight through the lobby to the bus area.