Returned from our 9 night trip to Pop last Sunday. We had two rooms, requested and got connecting. Asked for 50's, got 60's lake view. Asked for 1st floor, got 4th floor. Asked for king room/doubles, got 2 doubles. The connecting request was the most important part, and all the rest worked out fine, except maybe DH with the full size bed. We were in room 4444, and 4445. If you went to the end of the outside hall to the right of the rooms you had a very good view of Illuminations fireworks. I watched the beginning of it one night, and you could see more then I expected to.
We parked in the front of the resort (check-in parking) as the check-in castmember advised us, and that worked out really well. We got refillable mugs, and we could go fill them on the way to the van, then when we came back we would wash them in the food court, and refill them before we went to the rooms(kids and I usually got blue Icee, unless the machines were down). We used our 20% off with DDE/Wonderland card and got the mugs and all our food court food with the discount. (It more then paid for itself this trip, between Pop's food court and the table service meals we had.) Never really found real food that I liked enough to order twice at the food court, but we didn't eat much there. I tried the Shrimp-lo-mein, and thought it was a little spicy for my tastes, liked it much better at Yak and Yeti's counterservice. (although I really didn't like Y&Y's chicken fried rice) Pop also didn't have any duck sauce for it, which may have took away some heat. I tried the greek flatbread, which was ok, and had the special shrimp flatbread (again a little spicy, almost like they were trying to cover for lower quality ingredients), and had the Cuban special flatbread which was pretty good. My oldest and I shared a kids chicken nuggets as a snack one day/ was not great, but kids would be ok with it. Different chicken then the regular strip like nuggets they have for normal adult meals now. For breakfast the kids had french toast they liked, and I had choc chip pancakes/kids, mine seemed like it had sat there for a while, but I'm not a big breakfast eater. Most days I had cereal in the room or had a Choc chip Crescent. (See a chocolate theme here?)
The rooms were a little small with the crib in it, but we don't spend much time in there anyway. The biggest problem we had with Pop was the beds. They did have the new matresses, but the one near the door in our room already seemed to have seen better days, almost seemed like a refurb mattress or something. It pulled you to the center like when I used to visit my grandma's as a kid, and she kept her matress for 20+ years and then passed them down through the guest bedrooms after that. Anyway, we went to the other one, and it was better, but DH had a real problem with it being a full. That was the first time it bothered him. We haven't stayed where they have full size beds for about 4 years, and since then I probably put on about 25-30 pounds. Don't know if that was the difference or not.
Pros - I really liked how quickly you could get to the food court, and the pools. The price was great/got the fall deal. Housekeeping was pretty good, and we had a small towel animal in each room the first night and got one more in one room during our stay and three more in the other. Dad came early, and wasn't on the package, we had no problems with that. (funny story, I called him from NJ while driving to the airport. He was sleeping to rest up for a very early departure from the Columbia, SC area, well about 30 minutes later he calls me back and says he left early, and should be there about an hour after we are. With a flight delay we got in almost an hour after him.) They let him in, after he gave our name, this was around midnight, and he waited in the lobby for us. I enjoyed the landscaping, and liked the architecture more then I expected. Enjoyed the icees. Liked that they take the Wonerland/DDE discount in the food court (all the values do, and FQ I believe) No Bedbugs I could find. All the cast members we met were fine. We were able to take our 1 day 1 park tickets off our room keys so that we didn't have any problems identifying them later.(we have AP's)
Cons-The fact that it is not far to anything also made it seem more crowded. Dad had a
ECV and that didn't fit well in the room. Made it a real tight fit to get to the door. (We did not request HC because he was in the room with the kids and there aren't to many Doubles that are HC, and then needing Connecting, plus he wasn't even on the original package.) Also didn't like going through the store or tables to get the the food court area. Could get very crowded at times, esp. with the stroller and or dad's ECV. Full size beds, and weren't crazy about the mattresses even though new. Don't remember any problems with this in the past, but that could also have to do with age and size. Just remembered another one and figured I would add it on. Hated the smoking section just as you left the back of the main building. It was very hard to avoid, and they seemed to spread out quite a bit.
I think we would go back, depends on how important bigger beds are to DH. With two rooms we could sleep in seperate beds, but that just doesn't seem right to me. With the discounts lately it seems the moderates are twice the price of the values, and I have a hard time justifying the difference, when I would prefer 2 rooms. Thinking of going back the week before Easter, and having a hard time deciding what to do room wise. This is an extra trip, as we are going with a group next August, and would not want to spend to much, If we do Pop I think we would do two rooms again, in a moderate or deluxe we would do one. CSR is the only Mod with Queens, but it only has one sink, which would be very hard with my 15 year old. If I could get a guar of Connecting King/Doubles I would probably go with pop again, but since I can't I have to put my thinking cap on.
Donna
. I should be asleep right now, but the aticipation is keeping me awake. It's like being a kid on Xmas eve and not being able to fall asleep
.I'm a little bit of a Polynesian snob.
But, it's been so long since I've last seen The World, that I was willing to rest my head at any resort that could book me on such short notice. I, admittedly, knew nothing about Pop and was a little apprehensive. BUT, you kind disers have shown me that I have so much to look forward to at Pop and I know that I'm gonna feel at home there. Thanks everyone! 
My sister is getting married in St Augustine Fl and we are going to be there for 5 days and then we will drive down to Disney for 4 days. We wouldlove to go longer, but Dh cannot take any more time off work. So a 9 day vacation is what it is....wooohoo 
