The GROOVIER New Pop Century FAQ Thread Chapter 3! ~ Posts #1 & #2 are MUST sees!

[kaytieeldr]

I thought people were looking for a great experience on these boards, not opportunities to be well......Grumpy.

Not Grumpy, just realistic. Somewhere, on some Disney-related forum, someone is complaining because their kids were trying to sleep but couldn't because of all the noise outside on the walkway.

 

[crusoe2]

Got a couple questions about the waffles at the Pop food court. I've seen pictures of the big Pop waffles - are they still serving those and do they also serve Mickey waffles? And what kind do you get with the kids breakfast? TIA

 

[chocovrdmicears]

Got a couple questions about the waffles at the Pop food court. I've seen pictures of the big Pop waffles - are they still serving those and do they also serve Mickey waffles? And what kind do you get with the kids breakfast? TIA

We had the POP waffles in Dec. They also have Mickey waffles which is what they serve for the kids meals.

 

[crusoe2]

We had the POP waffles in Dec. They also have Mickey waffles which is what they serve for the kids meals.

Good to know - thanks. DD MUST have her Mickey waffles every trip now.

 

[littlepeppers]

Not Grumpy, just realistic. Somewhere, on some Disney-related forum, someone is complaining because their kids were trying to sleep but couldn't because of all the noise outside on the walkway.

I bet you are right. Sad isn't it.

I have a close relative that has to have her kids down by 7:30 or she thinks they will explode. It doesn't matter where they are, who they are with, or what they are doing.

That just isn't living. I'm not a beliver in kids staying up late. Our shop shuts down no later than 9pm, but there are special occasions. Like vacations............... We love Disney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of the good stuff happens at night.

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

I bet you are right. Sad isn't it.

I have a close relative that has to have her kids down by 7:30 or she thinks they will explode. It doesn't matter where they are, who they are with, or what they are doing.

That just isn't living. I'm not a beliver in kids staying up late. Our shop shuts down no later than 9pm, but there are special occasions. Like vacations............... We love Disney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of the good stuff happens at night.

WOW 7:30??????????? So have the kids ever even seen the fireworks? Thats a crazy life! I try to get mine down between 7:30 and 8 but on vacation or holidays or even just a special Friday night we let them stay up!

 

[heartsy77]

Ok please excuse me for being a pain! I need to know a building request recommendation for a grand gathering. 2 families, each with 2 connecting rooms, non preferred. Any ideas? I have tried to figure this out and I just can't get it!

 

[jenseib]

It's totally up to you really. Just look at the map (should be a link on page 1) and see what looks best for your family. Some people like one are, while others like another. Some want to be near to the alke, while others near the pool. Some people like to be on the top floor, while others like ground floor.

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

Ok please excuse me for being a pain! I need to know a building request recommendation for a grand gathering. 2 families, each with 2 connecting rooms, non preferred. Any ideas? I have tried to figure this out and I just can't get it!

It depends on what you are looking for.....no stairs?? then its the bottom floor for you! Do you want to wake up to the views of the Lake??? Do you want to be closer to the transport lines??? It is totally up to you! It just depends on what type of experience your group wants! We prefer ground floor, close to transport....but thats just us! I have no use for lake view or pool view and we cant do stairs b/c of our son.....I believe they have ajoining rooms on each floor...someone please correct me if I'm wrong! We are also having a grand gathering. 4 rooms maybe 5....even if they arent connecting they should be "blocked" or all together! Grand Gatherings tries to keep you together and not in seperate buildings.

 

[jenseib]

They do have elevators though too.

 

[WDWisOurHappyPlace]

Not Grumpy, just realistic. Somewhere, on some Disney-related forum, someone is complaining because their kids were trying to sleep but couldn't because of all the noise outside on the walkway.

What some people don't realize is that Pop Century has no white noise inside the room to block the outside noise. People return from the parks at late hours, they are excited, talking, having fun, not knowing/realizing/forgetting that people are in bed trying to sleep and can hear them very clearly. You have to go in knowing this. While it is very annoying, there isn't much you can do about this, but bring a white noise machine from home to drown out the noise. (One of the things we really like about CBR was the older style air conditioning units that helped with outside noise so much.) But Pop is newer, and has the newer a/c units, but with no noise!

(Maybe they should add a few more signs when entering Pop along with the "are we there yet" etc. signs......"be quiet, your neighbors are trying to sleep". lol

 

[MagicKisses2]

We got back last week... So bittersweet to be home and missing the magical place that Disney is! We were there during the "cold" front Jan 7th - Jan 14th.

So it was our first stay at POP and I (we) LOVED IT!! I was so excited for our stay, but nervous about some of the comments people have been making lately (freakishly small rooms, "warn appearance", loud, long bus waits) BUT I will let you all know, that was not the case!!

POP was wonderful in many ways, our room was in the 70's section, first floor, facing the foosball men, it was a 60 second walk to the food court and about a 90 second walk to the busses. The food court (Everything POP) was delicious (I could have eaten the Asian Chicken Salad daily, and their French toast was so yummy) albeit VERY crowded in the morning. They had tons of choices, and everything I had was delicious. Honestly we ate more at this resort than any other we stayed at. We would typically get up around 7:30 am and be at the food court for "rush hour" 8:30 am. Since it was only two of us, it was a challenge to find a table to sit at, but not impossible. Twice we sat at the end of a large table with other people, and it was never a problem or awkward situation. Evenings it was much easier to find seating. I noticed that it was typical for folks to hang out at the tables after their long day at the park. Sometimes chatting, kids watching one of the TVs, playing cards, or just relaxing.

The room was spotless, smelled nice and clean, and our mouse keeping was very nice to us. It did not appear to be any smaller than our rooms at any of the other resorts on property. We only had one towel Mickey the whole trip, which was fine with me. They were painting outside a few days of our trip (despite the cold temps) and also laying down mulch, cleaning the stair cases, and doing general maintenance. There were tons of staff in Everything POP, constantly picking up as people left their tables. Very friendly and eager to help out or answer questions.

I can't comment on the pools other than that they looked so fun. It was honestly so cold I think I only ever saw about 3 kids swimming the whole week. Did I miss POP having a hot tub, yes I did. Typically I would take a nice hot soak after my long days in the park.

Transportation was fine! I don't think we ever waited more than 20 minutes for a bus and that was only on two occasions. Every other time it was closer to 5 minutes and we used the busses tons. My DH ran the half marathon and we were all over Disney and sometimes at very odd times of the day. I don't have one negative comment on the transportation during this trip.

Could I hear flushes/showers if it was really quiet in our room, yes. Could I hear people walking by our room, yes, was it frequent enough or loud enough to bother me? No!

The theming was fabulous. Pictures do not do it justice. Would I go back? In a heartbeat. Will it be our resort for our next trip? I don't know, I really want to try to stay in as many of the Disney resorts as I can... however would I consider it again, honestly, yes.

There were so many little touches that made POP wonderful, for anyone too. Family, adults who want to be kids, adults who want a great value resort that is clean, comfortable, and really fun.

If I can figure out how to post pictures, I'll try to share. Day or night, the resort was beautiful.

 

[Christine9125]

We got back last week... So bittersweet to be home and missing the magical place that Disney is! We were there during the "cold" front Jan 7th - Jan 14th.

So it was our first stay at POP and I (we) LOVED IT!! I was so excited for our stay, but nervous about some of the comments people have been making lately (freakishly small rooms, "warn appearance", loud, long bus waits) BUT I will let you all know, that was not the case!!

POP was wonderful in many ways, our room was in the 70's section, first floor, facing the foosball men, it was a 60 second walk to the food court and about a 90 second walk to the busses. The food court (Everything POP) was delicious (I could have eaten the Asian Chicken Salad daily, and their French toast was so yummy) albeit VERY crowded in the morning. They had tons of choices, and everything I had was delicious. Honestly we ate more at this resort than any other we stayed at. We would typically get up around 7:30 am and be at the food court for "rush hour" 8:30 am. Since it was only two of us, it was a challenge to find a table to sit at, but not impossible. Twice we sat at the end of a large table with other people, and it was never a problem or awkward situation. Evenings it was much easier to find seating. I noticed that it was typical for folks to hang out at the tables after their long day at the park. Sometimes chatting, kids watching one of the TVs, playing cards, or just relaxing.

The room was spotless, smelled nice and clean, and our mouse keeping was very nice to us. It did not appear to be any smaller than our rooms at any of the other resorts on property. We only had one towel Mickey the whole trip, which was fine with me. They were painting outside a few days of our trip (despite the cold temps) and also laying down mulch, cleaning the stair cases, and doing general maintenance. There were tons of staff in Everything POP, constantly picking up as people left their tables. Very friendly and eager to help out or answer questions.

I can't comment on the pools other than that they looked so fun. It was honestly so cold I think I only ever saw about 3 kids swimming the whole week. Did I miss POP having a hot tub, yes I did. Typically I would take a nice hot soak after my long days in the park.

Transportation was fine! I don't think we ever waited more than 20 minutes for a bus and that was only on two occasions. Every other time it was closer to 5 minutes and we used the busses tons. My DH ran the half marathon and we were all over Disney and sometimes at very odd times of the day. I don't have one negative comment on the transportation during this trip.

Could I hear flushes/showers if it was really quiet in our room, yes. Could I hear people walking by our room, yes, was it frequent enough or loud enough to bother me? No!

The theming was fabulous. Pictures do not do it justice. Would I go back? In a heartbeat. Will it be our resort for our next trip? I don't know, I really want to try to stay in as many of the Disney resorts as I can... however would I consider it again, honestly, yes.

There were so many little touches that made POP wonderful, for anyone too. Family, adults who want to be kids, adults who want a great value resort that is clean, comfortable, and really fun.

If I can figure out how to post pictures, I'll try to share. Day or night, the resort was beautiful.

Thank you for your report, we always say the same thing, we would love to try all the resorts, but we can not take ourselves away from POP

 

[trekker93]

We had great stays there the last 3 years and will do it again this year! We now stay for 2 weeks at a time because one week is just not enough for WDW. We prefer Sept/Oct. timeframe to go to MNSSHP and enjoy the lower crowds. We've stayed at POFQ and off site over the years but Pop is just a great time. I just can't see myself moving to another site!

 

[littlepeppers]

OMG
I think I just talked DH into going begining of March.
Pop again baby.
Can't beat the bus service & prices.
We have done Animal Lodge, French Quarter, Coronado & I think that the bus service at Pop is the best.
Yeah the others had the fancy pools, but get a water park pass for a day or two. Kids like water period.

I have to get sewing. The kids can't wear the same outfits as September.

 

[xenole]

I've just come from my first stay at Pop and for the most part, I liked the place.

Rooms were a good size and clean. Powerful shower although could have been a little higher up in my opinion.

My tv had the volume set to 50% or loud by default and to one of the Disney ad channels - always had to drop the volume as soon as the tv went on, alhough seeing Stacey all the time wasn't a bad thing

Laundry was fine. $1 in quarters for washing powder or softener, and $2 in quarters for the driers and washers. Few people in there but no problems getting hold of machines. Around $2.75 for a candy bar fom the vending machines that cost around $0.79 on I-DRive!

Talking wise, couldn't clearly hear what people were saying. Sometimes a dull noise but 3/4 of the guests were Spanish speaking anyway (especailly one the marathon weekend was over)
Banging of doors. God knows what some people were doing. One or two occasions had people slamming doors constantly around 11pm even though there aren't that many doors to slam!
Few kids running along the walkways outside the rooms.

Was facing the hippy dippy pool but no real noise to worry about. (maybe being on the 3rd floor?).

Does the music playing around the pool area annoy anyone?

Saw, critter wise,
1 cat
1 rabbit
Squirrels
Ducks
3 deer out on the verge near the entrance on Victory Way.
Few other birds.

Food court can bve really busy. Don't know why so many people bother.
Went just before 9am for breakfast and 3/4 of the hotel must have been there. Good 10 min queue for food half the time, then up to 20 mins to pay for it, so by the time you get to a table, it's luke warm or stone cold. Then 5 mins in a queue to rinse out your resort mug and probably longer to get say some hot chocolate as there's always someone in front of you filling up a whole load of mugs (generally 4+ and machine only fills 2/3 of the mug in one go)
10pm+ is very busy too.

Did try some Shrimp lo mein. Luke warm by the time I sat down and wasn't going to risk food poisoning by eating the shrimp.

Actually bought a loaf of bread from Walgreens and toasted that myself instead of paying $0.69 + tax for two small slices of bread. Toasters are very slow and sometimes it took 3 times at the slowest speed to get the bread to actually toast. At least there was plenty of strawberry, blackberry jam and honey + some buttery spread for the toast.

Shame they don't do Fanta Zero anywhere in Pop (or anywhere else from what I saw). Coke Zero far nicer than the diet coke, but did want some sugar free orange sometimes.

Reception are very slow. One family in front of you requires a full reading of War & Peace before they get around to you.

Buses no real problem. Sometimes they would be full, other times empty. Nearly always guaranteed to get someone in a wheelchair or motorised scooter wanting to get on and people with strollers. Had a few occasions where I was first in the queue, bus pulls in and suddenly half the hotel appears out of thin air wanting that bus.
Magic Kingdom had 5 buses in 10 mins returning to Pop one night at 8:20pm due to the volume of people wanting them.
Never sure why they keep taking different routes as well. Sometimes they go through a load of back roads and take twice as long as if they stuck to BV drive and Victory way.

 

[MagicKisses2]

OMG
I think I just talked DH into going begining of March.
Pop again baby.
Can't beat the bus service & prices.
We have done Animal Lodge, French Quarter, Coronado & I think that the bus service at Pop is the best.

Littlepeppers, I just had to say that your past resort stays have been at every resort we have tried.

Animal Lodge was our fav, how can you not love the views! But I have to say POP topped POFQ and CSR!! I loved CSR but it was so huge my feet were ready to fall off at the end of the day when we finally made it back to the room.

I just loved POP.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Talking wise, couldn't clearly hear what people were saying. Sometimes a dull noise but 3/4 of the guests were Spanish speaking anyway (especailly one the marathon weekend was over)

Respectfully, isn't it only necessary to hear what people are saying when they're speaking with you? It only makes sense, when you can't hear what's being said to you, to ask to have it repeated (otherwise, who knows - you could be agreeing to donate your car to Disney or something )

Food court can bve really busy. Don't know why so many people bother.
Went just before 9am for breakfast and 3/4 of the hotel must have been there.

Yeah, that can happen when you have almost 3,000 rooms and SO many people wanting to eat breakfast at, well, breakfast time.

Did try some Shrimp lo mein. Luke warm by the time I sat down and wasn't going to risk food poisoning by eating the shrimp.

Pretty sure lukewarm shrimp won't poison anyone, but there ARE microwave ovens for use by the Guests.

Actually bought a loaf of bread from Walgreens and toasted that myself instead of paying $0.69 + tax for two small slices of bread. Toasters are very slow and sometimes it took 3 times at the slowest speed to get the bread to actually toast. At least there was plenty of strawberry, blackberry jam and honey + some buttery spread for the toast.

May I ask, are you promoting using Disney-provided condiments without purchasing the related product, or did you just not think - since you bought your own bread - to also pick up some jam or honey at Walmart at the same time?

Reception are very slow. One family in front of you requires a full reading of War & Peace before they get around to you.

Was there only one CM checking in Guests? Again, respectfully - if you'd been the Guest who needed detailed information (instead of the next person in line), would you have forgone it out of respect for the next person waiting in line, or do you think it makes more sense to get all the information you need up front?

 

[ohnowewontgo]

kaytie do you seriously have to start drama over this crap? just stop, i keep coming back to see informative posts! not bs.

 

[CanadianGuy]

Ok - let's bring it back around to the topic at hand pls.

Thanks.