I just booked Pop with
Dreams Unlimited for Sept. 25-Oct. 1 for a solo trip.
Can't wait! My question is about room requests. I put my room requests on the form and in an email to my TA. The request doesn't show on my reservation on Dreams website. Is requesting a ceratin area or type of room a thing of the past? Can I just call Disney myself and add a request?
Also, I've never been in Sept. When is the usual time for
free dining? Is Pop really busy during free dining? I won't be using the
Disney Dining Plan because I have a good discount. I'm only planning on one sit down restaurant. Will the Pop food court be extra crazy during free dining?
I was blessed to go on my honeymoon with my wife in September. Beastly hot/humid, but the park crowding was certainly "off peak" during our visit.
To date, I have been to Disney World over spring break, over summer break, over the late summer/early fall period, and over the non-peak christmas period. By far the non-peak christmas period (Dec 14-22) is the least crowded. never waited more than 15 minutes for any ride, and we rode rock n roller coaster, mount everest, soarin and the mountains at least 3 times each in the first hour of park opening each day.
We have stayed in every level of accomodation, including POP this last time, Contemporary resort Tower time before, ASM before, Port orleans before, tree houses before etc etc.
We get FAR TOO bent out of shape over things like room requests at POP. Look at the resort on google earth, pretty much every single room is the same distance from the facilities. The one advantage of POP over any All Stars is that you have half the resort rooms of an All Stars resort relying on the same sized food court and gift shop. Quite often at All stars we would have to hunt down a table just to eat, even at the busiest in POP we had our choice of tables. One other serious detriment to staying at an All Stars used to be the shared bus service, but now all stars each have their own bus service.
I am not sure of the current status, but POP was a trial hotel for Southwest Airline Magical Express when we stayed there. That rocked. I imagine that all the values will have Southwest airlines baggage check in the near future.
The family suite questions....folks, we've stayed in family suites and adjoining rooms....I'll take adjoining rooms any day over the suite with a "Kitchenette."
With the pervasivness of fridge and other exchanges, compared to the kitchenette you get for the price increase.....it just ain't worth it. If you are truly on a budget, call garden grocer in Orlando, your food will be waiting on you when you check in. And they offer a huge styrofoam cooler for $5, which you can pack with ice each day from the hotel ice machines. You won't make hot meals in the Kitchenette compared to the cooler and sandwhiches/cereal, and you are paying so much more for a "family suite" compared to two value rooms.
I have already received DISNEY PINS for free dinining bookable through the end of August 2010. Free dining is almost a given anymore. They tried to say they were cutting off the discounts this year, and then they blinked. Disney has been offering free dining back through at least 1995, you just need to look hard for it, and might need to get the disney visa cary to guarantee it.
Please, please don't compare anything DVC to what they do with the value resorts, as several posters attempted to do so. Bay lake tower this past december 2009 is an excellent example. We tried to book BLT through DVC exchanges, online exchanges, swaps, point rentals, horse trades etc. Here is what we found out. BLT is supposedly a vacation propety for DVC members, BUT NONE OF THEM CAN BOOK IT. Disney rental reservations gets a large block of rooms in each DVC property that must be sold out to disney renatla guests before the DVC members can book into the properties. The ratio was about 1/3 DVC members and 2/3 disney rental reservation rooms. We verified this independently by booking direct through Disney for BLT rooms at their absolutely outrageous rates and then tried to rent DVC points for the same room. Every single DVC owner called back and said "sorry booked solid" despite the fact that you could book the same room online for a rental. If I was a timeshare owner I would be super upset aobut that.
There is no way that Disney will ever truly offer a "good deal" for a DVC value resort. They've been screwing people for over a decade on the expensive DVC resorts. Like the classic years at POP would be different if they made it a DVC property, or made it family suites? Please, if it was a good deal for the guest they would not offer it.
Have you been to the big Disney outlet in PA yet? Its about 2 1/2 hours from you and the only stuff they sell is park merchendise. Its a great place. They sell flops for a buck!
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I love the Buffet at the Casino, just haven't been in a while !!! Maybe we could have a meet the next time your in town ,Iknow there are other Dissers in the area !!! I'd vote for the buffet !!!
...lmao! Thats the only time I drink!!!!!!!!!! I am thinking it'll be June or July when I come. It depends on DH's deployment. He leaves sometime in May for 6 weeks so It'll have to be while he's gone! Ill let you know when I firm up my dates!
). I could explain - or justify statistically, and you know what they say about statistics 
