Would I Hate POP?

[McKelly]

Glad to read the positive comments.

We always stay at CB, but due to $$$$ may have to go with Pop this September to make budget work.

One of my concerns is the bus stop not being covered. It can be quite hot in Sept. But hoping that time of year doesn't have a long bus line to worry about.

While the actual lines themselves are not covered, there is seating behind the queues that is covered. You could stay undercover if the heat bothers you, you just might not be the first on the bus.

 

[Joe'sgirl]

Pop is a fantastic option if you are going the Value route. The food court is great, lots of variety. There is also a huge store onsite. Our last stay we were just past the big wheel so I am guessing it was the 70s section?? We were not in front of the pools and it was very quiet. We were on the first floor, had adjoining rooms for the 6 of us and this suited us well. We got bedrails for the girls so they were all in one room, we had the other one and I felt like we had plenty of space.

 

[Fredd's Girl]

We stayed at Pop last February. The hotel is beautiful, lots of nostalgia and fun. The food at the food court was actually really good. We had a room in the 60's building and was very close to the food court/main building. Would I stay there again? NO!

The amount of people that stay at this resort is overwhelming. Even with consistent bussing every 10-15 minutes, at the end of the day leaving the parks the crowd was unbearable. After 2 nights, we started taking taxis to the resort. Having packages delivered to the hotel was a nightmare. 3 cast members for thousands of guests was just ridonkulous!

For some reason, we were also able to hear all of our neighbors while we were in our room. Whether they were screaming at their kids on one side, or the very amorous neighbors on the other side. And I don't think anyone was overly loud, I think it's just the building structure. I have not experienced this at All Stars.

It's a shame because I was so excited to stay there and all the pixie dust in the world couldn't help with crowd control and loud neighbors. If we go value again, it'll be back to All Star Music for us.

 

[Colleen27]

I really enjoyed Pop, far more than I expected to. We've stayed mostly at mods and deluxes and Pop was our first value stay, so I went in with fairly low expectations and was completely impressed. The rooms are small but clean and comfortable, the resort is cute, colorful, and lively, and the bus service was the best we've had at any Disney resort. Not sharing buses and only having the one stop was so great! The deluxes tend to have great transportation to the park(s) they're in close proximity to but not so great to the others in my experience (like the BC - awesome for Epcot & Studios, but we shared a bus with EVERY Epcot area resort on our way to the MK), and the mods are so spread out that making all those stops around the resort feels like it takes forever.

Another plus for a solo trip is that Pop is a compact, brightly lit, lively place. When we were at POR and especially at CBR walking back to the room late at night was dark and a little creepy in places. Pop isn't like that - even at midnight the place is hopping, and while others see that as a down side (pool noise, etc) I really liked it for our girls-only trip because I was completely comfortable heading to the food court for a mug refill at midnight or swimming after my mom & daughters were in bed.

 

[castawayfan]

I have to agree with all the posters who talked about noise from the rooms next door. We stayed a night before our cruise and 2 nights after last March figuring it would not be a huge deal because it was just a couple of nights. When we left my husband said, I don't care what it costs we are not staying there again. We could hear everything from our neighbors room. The fiinal straw was the couple who had a huge fight at 4 AM next door to us. We finally got up and pounded on the wall and yelled at them to shut up.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Noise happens at any resort level. I have stayed at all levels and the value rooms haven't felt any noisier than any other hotels. It largely depends on your neighbors, we had a very noisy, rude family next door at the Poly and it was a major damper on our stay there but I didn't think of it as a "Poly Problem" but rather a neighbor problem!

I non shaded bus ques are sort of a bummer but the upside is that they are ques. I hate it at the mods and deluxes when you are first at the stop but because its not a que per se, you may be stampeded by other guests and end up standing or not getting on the bus. At a value, you wait in a line and its first come, first served. I like that.

We enjoy the grounds, pools and food courts at the values. We have run into a tour group or two but still return and are always happy to be at WDW.

Honestly, WDW has about priced my family out and we had to downgrade from CSR to Pop for our upcoming trip to make it happen (and to have money to go to DL in July lol). I do love the mods, but lately its been about half the time we end up changing to a value to save money. We never regret it and never sit there and feel bummed or cheated. We are at Disney and its good.

Also, room wise, the values don't feel that much smaller to me. Double beds are fine for us (dh and I are short) so that's not an issue. I do miss the larger bathroom area but we deal with it.

We are family of four (our kids are adult sized teenagers now) and we are not worried at all of spending 11 nights at Pop. We have done long trips at the values for years and it works out fine. We make sure we are organized but that goes for any hotel room the four of us share.

Give Pop a try, and good luck!

 

[Colleen27]

Room noise tends to be a "connecting rooms" problem rather than a problem with any specific resort. We had the neighbors from you-know-where at the Beach Club, and a tip from a friend about saved my sanity - roll up a bath towel, open the connecting door, and lay the towel along the floor between the door to the next room and the door to your own. It noticeably dampens the noise transfer between rooms.

At Pop we didn't have any problems with room noise but we were in a room that wasn't part of a connecting pair.

 

[KatMark]

Tina, I know I wouldn't! We stayed at a value once for three days and asked to be moved and that is how we ended up at the Coronado. We found it way too busy, crowded and noisy no matter where we were--lobby, pool, food court, walking, etc. We couldn't just chill and relax without people underfoot, screaming, tour groups, etc.

 

[mlittig]

I did a solo trip to Pop last summer and requested lake view, top floor and it was extremely quiet I was in building 3, the 50's section and didn't hear anything

 

[kristinemomof3]

We had a preferred room in the 60's but not facing the pool and we heard no noise at all! I would just change to the preferred room but away from the pool. It was also very close to the food court and We liked it. Thiks was our first time staying at a value so I was unsure how it would be. We have always stayed in the mod's. I think if you have stayed in the mod's is not much different but going from deluxe to a value you will see much bigger differences, just do your homework and go with an open mind.

Thank you! I called yesterday & switched to a preferred room in the 80's not facing the pool.

 

[Butterflygirl35]

I love POP! As long as you are in a quieter area you will not hear the noise.

It is a very fun resort and the staff is great!

I love their arcade and here is a nice little story about their staff..

My 4 year old son is autistic, he saw a toy he wanted in the arcade but already used all his tickets... He threw a temper tantrum and his sister gave him all of her tickets so he could get what he wanted.

Well the staff saw that and let her choose whatever toy she wanted!! POP!

We are going to OKW for the first time in two weeks and I am afraid that after such a great experience in POP, I will not be happy in OKW. But it is DISNEY, so I will be happy anywhere!!

 

[kapoof]

the ME dropped off first at pop so while i haven't stayed there it was enough for me just to see it! it looked loud and crazy! very concrete with lots of long lines at the bus and airline check in which was outside i know pop has a legion of fans but if peace is what you crave in a resort, maybe rethink staying at pop? i can totally see how little kids would like it there though.

 

[Sarahleigh]

We've stayed at Pop twice and really liked it. Although, I've never stayed deluxe so I have nothing to compare it to except for one stay at CBR, which for all the walking we had to do to get around the resort I am not a fan. Pop feels much more compact in my opinion. The food court is very good, our rooms were always clean and the CMs were very nice. Bus service was good. While we sometimes arrived to find long lines, we never waited long for a bus. Even at MK closing when queue was full and beyond we still did not wait more than 30 minutes, they had buses coming 3 at a time. We actually did some resort hopping this trip and I wasn't impressed with the bus service at some of the other resorts. Rooms are on the small side but if you're on your own that is no big deal. First time we stayed there we had 4 adults in the room and it was a little cramped. The 2nd time it was just me and my Fiance so it was perfectly fine.
I would never hesitate to stay at Pop again. Just request a room on the opposite side of the pool. Our first stay we were facing the pool and yes it was loud but I'm a sound sleeper so it never actually woke me up.

 

[Tinker1972]

We stayed at POP in Sept/Oct and really, really loved it. We booked a preferred room, pool facing but changed our minds at the last minute, and ended up in the 60's building, 2nd floor, I guess you could say it faced the garden, although we could see the lake when we stepped out of our room as well. It was super, super quiet, and a really short distance to the pool and food court. Perfect location, IMO. Its not fancy, but for us, we like basic as we aren't in the room enough for it to really be an issue at all. It was clean, had a clean bathroom, tv, and beds. We bought coolers from Walmart and they worked great. We found we didn't really even need them much, as we had the re-fillable mugs and used them alot. The store and food court were amazing..we travelled around to a few other resorts and they didn't even begin to compare to the variety that Everything Pop had. We didn't find the buses bad at all. We never waited more than 10 minutes for any bus, except on the day of Walt Disney's birthday, coming back from the MK was very busy..but not just the POP bus area...all other resort buses were just as busy. Our usual wait was maybe 5 minutes. The longest bus ride was to the MK, but sitting in a nice air conditioned bus for 20 minutes didn't bother us at all. HS was a hop, skip and a jump away..I was surprised how short the bus ride was.
Having said all that....we;ve never stayed anywhere else,LOL..so I have nothing to compare it to. But we aren't picky about rooms..we are there to sleep and thats about it. The kids loved the pool, and the pool side games. It was a fun atmosphere..very relaxed and casual. We were there for 10 nights, and never once were we bothered by the noise.Oh my...I can't wait to go back!

 

[GrammyJudy]

I prefer the AS to POP due to the size of the resorts, less crowded food court and where the bus stops are at the parks. We stayed at ASMU last year and it was great! I would recommend it. We are doing ASMo in 2 weeks as that is the newest refurbishment and my GS like the theming. We only shared buses once last year and that was at lunchtime one day.

 

[CampbellScot]

POP really isn't that bad. The rooms are VERY tiny, but you know that going in so it's not a huge shock. We did a few days there last summer before we headed over to Beach Club. Aside from the room being tiny, we didn't think it was that bad. For the money you save I think it's worth it. There were four of us, DH, me my 12 year old step daughter and 9 year old step son. Step son slept on an air mattress on the floor and step daughter took one of the beds. Now sharing a double bed with my very tall husband was kind of funny. He is a bed hog as it is, but this was a little ridiculous. Somehow we managed though. We are out in the parks all day anyway. If we were "hang around the resort" types it would be a different story.

We were in a preferred room on a corner facing the pool. It WAS loud sometimes but we didn't find it to be unmanageable.

if it's about the money you will save, go for it. Especially if you are going solo. VERY doable. Busing service is not bad, the food court is actually pretty good and the huge icons are a lot of fun!

 

[disnut1149]

Hi
I've always loved Pop, but after our last trip in Nov., I won't be staying there anymore. After two nights, we switched to a different resort. The beds were so hard. I can't believe no one mentioned it in this thread. My daughter-ln-law woke up both nights with a backache. I felt like I was sleeping on the floor. Pop's beds used to be comfortable before the rehab. We stayed in the 70's section. I spoke to the manager, and he surprised us with a free upgrade to AKL with a free taxi ride. It was great. I really feel sad that I won't be staying at Pop anymore and will have to research other values to stay at that hopefully have comfortable beds.

 

[McKelly]

Hi
I've always loved Pop, but after our last trip in Nov., I won't be staying there anymore. After two nights, we switched to a different resort. The beds were so hard. I can't believe no one mentioned it in this thread. My daughter-ln-law woke up both nights with a backache. I felt like I was sleeping on the floor. Pop's beds used to be comfortable before the rehab. We stayed in the 70's section. I spoke to the manager, and he surprised us with a free upgrade to AKL with a free taxi ride. It was great. I really feel sad that I won't be staying at Pop anymore and will have to research other values to stay at that hopefully have comfortable beds.

I didn't mention it because we didn't think the beds were hard, in fact, the bed was much softer than the one we have at home. I guess it's all preference. We were in the 70's as well, room 411.

 

[2010_Bride]

I did a solo trip to Pop last summer and requested lake view, top floor and it was extremely quiet I was in building 3, the 50's section and didn't hear anything

That's exactly where I stayed on my solo trip in November

I agree that noise totally depends on your neighbors. DH and I had loud neighbors next door to us at POR but I would never say it was a resort problem. Although I did read on the POP thread to make sure you do not have a connecting room as it can be quite noisy.

 

[disnut1149]

I didn't mention it because we didn't think the beds were hard, in fact, the bed was much softer than the one we have at home. I guess it's all preference. We were in the 70's as well, room 411.

Hi
Maybe only some of the beds were new. Ours was like sleeping on a board. They didn't give at all, even just sitting on it. I couldn't imagine sleeping on a harder bed!! We were on the ground floor, and I forget the room number. The beds I've slept in at Pop before were a lot softer and a lot more comfortable. You were really lucky!!