POR vs POP in Sept?

[WDW&MK]

We normally stay at POR but this year we are thinking of trying POP century to save a little money. It is just DH and myself. We will be there after labor day. What do you all suggest? IF there is free dining again this fall, how busy do you think POP gets vs POR? We've never been to POP before.
Thanks for any comments or thoughts :mickey:

[DisneyPrincess21]

We normally stay at POR but this year we are thinking of trying POP century to save a little money. It is just DH and myself. We will be there after labor day. What do you all suggest? IF there is free dining again this fall, how busy do you think POP gets vs POR? We've never been to POP before.
Thanks for any comments or thoughts :mickey:

Well I have never stayed at either, Planning on staying at Pop in September though.
But to answer your question about free dining. If they keep with the same tiered rules as last year,

If you stay at Pop it would include the Quick Service Dining which would be 2 QS meals and 2 Snacks per day. You would also get the refillable mug included.

If you stay at Por it would be the regular Basic Dining Plan with 1 TS, and 1 QS, and 1 Snack per day.

[KAT1811]

Resort wise I would pick ASMovies or Music over Pop. We stayed there one night this past October and did not care for it. The year before we spent 2 weeks at ASMo and loved it.

If it were just my husband and I and it were between Pop and POR I would go Pop and spend more time and money in the parks.

If the dining plan is the way it was last year with the QS for the values and the TS for the mods I would go with POR.

Hope that helps. :mickey:

[Ricbr]

My parents have stayed at both. POP once and POR 4 times. Overall they were much happier with POR....but they thought POP was ok. I would think that if you are used to POR you may feel that you are missing out on some nice things that you are used to seeing or doing.

But saving money is always a good think to.

[hauntedmansiongirl]

We are a couple without kids and have stayed at both resorts several times and really enjoy both of them for different reasons.

We love the theming at POP, and the food court is amazing. The mini toy "museum" display in the lobby is always fun too. The rooms are always very clean (in our opinion, cleaner than POR) and well cared for. Some of them are undergoing renos right now, which is a good thing too. It is also great having a bus dedicated solely to your resort- no stopping at 3 other resorts before heading back to yours at night. POP always has the longest line at park closing for the buses, but they bring in tons of buses and move the line well.

The big downside to POP is that it "wakes up" really early. The families are out at 6am, running around and yelling to eachother. If you stay in the 50s area facing the pool, the juke box starts playing Oldies around 8am. Around 8:30am everything goes quiet again as families head out to the parks, and we usually fall back asleep until 10 or so. By then the food court is very quiet and we have the pools to ourselves.

You know all about POR, as you've stayed there before. The rooms are a bit bigger, there is the same amount of walking and the Riverside Mill is a good food court too.

When we do stay at POP, we miss the piano bar, the boat ride to DDT, the hot tub and Boatwrights Dining Hall, but are always thrilled that we saved so much money. We head over to Jellyrolls on the Boardwalk or drive over to POR to visit the piano man to get our fix.

We have never regretted staying at POP and have brought family down with us to stay there too. You can't go wrong with either resort. :mickey:

[Pop Centurion]

If you stay at Pop it would include the Quick Service Dining which would be 2 QS meals and 2 Snacks per day. You would also get the refillable mug included.

If you stay at Por it would be the regular Basic Dining Plan with 1 TS, and 1 QS, and 1 Snack per day.This has not been the case during the Aug/Sept Free DDP promo.. I believe that was a different promotion. We stayed at Pop in September for the past 4 years and always had the regular DDP.

[WDW&MK]

Thanks for all of the info. We ended up deciding to stay at POR. I think the tipping point is that we will be there for 12 days and if we didn't like it - that would be a long time. I think some of you were right, that we would miss some of our favorite things from POR (like boat ride to DTD). Also, Haunted MansionGirl, I appreciate your comment about POP being an early rising facility - we are not so that was something good to consider as well. I think we will tour both ASMovies and POP while we are there just to see what they are like for future trips. We did that with CSR last trip and decided it was too big and business-like for our tastes.
Thanks everyone. I know I can always count on my fellow intercotees for good advice:number1:

[tinxmom]

Looks like I am late to this thread and you have already made your decision - I think you made a great decision. We just stayed at POR for the first time this past month. We had previously stayed at ASS and POP. We were amazed at how much quieter and calmer (and more relaxing) POR was! Enjoy your trip!

[jonahbear2006]

we went last september with friends. we stayed at port orleans riverside and they stayed at pop. We visited there with them and I'll tell ya, I was really wishing I saved money and stayed at Pop. The grounds are soooo much more fun and prettier, imho. Pop has been refurbed quite recently whereas por just looked crummy to me. The room was so bright and cheery in pop and por was so dark and dreery. It was a bad mistake on my part. I feel the extra $50 a day we spent (cause we would need two rooms at pop) was wasted and Id love to have that money back. Also, my kids were under the impression that our friends had more money than us bc they stayed at pop and it looked so fancy to the kids in comparison to por.