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View Full Version : Just back from Pop Century



valjane
12-24-2003, 07:19 PM
Hey all-- just returned from a three night stay at Pop Century. I LOVED it! I felt it was much more of an adult-friendly resort than All-Stars (perfect for my family without kids), but it was still a place that children would also enjoy. Many aspects of the resort are the same as All Stars but there are some nice changes too. :D

Check in We arrived at around noon on the 19th. There was a small line for check-in but there were tons of stations and the line moved quickly. Check in was swift and we were told we could check into our room immediately!

Room We were in the 50s building, on the 3rd floor. There was no convenient parking lot to our building, so we had quite a long way to haul our luggage. However, we were right by the jukebox pool and the food court/bus stops were a 5 minute walk away, tops. The rooms are a bit more subdued than those at All-Stars, but other than the decor are virtually identical. You get Mickey soap and shampoo rather than the dispenser you get at All Stars, which was a nice touch. One bad thing: the air-conditioning. The thermostat was set at 68º but for some reason the room was VERY hot and stuffy. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the air to come on because we couldn't turn it to lower than 68º. I really didn't like this-- it would have been nice to be able to turn it a little lower for an hour or two just to cool down.

Food court Wonderful! There are 3 drink stations at the food court so you don't have to wade through crowds to get your mugs filled. :D The food was pretty similar to any food court, though they do have "mom's night out specials," which change every night of the week. We only ate one meal at the food court: lunch, and it was pretty decent. (Chili dogs and steak and cheese wraps). In the "deli" section, they've got little containers of dips (hummus, spinach asiago, etc.) and bags of bagel chips to go with it. Very nice for an appetizer! Also decent selection of breakfast items, sandwiches, salads, etc.

The layout of the food court is wonderful because it's broken up into several small sections of tables and booths so everyone isn't in one huge dining area. It made it feel much less crowded and more intimate.

There's also a bar/lounge adjacent to the food court, which is open in the evenings. This is something that All Stars doesn't have, which was pretty cool.

Gift shop The gift shop is actually very nice and fairly large. They've got the usual selection of stuff, though not really any Christmas merchandise you'd expect to find the week before Christmas! One bad thing about the gift shop is that there is no food/sundries section. THey have a small corner of medicines/combs/toothpaste, etc., but no refrigerated section of drinks, and no snacks. I miss this because the drinks (alcoholic beverages especially) in the gift shops are always much cheaper than those at the food court, and I felt cheated without the cheaper option. Oh well. Nice gift shop nonetheless!

Bus stops The bus stops was right outside Classic Hall. Each of the bus stops had a waiting queue similar to that at the parks. It was kind of annoying having to walk through the maze to get to the front when there was no one else in line, but I think it will help keep the lines more organized as the resort gets more crowded. At the parks, the bus stops were some of the furthest away from teh front gates (of course!) but the buses came fairly frequently and we never had a problem with them. (Though we did have a few standing-room only trips thanks to the new bigger buses which have less seats but more room for standing. Hmph! tongue.gif )

Anyway, I really enjoyed Pop Century and would definitely stay there again. I know I didn't cover everything here, so if you have any questions, fire away!

:D

[ December 24, 2003, 07:24 PM: Message edited by: valjane ]

samanthastanky
12-24-2003, 10:02 PM
Thanks for the trip report!!! I am happy to hear a positive about the lounge. The lack of one is something that has made me not go back to the All Stars. My best friend and I are having a "girls only" trip there in three weeks, and your report is making me even more excited!!! Glad to hear that you had a good time!

Gregjes
12-25-2003, 06:35 AM
Thank you for the report - now for the questions. We have stayed at AS 3 times and really liked it. This May my wife and I are taking the whole family (3 daughters thier husbands and 5 grandkids ages 6 - 1) for a week. Its thier Christmas present. For the son in laws and grandkids it will be thier first trip to Disney, I booked Pop Centry just to try it. Now based on your report wonder if I might have been better off at AS Movies or Sports. There should still be room at either. I liked the food court comments but we really liked the touches for kids at AS like the movie station at check in, and the bus areas were fine and air conditioners robust etc. Also another maybe dumb question. We have always, buy luck, stayed on the 1st floor. Did they have elevators to get all your luggage up to the 3rd floor?

valjane
12-25-2003, 04:22 PM
I wouldn't worry about kids enjoying themselves at Pop Century-- though I didn't travel with children, there seemed to be a lot of special touches that they'd like.

The kids station at check-in is actually larger than that at All Stars, and nicer. The giant icons are not all Disney themed, but the 50s buildings have giant Lady and the Tramp icons. Plus, all the memorablia from years gone by (rubik's cube on the staircases, bowling pins, etc are fun, too.).

There's also a fountain area by one of the pools that kids would love to play in (ASMo has something similar) in warmer weather.

If you dont' get a first floor room, yes there are elevators in the center of each building that you can take.

I wouldn't consider cancelling your ressies. I think your whole family will love Pop Century. smile.gif

graemlins/mickey.gif