Undecided if I liked POP Just got back

[Lucyrella]

OOkay just got back from POP today, we were there 7 nights. I have truly mixed reviews on this hotel. This was our first stay there, and there were things I liked and things I didn't. My hubby and I are in our mid 40's with 2 girls ages 4 & 5. The complex is huge. The room very small. Mousekeeping was good and always left little surprises for the girls. I think the hotel's intentions are good, but it is just a loud place, no matter what building you are in. The pools are fun, I think the girls enjoyed it. What I can't stand are rude employees. We ran into 4 or 5 of them. The service in the food court very slow, and the free dining definitely a nuisance for the workers. I just didn't find it to be a relaxing place I suppose. Again I am not saying it was bad, it just wasn't the right choice for us. We also found employess at the Magic Kingdom to be rather rude in some areas. The bus lines were long, longer than we expected. So this just my opinion of what we experienced. All in all it was nice.

[BigRedDad]

I know what you are talking about. The rooms are definitely small for 4 people. I thought they were a little small for 3 of us and our DD was 2. You will always run into a CM that can be annoying. You have to understand that it is nearly impossible to be happy 100% of the time every day, every minute. They are human and can get very frustrated if they were just confronted with a rude guest. As for the food court, it is definitely small for a resort that has almost 3000 rooms. Bus lines can tend to be long for the same reason. This pushes you to leave at non-peak times, drive, or taxi.

I think what you experienced is typical and personal attitude can determine whether it was a good experience or not. I am not saying you have a bad attitude, you just need to have the attitude to expect this type of service from a value resort.

Next time, try a moderate so you have a comparison. CSR with the queen beds will make a huge difference for 4 people. At least this way you have something to compare to.

Remember that you were at the happiest place on Earth, you were there on vacation, and you had a good time other than the few minor things you pointed out.

[karenrarintogo]

Wow...we just got back from POP also. We commented on how QUIET it was--maybe because we we're on the 4th floor. I didn't run into any rude employees; in fact, every employee at the POP that we ran into initiated a pleasant greeting to us, which was a very nice touch. We didn't have children with us; maybe our older age confers a kind of deferential respect...I don't know. LOL! :D

[divinedi]

I stayed at POP for one night, couldn't really stand it anymore, so I moved over to ASSports. We are used to ASSports, first off and first on the buses, food court is a good size for the amount of people that are there. From what I've heard there are as many rooms at POP as all the All Stars put together, but All Stars have 3 food courts, more pools, more buses. I couldn't find a seat in the food court the morning that I stayed at POP, it's very big and spread out, buses took longer to get, and busy, I couldn't get over it.

Just mho, and I know that a lot of people love POP and that's great, it's just not my cup of tea.

[thumperbug]

we are spolied by the resorts we get to stay at with the DVC and even though I we have never stayed at POP....it just seems that the lines at the bus stops at the parks for returning to that resort are crazy. We have seen some lines at non closing times that have over 100 people waiting. (also off season)

We have seen this happen on more then enough occasions that we would never stay at POP because of what looks like longer wait times for buses.

But I know folks who like staying there.

[Hallomagic]

We've stayed at all the value resorts and POP was our least favorite. We didn't hate it but we definately love the Allstar resorts more. However, we made a decision to start trying a different hotel evertime we go just to make it interesting. :vacation:

[Lucyrella]

Oh we were definitely happy we just had some incidents that I know can be predictable. I guess after reading all the posts about the property and its great reviews that maybe I was expecting more. The girls had fun and that is what it was all about. After all we were only there to sleep and shower... LOL, I agree with the post above, the food court is small for that size property, and I think that was a large part of it.

We had a great time don't get me wrong. I just think a family of four could definitely do something a little bit bigger.

We were so undecided that we didn't even bounce back..... (I might regret that one)

:mickey:

[Maleficent's Dad]

Carol Ann,
I think you're just spoiled from that trip last year to OKW! ;)

After such nice accomodations, it is tough to "rough it" in a regular hotel! :mickey:

[pianobabe]

I think you're just spoiled from that trip last year to OKW! ;)

After such nice accomodations, it is tough to "rough it" in a regular hotel! :mickey:

We love Pop. On this recent trip (we were there 9/10-9/21) we stayed at Pop and then hopped over to OKW. We will never stay at OKW again. The resort looked nice, but we had several management problems. We did complain and I am in the process of writing letters to OKW and to WDW as well. I can see with children the rooms at Pop being too small. For us the stress level was high at OKW and minimal at Pop.

[Pop Centurion]

Sorry you had a bad experience at Pop. We've never had any problems with rudeness there. As for the room size. Most of our trips consist of just my girlfriend and I with my Niece coming with us twice. Even with the 3 of us we don't spend enough time in the room for the room size to bother us.
We've come to accept the long bus lines because of the size of the resort. But it does get annoying at the end of a long night when you just want to get back and rest.
Mornings in the food court are always mobbed but we rarely go there for breakfast.
The noise never really bothered us either. I actually enjoy seeing all the kids running around laughing and having a great time. It makes us feel even more happier to be in WDW. :D Plus we don't go to bed until after the place is dead anyway so there's no noise to keep us up.

I guess our experience at Pop is always so good because we avoid the hectic times and don't mind the noise.
We've always said that even if we had the extra money to stay at a deluxe resort that we wouldn't because we like Pop that much. Plus we don't spend enough time at the resort to justify paying extra. The only things that would be a plus for us would be the convenience of the monorail if we stayed at one of the monorail resorts, or having a savanna view at AKL.

[Scott C]

Greetings from Evansville.

I, like you, was somewhat underwhelmed by POP. It was OK, but nothing to get excited about. We got connecting rooms--with the teen boys in the second room. That solved the space issue. But noise crowds and size just did not get it for me. The kids are almost out of the house now. One room at any moderate would suite me much better.

Glad you had a decent time
Scott C
Reitz '82

[jonsmom]

We stayed at POFQ last few times. Very nice, loved the resort but didnt spend enough time to justify the $$.

We are headed to WDW for 3 days in December and are staying at POP. First time. Actually our first value.

There is so much to see/do in WDW that time of the year it isnt worth the extra $$ for a moderate.

So, I have my fingers crossed, we will have a close enough room to bus stop.:fingers:

[Lucyrella]

Frank,

You could be right, we had fun, the property is nice, since our little one was very ill for 48 hours I think the room size was the biggest issue for us, and the size of the food court. After having a 1 bedroom villa last year, this was definitely an adjustment to make.

Carol Ann

[Belster]

My family and I LOVE Pop. We have stayed at the GF and Poly several times. Once I stayed at Pop I could not see spending the extra money to go to delux any more.

I am sorry that it did not work for you.

[pcoleman]

Just back from 5 days at POP and it was nice. Room on 4th floor so we had no noise. Did not mind the buses. Thought they ran smooth and on time. Never had to wait too long or for another bus. If there were that many people they had a second bus. Room clean, mousekeeping good and the CM's were also nice. I do not think I will stay again, however. I'm sooo used to the size of the rooms at SOG and the lushness of the place. I also missed the family feeling that comes from the military families at SOG. I never feel like I;m at a hotel and my family feels safe there. Wanted to try another resort and am glad I did; now I can appreciate SOG more now.

[mom2morgan]

Frank,

You could be right, we had fun, the property is nice, since our little one was very ill for 48 hours I think the room size was the biggest issue for us, and the size of the food court. After having a 1 bedroom villa last year, this was definitely an adjustment to make.

Carol Ann


OH, I'm so sorry to hear you had a sick child! I'm always afraid that someone is going to get ill and have it put a damper on the holiday :-(

["SULLEY "RULES!!]

My husband and I LOVE the Pop Century. We've stayed there in '06 and '07 and are staying there once again this year. It's a very COOL value hotel. We've stayed at deluxe and moderate hotels before and once we came here we fell in love with it. In the years to come we'll try others be it value, moderate or deluxe.

Next trip: 11/24 thru 12/5:thumbsup:

[LoriSan]

I was at the Pop 9/21-9/27. DH and I were talking about how much better the busses ran from the last time we were there in 2/09. At that trip, we waited OVER an hour at the AK to get a bus back to the Pop, while we stopped counting at 50+ All Star busses having gone by. We were told that they were putting in their new bus system and there were a few kinks in it.

[BMan62]

Love POP, but stay on 4th floor and away from the elevators. Also, on our recent trip we found that Mousekeeping starts bright and ugly at the 50's end of the complex!! After a 20 hour Tuesday, it was a bit rude to be awakened by banging carts and a knock at the door by Mousekeeping at 8 am Wednesday!!! After that I remembered to put the Privacy tag out!!!!!

[Tink-N-Me]

I have stayed at the POP quite a few times and never had a bad experience. However, it is the newer and most likely the most popular choice of the Value Resorts. If you need to stay at a value resort for financial reasons and are looking for a quieter stay perhaps you should try one of the other options. Personally, I have stayed at both Carribean Beach Resort and the Corondo Springs. To me the just don't have as much of a feeling as still being in Disney as the value resorts which tend to be geared more toward younger families. Nor did I find they offered a great deal more space than the value at least not enough to merit paying the difference in price, when all we do is shower and sleep there. I do agree with you on the Dining Plan. It seems to cause a lot of confusion for the guests and because the CM have to continuously explain the plan to every guest I do find service is much slower since its implementation.

[kathiep]

We had 1 day, room only at Pop last year.

Granted it was during free dining and we had never stayed at a value before.

It just seemed extremely crowded and loud. I couldn't imagine truly relaxing there.

[Disneyfamilyof3]

Hi!:mickey:

We just got back from POP, too! (9/19-9/30). We have stayed at POP twice before; and I never liked it until this past visit. I have to admit that I was definitely spoiled by staying at Deluxe and Moderates before we tried POP.Perhaps this last time I knew what to expect and also planned on being very active, between the 4 main parks, water parks , and the Epcot Food and Wine Festival.

BTW, I was the lone female with 3 guys sharing a room! (my dh,:thedolls: my 15 year old nephew, and my 12 year old son). The room definitely felt small at times, lol.

I am sorry you encountered rude CM's both at POP and MK. Everyone was really nice to me, but my DH noticed a definite downturn in attitudes all over WDW.

As far as the bounceback offer: my dh decided against it because he feels better deals may be coming due to the terrible economy.