Pop Century or Moderate?

[Mnchknbrat1982]

So I have got free dining and am going to be in the world September 22-27. Right now we are staying at the Pop Century. However, I am thinking about maybe upgrading to a moderate. Is it worth the money? It would only be 2 of us. Which one would you upgrade to? Or would you just stay at Pop Century? We are not the type that would be in the room very much. If we stay at the Pop Century it would save us $229.50. However, if we stay at a moderate it would only be $55 more than our package was originally without free dining.

[JPL]

I think the big question is how you plan to spend your time. If you are using your room for a place to sleep amd shower than I would stay with Pop. I use to big on the moderates until I stayed at Pop my last 3 trips with 2 more stays planned at Pop in the near future. I spend the majorit of my time at the parks and I'm rarely at my resort except to sleep and maybe grab a quick breakfast. Pop is clean and the Bus service has never been a problem. Now if I was going for a long stay with more time to relax I might consider upgrading but for Pop will be my WDW home

[Bethanymouse]

Its funny that you mention this because this is what I was thinking just yesterday. We are going to the pop from Aug 20-31. I was considering a moderate as well. We frequently stay at the POLY with my parents but when we go alone it is always the POP for us. I have never even been to a moderate. Here is the reasons that I decided to stay at the value:
We are barely ever in our room, it is where we sleep, shower, and change. When we are at the hotel in the daytime we are usually at the pool and to me, a pool is a pool!
The pop has their own bus. From what i gather the Port Orleans and French Quarter share a bus (this is where we were thinking of trying!)
The actual room size is not a big deal to us
We really enjoy the POP. They have a pretty good food court and the pools are nice. We have always had a pleasent experience there.

Anyway, you have to do what is best for you. If you feel that you do spend a lot of time in the room then you may want to consider upgrading, otherwise I say save your money for some disney souvineers and stay at the POP!

[A Big Kid]

Yes, it is worth it. Values tend to attract a crowd that does not get out much. I stayed at POP this past January and I'll NEVER do it again, EVER.

I was grossed out at every turn.

[JPL]

Yes, it is worth it. Values tend to attract a crowd that does not get out much. I stayed at POP this past January and I'll NEVER do it again, EVER.

I was grossed out at every turn.

While I noticed this problem at the All-Stars I never noticed it at Pop. I can tell you I have seen bad things at all the resorts even the Deluxe. Last time I was at AKL a family was getting thrown out for letting their kids shoot the animals with super soakers

[DizneyRox]

The value of the "free" dining diminishes as you upgrade your accomodations. Often the difference in cost between the rack rates on the hotel rooms is greater.

Your best value on "free" dining is to pack a value resort room with as many people as you can.

[Wolf]

We were thinking the same thing the other day because we are going next Jan when its cheaper. But we have always stayed at POP and I really hate to chance not being as happy as another resort, after all the only thing we use the room for is a bed, shower and a place to store out new stuffies! Plus the service is so awesome at POP I really dont think I could be happier spending more money somewhere else when we've never had a single thing bother us at POP.

[avantgardeinker]

We considered staying at a moderate resort and then we realized that the only real difference was that the moderate resorts had table service restaurants. Since you can go to any resort for dinner regardless of where you are staying we didn't see the point in spending the extra money. The rooms aren't that much bigger and the beds are the same size. We don't stay in the room long enough to justify selecting a nicer room. We're always off in the parks or at Downtown Disney or something.

[mdricks]

We stay at moderates mostly and i dont know why. I like POFQ. It is a neat/small facility and i like the bengiets.

I have only stayed at sports and i found it run down. The crowd was not a problem although some people were complaining that the noise from the pool at night was horrible and that security woudl do nothing about it. I heard nothing.

Im staying at POP for the first time next month (solo). The purpose of my choice is to see if i have been spending money where none need be spent.

I dont spend alot of time in the room and so long as its reasonably quiet, clean, and the busses run without too much problem then im OK.

As for TS restuarants i havent yet eaten in a moderate TS that was worth it in comparison to a short bus ride and O'Hana's, or Cali Grill or Narcosseess, or Spoodles or.............

And with two young kids, i could not live without a food court so Lux's are out.

[Jasper]

Since you mention that you do not spend much time at the resort I would save the money and stay at POP.

We have stayed at Deluxe, Mod and Values at different times in the past and really only found the level of amenities to be the big difference.

As for previous posters mentioning the type of guest the value attract, I would echo JPL's comments and say that I have seen bad behaved guests at all levels of resort. In fact, in some ways the ones at the deluxe may have been worse than at the values On at least two occasions I have seen guests be EXTREMELY rude and nasty to other guests and to the staff and try to get away with it because of who they thought they were in the world. And no, before you ask these were not people who were famous. I don't know if they were wealthy, but they were certainly not famous.

The bottom line is there are great people and nasty people regardless of which resort you stay at.

[Mnchknbrat1982]

Well I had my TA call disney and there was only one moderate that had a king bed available (Carribean Beach) but it was a waterview..........would cost $135 more than my original package. So we've decided to stay with Pop Century.

[dyin tago]

we stayed at por for our first trip in 2001 and in 2003. pop in 2006 and staying there again this september.port orleans was very nice but
pop was clean and comfortable plus we rent a car so spending time at other resorts is real easy. just a hint also,for the difference in cost from a moderate to a valu you can rent a car.